Friday, October 29, 2010

beggars with class

Saudi Arabia is fabulously rich as a country. In spite of that, or maybe because of that, you see a lot of beggars at street intersections and near the entrances of supermarkets or grocery stores. Islam discourages begging. But it encourages helping the poor, which is why begging is a profitable business here for foreigners. Foreign organised gangs bring in children from poorer countries and use them to collect alms. The gangsters appropriate a share of their earnings. But there are local beggars as well. According to one report of the Ministry of Social Affairs, 3459 beggars, all of them citizens of the Kingdom, were arrested recently. I could not ascertain the period during which the arrests were made. Most of those arrested were, not surprisingly, divorced or widowed women and physically disadvantaged, the section of society that is most vulnerable and helpless. One hopes the government would do more to provide opportunities and channel private donations (zakat etc.) to keep these people from begging and retain their honour and self-respect.

But there is another class of beggars that I am not sure if the Ministry of Social Welfare is aware of. They don't roam around in the sun or sit on the pavement. They drive around in their cars, sometimes quite expensive ones, accompanied by their family members, looking for prey. They speak a smattering of English and it seems their preys are foreigners who from their appearance seem to have cash to spare. I met one of those in front of the Jarir Bookstore at Khobar Corniche. He slowed down his big US-made car beside me and wanted to talk. At first I thought he would be asking for directions. But no, he was asking for money. He said he was returning from Bahrain to his native Qatif, and he somehow lost all his money and needed some dough to replenish his fuel tank and feed his son (who was seated beside him in the car). Hmm....

A few days later I was accosted by another Saudi guy, this time a muttawa-like, ostensibly religious, person with flowing beard and no black band over his headgear. I was in the parking lot of the HyperPanda at Rakah, approaching my car, and he was in a big SUV accompanied by his children and several abbaya-clad women, apparently his wife or wives and/or daughter(s). After some trivial pleasantries, he came to the point. He was travelling from the holy city of Mecca, and his vehicle broke down and he had to spend all his money in repairs. Now he needed some help to take his family back home or whatever. He lifted his hands heavenwards and promised to pray for me to the Almighty if I helped him in his distress. I offered him some money, against my instincts, and heard him reciting supplications as I turned back and walked towards my car.

photo credit: Omar Chatriwala, Al Jazeera English

2 comments:

HUNGRY said...

nice blog
im a palestinain woman who moved to dammam with my husband since december 2010
I will be following your blog

ruba

AliBaba said...

Thank you ubba for visiting and leaving a comment. I had kind of lost interest in this blog, but your comment has encouraged me to come back. May be I will start posting again soon.