Perhaps, if Dr. Waleed Al Tabtabaei (Tabtebae) MP and Chairman of the Human Rights Committee at the National Assembly did is job, US Ambassador Richard LeBaron wouldn’t have to do it!
As the chairman of a human rights committee, Dr. Waleed Al Tabtabaei has been doing very little or nothing to curb human rights violations. Apart from helping Islamists when they get arrested in connection with terrorist acts he normally remains silent over the violations taking place on a daily basis. It didn’t surprise me when he opposed granting political rights for women. His complaint against LeBaron doesn’t surprise at all. What does is the fact that he is urging the Kuwaiti government to hurry up with the new labour law instead of waiting for foreign criticism.
'US ambassador interferes in
Kuwaiti matters'
Kuwait Times, Saturday, November 12, 2005
KUWAIT: A number of Kuwait parliamentarians, including members of the human rights and labour committees, expressed their total rejection of recent statements of the US Ambassador to Kuwait, Richard LeBaron concerning the rights of expatriate workers in Kuwait, informed sources told Kuwait local daily, AI-Rai AI-Aam.
The sources noted that the MPs responses were rough and that they accused the US diplomat of interfering in Kuwaiti domestic issues.
On his part, member of the parliamentary human rights committee, Dr Waleed AI-Tabtebae slammed the ambassador for such statements and accusations against Kuwait and reminded him of the miserable situations of Mexican, Negro and racial minorities back in the United States, and the inhumane treatment and violations to all human rights in Gitmo and other secret prisons in Eastern Europe.
"If he puts us in the third grade in this regard, then we can place US in the last grade according to US non-governmental originations reports", stressed Tabtebae urging LeBaron to pay more attention to human rights violations in his own country instead of interfering in others' businesses.
He urged the Kuwaiti government to hurry up with the new labour law instead of waiting for foreign criticism.
As the chairman of a human rights committee, Dr. Waleed Al Tabtabaei has been doing very little or nothing to curb human rights violations. Apart from helping Islamists when they get arrested in connection with terrorist acts he normally remains silent over the violations taking place on a daily basis. It didn’t surprise me when he opposed granting political rights for women. His complaint against LeBaron doesn’t surprise at all. What does is the fact that he is urging the Kuwaiti government to hurry up with the new labour law instead of waiting for foreign criticism.
'US ambassador interferes in
Kuwaiti matters'
Kuwait Times, Saturday, November 12, 2005
KUWAIT: A number of Kuwait parliamentarians, including members of the human rights and labour committees, expressed their total rejection of recent statements of the US Ambassador to Kuwait, Richard LeBaron concerning the rights of expatriate workers in Kuwait, informed sources told Kuwait local daily, AI-Rai AI-Aam.
The sources noted that the MPs responses were rough and that they accused the US diplomat of interfering in Kuwaiti domestic issues.
On his part, member of the parliamentary human rights committee, Dr Waleed AI-Tabtebae slammed the ambassador for such statements and accusations against Kuwait and reminded him of the miserable situations of Mexican, Negro and racial minorities back in the United States, and the inhumane treatment and violations to all human rights in Gitmo and other secret prisons in Eastern Europe.
"If he puts us in the third grade in this regard, then we can place US in the last grade according to US non-governmental originations reports", stressed Tabtebae urging LeBaron to pay more attention to human rights violations in his own country instead of interfering in others' businesses.
He urged the Kuwaiti government to hurry up with the new labour law instead of waiting for foreign criticism.
posted by Ben Rivard @ 12:53 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
28 November 2005
Perhaps the following article is one of the reasons Kuwait's National Assembly Human Rights Committee and especially its chairman Dr Waleed al-Tabtabae NOT only does nothing but in fact allows thereby actually encouraging human rights abuses of foreign laborers!
How do you spell LAZY???
Doesn't everyone need maids, cooks and drivers?
----------------
By Ahmad Al-Khaled
What we need to get by in this day and age is a far cry from what we actually require to survive. In Kuwaiti society maids, cooks, and drivers are virtual necessities. We are unquestionably helpless without them.
One would be hard pressed to find a parent anywhere near the vicinity of our local McDonalds play-ground on any given night of the week. But it is not empty.
Alas, it is filled with dozens and dozens of maids and their minor charges eating and playing. They come in large numbers on the weekends. At the co-op, the kids line up to pay their 250 fils to jump on the trampoline. Their maids line up with them, watching as they jump, sometimes cheering them on, sometimes ignoring them while they socialise with other maids, some of whom have been cooped up all week in the house cleaning from morning until night.
We need our maids to take the children out to play. How else will our children get any fresh air?
A clean house is very important to Kuwaitis. We don't like clutter. We have maids and thus, clutter never develops. We like a clean bathroom and darn it, if it's not cleaned on a daily basis leaving that fresh dettol smell, it's just not clean enough.
Kuwaitis like tile and marble floors. You have to take special care of these types of floors with frequent mopping and shinning. Surely you understand - we need our housekeepers!
I like my bed made daily with fresh sheets scented with bukhoor. After washing and drying the bedding, each piece of linen should be held over the smouldering bukhoor for several minutes before making the bed. How in the world could my wife or myself be expected to do this with our busy schedules? Not to mention making our two kids beds as well. Impossible!
Kuwaiti households frequently socialise well into the night. On any given day you may find our home has received at least two or three visitors. Kuwaiti tradition requires visitors be offered tea or fresh juice and sweets at the least. Many times visitors may stay until 11:00 pm at night on a workday. During Ramadan, however, it would not be unusual for a guest to stay until 2:00 am or later. How in the world could we be expected to fix tea at that hour, much less wash the dishes? We need our maids!
Additionally, I require at least three meals a day. Kuwaitis biggest meal of the day is lunch. I favour meats and chicken while my wife and children like fish. Upstairs, my mother and sisters enjoy vegetable rice dishes and pastas. We all eat rice and sometimes we like to start off with some kuba. How in the world could any one of us be expected to cook so many different entrees for one meal? Impossible! We need Basha! (Our cook of many years)
Note: Kuwaitis are not big on what westerners call dinner. We often order out late in the evening for this meal.
Just a quick glance at our local elementary school during the morning rush hour and you will see that the number of drivers clearly outnumbers the parents shuttling their kids to school. Why? Because we need drivers due to the tremendous amount of traffic in Kuwait. Of course no other countries have near the amount of traffic we endure here, not to mention the colossal waste of our valuable time it would take to do the annoying task of child transport!
With a household as big as ours we require frequent trips to the grocery store for milk, diapers, bread and various other items. Sometimes we order out from restaurants that don't deliver. Who but our driver Shakir could endure so many errands in the course of a day? We need him!
I shutter to think of what life would be like without our valued servants. I say pooh pooh on self-reliance...long live good help!
[More articles available at www.kuwaittimes.net]
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