T: @allmasoudi
My colleague always advises me to give myself 20 minutes of rest between work hours which is recommended by physicians to ward off anxiety and clear my head.
Because of that he used to come over to me every day, lodging himself in my office saying: "order me a cup of tea, and I will give you 20 minutes rest of your work!"
He sits and tells me about his life stories. Bandar is a nice energetic man who fills his day with work, occupy his mind with the worries of the Kuwaiti stateless bedoun which he is one of their fourth generation. His people witnessed a merciless inhumane pressures that prohibited bedouns of identity rights, freedom of expression, right of ownership and possession, formal schooling and medical treatment. So that giving them these rights became a charity not a divine right and a humanitarian merit acknowledged by all international laws as it should be!
Bandar is waiting the birth of his first born in a month from now with his wife our colleague "Fatima".
The newborn will be reliving the exact tragedy of his father and grandfather before him. Bandar was an excellent event coordinator, explaining to human rights activists the dire circumstances that the bedouns are living on the edge of life with unemployment and poverty in boxed tin houses in a country that big rich countries and small poor ones lived off its wealth. Bandar used to show up every Friday in the freedom square in Taimaa lifting his beloved Kuwaiti flag and a picture of the Amir demanding his natural right in a dignified and honorable life.
In the next day he showed me some of the pictures he took in those hours that he considers his only breathing outlet and precious window to the light of freedom. But..I haven’t seen Bandar for three weeks now and I haven’t witnessed his regular movement in the editing hall. yesterday I asked his wife- our colleague in the same newspaper: "Fatima? where is Bandar?"
Her voice wavered: " in prison with the bedoun who went to protest for their rights!!"
Do I have the right now to rest 20 minutes between my long working hours while Bandar maybe receiving the news of the birth of his first born while he is imprisoned by his country?
Ali Masoudi is a reputed Bedoun columnist who left the country to obtain the Qatari citizenship late in the 90's of past century. He is back in Kuwait writing for many news corporations. This piece is published in Sabr online magazine:
http://t.co/q5cg8xOg ( via @Sabrnews) 13/2/2012.
Translated by @Mohd_AlSalem
