All you have to ask yourself is what you would feel if that woman was your mother.
Then come back and reevaluate your rant.

Touche mahmood !! but on a serious note it makes me wonder how many of the 20% are actually women ? often women are more likely experience poverty due to unfair divorce laws or unequel earnings when compared with men…

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it wouldn’t as the Bahraini Employers would just have dummy contracts with the Indians and still pay them a pittance.

I’m sure that’s not the reason why they would hold back from introducing such a law. At the moment, you’ve got employers sponsoring “taking ownership” of and exploiting poor, vulnerable, many times uneducated human beings from 3rd world countries. It’s modern day slavery it happens right here in the 21st century on this little island we call home.

A minimum wage for all, irrespective of nationality/religion would of course be inscribed into our law books. Employers signing dummy contracts in order to exploit would of course be illegal. It would be up to the courts to do whats necessary ie jail time, suspension of businesses etc..

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Would a non-discriminate minimum wage for everyone irregardless of nationality/origin not work here?

It would appear to be the answer to allot of our problems!

No it wouldn’t as the Bahraini Employers would just have dummy contracts with the Indians and still pay them a pittance.

The Best way forward is to adopt the Mcenzie report with out diluting it and to have transparent spending of the resulting income it generates.

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If we take the authoritative figure released from our CIO office which says almost 50% of the current populous are of foreign nationals, I’m pretty certain that the large majority have disposable incomes considerably lower compared to their Bahraini counterparts – the majority not even coming close to earning minimum wages, which, only apply to Bahraini nationals at the present time.

Would a non-discriminate minimum wage for everyone irregardless of nationality/origin not work here?

It would appear to be the answer to allot of our problems!

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Your really know how to spice up things.
Kudos to you!!!

Last thing first. I would die but not let my parents suffer, even if it meant not eating myself at all!!

Second, about the housing. Why do you only want a villa? I have read reports in which citizens demand only villas. Isn’t an apartment a home too. It just speaks of our spoiled mentality.

I say tax them and make them work more than eight hours and see how life is. Look at people in the West. They are feeling the pinch of inflation too. But they work for more than is required.

There isn’t a constitution of any country that doesn’t give the citizens right to food and housing, but those facilities are not at all free. I am sure the constitution didn’t say free housing. Not even the wealthiest nations’ constitutions do. They provide you with facilities to those rights, like loans, mortgage facilities, subsidised food, etc — but free, NO!!!!!!!!

By the way, I am a student of International Relations and have yet to stumble upon such a national charter.

Now, the government has already increased the housing finance amount to BD60,000. Now you would say that there are no houses for that money. There may be no villas, but there surely are apartments. Learn to live simple man.

Again when you mention shortage of schools, those are just selective schools. Schools in the countries from which most expats come don’t even have furniture, let alone electricity. But they work their way up and don’t see that as an impediment. Of course, their constitution too provides for the same, and they are much better constitutions, mind you.

As for the slogan of the said bank’s credit card campaign, I totally agree with you brother. Such slogans itself are enticing and don’t befit an Islamic bank. [Thank God we have agreed on something! ]

Now that every constituency has MPs, why not catch them? Ask them why the roads are not built. Why do they go to parliament then and enjoy the fat and bulky salaries if they can’t fix a couple of roads. Speaking of their salaries, I even object to them being so much. How would a happy parliamentarian, who gets all facilities and loads of cash, know how the ordinary people live and feel?

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I do not deny that our lifestyle in Bahrain leaves a lot to be desired, but also recognise the fact that the vast majority of Bahraini workers in this country earn a lot less than expats due to various factors, amongst those are reliability, dependability and educational level commensurate with what they are supposed to work at.

Do I blame the government for this? Of course I do. When the new school year starts and students don’t have enough seats in their classes, or when you find out that once seats are scrounged for them they have no electricity and even if that is sorted you realise that there are up to 40 students per class and then you discover that they didn’t provide enough teachers and those who are available to teach think that entails only keeping kids off the street, sitting down and shutting up rather than preparing them for further education and the job market.

Who do you blame for that exactly? Our morals?

When the constitution clearly states that EVERY Bahraini has a RIGHT to proper housing and you get the government declared numbers of 40,000 families waiting for such accommodation, some for more than 17 years and no houses are forthcoming, who do you blame for that?

When the constitution guarantees a job for every Bahraini and all we got is the so called labour reform of which we only witnessed the tax imposed and the watering down of its tenets and – as you succinctly describe – that me as an employer cannot fire a good-for-nothing employee even if caught sleeping at work because he is Bahraini, do you think that engenders the feeling of competitiveness and responsibility, who exactly do you blame for that?

When a so called Islamic bank fires off a credit card campaign with “I like it I’ll buy it” and the government – who controls such banks through its Central Bank – and they get away with it and we hear not one peep of objection from the so called clerics and the government regulators, who do you blame for that?

When you go into any village and you find out that its roads are not navigable because of non-existent roads AND the overflowing sewage which has not been connected to a national grid – which too is a pipe dream – who do you exactly blame for that?

So spare me the pink-coloured shades, they are the last thing that we need in order to retake our country and hold officials responsible for these policies which rendered most Bahrainies’ life a misery.

No, I do not blame the government for everything that has and is going bad in this country, but as the government has the full and only controls of the reins of this society, it is truly blamable first and foremost and it is well within its power to get these things fixed, rather than continuously try to ameliorate feelings by degradingly giving alms such as what we witnessed here.

Does that picture of the woman represent the plight of Bahrainis at the current moment? Of course it does.

All you have to ask yourself is what you would feel if that woman was your mother.

Then come back and reevaluate your rant.

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A combined total income of theirs would be more than 500 dinars sometimes. Where is that sense of togetherness in our society, when we used to share. Now each son is separate leaving their parents in the lurch. I am sure, most of those standing in the queue are old people too – some even abandoned by their children. Now don’t tell me there aren’t and that I am quoting rare cases. You too are basing your story on one picture.

This inflation allowance tells us much more than poverty my brother. It tells us of the degrading values of our society.

Mark my words sir, if this continues, even an allowance of 200 dinars won’t suffice. Some things are only for us to fix things. The government cannot enter our homes to fix our rotting moral values.

As for your complaint of people not getting 300 dinars, I guess you should also read reports of the labour department signing deals with companies each week of giving at least 300 dinars to Bahraini employees.

And don’t you think – as a champion of human rights – that expats deserve that 300 dinars too? After all, they too are buying stuff in dinars and not in their home currencies here.

Or do you think human rights are exclusive to Bahrainis only!!!!!!!!!!!

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We easily put the blame on the government. How about taking part of the blame ourselves.

I hope you even read the news a few weeks ago saying Bahrain’s internal debt was 1.94 billion dollars. That is the debt owned by people to banks and financial institutions. Do you know how? Well, read then.

People buy expensive American and European cars even if they can’t afford them, because the banks have made it easy for them. They give interest-based loans (which is haraam for Muslims anyway), and they end up paying those loans for years to come. They can easily afford well-maintained second-hand cars. No!!!!!!!! But they need to show off.

They spend lavishly on weddings, even when it could be done in a very simple way. By the way, the government already gives a one-off allowance of 1,000 to 3,000 dinars for Bahrainis for marriage. Which developed country does that?

They buy expensive clothing and furniture, and go to high-class restaurants, where they proudly use their credit cards, only to await frustration at the end of the month on how to pay their bills.

They have adopted much of the Western TV lifestyle, and forgot the simple one that our religion and culture teaches.

Now you tell me, is the government to blame for that. In Western countries, citizens are heavily taxed, which are returned in the form of services. But here we enjoy, a tax-free life, and even then put the entire blame on the government.

The government gives you housing (even though the wait is long), jobs (under the Bahrainisation quota, you get the first priority even if you are half as good as the expats), job security (no one can kick you out even if you sleep on the job all day). And still you grumble?!!!!!!!!!

It’s a shame really that people have the anti-government blinkers on and see things according to their convenience. No wonder when we go to the West, we are down the talent line – because we have been spoiled by our governments.

We are like spoiled brats, whose parents give them enough and yet they want more.

There we work as taxi drivers and dish washes and still are happily. But here, no, we must work as officers and managers and have a few expats under our proud command. What hypocrisy man!!! I guess you haven’t seen, or not even read of, poverty.

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I contend that the majority of those waiting in lines to receive alms are way lower than your 1500 ceiling.

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