Monday, February 2, 2009

Being a Rural Migrant Worker

The financial crisis is indeed global. After seeing this picture of rural migrant workers in China sitting in a bare stark gray room each individually huddled over a bowl of noodles, I could not stop the tears. There is no community here. There is only work and bare sustenance. The space between them is obvious and perhaps indicative of their disconnectedness to society.


There is something about the dignity and necessity of work to provide for one's family that got the best of me. Tears flowed. According to the Associated Press, "up to $26 million rural migrant workers are now jobless." Yes, everywhere we are all tightening our belts. But to think that these, who are working faithfully for mere pennies, may now lose their jobs while we live well in relative wealth in comparison, my heart goes out. I cannot look at the photo and not feel compassion.

The global community has to think of global implications when making decisions and governments worldwide have to consider the hardship of all of its citizens. We have to also get the trade policies right. The respect and dignity of everyone worldwide is important.

2 comments:

Opaque said...

So true Judith. I agree with you. Hey, did you read the news article on "abandoned cars in the UAE airport"?

Apparently, around 80 (or more) cars owned by expats were found to be abandoned outside an International airport in UAE. They were registered to Indians, mostly engineers who lost their jobs as a result of this economic crisis.

Unable to pay off their debts because of loosing their jobs provoked them to flee from the country.

I recall an Ethiopian friend of mine who was in tears as he lost his job. He said, "When the world was enjoying, we were still suffering and hoping to gain help via recognition. Now, the world is suffering, but it is us, the poor ones who are summoned to hell. The rich remain unaffected. Yet again, we are unable to benifit from anything". The employers told him that they couldn't afford his, frankly cheap services any more.

I can relate to your feelings via this post.

Judith Ellis said...

Thank you for your story, Brosreview.

Even though this is a challenging time, it is also a time of great opportunity. There is a great expectancy that I feel and I am always consciousness of others; we are helpers one to another.

By the way, I had not heard of the abandoned car story, but if people can just walk away from their homes they will most certainly walk away from their cars. I have seen the former a lot.