The New Nation - Internet Edition

Mohammad A. Auwal

PROPHET Muhammad (SA) said: "When you see a wrong being done, stop it with your hand; speak out against it if you cannot stop it; hate it in your heart if you cannot speak out; but hating the wrong in heart is the lowest form of faith." Following this hadith, I am speaking out against a colossal injustice because I cannot change it by hand, nor can I absorb it silently. I am currently drafting a lengthy SOS from the blue-collar migrant workers in the Gulf countries. I want to briefly outline some points today, hoping to provide the details in future. I am requesting the Bangladesh government to investigate where and how the Bangladeshi blue-collar workers work and live in the Gulf countries.

The government must inquire into the systematic exploitation of the workers and the violation of their reproductive rights, their rights to get married in time, live with and take care of their loved ones, raise children, and so forth. The problem is actually an open secret, but based on media reports, my personal travel and work experiences, and my interviews with hundreds of blue-collar workers and concerned people, I can reasonably claim that a systematic exploitation of unskilled migrant workers is widespread in all Gulf countries. Briefly, the unskilled foreign workers generally in the Gulf countries, and particularly in Kuwait are under unfair pay, promised one salary figure during recruitment and paid another once they are "taken into custody" (literally made a captive workforce).

They are forced to work long hours with minimal or no extra pay, beaten up or threatened with expulsion from the country if they complain about their non-payment of salaries, given no weekly or monthly or even annual holidays, herded into living like animals in extremely overcrowded rooms (making 20-36 people share one bathroom), and denied many of their basic human rights including the freedom to move around, to change jobs or employers, or even to visit their homelands.

The conditions of those who work for households are sometimes even far worse. As early as in 1998, G. Pundyk wrote in New Internationalist: "Almost daily in Kuwait local newspapers report the injustices and crimes committed against domestic workers: a man dowsed with petrol and set alight; a Sri Lankan woman convicted of murdering her unborn fetus by repeatedly punching her stomach after being raped by her employer; a maid found hanging from her employer's fan; a Filipino woman picked up by two policemen and raped." This description still reflects the pattern of what is reported happening on a daily basis in Kuwait even today. Recently a report in the Kuwait Times stated: "A Bangladeshi houseboy escaped death at the hands of his employer who he alleges brutally mistreated him in a lockup for nearly six months.

The 25 year old houseboy was very weak, from severe malnutrition, when Kuwait Times met him at the Bangladeshi embassy." Stories that appear in the censored or self-censored press of the Gulf states, however, are just the tips of huge icebergs of abuse and systematic exploitation under way in Kuwait and other Gulf countries. Furthermore, rarely do the media cover scholarly analysis of the workers' problems, and rarely do they explain how the workers are being exploited.

To understand this issue, consider the following points: First, consider the difference between the ratio of the wages of the (middle income-level) skilled and the unskilled workers in the United States and ratio in the Gulf countries, as sampled in the accompanying chart: The chart clearly indicates that an unskilled labourer in the US is paid roughly 50 percent of the salary of a middle-income skilled worker, but in the Gulf states, and specifically in Kuwait, a similar unskilled worker is paid roughly 2 percent of the salary of a comparable middle-income skilled worker. Second, the blue-collar workers are treated as disposable people and have absolutely no job security. They are given short-term one or two year contracts, and even though these contracts are often renewed, in most cases the workers have to pay for their extension, which leave them with little money to buy foods and clothes for themselves or to send to their families back home.

Third, there is a huge qualitative difference between the wages of the workers in UAE and those in Bangladesh or other developing countries. In Bangladesh, for example, they live at home and have greater purchasing power with whatever they earn, but in the Gulf countries, their wages do not allow them to support families in the vicinity of where they work and live and thus deprive them of their vital reproductive rights. The low wages provide only an extremely minimalist lifestyle for the workers abroad. Fourth, the low wages do not allow the workers to make regular visits to their homes either.

As a result, they end up spending all their reproductive time unmarried or away from the near and dear ones, which takes a huge toll on their emotional life. Typically, a young man can visit his wife once for a couple of weeks in every four or five years. Many of them have not visited home even once over 10 years. Recently, Rubon bin Rania reported in weekly Jai Jai Din how a Bangladeshi man, enslaved in a desert farm for 25 years, has never visited home and became emotionally unable to go back. Local Kuwaiti press including Kuwait television has reported even more tragic stories of suicides by migrant workers who failed to overcome their financial loss or emotional trauma.

Fifth, essentially the Gulf states are economically forcing workers to stay away from the loved ones for years. This practice contradicts Islamic law, which the Arab leaders profess to uphold. Consider the fact that Omar Ibn Khattab, the second Caliph of Islam, after consulting with women, established a law that banned men from staying away from their wives for more than six months even when they were engaged in wars. He didn't just stop at making the law; he provided the appropriate adjustments to ensure that no one could violate it. There are strange and very deplorable contradictions between the beliefs and the practices of the Gulf statesmen.

They are very generous when it comes to providing disaster relief anywhere in the world, but they are very callous about ensuring fair wages to those who are working for them day and night, cooking their meals, cleaning their streets and buildings, building their roads, driving their cars, watering their fields, or guarding their homes. Kuwaitis, for example, top the generous donors in the Muslim world. Just recently they gave $100 million to the quake victims in Pakistan and $500 million to the Katrina victims in the US. Yet, oddly, it is in Kuwait where some of most egregious violations of the poor workers' rights are taking place. It is the Kuwait embassy in Dhaka that requires Taka 1,250 from the poor Bangladeshis as a fee for authenticating academic transcripts or certificates, while the Kuwaiti embassy in Washington requires no such fees from the rich Americans.

There are many generous people who personally help the workers with their zakat money. In fact, they are the best of people, especially, the Islamic scholars who talk about these issues in mosques and on television programs to raise public consciousness. Even then, for the few persons who receive help primarily in the form of zakat or sadqah (optional charity), many more end up being badly exploited. The conditions of the Bangladeshi and other workers in UAE may not be as horrible as they are in Kuwait. But based on the media reports, they may not be much better either. During the 2001-02, I saw how the workers were being transported between their "barracks" and worksites, squeezed cheek by jowl into tin-shed vehicles the way cattle are herded to slaughterhouses in many western countries. Lacking air-coolers, these vehicles are unsuitable for human transportation in the desert heat that goes up to 120 degrees.

Many recent media reports corroborate my observation and experience, as the following excerpt from Khaleej Times signifies: "For many, Dubai is a city that cares. But for four Asian expatriate workers there is not even a roof to cover their heads. This reporter spotted unfortunate workers sleeping in the open near a grimy construction site without any basic facilities like toilets, electricity, or drinking water." In the Gulf today, you can see workers from different ethnicities receive widely differing salaries for same work. For example, Kuwaitis, Egyptians, Indians, Nepalese, and Bangladeshis will have different salaries and living conditions while doing identical work. Bangladesh government must remind the Gulf statesmen to take responsibility for what is being done to the hapless workers in their homelands.

Maintaining an appropriate level of sensitivity, it should raise the issues of fair wages for the labourers. Government can remind them that giving an atom of fair wage (which is obligatory under Islam) is more important than mountains of optional charities. It should remind them that such exploitation would be condemnable, regardless of where it happens and whoever is victim (and also, it might not be limited only in the Gulf countries), but that it happens in the countries that call themselves Muslim countries and claim to be Muslims is all the more deplorable. Ineffable is indeed the magnitude of abuse and suffering that are being visited upon the poor Bangladeshi and many other expatriate workers.

It is ineffable for two main reasons. First, language is always a poor medium of communication. Second, it is risky for individuals like me to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Yet, we all must try our best to speak out against the above injustice, as we try to come up with systematic analysis of the problems and their possible solutions. For now, as much as I ask the government to do its share in upholding the right and dignity of the people of the nation, may I request the journalists who care to dare highlight the human conditions of these people?

Let us go where silence is and bring to the forefront the cries of those whose voices have been drowned in the din of politics and corruption. Their untold stories are available not only in Kuwait and other Gulf Arab states but also in the cities and villages of Bangladesh.

(Mohammad A. Auwal, an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies, California State University, Los Angeles, is currently visiting the Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) in Kuwait.)

Dr. Md. Rashed Chowdhury

The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) river systems make the third largest freshwater outfall to the world's oceans. The Ganges and the Brahmaputra fall in a number of countries in the South Asian region, including China, India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. Of these China contributes solely to the flow of the Brahmaputra, and Nepal to the flow of the Ganges. These two rivers often overflow during the monsoon months, and the flow reduces dramatically in the dry season. The region therefore faces two major hazards: floods during the monsoon and scarcity of water during the dry season. These hazards become more pronounced in the downstream regions particularly in Bangladesh. Increasing population and accelerating economic development activities in the basin of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra river system have now made the sustainable water management of the region even more critical than in the past.

The sharing of water resources has long been a matter of dispute among the four co-basin countries. This has been the hydro political bone of contention in the region for more than three decades, and because of geographical location, Bangladesh faces the most contentious water issues. In terms of overall water resources requirement for the region, the Ganges has abundant water resources if its total annual flow is considered. The main problem is water scarcity during the lean season, from January to April, which affects both India and Bangladesh. The situation is particularly critical for Bangladesh as about 80 percent of its annual fresh water supply comes as transboundary inflows through 54 common rivers with India.

The effects of climate on hydrology in Tropical Asia would have many facets. In the Himalayas, the storage of precipitation in the form of snow and ice (in glaciers) over a long period provides a large water reservoir that regulates annual water distribution. The majority of rivers originating in the Himalayas have their upper catchments in snow-covered areas and flow through steep mountains. If there is any climatic variability in the Himalayas the impacts could be felt in the downstream countries -- that is, India and Bangladesh.

By and large, dry-season flow in the major Himalayan rivers in a given year results from the monsoon rainfall of the previous year. If there is any climatic change in the mountain hydrological regimes, it is likely to alter these resources, and severely affect Bangladesh that depends on this water resource. Bangladesh has a sub-tropical monsoon climate. The main rainy season occurs during the southwest monsoon from June to September Rainfall is heavy, frequent, and reaching 1500-2000 mm during this period. Rainfall averages 2160 mm per annum of which 1728 mm falls during the monsoon. The distribution of rainfall demonstrates a distinct seasonal regime and gradual increase from west to east. Thus the total rainfall at Jessore, a typical station for the less wet western region of Bangladesh, is only 1600 mm; it increases to about 2000 mm in Dhaka, and to over 3200 mm in Sylhet of the wet north-eastern region. Rainfall in the period September-November is less regular. At this time, the rain is usually brought by tropical cyclones from the Bay of Bengal, which can be severe, bringing torrential rain and very strong winds. From the decadal trends in the rainfall variability in Bangladesh, it has been observed that there are some atmospheric and climatic changes undergoing in the hydro-meteorological system in the GBM river system.

Changes in the length of the monsoon are significant and increased precipitation in monsoon generates additional volumes of runoff. Also, the southwest monsoon arrives later or withdraws earlier, so soil moisture deficits in some areas (especially in Ganges basin) is getting worse; prolonged monsoons are also contributing to more frequent flooding and increasing the depth of inundation in many parts of Bangladesh (1998 flooding for an example). Observations revealed that significant deviation of monthly rainfall from one decade to the other occurred. It can be stated as an example that in the Ganges basin the June rainfall in 1970-60 displayed positive anomaly (i.e., higher rainfall than the average), which now shows negative anomaly (i.e., lower than the average) in the recent decade 2000-90 (Fig. 1). It has also been observed that, as compared to 1970-60, there is a considerable increase (10-15%) of September rainfall in the recent decade.

All other monthly deviations are noticeable too. Rainfall in the Brahmaputra basin also displayed similar trends. The percentage of August-September rainfall, as compared to 1970-60, has significantly increased in the recent decades. Other months displayed considerable variations too. Therefore, some atmospheric and climatic changes in the hydro-meteorological system in the Ganges-Brahmaputra basin system in Bangladesh are very distinct (rainfall anomaly in the Meghna basin is not reported here). These findings show that the variations of total seasonal rainfall, the timing of onset, peak, and recession, are changing considerably at a dramatic pace.

Factors related to climatic and human induced interferences are hypothesized to be responsible for these changes. If preventive measures are not taken immediately, these changes will have serious impact on the livelihood of the people in the lower riparian countries like Bangladesh. Dr. Rashed Chowdhury is Research Scientist and Faculty of the University of Hawaii, USA, primarily responsible to develop applications-oriented information on climate variability and change for the Asia-Pacific region.

Les Picker

Happiness among American men and women reaches its estimated minimum at approximately ages 49 and 45 respectively."

To design effective social and economic policies, policymakers need a measure of individuals' "well-being." Yet while such things as real Gross Domestic Product, lifespan, height, and the incidence of cancer can be counted, it is a much more complicated task to objectively quantify psychological well-being and happiness. For example, recent statistical research has shown that countries like Denmark, Ireland, and the Netherlands are particularly happy, while nations such as Germany, Italy, and Portugal are less happy. However, one could argue that words such as "happiness" or "satisfaction" cannot be communicated unambiguously and in exactly the same way across countries, so it is not easy to know whether such cross-national well-being patterns are believable.

In Hypertension and Happiness across Nations (NBER Working Paper No. 12934), co-authors David Blanchflower and Andrew Oswald draw upon data on 15,000 randomly sampled individuals from 16 countries, and on other larger samples, to develop a measure of well-being related to the incidence of high blood pressure. They find evidence to suggest that happier nations report fewer blood-pressure problems. And, this seems to be true regardless of the dataset used in the analysis. Nor do the results seem to be caused by differing numbers of physicians across countries.

The authors' findings in this study rest on three assumptions: first, that it is reasonable to treat their survey evidence on high-blood-pressure problems as a proxy for true measures of hypertension. Second, that people report high blood pressure in a more objective way than they report levels of happiness. Third, that the patterns they find are not merely the product of something special for this particular sample of nations.

Of course, it is possible that the results of this study are not valid because an inherently cheery nation will be optimistic about everything. However, it is hard to believe that someone told by their doctor that they have high blood pressure would have an incentive to conceal or misreport that.

For researchers in general, the attraction of a blood-pressure question in surveys is that it relies on medical facts given to the individual, and thus seems valuably different in character from conventional subjective questions about well-being. Furthermore, the authors point out that while psychological health cannot be measured easily, it is nonetheless high in Denmark and low in East Germany. While happiness and hypertension are linked, more research remains needed on how such connections may operate.

In Is Well-being U-Shaped over the Life Cycle? (NBER Working Paper No.12935), Blanchflower and Oswald study happiness and life-satisfaction data for half a million Americans and Europeans. They draw two main conclusions from the data: first, that psychological well-being moves along a U-shaped curve as we age. Second, that there are important differences in the reported happiness levels of different age groups.

The authors suggest that reported well-being is U-shaped in age. Happiness among American men and women reaches its estimated minimum at approximately ages 49 and 45 respectively. Among European men and women, life satisfaction levels are at their minimum at ages 44 at 43 respectively.

The authors emphasize that, because their research controls for many other influences upon happiness and life satisfaction -- including income, education, and marriage -- these results should be read as truly describing well-being.

By definition, the authors caution, their study has one important limitation. The international datasets that they use do not follow the same individuals over the years. They also note that what truly causes the U-shaped curve in human well-being, and the noticeable regularity of its mathematical shape in different parts of the industrialized world, is not currently known.

Potential answers, some more plausible than others, include the following: first, that individuals learn to adapt to their strengths and weaknesses, and in mid-life quell the unfeasible aspirations of their youth.

Second, that cheerful people live systematically longer than those who are miserable, and that the U-shape somehow traces out, in part, a selection effect. Third, that a kind of comparison process is occurring - for example, I may have seen school-friends die and as a result eventually come to value my blessings during my remaining years. There are likely to be other explanations for the U-shaped effect, too.

(Source: The NBER Digest)