Harassment & A Smile

He was running late, but even HE does not believe he was speeding. Nonetheless, my husband was pulled over for speeding yesterday about 2km from our home. Two cops stopped him and made him get out of the car. Both were actively doing the old ‘good cop, bad cop’ routine. The ‘good cop’ leaned against the car with a smirk on his face. Meanwhile, the ‘bad cop’ set to work on my husband. First he asked him why he was speeding. My husband apologized and said he did not realize he was speeding but that he was late for an appointment. Then the ‘bad cop’ asked him what his profession was and my husband replied that he has a family run business. Apparently, the nature of our business did not seem worthy enough to this cop to afford my husband a Land Rover Discovery. He began to berate my husband and repeatedly asked him if he was a drug dealer or if he was a thief. He kept saying that “someone like you” (I presume he meant expatriate?) could not afford such a pricey SUV. Apparently, no one ever taught this cop that hard work with your blood, sweat and tears most assuredly pays off and you don’t need to have the Kuwaiti nationality to pay your bills.

By this time, my husband was severely rattled. Here he was stuck on the side of the road with two cops seemingly convinced he was a drug dealer! On top of that his mobile was incessantly ringing because he was late for his appointment with an important client. But the abuse was not yet over. The cop insisted upon knowing the family history. How did our family end up in Kuwait and how had we found success here. So, there he stood on the side of the road forced to go back 50 years in time and relate how my father-in-law came to Kuwait as a teenager. He was employed as a welder. He saved his meager earnings and opened up his own business, which has grown immensely over the years. And all his children were born in Kuwait, including my husband. Satisfied with the answer, the cop wrote out a ticket and turned to walk away. But he swiftly turned back and asked my husband for his business card. After surveying it for a moment, he had the audacity to ask for a discount if he comes into the shop? Wanting to get the heck out of ‘Dodge’, my husband reluctantly agreed. The saga is seemingly over for now or at least until that cop meanders into our shop demanding his discount!

The behavior by those cops that day was truly absurd. But it is not surprising. The social segregation in Kuwait is so thick that you can cut it with a knife. And it’s not going to get any better unless the government does something to restore and revive the structure of this society. Expatriates are used and abused in this country to an alarming level. I just cannot understand how some humans can view other humans as being disposable?

The economy is booming in Kuwait. Oil prices are sky-high and all the construction in Salmiya is of course a blatant attempt to lure tourists to this tiny Gulf State. But you know the saying, “If you build it, they will come,” from the Kevin Costner flick ‘Field of Dreams”? Well, that will definitely NOT apply to Kuwait if drastic measures are not taken to level the playing field. No one is going to want to visit Kuwait when the whole World knows how this country treats foreigners. There are thousands of other places on this Earth that are much more hospitable to the wardens of its’ state. Not so in Kuwait. You only have to go as far as the local dailies, the Kuwaiti blogs and magazines to glaringly see the social division, dereliction, and maltreatment.

So while the ministers busy themselves with the unavoidable threat of water and electrical shortages this summer, they might just want to put one more thing on the agenda for the sake of Kuwait’s diversification plan. Stop using, abusing, and minimalizing the importance of non-Kuwaitis in this country and do something (like treat us fair, increase our salaries, and cut our expenditures) to show the World that you value people other than your own.