Saudis Try New Way To Fuel Economy: Going to Work
Obeidullah Abdullah works in a gold mine deep in the Saudi Arabian desert, overseeing crushers and bubbling vats that process ore. It's noisy, dirty and dangerous work, but he's happy just to have a job.
The 38-year-old Mr. Abdullah is part of a revolutionary development in the Kingdom: Saudis taking up work.
In the three decades since an oil boom showered wealth on the Arabian Peninsula, many Saudi citizens lost their taste for work. They collected paychecks from no-work government jobs, enjoyed long, state-funded studies abroad and were given lucrative sinecures at private companies. Meanwhile, legions of foreign workers were shipped in to man the kingdom's real economy and to service the needs of Saudis. More than nine of 10 jobs in the Saudi private sector are held by foreign workers: Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Indians, Filipinos, Turks -- and about 20,000 Americans.
But, now, the rapid growth of the Saudi population -- it has doubled, to 16 million, in the past quarter century -- has brought a dose of economic reality. Even Saudi Arabia's world-topping oil revenue hasn't kept pace. Two decades ago, Saudi per capita income matched that of the U.S. Now it has shrunk to one-fifth of the U.S. level.
Foreign workers still number five million. But now Saudis want, and are beginning to compete for, some of their jobs. They are driving taxis, manning supermarket checkouts, staffing reception desks and even squeezing into bellhop uniforms -- jobs Saudis considered beneath them just a few years ago.
"I'm proud to be working, and people respect me more," said Ahmed Hakim, 28, a flight attendant on Saudi Arabian Airlines, whose male cabin staffs are now exclusively Saudi. "Saudis used to think that even a pilot was something lowly, like a chauffeur, and wouldn't let their daughters marry one. Now they're happy for their daughters to marry a flight attendant like me."
Indeed, many observers say no issue is more important than jobs for the future stability of Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's biggest economy and the largest supplier of crude oil to the U.S. Official statistics show unemployment running at 35% among Saudi men age 20 to 24.
A demographic tidal wave will soon make that worse. In the 2000 census, 56% of the Saudi population was under the age of 20. And frustration among idle youths has fueled not only a surge of car theft and joy-riding, but also Islamist extremism. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks on America were young Saudis.
To spur the economy, the government is encouraging foreign investment and has reduced corporate taxes and customs duties. And to assure that it is Saudis who gain, the monarchy has recommitted itself to a "Saudization" program to replace foreign workers with Saudis. This year, the government listed 25 categories of jobs to be reserved for Saudis. Enforcement raids began this month with grocery stores and then gold shops. Stores selling clothes, toys, spare parts for cars and mobile phones are next on the list.
The Cradle of Gold mine, where Mr. Abdullah oversees the ore-processing plant, is one of the first, fitful government experiments in putting Saudis to work. When production began in 1986, less than 3% of the workers were Saudi. Now the 270-man work force is half Saudi.
In the beginning, the few Saudi workers employed in the mine were security guards. The handful of well-paid Saudi managers at the mine were resented. They contributed little or nothing to the operation of the mine and rarely left their offices. Like all Saudi workers in the kingdom, they enjoyed a two-day weekend while foreign workers all put in six-day weeks.
Sameer Naseer, a Saudi geologist who ran the mine from 1989 to 1997, set out to prove that Saudis could be more than placeholders rubber-stamping the decisions of foreign executives. But his plans ran into immediate opposition from ministry bureaucrats who didn't believe Saudis were up to real work.
Mr. Naseer, 50, started by demanding that six Saudi laborers be hired as mine workers in 1990. The British mine captain flatly refused, saying they would be unsafe and waste time. "The Saudis were pretty hopeless underground," says Graham Oram, 62, a Briton who was the mine's chief geologist between 1984 and 1991. Saudi miners would walk to the surface to pray up to five times a day, a practice that continued until 1992 when management built a cave-like mosque in the depths of the mine.
Mr. Naseer organized a competition that pitted his candidate Saudi miners against experienced Filipinos. "Before they started, I gave them a talk like a football trainer," Mr. Naseer says. "I said: 'Look, you guys, whose land is this?' They said, 'Our tribe's.' I said: 'You know what the foreigners say? That you're good for nothing, just grazing sheep. Are you with me to prove them wrong?' "
Stopwatch in hand, Mr. Naseer and the British mine captain measured how quickly the Filipinos and Saudis could truck the glittering ore to the surface through miles of winding tunnels. "We were going up to each other when we changed our clothes, encouraging each other," says Mishan al-Mutairi, an illiterate farmer born in a goat-hair tent who was one of the first group. Three of the Saudis equaled the best Filipino time, and two of them beat it.
Training Bedouin herdsmen to be miners was simple compared with the years needed to turn Saudi college graduates into experienced mine managers. Accustomed to an easy life, they at first refused to do any on-the-job training down in the mine. Mr. Naseer couldn't force them to, either. Some young engineers had already walked out in the early 1990s, considering the desert assignment worse than military service and certain that their fathers would look after them if they found no other job. Mr. Naseer shamed the young engineers into action by declaring that their academic studies were useless unless they knew firsthand how mining was done.
A big change came at the end of 2002, when the last of the top foreign managers, Piet Ferreira, left the gold production mill to Mr. Abdullah's care.
Though long in coming, the benefits from an increasingly Saudi staff extend beyond the mine to the town of Mahd al-Dhahab. While foreign workers remit cash abroad, Saudis spend it locally. Mahd al-Dhahab, just two streets and a few houses 15 years ago, has grown into a town of 5,000 people as business has boomed. Even the gypsy entertainers on the edge of town have built neat concrete houses to replace their old tin shacks.
沙特人刺激经济的新路子：去工作
Obeidullah Abdullah在沙特阿拉伯沙漠深处的一个金矿里工作，负责看管压碎机和冒著泡泡的矿石加工桶。这份工作噪音大、肮脏且不安全，但Abdullah挺乐意的──因为有一份工作。
三十八岁的Abdullah只是这个王国正在经历的一场革命性变化的一个缩影：沙特人开始参加工作了。
自从石油涨价给阿拉伯半岛带来巨额财富之后，许多沙特人在过去三十年中失去了对工作的兴趣。他们在政府部门不工作也能领薪水，享受长时间的、国家资助的海外学习机会，在私营企业中也是担任待遇优厚的闲职。而与此同时，大批的外国劳工被输入进来，真正在为这个王国的经济作贡献、为沙特人提供服务。在沙特的私营部门，超过90%的工作是由外国员工来完成：孟加拉人、巴基斯坦人、印度人、菲律宾人、土耳其人，还有大约2万美国人。
但如今，沙特人口的迅速增长──在过去25年中翻了一翻，达到1千6百万──带来了一些现实的经济问题。甚至连让世人望尘莫及的石油收入也赶不上这个步伐。20年前，沙特的人均收入可以跟美国媲美，但现在已经下降到只有美国的五分之一。
沙特的外国雇员仍然有5百万之多。但现在，沙特人想──也正在开始──在某些工作岗位上跟这些人竞争。沙特人开始开的士、在超市里当收银员、当前台接待，甚至当宾馆侍应。而仅在几年以前，这些工作还是沙特人所不屑一顾的。 "我为自己工作而骄傲，人们也更尊敬我了，"28岁的Ahmed Hakim说，他在沙特航空公司当一名乘务员。现在该公司的机组人员全部是沙特人。"过去，甚至连飞行员也被沙特人认为低人一等，跟出租车司机一样。人们不愿意把女儿嫁给这样的人。现在不同了，人们很高兴把女儿嫁给像我这样的飞机乘务员。"
的确，不少观察家认为，没有什么比工作对沙特的未来稳定更重要。沙特是阿拉伯世界最大的经济体，也是美国最大的原油供应者。官方统计数字显示，20岁到24岁的沙特男人中有35%没有工作。
而人口增长的浪潮很快将使这个现状恶化。在2000年的人口普查中，56%的沙特人年龄在20岁以下。挫折情绪在游手好闲的青年人中日益滋生，不仅使偷车、驾车肆意兜风等行为猛增，还大大助长了伊斯兰极端主义的蔓延。在911恐怖袭击事件的19个劫机犯中，有15个是沙特青年。
为了刺激经济，沙特政府眼下大力鼓励外国投资、降低企业税收和关税。同时，为了确保肥水不流外人田，沙特政府在努力实施一个"沙特化"计划，让沙特人取代外国雇员。今年，政府列出了25个专为沙特人保留的工作类别。最近计划开始实施，先是杂货店，接著是金首饰店。服装店、玩具店、汽车零件店和手机店将紧跟其后。 Abdullah负责监督矿石加工，他所供职的Cradle of Gold金矿就是政府鼓励沙特人工作的首批试验点之一，尽管这些试验断断续续。该金矿1986年开始经营时，沙特工人不到3%，但现在270名员工中已经有一半是沙特人。
刚开始时，金矿中为数不多的几个沙特员工都是保安，而仅有的几个收入丰厚的沙特经理十分不受欢迎。他们为金矿的经营贡献甚少，或毫无贡献，很少走出办公室工作。他们跟所有沙特雇员一样享受两天的周末，而外国员工要工作6天。
Sameer Naseer是一名沙特地质专家，在1989年到1997年期间管理这个金矿。他要证明沙特员工并非什么事都不干、只会给外国管理者的决策盖公章。但他的计划立即遭到政府部门官员的反对，他们不相信沙特人真的能干活。
五十岁的Naseer实现计划的第一步是在1990年要求聘请6名沙特人做矿工，遭到英国矿长的断然拒绝，理由是这些沙特人工作不安全，且浪费时间。"别指望沙特人能在地下工作，"62岁的英国人Graham Oram说。他在1984年到1991年期间担任该矿的首席地质专家。沙特矿工一天要到地面上祈祷五次，这个习惯一直持续到1992年──那年管理层在矿场深处修了几座像山洞一样的清真寺。
Naseer组织了一次竞赛，让候选的沙特矿工跟经验丰富的菲律宾员工比试。"在他们比赛之前，我像足球教练一样跟他们谈了一次，" Naseer说。"我说'你们看这里是谁的地方？'他们说'是我们的'。我说'你们知道这些外国人都说些什么吗？说你们一点用都没有，是一群只会吃草的绵羊。你们会跟我一起证明他们是大错特错的吗?'"
Naseer和英国矿长手里各拿著秒表，测试菲律宾工人和沙特工人谁能更快把亮闪闪的矿石从几英里长的蜿蜒隧道中运到地面上来。"我们换好衣服后，大家聚到一起，相互鼓励，" Mishan al-Mutairi说──他是其中速度最快的一个，是农民，在羊毛帐篷里出生，没受过教育。三名沙特工人的速度跟最优秀的菲律宾工人一样，还有两名比这个速度还快。
相对于把一名沙特大学毕业生培养成经验丰富的矿场管理者来说，把牧人培训成矿工要简单得多。由于习惯了轻松的生活，这些年轻人刚开始时拒绝在矿底下接受在职培训。Naseer也不能强迫他们。一些年轻工程师曾经在90年代初罢工，他们认为沙漠作业比军队服役更艰苦，并且他们相信即使找不到工作，他们的父亲也会照顾他们。而Naseer的一番话使他们深感羞辱，重又回到工作当中。Naseer跟他们说，如果不切身了解开矿是怎样作业的，他们的大学教育就是白费。
2002年底，情况出现很大的转变：最后一位高级外国管理者Piet Ferreira离开金矿，把金矿生产交给Abdullah管理。
沙特员工人数增加带来的好处从矿场惠及Mahd al-Dhahab镇，尽管这种变化经历了较长一段时间。在外国工人往国外寄钱的同时，沙特人在当地花钱。15年前只有两条街道和几座房子的Mahd al-Dhahab镇，随著经济的繁荣，人口已经达到5000。连住在镇边上的吉普赛艺人也抛弃了罐头小屋，建起了体面的水泥房子。
