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Yesterday I went to Hawally, aka 'the capital of fog', or you may call it 'Kuwait's New York', where I met an expatriate friend working at a simple cafe with a very long menu of beverages you can order. But you only end up having tea or coffee with some other types of beverages from time to time that are served according to what my friend believes best suits the customer's mood.





Sitting in the cafe yesterday, we both exchanged silent looks without any salutation or talking. He served me my coffee and then we went back to be as silent as if birds had landed on our heads. "It is difficult to be a stranger!" he suddenly said. "But you can pass your time serving customers and observing the way they look," I told him. He gave me a strange long look as if he was going to sneeze in my face and said: "You have to name things as they really are. I am not passing my time - I am wasting my life. I have been standing still for six years now!"





His answer really shocked me and I felt like a hurricane was tearing my mind and soul. It felt as if he actually sneezed in my soul and not in my face. I then wondered in a most philosophic manner that matches the cap I always wear (check my miserable photo). Is it possible that we play with words and not use real names of things?! There is a huge difference between 'pass my time' and 'waste my life', you know!





Well, it does seem that we do deceive ourselves with unreal names. The hair removal female expert (locally known as haffafah) is now known as a 'makeup artist', a promotion saleslady is now known as a 'fashionista' and he who trades in simple expat laborers' sweat and years-long work is known as a 'visa trafficker'. If we, instead, use their real names, this last one would be best known as a 'human dreams trader' because he shares every minute of work and every hour of sleeping with laborers. He would even tax and charge them to achieve their dreams!





What absurdity! We claim to dignify human beings and protect them and this is why we fight drug traffickers because they ruin people's lives and future, while we do not fight visa traffickers as severely while they are ruining people's present! It takes KD 1,200-1,500 to ruin those people's lives. It also costs them KD 300 to renew this misery every year. A very fruitful trade for sponsors, especially when they are dealing with people who are afraid of everything because they willingly left their kids and loved ones to avoid seeing them in tears of agony; people who had promised their moms and wives lots of good to bring from the land of good.





Although this 'good' would be cut out of his own flesh and blood just the way a block of shawarma would look more delicious and tender the more we cut from it, He still cannot utter a single word of dissatisfaction lest he might be deported.





We are a generous people ruled by a generous family on a generous land. There is no use in beautifying our image abroad while it is domestically disfigured by the practices of visa traffickers. Do get rid of this trade before it ruins our nation's reputation. I do hope minister Hind Al-Subaih would stay longer in office because she is working hard to eliminate this phenomenon despite her enemies and we urge her to exert more efforts.





Sorry for speaking long about visa trafficking, but as soon as I finished my coffee and wrote my article, I gathered my papers on my way out. "Since we agreed to disguise our real life, from now on, you are not a restaurant handyman, you are buffet in-charge," I told him, wishing him sweet dreams on my way out. He suspiciously looked at me with his narrow eyes and said: "Why does it always have to be dreams? Why don't you wish me a happy real life?!" That statement seemed like the second shocking sneeze in my face, and how painful those two 'sneezes' were to me! - Translated by Kuwait Times from Al-Rai



By Mohammed Al-Atwan