JEDDAH, 15 August 2006 — In a country often portrayed as a land of rich Arab sheikhs living behind walled villas, driving European luxury sedans and taking frequent trips to Europe, Uncle Jaman defies the stereotype.
Jaman, a seventy-something Saudi man, comes and goes like a ghost, collecting garbage from the bins of Jeddah’s southern Ghulail and Nuzlah districts, searching for useful things to sell in order to feed his small family.
Jaman walks the streets daily in his dirty thobe (white robe) and a shumakh (headscarf). He carries an iron bar to poke through the garbage and pushes a small trolley to fill with whatever he gleans from society’s refuse.
“I have to make a living,” he said. “Every one has to. I have a wife and a mentally challenged son to take care of.”
Uncle Jaman has a short gray beard and wears spectacles that are held up together with duct tape. He sells Miswak, (the traditional tooth-cleaning stick) in front of mosques after every prayer. Following the evening Isha prayer the old man begins his routine of checking area trash bins.
He said that he looks for discarded items like clocks, books, appliances and anything that might be of value at the scrap goods market in Khomrah in the far southern tip of the city.
“I sell my collections at the scrap market every day,” he said. When asked how much he earned, he responds simply that, “Allah takes care of us.”
Ahmed Al-Ghamdi, a resident of Ghulail, said that Uncle Jaman has been in their area for years. He said that locals occasionally help him out with food and money. Al-Ghamdi said he once offered to help Jaman by taking him to the local office of the Ministry of Social Affairs, but the old man refused.
He said that they have tried to help him out by taking him to the governorate or the Ministry of Social Affairs but he always refused. Al-Ghamdi says the old man has too much pride, and is often hesitant to accept handouts. While there are indeed many wealthy Saudis, the statistics also show a considerable amount of poverty in the Kingdom. The per capita income for 2005 is estimated by the International Monetary Fund to be about $15,000, below Eastern European countries like Slovakia and Estonia. Per-capita income is highly dependent on oil revenue and has dipped periodically below $10,000 in real terms in recent history when oil prices were low.
