My mom took the grand kids out to the park in Fintas for McDonald's and some play time. She took their big wheels we got them from the states for them to ride. I guess there aren't any big wheels in this country as the kids in the park surrounded our kids and were eyeing their rides. One little Egyptian boy grabbed my daughter by her hair and pulled her off her bike so my nephew came over to save her and got called "hywan" (animal) by this little boy. These kids are 3 and 4 year olds and already have violent tendencies?
When they were eating inside the restaurant they had left their bikes outside and my family watched as another Egyptian boy inched his way to my son's bike and then jumped on it and took off so my mom had to chase him down. The sad thing is the parents don't even discipline their kids they just say "sorry" and walk off. All I can say is it's a good thing my sister and I weren't there because we would have ended up at the police station.
How are these children being raised? They think it's ok to pull another child off their bike and steal it? Is this a look into the crimes of the future? Kuwaiti children in their own country being harassed and attacked by children of expats?
When I first came to Kuwait in 2003 it was so much better than it is now. I came to visit during the Kuwaiti Liberation holidays and it was so cool at that time to go and foam people and get sprayed because it was FUN but not anymore. Kids attack people now and open up car doors and pull people out. It's sad when Kuwaiti citizens would rather go on vacation during this time than to be in their own country. I saw pictures of the celebrations back in the 80's, there were parades and joy back then.
I'm afraid to ask what's next?
Only a gifted writer can intrigue the reader, have him on the edge of his seat with a mere title. Yet that is exactly what you have managed to do. 3-4 year old children barely have any sense of right and wrong no matter what their nationality is and therefore violent tendencies can be understood but as you said obviously require immediate attention from the parents.However,as a fellow Egyptian I must say the parents may have been facing a language barrier and could not find the words to fully formally apologize or they might have been too embarrassed to show their faces after the outrageous act their child has done and some parents choose to privately discipline their child in order to limit the amount of attention caused by the very same outrageous action which is in this case was taking a bicycle without permission. The previous lines were not written to justify these actions but to provide insight on the foreigner's perspective Finally, on behalf of my countrymen, I do apologize for this down right silly behavior but all nations have extraordinary people and others who are intolerable so let us embrace each other as a global world no matter how many of this world's inhabitants are imperfect.
ReplyDeleteYou mend it right...Correct ways being adopted by most are the common norms to everyone which all nationality are fighting against racism, abuses, maltreatment and other forms of violence.
DeleteNobody pisses off somebody,unless you never allow that person to do it on you.
What I mean to say, in this specific situation you can directly confront the parents for diplomatic talks...
Otherwise, if violence is too serious then settlement can be rendered to the concerned authorities.
It is just a matter of correct confrontations.
We speak Arabic and most of the expats speak English as well. If the children are taught from the beginning to respect others there wouldn't be so many problems. It seems as if children in this country are not fully nurtured by their parents and are left to fend for themselves. I see small children running the streets at 10 pm and no parents in sight. Children cannot raise themselves and if parents can't handle kids being indoors then they should refrain from having them.
ReplyDeleteCrazy in Kuwait, this is, unfortunately, not uncommon. We have similar problems in Bahrain with some of the politically naturalized. Here are some examples (since you mentioned you speak Arabic, all the links are in Arabic):
ReplyDeletehttp://manamavoice.com/index.php?plugin=news&act=news_read&id=11427
http://www.alwasatnews.com/1885/news/read/260848/1.html
http://www.alwasatnews.com/742/news/read/412112/1.html
And there are more stories but this should be enough to illustrate what I'm talking about.
I'm not suggesting that these people are more or less violent than locals or otherwise, all I'm saying is that there is a gap that is ought to be reconciled. Unfortunately, some of the more violent tendencies come from some of the expats (or in Bahrain's case, recently naturalized) see the difference of lifestyle that the locals have as opposed to what they have and feel left out. Other reasons include that Gulf Arabs have a tendency to look down upon non-Western expats, especially in richer Gulf countries like Kuwait, UAE and especially Qatar. This creates a sense of resentment.
The reality is that there is something fundamentally wrong on both ends, but the other face of reality also is that nothing fundamental is being done to address these issues.
My 2 fils...