September 2006

Vol XXIX NO. 167 Sunday 3rd September 2006


On the highway to catastrophe

By Amira Al Hussaini

Awoman, a car and a map are a dangerous combination.

A woman with no sense of direction, who doesn't know her left from her right, North from her South or East from her West, is a sure catastrophe waiting to happen.

With a visitor from Bahrain gracing our small Hamilton apartment, my husband Amer realised I couldn't and shouldn't be set loose on the Canadian highways without a Global Positioning System (GPS).

After almost 10 months here, I still lose my way to our neighbourhood supermarket and find it difficult to get home if I take another route!

While he was busy at work, the deal was that I would be driving his cousin Ghaneya around, showing her the sights and scenes which make Canada a visitor's paradise.

On the day we picked up Ghaneya from the airport, we stopped by a store and picked up the GPS.

For technology-savvy Amer, it was a piece of cake.

For his technologically challenged wife, it was a different story.

While he spent the night reading up on his new toy, I briefed Ghaneya all about the high-end boutiques in Toronto and malls in Niagara we would be covering over the next few days.

The next morning, armed with our GPS, the sky was the limit.

I got into the car excited about the day ahead of us, placing our mentor and guide in its place of pride on the windshield, until I thought: "Did he even show me how to turn the damned thing on?"

After a few attempts, I worked out how to operate the machine.

I programmed it to take me to a place I knew how to get to and sure enough, after following a few directions, it showed us a new shortcut to the nearby mall! The GPS had passed its test and from now on, I would follow its directions blindly, I told my companion.

Our GPS, which we called Labeeba, became an indispensable part of any outing.

With her guidance, we travelled up and down Southern Ontario, taking in as much of the shopping and tourist attractions we could pack into daytime hours. There wasn't a dull moment as it had up-to-date maps and knew exactly where everything was.

Turn left, it would tell me, and I would blindly do what it said - even when it led me to what looked like a dead end because, sure enough, after following a few more directions I would arrive at my destination in one piece.

But my honeymoon ended as abruptly as it started when we decided to go to MarineLand, in Niagara Falls.

After a few hours of loitering in the sun, watching killer whales and bears, we had our full and programmed Labeeba to take us to the picturesque Niagara-on-the-Falls for lunch.

Before I knew it, we were on a bridge with the US flag dancing in the wind above our heads and a border checkpoint three cars ahead of us.

Looking east, we saw the mighty Niagara Falls bellowing below!

We were on the bridge to the US, with no U-turns, no passports and no ID papers!

To add insult to injury, Labeeba was adamant that we were on our way to Niagara-on-the-Lake, which was in exactly the opposite direction!

Try explaining that to the angry immigration officer who greeted us! It was a genuine mistake, I pleaded.

Five hours later, after having our photographs taken and all our fingers printed (all 10 with a full scan of our hands just in case), our identities checked, rechecked and checked again, we were allowed to turn back to Canada.

With wobbly feet pressing as hard as I can on the accelerator to return home, I sure was glad we ended up sleeping in our beds and not on a bunk bed somewhere close to Guantanamo!

*Amira Al Hussaini currently lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada



Vol XXIX NO. 184 Wednesday 20 September 2006


Migrant workers' plight a shame on our nation

BY AMIRA AL HUSSAINI

As leaders converge on the United Nations in New York to discuss ways to make the world a better place, I cannot but hang my head in shame.

For, while nations discuss the plight of the world's 50 most vulnerable countries, thousands of migrant workers back in my own country Bahrain are living and working in misery.

The outcry over the death of 16 workers in a camp fire in July, which not only destroyed their lives but also their families' future, seems to have evaporated into thin air.

Now, people are angry as to why 28 construction workers were injured when they were hurled from the back of an open truck this week. Do you really want to know why? Because they are poor workers with no rights or safeguards to ensure their safety or livelihoods.

Because we only cry and make our voices heard for a few minutes and then go on with our lives, taking their suffering, blood and toil as a matter of fact and continuing with our lives as if nothing has happened.

The truth is that the death of a few workers doesn't hurt us because they are just objects who do our dirty work for us.

They don't have a face, for all migrant workers look the same - they are dirty and smelly. They don't have a name, for they all take it with a smile when you stoop down from your ivory tower and call them Kumar or Raj.

What happens if one or two or three or even a dozen of them die?

Easy! You simply ship some more from some of the poorest countries in the world.

After all, these countries have a pool of 600 million people who are willing to take the risk of leaving their countries, homes and families in their quest for a better future.

Sadly, we seem to forget that like you and me, they too have feelings, hopes and aspirations; that they too want to secure a clean bed and good food on their tables when they return home.

We forget they may need time for relaxation and entertainment; that they have families and children and relatives, that they smile and cry, eat and drink and have the right to work and earn a living - without having to be humiliated and ferried to work like cattle, in the back of open trucks.

I am enraged, especially after listening to the UN General Assembly's Bahraini president Shaikha Haya bint Rashid Al Khalifa pouring her heart out over how migrant workers around the world were suffering to make ends meet.

Not one person from the Bahrain Permanent Mission to the UN, nor any of the delegates from any of our neighbouring countries, who heavily depend on the downtrodden workers, spoke out about their suffering on our shores.

I am however glad the world has eyes and the voiceless are getting a voice at a time when many officials are living in denial and refusing to go for regular hearing checks!

l Amira Al Hussaini is currently covering the UN General Assembly session in New York, US