kind-hearted bangladeshis

Saudi Arabia is probably home to the largest number of non-emmigrant Bangladeshis outside Bangladesh. It is estimated that close to 2 million Bangladeshis reside in this country. The vast majority of them work in the lowest rungs of job hierarchy. Cleaners, sweepers, construction workers and so on. Many of them have spent a lot of money to come here, only to find that the pay promised is not what is actually paid. There are Bangladeshi workers who earn 300-400 rials a month, which is not enough for their own survival, let alone feed their families back home. Consequently, they have to resort to moonlighting, doing odd jobs. Some work at homes cleaning, cooking, washing cars etc. This is not legally allowed, so there are arrests every now and then.

They face a lot of indignities in their life. As menial workers they are often abused verbally and discriminated against. However, my family and I have often been touched and moved by their kindness and generosity. There is one petrol pump attendant who would always buy a bagful of snacks and drinks for my children whenever I go to fill my tank. There was another supermarket worker, whose job was to stuff shopping bags with the items bought by the customer, who would do the same. Saying no to them is futile. The alternative is to avoid the places when they are on duty. At one intersection, while waiting for the signal to turn green, my wife asked for a rose from a street hawker selling flowers. She asked about its price, in Bengali, and realising that we were from Bangladesh, the guy left saying we didn't need to pay. There are many other examples that I can cite. The kindness shown by these people motivates us to reciprocate the favours.

Photo credit:Construction Week Online

no more deshi doctors

The Saudi Gazette recently reported that the Ministry of Health will no longer recruit doctors from Bangladesh, citing low qualifications and poor training as the reasons. I am not sure if it is true, but I have heard that the pay of Bangladeshi doctors had been lowered some time in the past. If that is true, I am not surprised about the dearth of good doctors willing to come to Saudi. It may sound surprising, but good doctors in Bangladesh (thousands of them) earn much, much more than their compatriots do in the Kingdom. So why should they forsake the comfort of living in their own country if there is no lure of lucre?

Photo credit: WPClipart.com

one year completed

Today marks the first anniversary of my coming to Saudi Arabia, although, within this period, I have actually spent a little less than 10 months here. It seems like I came here just the other day. Time passes really fast. I am deeply indebted to all those who have, in many different ways, helped me to adapt to the new environment. They include my friends, colleagues, family, service providers and netizens who I've never met face-to-face. Thank you all.

Coincidentally, today is also my birthday.

Photo credit:FreeFoto.com

tal bukra

I was warned by a Pakistani colleague, several months into my sojourn in Saudi Arabia, that I'd frequently hear the phrase 'tal bukra.' It means, come tomorrow. I remember two lines from a verse I had read decades ago, "Put up in a place where it's easy to see, the cryptic admonishment TTT." TTT, the next couple of lines explained, stands for 'things take time.' The admonishment is more relevant here than in most other places. I have already related my experience regarding opening a bank account. More recently I had a similar experience with an even simpler task--buying a mobile phone SIM.

I went to a small STC (Saudi Telecom) outlet to buy a SIM. The shop was manned by only two persons, who didn't seem to have much work at hand, since apart from myself, there were no other customers. I expressed my intention to buy a SIM, and one of the guys told me to bring a photocopy of my residence permit. I was not prepared for this; on the two occasions that I had bought SIMs from a different company, the shop attendants themselves made copies of my residence permit. I pointed to the scanner/copier in the shop, but was told that it was out of order. So I went out to find a copy shop, but when I spotted one, the call for prayer rang out from the mosque loudspeaker. I decided to come back the next day.

The following day, a Thursday, I went back to the same shop only to be told to come back on Saturday. No explanation was given, but I guess since government offices are closed on Thursdays, STC outlets, like the banks, may offer only limited services on that day. I came back on Saturday, but they had run out of SIMS. "Tal bukra," they said. The next evening found me back at the same shop, and yes, this time they could issue me a SIM. "But you cannot use it today," I was told, "you have to activate it tomorrow." Well, at least I won't have to make the trip to the shop again!

The slow pace of things can get on your nerves. But getting agitated won't help you move any faster. And one has to admit, the laid back attitude and easy-going pace is a definite attraction of living in Saudi Arabia.

consumption of white cloth

Arab News recently carried an essay translated from the local press. The writer, Ali Al-Mosa reports, "Saudis top the entire world in the consumtion of tea and coffee. They also top the world in the consumption of Viagra, spending about SR 150 million on it annually."

It appears, though it is not clearly stated, that the top rank secured by the Saudis is in terms of total, not per capita, consumption. That is really hard to believe. With only some 25 million people, including expatriates, try to imagine how much tea or coffee each Saudi would have to consume to beat, say, the 1.3 billion Chinese. With a large majority of the population under the age of 30 and with so little opportunities/inclination to be promiscuous, it is hard to understand why Saudi men would have such a need for Viagra pills.

But then the title of the story was 'Unreliable consumer statistics', and the 'facts' were cited to drive home the point that consumer statistics published in the local press need to be taken with a grain of salt.

However, if the press reports that the Saudis top the world in consumption of white cloth, I, for one, would be inclined to believe it. Except for the very brief period of the year that can be termed winter, Saudi men are always clad in ankle-length white robes, with white undergarments underneath, and around may be half of them sport a headgear made of a large white scarf-life piece of cloth (the rest wear a red-and-white pattern).

Photo credit: Hassan Ammar/AP

visit visa for family

I wanted to issue a visit visa to bring in my mother-in-law for a short trip. The process to do so, like so many other things here, is shrouded in mystery, at least for an expatriate like me with no connections and no knowledge of Arabic. I tried to learn about it from other people's blogs and experiences. Each had his own version of the process, in particular in relation to the documents that I would need to submit. I decided to believe all of them in order to minimise the risk of my application being turned down, so I went to the relevant government office carrying a big stack of papers including copies of my residence permit, my passport, my wife's passport, my mother-in-law's passport, my educational certificates, my marriage certificate, a letter from my employer etc. I had filled a form on the Internet and was given a number for future reference. When I handed my papers at the designated window, they gave me back everything except for the letter from my employer and the copies of my passport and residence permit.

I was advised to check their Website after 10 days to see if the visa advice is issued. Others waiting in the lounge told me that the process actually takes much less time, typically not more than 3 days. In my case, however, it took almost a month. But better late than never.

back to the kingdom

I returned to the Kingdom yesterday after a two-month long vacation. The flight from home, which was delayed by four hours, took around six hours. The wait at the passport control took about two hours. Some families spent more than four hours there. There were only 2-3 officers working at a time for hundreds of arriving passengers waiting in horrendously long queues. I am tired, but I'll have to spend a good part of the next few days cleaning up our flat. Belated Eid greetings to all!

more thoughts on traffic

I'd been away from blogging for sometime mainly because I was away from the Kingdom. For some time, I was in Thailand. I'd been there on many occasions in the past, but this was my first time since arriving in Saudi Arabia. This made me appreciate the driving habits of Thais more deeply. They are courteous to each other, and to pedestrians. They stop at zebra-crossings to let pedestrians pass. Honking of horns is a rarity.

The public transport system is also very good in Bangkok. There is an extensive network of bus routes. You can find taxis anywhere, and in the central part of the city you can use BTS (SkyTrain) or MRT. There are also boats carrying passengers along the canals, and limited train services. They are testing a newly installed train line from the city centre to the new airport.

In spite of this, there are lots of cars on the roads and traffic jams are increasing, though they are nowhere near the levels seen here decades ago. The infrastructure for surface transport--the multiple levels of elevated roadways, the overpasses, multi-storied car parks, etc.--have created a very unpleasant (visually) urban landscape. It shows that cars should ideally have a very minor role in plans for urban transportation, particularly in big cities.

thoughts on traffic

Expatriates always complain about the traffic in Saudi Arabia. It's not the congestion that irks people, although that can be a pain in the neck on certain streets at certain times. There are no dearth of cars on the street. You can buy cars on installment and petrol is dirt-cheap. But what irritates most people is rash driving. Many drivers leave their common sense when they enter their cars and flout traffic rules with impunity. It may be a bit scary driving in such a milieu. Especially when you see mangled wreckage of cars surrounded by police vehicles and ambulances every now and then.

Apart from that, however, driving is a pleasant experience when seen from a South Asian perspective. Here you have to mind other cars only. Back home you would be required to watch out for pedestrians, especially those who suddenly decide to cross the street in a great hurry. Some of the pedestrians would be four-footed. Some of the vehicles are slow human-powered ones. All of them would be competing for space on the narrow roads bursting with traffic. In this chaotic mess, drivers would be honking their horns constantly. It's enough to drive you crazy.

Coming back to the scene here, I think the congestion would worsen considerably when women are evetually allowed to drive (I believe the ban would be lifted sooner or later). The number of vehicles would double almost immediately. Parking cars would become impossible in the core areas of cities.

Public transport and a network of pedestrian paths with a high sensuous quality must be given serious consideration.

Photo credit: mliss

how many days do you need to open a bank account?

It varies from bank to bank or from case to case depending on I don't know what.

When I arrived here and received my residence permit, one of the first things I had to do was open a salary bank account. There is small branch of a bank near our administrative building. I went there and met the manager. He was very courteous and helpful. He gave me a list of the documents I needed to bring (letter from my employer, copies of my passport and residence permit and original residence permit). The next day when I brought the required documents, he filled out my application form and the account was created within minutes. He said my ATM card would reach my mailbox in a week. Two weeks later I still hadn't received my card. I was planning to see the manager when I received a call from the bank with a request to see them. At the bank I met the manager (a new one, the earlier one was apparently transferred). He handed me the ATM card saying that no one recognized me at the address where the card was mailed to. The helpful manager had given the wrong address in my application form (and I heard from colleagues that it was not the first such case), so I gave them the appropriate address to rectify my records.

Unfortunately, an account in this bank is useless when it comes to paying sundry government fees (eg., visa fees, driving license fee etc.). Every time I need to pay a fee to the government , I have to request a friend holding an account in either of the two banks from which such payments can be made. So I thought it would be convenient to have an account in one of the two banks.

First, I tried to do so at the bank that I heard is government owned. The guy who received my papers took a long look at my residence permit and asked me who had written my name on it. It was a strange question and I replied that there was no way I could know who at the government immigration office was responsible for writing my name in the permit. He left his desk and talked to a senior colleague. He came back to inform me that I needed to get a seal from the immigration office next to my name. I was not amused. I had used the same document to open my first bank account and couldn't understand why I couldn't do so again. I said goodbye and decided to go to the other bank.

The first day there I was told that their system was down, so I had to come back later. I went there again the next day. The person responsible for opening new accounts asked me whether I had opened an account on the Internet. I said I didn't know something like that was required. So I came back and opened an account through the Internet, and took the number generated to the bank on the following day (day 3). This time the guy told me that they had a new system installed and he was still not familiar with it enough to process my application. He advised me to come back after one day. So I went back two days later. This time he opened my account without any further ado. When I asked about my ATM card, he said it was already prayer time so I had to come back half an hour later. I left the place and came back the following day, which was a Thursday, to find that only limited services were available and obtaining an ATM card was not one of them. I needed the card, without which I cannot transfer money to government accounts. So I visited the bank again on Saturday. I was informed that that particular branch had run out of ATM cards but I could get a card from any other branch of the bank. The next day (day 7) I located a different branch of the bank and finally succeeded in getting the coveted card after nearly two hours (including the noon prayer time). Whew!!

Photo credit:Bongani/stock.xchng