NARJES AHMED represents a good example of the unjustified injustice shown to a category of people who were born, brought up and educated in Kuwaiti schools, and do not know another country apart from this one. There is no reason to prevent this outstanding student Narjes from achieving her dream of studying medicine.
This girl is not the only one who lived through the long suffering of deprivation, as there are thousands who were born and educated in Kuwait, and lived all their lives here but eventually find themselves stranded because there are some who refuse to recognize their humanity in the country of humanity!
Isn’t this the slogan that we sang before the world, while it looks at us with a different eye because we did not grant the legitimate rights to this group?
All that Narjes Ahmed dreams of is to serve the country in which she lived, like any person who seeks to return the favor to those who embraced it.
However, there are those who deliberately prevent this, because the complex of privileges controls his behavior and his decision, as if the life he is living makes him believe that he is living in the Garden of Eden, and he will not allow anyone to share it with him.
In this regard, I remembered the story of a British doctor in 1920. The Medical Association in England held a graduation ceremony for a batch of new doctors. The ceremony was witnessed by the British Prime Minister at the time. During the ceremony, the Doctors Syndicate gave necessary advice to the new graduates.
He said, “After midnight on a stormy night, a lady knocked on my door and said - “Doctor, help me, my child is sick. He is in a very serious condition. Please do anything to save him.” I hurried to help, not concerned about the extreme cold and heavy rain.
Her dwelling was on the outskirts of London. After an arduous journey, I found her home, which consisted of a small room. The child was lying in a corner groaning and in pain. After I did my duty towards the patient, the mother handed me a small bag containing money.
I refused to take it, and returned it to her while kindly apologizing. I considered my role as a human duty, and even pledged to the child that God would grant him a cure.”
The narrator had hardly finished speaking when the Prime Minister David Lloyd George jumped from his seat and went to the podium, saying, “Mr Captain, allow me to kiss your hand. For twenty years I have been looking for you, as I am that child you mentioned in your speech.”
He then said to the audience, “May my mother be happy in her final resting place, and be content; for her only commandment to me was that I should find you and repay you for the favor you had done to us in time of our poverty. You saved my life.”
I don’t know, but isn’t it possible that Narjes Ahmed could heal one of those who struggle to deprive her of the opportunity to study what she wants?
In all countries of the world, governments work to benefit from creative people, and even entice them to come to them, because they realize that these are the ones who write their true history with creativity.
The United States has tens of millions of immigrants to it, and it benefits from them and grants them its nationality. The same happens in Australia, Britain, France, and other countries, which are not controlled by the complex of nationality and the purity of national identity.
Kuwait, on the contrary, educates people who do not know any other homeland, and then expels them, based on the fear of asking them for a plot of land and a house. We must bear in mind that some Gulf countries work differently, and today they are teeming with expatriates.
We have to remember that the majority of the people of Kuwait either came on the back of a camel or on a boat and populated this land, and today they have become among the best of its people. That is why we say, “Have mercy on those on earth, so that the One in Heaven will have mercy on you.”
By Ahmed Al-Jarallah
Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times
