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AN Editorial: The Maytag Repairmanâs Lonely Vigil Continues
Editorial: Attitude Problem 22 October 2003 Demographics 101... Everyone knows that unemployment is the big issue in Saudi Arabia. With half the population under 15, jobs have to be created for the mass of young Saudis soon to enter the work force. Otherwise, there is going to be a social and economic calamity. No country can afford a mass of unemployed, disgruntled youth. The Problem... That is the rationale behind Saudization. But Saudization is confronted by a major and so far insurmountable problem â the unwillingness of young Saudis to work in blue-collar jobs. They want to work in banks, in offices, at worst in shops. But not with their hands. Who has come across a Saudi plumber? A Saudi electrician? A Saudi street cleaner? It is left to the Indians, the Filipinos, the Egyptians and the Bangladeshis to do the work. The Culture... It does not make sense. A plumber, an electrician, can earn far more than an office manager. In Europe and the US, they take home big money. In the UK the average plumber earns at least three times what a shop assistant does. The ratio is not much different here. So why this reluctance to work with oneâs hands? It is sheer laziness and snobbery. The Result... The economy suffers too. The remittances home from expat workers are estimated at a staggering SR70 billion a year. That money could be working for the Saudi economy, growing it, if all those jobs were in Saudi hands. The Failure... Saudization has effectively ignored this. Its fixation is still on white-collar jobs. The most recent decision is the Saudization of 25 job functions in the sales sector, in stores selling clothes, toys, car spares and mobile phones. That is fine, but white-collar jobs are not going to provide anything like enough jobs to meet expectations. The focus has to move to electricians, plumbers, carpenters and similar such jobs. Around 60 percent of expatriate workers are employed in such work. That is an awful lot of jobs. They are the key both to providing young Saudis with gainful employment and to ending the cash drain out of the country. The Rationale... There is a further consideration. No country can allow itself to be dependent for its maintenance and the performance of many of its service industries on foreigners who could leave at a momentâs notice. Imagine if Saudi Arabia and the Philippines, for example, developed serious differences and Filipinos had to leave; most of the hospitals would grind to a halt. A country cannot be considered truly developed and in charge of its destiny until all jobs, from no collar to gold collar, are performed in large part by its own citizens. The Hope... We are told that things may be changing. There is talk about more vocational training for young Saudis. But only when the man who comes to fix the leak is Saudi, only when the nurses are Saudi, will we know that things have actually changed. The End... Posted by: .com 2003-10-22 |
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