Dubai

Ejo #66 – It Begins At Home (Thank You, Family)

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The dictionary defines the word family as:  a group of people who are generally not blood relations but who share common attitudes, interests, or goals.  Admittedly that definition was way down the large list of options, but in this instance it perfectly describes us.  Yes, us.  For when I put out the call asking for your generosity, you answered.  We shared, on this occasion, a common attitude of recognising those less fortunate than us, the common interest of wanting to make a positive change for those people and the common goal of putting some food on their plate.

So we, as a family, put some money together and on a warm Friday morning on the 24th April, at a labour camp near the airport, we handed out bags of rice, lentils and oil to 250 workers. We also gave them a bread roll each, as well as a delicious, hot samosa.

Lining up around the corner

Lining up around the corner

In Australia, this guy would be hanging with his friends, chatting up girls and having fun. In Dubai, he toils for no minimum wage so he can send money back home to his family and he lives in a labour camp. That isn't right, and yet he still dazzles us with that smile.

In Australia, this guy would be hanging with his friends, chatting up girls and having fun. In Dubai, he toils in the heat to send money back home to his family – and he lives in a labour camp.  A LABOUR CAMP!  It’s just wrong, yet he’s still capable of that smile.  I just had to smile back and wish greater things for him.  

Some guys are super happy when they get their food and give you huge smiles, others don't and that's OK too.

Some guys are super happy when they get their food and give you huge smiles, others don’t and that’s OK too.  The one thing they do all have in common is that they are grateful.

This guy couldn't stop smiling the whole time - despite his broken arm.

This guy couldn’t stop smiling the whole time – despite his broken arm.

There's really no feeling like giving someone something that they need. The exchange is meaningful beyond the mere products that you are handing out.

There’s really no feeling like giving someone something that they need. The exchange is meaningful beyond the mere products that you are handing out.

This guy couldn't believe his luck. Free groceries and a samosa!!!!

This guy couldn’t believe his luck. Free groceries and a delicious samosa!!!!

Another happy customer.

Another happy customer.

Even a bread bun wrapped in plastic is sometimes beyond what they can afford to buy themselves. It doesn't seem like much, and it probably isn't, but it's something and that's what we are working towards.

Even a bread bun wrapped in plastic is sometimes beyond what they can afford to buy themselves. It doesn’t seem like much, and it probably isn’t, but it has to be better than nothing – right?

Acting as honorary Project Manager for Care2Share (a corporate social responsibility initiative) Roshni is the heart and soul (as well as the brains) behind these handouts. Honestly, we could never do anything like this without her.  On the 26th and 27th June* we’ll take the rest of the funds and, with Roshni’s help, we’ll buy warm meals consisting of chicken biryani, dates, samosa, water, yoghurt and something sweet.  Over those two days, thanks to you, 643 men will be able to break their dry, hot, long Ramadan day of fasting with an Iftar meal that isn’t just sustaining, but actually delicious.

Though it’ll be hot as hell out there, I’m really looking forward to the Iftar handout.  Ramadan is a complex time and the Iftar meal is usually considered a great reward to make up for the difficulties faced, and sacrifices made, during the day.  Most of these guys can’t afford the luxury of a hot meal, and certainly not something as delicious as we will give them.  The gift goes far beyond the food though, something that those of you who have visited and helped with a handout know from experience.  The food is a great gift, yes, but it takes a back seat to the gift of humanity, kindness and compassion (a gift that rewards the giver as well as the recipient).

Thank you all for giving that gift.

It's faces like this that make this more than a worthwhile cause - they make it a personal high.

It’s expressions like this that elevate the effort from worthwhile cause to personal high. 

* David and I will be there on Saturday, 27th June handing out the Iftar meals. The handout on Friday, 26th June will be done by Roshni’s crack-team of regular volunteers – shout out to the men and women who regularly donate their time to help the cause. Not only are they lovely, kind people donating their time to others, they’re actually a hell of a lot of fun to be around.

Ejo #65 – Please Give Me Your Money

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Please give me your money so I can buy some food with it. Not for me, but for the guys that toil and struggle every day in their efforts to build (and maintain) this sparkling, modern metropolis called Dubai.

Workers in Dubai

Workers getting on the bus heading back to camp.  The skyscrapers that they build in the background. 

I don’t normally beg for food. And if it was for me, I would actually just rather do without (I could probably stand to lose a couple of kilos anyway). But the money I’m asking you for is for a more worthy cause – one which my longtime readers will already be familiar with. Can you believe it’s been 18 months since I last asked you, my friends and family, to help me bring a smile to a labourer’s face (by putting some food in his belly)? Well, indeed a year and a half has tumbled past, and it’s time for me to once more get on my knees and ask you to part with some of your hard earned dollars.

Those of you who have contributed before know that the driving force behind the food donations is Roshni Raimalwala, the hard-working, behind-the-scenes advocate of the labourers and workers of the city – the ones that the government should be doing more to look after (check out the other work she does with Care 2 Share UAE).  She is out there every week (sandstorms and searing sunshine be damned) organising food and grocery handouts on behalf of companies, schools and sometimes individuals – like us – that wish to help.  During religious holidays like Ramadan and Eid, she also arranges larger hampers filled with toiletries, clothes and bedding.  Things the workers need and want, but simply can’t afford to buy on their own.

Standing in front of the building they'll never be able to enter.

Standing in front of the building they helped to build but will never be able to enter.

On Friday, 24th April 2015, David and I will be going to Muhaisnah labour camp (more commonly known as Sonapur, which ironically translates from Hindi as “Land of Gold”) where Roshni has facilitated a handout to be done by some children from one of the local schools. How wonderful is that??  I really think that growing up in this city, it’s super important for young kids to realise that Dubai is not all about beach clubs, malls, nannies and sparkling new bikes.  If they can see that the reason this city even exists is because an entire collective of human beings from another continent have built it from the ground up, surely that’s a great lesson for them to learn.  Another important lesson is to see that there are people less fortunate than they are, to put a face to those people and to reach their hands out to help them.  To make the situation real.  I believe that compassion is one of the most meaningful things that anyone can learn, and even better to learn it from a young age.  I am really looking forward to participating alongside, and meeting, the young philanthropists who have promised their time and energy towards the cause.  I wish you could come along too – and if you’re in Dubai and are interested, please get in touch with me and we can make that happen.

But if you are in Australia, or the US, UK or anywhere else in the world, and would still like to be involved, then please just pledge me a little bit of dough.  It doesn’t have to be a lot.  If you can make do without ten pounds, or five bucks or even just 20HKD then that will still contribute a great deal towards providing a tired, hungry, poor worker with some food that he otherwise would not have enjoyed.  If you can spare more, that would be even better.

Between us, David and I will match every single overseas donation.  So if you all raise the equivalent of 2000dhs, that’s how much we’ll put in the kitty too.  If it’s more, then we’ll be happy to dig deeper.

After all, it’s just money, right?

Ejo #62 – Freedom

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Last month I wrote about us choosing to stay in Dubai even though I don’t enjoy living here.  One of my (formerly) loyal readers didn’t like the post and left this comment on 3rd January:

Hello, I had already written to you and I read your posts each time there a new one, but I am so disappointed by your latest one, this will be the last one I read from you as we do not share the same vision of expatriation.

Indeed I am very disappointed by the way you think.  Of course we are all free to express our thoughts and feelings but I experience this everyday in France where I live and that just pisses me off. I keep hearing people living in my country saying they don’t like anything about it (and sometimes anyone).  This is so disrespectful.  I am not saying we should like everybody and everything but at least we shouldn’t be allowed to be so ungrateful towards a country which has accepted you, we shouldn’t stay in a place we don’t respect (although some might say this is not a matter of respect, I do believe that you can’t respect people or a place you have absolutely no positive thought about).

People always endeavour to live in a better world but how will it ever be possible when after years living in a place where you have been given a new start in life your conclusion is that the only thing you like about it is escaping it!!  For sure no place is perfect in this world and we can rightfully talk about the pros and cons objectively but rejecting so many things and all the people as a whole is just unacceptable to me.

You may not understand my post.  You might even be angry at me, telling me not to come back to your ejo if I don’t like it. But I just needed to express myself!  I don’t understand how you can enjoy travelling so much and be so narrow minded. Peace in the world will never happen with such comments, I am not sure you would understand people liking nothing about your country and staying anyway, that is unfair and you talked about racism but do you think such a blog will help?  This is quite sad.

My reaction to this letter was physical.  I felt out of breath, like I’d been punched. I felt sick.  The concept of her statement was nothing new to me.  David and I often argue that if I hate Dubai so much, perhaps we should just leave.  My therapist, Zimmy, always tries her best to help me see Dubai more positively.  But it took the words coming from a complete stranger to have the most impact on me.  I felt gutted.  And I went to bed in tears resolving to change.

After sleeping on it, I woke up seeing a more balanced picture.  On the one hand, I don’t want to be perceived as a horrible, twisted, negative, complaining person.  On the other, I want the freedom to publish exactly how I feel.  I have never set out to sledge Dubai.  I have only attempted to convey my own difficulty at finding a connection and love for the city I live in.  And, as I wrote to Flo (my former loyal reader), “I have always imagined that my ejo rants were written in an entertaining way, tongue-in-cheek”.

Four days after Flo wrote to me telling me she didn’t like the way I was using words to disrespect the city I’ve chosen to live in, the world was shocked by the appalling Charlie Hebdo attacks in which twelve people were killed, ostensibly in an assault against freedom of speech.  I was too stunned by the magnitude and the meaning of what had happened in Paris to make any kind of connection between that and my own freedom to express myself in my ejos.  But it occurs to me now that while it would be foolish to make a comparison between myself and the Parisian publication, parallels can be drawn to any person who elects to express themselves publicly.

Was Charlie Hebdo promoting racism by reprinting supposedly blasphemous cartoons of an Islamic prophet?  Or were they using satire to make a point?  Have I unwittingly been promoting racism by bitching about Dubai?  Or have I been trying to draw attention to a monster problem that exists in this city?  Is Flo’s response to my ejo a charge against my own freedom of speech?  And if so, should I fight back by continuing to publish and voice my opinion?  Or should I fold to her criticism?

I’ve decided that Flo’s comments are simply her freely expressing how she feels.  And that’s OK.  I don’t think she’s trying to tell me to change the way I write.  I think she’s telling me that she just no longer wants to read it.  And that’s OK too.  Am I sad to lose a reader?  Yes.  But I don’t write my ejos in order to collect subscribers.  I write them for me.  I can not, and will not, allow someone else’s opinion of me to change the way I write or what I write about.

Je suis Chryss.