Archive | November, 2006

The Bahraini Knights

The Wa'ad Nights, the saviours of Bahrain

These four gentlemen have sacrificed more for this country and its people than the whole bunch of Salafis and Muslim Brotherhood candidates and MPs ever have, or ever will. To even start to list the good that the four gentlemen have done so far would fill volumes, while all the Islamists gave us is veiled drivers and bearded police and military personnel.

Without Wa’ad and their allies we would not have known of the transgressions of government and influential people; therefore, we would have never been able to put a stop to those transgressions and start to demand what is our right as full citizens of this country.

Who exposed hidden chapters in the national budget?

Who exposed the the GOSI fiasco?

Who exposed the illegal appropriation of land?

Who exposed grafters, cheaters, thieves and the bribe-takers?

Who continues to fight for ALL of Bahrain?

Who is fighting tooth and nail for Bahrain to live a non-sectarian life?

Who are loyal to the people of Bahrain first and foremost?

Who are the forces of darkness – the Salafis and Muslim Brotherhood – terrified of?

Who are the moderates?

Who are the ones who will act as buffers against sectarianism in the forthcoming parliament?

Who are going to ensure that parliament does not descend into a sectarian pit?

Who else but the four gentlemen above?

Do you really think that the Islamists will protect you? Didn’t you have enough of their restrictive and draconian laws? Didn’t you already suffer at their hands? Didn’t they already rob you of your own freedoms? Didn’t they inculcate Orwellian practices at every facet of our lives?

Do you really think that Islamists will allow you to live the life you dream of in Bahrain, in peace and tranquility away from sectarian strife?

Only these four gentlemen can save us now, all of us, and ensure that our freedoms are protected and increased. Only they will force parliament to put the Bahraini citizen at the forefront of any laws? Only they will continue to expose corruption and deal with it.

Not the Salafis nor the Muslim Brotherhood, the forces of darkness.

This Saturday, go out and vote for Bahrain. Vote for Wa’ad. Vote for the Promise of a better life.

GOOD NEWS!

Here’s some Good News™ for a change:

A new authority that will investigate medical errors and award licences to private hospitals in Bahrain is in the pipeline.

…

“The new authority will regulate health professionals and services and ensure that all health practices are in line with international best practice examples,” he said.

He added that it would be the duty of the authority to set up, monitor and enforce national standards for health institutions, health professions, drugs and pharmacies, health insurance, diagnostic facilities, clinical research and medical devices.

“Over and above this, the authority will also be responsible for ensuring that relevant information is provided to the public,” he said.

It will also deal with issues related to regulating the establishment of new private hospitals and clinics, quality-assurance factors at medical centres, the skills and performance of doctors and the rights of patients
Trade Arabia :: 30 Nov, ’06

This obviously means that with this board we will ultimately have better and more professional medical services. Initially, a lot of people will probably sue until they’re blue in the face, which is good, as that will force medical professionals to become more professionals rather than using their patients as pin cushions and training cadavers!

Preemptive strike?

Drink anyone?

Most unpopular candidate

There must be winners and losers in any competition, otherwise what’s the point of calling it a race. But if you lose against a strong opponent, that actually makes you stronger and hopefully you will gain a few lessons so that next time around you will have a chance to whip his beehind.

Not this guy though. The only thing that this guy got out of the race is how actually unpopular he is. Why do I say this? Well, he ran for the 2nd constituency in the Southern governate, yes the very one that bred illustrious persons of note like the effervescent Jassim Al-Saidi, Hamad Al-Mohannadi (whom this guy ran against) and of course that provided us with the very first female member of parliament in the whole wide Arabian Gulf. Not that that is an achievement of course, women only got the in the last few months in Kuwait and Ms. Al-Gaoud got into the Bahraini parliament by tactically being the only candidate to run in that constituency.

Getting back to Mr. Al-Harbi, I checked his credentials, and if his CV is anything to go by, he can’t have even bothered to even think of his campaign! A total of 8 lines of credentials, the most notable of which is that he was born in 1967. Not even bothering to list the actual date so that his supporters would note it in their diaries and diligently send him birthday cards, but just the year would suffice. Attention to details, you see.

So how much of a failure is this guy you ask? Well, of the total 2,371 acceptable votes cast, he got all of 4. Yes four! As the normal size of a Bahraini family is 6, this guy can’t have had a good relationship with even his siblings or his parents to get two of them voting against him!

What the hell was this guy doing getting into the elections? Other than not having any concept whatsoever to evaluate his chances of success, he just demonstrated his complete and utter stupidity in entering in the first place. And you know what the kicker is, he actually ran for a municipal seat in 2002 and he failed that one too. He’s not letting it go either, he filed a case against the Elections Committee to force a re-count at the Court of Cassation “to defend his honour”, only to get his case thrown out too!

Who knows, maybe he’ll be lucky the third time around!

What insolence!

I think everyone can excuse bad manners once in a while and simply attribute its occurrence to a particular situation, upbringing or even just simple frustration. What people cannot excuse; however, is pure and evil insolence, especially when that insolence comes from a grown person with public standing and one that has been chosen – against people’s best judgment as far as I’m concerned – to be their representative in the hallowed halls of parliament.

Look at this incident for instance:

كما أشار خالد إلى اتصال النائب علي سلمان له ليبارك فوزه بالانتخابات، وأنه رد عليه بقوله ‘’لا أريدك أن تبارك لي، وإنما ما أود قوله لك أن البحرين أمانة وغالية علينا’’. معتبراً أن قوى المعارضة لم تقدم شيئاً للناس بل زادتنا سوءاً، حسب قوله.

Al-Waqt :: 30 Nov, ’06

Isn’t this simply disgusting? Mohammed Khalid receives a call from the head of the largest political party in Bahrain who is calling to congratulate him on his win and re-entry into parliament, and what does that insolent, inbred, Satan worshiping fetishist respond with? Abuse and calls the gentleman a traitor!

Bad manners? No. Not just that. He proved over the last four years how insolent he is. And why shouldn’t he be? Is there anyone from his own constituents or the leadership of his own party or the parliamentary speaker to tell him off and advise him that what he is doing is simply a further contribution to sectarianism and the ultimate destruction of this country?

No of course not. What he does get instead are continuous pats on the back and cowardly whispers telling him how great he is and that “he showed them.” What we do get instead is the previous speaker of the parliament making himself exclusively available to these characters in their campaigns, rather than do the proper thing and be independent, in view of his position.

It is really baffling, completely and utterly baffling how people like these get elected to represent us in the first place.

I think one solution is to forget about all of these constituencies in future elections and treat the whole of Bahrain as a single constituency. It is doable. Bahrain is not even the size of some Indian villages!

Nabeeha Wahdah! Should be the new battle cry for the next election. “We want it as just one constituency”. Maybe then, we can truly elect representatives who will represent the whole of Bahrain and I am sure when that happens, we can rest assured that asswipes like this character would never get even close to parliament.