Education

SUICIDE BOMBER PROVES POOR CAREER CHOICE

Earnings, Benefits Pale Compared to Alternatives

Palestine--A new study commissioned by the Pan-Arab Employment Agency shows that suicide bomber, a career favored by a growing number of Arab youth, is actually a poor overall choice. Despite a recent increase in payments to surviving families of suicide bombers from $10,000 to $25,000, the long term earnings of even camel-dung shovelers far exceed those of suicide bombers.

Experts compared suicide bomber to a number of other jobs available to Arab youth on several criteria--wages, job security, opportunities for advancement, relative safety of the work environment, and benefits. In each case, suicide bomber finished at or near the bottom of the scale.

Guidance counselors at West Palestine High say they generally discourage teens from pursuing a career as a suicide bomber. At a recent Career Day, no one was minding the suicide bomber booth despite the long lines of young prospective bombers. But the absence of an actual suicide bomber was not, officials say, a deliberate manipulation.

"Actually," said Rahim al Quira, Assistant Guidance Counselor, "it's difficult to find an actual suicide bomber to come speak to the children. Several near-suicide bombers have come forward, but even with their missing limbs and shrapnel wounds, the students consider them failures, so they make poor role models."