reader abu issam makkawi wants to know if the mobile groceries are licensed, and if the concerned authorities from time to time inspect these outlets or know what consumer goods they sell. he also wants to know why mobile groceries remain open until dawn? why some of them have been turned into restrooms, cafés, and mini supermarkets?
“why do parents allow their children to stay awake until late in the night and allow them to sleep in the day?” this is a dangerous situation and incorrect behavior. many children are known to fall sleep in their classroom while the teacher is teaching and even if the teacher wakes him/her up he/she ends up sleeping again inside the classroom.
it is a real tragedy. all over the world the students go to bed early, wake up early except in our countries where life is not normal. as the night progresses with the lights on, harmful insects come in big numbers forcing the children to stay up, losing almost everything!
coming back to the issue of groceries, we wonder if these suspicious groceries which are scattered across the desert and on the outskirts are safe and suitable for human health. what about adulterated, harmful, expired or over-priced products they sell?
do the salesmen working in these groceries have health cards to ascertain they are free from contagious diseases and other evils, especially since most of them are located in remote areas and where no inspector generally wants to go? some also sell banned items such as fireworks and many more.
this is not represented by the presence of excess labor and human trafficking. a few days ago i went to a big commercial complex on ibn khaldoun street and i was horrified with what i saw inside the complex. dozens (i do not exaggerate) of labor recruitment offices which are located next to each other, and waiting for a customer who will offer 1,500 dinars for a maid which the office desperately needs – waiting to sell a maid which has been brought by a kuwaiti sponsor from her home to trade, like any other commodity, publicly.
i wandered around the area and was shocked by the number of offices that brought servants from their home countries and scattered them in each complex, houses, and buildings, all of which have benefited from the lack of control and easy access to licensing.
if we estimate the number of these offices in kuwait the figure is approximately close to 700 and this is the truth. we will find that each of them has brought laborers from abroad for his need, in the name of a company director, an accountant, an office representative, the fourth secretary, and the fifth office boy and so on… in any case, there is no need for all this if there was an intention to appoint the aldurra company to bring in domestic labor which has become like a small bird ‘kinglet”, which we hear but do not see! i do not know the real reason for the failure of the al-durra project, and is asking many to manage it?
what happens in these offices is the crime against the homeland and humanity. i did my duty and contacted the director-general of the public authority for manpower, who sent someone based on a formal complaint from me, but the authority alone cannot do much, nor put an end to this shameful situation, perhaps because of the government, which encourages the situation to continue for its own survival and allow the situation to remain as it is in order to allow traders and landlords have their way or it is just unable to contain the human traffickers.
kuwait does not need 700 labor offices, which officially employs more than 4,000 employees just like kuwait does not need dozens of workshops and garages to repair car exhausts. who will listen to our voices?