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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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 Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2005 1:49 pm Post subject: |
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Hey Desertstar... you need a little practice with the quote function as your post makes it look like Stephen said the above, but he didn't.
It was obvious that the person who wrote this prefers to avoid the politically loaded topic 'here' as he said.
And no one answered my question... are they actually using the publicized 'robot jockeys?' Or was that all just a sop for the foreign press...
VS |
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DesertStar
Joined: 02 Oct 2005
Posts: 80
Location: UAE Oasis
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| Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 4:29 am Post subject: |
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You're right VS, my bad! I was addressing the OP in fact, didn't mean to imply that Stephen said it (sorry Stephen). Thanks for clarifying that one.
But really everyone, why post pics and yet avoid the issue? |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 2:59 pm Post subject: |
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Many people prefer to sample a culture without publicly judging it. Dave's ESL Cafe is not intended to be a forum for world change. Not to mention that we have no power to change it. 
So, the OP only wanted to present some of the traditions - and let the UN and other world rights bodies deal with the issue of child jockeys. (as they have regularly through the years and have brought slow change... older children, helmets, and now these 'robots.')
VS |
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Afra
Joined: 02 Feb 2003
Posts: 389
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DesertStar
Joined: 02 Oct 2005
Posts: 80
Location: UAE Oasis
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| Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 6:48 am Post subject: |
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Thanks for a quick response VS (or defence should I say?  ), unfortunately not as convincing as many of your contributions that I read on this forum.
Posters on this board do state their opinions on issues if they feel like it; they are not newsreporters or anchors. As a matter of fact, most of the threads on here reflect subjective experiences, reactions, and interpretations- many of which are quite sensible- yet you couldn't call them neutral or entirely objective.
Thanks Afra for the link! |
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younggeorge
Joined: 15 Apr 2005
Posts: 350
Location: UAE
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| Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 10:54 am Post subject: |
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[quote="DesertStar"][quote="Stephen Jones"]
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and it looks like the jockeys are children - not an issue I want to get into here!
Sorry, but how could one ignore the issue and continue watching the race?
It's either an issue, or no issue. |
OK, I've just come back to this thread after ignoring it for a few days and I suppose I can't duck the issue since I raised it in the first place.
I've only seen a couple of camel races - as VS says, they're not very exciting affairs - but none of the jockeys there seemed to be particularly young. The UAE has banned child jockeys - the link in Afra's post says the minimum age is now 16, but I think it was 14 for a few years before the latest edict. However, I know there are plenty of examples of things that are "banned" but still going on - like hiring construction workers and not paying them, which has been in the news lately. Yet, I think the child-jockey ban has been more conscientiously enforced than most, if for no other reason than that the Sheikhs like to show off camel racing as a bit of local colour for VIP guests and they don't want the child-jockey issue to interfere with that.
The newspapers here are getting bolder in reporting breaches of the law and the law is actually backing them. Just today it was reported that a journalist had successfully defended a libel case brought against him by the Sharjah government (he had reported imported chickens suffocating to death). Newspapers have reported child jockey offences, people have been fined and children have been returned to their homes. I think this publicity is a big factor in stopping this and other abuses and it is greatly to the credit of the local authorities that they are permitting - even, reportedly, encouraging - the media to be critical.
Also, the issue is not simply one of "kidnapping" as Stephen Jones puts it. The more usual case is that desperately poor families agree for their children to come here in return for cash and/or various promises that they will be looked after, educated and returned - and sometimes these promises may actually be kept. Not that this justifies it, but there's more involved than just the big, bad camel-racers stealing children and racing them till they get killed or die of ill treatment. |
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younggeorge
Joined: 15 Apr 2005
Posts: 350
Location: UAE
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| Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 10:57 am Post subject: |
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| Oh, by the way, VS, congratulatins on getting your avatar back. It suits you. |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 2:09 pm Post subject: |
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Oh thanks... I had missed it and someone found it again for me!! 
Nice to hear that they are starting to enforce the rules on the child jockeys. At the time I left the Emirates they had just added the helmet rule and the age was supposed to be at least 9 or 10, but many of them looked much younger than that. I suspect that this has to do with growing tourism too. It's so much easier to get away with stuff like this when no one is watching.
VS |
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Stephen Jones
Joined: 21 Feb 2003
Posts: 4124
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| Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2005 5:20 pm Post subject: |
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| Not that this justifies it, but there's more involved than just the big, bad camel-racers stealing children and racing them till they get killed or die of ill treatment. |
The big bad camel racers buy the children from traffickers and then race them until they are too old, whereupon they are dumped, often not even knowing what villages their families live in.
So you don't think it's kidnapping, taking children from their parents and then smuggling them on false papers thousand of miles to camps in the desert where they are often deliberately malnourished to keep the weight down, buried in unmarked graves if the accidents they suffer are fatal, and often beaten by the trainers that own them? Well, at least if somebody abducts your kids one day you'll be able to console yourself with "there's more involved than... " |
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