Ever since I was a kid, I always had a bright outlook towards the world. Everything was nice and to me everyone was beautiful inside out and I didn't even question it one bit. However, when I started growing up, I realized that there's more to this world than just rainbows and butterflies. It was a cruel, unfair world that my parents tried their hardest to protect me from. They made me believe that the world is safe and pleasant and that nothing bad was going to happen to me. I discovered so many horrible things that it almost made me despise the human beings. One of the things I discovered is racism. Where people hate on other people just because their skin color is different. I discovered sexism. Where most people prefer men over women because they believe that women are too "weak" and the only thing that they're supposed to do is to stay home, take care of the children, cook, and please her husband. I also discovered discrimination.
The other day, I was standing to next to my father in line waiting for the 'Pass' or 'Fail' to my driving test and I wasn't nervous one bit, you know why? Because I knew I was going to pass. How? It's a little something called "Wasta". Wasta is when you seek help from a higher ground people that work at the work place or know some people who work there to help you pass basically everything in life. A "Wasta" can help you get a job, get a house, it determines the way you live, people basically live off of it, especially in Kuwait. Anyways, while I was waiting with my father, they started calling out the names of the people, if you passed you'll get this huge paper stapled to your license permit, if you failed, you will get back the permit with a huge "FAIL" stamped on it. And most of the people around me failed the test because they couldn't get hold of a WASTA. You may ask now, what does that have to do with discrimination? Let me tell you, these people who failed the test weren't Kuwaiti, they were Egyptians, Indians, Syrians, and they all had that look of disappointment plastered on their faces that made me want to burn my permit and give them the "passed" letter. These people, after getting their permit, they wait 3 months until the date of their driving test, sometimes even more. These poor people, practice very hard to pass the test for the very first time but they fail them. Plenty of friends of mine went through the same thing, they wouldn't do any mistake but because they don't have a "Wasta" They fail them.
Why?
Because they're not Kuwaitis.
I have a Kuwaiti friend who's sister didn't do the test, nor did she have to go through all the paper work and the waiting in line, nothing. She was sitting at home, relaxing when her father got her, her license while she did nothing.
I was completely heartbroken as I watched these poor people who must have tried the driving test 5 or 6 times and still failed when they were driving even better than the people on the roads. To be completely honest here, I didn't even do the test. I was told to move forwards, stop, he checked my permit, saw the "Wasta's signature" on my permit, told me to exit and I was done. I did not park, I did not reverse and I did not even move the steering wheel to the left or to the right and it was all because of one signature. Don't you think it's a little unfair? Because I was honestly on the verge of tears while watching these hard working people who probably took a day off from their work to go to a place where you're discriminated, where they treat you like a scumbag and barely even give you a glance. It disgusts me.
They disgust me.
And that was only one of the examples about the discrimination in Kuwait. There's more to come.
The reason why I'm writing this is because it frustrates me that hardworking people get nothing while others who sit on their butts and do nothing all day get all the credit, the money, the houses, the fancy cars. I want this to stop, I want people to start thinking about how their discrimination hurts others quite a lot than they actually think they do. They all think that that's a way to reduce foreigners in a country.
It's not.
And it never will be.
-Reem Lawand
The other day, I was standing to next to my father in line waiting for the 'Pass' or 'Fail' to my driving test and I wasn't nervous one bit, you know why? Because I knew I was going to pass. How? It's a little something called "Wasta". Wasta is when you seek help from a higher ground people that work at the work place or know some people who work there to help you pass basically everything in life. A "Wasta" can help you get a job, get a house, it determines the way you live, people basically live off of it, especially in Kuwait. Anyways, while I was waiting with my father, they started calling out the names of the people, if you passed you'll get this huge paper stapled to your license permit, if you failed, you will get back the permit with a huge "FAIL" stamped on it. And most of the people around me failed the test because they couldn't get hold of a WASTA. You may ask now, what does that have to do with discrimination? Let me tell you, these people who failed the test weren't Kuwaiti, they were Egyptians, Indians, Syrians, and they all had that look of disappointment plastered on their faces that made me want to burn my permit and give them the "passed" letter. These people, after getting their permit, they wait 3 months until the date of their driving test, sometimes even more. These poor people, practice very hard to pass the test for the very first time but they fail them. Plenty of friends of mine went through the same thing, they wouldn't do any mistake but because they don't have a "Wasta" They fail them.
Why?
Because they're not Kuwaitis.
I have a Kuwaiti friend who's sister didn't do the test, nor did she have to go through all the paper work and the waiting in line, nothing. She was sitting at home, relaxing when her father got her, her license while she did nothing.
I was completely heartbroken as I watched these poor people who must have tried the driving test 5 or 6 times and still failed when they were driving even better than the people on the roads. To be completely honest here, I didn't even do the test. I was told to move forwards, stop, he checked my permit, saw the "Wasta's signature" on my permit, told me to exit and I was done. I did not park, I did not reverse and I did not even move the steering wheel to the left or to the right and it was all because of one signature. Don't you think it's a little unfair? Because I was honestly on the verge of tears while watching these hard working people who probably took a day off from their work to go to a place where you're discriminated, where they treat you like a scumbag and barely even give you a glance. It disgusts me.
They disgust me.
And that was only one of the examples about the discrimination in Kuwait. There's more to come.
The reason why I'm writing this is because it frustrates me that hardworking people get nothing while others who sit on their butts and do nothing all day get all the credit, the money, the houses, the fancy cars. I want this to stop, I want people to start thinking about how their discrimination hurts others quite a lot than they actually think they do. They all think that that's a way to reduce foreigners in a country.
It's not.
And it never will be.
-Reem Lawand
