http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article240196.ece
Local Press: Housemaids and hostile media By KHALDOUN AL-SIAIDAN | AL-RIYADH Published: Jan 22, 2011 21:48 Updated: Jan 22, 2011 21:48 Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries have been the targets of hostile international media coverage portraying them as perpetrators of slavery and human trafficking. This campaign points to a number of individual cases involving housemaids to prove the point. For quite some time, the Kingdom has been attacked for maltreating housemaids and oppressing them physically, psychologically and financially. The hostile media campaigns against the Kingdom have relied on what had happened to a housemaid at the hands of her female employer. They availed themselves of this opportunity to paint Saudi Arabia as a country replete with human wolves who love to humiliate and hurt other human beings. I am not discussing here the treatment of housemaids by their sponsors. What really surprises many, including me, is the silence of the Kingdom and the other GCC countries about these accusations. It is true that the Kingdom always follows an information policy of wisdom and rationality against allegations. It is also true that the Saudi media is not after sensationalism. However, the Kingdom and the other GCC countries could take up such causes at conferences and debates they organize in foreign countries in a considered manner. The Secretariat General of the GCC annually holds a media conference titled "Activities of GCC Cultural Days," during which debates and lectures are organized. These conferences have been held in European countries. They have been held either in parliament buildings or the headquarters of governments, catering to the elites of those countries. When they have been held in universities, the subject has been mostly of an economic nature, or about the Gulf woman and the position she has achieved. These lectures are mostly boring and do not achieve their purpose. These annual gatherings could be made to focus on the progress achieved by GCC citizens away from the language of money. They could have delved on our causes in a new innovative media method targeting the common men and students, not just the creme of European societies. The Kingdom participates regularly in these annual gatherings with the same people who tackle the same issues over and over. It is, therefore, important for the Kingdom to participate in these events with specialists who are able to correct the distorted picture and change the stereotypes of Saudi society. During the height of the hostile campaign against the Kingdom following the case of a Sri Lankan maid, newspapers published a story of an Indonesian maid who became a university lecturer in her country after studying in Saudi Arabia. This housemaid said the Saudi family for which she worked gave her spare time to study. She said she was able to obtain her advanced degree due to the benevolent treatment by the Saudi family. Is it not better to invite this housemaid to speak at these GCC foreign gatherings instead of repeating the boring lectures about oil? [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
