Hamoud Abu Talib
Okaz
ONE of the worst types of indifference to people’s misery is to take advantage of their problems, pretending to offer help and assistance by faking the hurdles they face. This practice is totally unethical and inhumane.
In fact, this behavior weakens empathy and makes the struggling population reach an unprecedented level of despair when they are constantly told and reminded of society’s unity and ethics. The result is always terrible when the victims of such practices are young people seeking real opportunities in life.
These men seek decent jobs to make ends meet. Recently I read a Tweet by a young Saudi named Ahmed Al-Ghazi. His comments ignited a social media storm. The young man shared shocking details of his experience with the program “Israr”, which is being broadcast by one of the satellite television channels in cooperation with the Human Resources Development Fund (Hadaf).
This program gives the impression that it is the savior of young men and women by granting them their dream jobs that fall from the heavens to the program’s studio in the hands of a lucky man.
Everything negative in the program may be pardonable except what the young man recounts in detail, muddying the very objective of the program.
We can’t accept any excuse for what happened — if the claims by Ahmed Al-Ghazi were true — from the people in charge of the fund or the team that prepares the program, especially its hostess who constantly whined about her immense suffering during the shooting in extreme temperatures that reached 50 degrees Celsius.
She has every right to complain because maintaining the youthfulness of her skin is much more important than sacrificing it for a trivial delusional job for a marginal youth.
The positive part of the story is that Minister of Labor Mufrej Al-Haqbani joined the line quickly and issued orders to launch an immediate investigation into the entire episode. He promised to announce the results with complete transparency, in addition to securing a job for the young man in question.
This is a praiseworthy intervention from a minister, but I hope the honorable minister, who I know has a high sense of responsibility and is a very dynamic person, will allow me to say that solving individual problems is an exhausting task and inefficient process.
It would be better if you could delve deep into this sensitive issue that concerns the future of many young men and women. I wish you could decrease the number of people abusing and hindering the system. I know God willing you are capable of doing that.
