|
|
(more...)
, (less...)
Add to My Group(s)
Add to My Group(s)
By Kevin Anthony Stoda (about the author)
Become a Fan (3 fans) -- Page 2 of 5 page(s)
The objective of this surprising proposal from the Islamists, according to Mubarak Al-Bathi, is “that such restrictions have the potential to reduce the chance of young men engaging in combat activities without the consent of the State or their parents.”
Over the past year, at least four Kuwaities have crossed through Syria into Iraq to be involved in misled jihad activities.
Al-Bathi concluded by noting, “The move is not meant to curtail public freedoms. Rather, it seeks to ensure the safety of our children.”
In Kuwait, 21 years is the official age of adulthood--although marriage and driving of cars legally begins at 18.
As the Islamicist proposal includes banning all private holidays abroad by boys traveling alone, I am certain that there will soon be a coalition of young people lobbying against the Islamic proposal in coming months here in Kuwait. This is because youth often take up to dozens of flights to Europe and neighboring Gulf states each year to get away from local social and political constraints—as well as to flee from summer heat.
PONDERING LANGUAGE: EXAMPLE OF THE TCN CONCEPT
The editor of the KUWAIT TIMES (KT), Jamie Etheridge has turned her sights on the ex-pat community.
The editorialist wrote in her article, “The TCN Hypocrisy,” that European and other Western expatriates should take the occasion of the recent election of Barack Obama as U.S. to reconsider their own racist usage of language, especially in referring to other non-Western expatriates working, suffering or even slaving away in Kuwait, Iraq, and elsewhere in the Gulf.
Etheridge notes that in Kuwait and in other wealthy Gulf states there are many expats live in large numbers these days: “White people [here] are called Westerners, even if they are from countries like Australia or New Zealand. Arabs are Arabs unless they are Khaleejis (Arabs from the Gulf) and Kuwaitis are Arabs and Khaleejis but also Kuwaitis. I’m sure this all makes perfect sense in some universe.”
I believe the last sentence in Etheridge’s statement above refers to the fact that in the “official Kuwaiti view of the universe,” this sort of dividing up of the universe makes sense.
Naturally, Etheridge directly shares that it is certainly simply racist for Westerners to be observed using the same colonial forefather’s vocabulary in the 21st Century, i.e. long after the Western Colonial era had ended here in the Gulf and elsewhere.
The KT editor then turns to the U.S. military, which created some six years ago the term “Third Country National”--or TCN for short. The military did this when it subcontracted out in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Gulf region for South Asians and Southeast Asians to work on their bases and in their Iraqi invasion and occupation efforts.
Taking on the racism in the TCN phraseology or usage in Kuwait, Jamie Etheridge explains, “Maybe it's naïve of me but I am offended each time I hear the term TCN. It seems to have an unstated but clearly derogatory meaning. The TCN label started with the US military contractors who came to Kuwait in droves at the start of the second Gulf war. The label is meant to differentiate Asian laborers from American contractors who work with the US military and its service providers here in Kuwait.”
The editor continues, “But now it's not just the US military that uses the label. TCN seems to have morphed into a catch-all category for any Asian male working in Kuwait. Whether from India or the Philippines, Korea or Bangladesh, if they are brown, poor and work in menial labor jobs they are automatically a TCN. Sometimes they need only be brown. Or Asian. Or poor. Or anything but white or Arab.”
The KT editorialist adds, “And what's worse is that other expats are now using the phrase. At a dinner last week, I heard the European engineer sitting next to me repeatedly call his colleagues TCNs. I wanted to ask him which 'Third' country he came from. It seems to me that any non-American expat - regardless of the color of their skin or their salary - could be described as a TCN. And regardless, we are all expats. If you aren't from Kuwait, you are a foreigner no matter where you hail from - Detroit or Dhaka or Dublin.”
In reading Etheridge’s description of this dinner encounter, my own bias emerges.
Become a Fan (3 fans) -- Page 2 of 5 page(s)
Over the past year, at least four Kuwaities have crossed through Syria into Iraq to be involved in misled jihad activities.
Al-Bathi concluded by noting, “The move is not meant to curtail public freedoms. Rather, it seeks to ensure the safety of our children.”
In Kuwait, 21 years is the official age of adulthood--although marriage and driving of cars legally begins at 18.
As the Islamicist proposal includes banning all private holidays abroad by boys traveling alone, I am certain that there will soon be a coalition of young people lobbying against the Islamic proposal in coming months here in Kuwait. This is because youth often take up to dozens of flights to Europe and neighboring Gulf states each year to get away from local social and political constraints—as well as to flee from summer heat.
PONDERING LANGUAGE: EXAMPLE OF THE TCN CONCEPT
The editor of the KUWAIT TIMES (KT), Jamie Etheridge has turned her sights on the ex-pat community.
The editorialist wrote in her article, “The TCN Hypocrisy,” that European and other Western expatriates should take the occasion of the recent election of Barack Obama as U.S. to reconsider their own racist usage of language, especially in referring to other non-Western expatriates working, suffering or even slaving away in Kuwait, Iraq, and elsewhere in the Gulf.
Etheridge notes that in Kuwait and in other wealthy Gulf states there are many expats live in large numbers these days: “White people [here] are called Westerners, even if they are from countries like Australia or New Zealand. Arabs are Arabs unless they are Khaleejis (Arabs from the Gulf) and Kuwaitis are Arabs and Khaleejis but also Kuwaitis. I’m sure this all makes perfect sense in some universe.”
I believe the last sentence in Etheridge’s statement above refers to the fact that in the “official Kuwaiti view of the universe,” this sort of dividing up of the universe makes sense.
Naturally, Etheridge directly shares that it is certainly simply racist for Westerners to be observed using the same colonial forefather’s vocabulary in the 21st Century, i.e. long after the Western Colonial era had ended here in the Gulf and elsewhere.
The KT editor then turns to the U.S. military, which created some six years ago the term “Third Country National”--or TCN for short. The military did this when it subcontracted out in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the Gulf region for South Asians and Southeast Asians to work on their bases and in their Iraqi invasion and occupation efforts.
Taking on the racism in the TCN phraseology or usage in Kuwait, Jamie Etheridge explains, “Maybe it's naïve of me but I am offended each time I hear the term TCN. It seems to have an unstated but clearly derogatory meaning. The TCN label started with the US military contractors who came to Kuwait in droves at the start of the second Gulf war. The label is meant to differentiate Asian laborers from American contractors who work with the US military and its service providers here in Kuwait.”
The editor continues, “But now it's not just the US military that uses the label. TCN seems to have morphed into a catch-all category for any Asian male working in Kuwait. Whether from India or the Philippines, Korea or Bangladesh, if they are brown, poor and work in menial labor jobs they are automatically a TCN. Sometimes they need only be brown. Or Asian. Or poor. Or anything but white or Arab.”
The KT editorialist adds, “And what's worse is that other expats are now using the phrase. At a dinner last week, I heard the European engineer sitting next to me repeatedly call his colleagues TCNs. I wanted to ask him which 'Third' country he came from. It seems to me that any non-American expat - regardless of the color of their skin or their salary - could be described as a TCN. And regardless, we are all expats. If you aren't from Kuwait, you are a foreigner no matter where you hail from - Detroit or Dhaka or Dublin.”
In reading Etheridge’s description of this dinner encounter, my own bias emerges.
http://eslkevin.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/3-big-paradigms-hol
KEVIN STODA-has been blessed to have either traveled in or worked in nearly 100 countries on five continents over the past two and a half decades.--He sees himself as a peace educator and have been-- a promoter of good economic and social (more...)
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
 Contact Author |
Contact Editor |
 View Authors' Articles |
Comments
The time limit for entering new comments on this article has expired.
This limit can be removed. Our paid membership program is designed to give you many benefits, such as removing this time limit. To learn more, please click here.
| 1 comments |
To view all comments:
(Or you can set your preferences to show all comments, always)
communication cross-culturally
by Kevin Anthony Stoda on Thursday, Nov 20, 2008 at 10:52:36 PM