JEDDAH, 6 July — Coming back to a place where one used to live is always a little bit disconcerting. It’s especially so if you do so with the fuzziness of mind of having traveled through 15 time zones for 23 hours.
That is how I felt last week when I stepped out onto the stairs that led down from the Singapore Airlines jet that had flown me here from Singapore, and before that from Los Angeles. The hot rush of summer air and humidity hit my face in a whoosh, something that always greets visitors to Saudi Arabia, whether for the first time or the 30th time.
Surprisingly, yet increasingly not, I went through Passport Control and Customs in record time. Our flight had landed 30 minutes early, no doubt helped by the strong tail wind pushing us toward the Arabian Peninsula, so that the friend that was supposed to meet me hadn’t arrived yet.
The flight passengers were mostly with Filipinos coming to work in the Kingdom. We were less than a hundred onboard, as I had counted everyone sitting in the departure lounge at Changi Airport. They, too, sailed through immigration and customs. Of course, it helped that we were the only plane that had disgorged passengers into the foreign airlines terminal for the past hour.
With time to kill as I waited for my friend to appear (who had boasted he would be driving a fancy car the next time I saw him), the varied Saudi limousine drivers, like hawkers at a fish market jostling for customers, were trying to get various passengers to use their services.
“My friend,” one grizzly and chubby man said to me, “come with me.” I told him that I was waiting for a friend, to which he just laughed: “He’s not coming anymore, I know people like that! If he’s not here already, he’s never going to come in this heat. And look, this terminal is so far from the city! If it was the Saudia terminal, I could see him coming as it’s much closer.”
I just looked at him kindly and tried not to make too much eye contact, because whenever I did this set him off on another babbling tirade of how my friend had abandoned me at the airport, and how he would be a much better choice for me to get into the city with.
He finally shuffled off when he found another victim who was willing to risk his services. As he was leaving he looked at me and smiled: “Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?” To which I just smiled and nodded my head no.
I say “victim” when describing the willing passenger, as I’ve found that these Saudi limousine drivers are good not only at talking, but also at insistently trying to get you to pay more than you had agreed upon in the beginning. Although some souls may believe this trait to be charming, I’m one of those who do not.
My friend finally showed up half an hour after I had started waiting, and together we were whisked into Jeddah, not in a Jeep Cherokee, but in a limousine as my friend still didn’t have his driver’s license!
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The latest revelations by a certain “Ador” about the alleged kidnapping activities of the now defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), are not surprising. Ador claims that Sen. Panfilo Lacson, the former head of PAOCTF, was plotting a destabilizing campaign against the present administration by planning the kidnapping of former Illocos Sur Gov. Chavit Singson and Clarissa Ocampo. Both were instrumental in bringing down the government of former President Joseph Estrada, when they testified about the corruption instigated by Estrada in front of the Senate last December.
The PAOCTF has long been linked to kidnappings and drug smuggling. Lacson keeps denying any knowledge of such a destabilization plan, calling it all a “black propaganda” campaign against Estrada supporters. The problem with his repeated denials is that with so much evidence pointing toward him and his men, some of it has got to be true, wouldn’t you agree?
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Unfortunately, kidnappings continue aplenty in Manila, not only in Mindanao. There seems to have been a resurgence of kidnappings in the past few weeks, or perhaps they are just getting more media attention. Whatever the case may be, the recent kidnapping of a British businessman, who had his right ear cut-off, and the recent mugging of a British woman at gunpoint in Makati at the Glorietta shopping mall, will do nothing to improve the country’s image abroad. Scaring off foreign investors should be the last thing the Arroyoadministration wants.
Now that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has succeeded in getting the heads of government-owned and controlled corporations to cut their bloated salaries, perhaps she could funnel some of this extra cash into improving the salaries of policemen nationwide.
It is a well-known fact that underpaid policemen are easily lured into smuggling, kidnapping and other such illegal activities as a means to earn extra money to pad their meager government pay. If they were paid a decent wage to begin with, most of the lure of sinister activities that many of them now engage in would not be there. It’s the only way, in my opinion, for the number of kidnappings to be seriously reduced.
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My column of three weeks ago, “Immigrants, attitude and US Mail,” produced a slew of reactions, both negative and positive.
One reader, Macqueline C. Palalay, absolutely hated it, and missing my point entirely wrote: “I have just read your column and I find it disconcerting that although it may have been written to alert and educate Filipinos about the plight of immigrants in the US, it also contained many sweeping generalizations which I’m afraid could breed misconceived prejudice. I am very much familiar with the area you wrote about, having been an immigrant and eventual Los Angeles resident myself 28 years ago. I find your condescending, eurocentric and megalomaniac air and hubris quite anachronistic and ironic.”
Well I’m sorry to have disappointed Ms. Palalay, who it seems clear is peeved because I didn’t mention the millions of professional and successful immigrants. As my column was not meant to be a sweeping history and study of immigrants in America, I say, “get a life!”
Another reader, Mary Grace de Guzman, a registered nurse living in New Jersey, liked the column: “I read your insightful, entertaining article a few minutes ago. Needless to say, I was impressed by how you captured the ambiance of living in Hollywood. Discrimination does exist, one has to be thick skinned not to notice even the most subtle form.”
Finally, Jesse Lao, a Pinoy working for Boeing in Long Beach, wrote: “Enjoyed your article and I have to agree with you. Over here at Boeing where I work, there have been so many rounds of layoffs and voluntary retirements because of cost cutting. Now they’re hiring immigrant contractors from India to stay profitable.
“I was one of those new immigrants scrounging a living with menial jobs when I started and studied to better myself. Hopefully they won’t find me too costly and replace me with other new immigrants.”.