Read the following:
Child camel jockeys find hope
UAE to give child jockeys payouts
Helping Camel Jockeys
Watch the following:
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=b0aEtNH1NyY
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=iID2l6ewyj8
http://jp.youtube.com/watch?v=GSWygUqlGk4
Post your answers to the following questions:
1. What is a camel jockey?
2. Where are they used/where do they predominantly comes from (geographically and socially)?
3. What is the problem with this?
4. What has become the favoured solution?
5. What are the issues connected to the solution?
6. Why do you think some people are opposed to the solution?
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2 comments:
1. What is a camel jockey?
In the United Arabic Emirates there are held many camel races. A camel jockey used to be a young boy that had to sit on the back of a camel during such races. After the UNICEF intervention, due to dreadful and dangerous circumstances for the young boys, a camel jockey was replaced by robot jockeys. These robot jockeys can be controlled from the side and they are able to perform the same job as the boy camel jockeys. The camel jockeys have as purpose to hit the camel with a whip in order to make it run faster and finish first.
2. Where are they used/where do they predominantly come from (geographically and socially)?
Camel jockeys are used during camel races, which are common in the United Arabic Emirates. The children used as camel jockeys come from many nearby countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh. In Pakistan, many of the young jockeys were recruited from the cities Multan and Rahim Yarkhan. These children were taken from poor families when they were around six months old. The men who take the children are wealthy and use these children for the sport.
3. What is the problem with this?
As the children are only six months old when they are taken from their family, they have no idea where they come from when they grow up. Also, the rich men that own these children do not care about the health and the well being of these children. Being a camel jockey is very dangerous as many children fall of the camel and get trampled by the animals. When the young children are injured or break a bone, the owners do not care enough to take them to the hospital. Also, when these children are in the hands of these men, they do not receive an education or nurturing.
4. What has become the favoured solution?
With the development in robotics, they were able to design and create a robot that replaces the boy camel jockeys. With a remote control, the owners are able to control the robots from the side. The robots are able to perform the same function as the little boys and there is no risk of someone getting hurt as it is just a piece of technology, not a human being. According to the man in the Youtube video, the robots are cheap and it is easy to buy them. With this solution, the children no longer have to be the camel jockeys and the wealthy men are still able to do their camel races for entertainment.
5. What are the issues connected to the solution?
An issue might be that the robots used, are hitting the animals harder than the little boys could. As the UAE men control the robots with a remote control, they cannot measure the strength with which the robots are hitting. This might hurt the animals more than before and cause injuries to the animals.
Another issue might be that the robots are not accessible to all the men, but as said in the video on Youtube, everybody is able to purchase the robots and they are relatively cheap. However, just like the little boys, the robots might fall off the camels causing the robots to break, resulting in the men having to buy a new robot.
6. Why do you think some people are opposed to the solution?
As they might deploy different types of robots, not all the robots will be as good as each other. As seen in the video the robots are not all the same, and the remote control differs as well. Therefore, depending on the type of robot, this will determine who wins the race. Some of the men participating in this race might find it unfair that depending on the quality of the robot, the winner is determined.
Also, it might be that these men in the UAE saw no harm in the deployment of the young children as camel jockeys and therefore they see the solution as an interference of the West, i.e. UNICEF, and as an attack on their daily lives.
1. What is a camel jockey?
A person who rides camels for official camel racing and training.
2. Where are they used/where do they predominantly comes from (geographically and socially)?
United Arab Emirates introduced the camel racing as an official sport since 1980’s. The geographical location of the Emirates provide a perfect living environment for camels, which are accustomed to desert and dry climate. The camel jockeys come from countries that are similar in climate to the Arab Emirates, where the camel racing may be a popular sport also, the countries where the jockeys come from include, Sub-Saharan countries such as Mauritania and Sudan, Middle Eastern countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Only Bangladesh does have on average more rainfall than above mentioned countries, but the political and economical instability of the nation, enables its citizens with less opportunity for proper living and more lenience toward corruption and human trafficking. All of the countries listed here like United Arab Emirates are Muslim countries, where majority of the population speak Arabian language. The communication between people of those nations are made easier without a language and religion barriers, therefore the exchange of the human labor is prevalent.
3. What is the problem with this?
In the case of the United Arab Emirates, the use of children under age of 15 for camel jockeys are very common. Only Bangladesh does have on average more rainfall than above mentioned countries, but the political and economical instability of the nation, enables its citizens with less opportunity for proper living and more lenience toward corruption and human trafficking. In some countries such as Pakistan, the children are smuggled across the borders as young of age as 6 months. The children are sold cheap and raised at camps that are owned by the people who also own camel racing tracks. As a result of the notion that the children are bought with money, the children no longer are viewed as individuals and treated as objects that are for used for camels. To keep the weight of the jockey kids at about 20 to 45 kilograms, the owners often starve the children. As this practice is universally unacceptable by humanitarian organizations such as UNICEF on the basis of human trafficking and breaking of human rights, the practice was legally banned in 1980, but never realized.
4. What has become the favoured solution?
As an effort to show global awareness, the government of the United Arab Emirates and cooperating governments of some of the affected countries: Pakistan, Bangladesh, have since 2005, officially put law enforcement in practice. The local police and satellites are involved in tracking down and rehabilitating the underage children who were former jockeys and offer the education and connection with their former families. A government involvement in reinforcing the law against the child labor, would have not been so successful, if there wasn’t the promulgation of robot jockeys. As the sport existed and remained prominent in the Arab countries, the abolition of camel jockeys that as good as the child jockeys were impossible. To offer lightweight, and operation replacement for the children, the government and private funded institutions, prominently in Qatar, are making robots that weigh approximately five kilograms and can be controlled from distance by camel owners.
5. What are the issues connected to the solution?
The perfect feature of this robot for it to be a perfect alternative is the price and maintenance of the robot. It costs little less than 300 US dollars, and offers the government with chances to reinstate the national laws, and convince the camel owners to convert to the robot jockeys instead. As said by the head of the Camel Race Association in UAE, the robot is a perfect alternative. This robot could be a way for the child trafficking in Gulf areas and African nations.
6. Why do you think some people are opposed to the solution?
In most cases of child trafficking, the parents are oft sent to early childhood labor by their own parents who are suffering from severe poverty. In cases of limitations in money, the people from poorer nations are more and more restricted in ways to find ways of living as their source of some money is shut down by the preference of robots over humans. Other people who have potential to oppose to such solutions would be people who only consider the entertainment and fun of the sport instead of human suffering. The main concern here would be that the abolition of child jockeys would reduce the amount of tension and thrill of race as is was formerly conducted by humans as compared to the equestrian races.
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