Archive | February, 2007

Hecklers

Some sad sod is continuing to spam the blog because of an offence he took when I criticised a member of parliament. The member of parliament in question has a daughter who also took offence of what I had to say and her knight in shining armour decided to carry on a campaign of entering various comments under various guises attacking me personally, fully demonstrating his cowardice. This is okay with me if that’s how it gets his rocks off as he can’t get to the real thing I guess. But, this is disrupting the natural flaw of the discussions we are having here.

Therefore, to get rid of this pest, and thanks to him, I have to ask you to enter your name and email address or register in order to enter a comment. That first comment you enter will be moderated and released as soon as possible by myself, once that is done you can then comment to your heart’s content.

Backlit Sunflower and Shadows

Backlit Sunflower and Shadows, originally uploaded by malyousif.

One of the “advantages” of having parakeets coming to our garden and feeding is their dispersion of seeds some of which grow into magnificent plants, like this sunflower for instance, dropped in a relatively random place but certainly adds an organic – design wise – dimension to gardening.

Have a wonderful day my friends.

King vows to promote freedom of expression

In an audience today, the king met with the members of the Bahrain Journalist Association and:

UNDERLINED HIS CONTINUOUS KEENNESS TO PROMOTE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION WHICH IS THE MOST EMINENT CONTRIBUTOR TO PRESS DEVELOPMENT URGING EVERY BODY TO STICK TO OBJECTIVITY AND HONESTY AND CHAMPION THE NATIONAL INTEREST.

and just to be sure that the translation is actually correct, courtesy of the BNA:

و اكد جلالته حرصه الدائم على كفالة حرية الرأى والتعبير التى هى العامل الابرز فى ازدهار الصحافة داعيا الى ان يتحلى الجميع بالموضوعية والنزاهة وان يضعوا مصلحة الوطن العليا فوق كل اعتبار.

Thank you your majesty, this is much appreciated by every opinion writer in the island, I am sure. And as your majestic words are law, I can now assume that Law 47 of 2002 which imprisons these very writers for exercising your vision as expressed above is now withdrawn and that people can write and speak their minds for the betterment of your kingdom without fear of this particular persecution and imprisonment?

I sure hope so and shall take your words at face value. I will also hope that our illustrious parliamentarians shall immediately work to rescind that law and replace it with another which will allow people to speak their minds without having that sword of incarceration hanging over their heads.

Asala pips Wefaq in Bylaws change demands

I’m impressed. The Asala bloc (Salafists) have tabled a motion to comprehensively amend the Parliamentary bylaws (amending 40 of the 220 articles) through which parliament will become a much stronger institution, leaving Al-Wefaq, the erstwhile boycotting society, to eat their dust and continue to bang on their chests that they are the harbingers of change.

What I have seen from Wefaq so far is their procrastinations and confusion. We were led to believe that they would be the cohesive and professional body through which parliamentary processes would be pushed to professionalism and public demands for constitutional amendments would be made on their entry into parliament. At least those were their electioneering promises.

It appears that we are sorely mistaken. Again.

Thanks Asala for taking the initiative. Now follow through please. You are unopposed (other than the insignificant Menber boys) and I think that Wefaq would now be begging to be included in your proposal.

Al-Sahlawi & Al-Habshi are OUT!

Thanks to the big campaign and continuous pressure applied by society, Dr. Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahlawi and Hussain Al-Habshi have been released from prison at around 11am this morning. I have also confirmed this fact independently.

I wish to officially congratulate them for their stance and sacrifice, and hope that with this, the Bahraini government too have re-evaluated its own stance regarding freedoms of expressions. I would also like to thank everyone who maintained the political pressure to secure their release.

Congratulations Mohammed and Hussain and it’s good to have you back!