Suffering of an adult citizen

Other Voices

IBy Ahmad alsarraf

am a Kuwaiti, or so I did like and want to see myself like that. My father and grandfather were well-known whenever I mentioned their names. They were engaged in the sale and maintenance of light weapons in the arms market, and in my letter I will only refer to myself as Ahmad.

I am writing to you because I think you look like me, a different person. I am the son of AlNuqra, and after the appraisal we moved to Kaifan, and we still live there. I left my home a few years ago after I felt that I was being marginalized by a society that does not consider a human, worships idols, and is soaked up to its ears with famous media celebrities, scandalous news reports and thefts.

I moved to Turkey after I felt the culture in my community had become inconsistent with my thinking over time. I have four children, today they are adults, and they have all graduated in their respective fields. However, I never hired a tutor to teach my children and I never hired a driver to bring a tutor from his home, rather, I taught my children, even the difficult science subjects, until they graduated. How many Kuwaiti fathers teach their children?

After I sold what I had and left Kuwait and moved to Turkey. I do not know why I feel here that I am less subjected to psychological pressure, my presence is felt, and I expect one day to be buried in this land. I may be unfortunate in the eyes of some but not in the eyes of those who know me. I graduated in 1987 from a university in New York, and since then, I have been swimming against the tide, tired of the job, my bosses, my co-workers, news of thefts and embezzlement, promotions

alsarraf

and job injustice.

I ran away from everything that was tiring me to take care of organic tomatoes, clean lettuce, chicken that eats something I know, and a sheep that do not feed on cement bags.

I am writing to vent myself. This morning, I called our embassy in Ankara to issue an agency for a lawyer in Kuwait. I spoke to the operator and found out from his voice that he is one of our expatriates and I explained to him my request and he referred me to another expatriate from the same community. His response was that I take the plane with my civil ID to issue the agency from the embassy.

I explained to him my circumstances, my less financial abilities and how the Turks with the help of any notary in their cities ratify their requests before sending them to any official authority, and as I did the same before in America, but he refused, so I asked him to allow me to speak to any of his superiors and he refused.

Why should the fate of the citizens abroad be in the hands of these people? Why not offer these jobs to the people of the country, especially in countries which many citizens visit? I am not a racist, but isn’t priority to be given to the citizens? And if I apply to work in our embassy in Ankara, will my application be accepted? I am a graduate from a well-known American university, born to a Kuwaiti family and master Arabic, English and Turkish?

The answer is no, of course because the wasta does not exist, and if it exists, I will not seek help, and I am not a job applicant at all, but there are hundreds of unemployed who are waiting for such opportunities.

It seems that my only choice is to take the plane on a three-hour trip to sign in front of someone who does not belong to me in order to complete my transaction.

e-mail:

a.alsarraf@alqabas.com.kw