So, What's your nationality?

Saudi Arabia has to be undoubtedly the only country in the world where everything is based on nationality.Your job, where you reside and even the service that you receive is all dependent on the passport you carrying.Nationalities are classed into different zones.So you may be thinking that Saudi citizens are classed as zone one as they are the native people of the country. Wrong!!!Think again. You will be shocked to learn that Americans and Canadians top the list followed by Saudi citizens and thereafter various other nationalities follow with Indians, Pakistanis, Filipinos and Bangladeshis at the lower end of the list.I find it surprising that  the people  of the country haven't questioned this.So what does it mean if you carrying an American or Canadian passport. Well,you will be eligible to numerous perks and benefits that are simply not afforded to many of the other nationalities.You will be entitled to a huge villa with pool and cleaning service, you will be given a higher salary than everyone else and many a times you will be offered to fly to the States twice a year at the cost of the company. I find the house bit ironic when there are thousands of Saudis who do not have homes or big villas to reside in. Almost 60 % of Saudi citizens live in rented apartments or homes.There are many Americans that I work with who simply have diploma degrees or normal B.Sc degrees but earn salaries that are three times more than their counterparts.For some odd reason, the perception here is that if you come from the USA or Canada you automatically are a great, intelligent person.Shouldn't a salary be based on merit in terms of the knowledge and experience that you have acquired  rather than upon a passport or nationality?

I have two friends. One is American and the other is Pakistani. The American has a normal Bachelors degree whereas the Pakistani has a doctorate in his field. The most amazing thing is that the American earns almost four times more than the Pakistani, is given the best accommodation within the hospital compound along with various other perks. The Pakistani on the other hand is not allowed accommodation within the hospital compound neither is he entitled to an education allowance for his kids.Of course the American friend is allowed a very high education allowance for two kids.If Saudi Arabia calls itself a Muslim country, then how can these bizarre policies ever be deemed as Islamic. This principle is totally against the teachings of Islam. Why is there a  perception that anyone from the west is great and intelligent whereas people from the east are poor, uneducated, etc etc.

The same kind of bizarre attitude exists at the airport as well. Many a times I would arrive at either King Khaled International airport in Riyadh or King Abdul Aziz airport in Jeddah only to find queues of Filipinos and Indians waiting patiently to pass through customs and immigrations. They would be spoken to in a very abrupt manner and treated with complete disrespect.At the same time I noticed many Americans or lets just say western orientated people treated with great care at the airport. They are usually asked to  proceed to a separate gate where there are  no queues at all.What kind of a mentality is this?

At the Janadriyya festival  this year a group of Saudi friends who visited were refused entry at a stage show as there were no more seats available. There were however four rows of seats right in front reserved in the event of any VIP guests arriving to view the show.As my Saudi friends left they encountered a group of western nurses who were also heading for the same show. They told them that there are no more seats available. However, at this point the guard came up to the western nurses and simply ushered them  straight in to the VIP area of the event to the amazement of my friends who were quite annoyed and upset.

We were having a chat the other night over coffee with my colleagues about  how one nationality perceives the other. Mr. N a Saudi gentleman views all Bangladeshis as thieves, all Pakistanis are shrewd and dirty especially the cab drivers according to him, Lebanese women are promiscuous and well Indians are perceived by him as being quiet and generally not too bad. So during this conversation, Mr F who is a Pakistani  doctor said that all Saudis are lazy, they come to work late and leave early and if all the expats left Saudi Arabia overnight the country would literally collapse.Its really awesome working with people from all over the world. Its is even more fascinating learning about their cultures and knowing about how they view the rest of the world. Whilst some of the stereotypes that we have created are true I still believe and maintain that at the end of it all we are all simply human beings and so irrespective of race, colour or creed, in every society you will find the good, the bad and the ugly. You are bound to find lazy and hard working people in all parts of the world and whilst many people here are under the assumption that Bangladeshis are thieves, you are bound to find thieves in America and within Saudi Arabia too.

There is one event that occurs yearly in Saudi Arabia and also happens to be one of the five pillars of Islam. The Hajj ritual quite rightly sums up the whole discussion regarding the issue of  nationalities.During the Hajj ritual all nationalities stand  together side by side dressed in one attire.There is no differentiation between rich  and poor, American and Indian,educated and uneducated individuals, everyone stands in front of God as His servants. No one is better than the other or more superior than the other.I think this policy of nationality that exists in Saudi Arabia is something that should be addressed and abolished. Everyone should be treated equally based on merit rather than a document stating that you are an American or an Indian for that matter. Respect is something that every human being deserves irrespective of class or status.This is the basis of the Islamic religion which unfortunately is not practiced within our so called "Islamic countries". As the Prophet (saw) said that an Arab is not  superior over a non Arab and a white person is not superior over a black person accept in good deeds and piety.