Korrupsjon er et stort problem manges steder i verden.
En studie av land i Afrika stiller spørsmål om engelsk kolonistyre kan ha bidratt:
"Did British colonial rule in Africa foster a legacy of corruption among local elites?" "The British colonial rule gave greater autonomy to chiefs than they had
in precolonial times, which bolstered their power and undermined their
accountability to the local population" (LSE 28.102020).
Konklusjonen er at britisk kolonistyre ga større autoritet til klanledere og lokale høvdinger.
Og at dette svekket disse lederes ansvar for den lokale befolkningen.
Det er bl.a. forskere fra CMI (Christian Michelsens Insitute) i Bergen som har bidratt i denne analysen.
CMI har et stort arbeidsprogram innen Korrupsjon internasjonalt ... og har mange ansatte innen dette fagområdet:
I USA har det lenge vært sterkt økende antall dødsfall av overdoser. Agressiv markedsføring av vanedannende opoider er årsaken. Nå er Purdue Pharma ilagt en bot på 8 Milliarder dollar av myndighetene. Dette har firmaet akseptert.:
"Purdue Pharma Pleads Guilty to Criminal Charges for Opioid Sales"
"The Justice Department announced an $8 billion settlement with the company.
Members of the Sackler family will pay $225 million in civil penalties but criminal investigations continue." (NY Times 21.10.2020)
DET er STORE tall i bøter:
- 8 milliarder dollar for selskapet
- 225 millioner dollar for eierfamilien
Og mer kan det bli.
Verdens mest kjente konsulentselskap McKinsey er i søkelyset:
"McKinsey Proposed Paying Pharmacy Companies Rebates for OxyContin Overdoses" "Court filings reveal consultants’ talk of a records purge during the opioid crisis, and shed new light on sales advice given to the billionaire Sackler family and their drug company, Purdue Pharma." (NY Times 27.11.2010)
Innad i McKinsey er det blitt diskutert å ødelegge bedriftens arkiver i saken.
Kanskje det allerede er gjort?
Det er noe fundamentalt galt med de store konsulentselskapene.
Eierformen åpner forgrådighetoglite innsikt.
Med dette eksemplet fra USA bør man diskutere konsulentselskapers etikk.
De rådgir ikke alltid med integritet og ansvar.
Det er det all grunn til å ha fokus på ... gitt at konsulentbruk er økende i verden.
Trump har fortsatt mye ugjort. Nå på oppløpssiden er det Plan F han beordrer. Hele embetsverket i USA blir gjennomgått og kan bli reklassifisert til "Schedule F":
"Trump moves to strip job protections from White House budget analysts as he races to transform civil service" (Washington Post 28.11.2020).
Havner en anstt i den nye klassifiseringen F ... da er man ikke lenger beskyttet av lovverket som nøytrale enbetsmenn.
Og da kan disse sies opp.
Biden kan møte et embetsverk som er tømt for eksertise.
"Den brente jords taktikk" er velkjent fra krigføring.
Atomfysikeren i Iran: Drept av maskingevær ved "remote control" fra en SATELITT
Israel står bak, sies det
https://bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-55128970
DA kan det bli krig i verdensrommet, at denne satelitten blir et mål å ta ut
En farlig utvikling
UD må følge med - Norge er nå i UNSC
Kristenkonservativ med grep på det å få skattefrie donasjoner. Og involvere egen familie i pengestrømmen:
The Guardian 27.6. 2017:
Trump lawyer's firm steered millions in donations to family members, files show."
Documents obtained by the Guardian reveal Jay Sekulow approved plans to push people to give to his Christian nonprofit, which then paid big sums to his family."
........................
APNews 31.1.2020: "Charities steered $65M to Trump lawyer Sekulow and family".
"The Associated Press reviewed 10 years of tax returns for the ACLJ and
other charities tied to Sekulow, which are released to the public under
federal law. The records from 2008 to 2017, the most recent year
available, show that more than $65 million in charitable funds were paid
to Sekulow, his wife, his sons, his brother, his sister-in-law, his
nephew and corporations they own."
.............................
Han sprer nå sine kristenkonservative aktiviteter over hele verden.
I Israel går det mot utnevnelse av ny leder for Holocaust-museet "Yad Vashem".
Men det vekker oppsikt at Netanyahu går for tidligere general Effi Eitam som den nye lederen.
Han er kontroversiell og skal ha uttalt om palestinere at de burde bort fra Vestbredden og om israelske arabere at de er en femtekolonne i Israel.
Når Netyanyahu vil ha Eitam som leder for Holocaust-museet ... hva er det da museet skal stå for? Noen mener det er det MOTSATTE av det Eitam står for.
Steve Bannon ... en gang var han president Trumps "sjefsstrateg".
Sammen skulle de .... "drain the swamp" ... tømme sumpen.
Samarbeidet varte bare et år ... men bruk av stiftelser hadde de felles.
Trump måtte avvikle sin i november 2019:
"Donald Trump fined $2m for misusing charity for political ends"
"New York judge also signed off on agreement to close the Trump Foundation and distribute $1.7m remaining funds to not-for-profits" (BBC 7.11.2019)
For Bannon kom oppgjøret nå i sommer ... da ble han anklaget for å ha tatt flere hundre tusen dollar til personlig bruk fra innsamlingsaksjonen "We Build the Wall":
"In
August 2020, Mr Bannon, 66, was indicted for conspiracy to commit wire
fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering along with three other
alleged co-conspirators.
The
"We Build the Wall" project "defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors,
capitalising on their interest in funding a border wall to raise
millions of dollars, under the false pretence that all of that money
would be spent on construction", said Audrey Strauss, the acting US
Attorney for the Southern District of New York. (BBC 20.8.2020)
Og nå for bare noen dager siden ... den 5. november .... mistet Bannon helt fatningen:
".... he suggested Thursday morning that Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director
Christopher Wray should be beheaded. His comments were made in a video
posted to his Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter accounts." (CNN 5. 11. 2020)
- Dr Fauci og FBI-sjef Wray skulle halshogges og hodene deres settes på stake foran Det Hvite Hus ...
Straks stengte Twitter kontoen til Steve Bannon permanent.
Og hans advokat frasa seg umiddelbart å representere ham.
Så nå er rettssaken om underslag utsatt.
Men oppgjørets time kommer nok ... og da forhåpentlig etter klokka 12.00 den 20. januar 2021.
Slik at Trump ikke kan benåde Bannon.
Og hvorfor en voldsforherligende anarkist ble sjefsstrateg for en amerikansk president ...
Der opererer ELAD med arkeologiske utgravinger i Silwan ... et sentralt palestinsk område i Øst-Jerusalem.
Så å si under føttene på de palestinerne som har sine hjem der.
I Juni 2019 ble åpnet en underjordisk "pilgrimsvei" som historisk skal ha ledet jøder til Tempelhøyden.
Motstanderne av dette arbeidet er klare i sine uttalelser:
"Peace Now said it would demonstrate outside the event in protest of “the
trampling of Jerusalem as a city that is holy to the three
[monotheistic] religions and belongs to all its residents, and turning
Silwan into the messianic Disneyland of the far-right in Israel and the
United States — several meters from the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Temple
Mount.” (Times of Israel 30. juni 2019)
ELAD er en kontroversiell organisasjon.
Og det ble verre da det viste seg under FinCENFiles-avsløringen at største donor var Roman Abramovich.
Og nå har det vist seg at ELAD har hatt en inntil nå hemmelig avtale med JNF - Jewish National Fund.
Det er JNF som har eiendomsrettighetene der ELAD nå på deres vegne presser ut palestinere fra deres hjem.
Oppmerksomheten om dette har gitt JNF kalde føtter ... og de forsøker nå å tone ned utkastelsene.
For JNF ønsker å fremstå som en veldedig organisasjon ... som mottar skattefrie donasjoner ... planter trær og gjør godt for menneskene der de har prosjekter.
Så nå er det bråk:
"Fearing donor wrath, JNF attempts to distance itself from settler
organization Elad, which in response threatens individual legal action
against board members of JNF subsidiary." (Haaretz 12. oktober 2020).
JNF har allerede fått et frynset rykte.
Mer og mer er det blitt klart at skoglantingen driver bort palestinere som bor eller har eindom der.
Den såkalte "oligarken" Roman Abramovich er nå blitt HELT AVKLEDD.
Fra før var det rimelig klart hvordan han under Russlands oppløsning "stjal" til seg med spesielle metoder Russlands store verdier innen olje og aluminium ... under ordningen "Loans for Shares" satt opp av Boris Yeltsin.
Han etablerte seg i London under Englands tvilsomme ordning med "Gylne Visa".
Og kjøpte bl.a. fotballaget Chelsea ...
Men da UK etterhvert begynte å be gylne visa-holdere om detaljer i deres rikdom ... da forlot Abramovich England.
Han forsøkte å etablere seg i Sveits... men ga opp dette ... og havner da i Israel.
Nå i 2020 er han blitt helt avkledd ... ref de siste avsløringer fra nå i september kalt "FinCEN Leaks" om bankenes transaksjoner de senere år.
BBC skriver om disse lekkasjene:
"The FinCEN Files are another
big leak of secret files, detailing the failure of major global banks to
stop money laundering and financial crime. They also expose how the UK
is often the weak link in the financial system and how London is awash
with Russian cash. (BBC 20.sep 2020)
De er i disse siste lekkasjene det fremkommer mer info om Abramovich:
Han er en hemmelig donor til ELAD ... organisasjonen i Jerusalem som bl.a. skviser ut palestinere fra deres hjem der.
Slik kommer stjålne verdier til "nytte".
Og normalt vill man si: Stakkars Chelsea som er havnet inn i disse sirklene.
Men for Chelsea er det blitt motsatt ... der dytter nå Abramocich inn store summer til spilleroppkjøp.
Det er et kjent grep å forsøke å vaske dubiøse penger med oppkjøp av og satsing på engelske fotballklubber.
For å forbedre et ødelagt image ...
Skudeneshavn 15. oktober 2020
Jan Marton Jensen
Se dette blogginnlegget av 7. mars 2020 for mer om såkalte "Gylne Visa":
Som man vil se er der 12 fra Sør-Fylket .... og fra Nord-Fylket: 1 Haugesunder.
Og er dette oppegående politikere?
OPPEGÅENDE SAMFERDSELS-politikere ville ha fulgt med i timen .. og anmerket:
1) Hm ... Denne saken har vi på bordet vårt fordi Haugesund ALENE sto mot alle de andre kommunene i Haugalandspakken.
2) Hm ... Haugesund har allerede "lurt til seg" 83 Mkr de ikke skulle hatt fra bilistene på Haugalandet ved de kravene de stilte på Kvala i 2016
3) Hm .. I motsetning til andre kommuner skalerer nå Haugesund OPP kravene sine til veiløsninger
4) Hm ... Det kommer i neste fase av veiutbygging såkalte "byvekstavtaler". De vil begunstige Haugesund spesielt
5) Hm ... Da er dette kanskje siste mulighet for skikkelig satsing i Sveio og Karmøy
6) Hm ... Sveio vurderer overgang til Rogaland ... da legger vi til rette for det med våre vedtak
7) Hm ... Haugesund vil ha 4-feltsvei INN til byen både fra SØR og NORD ... men IKKE GJENNOM. Det liker vi ikke ... vi som tenker gode veier som binder HELE Vestlandet sammen ... uten propper
8) Hm ...Det er viktig at bompengeprosjekter har DEMOKRATISK FORANKRING hos brukerne. Derfor er legger vi stor vekt på det FLERTALLET av kommuner mener
"ALT DETTE tenker vi på når vi tar våre beslutninger".
Slikt ville oppegående politikere tenkt.
Men da måtte man vært virkelige politikere ... og ikke som nå noen som premierer utglidning og alenegang.
Men så er da dette Samferdselsutvalget også kun et utvalg.
Finansminister Sanner visste at saken kom på hans bord.
Så sent som på torsdag kunne han IKKE gripe inn ... et advokatfirma han hyret inn sa så: "Men fram til torsdag var Sanner krystallklar på at han ikke kunne gripe
inn i det som er Norges Banks ansvar uansett hvor mye
stortingspolitikerne skulle ønske det." (NRK 21. august 2020).
Det graverende er at dette firmaet allerede hadde rådgitt Tangen ... og derfor ikke var uhildet.
Så klokka 5 på tolv ber Sanner Lovavdelingen i Justisdep. vurdere saken.
De bruker ikke lang tid:
NRK 21. august 2010 "Sanner kan instruere Norges Bank: – En knusende dom Finansminister Jan Tore Sanner (H) kan generelt instruere Norges Bank i Tangen-saken. Det har lovavdelingen i Justisdepartementet konkludert med."
ABCnyheter 21. august 2020
Finansminister Jan Tore Sanner (H) har antakelig mulighet til å gi Norges Bank «generelle instrukser», ifølge lovavdelingen i Justisdepartementet.
Tidligere baserte Sanner seg på dette:
e24 18.august 2020: "Sanner hyret inn samme advokatfirma som bisto Nicolai Tangen i mai"." "Advokatfirmaet som mener Jan Tore Sanner ikke kan instruere Norges Bank, bisto Nicolai Tangen med detaljer knyttet til arbeidsavtalen med Norges Bank i mai."
......................................................................
Hva skal man si?
Kan vi ha en finansminister som er så bakpå som han har vært i Tangen-saken?
Og kan finansministerensvare på hva det kostet å kjøpe rådgivning fra advokatfirmaet som ikke var uhildet?
Det har lenge vært klart at IDF misbruker de lover som gjelder for krig og okkupasjon til å opprette skyteområder på Vestbredden ... slik at man kan pressse ut de palestinere som bor der.
Dette er nå dokumentert ved funn i israelske arkiv av opplegget Ariel Sharon sto for i Hebron-området. Der skrives det i klartekst hva formålet med skyteområdet nr 918 omkring landsbyen Yatta var for:
"40-year-old Document Reveals Ariel Sharon's Plan to Evict 1,000 Palestinians From Their Homes".
"Minutes of an 1981 ministerial meeting indicate that Sharon, who would later become Israel's prime minister, proposed allocating West Bank land to the Israeli army for the sole purpose of forcing Palestinians out of their homes."
(Haaretz 9.8.2020)
Egentlig skal lovene som gjelder her beskytte de okkuperte ... og ikke så å si å beskyte dem.
Det er graverende slik metodisk å misbruke internasjonal lov som IDF gjør.
Utkastelsen av palestinerne prøves fortsatt for israelske domstoler.
Israels Høyesterett har hatt denne saken oppe til avgjørelse siden år 2000.
Men har latt tiden gå uten å ta noen endelig beslutning.
Det er egentlig den største skandalen.
Norge har et spesielt ansvar i denne konflikten.
Derfor må UD markere det norske synspunkt tydelig når misbruk dokumenteres som her.
Gulfstatene må nå ta korona-ansvar for sine fremmedarbeidere ... de kan ikke sendes tilbake til hjemlandene.
En grundig artikkel av Sebastian Castelier viser hvordan fremmedarbeiderne sviktes.
Sterk melding: "Coronavirus Exposes the Epic Moral Failure of Gulf States".
Gulfstatene har pengene ... men de mangler moralen som skal til.
Coronavirus Exposes the Epic Moral Failure of Gulf States
Sebastian CastelierJuly 30, 2020
Exacerbated
by crowded living conditions and poor healthcare access (here, a Dubai
labor camp), migrant workers account for the majority of over 500,000
coronavirus cases reported in the GulfREUTERS
Forced to beg for food and to fend for themselves, humiliated by
xenophobic local news reports, victim of wage theft and at risk of
contracting the virus in overcrowded labor camps, migrant workers are
the COVID-19 victims the Arab Gulf region does not want the world to
see.
"I don't know what to do," lamented Rakesh, an Indian electrician
trapped in Kuwait’s Jleeb al-Shuyoukh for weeks during a strict lockdown
imposed on the area. Like him, thousands of migrant workers struggled to access food, lacking assistance from local authorities.
"The pandemic exposed decades of systemic racial discrimination
and a deep suffering that migrant workers have long faced under the
Gulf states’ various labor governance systems," Hiba Zayadin, Gulf
researcher for the advocacy group Human Rights Watch, told me.
Beyond the legitimate query of who should bear the responsibility of
sheltering migrant workers during the COVID-19 crisis lurks a moral
question. Wasn't the pandemic a chance for wealthy Gulf countries to
show compassion they could afford, and gratitude that they owe, towards
migrant workers who build the region? From this moral standpoint, Gulf
states have largely failed.
Economic measures aiming at sheltering Gulf economies from the
downturn mostly share a similar pattern: citizen first. For example,
Omani nationals cannot be fired, but migrant workers can. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain help pay subsidize private sector wages, but for their respective citizens only.
A
truck driver works on the cab of his vehicle as other trucks stand idle
during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dubai, UAE. April 16, 2020.Jon
Gambrell,AP
Conveniently labeled 'guest workers,' migrant workforces are, above
all, disposable, transient and the first pliant variable for adjusting
economic contractions. And although the coronavirus has intensified
their distress, migrant workers in the Gulf have faced oppressive work
conditions for decades. According to human rights group Amnesty
International, Gulf countries are "notorious for the systematic abuse and exploitation of the migrant workers who contribute so much to their economies." Indispensable, but neglected
The proportion of non-nationals in Gulf labor markets is among the highest in the world. In Dubai, a commercial hub for both the Middle East and Asia, less than 10 percent of the population is Emirati; the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest skyscraper, was built by migrant worker hands.
"The industry still heavily relies on foreigners from all background
for their know-how and productivity," acknowledged a source at a leading
Middle East construction group.
Migrant workers also sustain Gulf cities, from driving cabs,
operating restaurants, cleaning houses, treating COVID-19 patients and
working for consultancy firms. Without the roughly 30 million
foreign nationals, who mainly originate from India, Egypt, Pakistan,
the Philippines, Bangladesh and Nepal, Gulf economies would come to a
complete standstill.
In Qatar, migrant workers account for about 89 percent of the population while in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, only about one fifth of private sector employees are nationals.
Vox
Cinema employee Jackline Nansamba of Uganda stocks shelves at a
Carrefour supermarket in Dubai, UAE. April 19, 2020.Jon Gambrell,AP
"Migrant workers should be offered the same level of social
protections that were made available to nationals," Amnesty
International’s Gulf Researcher May Romanos told me.
Following a visit to Qatar, the UN’s special rapporteur for racism
characterized the racial discrimination against non-nationals which
structures Gulf economies as a "de facto caste system
based on national origin," which enables discriminatory pay scales and
an "firm societal association between certain types of work and specific
nationalities." Low-income South Asian workers are often collectively
nicknamed "Bangali," irrespective of their national origins.
According to human rights organizations and observers, systematic abuse and racism are rooted in the kafala,
a sponsorship system enforced by Gulf states which objectify migrant
workers by tying them to their employers, who sometimes confiscate their
passports. Rights defenders have long likened kafala to modern slavery.
Despite changes - Bahrain announced repeal in 2009 but nothing much
has actually changed, Qatar announced in October 2019 it will partially dismantle the kafala - Gulf countries "continue to operate" versions of the system, Amnesty International reported.
Amid the pandemic, 1000 employees (hailing primarily from the
Philippines, Sri Lanka, Egypt, India, and Pakistan) of the world's
leading security group, G4S, half of them women, reportedly rely on food donations
in the UAE. Employers feel empowered by government policies pushing the
privatization of labor management, and this can easily lead to further
exploitation.
Gulf business partners, including unscrupulous Indian businessmen, have been accused of delaying the wages of workers in distress, leaving them isolated, with no access to healthcare, and broke.
Hungry,
out of work, sick and isolated: Migrant workers in the Gulf (here, in a
Saudi labor camp) were victims of exploitative business practices
before COVID-19, but now their plight has intensifiedבלומברג
Talking to Haaretz, Isobel Archer, Gulf Project Officer at Business
& Human Rights Resource Centre, a UK-based researcher centre leading
in the field of documenting worker's rights violations committed by
private companies, said allegations of the abuse of migrant workers in
the Gulf quadrupled since last year. "Businesses are currently focused
on economic survival, which means workers are often the last
consideration," she said. "Gulf states washed their hands"
But the twin hits of the COVID-19 crisis and low oil prices mean
there is likely to be a dramatic shake-up in how Gulf economies will
operate and, unsurprisingly, migrant workers will again bear the brunt
of the change. Gulf economies are expected to shrink by 7.6 percent this year, causing a wave of sackings, which, Oxford Economics estimates, could result in more than 3.5 million migrant workers being forced to leave the region.
Indeed, the ‘flexibility’ provided by the kafala system to
labor markets has long allowed Gulf states to weather economic
contractions: they simply export their unemployment ‘problem’ back to
their home states.
But COVID-19 derailed that well-oiled system: by late March, labor exporting countries closed their borders and refused to accept their own returning nationals, leaving Gulf states wholly responsible for their care and shelter.
"They are in Dubai, Dubai is responsible," said Irudaya Rajan, an
Indian researcher on labor migrations who is a member of the Kerala
state COVID-19 advisory body.
The Gulf states were outraged by the insistence that they had to care
for the migrant workers who only weeks earlier had fueled their entire
economies. They retaliated.
The UAE, home to about six million South Asians, and where nearly 90 percent of the 10 million-strong population are foreign workers, pointedly threatened
"non-co-operative countries" that they would reconsider their migrant
labor requirements, well aware that remittances from migrant workers are
a crucial lifeline for millions of South Asian households. In Nepal
alone, those remittances account for over a quarter of its GDP.
Indian
nationals returning on a special flight from Sharjah (UAE) on a bus
taking them to a quarantine facility amid concerns over their carrying
the coronavirus. Amritsar, India, July 15, 2020.AFP
Seeing their desperation, and giving up on Gulf states’ good faith, India began a mission to repatriate
its stranded citizens on May 7th. "Gulf states washed their hands of
the responsibility that they bear towards migrant workers," Zayadin
commented.
According to a Pakistani official interviewed by Reuters in May,
around 12 percent of those who returned from the United Arab Emirates
were infected with COVID-19.
Indeed, exacerbated by crowded living conditions and poor healthcare
access, migrant workers account for the majority of the over 500,000
coronavirus cases reported in the Gulf.
Mirroring the segregation that has been enforced across the region
for decades, areas inhabited by low-income migrant workers, and
suffering high rates of COVID-19, were sealed to protect nationals.
Responding to the high infection rate claimed by Pakistan for
returning workers, an official at the UAE’s foreign ministry rejected
that "version of events." Reforms ahead?
Belatedly recognizing they needed to defuse the crisis, Gulf
governments announced a raft of measures including, among others, access
for migrant workers to free healthcare, visa extensions, and forcing
private companies to provide accomodation.
In Qatar, the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and
Social Affairs actually included migrant workers in a $824 million
scheme that subsidized private sector wages. But that kind of move is an exception. No other countries made similar announcements.
Filling the void left by governments, community-based initiatives
stepped in. In Kuwait, an Indian welfare association distributed food
kits to distressed migrant workers. "Some Kuwaiti people are also
calling us to give money," noted a representative of the association in
surprise.
"We hope this pandemic will serve as a wake-up call for Gulf
countries, so they start reforming their discriminatory systems,"
Amnesty International’s Romanos said.
Graffiti
showing Che Guevara, a hammer and sickle and a portrait of Dubai ruler
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in the Al Quoz neighborhood of
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, April 15, 2020.Jon Gambrell,AP
Significant structural changes are unlikely, however. Gulf states
have long favored cosmetic changes over addressing the crux of the
problem. "Unless the [kefala] system as a whole is abolished,
you won’t see any real improvement in the lived experiences of migrant
workers in the Gulf," Human Rights Watch's Zayadin said.
Any path to reform will raise the hackles of the more
backward-looking elements of the Gulf business community. When Oman
declared it could allow migrant workers to change jobs freely, upsetting
a core tenet of the kefala system, businesses opposed the move, arguing it could "slow down productivity rates."
Economic realities also play against any real integration of migrant workers into Gulf societies. Since the 2014 oil crash,
the rentier model of development, with its reliance on foreign
multinationals to develop the Gulf’s petrochemicals industry, is
crumbling, fostering a big push for more nationals to replace migrant
workers, playing against a migrant workers-driven modus operandi.
Kuwait’s Prime Minister recently called to reduce the migrant workers
population by more than half, saying the emirate faces a "big"
demographic imbalance that needs to be "redressed."
During the pandemic, Kuwait has stood out for its xenophobic rhetoric
against migrant workers, accusing them of spreading the virus, stealing
jobs and overcrowding medical facilities.
Migrant workers - non-Muslim, non-Arabic speaking and from very
different ethnic backgrounds - will always be the "other," never
integrated into Gulf states' national identities or granted citizenship,
no matter how many decades they have resided there, and are thus easy
targets of xenophobia, especially in times of crisis.
Yet the aspiration for Gulf workforces to consist entirely of locals
remains an illusion. According to the Middle East construction group
source I interviewed, unskilled and semi-skilled labor are "unavailable"
among Gulf nationals and the going wage for construction jobs are
viewed by nationals as "lower than acceptable."
Over 85 percent of unemployed Qatari citizens are "not willing"
to work in the private sector, the country’s Labor Force Survey
revealed, because public sector jobs offer far more benefits and tenure.
There’s a similar situation in Kuwait where more than half of
unemployed nationals refuse to work in the private sector, preferring government jobs.
"When the dust settles, they [Gulf countries] will take a few knocks
and bring in plane-loads of workers from ever more desperate countries,"
writes Vani Saraswathi from the advocacy organization Migrant-Rights.
Despite amply demonstrating their necessity to the states that host
them, migrant workers still don’t have any collective bargaining power,
their cause has only limited allies and resonance locally, and their
home states are too anxious about losing revenues and offending their
hosts to use whatever leverage they could muster.
More than ever before, the COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the
disposable nature of the Gulf’s transient workforces, and the
diminishing chances they have to win more humane working conditions. Sebastian Castelier is a journalist who covers Gulf Arab states
and labour migration. His work has appeared in several Middle Eastern
and international media outlets. Twitter: @SCastelier
