Mahmood's Den

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, originally uploaded by malyousif.

Have a wonderful day my friends.

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now assume that Law 47 of 2002 which imprisons these very writers for exercising your vision as expressed above is now withdrawn and that people can write and speak their minds for the betterment of your kingdom without fear of this particular persecution and imprisonment?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.

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.

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!

The idea of having most of the relevant government ministries or their representatives in one location where an investor might go to register a company to establish a business in Bahrain is a fantastic step. One no longer has to spend days driving from one ministry to another to get a transaction done, now all one has to do is drive to the Seef Mall, pick a number and then go from one cubicle to another to finish an application or add an activity to a commercial license.

That can be improved of course. This came to me as I spent 2 hours and 45 minutes to simply add an activity to my commercial registration! I started the process at 10:14 this morning, and by 2pm when they shut down their systems my transaction did not conclude. Admittedly, only a couple more rubber stamps remain which I hope to finish within 15 minutes tomorrow morning.

Most of that time was waiting for my turn to be announced, but once I got to the assigned desk it was a matter of seconds before that part of the transaction got concluded, which is a testament to the professionalism and the training the staff their received. The centre should most definitely be emulated in all government (and private) offices.

Some cubicles were more busy than others of course. Throughout the time I was there, there was virtually no one seeking the services of the Ministry of Health, Immigration nor the Ministry of Information’s desks and staff there were obviously under utilised. Had they been also available to render services, things would have moved a lot quicker.

Which brings me to my suggestion: people at the Investors’ Centre should be trained to do all the jobs of all of those desks and all the information from the various ministries – the parts that they need to make decisions – should be made available to them too. That means that staff should become multi-disciplined so that if an investor wants to conclude a transaction, she should be able to finish all the requirements at a single desk, without having to hope from one cubicle to another. This undoubtedly speed up the transactions process but the staff will have to be trained in all the functions and should be compensated accordingly.

I’m off tomorrow morning again to spend some time there, but I hope that I won’t have to spend the whole morning chasing papers and that my transaction will be concluded in good time.

Guys, I’ve been asked where a couple might have their wedding anniversary dinner in Bahrain and if I had any suggestions.

As I don’t know any “proper” restaurant other than Paco’s and the food court (the new one) at Seef, so can you guys help by suggesting a “nice and secluded and very romantic restaurant” where the happy couple might spend a few hours of bliss together?

My husband and I are going to be celebrating our one-year anniversary soon, and I want to plan something special. Do you know of any extremely romantic spots here in Bahrain? We have debated traveling elsewhere, but seeing as how leaving the country might be difficult, I wanted to see if I could come up with something here.

Are there any spots that have an amazing view. Ideally something secluded? Anything at all that you could recommend would be greatly appreciated!

Your suggestions will be really appreciated.

The Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights will be conducting a training workshop about Press Freedoms, the law and how it views freedoms of expression, practical demonstrations and tutorials on blogging and how to circumvent blocks to reach the content you require.

This workshop will take place between 1-5 March, 2007 in the Bahrain Human Rights Society’s premises for the first two days (1 and 3) the latter days will be conducted at Wa’ad’s.

Both Mohammed Al-Maskati (not to be confused with the other Mohammed Maskati who heads the BYSHR!) and myself will be presenting on the first day (1st March) from 6:20PM through to 8:30PM and our topics will be “Bahraini Blogs, between freedom and internet blocks”.

The whole workshop is very well worth the attendance. Please call the BYSHR for more information.

Download the program (arabic) in pdf format.

Due to other commitments, both Mohammed Al-Maskati and I won’t be able to attend the forthcoming bloggers’ gathering which is supposed to be held on March 1st, therefore, could we ask you to delay it to the next Thursday for this once please?

If that is acceptable to you, the 26th Bloggers’ Gathering will be (please take note of new timing and location!):

• When: Thursday 8th March, 2007 from 7PM – 9PM
• Where: Al-Bareh Café, Adliya

Each will be responsible for their own bill.

I think we should add some structure to the gathering so that everyone would benefit and know ahead of time what is going to be discussed. Therefore, there will be a presentation starting promptly at 7pm to highlight (but not restricted to):

• The State of the Bahraini blogosphere
• New blogs in 2007
• New blogging technologies
• Comparison of hosting plans used by bloggers
• Highlights of issues covered by bloggers so far (shall we call this the “monthly roundup”?)
• Any other issue any of you would like to contribute to the presentation.

We need a projector so that we can project the presentation. Sadiq, can you arrange this please?

The presentation should not last more than 30 minutes, the remaining 90 minutes could be dedicated to a general chat as we have done in the past or moderated as we see fit.

The press are welcome to attend and highly encouraged to report the gathering!

Thorny Brithday, originally uploaded by malyousif.

I planted all the cactii earlier this morning, and took some nice pictures around the garden. They’re uploaded to my flickr account if you want to have a peek. Thanks all for your kind wishes again.

My wife and children are happy that I have taken up gardening. Now, they say, it’s pretty easy to pick up a present for me!

And today, Friday, is my 45th birthday, which is proving to be a very thorny one!

When two of my friends have opted to get motorbikes to deal with their mid-life crisis, I’m opting for gardening and I love it.

Have a wonderful Friday my friends!

I am ever so grateful to the Ministry of Interior for foiling the plot to overthrow the government [Arabic], yet again, by a group of 35 youths who have confessed to not know each other yet intricately coordinate their heinous activities and practice the seditious act of throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at printed targets attached to trunks of palm trees (shown above) in secret palm groves. This has been confirmed by the GDN which is the ultimate credible investigative journal in the Island kingdom.

The police have reportedly found twenty-five empty bottles in a farm in Bani Jamra, about a couple of kilometers from where I live, which the police believe are the conclusive incriminating evidence used by these misguided youth as practice objects of throwing Molotov cocktails the purpose of which is to topple the government of the land. A one year old picture of these cocktails was released to the press to elucidate the point and to act as a graphic representation of the find, one that overshadows the recent find of a 4000 year-old Delmonian palace nearby.

It is also purported that the above graphic was confiscated from the perps’ secret and Mo(d)I-blocked internet forum which was used by these completely anonymous rock/Molotov throwers to benefit from each others’ experience in the Art of Hurling Objects (AHO) and was used by their balaklaved and voice obfuscated trainers to encourage their charges to outwit, outperform and outlast each other on the fiery streets of Bahrain.

Thank you, ever vigilant, Ministry of Interior.

I can sleep better tonight!

State something once, and you would probably be forgiven for a possible slip of the tongue, but if a it is repeated thrice – as a warning – what other explanation could there be other than the person being warned is a known repeat offender?

Thus was the state of affairs between Mohammed Khaled and his boss Salah Ali last Tuesday in parliament, both of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Al-Menber political society, all of whom are purportedly in parliament due to copious votes gained from out-of-constituency voting centres.

No matter. So what was Salah Ali being warned against by his colleague? He was instructed not to kiss ass – to use colloquial parlance – for the right honourable gentleman has been known to have perfected that vocation.

Uncharacteristically, the right honourable gentleman disappoints in that particular situation, or maybe due to the behest of Khalid – or in spite of him, interpret it as you will – he mildly rebuked the government for throwing out the majority of the parliament’s work over the last few years and retained just 12 projects out of 53 to be brought back into this parliamentary term, as is their right as far as the by-laws are concerned.

I wonder if the right honourable gentlemen of Al-Menber would support other MPs in demanding changes to the parliamentary by-laws to ensure such a situation not to happen again?

I’m not holding my breath.

Duct Taped Airplane!, originally uploaded by malyousif.

Like this example in Gulf Air’s A320 (registration ER) I flew back on from Kuwait yesterday where it was used to hold the partition between the business and steerage classes and for a substantial time it looks from the frayed edges.

Gives passengers a lot of confidence that.

This is a very sad day for the freedom of expression in the Middle East:

Egyptian Blogger Sentenced to Prison

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt — An Egyptian blogger was convicted of insulting Islam and President Hosni Mubarak and sentenced to four years in prison on Thursday in Egypt’s first prosecution of a blogger.

Abdel Kareem Nabil, a 22-year-old former student at Egypt’s Al-Azhar University, an Islamic institution, had pleaded innocent to all charges, and human rights groups had called for his release.

…

The judge issued the verdict in a brief, five-minute session in a court in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria. He sentenced Nabil to three years in prison for insulting Islam and inciting sedition and another year for insulting Mubarak. Nabil had faced a possible maximum sentence of up to nine years in prison.
Washingtom Post :: 22 Feb, ’07

And if Egypt leads, the Arab world are supposed to follow, right? So the arrest, detention and jailing of people for simply writing their thoughts is forging ahead unchecked in the Middle East… and there doesn’t seem to be any will whatsoever for anyone to stop it, even for a moment, to think of what that is going to do for this and future generations.

Yet another reason for one to maintain their anonymity at all times.

Big brother is not just watching, but is waiting to pounce at the slightest chance to silence critics in the full sight of the world and even they are not interested in doing anything about the situation.

They even constructed a whole multi-story building to celebrate WordPress!