Through Their Eyes

Through Their Eyes….

Through Saudi eyes:

For those of you have been following me for quite some time now many know how much passion and obsession that I have had throughout the years for Arab world specifically main interest in Saudi Arabia, Ever since I had met my previous Saudi friends back in 2003 my adventurous curiosity set off wanting to know everything about their life, their culture, how to see things through their eyes to the point I made myself exclusively only to them!

Why make myself solely to them? I thought what better way to understand the life of someone is to put yourself literally in their life? I wanted to see the struggles through their eyes I was deeply obsessed with Saudis and Saudi Arabia (don’t worry I’m still deeply rooted to Saudis and Saudi Arabia) I have seen so much struggles that the Saudis have faced that I began to not care about how others specifically  the *expats* who lived here felt in their struggle. I have seen so many Saudis come to USA or to other countries to work their bums off in their degrees only to come to Saudi Arabia to find that the jobs that they wanted to work were not available to them mainly because those jobs were offered to expats why? Because lower salary!!! A common mistake that I see some Saudi students make is when they graduate from the universities and when they go to apply for jobs they expect and demand a high salary in a high position it doesn’t work like that it is gradually earned by experience and sometimes starting with a low salary and prove yourself worthy of a higher position to a higher salary with that being said having the opportunity to work with a few companies still the desire is to higher expats due to lower salaries and wages….

Sadly Saudis get a bad reputation that Saudis are lazy and don’t want to put in the effort to work I have seen the hatred towards Saudis from expats who have been given the opportunity to work inside Saudi Arabia. I had applied for a position in Carrefour and my manager would had been Indian I remember him telling me that Saudis are so lazy and don’t want to work and downright degrading Saudis the ones that have brought him to Saudi and to investing him literally biting the hand that is feeding him and sheltering him. I have seen the same issue with the previous company I worked for my manager was a Filipino who was always getting paid to visit other countries due to work getting a attractive salary only to hear him degrade the idea of 2030!!!

Sadly Saudis will not get the same advantages as the expats will. Expats if they are working for known companies even private companies they get accommodation, yearly tickets to go back home to their country Saudis are not offered the same thing this I found highly unfair when Saudis have worked twice as hard for their degrees as other expats would.  Alhumdullilah I have had the great opportunity to work in Saudi Arabia I have met hard workers who are Saudis who work their asses off and I have also met my fair share of lazy ones and same meeting lazy expat workers and hardworking expats as they say the fingers on your hand are not the same it is unfair to label all Saudis as the same.

Through eyes of expats

My time living in Saudi Arabia has been one of the most eye-opening experiences I could ever have I have come to know many great Saudis but lately the country and the people I love so deeply I have come across some major disappointments. I have l a few friends who are “Yemeni” these people I didn’t expect to affect me this deeply but each of the friends that I know from my previous manager to my closest friends they have opened my eyes through their life in Saudi, the struggles that they face to plain discrimination I have debated in how to talk about some of these issues because I know for both sides Saudis, Yemenis and other expats it’s a sensitive topic… With the rapid changes of Saudi Arabia things are changing for the good of Saudis which is a good thing but for the friends that I have acquainted I can not only help but feel their fear, their worry.  The three Yemeni friends I know I have known for quite some time and all three of these families have been living in Saudi Arabia for more than 50 or more some years they grew up here they studied here they lived respectful lives in the community contributing to building Saudi Arabia to what it is today, now with all of the sudden changes not only my personal friends but other Yemenis or expats who have lived here are now scrambling to find other jobs that will sponsor them to stay inside Saudi Arabia or have to face the being sent back home to Yemen which Is now a dangerous war zone!! I have come across some Saudis that will say send them back home to build their country “Saudi Arabia” belongs to “Saudis” I have seen some Saudis think because they are Saudi that they’re better than any other Arab or expat that comes to their country!!! I can’t help but to think this isn’t the Saudis that I grew to love to be discriminative is it?

I recently been helping a close friend of mine who is going through some troubling situations ether from his work not paying his well-earned salary on time to health concerns of his family, I have attended the hospital with him and his family to be there for support only to learn that they were rejected by several hospitals because they were not “SAUDIS” I waited with my friends mother as the doctors were talking to me about her options they then mentioned to me that they could not further treat her in that hospital I asked them why not? They said because she’s not Saudi we cannot treat her she has to go to a private hospital at this point I could not hold my mouth! I yelled at the doctor I told him “she is a human being who’s severely sick and you won’t continue treating her because she isn’t Saudi? This is inhuman it is a basic human right for any person to be treated regardless of his or her nationality” they said this is the Saudi regulations and these same doctors that are taking care of my friends mother are also expats!

I really don’t know how this article will come across some people I love Saudi Arabia I love Saudi people and will always and continue to be in support of their country but there has to be something done in the way people are thinking in the end or grandfather an grandmother are Adam and Eve no one is better than anyone many will probably sit and think “Oh she’s American she has an easy life”  I maybe American but my life here hasn’t exactly been that easy yes alhumdullilah I have stability in the country alhumudllilah one thousand times for that anyone who knows me personally knows that I don’t even throw out my nationality to get special privileges each company I have worked for I ask them to higher me as Saudi not as an American so I’m getting treated the same as Saudis because I don’t see myself or my nationality better than them I see them as a human being and we should be equal.

The thing is if I see something wrong I can’t just stay quiet I love Saudi Arabia and want the best for them but I also want the best for those who have lived in Saudi Arabia their entire life to be treated and respected with decency this is what Islam teaches us love one another take care of one another and imagine yourself in the other persons situation imagine it and ask yourself would you be happy if not find a way to help one another.