The Story Of Qassim, A Hotel Worker/Slave in Iraq

[Mesopotamian]

I would like to start this post to highlight some of the events in my friend's life "Qassim", and then add some of my thoughts about it. I will write the entries in blue so that it is not mixed with the discussions if any.

Qassim is a shiite man, around 25 years old. He came to the north of Iraq escaping the Shiite household south in order to gain his bread. He's about 170 CM tall, skinny, with a brown skin color.

When I first met him, he was this bully who was trying to bully the other Syrian worker into submission, although the latter was working in the hotel before Qassim arrives. I didn't like him at first, and especially because I couldn't trust him. One time I met another new resident in the hotel, and I was surprised that he knows everything about me, so I told myself that Qassim has told him what I do, where I am from...etc. I discovered that Qassim has a weak personality, and can't say no to anybody, this is why when he's asked, he gave them all the info about me.

Qassim was making decent money when the oil prices were up as a worker in refreshments shop, and he told me he was like making 7 times his current salary now that he's working in the hotel, but when the money dried up, he decided that it is OK to work anything in order to feed his family and children back home.

Our relationship grows stronger when Qassim had an accident, and it goes like this: While I was cooking on my upper 3rd floor, I heard a loud cry, only to rush to the sound and see Qassim on the floor, he was in deep pain. He was able to manage to tell me one word 'the refrigerator' So I knew he was shocked by the refrigerator nearby in one of the hotel rooms. Many residents came out to see us, and I instructed them that they should immediately go down to the management and call the manager to come, and they did so.

Manager came, and we stood all there, and they have zero knowledge on first aid, unlike me, I am trained in first aid and CPR, so they tried to improvise and they tried to apply their knowledge on Qassim. One of them started to massage his chest, one of them offered to get him to hospital, but non-of them gave him a blanket or tried to cover him until I did. As he was lying on the wall semi-paralized, the people were trying to figure out what to do to him.

The thing that I am trained in CPR cuz I am open-minded enough to believe in science, and the hotel manager knows that I am trained, cuz I showed him the CPR doll given to me by my instructor before I took it to my storage room,  yet he and his brother partner are so closed minded, and they think that whatever accident/emergency happens to a person, the he should be rushed in their car to a emergency hospital, and also the fact that there's no "good Samiritan" laws in the country, they all discourage me to even think of practicing CPR on Qassim even if in case he is unable to breath, cuz this will get me in troubles, and might get me jailed later if Qassim didn't make it afterwards.

One more thing to add to the story, is that the faulty refrigerator was known to be faulty months ago and it was showing signs, but the manager did nothing to repair it, but whenever it was acting up, he would order someone to unplug it. He was unable with his unscientific psyche to see that it could do such a harm.

About 20 minutes later from first receiving the shock, Qassim was recovering again, and they helped him to get up. Took him downstairs, and gave him a hot drink. Two hours later, Qassim was up and walking normal. but trying to recall the pain he had experienced in that moement, he said nothing that he know of before, and he said he struggled to tell me that it is the refrigerator because he was thinking that it might also shock me too. I told him that I am glad that he made it, and that I did understand what he meant when I got to him.

PS: I called Qassim slave because he's the only worker in a hotel of 20 rooms, and he's responsible on all the cleaning, receiving guests, gate keeping, and he has no freedom of a day off, he sleeps in the reception area, while the hotel is owned by three partners including the manager, and its revenue is responsible to run families of these three partners, probably in total 20 people.

This post is written after I took 50mg of Modafinil, it just makes me want to write!

 

Edited February 7, 2021 by Mesopotamian

[Mesopotamian]

I woke up and did my usual daily morning routine, and the day was usual, however Qaaim didn't show up to clean the neigbour rooms, so I didn't pay attention at first, and I thought that he will come afternoon after he has his lunch. Qassim didn't show up, and when I went down to go have a meal, I didn't see him at the hotel lobby, and when I came out from the dinner, I asked Faisal, the hotel manager where's Qassim?  He replied that Qassim has gone since dawn, and that he called him at 5 AM stating that he'll be leaving to his family because his newly born child has died after 3 hours of delivering birth. It was his fourth child.

Qassim then started asking for money to cover the operation cost for his wife next day, and he asked for around $200 from hotel owner to be transferred to him. I told the manager that want to contribute $20 to him if possible, he said yes.

Many days pass by, and Faisal is waiting For Qassim to come back, calling him every day or so, stating that by now he should have been over the pain and preparing to come back to his work. Eventually, Qassim started ignoring Faisal's phone calles, this is when the latter started to have his suspicion that Qassim will never return and that he staged the story of his newly born child's death in order to escape and then steal him by asking advane payment or aid. Especially when he noticed him play online game.

I told him to be patient and that maybe he was playing so tha the can regain his balance and sanity after a tragic loss of his son.

Faisal meanwhile was working himself cleaning the rooms when Qassim was away, and he was just tired of doing that and decided to hire a worker. He agreed to hire a Syrian refugee female worker to help him cleam the room after he gave up oh Qassim's return, however, when I was shopping one day after around 10 days, I came back and saw Qassim in the vicinity of the hotel. I welcomed him and told him some words to express my sorrow on his child's death. He said he want to have a word with me, took me to his room near the reception area, and gave me a gift, a Paklava sweets box, he said this is because his wife is OK and doing well, and he's celebrating that. He said it is good that his wife is alive, because she is now "a tent over the rest of children's heads". In this stage-purple, red, and blue culture, it is pretty common that people call women in object names directly, he didn't say she's now functioniong as does a tent, protecting children, no , he said "God kept her a life, she's a tent over the children's heads" She doesn't have an importance hrself built into her person, but only matters her role.

Qassim didn't get along well with the new female worker, and the manager had high hopes that this worker is going to stay and help Qassim and also stay working at the hotel until the afternoon prayer time, but what he isn't able to notice that the hotel is a manly enviroment mostly, and that women cannot thrive there.

For me personally, I would expect that the Syrian worker would be happy to work in a prostitution house (not as a sex worker, but as an employee) rather than working in this hotel.