We are about to witness the start of a great pain from the very source that 
that gave the community great wealth and changed the fortunes of thousands of 
families. 

The Great African Escape allowed us about 50 years of a good life that ended in 
the 1970s and the Great Gulf Escape about the same amount of time, with the end 
just starting. Africa started earlier and ended earlier. The end was caused by 
the dying breaths of colonialism, with rising nationalism. With the Gulf it’s a 
different story, the pandemic being the last straw stoking a boiling pot of 
other problems.

Goans started going to the Gulf for reasons that mirrored the Africa 
emigration. The British ruled or virtually ruled, or had enormous influence 
over the Trucial States, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and to some extent Saudi Arabia. 
British influence came with the decline of the Ottoman Empire (under whom 
Arabia was a fiefdom) and their Second World War victory over the Ottomans who 
were German allies. This influence indeed extended to most of the other parts 
of the world.

Just as in Africa, British administrators took their Christian,  westernized 
and trusted Goans with them to the Gulf. After they left, the local Arabs found 
in Goans the very values the British depended upon and the fact they were not 
Muslim, didn’t matter. So they took Goans in droves, lesser in number only to 
the Keralites, who were Muslim and fond of pushing their kind in with far 
greater force than Goans were used to doing.

The Gulf was great money because of oil, Africa was a great life because of the 
lay of the land. Life in Africa gave Goans sportsmanship, easy ability for 
further education in England and the almighty British passport with which to 
emigrate to England. But they had to live and work within racist confines 
though most will tell you it didn’t pose a problem. 

The Gulf gave gave Goans other things besides money - nearness to home, access 
to modern gadgets, systems and practices their employers’ money could easily 
buy and an ability and urge to remit money to their folks back in Goa on a 
regular basis, build fine homes and lately get themselves a Portuguese 
passport. It gave them an opportunity to emigrate to Canada and Australia when 
those countries had easy regulations. Emigrating from India was ten times 
tougher.

But things are quite different now. Those who saw the writing on the wall left 
with their money and sanity intact but those who remained are getting caught in 
the changed circumstances. What are the changed circumstances?

All Governments in the Gulf have over the years pampered their citizens 
limitlessly. They give them all sorts of loans like loans to build palatial 
houses, free land, free higher education to western universities, marriage 
loans, holiday loans. All these were written off periodically. They were given 
Govt jobs with astronomical salaries and annual raises to match. Money was 
flowing and they saw this as a means to keep their native populations happy and 
away from making trouble for the ruling families.

They vaguely realized that oil would one day not be wanted as much but they 
didn’t think the day would come much sooner than they expected. Meanwhile their 
populations ballooned in these good times with each Arab local Arab having 4 
wives and 17 children and princely families running into thousands.

Then there was unity. This has shattered. Where once there were the old rulers 
who knew poverty and therefore frugality, the next generation knew nothing of 
those hard times. They spent their patrimony like there was no tomorrow 
assuming the oil in the ground would cover all their profligacy.

When bad things happen, they happen quickly. Qatar refused to toe the general 
line on Iran and they became a victims of an economic boycott, hurting both 
victim and boycotter. That would have been unheard of ten years ago. Oil prices 
plummeted, Iran grows more belligerent than ever, throwing a cloud of 
uncertainty over the region. Foreign investment seeing poor prospects of 
profit, are deserting. High taxes in the form of VAT are increased from 
previous manageable levels and fees on every activity are being levied. 

The Gulf Arabs like Donald Trump are extreme germophobes. Any expired canned 
foods in supermarkets, any dirt in commercial kitchens or restaurant settings 
are met with extreme action. Unfortunately the pandemic has hit them big time, 
starting from the unhygienic living quarters of the poorly paid construction 
workers on whose backs the Gulf’s modern but extravagant cities have been 
built. On top of that local populations find social distancing an alien concept 
which has contributed in no little way to the spread. In the panic of the 
pandemic, between loss of business, tanking of the economy, catastrophic 
decline in oil prices, a politically active enemy on the other side of the 
Persian Gulf, defeat in Yemen and a vacillating baboon in the White House, they 
are in total panic.

Madre Deus, they are decreasing salaries of their native employees, an unheard 
of thing and cutting back on all their perks. They are sacking expatriate 
employees who they know are the real people running their country. Their sin is 
in giving their citizens an ultimatum. Do the foreigners’ jobs or stand to lose 
their own. They know they are on dangerous ground there, but for them these are 
critical times.

On top of all this, we are just hearing rumblings of a big dispute between the 
rulers of Abu Dhabi (Mohammed Bin Zayed) known as MBZ and Mohammed Bin Rashid 
of Dubai. The former is the one with the purse strings and he doesn’t like the 
public shenanigans of the latter with one of his wives and his daughter. But 
the Dubai ruler is broke and needs another bailout. That may be the subject of 
another article I will write.

So meanwhile Goans in the UAE are losing their jobs in droves. Many of them are 
in worse trouble, unable to leave the country because of their various bank 
loans and maxed out credit cards. India is not taking them in because of Covid 
and these unfortunate people cannot meet their ongoing rent and expenses due to 
job loss. The Gulf Governments have been soured with the Indian Government’s 
refusal to take back their own citizens and are unlikely to depend on this 
nationality again. They are others whose behaviour have been in their eyes much 
better than that of the Indians.

So where will these Gulf Goans finally go? That’s another story.

Roland.
Toronto.

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