Thursday is the Weekend?

I still can't get to grips with the concept that the weekend consists of Thursday and Friday! I still tell people if i plan to meet them at the weekend, "See you on Saturday". Confuses them no end.

Today was Thursday. Spent the morning writing exam questions... oh the excitement.

The evening I wrote some pages of my book. I was writing about education, and where and who education fails. It is interesting that despite teachers and schools always getting the blame, most of the time, the false and materialistic expectations of society is the culprit. For example if we are pushed to consume, and to value wealth and status symbols, above everything else, then going through education for many is rather arduous way to make that wealth. Much easier to deal drugs.

Sadly this is the situation many people find themselves in. Where knowledge is indeed liberating, yet many see wealth as being the great liberator.

Wealth is merely a subterfuge, it is just possessions, pieces of papers and numbers in an account. Moreover, it often the case that many will sacrifice their ethics and their families in pursuit of wealth. I have known mothers to leave their children with relatives in their home country, to go for further studies or some "wonderful" job somewhere. When they return home they find that their children don't even know them.

I sometimes talk with some of the Bangladeshi workers here about this. I believe that poverty is a state of mind. Millions of people will come to the middle east, while perceiving themselves in poverty and thus become humiliated by their employers.

Yet in their villages, they have land, a house, and some comforts. The land grows the crops that they need and they can sell the excess. However, even though they have more or less what they need, they crave for more and thus put themselves at the mercy of the wolves.

Generally speaking, for most people coming to this region, upon arrival they will discover that their promised salary and conditions are not exactly as described (even happened to me). Most workers from Bangladesh, (as I speak some Bangla I know this) do not receive a salary at all. If they are fortunate they might get half what was promised or sporadic payments (i.e. one months pay every five months). Their passports are kept by their employers so not chance of returning home.

So there you have it, slavery is, more or less, alive and kicking in the middle East and nobody seems to care. Of course we're not allowed to call it that, but where is the difference?