I think this is important to put out in the light of what i see as migrant crisis porn. As a second gen migrant with active work and family links to both the Gulf and Singapore i can feel the pain of a genuine migrant in trouble. I have not been paid my former employers whom i have taken to court and have got my pending salaries. I have absolutely no hard feelings for them, rather a sense of gratitude as salaries is not the only element we earn at work. These are skills, ideas and life long networks too. I work with non profits and write on migration issues regularly. In the pandemic i have pitch in to many civil society micro initiatives. As a migration researcher, i speak multiple languages including Bangla and see a lot of unnecessary banter of migrants playing the victim card. Singapore has done the maximum in this crisis as have other Gulf countries even more than passport countries, ask anyone from India or Nepal. There needs to be gratitude. If the elevator in your dorm is not working, complain to the dorm management rather than defame the country.

If things were that great back home, you would not have mortgaged your family land to pay the broker to arrive in Singapore. Get a sense of proportion. Do not blame the host country for your migration debt when the bribe was paid to your relative for the IPA?Many migrant workers have done really well for their families as well. Let these stories also come out.

My Gulf Book is well underway, of a region hidden from the media and tourist academic gaze. 16 years of incessant ethnography and historical research from the backstreets since 2004 when I was 18. The stories span the past quarter of a century.

Is any literary agent wishes to read a sample chapter, will be happy to discuss. When PhD admits don’t come your way, the story can’t be stopped from being written. The last year in Pune has been a deep dive into Middle East Studies with over 100 books devoured.

Written from a place of love as a Desi Khaleeji. #invisiblegulf

#thoughtleadership #writing #publishing #authors #writer

@TheNakhoda Prof Fahad Bishara’s work cited in Sinews of War and Trade by Prof Laleh Khalili @LalehKhalili . Both great reads.

Sinews of War and Trade: Shipping and Capitalism in the Arabian Peninsula by Prof @LalehKhalili is my breakthrough book on the #Gulf this year. So many layers of Infrastructure politics as well as labor histories of the region lost in the glitz of the skyscraper. Must read which is rigorous and a page turner. The role of port and trade is often overlooked as the trajectories of the region are mapped in energy terms. But the oil and the gas has to reach to its end client.

The politics behind the widening of the Dubai Creek and subsequent ports is fascinating and instrumental in the global ascent of Dubayy. A Must Read for Middle East Watchers.

Mr. Omar Al Owais, Ms.Maryam Belhoul and Ms. Sarah Al Kaabi @sarahkay_s in an all Emirati panel on mental health hosted by the spectacularly innovative @OxbridgeEmirati society in the UK. Important topic indeed.