IT is logical that if there is hygienic disposal there is also unhygienic disposal — or in other words the sewage system. Hygienic disposal is the polite name for the latter. The common quality is disposal and its definition is by no means wastefulness, squandering, bribery, commissions, counterfeiting or stealing public money.
Yet these qualities have now become linked with the sewage system because of a judgment handed down by the Shariah court in the case of a Saudi contractor. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment and a SR10,000 fine while the company which employed him was fined SR3 million. It was proven that the man collaborated with a number of employees from the Water and Sewage Department in Jeddah. They were convicted of counterfeiting, exploiting their authority and squandering public money in the executing of sewage operational and maintenance projects in Jeddah.
On Feb. 4, 2002, Al-Watan newspaper published the judgment in full but it omitted the name of the contractor. The reason for this omission when he has already been convicted, I do not understand at all. I am aware that the name of the suspect must be concealed during an investigation and during trial until his innocence or guilt is established. Once he is found guilty though, it is a duty to publish his name so that this becomes part of the punishment — a punishment that in this case included the stopping of any work with the contractor and the company guilty of the crimes. Vilification is indeed part of the punishment so that people will come to despise and be contemptuous of the guilty person. Nor do I understand why the names of the employees who collaborated with the contractor in stealing public money have not been published.
I have demanded many times that the files of the Jeddah sewage department be opened. The administration has been allocated billions of riyals over the last 10 budgets and most of them have been disposed off in a most unhygienic manner. Opening these files will result in the emission of a smell worse than any from the sewers. It is imperative that the files be opened and the guilty parties exposed to public condemnation and official punishment. They should serve as examples of what happens to those who steal public money.
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IN Europe and the United States there are offices that specialize in just about anything — some help you find what you are looking for and others will make for you anything that you can’t make for yourself. Some others will check into your personal history if you so wish and some will search for your missing child or the thief who stole your valuables.
Robert Mann, an American, asked for a young lady’s hand in marriage; she was a girl from an old and wealthy family. Now Americans are not terribly concerned with the past — considering that they are a nation without much history. This girl, however, was descended from an old English family in the South and her father, who holds fast to the family’s traditions, demanded proof from Robert that he is of a family at least as old and well established as his intended bride.
So he went to an office specializing in family history, spoke to an employee and was told to come back in a week. He paid the office $100 and at the end of week, he returned. The employee asked Robert to meet the office manager and receive his family tree. They told him, "We have the statement with your family tree but you must pay $1,000 for it."
Robert was astonished and demanded the reason for such an exorbitant demand. He was told: "We want $1,000 to conceal the truth of what is in this statement. It turns out that your great-grandfather was a pirate and one of your other grandfathers was a thief. Also one of your grandfathers on your mother’s side died in the gas chamber and..." Before the manager could finish this tale of horror, Robert quickly paid the requested amount and took another more respectable family tree.