Tuesday, July 10, 2007

What is ‘Illegitimate’ about the son?

U.A.E has announced an amnesty program for illegal workers (workers without proper papers like passport, visa etc.) and thousands are waiting for their turn to get some breather.
Most of these ‘illegal’ workers (mostly from the subcontinent) are illiterate, daily wage labourers who have been misled by agents and are waiting for their chance to legitimise their residence status or rush back to their country.
It is a humanitarian move by the government to announce this laudable scheme.
Gulf News, the leading UAE newspaper, regularly reports ‘human interest’ (I hate this media term…is there an ‘animal interest story?) stories.
A few weeks ago, the same newspaper wrote about two Indian amnesty seekers begging for money on the roads to buy their air tickets to go back home.
Now, it has published the story ‘Mother with illegitimate child in tow seeks amnesty’
Please read the story http://www.gulfnews.com/nation/Immigration_and_Visas/10138328.html and tell me what is illegitimate about the child.
It is so disturbing and makes me wonder whether we have lost all our empathy for fellow homo sapiens.
Are we trying to make every story 'newsworthy' and 'worth a sound bite'?

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