(contents)
Chapter 3 The grace of Allah – Oil boom (16)
079 Searching
for wealth – Migrants rushing into Gulf countries (4/4)
At that time, Japanese companies which started developing oil in the neutral zone of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia also needed manpower. The company advertised for recruitment several times. Amin Shatila was adopted in the first recruitment in 1961, and then Zahra in 1968. Both were Palestinian refugees, but the Amin Shatila’s nationality in the application documents remained as Palestine, and the nationality of Zahra was changed to Jordan. As Amin's father was proud of being a Palestinian, he did not change the nationality. He dreamed one day to return to his home town Tulkarm and work as teacher again. Meanwhile, the Zahra’s family realized that it was no longer possible to regain farmland in hometown. They changed their nationality to Jordan to make it even more advantageous to get a job. They were called Palestinian Jordanian since then.
Khatib, Jordanian national, also applied to Arabian Oil Company.
Petroleum companies in the Middle East had good reputation. Its salaries and
social status was better than any other companies. When Khatib sent a letter to
the parents in Amman that he changed jobs to oil companies, they were very much
appreciated. In the meantime, his father had felt uncomfortable a little bit
because the said company was unfamiliar. But his father took into consideration
that both Arab and Japan had been trampled on by the Western countries after
the World War II, and then Japan revived from the ruins like a phoenix. The
parents felt sympathy to Japan, its company and its people.
Led by destiny three Arabs settled in a
small town on the Persian Gulf Coast. They were one Palestinian who believed in
the reconstruction of homeland, one Palestinian Jordanian who changed the
nationality for new life, and one Jordanian who had dream of a prosperous
future. They worked together as employees in the same office of a Japanese oil
company.
(To be continued ----)
(From an ordinary citizen in the cloud)
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