Work

Migrating to Jabba, I had always imagined since the leader was able to become so successful there would be space for my career and life to grow here as well. During my first few days in the country, I was so hopeful of what the country had to offer, I had a skip in my step as I was job hunting but was certainly concerned why no one else had the same enthusiasm. Regardless of others, the leader approved my wife to migrate to the country as well. As days went by we received a letter from the government to have a meeting about our “status” in society. My wife was four months pregnant at this point and we were so excited to move to this new country to prosper in our lives.

The hearing for status occurred and that’s when everything changed. The government had informed me that I would be forced to join the military. They had never mentioned any form of military enrollment until I had fully signed the papers of becoming a citizen. I was scared out of my mind as I was responsible for bringing my wife into this new country while she was pregnant and now I would not even be allowed to help her and take care of her through the process of it all. That was not even the most frightening part; they proceeded to evaluate my wife and came to the conclusion that since she is a woman she would not be eligible to partake in any economical job. With that said she will be a maid for a few government-owned buildings. I was furious as I raised my voice to argue the fact that forcing employment based on gender was never disclosed in the migration documents but I was abruptly threatened to quiet down before action was taken against me for speaking my mind. This is when it occurred to me that I had brought danger to my family and that we’d be living in a dictatorship.

I still did not want to give up, I was confused as to why no one had posted any news or videos about this government. I was thrilled to be the first activist to broadcast to other countries how Jabba’s leader uses communist regimes to maintain hierarchy in his country. I hid my phone in my back pocket as I hit record; once I went home I had all the audio of the government meeting stating and confessing to the fact that their regimes are communist. I used my social media platforms to post these recordings with various hashtags as I wanted them to reach as many people as I could. Immediately some of the videos were taken down while the others were muted or had trouble uploading. Now I was completely stuck, not only am I stuck in this country being forced to join the military but I can’t escape either. They monitor everything. How will I escape?