The Rizana Nafeek story was briefly in the news last week .. and as what usually happens with similar nightmare scenarios all too common in the Middle East .. it has not only been conveniently forgotten but no steps have been taken to prevent it from happening again.

In case you haven't heard .. Rizana Nafeek, who was not even an adult at the time of the incident, is to be murdered by the Saudi king after a mock trial in which she had no legal assistance whatsoever -not even a court appointed lawyer! Everyone deserves a fair trial - and this poor girl has not had anything close to that. How was this tortured young Rizana supposed to defend herself without knowing their strange laws and language? How was she supposed to explain about how they beat her and forced her to take care of 10 spoiled children? How is she to demonstrate the truth of how the accident happened? The Saudis (who are known not only for being a breeding ground for terrorists but also for their well documented "cultural tradition" of abusing housemaids sexually and physically) are demanding a sum of Rs. 4.5 million ($40,000 USD) in order to put on a show appeal trial (movie production costs are high nowadays with actors demanding exorbitant fees). So far the government of Sri Lanka has not done much except its usual form of action -vigorous talking and animated discussion. All while getting ripped off by the gangster cartel's oil pricing schemes. The Sri Lankan government hasn't provided any meaningful assistance to its own taxpaying and revenue generating citizen Rizana Nasik. Apparently the doubling of Minister's salaries (followed by a highly propagandized "reduction" of 10%) are a bigger priority. At this point I am not sure how to proceed other than finding a way to collect money for this girl .. but we at least need the government to open a fund for Rizana and get the Saudis to delay. If our government can't take the minimal effort to save one life, what does it say .. how do we expect it to take the difficult decisions needed be able to defeat the tigers?

Here is a URL about the case at the Asian Human Rights Commission website. It has a link you can click on to send a letter to the ministry and also phone numbers to call. Let them know we want to not only save Rizana's life but also ensure that our sisters and daughters do not get beaten, raped, or abused in any way. And we will hold them accountable next election. How can our minister's simply not care about human life? Saving lives won't negatively affect the important source of foreign exchange revenue. Putting in excellent and enforced safety procedures would boost the number of people going abroad to earn money because they can feel safe doing so.

http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2007/2470/

The filthy Saudi government and certain morally corrupt citizens of theirs are to be blamed for this type of incident. It is a disservice to law abiding Saudis who don't abuse their workers to allow those who abuse to enjoy not only unearned oil wealth but also the advantages of owning a slave - for free! Imagine what we would have accomplished as a nation with unlimited free energy and free labor ..this is what they have! I would like to say though, that most Saudis do treat their workers fairly -this is is greatly appreciated and should be rewarded.

We must hold the Sri Lankan government's greedy foreign employment bureau accountable for allowing our sisters to be abused. It is estimated that thousands of our mothers, sisters, and daughters going to the Middle East are abused.

Aside from expanding free training to include a session on workers rights and abuse potentials .. the Sri Lanka Foreign Employment bureau must take the time to call each and every maid at least once every month for the first 6 months, and then once in 3 months. They should interview them for about 7 minutes in sinhala (or tamil).

We must remember that women in foreign employment brings in over Rs. 100,000,000,000 (Rs. 100 BILLION - with a B) a year into the economy. A wise investment of just Rs. 50 million can protect those women who venture abroad. Only 50 million rupees to protect the 800,000 amazing women who bring us over Rs. 100 billion? That's a pretty cheap deal! The government can implement a phone bank with 300 people making a total of 25,000 cheap VOIP calls every day to the girls to find out if they are doing OK. If a maid is showing signs of abuse, then a house visit should be arranged. This Rs. 20 million will easily pay for itself many times over because abused maids -many with withheld salaries- can be moved to jobs that actually pay decent money where they can be successful. Less workers being abused means more people will be willing to work abroad. Also the cost can be further reduced because most maids would designate a relative or trusted volunteer to make the required calls to them.

We need to do something! Make sure meaningful reforms to protect housemaids is in the next "Mahinda Chinthana". At the MINIMUM please publicize this URL or better URLs to every Sri Lankan. If possible you would do even more.