The unemployed need our help

A local newspaper recently published a story of a young Saudi man who threatened to commit suicide by jumping from the top of the Ministry of Transport offices in Tabuk. The man, who drives female teachers to and from work in his own private car for a living, threatened to kill himself due to “unemployment, poverty and debts” after accumulating a number of traffic fines totaling SR5,000.

One of the fines he received was due to transporting female teachers without an official license. The massive fines he had accumulated and his other financial responsibilities are what drove him to attempt suicide, something that he abandoned when he heard the cries of his children watching him.

We hear a lot about the Human Resources Fund, the Centennial Fund to Support Youth Projects and the Saudization committees, as well as the billions of riyals that they spend

This young man’s behavior is totally unacceptable and his way of bringing attention to his ordeal is improper. It should also be borne in mind that I do not object to rules regarding the transporting of female teachers, rules that are there for their safety and protection.

This poor man has not stolen from public funds, sold land sitting in the path of floods or forged land deeds! He has only been trying to earn money to feed his children. A literal reading of the system and the implementation of regulations to the letter have brought his means of livelihood to an end.
I wonder why we did not help him through our welfare organizations? Why have we not helped him by providing him with other means of making a living? Preventing him from working is worse than cutting his neck.

We hear a lot about the Human Resources Fund, the Centennial Fund to Support Youth Projects and the Saudization committees, as well as the billions of riyals that they spend. The outcome, however, is simply more unemployment.

Assisting the unemployed is an issue that has been discussed intensively by the media. Nothing has come out as a result yet. We may be surprised to learn that some Western countries even pay assistance to illegal residents. Illegal residents in Holland are provided with accommodation until they are either given resident status or deported.

Unemployment is a serious matter with grave consequences. It can only be remedied through an integrated national project to aid the unemployed with financial help and the Saudization of jobs.

*Published in the Saudi based ARAB NEWS on Mar. 12, 2010.