From Kids’ ‘Servant’ Song to Slamming Bengali Workers in Aqaba: Where is Jordan’s Modern Day Slavery Heading?

Jordanian Children channel - named Karameesh, has received a lot of negative comments after sharing a song called “Servant” by Zena Awad.

The latest work by the well-known channel was condemned and labeled as racist and the song was accused of offending and humiliating domestic workers around the world.

Translation: “This channel that distorts the awareness of children should be banned over its low quality values that it presents to kids. The song is totally disrespectful, racist and has hate incitements against domestic workers.

Most people have called for closing the ‘Karameesh’ channel after the ‘servant’ song and the distorted messages it presents to children.

The video visualizes a young girl who complains about her housemaid, and talks about her poor work ethics and demands. The girl sings: “We have a servant, and every day she causes a fuss. One day she doesn’t want to work, and the other she asks for a mobile phone.” 

In the same video, the worker replies saying she needs the money so much and that her daughter is sick.

Translation: “What makes me more angry is that they wrote ‘the art that aims to educate the child.’

Translation: “They should be banned.”

Translation: “It’s gross to use needy people in pointless and low level work.”

Unfortunately, this incident wasn’t the only one to frustrate Jordaninas this week. Yesterday, hundreds of racist comments caused public anger in the country over the news of 2,000 Bengali workers infected with coronavirus. 

Translation: “No Jordanians named among the Aqaba’s factory Coronavirus infections.”

The comments were super disrespectful as people called to deport them from Jordan, others started to make racist jokes about how they got the infection, while the rest slam the huge number of foreign workers compared to the unemployment rate in Amman.

Translation: “Who’s selling bats in Aqaba, I guess all Indians have got their launch there after receiving salaries”.

Translation: “Why haven’t you hired Jordanians instead of foreign workers?”

Yet many other Jordanians have strongly condemned both; the song and the racist comments against the Aqaba workers; stressing that we have always been a country of tolerance and love and that we treat forign workers as if they were in their home land accusing the song and the nasty comments of clashing with known Jordanians' ethics.