Monday, July 28, 2008

The Great Discremenation

Humans don’t take kindly to outsiders especially when they look differently. History is heaped with the corpses of those who were lynched, bayoneted or gassed because of their race, religion or nationality. Throughout the history the one group has imposed its racial superiority on another. Imperialism has imposed various forms of apartheid and racial segregation in all four continents. Today, most westerners and some Afghans think that the days of racism are gone. Racism belongs to history and they now have respect for all people, disregarding their skin colour. Since the international intervention in Afghanistan, Americans and the rest of the international community have presented their military and political presence to support democracy and human rights and frankly they got me believing in it for five years. I hear say that discrimination is today deeply institutionalised than any other time before. Westerners are in control of Afghanistan and they exercise discrimination on a mass scale. I am an educated person and I deal with foreigners who run organisations in Afghanistan. one would think there might be racism when western troops handle ordinary afghans on the street but not in formal level but it does exist. An afghan earn less and will not be employed in key positions in foreign organisation who are to serve Afghans. I am lately looking for a job and I have applied for many with foreign organisations; understandably enough I only apply for jobs I like but they seem to be only reserved for foreigners even I match the criteria. I do not get a response from most of the employers. I have applied lately for a job as a TV Producer with ISAF. I was denied the job without considering my qualification because I am Afghan, it is only reserved for westerners. People earn less because of their race or their sex, I think this is unfair and many people agree with this. No western institution, apparently, should be enforcing discrimination of earning based on race or sex but ISAF do and I wrote to NATO headquarter to say this is indecent and a bad policy but they didn’t care to reply.
Let’s look at sex discrimination first, according to a recent summary by the economists Michael Clemens (link to the publication http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/16352 ) white men earn 27 per cent more in the US than white women. That figure compares the hourly wage of full-time workers with similar qualifications and experience. Again making best efforts to compare like with like, the economists found that white men earn 7 per cent more than black men in the US. Look back to 1939, and the like-with-like wage premium for whites in the US was 60 per cent. In modern Pakistan, meanwhile, men earn three times as much as equally qualified women. I do not have any figures for Afghanistan but I promise you it will not look good. None of these numbers is trivial: most are appalling.
It is even possible to calculate the implicit wage loss suffered by US slaves. Several economists have attempted to do this by comparing the “compensation” – food, clothes, shelter and perhaps some medical care – received by slaves with how much one slave-owner would pay another to rent a slave. Of course, low wages were hardly the chief reason that slavery was an atrocity. Yet had slaves earned for their labour what slave-owners paid each other for it, the wage would have been three or four times higher than the basic subsistence owners saw fit to provide.
There is a huge gap between what slaves would have earned in a free labour market and what in fact they were forced to accept. But the gap is dwarfed by the difference between what my income as an Afghan with a Master degree and five years of managerial experience in Afghanistan and Westerners with a Bachelor degree with no Afghanistan experience could earn in Afghanistan. in the letter, ISAF recruitment refers me to apply for local jobs; local jobs are paid ten to twenty times less than the job I applied for. Recruitment discrimination practiced by ISAF and almost all other foreign organisation in Afghanistan cause a greater loss of wages than racial and sexual discrimination – and even greater even than slavery. This is what I call the great discrimination.
You could say my argument has an agenda and I am playing this but don’t doubt the numbers; have a look for yourself and see the differences between jobs offered for Afghans and those for westerners http://www.nato.int/isaf/services/vacancies/index.html, I see no reason to doubt the numbers. The high wage to an Afghan benefits Afghanistan directly and indirectly, directly an Afghan would contribute by paying high taxes and indirectly an Afghan will spend the money in Afghanistan.
The face of nationalism has changed in the twenty first century; it is economical today which doesn’t mean it is better than twenty century nationalism. Probably better than it is extreme forms exposed as Nazism. National states impose restriction on employment and labour markets to benefit their national economy; this is at the cost of many people barred from accessing better wages, consequently more opportunities in life. nevertheless what I am talking about is different to economic nationalism. I am talking about not having access to jobs in your own country. in my own country, merely because of my nationality I am precluded from employment in many positions.
This leads me to say that discrimination is today institutionalised. Is this the modern form of racism? Foreign organisations employing Afghans at considerably lower wages privileges westerners over Afghans in their own country and it is no better than arbitrarily privileging whites over blacks or brown. I understand how a liberal westerner working in Kabul could not see things like this. They are in a cyst of their own and they have certain ideas of equality and Afghans. Westerners working in Afghanistan despite their claim of humanity and all the rest of things which goes with liberal westerners seriously lack empathy, they do not understand how these discrimination effect an Afghan who is equally qualified but institutional barred from being economically equal with westerners in his own country and not allowed to travel to the west.

17 comments:

Unknown said...

You're absolutely right, Sanjar. The world is a horribly racist place. Here's my suggestion for a solution, tell me what you think. The best way to make sure this doesn't exist in the future is to get rid of the races. Interracial marriage should be given tax incentives, and people should be encouraged to mix the races. Only when no one is "white" will everyone be treated like a "white" person. When no one is "Afghan", everyone will be "Afghan."

If that happens, though, it won't be any time soon...

Anonymous said...

i wonder if westerners really lack empathy!! i believe they don't. when something happen to a few friend they talk and offer support, they try to imagine all possible scenarios how it feels. the reason they don't understand afghans is because they don't take you as an equal fellow human. they are concerned about your human rights but you are not the same human as a whiteman. westeners treat afghans with inferiority and the kind of empathy they have for afghans is pitiful.

Anonymous said...

Sanjar, I think you're misguided to imply that only white people are racist. Racism pervades every society that is made up of several ethnicities and races. There is a plethora of academic literature on the subject.

Secondly, how do you know that the person who denied your application is white? Only 66% of America is of white European stock (the US military reflects this as well). The rest is Hispanic(13%), Black(13%), Asian, Native American, and mixed. Also, did you forget that Turkey is in NATO?

Thirdly, I think you are too smart to actually think you were denied the position because you are not "white". How could you argue this when the US is on the verge of electing Sen. Obama to the presidency? It's too easy to suggest racism--of ALL the possible reasons, why do you automatically assume that the requirement that someone be a NATO-country citizen is racist? Seriously...

Anonymous said...

Sanjar,

Afghanistan is now a capitalist, democratic free country. Afghanistan is not yet prosperous, but the seeds of opportunity have been planted.

In order to realize the promise of this prosperity, you must ignore setbacks and doggedly persist in seeking opportunities for yourself.

You may need to apply to 100 jobs before you get what you want.

In other systems it is about who you know, but success in capitalism is about not giving up.

Greg from USA

Anonymous said...

Sanjar,

I took a look at the job list - it says "These positions are only for civilians who are citizens of any nation, which can provide NATO recognized security clearance with the exception of host nation citizens."

If they hire an Afghan Citizen and they are one of the bad guys who winds up infiltrating a high level gathering, the person who wrote the job posting is going to be in trouble for opening up the job to "security risks".

If your passion lies with that job in particular, you may need to get creative. In the USA, we find a path that will lead our goal. This is just an example of how you could get that job in particular:

1. Negotiate to become an interpreter for 12 months to be granted US citizenship
2. Use your US citizenship to apply for this job restricted to international civilians.

Your employers would be happy to hire you since they can make a big deal about being able to hire locally and "improve their diversity"

Greg from USA

Anonymous said...

One last point, you are right that (white) people are looking at you differently because you are Afghan. You are right that Afghans will be paid less. Employers don't respond to your application. Women and minorities earn less, etc.

Here are the reasons:
- You are looked at differently because you are different. You can't change the past ten thousand years of conditioning with a few civil rights marches. Just because you are different does not mean you can't become better paid and more loved by the white man than his own brother. It takes time and patience.

- Afghans are paid less due to supply and demand - the supply of people with security clearance is low. Those people demand more money because of cost of living factors in their own country. Finally, a law could be written to guarantee equal pay for the same work, but then a privileged few get the good pay for being lucky.

- I once saw my boss looking at resumes and tossing most of them on the ground after less than 5 seconds. Surely those people were not responded to, but my boss was a busy person, and due to cutbacks had no secretary to write a response letter. It may seem rude to neglect to write that response letter, but in an age of cutthroat competition, it is understandable.

- Finally, minorities earn less, but in the US, that is getting better, except for some minorities who are stuck in a rut; whose heroes glamorize poverty and criminal behavior.

Don't give up on your dreams. You live in a land of opportunity now.

Greg from USA

Anonymous said...

I am working for an International NGO in Kabul and I have the same and even more responsibilities than a European expatriate,I know more about the job and I am more qualified than the European but guess what? I am paid only 10% of his salary and benifits!

Does any one see the racism or whatever you call it or is it only me?

Anonymous said...

Hi Sanjar,

I'd like to comment on some of the comments, but i won't - because my comment would be longer than your original post!

What you say is quite right. Although i think dismissing it as just a question of racism is simplifying the matter too much. It's a complicated issue - and only part of it really comes down to racism as such.

I won't comment on ISAF itself, because they're military - and the military are weird and paranoid and have a bizarre perspective on reality. I don't entirely understand the military mentality - but i do know that people like you and me don't join!

As far as the rest of the aid/development machine in Afghanistan goes, though, i think the problems are mainly related to cultural differences, language limitations, fear, and the fact that they don't really know what they're doing.

What's going on in Afghanistan is colonization. But it's being implemented by people who mostly object to colonization on principle. There is racism involved, but again, it's being carried out mostly by people who, on principle, are anti-racist.

They're completely out of their depth. They don't really understand Afghan culture. Mostly they don't speak either Afghan language. Fundamentally, they want to make the world a better place and hope that what they're doing is making some contribution to that. But the work they're doing is interesting and well-paid, and almost certainly offers them opportunities that they wouldn't get if they stayed at home. If they questioned their role too deeply, they'd have to go home and do a boring and probably not very well paid job. Mostly they do actually care, but if they haven't managed to delude themselves that what they're doing is a good thing, they don't know what they could do to change the situation. They're also answerable to bosses in another country who know even less about anything than the people in Afghanistan do.

The worst problem is that virtually nothing is being achieved - even though billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of person-hours are being put into the process. This scenario is repeated all over the world, wherever these "international community" "development" disneyworlds pop up. And i'm sure it produces the same resentment among the local population everywhere else, too. That was certainly true of the UN's disneyworld in East Timor.

None of the foreign workers can solve these problems - even if they wanted to and tried hard. Change can only come from the Afghan people. The only solution is for Afghans to join together and create structures of their own that can become strong enough to push out and take over from the international NGOs. The biggest problem is getting enough money to do that. But, taking into account that almost all the "aid" money spent on Afghanistan is wasted, it could probably be done on a relatively low budget.

Anonymous said...

Hi Sanjar, I’m glad you have joined this site and are writing from Afghanistan. We don’t get to hear much from Afghans themselves. It is so fresh and heart warming to hear from you.

Racism is something that will stay on, at least for a very long time. It must be human nature to see the ’other’ contemptuously or suspiciously.

Anonymous said...

Very well written article with many valid points. I am sorry you have had such negative experiences but thank you so much for sharing. I wish you the best in all endeavors

Anonymous said...

It is really unfortunate to see such blatant discrimination. How will we ever evolve towards equal society with equal opportunities for all?
Unless there is a major attitude shift it looks impossible.

Anonymous said...

The major attitude shift that you are talking about will hardly ever happen Madhuri. We in India are so narrow minded ourselves and have so many prejudices against people from other parts in our country. I think it will take very very long... For that shift to happen...

Anonymous said...

Racism in their own country by the white people is something that can’t be digested easily right? It is a pity that after getting bombed like crazy they have to face discrimination in their own country and can’t apply for jobs..

Anonymous said...

I truly sympathise with you Mr. Sanjar, especially because we at India also share with you the legacy of being sidelined and marginalised in our own nation under the colonial rule. I guess you people at Afghanistan are just living our past miseries, which is very painful.

Anonymous said...

A good write-up with deep insight. Discrimination is of course institutionalized today and moreover what is so pathetic about it is seldom people do care about it.

I.:.S.:. said...

bastards bastards bastards. war is a business and the war reconstruction industry is a scam. live lucky.

I.:.S.:. said...

"Afghanistan is now a capitalist, democratic free country." - Greg lives in a dream world.


As another observation, re. Westerners lacking empathy. When I was last in Afghanistan I would sit in Shar-e-Now park drinking tea and talking with everyone and anyone, to meet people and practise talking Persian.

Everyone, and everyone, said I was the only Western foreigner they had ever met there. How can someone who only ever sees a country through the tinted window of a 4x4 or military vehicle possibly have any clue about anything?