Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Quote of the day - banning people from the mall

In December a new mall opened in my city. It's closer to the part of town where the laborers live and now that mall has banned those laborers from entering. An article in the newspaper gives plenty of quotes in support of the ban and interviews a laborer who said, "A ban like this makes us feel subhuman."

Of course, I find the ban appalling and there's no way I'll go there as long as the ban is in effect.

As I kept reading I saw that if a Saudi guy had his way I wouldn't be able to use the mall, either:
"In Saudi Arabia, single men are not allowed inside the mall on weekends and the evenings at all regardless of what class they are or what country they come from... I think the mall should ban entry to anyone who comes here without his family so as not to be branded as racist."
He's right that it's not racism but what should his idea be called?

Besides "stupid."

2 comments:

  1. deniseJuly 8, 2009 at 11:40 AM

    It's called living in a country where they don't believe all people are equal. I don't know how you live there.

    I'm not blind enough to think that the US has it all together, but we are certainly a long way from that.

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  2. AnnieBJuly 10, 2009 at 7:40 AM

    I had no idea Bawadi banned the laborers, but I saw it coming. When I saw the proposed location of the mall, I wondered aloud to Mike how it would make money because the Emiratis wouldn't shop at it if it were filled with laborers. Here's how they can tell if someone is a laborer or not, in case you're wondering: he dresses in particular clothing, most likely smells very bad and will be in a cluster of 3+ single men. If he cleans up and dresses up, he'll be allowed in.

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