Archive | January, 2007

Bahrain jails political activists

A court in Bahrain on Wednesday sent two political activists to jail for possessing leaflets calling for a boycott of recent legislative elections, their lawyer said.

Mohammed Saeed Al Sahlawi, a dentist, received a one-year jail sentence while insurance executive Hussein al Hibshi was sentenced to six months in prison, lawyer Mohammed Ahmad told AFP.

“This ruling is unfair and illogical. It bypassed the defence argument… that the defendants were only exercising their right to free expression and that the material seized in their possession stressed the need to abide by peaceful means in expressing views,” Ahmad said.

“We have no choice but to appeal the ruling,” the lawyer added.

New York-based Human Rights Watch had on Tuesday urged Bahrain to drop the charges against the two political activists, who went on trial on January 7 on charges of possessing unlicensed leaflets ”containing inflammatory material and false information.”

The pair were arrested last November 16 after being found with leaflets that called for a boycott of the November 25 legislative polls.

They were charged under articles of Bahrain’s penal code which ”criminalise the dissemination and possession of materials that could “damage the public interest’,” HRW said.

The Shiite-led opposition won control of more than 40 percent of seats in parliament, which however has to share its legislative powers with an upper chamber appointed by the king.

The arrangement prompted a boycott of 2002 polls, the first since the parliament was scrapped in 1975. Some of Bahrain’s opposition kept up the boycott because demands for constitutional changes were not met.
Khaleej Times :: 31 Jan, ’07

Disgusting. Another blow for freedom of speech in Bahrain.

Al-Jazeera Calling

Bahraini Bloggers listen up:

I got contacted by Al-Jazeera International (English) who (initially) wanted to interview me about the Just Bahraini campaign, and now they grew that idea where they want to do a whole program on the Bahraini political scene, and want to talk to several bloggers. If you want to get involved in this, please get in contact with me as soon as possible.

Here’s the body of the email I received from them today:

A team is going to be in Bahrain sometime within the next 2-8 days in order to shoot for a half hour documentary on Bahraini politics. I already understand that Abdurrahman and James have contacted you and I was wondering if you could also alert a few of your other blogging companions about their visit. The team would like to meet with you as well as with a group of bloggers (you included). We would appreciate it if you could get a number of bloggers from a wide spectrum (shii, sunni, male, female) so that we can really get some good footage of what different people really think.

New AJAX Comments module installed

[POLL=7]

Quick admin stuff:

I’ve installed a new Ajax-Comments plugin, that means that the comment is posted when you click submit without it having to reload the whole page to show it. Did you not notice that sexy drawer effect when you hit submit? That lessens the load on the server a lot (I hope).

I don’t know why it doesn’t display the proper comment number though on that instant, but if you do reload the page (I know, defeats the purpose) you will notice that the numbering is correct.

I’ll try this comment module for a few days and see how it goes. If you have an feedback on this, please let me know.

And I am researching ways to optimise the server, ie, getting the pages to load faster. So bear with me. I’ll tell you when I’m done. The first I’m going to do is install APC (Alternative PHP Cache) and other stuff to kick the server into a higher gear.

I’ll let you know when I’m done playing…

update 18:12 -> ALL DONE!
I’ve finished the optimisation of the site:

I hope you will find that the site loads faster now. Let me know your experiences please if you don’t mind.

There is one more thing I can do, and that is disallow commenting on any article past a certain timeframe; for instance, I can bar commenting on articles over 6 months old, or 3 months old or one year old. This will allow those articles to almost be permanently cached and they will load (theoretically) like greased lightening as they will remain static by definition, hence will only be cached once and be ready for display (only) always.

Would you be okay with that? Let me put up poll and see what you guys think…

Thanks for your patience.

UPDATE 2: 3 Feb, ’07, disabled the Ajax Comments as it was timing out and creating problems.

Things that make you go OOOOOH!

Buchart Garden

Buchart Garden, originally uploaded by One Date Wonder.



Is there any chance that we would have a public garden in Bahrain with this much thought, this much love, and this much passion put into it so that people, everybody, to enjoy?

We have a lot of public spaces, little neighbourhood parks which have nothing but grass, bougainvilleas and a few palm trees, but never this.. okay petunias if we’re lucky, but.. but.. but..

I’m sure it could be done.

No?

Future visions

Bahrain is the second country after Oman to publicly state that it won’t make it to the 2010 Gulf single currency target. The crown prince said in a comprehensive interview with McKenzie Quarterly (also reported in Arabic in Al-Waqt yesterday) that the main economic factors – inflation metrics, jobs, fiscal policies, transparency, etc – are still disparate between member states which will make it difficult to climb on-board.

الوحدة النقدية
وعن رؤيته الى تحول دول المنطقة الى كتلة اقتصادية واحدة في ظل التخطيط للوحدة النقدية مع حلول العام 2010، قال سمو ولي العهد «على رغم وجود الإرادة السياسية لتحقيق ذلك إلا أنني أشك في تحقق ذلك في العام 2010 بسبب عدد من القضايا الفنية التي تحتاج الى نقاش قبل توحيد العملة، من بين هذه القضايا تقريب معايير التضخم، الدين العام، وأسعار الفائدة» مشيرا الى أن الوحدة النقدية تتطلب أن تتجه حكومات المنطقة الى مزيد من الشفافية في موازناتها بالإضافة الى أن نجاح هذه العملية يعتمد على إنشاء بنك مركزي قوي ومستقل ليقرر السياسة النقدية.

Fair enough. But one would have hoped that after 28 years of being in the Gulf Cooperation Council that these factors would have already been sorted a long time ago. Or at least put in the fast-track priority list. I guess they’re busy with other things more important.

The crown prince also amplified on various aspects of reforms he is spearheading: political, economic, labour, education reforms. All of which he should be definitely helped with without reservation, because in them is the paramount good for the country rather than the benefit of a small group of people.

When you read something by him or listen to him speak, it is hard not to get pulled in by his charismatic personality. One wants to believe the guy. Seriously. And hope that this feeling will continue. He’s viewed at the moment by the majority of the people that he is the only sincere person we have, and thus, a lot of people are pinning all their hopes on him. An onerous task, to be sure, but one that I know he will carry responsibly and with panache too!

الوحدة الوطنية
وعن تقييم سموه لتأثير الحرية السياسية الجديدة وعن العلاقة مع البرلمان الجديد، قال سموه إنها «تسير بشكل جيد جدا» مشيرا إلى أن جلالة الملك عرف أنه عندما يكون للمواطنين مشاركتهم في النظام فإنهم يصبحون أكثر انتاجية وقال «لمسنا انعكاس ذلك على الاقتصاد فورا».

واسترسل سموه :»كانت هناك مشكلات كما هو الحال عند إنشاء أي نظام جديد ولكنها ليست مشكلات لايمكن التغلب عليها، أعتقد أن الناس يشعرون بالتمكين من خلال التحولات الجديدة.

وحول قلقه بشأن وجود بعض الفئات خارج النظام السياسي الرسمي، قال سمو ولي العهد إن الديمقراطية تجلب الحرية، وسيكون هناك دائما من يعارض، فالناس في كل مكان من الممكن أن لايرضيهم أي نظام». وقال سموه «أحمد الله أنه توجد هنا آلية لوضع هذه الأفكار موضع التطبيق اذا أيدتها غالبية الآراء أو على الأقل التعبير عنها بشكل سلمي».

وقال سموه :»نحن نود أن نركز على الوحدة الوطنية وأن نبتعد عن التقسيمة السنية- الشيعية فهي لم تكن موجودة في السابق وتفاقمت مع الحالة السياسية لدي جيراننا، فصراع القوة الذي يبلغ عمره جيلا بين ايران والعالم العربي أصبح مسعورا في العراق كما ترى» مشيرا الى أنه «وضع لا يساعدنا ولكنه شيء سوف أواصل محاربته» فجميعنا مواطنون بحرينيون ولا يجب التمييز بين السنة والشيعة»

This is something very important too and it’s good to hear the leadership emphasize once again that they do regard all Bahrainis as equal regardless of the sect they follow and that he does not differentiate between Sunni and Shi’i.

The crown prince of course is one of the top leaders of the country, and it is in his power to change things for the better. Everyone loves him and now has gained an international reputation as a moderate and a statesman. So i hope I will not cross the line by advising him – as a friend – that he should immediately implement policies to those organisations he oversees which will translate all of his excellent positions as articulated in this and other interviews and open the gates of employment to the Shi’a into the armed forces.

This will immediately shut his critics up, but much more importantly provide needed employment and more importantly allow them the honour in serving their country, increase (not establish) their loyalty to this land and have that great feeling of being a productive and important member of the community.

This step will also solidify the crown prince’s position in the community and give him the fodder he needs to surmount the various challenges facing us going forth.

It is good, just like he mentioned in the interview, that we are carrying on with all determination to reform all aspects of the country even in the midst of high oil revenues. This is the visionary approach we need more of in this country, rather than the myopic “me” mentality we have suffered from in the past.

I think you will find that the majority of the country is with the crown prince and our reforms, what is needed now is probably a tangible thing for people to touch so they can continue to believe in his vision, and that tangible thing is not too difficult to effect.