I grew up in the unimaginably wealthy yet tiny nation of Qatar in the Khaleeji Middle East. My grandparents and parents had moved there from India to work and ensure a good life for their children. I attended the company British international school and then another British International school filled with royalty and the children of diplomats, professionals and wealthy business families. Students attending the school from all over the world created an international environment where I was able to learn about cultural nuances and issues from across the globe. This complemented my family’s love of travel and culture (I’ve been to 19 countries to date). I lived well, my days filled with expensive tennis, piano, scuba, sailing, golf lessons, romping about five-star resort like facilities in the international camp (built by the company which employed my parents). The status quo served us well and most people (excluding my family) wanted to keep it that way.
Living a parallel life to myself, were people in servitude from developing countries like my home, India. My people … separated from me by a bit of money. Being from India my family was discriminated against by a society that didn’t view people from the indian subcontinent in the best light. However what I faced as an Indian and a woman pallored in comparison with that of these invisible people subjugated by oppressive employers, working hard in terrible conditions to maintain the glossy facade of a perfect society for the more privileged. Either people didn’t realize what was going on or they turned a blind eye. Both of these things are equally true and equally scary. One must also understand that there is no freedom of the media there and those that speak out are punished harshly or deported. I find myself nervous writing these words. Bonded labour, inhumane treatment, racism, rape, sexism, abuse. Every imaginable social injustice was prevalent and bred rampantly in this society. Even amongst the wealthy, issues like sexism and women’s rights were huge problems.
Given my head start in life and my privileged upbringing I am morally obligated and have a greater responsibility to be an agent of change. This is an adaptation of something a priest once told me about being Catholic. He said “As Catholics you have a greater obligation to be moral. You also have to strive be successful so you can help other people. If you are at the top of your given field you have more clout and power to do more good”. I think these are good aspirations for anyone to have. This feeling of moral obligation as well as the values my parents instilled in me (gratitude and social awareness) are my main influences.
My education in water protection and my volunteer work to date has all been geared towards this ultimate vocation. Over the years I have developed key interests in certain areas of International Development.
The six topics I keep on my radar:
Conservation efforts
Environmental issues (protection, toxicology)
Water security (accessibility, sanitation and resource management)
Gender, empowerment of marginalized women
Human rights; trafficking and bonded labour
Elderly and aging
These may seem like varied interests but due to the multi-faceted nature of International Development these sectors are often interlinked. When working on projects for an individual cause, I often find factors from all these sectors come into play. Try to address one of these issues and you will most probably see improvements in the other areas.
Let me give you an example of how these areas can all be linked.
Aisha is 10 years old. She has never attended school because someone has to stay home and walk the distance to collect water for her family. She walks to reservoirs further and further away as water sources closer to her home are sequentially exhausted or dry up (water security around the globe is another issue I could talk for hours about). The actual policies of water management and distribution are controlled by men in power. Even in her family it’s the men (who get to attend school) that are the ones that dictate her duties. The years pass and water an food security take an increasing toll on the family. They are forced to essentially sell their daughter to an agent working to supply domestic help to wealthy Khaleeji Middle Eastern families (bonded labour is a huge and seriously under addressed problem in the Middle East, the desperate state of poor people is preyed upon and these people are made to work and live in terrible conditions with little or no pay. These people have no rights, equating their plight to modern day slavery). Aisha is routinely verbally and physically abused by her “owners” and also sexually abused by the males in the family. This how she lives out her days until she is an old women who cannot work anymore and her employees cast her aside. She is sent back home, where she is of no use to her family. She has no sense of self and no skills or education which means she has nil value to society. Ultimately as a result of her hard life, which she had little control over, she is sentenced to destituteness and begging. Her inevitable death and her cessation of existence on this earth just like her life does not cause anyone to bat an eyelid. Did she ever exist? Not in our collective conscience that’s for sure.
You might say “well Maggie, that’s a very nicely woven on-off story used to conveniently prove your claims” …The truth is I wish it were a one off story! This infact is a story that is sickeningly deja-vu. Growing up in Qatar I heard variations of this story again and again and again like some broken record from hell. Replace Aisha and the country and with other names and the facts would remain the same for too many people in too many countries.
This is my motivation.
Living a parallel life to myself, were people in servitude from developing countries like my home, India. My people … separated from me by a bit of money. Being from India my family was discriminated against by a society that didn’t view people from the indian subcontinent in the best light. However what I faced as an Indian and a woman pallored in comparison with that of these invisible people subjugated by oppressive employers, working hard in terrible conditions to maintain the glossy facade of a perfect society for the more privileged. Either people didn’t realize what was going on or they turned a blind eye. Both of these things are equally true and equally scary. One must also understand that there is no freedom of the media there and those that speak out are punished harshly or deported. I find myself nervous writing these words. Bonded labour, inhumane treatment, racism, rape, sexism, abuse. Every imaginable social injustice was prevalent and bred rampantly in this society. Even amongst the wealthy, issues like sexism and women’s rights were huge problems.
Given my head start in life and my privileged upbringing I am morally obligated and have a greater responsibility to be an agent of change. This is an adaptation of something a priest once told me about being Catholic. He said “As Catholics you have a greater obligation to be moral. You also have to strive be successful so you can help other people. If you are at the top of your given field you have more clout and power to do more good”. I think these are good aspirations for anyone to have. This feeling of moral obligation as well as the values my parents instilled in me (gratitude and social awareness) are my main influences.
My education in water protection and my volunteer work to date has all been geared towards this ultimate vocation. Over the years I have developed key interests in certain areas of International Development.
The six topics I keep on my radar:
Conservation efforts
Environmental issues (protection, toxicology)
Water security (accessibility, sanitation and resource management)
Gender, empowerment of marginalized women
Human rights; trafficking and bonded labour
Elderly and aging
These may seem like varied interests but due to the multi-faceted nature of International Development these sectors are often interlinked. When working on projects for an individual cause, I often find factors from all these sectors come into play. Try to address one of these issues and you will most probably see improvements in the other areas.
Let me give you an example of how these areas can all be linked.
Aisha is 10 years old. She has never attended school because someone has to stay home and walk the distance to collect water for her family. She walks to reservoirs further and further away as water sources closer to her home are sequentially exhausted or dry up (water security around the globe is another issue I could talk for hours about). The actual policies of water management and distribution are controlled by men in power. Even in her family it’s the men (who get to attend school) that are the ones that dictate her duties. The years pass and water an food security take an increasing toll on the family. They are forced to essentially sell their daughter to an agent working to supply domestic help to wealthy Khaleeji Middle Eastern families (bonded labour is a huge and seriously under addressed problem in the Middle East, the desperate state of poor people is preyed upon and these people are made to work and live in terrible conditions with little or no pay. These people have no rights, equating their plight to modern day slavery). Aisha is routinely verbally and physically abused by her “owners” and also sexually abused by the males in the family. This how she lives out her days until she is an old women who cannot work anymore and her employees cast her aside. She is sent back home, where she is of no use to her family. She has no sense of self and no skills or education which means she has nil value to society. Ultimately as a result of her hard life, which she had little control over, she is sentenced to destituteness and begging. Her inevitable death and her cessation of existence on this earth just like her life does not cause anyone to bat an eyelid. Did she ever exist? Not in our collective conscience that’s for sure.
You might say “well Maggie, that’s a very nicely woven on-off story used to conveniently prove your claims” …The truth is I wish it were a one off story! This infact is a story that is sickeningly deja-vu. Growing up in Qatar I heard variations of this story again and again and again like some broken record from hell. Replace Aisha and the country and with other names and the facts would remain the same for too many people in too many countries.
This is my motivation.