Monthly Archives: April 2017

Life In KSA

Hankering in the Wrong Queue

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http://saudigazette.com.sa/saudi-arabia/non-saudi-applicants-cause-ruckus-career-fair/
Click the link above and read the article. This news is presenting the precise situation of the construction of depressed multinational circumstances in an economy struggling to escalate employment opportunities among the citizens in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).
 
University Of Business and Technology (UBT) organized a job fair where 40 companies offered some 3000 employment and training opportunities. To utilize the chance, Saudis, as well as expats, reached the door knocking but while they entered and arrived at the fair, the non-Saudi job applicants realized that the offers were limited to the Saudis only.
UBT didn’t bother to mention in their event program that only Saudis will be considered for the jobs. Result? 1000 non-Saudis or expats showed up who were eager to work with the recruiting companies within 48 hours! 48 hours!!! I didn’t witness the show but like other readers and observers, imagine the peak of misunderstanding. The non-Saudi candidates would have been in the queue and when their turns finally have come, they would have been immediately rejected or informed on their faces that they are not entertaining the offer to you expats! Now read their faces and do the maths yourself. After this, the expats would have become a hurdle or an obstacle on the path of job-seeking Saudis going towards the recruiters. 
 
With the growing tensions among the expats who are students or seeking jobs, this event can be observed in many ways:
 
1. There is a tremendous demand of expats from the field of business & technology who are willing to join and boost the economy. If one job fair can unintentionally fetch 1000 CVs in total from two different companies then imagine the total numbers.
 
2. At the very same time and location, 4000 Saudis are reported to show up which again shows how much is there a potential to generate the economic measures.
 
3. The article repeatedly records that the representatives of the recruiting companies in the job fair were ‘surprised’ and ‘shocked’ to see so many expats applying for the job. Their state of getting shocked and surprised is the sign of negligence and ignorance which falters the people responsible in the ministries and the administrations that they fail to notice/observe that the sweat and the blood of the expats are playing the most dynamic role in the economic progress of the country.
 
4. Another very important point which should be in focus after being surprised and shocked, most of the developed and developing countries who progress in their economy, do not consider the color, race, religion and the country where the job seeker belongs to. Because the candidates of any diversity are welcome to join the firm, considering the impression that they will benefit the company and the economy of the country overall. And that is how the teamwork is done.
 
Considering or prioritizing one national over the other in KSA or any part of the world builds disputes and rifts, brings cultural and ethnic misunderstanding, causes depression and theorizes a protest for the justice. Ignoring an individual on his/her nationality instead of considering his/her qualification, experience, work efficiency and compatibility will always bring a wrong impression. How would an expat aim to stay in the kingdom and think for the goodness if he/she is rejected for his/her not being a Saudi? And if being Saudi is must then the nationality should be granted after a minimum stay of 5 Islamic or Gregorian years. There are thousands and thousands of cases where an expat like me is born and raised here. On my 33rd year, a guy like me, after all the life spent here, is clueless about his future after reading and listening all the rules and observing the tensions created by those rules for the expats.
 
That is not how the country is led by prioritizing the locals and completely ignoring the expats or firing them from the jobs. A wrong example is created globally to the observers because of most of the people in America, Europe, Australia or even in India, are working and studying together as a job seeker who is eager to fulfill his/her dream/ambition to become something and a student who is aiming high with no distinction and divergence.
 
5. With the state of being shocked and surprised also indicates the hatred when one stated in the article, “We don’t know how they got in and who let them in”. This sounds like if the organizers forgot to fix the notice board outside the job fair that “No Beggars And Dogs Are Allowed”. Shoo Expat! Shoo!
 
Being born and bred here in this country, being a son of my city, Jeddah, I advocate for the employment of the Saudi men and women who hold a lot of promises in their chosen fields. I do wish that the citizens, like the expats, should boost the economy by their contribution. But but but not by cutting or firing the expats from their jobs to replace us with the Saudis but by creating employment opportunities, so the citizens and the expats can together help and stabilize the economy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
 
May Lord bless the King and the Kingdom. Amen.

I AM SAMI NAIK

Film Reviews

Film Review: Manchester By The Sea (2016)

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Manchester By The Sea is a mosaic, a poetry, a philosophy of emotions blended with a series of tragic and distress events. To be very honest, the story is ordinary but the screenplay is a luminary. A janitor in Quincy, Casey Affleck, has passed some tragic moments and while he is still struggling, fate calls for another mournful news from Manchester-by-the-Sea of the passing of his brother, Kyle Chandler. With the passing, the lawyer reads the will and informs Casey that the deceased has made him the guardian of his nephew Lucas Hedges which came as a surprise.

At a slow but decent pace, the director Kenneth Lonergan is the author and a humble storyteller who mumbles the human behaviors involved in a single blink. He is smart enough to bring the humor out when the timing of a minor incident bestows. He is a traveler of groaning age who shows how that aging man shelters the false hopes of parenting in someone’s place. He presents the core character in a way that is pale to relationships but strives to necessitate what has been broken and burnt from the fire. The director simply brings the magic and music from the silence of shriek audible enough to understand the destruction of his heart. Us viewers have to observe the happenings in the film and feel sorry for him.

Like Fences, which speaks about the humans who are ready to lose or break someone, the outcome of this film is easily the gem of a drama. There are two dramatic sequences which burn and melts you. One, when Casey describes the haunting past to the police officers and later unsuccessfully attempts suicide on the spot. And two, when Casey meets his ex-wife Michelle Williams years after the divorce on the street.

Another excellency of the screenplay is the ‘Understanding’ between the ages and emotions involved between the two. The uncle-nephew chemistry is marvelous. There are an annoyance and a fury in the communication between them which downpours the sweat of ego or chutzpah, not mentally accepting each other at all.

All the actors involved in the project have performed very well but it is Casey who does the talking and deserves a standing ovation. I haven’t watched Casey’s films enough in the past to adjudge his performance as the best to date but the character he went on to play here is the true salvation and modus operandi. Manchester By The Sea is the aftermath of the death in the family. If life is an art exhibition, then this masterpiece is one of the most speaking pictures with the darkest and honest color of shades which, to the viewers, is widely acceptable.

Ratings: 8.7/10

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My Selfish Diary

My Selfish Diary: Romance Catoholics

In the kingdom where I breathe a confound alfresco, the personal and working life of the born-and-raised expats like us are at a question mark; and being the custodian of our fates, us millennials borrow some time to think on the brink because the bettering dreams turning into shattering dreams is a realization that the hope is hopped in our recession.

Although, beneath the line of soliloquy, an expat like me try to focus on plethoric theories to heal the gashes of the unwanted past and favor the time to catch a train of well-wishes. No matter how cruel how pollute the world becomes, do good and have good and leave it on God.

My best friend Liza and I are devoted cat lovers since childhood. Being sensitive to the most innocent and loving creatures in the world, we have lost our pets in front of our eyes but strived to make the better of few of the cats who caught our attention. I have come to various incidents in serving, rescuing and paying my last respects to the cats in my life. Once my family pet 21 cats at home due to the birth of few of the cats helping in multiplication but we didn’t give up during our never-ending financial crisis. We gave our pets a combined respect and sent each of them to a German lady who served animal welfare and care. May Lord bless that lady. It was a decade ago, now who knows how many of them are…

Liza with her family moved out from the kingdom for good. She has settled in the Pacific and eight months later has returned back for mere a month to meet her parents and kins. My sin is that when she was leaving, I couldn’t meet her. But when she returned, she was busy to schedule our reunion for the sake of our old friendship saga which originates since we were hardly a year old.

Yesterday night (18.04), when Liza had an outing with her family, spotted a pair of beautiful adult cats in their cat tree but to a major surprise, there was no individual on the street keeping the pets. Which clearly meant that someone dropped such adorable cats in their tree on the street and left for God knows what reason. Liza was agitated and mutilated at the same time due to the fact that she herself cannot do anything about the cats because she herself is staying with her family.

Liza messaged, sent the pictures of the poor and sought if I can look after these but I excused for having 10 cats at my own home; the numbers enough to refuse the others. She was very perturbed and distressed repeatedly thinking about the fate of those cats. The cats were silent and weren’t leaving more than few inches from their tree. I advised her to ask someone at this hour of time if anyone, by any good luck, can foster these.

It had been hours and during midnight, at my usual routine of playing FIFA17 at PS4, Liza messaged me and asked for help all of a sudden. My eyebrows grew more hair to learn what on earth had come up as late as 1.30 am. She responded that she want to drop those cats to someone who has agreed to foster the cats at this hour of time. *Yawn*

When the world is sleeping to wake up early for the prayer, for the work, for waking up the kids for the school, there are some rare breed of inhumans, I mean humans,  in some very interesting part of the world who are eager to rescue the cats and drop them at the safest place possible.

Being a huge comic books reader, I realized that I have learned more humanity and aimed to do better things in life than I was ever taught in school. Serving for good has boosted my enthusiasm and helped me follow my omens. At such a time when I used to lie on my bed, I decided to help her and rescue the cats.

To reach as quick as possible, I drove the car in haste and completely forgot that there was a speed breaker in one of the area streets where I use to drive daily towards my office every morning. The car badly hit the speed breaker and the reason of installing such thing was completely fulfilled. I cursed myself and patiently drove the next moments. In 15 minutes, I collected her from her cousin’s residence and this is how Liza and I reunited and saw each other again.

My car is driven on the sleeping streets occupied by the sound of silence. The city of Jeddah gives you freshness when you drive towards the seaside especially at midnight but here the rescuers were very fresh for the purpose. Unluckily, she forgot the spot where she was hanging with her relatives an hour ago as the place was very unfamiliar to her plus she had no internet on her cell phone. Also, was I having the luxury of losing the lifeline of the cell phone as I didn’t charge the battery due to an unexpected twist at the eleventh hour. All she knew was that the place is nearby the seaside. After a 15-minute drive, Liza called someone and collected the instructions of heading towards the destiny where we realized that we were going precisely opposite.

At King Abdul Aziz Road, I was supposed to take u-turn just before Al Manar Car Wash but instead, took u-turn after Stars Avenue Mall and drove towards Tahliya Park and Salaam Park situated in the Andalus district. The time was running and so were our heart beats because the presence of the scared cats at the spot was at risk.

I drove back and reached the spot where she had witnessed those cats. To our utter good luck, the cats were there in their tree. The pair were so scared that they weren’t popping out of their tree and had severely low cries. When Liza lifted the tree, the cats neither popped out nor hit the paws to her. They were lying inside the tree, no movement. She easily dropped the tree in the back seat and we left the spot.

  

We thanked God that they were safe and had no sign of abuse. I don’t know the class or the breed but the cats were very beautiful. The rescue attempt was half done and there was every possibility that while I drive the car, the cats may release themselves from the prison of the tree and get panic. The whole destiny while returning back, the cats made not a single attempt of escaping from the car again indicating how frightened these creatures were.

Now that ‘someone’ who agreed to foster this ongoing midnight was never met by Liza nor did she know where was she living. She had the coordinates but had no internet. I had the internet but didn’t have enough battery in the cell phone to follow the next coordinates. So she was unable to send me the coordinates, nor was I able to match the address on my app. There was no shop nearby and I was still expecting a razor paw or a love bite on my neck coming from the back seat.

The madness prevailed us to type every single unit, letter, and punctuation to form a coordinate on my app which was very bizarre. The idea didn’t make any sense but we had to act swiftly because the time had crossed 2 in the morning, the foster lady was waiting, the petrol of my car was alarming, and the paws on my neck was anytime incoming. Soon as we typed the whole address and clicked for the directions, the mobile lost its life and slept.

Liza suggested stopping the car at any shop so she buys the card to charge the internet because we had no other option. The card was bought, the internet began working on her cell phone, so were the coordinates. I drove on Liza’s directions and guess what! the destiny was a couple of kilometers away from my own home.

We reached the destiny and I parked the car on the corner. The cat tree was removed from the car and one of the cats did panic and struggled to pop out and escape the situation. She controlled and carried the weight; and disappeared into the building. Ten minutes later, she returned with a huge smile on her face and the rescue attempt was complete. We together declared “We Did It”. It was a joyous and emotional moment. We felt extremely, immensely, and supremely blessed. No matter how many bad deeds we have done in our life but there are some good deeds we are manifestly proud of.

 

God is the witness that in the humming chore of sleeping homes where the residents borrowed time to fulfill their dreams and wake up for their offices, schools, prayers and different purposes, there were two passionate cat lovers who considered no unwillingness and gave the pair of poor cats their new guardian who may/will treat them better than their former guardians. They were not our pets nor were we anything to them but it was the concern which clouded with the chance of rescue.

I dropped her back home and the time was around 3 in the morning. It was an unforgettable night. Perhaps if I had not helped her, she would have increased her blood pressure or killed her brain in developing theories or over thinking all the possibilities and plausibilities over the situation on that street; and at the same time, I may have felt guilty not to help her and the cats while struggling to sleep. Our nights were abnormally lengthy and we surely slept in our homes in peace after a very long time.