Being Bossed While Being Boss by Muna Al-Fuzai with Experience Gained from Kuwait
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Local FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 2014 Local Spotlight Expat diseases Being bossed while being boss By Muna Al-Fuzai With experience gained from Kuwait, [email protected] expats start businesses back home ssistant Undersecretary of Public By Sunil Cherian Health Affairs at the Ministry of hey may be working in Kuwait, faith- AHealth (MoH) Dr Qais Al-Duwairi fully following their company job said 2,233 expatriates have been deport- Tdescriptions. But on the other side ed because they were sick and unfit to of the sea, they are bosses. They are the work and stay in Kuwait. Some of them workers turned entrepreneurs who live dual lives of employees and employers. tested positive for HIV while others had They travel across the Arabian Sea for the hepatitis C, B and tuberculosis (TB). I agree smooth flow of their businesses on either that such illnesses cannot be tolerated in shore, sleeping in the air fighting jetlag. any society, and the MoH has all the right Dinars, dirhams and dollars, just as euros to keep such workers away and send and yen, are the forces behind many busi- nesses, from hotels to barbershops to them home. recruiting agencies. Business flourishing, But I also wonder how much time did they finally settle down in their home those people stay in Kuwait since their countries. Some, however, come to Kuwait arrival until this decision was taken. We to capitalize again. Boby John, formerly a sound engineer are not a country of quick decisions, so my with Al-Nasar Recording Studio, Hawally, concern is that these people may have opened his own studio in Andheri, mixed with others and maybe infected Mumbai. While he was in Kuwait he them. So what about the new people who worked all night and dreamt all day of set- ting up a studio back home. “Mumbai was Boby John, 43, sits at his sound recording studio in Mumbai. Boby’s work experi- may be infected now? They can now be in the best place I thought,” said Boby, “as it ence in Kuwait as a sound engineer helped him find his capital to start his own stu- danger and can easily infect others with- is the film factory of the world.” He dio, he said. out knowing! employs two people at Prathibha, the stu- I know that there are some other com- dio named after his daughter who was said, “as it moved according to a schedule”. Harsh Gupta, a Salmiya based computer mon illnesses among expats such as den- born in Kuwait and who he thinks brings programmer at a private company in luck to him. Specialized in sync sound tal issues. Many come from villages with Dual lives Kuwait City does not miss Mumbai, where technology, Boby’s studio removes the Preman Illath, a Mangaf-based busi- she and her husband owned a medical limited education and lack knowledge on unwanted noise in the soundtrack of a film nessman travels to Mumbai almost every transcription center. “Prices are sky-rocket- how to keep their teeth clean and strong. that used live sound recording instead of month. As a supplier of household items ing in Mumbai”, she said. “Education is a Let’s also keep in mind that none of the dubbing. At present he is editing the to many supermarkets in Kuwait, his body big business there. A capitation fee at the sound of Daughters of Mother India, a doc- workers like cleaners have health insur- is used to meetings in Mumbai - then off time of admission is in lakhs (hundreds of umentary by Vibha Bakshi on the Delhi girl to the airport - and another meeting in thousands). At one school I know they ance. This campaign is good but I wish it who was raped on a bus over a year ago. Kuwait. “I don’t have any nostalgic feel- teach Sanskrit in English. Life in Kuwait is had started a long time ago. One of my “Mumbai is tough, unlike Kuwait”, Boby ings,” laughs Preman. “But if I stay longer more organized. In Mumbai they are plan- good foreign friends remarked how areas said. “Here there are a lot of middlemen in Mumbai, I start missing Kuwait”. A strik- ning charging you for your car parking. who outsource the movie post-produc- like Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh seem out of place ing similarity, Preman said, between both One day municipal officials come and tell tions. So it’s a play on chance”. Boby’s wife places is the expat communities. The asso- you the flat you’ve been living for years is and far away from downtown areas in Shailaja, formerly a nurse at the Armed ciations here and there conduct stage pro- illegal. Worse, the mal-structured skyscrap- Kuwait City and Jabriya, Surra, etc. Forces Hospital, Kuwait now is a full time grams, help the needy and celebrate the ers are falling, killing people.” The medical I think Jleeb has the largest gathering ‘housewife’ who takes care of their 2 cultural festivals. Preman, also a writer and transcription center is closed now, the of expats who may or may not have ill- school going kids in morning and after- social activist is part of Janasakthi (people couple said, after legal and business bat- noon shifts. nesses like AIDS, hepatitis C, B and TB. power) Mumbai that organizes Malayalam tles. “But now we are back in Kuwait, our “Life seemed easier in Kuwait,” Shailaja classes for expat children. second home”. Why doesn’t the MoH start a campaign to check people in this area and help find solutions to common complaints like den- tal issues, at least for the ones who are fit to stay and work in Kuwait. GCC countries have started imple- menting an automated system of medical tests of expatriate employees to stop the spread of diseases from one country to another and save the lives of many healthy and innocent people. We are a small society with a big majority of expats and I think this step should have been taken a long time ago. Still, better late A man sells books than never. at a traffic signal in Mumbai, NOTE: Opinions expressed by columnists are India’s largest entirely their own and do not necessarily city that hosts the highest number reflect those of Kuwait Times. of expats. — Photos by Sunil Cherian.