Hell with a Kuwaiti Princess
Manuel A. Lopez
RAINS in Glasgow, the most sensible thing one can do is to snuggle in
bed (with or without company: human, canine, or otherwise) perusing the
thick Sunday periodicals that come in no less than nine sections.
I was thus positioned comfortably on my bed, reading light on, a mug
of scalding Earl Grey tea on the night table, and attempting to read
the (London) Sunday Times (01 March 1992) methodically.
And I came across this article. I was immediately dumbfounded, I didn't
know what reactions to retrieve from my pool of emotions. And I read
the article again, and again.
I finally became irritated, irritation giving way to anger. I didn't know
what to do. So I composed a letter to the Kuwaiti ambassador to the UK
(the only thing to do now is to find its London address).
Keeping my letter overnight allowed me the sense to tone down my initial
reaction. At first, I was rather being blatantly accusive of all ---
expletives were not spared as I was guaranteeing those responsible
the eternal damnation of hell. Indeed, I was sure raising hell. The
letter that I will send out later today reflects a more controlled
feeling of awareness and concern, rather than blind anger and damning fury.
Sure, my bite could be less fearsome than my bark but I have to make
known to all and sundry that Filipinos, no matter where they are, no matter
what kind of work or service they perform --- be it menial or otherwise
--- still deserve the respect (nay, even the admiration) of those who
have never felt the honest experience of sweat rolling down their brows.
This is the article that shook me. I have decided to reproduce it
without the permission of the Sunday Times.
\begin{article}
Murderous maid tells of life
of hell with Kuwaiti princess
(by Meg Massie, Cairo)
When an employment agency offered Lorna Laraquel a highly-paid job as
a maid to a princess in Kuwait's ruling al-Sabah family, the Filipino
woman jumped at the chance. Here was an opportunity to provide for
the future of her poverty-stricken children in Manila.
Instead, Lorna ended up last week in a prison cell in Cairo awaiting the
hangmen. The 44-year old woman did nothing to hide the fact that she
had murdered her former mistress. She had finally snapped, she admitted,
when Sheikha Latifa Abdullah Jaber al-Sabah threatened to have her hands
and tongue cut off and an eye gouged out.
The petite maid was found standing over the body, a knife still in her
hand. She now faces execution in Egypt, where she had been taken to
wait on the princess during a holiday.
The tragic tale of the princess and the maid was the latest in a
litany of abuses apparently meted out by the pampered elite of Kuwait,
now celebrating the anniversary of their liberation.
For the soldiers who fought for Kuwait's freedom, it must be an
uncomfortable irony to hear that embassies in Kuwait City have been
swamped by servants seeking refuge from Kuwaitis who have returned to
restore a xenophobic, repressive regime.
Some 250 Sri Lankan, Filipino, Indian, and Bangladeshi women are
living in their embassies, desperate for repatriation. The fugitives,
many with bruises or swollen faces, claim their employees have beaten
or raped them.
But their accounts of maltreatment pale beside Laraquel's story. The
maid said she began serving Pricess Latifa seven months ago. On the
rare occasions when she was given food, she had to eat it off the
floor. The princess banned her from leaving the house.
Tensions became unbearable after the princess returned from a holiday
in London and accused her of `impropriety' with her son, a nephew of
the emir, Sheik Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah.
After months of abuse, Laraquel said she wanted to return to Manila for
a holiday with her four children and husband. Though her contract
provided for a vacation, the princess withheld her passport, insisting
she would have to repay all that had been spent on her during her
employment.
Laraquel gave her employer [the equivalent of] 200 Stirling pounds
but was again refused permission to go home. When she contacted her
employment agency in Kuwait, it refused to handle her case unless
she appeared in person. Given her effective house arrest, that was
impossible. The relationship reached rock-bottom when they arrived
in Cairo early last month. Laraquel gave the princess some dinars
she had found while doing the laundry shortly before leaving Kuwait:
the princess immediately assumed she had stolen it.
The next ten days were hell. `She kept saying to me, `It is better
to make you vanish'. ', Laraquel said.
The day after their move, Laraquel allegedly overheard the princess
speaking on the telephone about doing away with her maid. Laraquel
took two knives from the kitchen, one to stab her employer, the
other to kill herself.
`When I was knifing her, she asked me to forgive her, but on my mind
is that [sic] if I keep her alive, her promise may be useless, so I continued
to kill her,' Laraquel told the police.
Police have discovered letters in the flat to the Philippine embassy
appealing for help.
Laraquel's plight has aroused sympathy in Egypt. Lawyers have offered
to defend the woman free of charge. But Egyptian law is tough, and
Laraquel's chances of avoiding the scaffold are regarded as slight.
\end{article}
Sige at ingat ...
... Lito
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manuel A Lopez Department of Computer Science
man...@uk.ac.strath.cs (JANET) University of Strathclyde
manuel%cs.stra...@nsf.ac.uk Glasgow, United Kingdom
(INTERNET) (041) 552 4400 (x2952)