Ramadhan In The Desert

It’s the time of the year again, the most significant month in the Muslim calendar when Muslims observe the fast from dawn to dusk for twenty nine or thirty days, depending on when the moon for the next month of Syawal is sighted. More significantly for me, it is the second Ramadhan in this bustling Arabian Gulf country which is developing at breakneck speed, rolling out projects to supply energy to the world and sort of trying to catch up, if not overtake the rest of world in terms of transforming its landscape with all the icons of modernity commonly seen as symbols of progress and prosperity.

In a few years from now, it is the Arabian Gulf countries which will boast the latest icons in the world, where the fantasies of engineers, architects and contractors are being turned into reality here in one of the most arid deserts in the world. A manifestation of the frantic pace of activity is the evidence that a quarter of the world’s construction tower cranes are currently operating in the Arabian Gulf, not to mention its voracious appetite for steel and cement.

Ramadhan this time around and for the next several years coincides with the summer season in the Arabian countries, a result of the peculiarity of the Muslim calendar which is ten days shorter than the Gregorian calendar. The timing of Ramadhan relative to the Gregorian calendar thus continues to advance every year. Whilst Ramadhan in the last couple of years occurred during the milder winter period, it is now progressing smack into the summer and once again gives credence to its meaning in Arabic where the word ‘Ramad’ means an extremely hot month. The significance of this in the Arabian Gulf countries is that fasting in the summer months is a lot more challenging than during winter and can at times test your faith to the limit, more so if the nature of your work requires you to spend significant periods of time exposed to the sun.

To the uninitiated, summer in the Arabian Gulf countries is nothing like a typical balmy English summer where temperatures average 20 degrees Celsius with a lot of rain. Instead, summer here, typically from May to September, is rather challenging with temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius and humidity levels reaching 75% at times. Add to this, periodic episodes of severe dust storms which last for days at a stretch and you have hot, humid and dusty days to contend with. The degree of discomfort outdoors is beyond description and you need to experience it to really appreciate how kind mother-nature is to countries such as the likes of Malaysia.

It is during Ramadhan especially this time around that one begins to appreciate the blessings of having a job that confines yourself to the comforts of a comfortable air conditioned office. That unfortunately is not the privilege of a large segment of the millions of people currently working in the Arabian Gulf where large numbers of them are deployed on construction sites and other service sectors which require working outside in extreme weather conditions.

Ramadhan and Eid-ul-Fitri which comes at the end of the month long fasting is also a period which Muslims spend with their families. That again is another privilege that only a limited number of high paid expatriates in the Arabian Gulf enjoy. A majority of expatriate workers in the Arabian Gulf being blue collar workers and laborers live here as bachelors and can look forward to home visits back to their countries only once every three to four years. In between home visits, the only contact these men have with their family back home is a telephone call and even that is relatively expensive on the normal telecoms service. So every Friday, the off-day, hordes of these men flock at places like internet cafes and others that offer cheap phone services to call back home.

Iftar or the break of fast time sees hordes of men making a bee line to the many places where sumptuous food is offered free by many generous well endowed persons to the hungry and thirsty who are just waiting for that call to the dusk prayer which marks the end of fast for that day. Notwithstanding the fact that food is plentiful, it is not unusual to see many a hungry man rushing and guarding his food as if that would be the last ration before famine sets in, something reminiscent of scenes at Malaysian public festive open houses. Such is human nature where the grab for food and water is a behavior that transcends nationalities!

Prayer time at the mosques, especially during Ramadhan sees huge congregations of people of diverse nationalities so much so that a mini United Nations convention can be held on these occasions. At these prayer congregations, men stand in rows next to each other transcending nationalities and their current stations in life. It would not be unusual to find an immaculately dressed man in his flowing white robes complete with head cover and smothered in aromatic oriental perfume on your one side but yet have a another man dressed in his smelly sweat drenched work clothes standing on your other side. That is the beauty of the mosque which is but the only real level playing field that one can find in life.

Ramadhan would be nothing but a daily ritual of thirst and hunger if one does not take the opportunity to reflect deeply about one’s life experiences both spiritual and worldly with the accompanying resolution to do better. This Ramadhan I am moved to reflect upon the fortunes of the millions of less privileged expatriate workers who are destined to spend a lifetime away from their families in far-away lands to earn a living to support themselves and their families who ironically barely exist in their lives. These are courageous men who have the tenacity to cross oceans in search of a living forced by the lack of jobs in their economically and socially challenged countries. It makes me wonder if such a situation would arise in Malaysia, which increasingly looks likely and if faced with such circumstances, whether Malaysians will have the skills, psyche, courage and tenacity to seek their fortunes overseas. More importantly, will Malaysians join the ranks of the privileged or less privileged expatriates?

For how long can we believe the lie that ‘semuanya ok’ in Malaysia and that our politicians are acting in the best interest of the rakyat? I am convinced that the time would come, sooner rather than later when Malaysians would have to join our fellow nomadic cousins in search of fortunes wherever they exist and that will have to include abroad. That however requires a totally different set of skills and mindset which our education system unfortunately does not adequately equip our youth with. Thus in reviewing the policy of teaching Mathematics and Science in English, politicians who are advocating for a change of one of the better policies of the Mahathir era will only be jeopardizing the future well being of our children.