I think it's incredible that one of America's biggest Middle Eastern allies, the United Arab Emirates, is ruled by a man-Sheikh Muhammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum-who, along with his brother and deputy ruler Sheikh Hamdan, are accussed of engaging in the trafficking of young boys, most under the age of ten. Yet, the Sheikh, who owns hundreds of horses that he keeps in Ocala Florida, was sued in a Miami Court. The papers were served to him in Kentucky, where he was in the process of buying thoroughbred horses.
The Sheikh is a big owner of throughbred horses, and has had horses run in the Kentucky Derby, and other races. Likewise, he is a fanatical devotee of the ancient bedouin sport of camel racing, and that is exactly where he seems to have run afoul of the law. The law that he himself has passed, and has sought over the years to implement and enforce, according to The Ansar Barney Trust, which is a Pakistani based human rights group that has lobbied and fought to end the practice of trafficking in human slavery, including that of children for the purposes of enforced work as camel jockeys.
The group has arranged for the shelter and rehabilitation of hundreds of former child camel jockeys and has applauded the Sheiks efforts to change the culture of camel racing, by the development and the gradual implementation of robot camel jockeys.
Still, according to various civil rights groups, as reported here on the Aljazeera website, the efforts of the Sheikh would seem to be half-hearted at best, considering that he may be responsible for as many as tens of thousands of children who have been purchased as slaves to meet the demands of the wildly popular sport.
The children reportedly come mainly from Pakistan, Bangla Desh, and some other parts of the Muslim world, and are typically either sold outright by their parents, or the parents are paid on a monthly basis. They are fed as little as pssible in order to keep their weight down, three biscuits and water being a typical days total food intake. Some are even injected with hormones in order to keep their weight down as low as possible past puberty and into their teen years.
They are expected to devote the entirety of their waking hours to training and racing. Any deviation is often met with brutal punsihment, including beating with metal rods. Some of the young boys have even been raped by their owners. They are kept in altogether miserable conditions, while the camels themselves are treated far better, as it is they who are the valuble commodity. The boys are expendble and, apparently, easily replaceable.
A small number of them, it is said, actually enjoy this life, which makes you wonder exactly what kind of life they lived before. For the most part, though, the brutality of their treatment is severe. It is further alleged that some of the owners even treat them brutally during the races. If they are uncomfortable, in fear, and crying-or screaming-this seems to effect the camels. It makes them run faster.
Did I point out that this is a wildly popular sport throughout certain Arabs states? Popularity of course implies a wide degree of acceptance. And these are the people that George Bush-and Bill Cliton, as well-favored allowing to run our ports. It's mind boggling.
Still, what can you do? This is a perfect eample of the conundrum the West has to deal with in regards to the Middle East. You either have people like this you have to deal with, or religous fundamentalists who would prefer to set up Islamic "Republics" based on sharia law. Depose one set of brutal, corrupt dictators and you get something that may be worse, as Jimmy Carter discovered in regards to Iran, a mistake we are still paying for.
And as George Bush, the Sheiks ally, may be finally starting to learn, whether he wants to admit it or not. At any rate, as long as he has a good, solid ally in the person of Sheikh Maktoum, he is unlikely to rock the boat. Hopefully, the Sheikh will finally make good on his pledges to uphold the law he himself passed in 1992. The way it looks for now, the law was evidently never meant to be more than diplomatic window dressing.
In themeantime, these childrens lives have been ruined, their childhoods lost, their futures destroyed. It will be years no doubt before the technology of robot camel jockeys is perfected to the degree that they can be widely and permanently implemented, and hopefully, gradually accepted by the for now skeptical fans of the sport of bedouin camel racing.
In the meantime, as supplies of young camel jockeys hopefully dry up, the current batch can be hidden away, injected with growth inhibiting hormones, and hopefully treated a little better, as they become a bit less expendable.
What other choice do they have?