BO3zez:

I would write in greater detail, but hoping that I don’t miss my flight, I will break it down into a list.

1. You are right about the porters having their “freedom”, BUT that is of no use when they have no means in which to escape their contract. Freedom, yes, but if they cannot afford to buy food, how are they to leave?!

2. 17KD is not exaggerated, you may believe so because it is so shocking, yet I assure you I have spoken to many of these porters and their salary is general knowledge to anyone who works in these hospitals.

3. We can condemn the employers and I do. Not for rape and murder, but for robbery, and any means in which they believe they can attain money. These people are so desperate that they HAVE to find any means to get food. I do not  say it is excusable, yet can we expect any better from someone who is exhausted and starving?! If the employers pay them their pitiful salaries, THEN we can say that they have no business stealing when they are receiving the salaries which they had agreed upon. And let’s not forget that they are promised meals which get deducted out of their salaries and rarely, if ever, get delivered to them.

4. The crimes these people commit are not applaudable yet if you step back for a second, you will realize that to them, it’s their ticket home. And getting rid of these workers? Not graceful. Stupid. Because we cannot function without them.

This is a fact. When they went on strike, before the temporary replacements were brought in, the hospitals were a disaster! So were the roads! Can you imagine that tests could not be sent to the labs in time, patients were lost and couldn’t find the right clinics and everything was filthy. We are talking about a hospital which should be -of all places- hygienic and sterilized.

5. Yes, Kuwait HAS donated to starving countries and HAS paid attention to them. But what good is that when they neglect them on their own land while they have come to serve us!? What they have done, as gracious as it is, is public. But this.. this is reality.

6. No it is not gracious that they are given jobs even if they knew that they couldn’t handle them. Seriously Bo3zez, what living being can vacuum and clean with his body !?!?!?! Are they supposed to lick the tables sterile?! Again, we are talking about a hospital! If they have no means to clean the place properly, then the Kuwaitis (and foreigners) who seek the service of these institutions are put into a filthy, infected, unsterile place. Health care huh?

7. The deserve our sympathy because if we sympathize and help them, then they won’t have a need to commit crime. And then, if they do, we can say we did our part and helped them get what they signed up for. Yes, they CHOSE to come to Kuwait, but they signed a contract that entitled them to food and proper shelter and no contract states that they will have to make do with their limbs and saliva to sanitize hospitals.