A "Personal" Observation

I make no secret about rooting for the underdogs, here. And unfortunately, there are a lot of underdogs. The maids, the "little" workers... It is difficult for me to understand how it is that a society - in general - no, not everyone - but in general - can treat the people that work so hard to effectuate its success so badly.

Having come from that "middle-class family" background generality in the States where I had never traveled outside of the country, to living here, on the other side of the world and seeing that in fact slavery is still alive and thriving was an eye-opener. No. It was more of a shock, not an eye-opener. It will be a shock, again, for me, to go home to the States and not have the same "help" that I have, here. It is just not a part of the middle-class mentality in the States. Sure, we have house-keepers in the States - we don't - or I didn't - call them maids. Many have landscaping services or gardeners - we didn't, but we have friends that do. The people that perform those services were well-paid; they would not have continued to work if they were not compensated. Here, the people that perform those services rarely have a choice. So they go unpaid for months at a time. Who cares?!?

I have blogged on the matter time and time and time again of workers going unpaid and/or being abused in some manner. There really is just no excuse for this behavior. None. You have brought people to this country to perform work and they dutifully do so. And then, somehow, you can justify NOT paying them or taking care of them? How? How do you even sleep at night knowing that you have wronged someone like that?

The month-long observance of Ramadan has just ended, followed by a three-day Eid celebration. I'm no expert on the religious aspects of these occasions, and would never purport to be, but I did do a quick search on the internet to find a simple explanation of Ramadan, and found this, which, in part says, "Ramadan is a time of reflecting and worshiping God. ...it also allows Muslims to practice self-discipline, self-control, sacrifice, and sympathy for those who are less fortunate." Seems to me, then, that somehow, something went missing in the translation when an "Indian cleaner... has not been paid his salary for many months." The Eid celebration has "no meaning for some of the destitute expatriate workers who have either not received their salaries or are recuperating in hospitals after receiving on-the-job injuries."

Maybe, it's just me...

On the plus side, however, things are returning to "normal" now that Ramadan has ended and Eid is over. I commented on another blog, not too long ago, that I was looking forward to things returning to "normal." The response I got was, "What is normal?" Hmmph. Good question. Good question...