Many have similar attitudes. For many years the largest group of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia were the Yemenis at over a million in the early 80s. The border in the desert between the countries is not defined (any map showing that lines is misleading) and Yemenis were the only foreigners who could enter Saudi Arabia to work without a sponsor and accompanying visas and paperwork. They dominated many small businesses after the initial oil boom, but there was great resentment between the two groups with the Saudis being very arrogant toward the Yemenis, who, of course were not eligible for the many benefits that Saudi citizens have.
During the Gulf War, Yemen supported Iraq and the Saudis tossed the Yemenis out en masse. But Palestinians and many others still in Saudi Arabia are treated very badly. Some other groups in large numbers there include Pakistanis and Filipinos. Barkley Rosser -----Original Message----- From: W. Kiernan <WKiernan at concentric.net> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Tuesday, September 21, 1999 8:07 PM Subject: Re: East Timor, Kosovo, and Kuwait
>J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. wrote:
>>
>> Yoshie,
>> I think I'm overquota here, but the "one" was
>> simply anybody who felt that way, e.g. that
>> Iraq invading Kuwait was a progressive event,
>> which some people thought and for which a
>> case can indeed be made.
>
>This post is kind of off the subject. A couple acquaintances of mine
>are Palestinians, who had for a few years been foreign workers in
>Kuwait. They'd probably not describe themselves as "progressives," by
>the way. Also, one time they were speaking to each other in a foreign
>language, and I asked them if that was Arabic, and they told me they
>knew how to speak Arabic, but no, they were talking to one another in
>Yiddish!
>
>Anyway, they hate the Kuwaitis a lot, the way they phrase it is that the
>Kuwaitis "treated them like f***ing n*gg*rs" when they were there, and
>they told me that when Saddam invaded Kuwait they cheered and threw
>parties, because they were so happy that those Kuwaitis were getting
>their asses kicked. I wonder how foreign workers in Saudi Arabia feel
>about the Saudis?
>
>Yours WDK - WKiernan at concentric.net
>