A few days ago I went to a famous workshop in Makkah to get my car’s brakes repaired. When I was explaining the problem, two young men came up and began checking the car. They spoke Arabic with a perfect Makkah accent. I looked somewhat doubtfully at the owner of the shop who is also a master mechanic; in fact, I expected him to do the job. He smiled, however, and told me not to worry; he told me the boys had been working with him for a long time and he had personally taught them what they needed to know. In fact, the young men did an excellent job in less than half an hour; I was happy to pay the SR80 charge and drive away.
Later, I discovered that those young men, like many others in workshops and other places, were not Saudis even though they spoke perfect Arabic. They are the children of expatriates who live legally in the Kingdom; the young men were born and raised here but have received very little, or no, education. Not being Saudi, they cannot go to government schools and their parents cannot afford private school fees. The parents decided it would be better if their children learned a profession in order to be able to support themselves and help their families. They have protected the young people from spending their time in the streets and, out of boredom, yielding to whatever temptation comes their way.
Such an attitude on the part of those parents must be appreciated; it helps protect society from many evils which would surely result if the young people were left to their own devices. I recently saw a newspaper article with pictures of the young men working in these automobile workshops. Although they may not earn much, the pictures showed young men who were happy with what they were doing.
My happiness was unfortunately short-lived, for not long after I read a statement in the same paper by an official of the Passports Department. He denounced the presence of these young men in workshops, saying it violated the rules and that if caught they along with their parents and those who employ them would be punished.
That official may be excused for saying what he did since he is applying a general policy and is obliged to carry out instructions. What I couldn’t understand, however, was the way people look at the problem. I asked myself what would have happened if those young people were left with no education and no work. Can no one imagine what illiterate, unemployed and frustrated young people might do when faced with such an insoluble problem?
