Archive | December, 2006

NEXT!

Today’s Eid is a lot sweeter knowing that Saddam has been consigned to history’s rubbish heap. Sure he will be mentioned and might even be celebrated by some, to me however, I have not and will not shed a single tear on hearing of his demise. “Good riddance”, was one thought, another was, “okay, who’s next?”

And I will be looking to adding his picture hanging from the gallows to this composition:

Well, okay, Saddam is a part of historical lore of this turbulent area of the world, but most certainly he will not be the last. Every despot in the world should now sit up and take notice, and he might as well hang a sign which should be in his constant field of vision which says “I could be next”, maybe then they will have some measure of decency and look into bettering the affairs of their people, and bring their countries to be counted as part of this modern world, one that should be built on the respect of human rights and the freedom of the individual.

The especially poignant question remains to the “leaders” of our Arab world: Who’s next? Let that resonate in their own minds, and add this fact to it too, it won’t take the Americans to do the job again, but their own people who have been empowered, yes empowered, by the fate of Saddam.

Ancestral Vices

Stopping evolutionary change is like trying to stop a tsunami with a few bags of sand. It just doesn’t work. I think the rulers of the Middle East recognise that fact, but they think that hiding their heads deep enough in the sand will delay their populace’s recognition of the fact. The majority actually do blindly subscribe to that premise; however, an enlightened few don’t. It is those who are the little insignificant cracks in the dam which ultimately burst it, and create the deluge that would drawn all those who prefer to live in their fallaciously secure imagination, and the only people who will be spared are those who live at the cusp of, encourage, aid and abet that change.

We are really not bad people, us Middle Easterners, we’re just trapped into the turbid waters of historically skewed custom and tradition without strong enough leaders and visionaries to extricate us from our self-sustained quagmires. We are just normal human beings with the same needs, passions, and idiosyncrasies as any in the world. We are just trapped into a spiral of ancient traditions still enforced by those very leaders whose only worry is the continuation of their rule at any cost. It is therefore easier for them to enforce ancient custom rather than question it, and continue the momentum of perceived stability in calm waters rather than plan and even induce required winds of change.

The leaders might be of that mettle, but there is nothing stopping us ourselves from effecting that change. A small nick at a time, a nick that will enable the deluge of change which will take us – probably turbulently – to join the rest of the modern world which has become powerful nations built on the respect of the sanctity of human life.

Until then, of course, we will continue to have judges who sentence a victim to punishment, who separate legally married couples due to perceived tribal class imbalance and imprisoning those who dare to challenge accepted societal norms.

It is people like Abdulrahman Al-Lahem who will ultimately drag our blissfully ignorant societies into the light. It is supermen like him who are the vanguard of change.

There is nothing stopping any of us individually in joining this caravan if we do not want to lead it. All it needs is courage, and we should have plenty of that, if our history is to be believed.

Public Calligraphy & Eid Mubarak

Public Calligraphy, originally uploaded by malyousif.

I visited the village of Bilad Al-Qadeem this morning to pay my respects to a friend whose father just passed away. Although my own father’s house is very close to that village, I’ve never taken it upon myself to go in and investigate. Today, I am happy that I did, and I personally think that if you don’t go and visit one of these villages then you can’t really say that you have seen Bahrain.

This kind of calligraphy was everywhere on several buildings and done very well indeed. It is obvious the people of this village are both artistic and religious as these works of art represent some Ayahs of the Quran or other religious texts.

The village itself is much like a rabbit warren. I got lost trying to find he condolence location and had to call a guy in there to rescue me and show me where the ma’atem actually was!

I fully recommend you go and spend some time in these villages. There is no danger at all, and the people are friendly and helpful.

Have a wonderful Friday my friends and let me also wish you Eid Mubarak.

Bye Santacons!

You know, they say that if you keep the Christmas decorations up for too long after Christmas that could bring you bad luck; therefore, I have retired our beloved Santacons until next Christmas.

Say your goodbyes and thank yous to the little red man and woman…

and say hello to the little green gender-neutral thingies again…

UPDATE 21:58: Okay, I’m feeling magnanimous :[ ! Click the thumbnail of the smilies on the right to view the available smilies sets, then vote for your selection in the poll. Voting will end Jan 1st, 2007 at 12 noon Bahrain time and the winning set will be installed.

All hail King Salman bin Hindi

In an unprecedented move, a separatist coup declared our beloved island of Muharraq an independent kingdom presided over by His Honourable Majesty King Salman bin Hindi, the erstwhile loyal governor of that island.

Muharraq, the mother of political movements in Bahrain, the location of the first ever educational institution and the exclusive entrance by air to Bahrain has been taken over by a separatist movement which ceded it from the main archipelago.

Bahrain is now bereft of its main entrance point by air, and much more importantly, we have now lost a major part of our heritage, and the denizen of multiculturalism and anti-sectarianism to a despot intent on reversing those two main facets which we all – as Bahrainis – were once proud of in our island of Muharraq.

King bin Hindi, on his declaration of independence, has also declared that Shi’a, especially those of Iranian origin, and Indians and other icky labourers are henceforth not welcome in his kingdom. That is actually very ironic because those who can understand Arabic would interpret His Majesty’s family name as “the son of an Indian”, so I guess when he is anointed proper he might choose another nom-de-regine to be thenceforth known by.

King bin Hindi has also demonstrated his astuteness to reach his declared goal of a racially pure Muharraq, has banned any land and property transactions by “foreigners”, that is, anyone who is not demonstrably Muharraqi of the fourth degree; people who speak with the Hidd tongue are condoned provided that they plead complete and utter allegiance to his Majesty and sacrifice one of their daughters in his honour. If a Hiddi house does not have any daughters, then their maid will do – especially if she happens to be Indian.

As Bahrainis we cannot accept this situation. Muharraq is the jewel in our crown, the pearl of our existence and the pride of our history. How can we condone such a heinous step? This is an island so ingrained in our blood that we can never regard ourselves as true Bahrainis unless we have drunk from her sweet water, or at least made the pilgrimage to Shuwaiter’s sweet factory and bought some of his Royal Halwa, without which no Eid could be celebrated and no occasion is ever complete.

How can we accept such a situation when we celebrate the major parts of our culture in that island? How can we remember the pearl diving without mentioning Muharraq? How can we experience the greats of our literature and song without thinking of Muharraq? How can we even go on our holidays or conduct our business without partaking of its modern(ish) airport facilities?

No no, this cannot be. I am absolutely shocked and dismayed by this development, and declare myself now and for ever a Muharraq Freedom Fighter to liberate that great island from the tyrannies of bin Hindi, that usurper, and bring it back to the mother island and restore it to its place of pride in our kingdom.

Hail Muharraq! And off with bin Hindi’s head!

correction: sorry, I have linked to the wrong article originally, the link is fixed and it goes to the correct Arabic article in Al-Wasat newspaper of Dec 28th, ’06. Humble apologies.

English translation: Google translation of the newspaper article linked above