Selling Good Deeds

Author: 
Abdullah Bajubeer • Al-Eqtisadiah
Publication Date: 
Tue, 2007-09-04 03:00

Is beggary a hobby, a profession or a heritage inherited by sons and passed on by fathers? Do people beg because they are lazy and do not want to work? Is it a way to blackmail kind-hearted people? This weird phenomenon has become worse in the past few years. Beggars are burdening people, crowding streets and targeting different locations. So what are we doing to solve the problem?

To answer these questions, the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) is studying the Kingdom’s beggars and identifying the motives and reasons that force people to beg.

Mufleh Al-Qahtani, vice chairman of the NSHR, explained that the organization is conducting a comprehensive study of beggars.

What are the reasons and circumstances that have forced them to beg? Are there specific gangs that abuse them and hire them for their own interests? Who are these people? Are beggars Saudis or are they of different nationalities? If they are Saudis, then someone needs to study their cases to help them. As for non-Saudis, we need to identify how they entered the Kingdom.

“Two heads are better than one.” This is an old saying and an obvious one. It means that two people have a better chance at solving a problem than just one person.

The NSHR cannot reach a solution by working alone unless there is cooperation with the Social Affairs Department and other charitable institutions. The solution entails helping beggars by providing them with food and shelter, and job opportunities. This needs to be done in order to lessen the frequency of beggars roaming streets.

I know the daughter of a well-known Egyptian doctor. She’s a pediatrician and takes children off the streets and to an apartment where she provides them with food, a place to stay, clothes, education and other things they may need. What she is doing is extremely humane; however, it is something that requires a lot of discipline and dedication.

Bandar Al-Hajjar has carried out another study about non-Saudis in the Kingdom’s prisons. His study suggests that there should be a mechanism in place allowing expatriate prisoners to serve part of their time in prison in their home countries. He suggests there should be an agreement with foreign countries that allows Saudi prisoners abroad to be exchanged for non-Saudis imprisoned here.

Al-Hajjar confirmed that Saudi Arabia has made such agreements with many countries in order to cut down the number of foreigners in Saudi prisons. He stated that it’s all in the hands of the Interior Ministry, which has executive authority to implement such decisions, and the Shoura Council, which is a legislative authority. I believe that such initiatives might eliminate the sad phenomenon of beggary.

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