The high level domain nomenclature of Bahrain is .bh but with thousands of companies registered in Bahrain, hardly any (statistically) maintains or even bothers to register a .bh domain. Heck even the sole ISP (Batelco of the Iraqi sudden mobile service fame) maintain a .com as well as .com.bh domain!.

Let me try to explain why that is:

1. There is no one else that can provide a registry service in Bahrain, so why should Batelco care? Take it or leave it situation.
2. Costs:
   • Domain Registration:
     According to their website here only virtual domains are available. That has to come with their hosting package, you apparently cannot register and reserve a domain. It is also unclear if they will give you a domain only based on your commercial registration or otherwise.
   • Permanent IP Costs:
     Registration: BD 60 (US$ 160, once off) then monthly BD 100 (US$ 377) [+]
   • Hosting Costs:
     Exhorbitant! Have a look at this

Would any one be encouraged to register a domain in a situation like this? I doubt it. Add to that the fact that a country with less than 700,000 people Batelco insists on .com.bh, .net.bh and .org.bh! Why? Why couldn’t it just be plain and simple .bh? Revenue! That’s why. I mean if you can screw companies and individuals by forcing them to register the three high level domain names and getting money for it why the hell not? Who’s going to stop them?

Funny thing is that their main internet page cannot be accessed by simply entering http://inet.com.bh, it’s got to have that www in it. Do they not have the knowledge to make their site accessible by either name? I doubt it. And wouldn’t it be better for them just to have their sites as inet.bh? batelco.bh? As if they have dedicated the .net.bh and .org.bh for their philanthropic activities!

In the Emirates you can now have just .ae without the .co.ae, .net.ae or .org.ae.

In my view the registry should be completely disassociated from the ISP function, ideally as Bahrain is a very small country it should be franchised by the Communications Authority to several companies to promote competition and better consumer pricing.

Having a permanent IP address is so important for businesses and anyone who wants to run their website independently and to access files and server resources remotely, but for that we have to pay BD 100 (US$ 265) A MONTH plus the registration fees to our benevolent big brother. This in most cases equates to more than half of a small shop’s monthly rental. While the server you’re currently reading this on costs me US$240 per month including a fixed IP address, 20GB, 512MB RAM, and most importantly connected to big pipes to the internet. I run 5 sites off this server, handles more than 20 email and ftp accounts etc. Sure it’s expensive when compared with others in the market, but it was a good deal when I first got it.

Batelco has further complicated matters by blocking several free dynamic dns services like http://dyndns.org. This is completely unacceptable as it is a blatant abuse of the powers that it has by default, thus forcing us to either get their permanent IP addresses or forgetting the vast benefits that a permanent IP gives us as business people and individuals.

In fact in my view what Batelco is doing is tantamount to a crime against the growth of business in Bahrain and is actively forcing us to find alternatives outside of Bahrain thus get beholden to a foreign power for our livelihood. With their continuous vast profits they have absolutely no excuse for what they’re doing and the sooner we have internet deregulation here the better. Deregulating and opening up this vital medium to competition will most definitely be good for the Kingdom.

So instead of Batelco going head-to-head with the Iraqi authorities by providing free mobile services (they’re not, they’ve sunk some $5m in that enterprise which Batelco has taken from us, its long suffering customers,) they should look at their structure and methods in Bahrain to really promote it in the world, and give us webmasters and business people a break.

But they – as a profit making machine – will never do, the government of Bahrain should immediately put these issues under their microscopes and take the domain registration at least away from this monster.

With the furore that the amended press laws (number 47 of 2002) has caused, and this snide attack by the Minister of Information, the government now will amend the press laws somewhat, but in a stunted way. The direct tie-up between the press law and criminal law will be removed, but that does not remove the jail threat in some occasions of the newly amended law. Further it seems that although in the previous amendments the jail terms are stated, in one part of the new amendments it is unspecified!

Another very threatening thing that these new amendments carry is the separation between the various kinds of media, so the press is different from radio, television and the web! Aren’t all of these essentially the same? Aren’t they all used to air views? I have to get my hands on the full text to try to see what it actually contains now. As far as I know it has not been published yet as it is still awaiting government final approval.

In the same vein, the Prime Minister held a meeting with the 4 editors of the national newspapers yesterday, you can read the comment by Anwar Abdulrahman here, but one thing that raised my eye-brows from the report is:

Prime Minister: “The whole world today is in a big marketing race and irresponsible criticism or coverage will damage the enormous efforts that the government is initiating to bring more projects, which will bring benefits in the form of job opportunities for Bahrain’s people.

“I wish to see the Press carrying the same responsibility, as a team, to promote Bahrain in the eyes of would-be investors.

“We are all servants of our societies, no matter how high or humble our rank is. Therefore, I see that the Press should take the utmost care before anything goes to print, to check and double check all sides of a report and to handle it constructively, away from the sensationalisation of news.

“This might be about a traffic violation, such as speeding, or it might be about petty theft or robbery – in the end it stains the name of this country.

“Neither we, nor the rest of the world, are living in an ideal society, but we should all unite our efforts in giving this country its rightful image.

“Truly, I believe in the freedom of the Press, because a free Press can erase and eradicate fear from its society.

“But this freedom should not be transformed into making others horrified, but be a comforting source, to highlight the many positive sides to life in this country.

“The Press should have the awareness and professional ethics to understand that not all that is said is publishable.

“The pen is a powerful tool, it can be constructive, or destructive. It can harm, or heal.

“As a citizen, talking to fellow citizens, let us be generous with the truth.”

There is still that thing.. the thing that suggests that we are better than others, or more appropriately encouraging us the “hide” the unsavory side of our existence, that we really don’t have anything “bad” in the “Bahraini Character”. Why? I believe that we are not better than others, we certainly don’t have any bragging rights compared with other peoples and nations on Earth. We don’t have bragging rights when compared to India, China and various other countries in the world.

So why not wash the dirty laundry in public as long as the end-result is that we clean up our act? So we shouldn’t talk about the continuing corruption because we pretend that we don’t have corrupt people in all walks of life? We shouldn’t talk about a 60 year old man raping a couple of boys of 8 and 9 because we really don’t have pedophiles? We shouldn’t talk about thieves? Crimes? Or even constructively criticize the government because it is way beyond criticism? How about abuse of power? It doesn’t happen?

My humble advice: don’t restrict personal freedoms, separate state from religion, don’t restrict the press, remove the Ministry of Information, start a “press complaints commission”, and don’t try to bend everything to just “show” others that we are “good”.

The more we expose the bad, the more people will think twice about doing anything bad. Sweep these things under the carpet and continue to believe that we are oh so good and you’re waiting for a calamity.

Pray tell: What are the bounds of freedom? Did anyone define those yet?

We have the King of Bahrain urging people to exercise their newly given freedoms to constructively criticise everyone and everything in order to limit and expose wrongs, while the Prime Minister continuously cautions against “over-stepping” these same freedoms.

I am confused as I’m sure many others in these islands of ours. What are these bounds and where are the red lines?

I wish I knew, so here is my interpretation of what is allowed and hope that someone from a responsible position in government will put me right if I am indeed wrong:

1. Don’t criticize the King
2. Don’t criticize the Prime Minister
3. Don’t criticize any member of the Ruling Family
4. Don’t criticize any other Ruling Family in the Gulf and the Middle East
5. Don’t libel anyone
6. Don’t criticize or question Islam
7. The King, Prime Minister and the Ruling Families are never wrong

I’m generally not interested in any of the above. What I am interested in however is voicing my opinions and hope that through them the reader will question, analyze, sympathize, bash them to bits. That’s fine. It’s part of my ongoing education and my quest for more knowledge in the hope that I can help both myself and others to attempt reach conclusions to various issues hence promote understanding between cultures.

I do criticize government, parliament and parliamentarians’ view and will continue to do so. I do not target these criticisms on a particular person, that would be wrong. The value of criticism in the first place is to show that an idea has more faces and a problem has more solutions than that person/government/organization has possibly thought about. When these differing views are taken and analyzed properly it is very possible that the owner of that idea will amend his views and bring a better solution to the fore.

As a human being, I also have very entrenched views that I will not give up easily and will continue to defend. In my heart I know I am right defending the sanctity of human life, the right to express views, the right to assemble, the right to pursue a better life, the right to think independently, the right of personal freedoms, and the right that everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

I am sure that the Prime Minister does not include the defense of these rights outlined as over-stepping the bounds of freedoms.

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