Kuwait In The Aftermath
We know what we know: Kuwait is a country with one of the smallest land areas in the world. It is rich in oil and has enjoyed a consistently strong currency. But to step onto Kuwaiti soil is another matter entirely, and an infinitely richer experience altogether.
Whenever anyone speaks of the Middle East, many of us tend to default to caricatures and one-dimensional ideas. We see the snippets of armed conflict and piles of bodies, and we tend to dismiss a majority of the region as what we’ve seen in breaking news or Hollywood films. It’s the nature of the stereotype; many who come to our shores half-expect to be knee-deep in prostitutes upon arrival, or to be shot in sight for making one wrong move (although maybe that’s us locals, too). Similarly, there are those who see nothing of Africa beyond starving tribal children and HIV/AIDS. Everyone gets a bad rap — but what we see in regular news cycles and in popular films and television is ever rarely the full picture.
Coming to Kuwait, it’s hard to know what to expect. We know what we know: it’s a country with one of the smallest land areas in the world, located at the tip of the Persian Gulf, and flanked by neighboring Saudi Arabia and Iraq. It is rich in oil and has enjoyed a consistently strong currency, with an exchange rate of over US$3 to a single Kuwaiti Dinar. Its main religion is Islam, which would lead one to expect a much more conservative culture. But to step onto Kuwaiti soil is another matter entirely, and an infinitely richer experience altogether.
The city of Kuwait, fixed by the water, is wholly ever so slightly tinged pink. The dust from the sand in this low-lying Arabian Desert casts a veil over the city, a filter that steeps it in sepia and warm light. The city’s architecture weaves between the modern and the traditional rather seamlessly, a veritable metaphor for life in Kuwait. Dotted along other classic and long-standing structures, it’s hard to miss the franchises of every possible American fast food chain. There’s Shake Shack and Ruby Tuesday, a Johnny Rockets that’s especially popular for a Filipina staff member who’s fluent in Kuwaiti, several Starbucks branches, and of course, McDonald’s, whose value meals are called the “McDinar.” These stick out in the way that American fast food is meant to. Upon looking closer, however, you see that you are surrounded by an exceptionally high variety of establishments offering almost every sort of cuisine.
One cannot come to the Arab countries without being even slightly concerned about the dress code. And while certain rules still apply, it is nice to see the range of movement women have in Kuwait in particular. There are women who wear the burqa, as there are women in hijab, as there are those who let their hair run free — but all of them seem to be just as comfortable in the manner of dress as the next. (One of the women I met there came to us on the first day dressed in bright red heels and a choppy balayage whipping in the wind, saying, “I represent 50 percent of women in Kuwait.”) The sense of tradition here runs deep, as expected, but they are also welcoming of the different nationalities and beliefs that have come to make up the country of Kuwait.
A Land of Expatriates
There are more expatriates in Kuwait than there are Kuwaitis themselves, making up about 70 percent of the country’s population. The majority of them are Indian and Egyptian, boasting about 600,000 and upwards of each nationality. Filipinos shuffle between 250,000 to 270,000, 65 percent of whom come to Kuwait specifically to be employed as domestic workers. The rest are professionals, sprinkled everywhere from the airport to local salons (of which there is an astounding number) to hospitals to restaurants to local media. You cannot turn left without running into a Filipino, and it is for this reason that locals say that Filipinos make everyday life in Kuwait possible.
The Information Ministry of Kuwait has established certain radio programs for expats, to be more inclusive and accommodating. One in particular is the Radio Kuwait Filipino Service, which broadcasts daily at 1 p.m. Every day has a different slant, but they are a definite resource for Filipinos in Kuwait. They invite guests such as doctors whom listeners are able to consult as they call in; they translate local news into Filipino as well as relay news from the Philippines; they give a running exchange rate for currency and precious metals for those who would like to remit back home. Their audience reach is far and wide, from the United Arab Emirates to corners in our archipelago.
Another sign that this is a country that values the contribution of expatriates is the Public Authority of Manpower’s Expatriate Manpower Lodging Center. It used to be that working expats, particularly domestics, would have to go to the police and then to the Interior Minister. The Public Authority was established to be able to facilitate these specific discussions. Its Lodging Center, built in 2015, is equipped to house 500 people at a time. It’s an open stay arrangement, which means that there is no deadline and one can stay for as long as necessary. Here, the Public Authority is able to extend its services more swiftly, whether it is to provide placement with a different employer or to repatriate if one so wishes. It is fully equipped with branches of ministry offices pertinent to these cases already within the compound, for the manner of efficiency. Legal counseling, social services, and a clinic (and transport to the nearest hospital if necessary) are provided, as well as crafts and gardening for those staying at the center, to keep their hands and minds busy while negotiations are ongoing.
But what is quite stunning is the local government’s provision of benefits for residents, Kuwaiti and expats alike. Health insurance is freely given over here, and we had spoken to a Filipino woman whose cancer treatments were covered by the state. She is currently in remission, and has since volunteered to assist other cancer patients in one of the local hospitals. As she told her story, another Filipina smartly remarked, “If you had stayed back home and gotten sick, what do you think would have happened to you?” We sat in silence, because we all knew exactly what the answer was. One of the women said, “See? This is why it’s hard for us to go home.”
Tensions On The Rise
Earlier this year, tensions between the Philippine and Kuwaiti governments came to a head when the corpse of a murdered Filipina by the name of Joanna Demafelis was discovered in the freezer of a home in Kuwait. President Duterte, with his slingshot mouth, took this as another opportunity to generalize and speak ill of the entire country of Kuwait. He called into question the patriotism of Filipinos working in Kuwait, told all 270,000 of them to come home, and banned any further employment. (This was after shutting down Boracay without proper planning or consultation with local proprietors and business owners. This effectively displaced 32,000 employees who were told by DOLE representatives not to count on the billion-peso contingency plan, as it would only cover government contracts and would pay half of minimum wage at jobs contracted 10 days at a time. That is, if you were lucky.) The President seemed to forget that Demafelis’ employers were not even Kuwaiti — they were Lebanese and Syrian — and that it was Kuwaiti officials who had investigated and facilitated the prosecution of the couple.
The Kuwaiti government did not respond to these statements, and made no effort to propagate the news on their side of the court. Contrary to stereotypes of the violence that persists in this region, Kuwait considers itself a minister of peace and prides itself on its honor. Which is why they were stunned when videos of our own Department of Foreign Affairs “rescuing” domestic workers in the most action-movie sort of way surfaced, as though these were times of great conflict and proper channels had not been installed. The Philippine Ambassador to Kuwait, Renato Villa, was asked to name those conducting the rescue. Villa waited for orders from the Philippines, but instruction failed to arrive before his time ran out, and he was asked to leave the country after being named persona non grata. This would be a first for our country.
The team heading the rescues, led by executive director of the DFA-Migrant Workers Affairs Raul Dado, claimed that these types of rescues have happened for years in extremely dire cases. They had always consulted local police, who to some degree chose to look the other way. Dado was of the opinion that what was truly offensive was the surfacing of the videos, which made the rescues seem much more rogue than they were, and which he agreed were insulting to the host country’s vast ability to protect and prosecute on behalf of its residents. The subsequent politicizing of the videos by erring politicians thirsty to run in the upcoming elections didn’t help either.
Still, this being the case, the Kuwaiti government made clear statements that it desired to move on and that it remembers its deep, longstanding relationship with the Philippines. As of May 11, a labor agreement between the Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs and our own DFA, protecting the rights of our overseas domestics, was signed.
Diplomacy, First
One thing we saw concretely during our time in Kuwait was the lack of empathy with which our current administration tends to rule, and the amazingly misplaced confidence with which it makes blanket statements that have little to do with reality. We’ve seen it in Marawi and in Boracay. A quarter of a million of our own kin, which our country isn’t prepared to take care of the way Kuwait has, nearly suffered the loss of livelihood because of this administration’s pride in its ignorance. It’s not just in putting a gun to a man’s head that you can take his life, but in removing his source of income, his pride in being able to keep a decent job that earns him an honest living, and his ability to ensure his family’s quality of life.
It is fortunate that there are opportunities outside the country where we cannot provide them ourselves; and while this situation definitely isn’t without its problems, it is why diplomacy exists. It honestly isn’t difficult to conduct a thorough examination before speaking against an entire nation, to understand how people are both being taken care of and violated, to see the condition of people who will be immediately affected before brushing the matter off like an irritating insect. The very slingshot mouth so many are proud to support is so often a trigger, and it is a problem so many refuse to see.
In this particular instance, we are equally fortunate that the spirit of diplomacy prevailed and that we’re able to maintain the relationship that has continued for years. They have moved on from our mistakes, but as our administration continues to fumble with each day that passes, the real question is, when will we?
