‘O Arabs, rely on yourselves’
‘Diversify sources of income’
“PRESIDENT Donald Trump’s fence around the White House has sparked controversy and comments from American citizens and the internal and external media, perhaps some of which are among the most widely circulated,” columnist and former director of the Culture Department at the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters Waleed Al-Rujaib wrote for Al-Rai daily.
“Trump promised at the beginning of his rule to build a wall on the US-Mexico border, to protect Americans from Mexican immigrants, but he ended up building a wall to protect himself from the Americans.
“Trump praised the ‘brilliant’ measures of the Secret Service in the White House, saying: If they (the demonstrators) infiltrated the presidential residence, they would face the fiercest dogs, and as we know it is the first time that a president of the United States has built a wall around the government headquarters, which is the White House, in Washington, DC, for fear of the American people who went out in peaceful demonstrations, despite the big lie of freedom and democracy.
“Such a wall or fortifications around the presidents’ palaces indicates that the ruler will not be able to rule as he did, and that the masses are no longer satisfied with the method of governing, or in other words, the loss of confidence between the ruler and the ruled, and the fear of the ruler of his people who govern him.
“The world news agencies quoted photos and movies about the transformation of this wall into protest banners and slogans against police discrimination against colored people, and against the approach of American racism since the discovery of the Americas (North and South America), and the feeling of superiority by the white imperialists against colored people.
“And with the many demands for reforming the security and police system in America, however, incidents of police killing of citizens of African descent were repeated in several states, which indicates one of two things, either the police fear black revenge, and feel suspicious and fearful of every black man, or that the white police have entered a war almost open against blacks, they continue their violent racist behavior, encouraged and pressed by right-wing extremist groups.
“This American adventure, whose enemy has spread to the cities of the world, may be an indication of the weakness and retreat of the far-right policy in America and Europe, which has prevailed in the past few years, which may lead to the end of the global and neo-liberal system, especially after it has proven fragile in health and economic systems, which means also expected changes in the world order and international division is likely to witness a prospective changes.
“Perhaps this pushes our Arab countries to get out from under the American cloak, diversify our relations with other countries and systems, and rely on semiautonomous development through diversification of income sources, and exploiting our natural and human resources as an optimal exploitation.”
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“What is said about marginal employment is really baseless, they are not marginal but real workforce,” columnist Mahmoud Ali Rasheed wrote for Al-Anba daily.
“All citizens, without exception, have hired them in various fields of business, from constructions and the renovations or for maintaining our homes, where this were occurring prior to corona virus pandemic or during the outset of the said crisis.
“How many of us have made an official contract with an official company to build his new home or to restore his house or apartment? All work is managed by this labor under the various names of ‘contractor’ or ‘teacher’ and for all items the civil, sanitary, electrical works and so on.
“It is known that the works that are awarded as large projects, whether state projects or private sector projects, were actually managed and based on rules governing its awarding process either the latter set up by the government projects Central Tenders Committee (CTC) or the government oil institutions or directly by the owners, the engineering bureaus or by the companies from those who are involved in managing the private sector projects.
“However, we would like to talk in detail about the so-called ‘real’ menial workforce. In this connection, we would like to point out that the first part of the relevant details talk about, the residence traffickers which represent a small number of influential segment as such it would have been difficult to control the latter due to many considerations because is difficult to get rid of the people of this segment.
“This is the reason why the country suffered from a surplus of menial workers and the latter are managed by the brokers who are involved in human trafficking, although this type of workforce are termed ‘violators’ of the law.
“The second part -- owners of companies and institutions owned by some simple citizens or slightly larger who have need quantities for a number of workers or distributed among several institutions or companies, farms, factories and workshops, according to the contracts available to them from projects or businesses or commercial activities, and here marginal employment shows its ugly face.
“Until the information comes to you directly, how many of us have contacted the real channels to make construction contracts for our new homes or restoration and so on through real companies that have specialized engineers or technical workers related to the same official real company without resorting to formal companies “in the name” and in the form of licenses only?
“These companies or individuals that we deal with for construction and other works are the ‘contractor Egyptian Mamdouh’ or ‘the Syrian master Muhammad Bou Muhammad’ for civil, electrical and health works and for ceramic works.
“All these works are managed by people close to us for several years and we passed them from one generation to the next. This work has lived with us, we communicated with them, and we recommended them and their work to our relatives, friends, and those who are close to us.
“The truth is let us describe the real official companies of a real official nature because of their organizational structure and various departments of managers and technical and administrative affairs, and this of course has public expenditures and has profits as they are profitable companies and undoubtedly have an increase in the price ratio, which is approximately 30 to 40 compared to companies with of ‘real’ marginal employment nature.
“For example, if the cost of building your house is 150,000 thousand dinars, then with the increase in percentage it will cost approximately 200,000 dinars.
“Therefore, to fix what was corrupted by time, we suggest the government abolish the sponsorship system to get rid of visa traders and prevent the leasing of licence for expatriates at exorbitant or negligible prices depending on the number of employees for each company or legal institution with official papers according to the system in force in the state.
“In other words, in our point of view, the solution that might be required for organizing the current Labor Law, entails that the State, should hasten to found Kuwaiti joint stock companies to employ human resources, provided the number of these companies is not be less than three and must be listed on the Kuwait Bourse and the government stake should not be less than 25 percent.”
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“We are not only in front of a scenario that calls for belittling and ignoring of events but foretelling a lost and miserable future full of philosophy,” Abdul-Aziz Khuraibet wrote for Al-Shahed daily.
“Grilling of the Minister of Education and Higher Education ended with recommendations without approaching the issue or subject of ‘lack of confidence’, despite his ‘unacceptable’ performance since assuming the ministerial position. It began with the rotating storm of the directors of educational areas and departments without the minister finding solutions to many outstanding issues, files and educational problems. We are not surprised that such points are missing from the content of recommendations from the National Assembly regarding education, as no concern is given to the sufferings of the parents about the future of their children by doing the following;
1. Setting a time plan for the completion of public universities law, submitting it to the parliament and to the educational committee, while activating the right of the university student concerning the stipulated second academic warning.
2. Announcing a detailed time plan for “distance education” project that includes various elements of the educational process, citing students, teachers and curricula.
3. Transferring the educational platform from the commercial domain to governmental or educational domains.
4. Urgently filling vacant leadership and supervisory positions in the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and affiliated agencies in an objective, scientific and respectful framework that respects specialization and expertise.
5. Reconsidering the fees of private schools and universities in the direction of reducing them without including the period of disruption.
6. Students’ stipends will continue to be disbursed until the graduates start the actual work and not by default of graduation.
7. Meet all health standards under the comprehensive study plan for the next stage to preserve the health of students, teachers and administrative staff.
“This is what was announced in the recommendations of the Minister of Education and Higher Education that differ a lot in relationship through raising and addressing them. They are merely technical points and notes on the educational platform and considered the work of volunteers.
“For many years, education has gone through exceptional situations, political decisions and projects with interests far from advancing the educational process. The truth is: I don’t know why fundamental questions were not put to the Minister of Education and Higher Education. The question should have been: What do you think is the way out for the Corona crisis on the reality of the deteriorating level of education?”