Kuwait is one of the countries that has a high mortality rate due to fatal traffic accidents. I've lived here for a little over a year and it's just the past couple of days that I've actually seen patrol cars stop vehicles which amazes me. There is only one reason I can think of why this is happening. The Minister of Interior is new and hopefully will make a difference. The old Minister of Interior resigned because of police corruption...at least that's what I read in the papers. In any rate, I was telling myself, "It's about time someone does something" until this morning.
I was going to work and we were right behind a cop car on the middle lane going 120 kph which is the max speed limit. All of a sudden this truck on the fast lane passed the patrol car and tailgated the car in front of him. These two cars must be going at least 160 kph and this went on a few kilometers. The patrol car in front of us never did anything.
Just when I had hoped that things would change for the better, something like this happened. Am I surprised? Not the least; however, I still have hope that some things in this country will change for the better...maybe not anytime soon but in the near future.
I am a Filipino-American working in the middle east. There are so many other Filipino women here who are referred to as TCNs (Third Country National) or OFWs (Overseas Foreign Worker). TCN and OFW are acronyms used for individuals who hold Philippines passports.
I have traveled to 37 different countries and only here in the middle east have I been stereotyped; however, I'm not sure if it's being stereotyped, ignorance on the part of the other person, or lack of respect for women. I went to Dubai for a night to get away from the redundancy of Kuwait. I went through immigration and as I was digging in my purse for my passport, the first question was, "Are you Filipini?" I replied, "Yes." The only reason why I replied "Yes" was even though I am an naturalized citizen of the U.S., I am a full-bloodied Filipino. I guess it was my assumption that the next question that would make sense was, "Can I see your passport?" However, the next question was, "Where is your VISA?" I'm thinking, is this guy for real? So, I handed him my U.S. Passport and then he chuckled, talked to the other immigration official, and then smiled at me. When he turned and looked at me again, I told him in a sarcastic way, "I'm sorry to disappoint you." His face then turned red and mumbled something. I walked away, kind of irritated by the exchange.
Another recent experience was, I had a customer who was a middle-eastern man (I was later told he was from Pakistan who works as a translator on an American base where I work). To use the service in the Post Office where I work, we are required to ask all civilians/contractors for their Letter of Authorization (LOA) and their U.S. Department of Defense I.D.s. When I asked him for these two items, he immediately raised his voice and talked to me in a condescending tone. So, I called our site lead (who is a man) to talk to this customer because I was about to lose my temper. After our site lead came out, the customer's demeanor suddenly changed. It was actually baffling how someone can use a condescending tone to another and with our site lead explaining the same procedures to him, the customer used a normal tone of voice. I proceeded to serve another customer who was a woman and who also heard the exchange. She told me, not to worry about it because the same customer also plays softball on base and acts the same way towards women and refuses to shake women's hands.
Yet another experience is when I go to the base exchange (store), there have been three or four occurrences where Americans will ask me to get them something until I let them know I am also a U.S. Contractor like they are and I am not a TCN. As usual, they feel embarrassed, apologize, and walk away.
If people can only shed their stereotypes, educate themselves in any way to get rid of their ignorance, and have more respect for women (and others as well) amongst all our other negative attitudes, it will make our world a little better place to live.
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