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Hell is hotter than their hot-deals - Yvonne Ridley
YVONNE RIDLEY
Thursday, May 18, 2006
There's nothing worse than a greedy, grasping boss, especially one that exploits the weak and the vulnerable. Travel anywhere in the Middle East, and you will see such bosses strutting around sweat shops and treating men, women, and children like slaves, and making their miserable lives more miserable.
It is hard to believe that these individuals come from the heartlands of Islam. And it is almost inconceivable that they could sink any lower in their disgusting, money-grubbing behavior, but they do.
Before I tell you the awful details about this latest bit of Arab hypocrisy, I want to remind you of the perfect example set for us by the noblest Muslim ever. Our beloved Prophet Mohamed (pbuh) gave us a very simple set of rules by which to live, on the 9 Dhul-Hijjah 10 AH, in the valley of Mount Ararfat during his final Hajj. In his Farewell Sermon, he emphasized the importance of equality. Surely it is obvious to any half-wit that, when we are judged, it will be on our piety --not wealth, power, or position. We will also be judged on how we treat our fellow beings and how we help those brothers and sisters in greater need than ourselves.
I'm sure many of you need no reminder of the Farewell Message, but I never tire of reading it, so please allow me to repeat my favorite excerpt:
"All mankind is from Adam and Eve. An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab, nor does a non-Arab have any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over a black, nor does a black have any superiority over a white, except by piety and good action.
"Learn that every Muslim is the brother of another Muslim and that Muslims constitute one brotherhood. Nothing shall be legitimate to a Muslim that belongs to a fellow Muslim unless it was given freely and willingly. Do not, therefore, do injustice to yourselves.
"Remember, one day you will appear before Allah and answer for your deeds. So beware; do not stray from the path of righteousness after I am gone."
What I want you to do now is to cut this article out of the newspaper, or copy it down from the "Muslims Weekly" website, and send it to every Muslim boss you know who sinfully exploits his or her workforce. Thousands of copies of this column should be faxed, e-mailed, or posted globally, particularly to Jordan. Jordan has just entered into a US-Israeli business pact that promotes near-slavery conditions in the Hashemite Kingdom. American trading giants, like Wal-Mart, Gloria Vanderbilt, Target, Kohl's, Victoria's Secret, and L.L. Bean, are all buying their trademark goods from sweatshops in Jordan under a three-way trade deal that binds the Arab nation to Israel and the United States. The latest report by the New York-based National Labor Committee is very direct and blunt in its views on the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Jordan. Basically the report says the trade agreement has descended into "human trafficking and involuntary servitude." Jordan has been rewarded for kissing the butt of corporate America. Part of the FTA, the Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZ) program, launched by Washington in 1998 as an economic dividend for Jordan's peace agreement with Israel, gives businessmen access to the vast US market. And here's the rub: That access is guaranteed as long as Jordan agrees to source at least 8 percent of its content from an Israeli manufacturer.
As our Palestinian brothers and sisters are literally being starved to death by a Bush Administration that refuses to acknowledge its democratic support of Hamas, neighboring Arabs are getting fat in get-rich-deals with their Israeli tormentors. Not only are these Arab fat-cats from Jordan kissing the backside of Corporate America, they're also reserving some lip service to Israel as well. Not content with this treacherous betrayal, the Jordan boss class is using foreign workers, mainly from the Far East and Asia, as a cheap source of labor. And to make matters even worse, both America and Israel are seeking to replicate the Jordanian trade deal across the Arab world. This just shows the utter and complete contempt George W. Bush holds for the weak and the vulnerable who are ruthlessly exploited as a workforce. Check out the Bush Middle East Free Trade Area (MEFTA). This obnoxious piece of human misery has been drafted by the US President with the aim of linking all 22 Arab states with the US and Israel in a trade deal by 2013. If other Arab countries hope to sign such a deal with Washington, they also have to agree to give Israel a cut. The vile Hosni Mubarak of Egypt has been one of the first ones to belly-dance in front of the Bush Administration. Already the capital Cairo as well as Alexandria and the Suez Canal have become so-called QIZ Zones.
While the Arab fat-cats get fatter, their get-rich-quick deal involves a huge price in terms of human misery. Foreign workers have been forced to earn a pittance in sweat shops where staff are abused daily while working in squalid, unhealthy, and unsafe conditions. The 168-report says that most of the guest workers in the zones come from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, China, India, and other countries. The workers have major communication problems since they do not speak Arabic, the local language. The report also details a climate of low wages, physical abuse, including rape, and near-imprisonment for workers. "The gated industrial parks are in a state of what can only be described as a constant lock-down," the report says. At Jordan's Al Shahaed factory, for example, there are 72-hour shifts as the workforce knocks out stuff for Wal-Mart. The bosses at that particular factory pay the workers 2 cents an hour. They also employ brutes who slap, kick, and punch the employees. The report reveals that in a factory called Al Safa, where workers hand-stitch and sew garments for Gloria Vanderbilt, Target, and Kohl's, a 20-year-old Bengali woman hanged herself after being raped by a manager. In the same factory, up to a dozen workers are often crammed into a room measuring 10 by 15 feet, with no tables or chairs; the workers sleep on the floor, the report says.
It found that, despite these squalid conditions, US retailers were still playing major roles in the Jordanian rag trade industry under the US-Israel trade deal. Oh, how the Zionists must be laughing their heads off, watching these craven, fat-cat Arab bosses abuse their largely Muslim workforce to make Israeli factory owners wealthy in these repugnant trade deals! And the Zionists must be splitting their sides as these Jordanian businessmen get fatter and fatter while the Palestinians are being starved to death. Wal-Mart has said that if the allegations in the report are true, then Wal-Mart will sever business relations with the Jordanian people-exploiters.
Is it little wonder that young brothers and sisters across the Muslim world are seething with anger and frustration over those hypocrites who rule the Arab world while being subservient to their US masters?
Morocco and Oman are already on board, and the tiny kingdom of Bahrain is about to enter into a similar trade deal with the US and Israel. An agreement with the United Arab Emirates is currently being negotiated as I write this column, and it's only a matter of time before the rest of the hip-swaying despots across the Arabian Peninsula join in.
Shame, shame, shame on all of you that would ignore the plight of the Palestinians, while creating a slave-trade workforce to help fur-line the pocket of your Israeli partners! The American brokered trade deals might be hot, but not half as hot as hell!