I wasn’t going to post on Nour Miyati’s suffering again. I swore I wouldn’t. Maybe I thought if I didn’t put up anything, then it would all just go away. However, being an ostrich has real limits. And if we aren’t at least willing to bear witness to another’s agony, then do we have the right to speak at all?
What the Saudis have done, what they have permitted to be done, to Ms. Miyati is so inhumane that it almost beggars description.
Let's begin with some background from previous posts.
First of all, this woman didn’t go to the authorities — her owner dropped her bruised and battered body at the hospital, denying any responsibility for her condition:
A 25-year-old maid who came to Saudi Arabia as a guest worker will leave behind most of her fingers and toes and part of her right foot when she is repatriated to Indonesia. In addition to the amputations, necessitated by gangrene, several teeth had been knocked out and she is in danger of losing an eye as a result of severe beatings. |
That was then. In May, things started to go sideways. All of a sudden, it wasn’t the employers’ fault. Or if it was, they were only guilty of neglect. But the maid, she was really the guilty party. That woman had the nerve to accuse her
Brutalization is not just a family affair in Saudi Arabia. The state is a willing and eager partner. And it can twist arms with a mighty force, especially arms with hands whose fingers are missing. On the one hand, there is the medical committee's report: | |
A medical committee set up by Riyadh Governor from a number of specialists from the Ministry of Health concluded that the maid suffered wounds and bruises to her body, "suggesting she has been the victim of violence and that the gangrene could not have been caused as a direct result of beating and that it probably was caused by an inherent disease suffered by the patient." |
Now, to bring you up to date, in case you’ve managed to avoid this until now. It’s hardly “news” anymore, since it’s been floating around the blogosphere for awhile. The Religious Policeman (whose blog is dedicated “In Memory of the lives of 15 Makkah Schoolgirls, lost when their school burnt down on Monday, 11th March, 2002. The Religious Police would not allow them to leave the building, nor allow the Firemen to enter”) had a few sardonic things to say about how judges arrive at their numerology when it comes to handing down lashings for false allegations:
...But we [he is referring to the Saudis] have lost our 14th-Century pre-eminence in Maths. And we are dealing with a crime against an Indonesian here, and they are Third World, and she is a woman, and there are plenty more on the next 747 from Jakarta. But that's not all. After all, didn't the Indonesian woman change her testimony? That just shows you can't trust these people. And she must be punished for changing her testimony. So more Maths. If you get 35 lashes for causing someone to lose fingers and toes, and knocking out several of their teeth [these were the charges against her A Riyadh judge sentenced an Indonesian maid, who accused her sponsor and his wife of torturing her, to 79 lashes yesterday. So I got that wrong, as well. And the ironic thing is that, if we lashed people across the hand instead of across the back, then she wouldn't feel it, because she's lost her fingers. But Indonesian housemaids never seem to have any luck. |
Anyone with a shred of human decency who was unfortunate to have been born a citizen of that Saudi hell hole should find another country ASAP. Like yesterday. A decent human being could not, in good conscience, ally him or herself with this depravity.
For the rest of us, there is nothing we can do. You can’t throw money at evil. You can’t wish it away. You can — as I did — hide from it because it’s so painful to think about. To those of our readers who believe in the efficacy of prayer, I ask that you join me every morning in doing just that. Pick your time and place and give this woman’s plight a moment of your soul’s attention.
And you, Barbara Walters, will get whatever it is you deserve for giving these creeps legitimacy by interviewing them. May you be chained forever to the degenerate King you babbled with. May you both endure an eternal interview with one another. I can't think of a more fitting existence for you both. If you had any heart at all, woman, you'd be using your influence to collect some funds for this victim of the Devil himself. But you won't lift a finger, will you? On to the next celebrity.
And let me tell you something, President George Bush. If you ever hold hands with one of these degenerates again…then I pity you. You, sir, know better than anyone — since you are privy to information not available to the rest of us — what horrors these Saudi princes are. If you do not speak out before you leave office, then God have mercy on your soul. It would take an immensity only God possesses to forgive you for colluding with them in the name of whatever policy you have in place.
Basta!
11 comments:
Good post, Dymphna.
Tell it sister. And I agree 100% about Pres. Bush and the Saudi's.
Thanks for sharing this.
Happy New Year to you and the Baron.
I too am not a very happy when it comes to Saudi Arabia and their dirtbag, thuggish rulers.
Nonetheless, there is just a few problems:
(1) the entire infrastructure of American society is built on and completely dependent upon cheap energy in the form of imported petroleum. Take away the cheap energy and the whole thing collapses like a house of cards.
(2) The Soddies control a big enough chunk of the world's petroleum reserves to have a huge influence on its price.
So whatever the Prez does will be necessarily constrained by the above facts.
He could always do something really drastic like use the military to seize the Soddie oil fields, assuming they can do it quickly enough to prevent the Soddies from sabotaging them. Of course, the "international community" will necessarily view such an action as undisguised "imperialism".
So it's good to vent our disgust with the Soddie thugocrats, but I've never heard any viable suggestions, yet, about what to do regarding the above two facts. But I am open to hear any suggestions.
Dymphna and Baron, what do you think?
Oengus Moonbones --
For starters, we could have refrained from sending Karen Hughes to Riadyh to sweet-talk a bunch of spoiled Saudi women who keep maids in virtual slavery.
For two, we could mention OUT LOUD that slavery needs to stop and we could support Indonesia in this. Their people suffer horribly. As do the Filippinos.
For three, we could start being honest about the destruction the Saudis are attempting to wreak in our country with their vicious propaganda.
For four, we could blister Harvard and Georgetown for taking that filthy money from the Saudi last week. That is right up there with the sleaze for 2005.
For five, we could demand that the State Dept show up at the Judiciary Committee hearing on the Saudi connection to terror in this country. They pulled a no-show.
Finally, President Bush can keep his hands to himself. We may need their oil, but they need our money just as badly. It's a symbiotic deal...
There is some moral equation that is missing here and Bush is not supplying it.
Is Indonesia doing anything for this woman, one of their muslim citizens? Is there some kind of sweetheart deal? It seems that Indonesia is the "pimp" and the SAuds are the "John." Islamic depravity just keeps on coming, and you KNOW its just the TIP of the iceberg. Any wonder our OWN little escape artist from justice, MJ, is living it up in the land of the "little boys?" I'm surprised he didn't convert years ago.
Considering their mosque library content (in the USA) is still a hate crime..WHY ARE WE FRIENDS WITH THESE CRETINS OF THE 8TH CENTURY?
And if it's for THAT reason, WHY DON'T WE HAVE A HUGE MANHATTAN PROJECT TO GET US OFF OF OIL?
Harvard and Georgetown are now dhimmis in the making having succumbed to a tool of FATAH. Lawrence Sommers (sp?) needs spine replacement therapy
phil.phil--
A Manhattan project is certainly in order, isn't it? There *are* lots of people working on it, though. Funny enough, the last piece I read was at the Manhattan Institute -- I don't have them blogrolled, but you can get there thru City Journal, which I do have. I believe they underwrite City Journal.
Indonesia is desperately poor. SA has them by the short hairs and they know it. Same with the Philippines, which you must know. Both have an economy which depends on the remittances sent back by these workers.
In some ways, Saudi Arabia is a microcosm of what happens here with illegal immigration. Mexico is dependent on that money coming back, and we have jobs Americans don't want. Same with the Sauds, only more so.
The Indonesian Embassy has a safe house and many women go there. But it's a dicey situation and there are some contractors that they now refuse to work with.
In the end, it's about the money. But so it is for the Saudis and I think we could bring more pressure to bear. It's a sink hole of depravity and white slave traffic of small boys and girls is brisk.
Thanks for the response, Dymphna. Yes, I agree with you. Even if we cannot, for now, do anything hard-power-wise about the Soddies (seize their oil fields, overthrow their dirtbag government, etc.), then at least we can exercise some soft-power, and by following some of your suggestions, we can make our disgust with them pretty clear. Like you, I really don't like it when the Prez gets too chummy with the Soddies. He needs to be a little less "Sunday go-to-meeting nice" and a little more "Nixonian in ruthlessness". A little more reserve is in order, along with some more coldly polite distaste, and a little more projecting the attitude that we consider a meeting with Soddie representatives as being like having lunch with sewer rats.
So whatever the Prez does will be necessarily constrained by the above facts.
Stage a coup like in Chile, Vietnam, Indonesia all were successful and produced friendly regimes. Place a military dictator in control, reliant upon military strength and American backing he could gut the power of the religious. The problem may re-occur in 20 or 50 years but by then the oil will be running out.
But America won't because America is constrained by a force more powerful than oil supply, national interest or international condemnation - a force called campaign financing & greed. Bush will recieve a donation to his library just like the Sauds donated hugh amounts to Bush I & to Clinton and they send finance to the Dems & the GOP.
quote: "…a force called campaign financing & greed. Bush will receive a donation to his library…"
It feels good to vent one's spleen and frustrations, to project on the screen of our imaginations all sorts of convoluted, dire scenarios of dark conspiracies and assorted evil goings-on behind the scenes. It gives the feeling that everything is explained.
But, in the end, we need to get serious. And so far, I see very little in the blogosphere that's serious anymore. Nowadays, everybody seems to be on a binge of some kind. So, even after we've finished impeaching everybody, as it were, who are we left with to lead us out of the big mess the country's in? The self-serving windbags in Congress? The Democrats, who themselves are increasingly dominated by shrieking moonbats? Look to them for our defense? Yeah, right.
As bad as the Prez might be, he's about the best we've got so far, and so we're stuck with him. But in his favor, I suspect he actually does want to take out the terrorists before they get another shot at killing lots and lots of us while we're sitting at our desks at work, or riding the subway or an airplane. And who knows? Maybe someday—I hope—he'll listen to Dymphna's advice.
oengus asked:
Dymphna and Baron, what do you think?
- - - - - - - - - -
... some more pertinent questions would be:
What do you drive?
Is there a commuter rail system where you live - and if not, why not?
How do you heat your house - and how much larger is it per person than the house you grew up in?
Dymphna, I'm only just reading this now, but great post. Thank you.
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