Deliberate Heros

We all hear about heroes on the news and in the papers and interwebby thing.

In my opinion there are two types of heroes; accidental and deliberate.

An accidental hero is the soldier who dives on a grenade saving his buddies, or does something other than run, gets shot in a firefight, is lucky enough to survive and save a few other guys along the way. These are heroes who do not have time to think about the consequences of their actions, they did what seemed right in the moment and succeeded at it.

The 9-11 firefighters are another form of accidental hero, they fell back on their training and never gave a second thought to running into a burning building. It is what they do, their job. They go through training and they fall back on procedures when things get stressful.

A deliberate hero takes another form. It could be the 9-11 firefighter who narrowley got out of the building, lost comrades and friends, and still chooses to go into burning buildings.

A deliberate hero is someone who has time to know the consequences, has other choices, and continues to follow the path even if it is dangerous or unhealthy. 

A less publicized deliberate hero is a found everywhere, a parent or a spouse taking care of a sick loved one when the outcome is uncertain. Someone who hates their job but continues to go anyway because it is the right thing to do and job choices are limited, he or she stays year after miserable year. The person who has to leave his kids and travel for work knowing the other parent is unfit. They have choices, some will say you do it for love or duty or other reasons. Regardless of the reasons, informed choices are made, and these are deliberate heroes. 

For those that don't know, I have been to Saudi Arabia three times now. It was never on my shortlist of places I wanted to see, not even last on any list I may have had. Each time I go, I hope it is my last.

Saudi is a dictatorship, they call it a Kingdom. They are the same thing; one person decides what is right or wrong for all the other people. Good and bad people have held both roles in history and our perception of a King is usually better than our perception of a dictator, mostly because dictators are the result of a coup and Kings are born into the office.

Saudi is a Kingdom/Dictatorship because Abdul-Aziz bin Saud took over his family's ancestral home in 1902 and basically took over the rest of the region in following years and by 1932 the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was formalized.  Saudi was one of the poorest nations on earth until oil was discovered in 1938. Since then it has become one of the richest countries and as a result, it seems a few family squabbles. At any rate, what is important for this blog, is the infrastructure of the country. 

Not many true Saudi's seem to work for a living. Most of that is left to contractors imported from other countries. 

There is a very real racial stratification of labor in the plants I have worked in. I am not going to go into details, suffice it to say that job descriptions are tied to the country or race one belongs to. Even living arrangements are racially motivated. 

Coming back around to the title of this blog, many of the people I have met in the bottling plants are deliberate heros; they choose to live and work in a different country so their families can have a better life. 

Some of the stuff they have to deal with; 

• Only allowed to go home once a year, after the initial two year stint. 
• they surrender their passports to the company
• depending on the position in the plant between 2 to 6 guys share a dorm
• Work six 12 hours days each week, often seven
• twice a week they are allowed to ride the bus into town
• Cooking is not allowed, they are fed in the commissary each day. (Think school lunch for three meals a day, every day) I was allowed to eat the good food, and couldn't wait to eat somewhere else after about 4 days. 
• Unless they are a particular sect of Muslim, they are not allowed to practice their own religion. 
• There is internet access, strictly controlled and monitored by the Mutaween (Religious police)
• No gambling allowed
• No Alcohol
• No Women
• No Children
• when working in the plant, they have one job. That is all they do. No job trading or safety committees. No concern for repetitive motion injuries. No unions or any kind of representation. 
• If you break your contract and want to go home...well lets not go there. 

They all say the first two years are the hardest. One of the electricians I talked to got tears in his eyes when I asked about his family. He is in the fourteenth month of his first two years and has a 4 and 8 year old at home. Because he works there, his kids can go to school, his family can live in a nice apartment. Without this job, he would not have work. 

Bachelor Housing is for the guys working in the plant and on the farms. 

The managers can choose to live here, or off compound. Most choose this because it is safer. My "villa" is on the right.

Below is a picture of several of the employees. The white shirts are machine operators, very sought after jobs given mostly to Phillipinos. They also get most of the maintenance jobs.

The blue shirts move product, think pallet jack not hilo or fork truck. They wheel around half ton crates of milk every few minutes. Do Not get in the way! The guys in the picture are Egyptian and Pakistani.

The guy kneeling in front is one of the few Saudi's that work. He is very friendly and always has a smile on his face. 

The white guy is an Australian. He lives in Thailand and works in India and Saudi.

These guys are true, deliberate heroes, They sacrifice their lives in this place so their families can live better back home. The guy on the extreme left side of the picture has been there over 15 years and has 4 children at home. (spaced about a year apart, no doubt). Most of the operators have at least 15 years, one of the guys not pictured here has over 25 years in. 

As an American, I cannot imagine having to make choices like this.