sand

Few days back I am going to Spinneys with maam. I am seeing this man. He is worker on the road. He is wearing orange uniform. I call him orange man. He is working in so hot weather I feel so sad for him. Even maam is saying this poor man how can he work like this. When I tell you what work he is doing you will think that he is gone mad. But he is not mad. The person who is giving him this work is mad.

His work is this. He has a small brush broom. He is doing sweeping of the road. Of the sand on the road. If you are not living in Dubai you do not understand why this is so mad. This is so mad because Dubai is sand. Everywhere you are looking there is sand. If you sweep it there is more sand. How can this man sweep the road? It is not possible. Even if you have very big vacum you are not able to remove all this sand in Dubai.

I am full time thinking of this orange man and the sand. He is not mad. but he will become mad if he have to do this job in this hot weather.

This orange man is reminding me of a something. In Dubai you can buy this sand bottle. I have put a picture on my facebook page if you want to see what it looks like. It is a bottle with sand design in it. Different colour sand to make all design. Like design of camel. Design of desert. design of Dubai. They can even write your name in the sand. It is so pretty. But when I look at this sand camel inside this bottle it is like the camel is trap. inside the bottle. Like it can never escape.

The orange man is also trap. He cannot break contract because he will go to jail. He is trap inside his contract like the camel is trap inside the bottle. He is not able to stop sweeping the sand even if he knows he can never make the road clean.

The only way for the camel to come out of the bottle is to break the bottle. But when the bottle is broken the camel and the sand will be all mixed up. The beautiful design in the bottle will be a big mess of sand.

That is why the orange man has no choice. He has to keep sweeping the sand on the road. Even though he can never make it clean. He cannot break the bottle. He has to remain trap inside this bottle. So the design of his life is not mess up.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well written. Most of the labour/workers are in this trap, sometimes because they have no choice but mostly by deceit.
But God will save them (I hope so)

kenster said...

Sally, I read your blog on the sand and the orange man. It is so simple and amazingly true for all of us. Even for me...
...I wonder if I can ever break the bottle and not mess up...

Anonymous said...

will good story for young girl but the true story different than. let talk about orange man and his work do you think that nobody told him about the work and the weather at work and how difficult it is. belief me he will work more hr and worst condition than what you said. for your information he paid tow years of his income to get this contract. your story told the world how mad UAE is. while UAE welcome you and your family and provided good place to work and live also the orange man to clean the city for you SHAME ON YOU
SAME ( I GAVE HIM A FOOD AND HE BIT MY HAND)

Sara said...

Actually anon june5, I think a lot of laborers have no clue what they are getting in to. They are lied to from the beginning about their work and living conditions. Many are not paid and are forced to continue working because of their contracts. I think Sally has hit the nail on the head, they cannot break out even if they want to. It has nothing to do with biting the hand that feeds you. Sally is a fictional blog that is portraying something that is unfortunately a reality for many unfortunate migrant workers.

Ali said...

To the anonymous commentor above Sara. Just the fact that this poor orange man has paid two years of his income to get this contract, should tell you what a bind he is in. There is no way he can leave. That is the point Sally is making.

And btw, she is not talking about how mad the UAE is, she is saying how mad the "person who is giving him this work" is. Big difference. I understand that you might have an English language comprehension problem, but please do not misinterpret what this girl is saying.

The shame is on the people who are bringing in these laborers under false pretexts, and false promises, not on Sally.

Anonymous said...

fatalité

Anonymous said...

Great one ! ... and I really appreciate the urge of writing and learning something new. Hats off to your commitment and way of seeing life...!!!

It really makes me happy when I meet people like you Sally.

keep up the good work.

God Bless :-)

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