While I'm in Camel Country I've decided that one day I am going to the camel racing track.
It's a big deal here with whole TV channels dedicated to the sport and I've heard it is a festive and fun-filled occasion, perhaps akin to the horse races that the British Queen and all those people in fancy hats attend. Oh no wait, that's horse polo.
Of course I know nothing about camels except being here I run into them a lot. Once even on the sidewalks in Jordan where I neatly executed a full face plant into a camel's flank when I wasn't looking where I was going. Everybody thought it was very funny and a tourist took a picture.
I have not had the urge to ride one so far although I am sure one cannot live and work here without at least once mounting one of these humped beasts. But we'll see about that.
Then an Emirati kindly enlightened me about slave child jockeys. I was flabbergasted.
The UAE was the first to undertake steps to ban the illegal business of boys who were sold into slavery and put upon camels for racing. Kids as young as five years old from Pakistan, India and other poor countries used to be smuggled in and were prized as the finest riders due to their light weight and of course didn't cost much in upkeep for hey! If you want to keep your jockey slim don't feed him, right? And no, this was not during medieval times or something, the official ban happened just over a decade ago so I bet there are some sixteen-year old ex-jockeys around who can still vividly remember their past hey days (read: child ENSLAVEMENT) in the camel racing industry. Crazy shit.
Human rights activist and lawyer Ansar Burney has been a tireless advocate when it comes down to rescuing these pint-sized kids.You can view the Emmy award-winning documentary about his work here.
Nowadays children jockeys have been replaced by robots. Remote control operated ones and here is a juicy article about the scandals involving even those. Man.
I guess where money is involved there will be always something sinister going on. The multi-billion camel racing industry is just one of the many examples out there.
It's a big deal here with whole TV channels dedicated to the sport and I've heard it is a festive and fun-filled occasion, perhaps akin to the horse races that the British Queen and all those people in fancy hats attend. Oh no wait, that's horse polo.
Of course I know nothing about camels except being here I run into them a lot. Once even on the sidewalks in Jordan where I neatly executed a full face plant into a camel's flank when I wasn't looking where I was going. Everybody thought it was very funny and a tourist took a picture.
I have not had the urge to ride one so far although I am sure one cannot live and work here without at least once mounting one of these humped beasts. But we'll see about that.
Then an Emirati kindly enlightened me about slave child jockeys. I was flabbergasted.
The UAE was the first to undertake steps to ban the illegal business of boys who were sold into slavery and put upon camels for racing. Kids as young as five years old from Pakistan, India and other poor countries used to be smuggled in and were prized as the finest riders due to their light weight and of course didn't cost much in upkeep for hey! If you want to keep your jockey slim don't feed him, right? And no, this was not during medieval times or something, the official ban happened just over a decade ago so I bet there are some sixteen-year old ex-jockeys around who can still vividly remember their past hey days (read: child ENSLAVEMENT) in the camel racing industry. Crazy shit.
Human rights activist and lawyer Ansar Burney has been a tireless advocate when it comes down to rescuing these pint-sized kids.You can view the Emmy award-winning documentary about his work here.
Nowadays children jockeys have been replaced by robots. Remote control operated ones and here is a juicy article about the scandals involving even those. Man.
I guess where money is involved there will be always something sinister going on. The multi-billion camel racing industry is just one of the many examples out there.
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