Everyone has heard stories of servants being ill-treated, but there are others of servants returning early from holidays in the Philippines, or staying with the same Kuwaiti family for 20 years. At the Kalesa restaurant in downtown Kuwait, a group of Filipinos are having a night out. They are not, as it happens, domestic servants, but nurses. But occasionally we treat ourselves. A good meal here costs around 5 and the helpings are large.
Many customers eat half and have the rest packed up to make a second meal next day.
Some of the nurses look apprehensively at their watches. Those employed at state hospitals must be back in their quarters by 10pm. Those in private hospitals can stay out later. They have been searching the Nursing Times for jobs in Britain. One of them can t understand why Britain is short of nurses.