Who’s listening?
A new town is going to be dredged out of the sea to house some 50,000 families ultimately. It’s going to be positioned in an area well renowned for its natural beauty, natural springs and abundant sea. But human requirements are much more important in this little spit of a land we call our home.
Yet, fully one half of the island is unoccupied! That half is reserved for military operations, camping and hunting. It’s a desert, which seems to the planners at least much more important and naturally diverse habitat than the ancient north coast of Bahrain. Certainly more important than a natural spring that is steep in Bahraini history, Ain Um-Sajoor which at one point in its turbulent life not only irrigated the large swathes of northern Bahrain including Duraz, Barbar, Budaiya, but also part of Manama.
This northern utopia must be connected to the mainland in some way. And with 50,000 families we expect over 200,000 people living there. They need transport, they need new roads to take them to Manama and other parts. How do you transport these people?
Roads of course! But the proposed roads to that man-made island will cut through ancient palm groves, ancient natural springs and some new homes just recently built, some still unoccupied! This is a life savings wasted. People who have collected and saved and bartered and sweated to build their homes in the area where the road is going to cut through will just have to shut down their dream and natural right of existence in the place they chose to live the rest of their lives, and move, and deal with the heartache once again to build their abode.
Three roads are reportedly going to cut through areas like the ones described above. The Northern Governate, Municipality and Ministry of Housing have not concluded where these new roads are going to go, their route is still a mystery revealed only to the initiated it seams, while the residents whose lives will be affected for ever are left in the dark.
Let’s leave that for the moment. If you live in Bahrain and have the misfortune to travel on the Budaiya highway to get to your place of work have already experienced interminable delays on this very thin artery. You already know that even if two bicycles collide on that road the whole thing comes to a stand-still for hours. How is that going to absorb the 50,000 families’ cars?
Can you imagine the pollution? Can you imagine the noise? Can you imagine the heartache?
No longer will people be able to enjoy the silence. No longer will they be able to enjoy just walks amongst the palms.
They’re just going to be another group of automatons who happen to live by the side of a highway that bleeds their lives away.
And no longer will the palm reign in the land of the million palms.
Comments
Don’t Cut our Palms
Why are the protest signs in English?
Steve
Don’t Cut our Palms
My dear Mahmood!
What palms? What springs? What nature? It is too late to lament about this.
Who cares about those poor sods who decided to build their homes on the proposed new route.
It really is their problem and theirs alone! Why should the poor people dream and have any aspirations?
What did Thursday’s demo achieve? Who told those people who stood up with their banners and created a scene that anyone will be moved by their plight?
The 70 families or so whose homes will be demolished to make way for the new road will be relocated. Perhaps they could even be moved to Sakhir to create a new colony.
What do people want more? They want homes. They will get homes. How much more ungrateful can they be? Why are they being so selfish? What is the benefit of 50,000 families compared to the heart break of 70 families???
This issue brings to the surface the true genius of Bahrain’s planners. First build the town…then worry about the roads! Hats off to this great master planner.
Excuse me! When will those people wake up and see the full picture. For how long will they go on treating people like the stupid peasants on a chess board?
Bravo! I am really impressed by the way things are handled between the Ministry of Housing and Works, the Ministry of Municipalities and I Don’t Want to Know What and those little ornaments which make up the local municipal councils.
Re: Don’t Cut our Palms
There were quite a lot more Arabic signs and banners, have a look here. I guess the use of bilingual signs is quite smart, they recognise that probably the international press is more likely to take up their cause than local papers. And maybe that they believe international pressue has more weight.
Don’t Cut our Palms
Our hopes are high that the Crown Prince would intervene to solve this complex situation for the good of Bahrain and its nature.
Don’t Cut our Palms
That is sad, but I’m glad to see there are people who still care about preserving some of the natural habitat of Bahrain. Are there any local conservation organizations or replanting efforts to restore the palms? What about declaring some of these areas as nature preserves?
Sume
Don’t Remove that Picture!!!
Hey…
Really glad u’ve put that familiar smiling face back on the blog!
Keep up the good work.
[Modified by: princess (princess) on December 24, 2004 08:52 PM]
Re: Don’t Cut our Palms
Amen! Since it’s Xmas eve and everyone will be at midnight mass in a few minutes, I hope this prayer comes true 😉
Re(1): Don’t Cut our Palms
Asides from the international press, I think the protesters at this specific demonstration were well aware that many of the people driving by would be Western expats since that area is where many of them live.
Don’t Cut our Palms
Good morning everyone, and Merry Christmas.
This from the GDN this morning:
Let’s hope that their information is correct, but in the absense of full transparency how can you be sure? You would think with a project like this it would have its own fully-functional website so that the public would be informed of progress and all aspects of the project. What we have instead is a retarded website of the Northern Governate designed by and for morons, more intent on ass-kissing rather the disseminate information to the public.
Re: They Won’t Cut our Palms
Congratulations to you, Chan’ad and the other demonstrators who turned out last month and have now got this highway re-routed. Great stuff.
They Won’t Cut our Palms
According to today’s GDN, the government decided to re-route the offending road:
which is very good news… now planners should meet with residents of an area before they propose another route, or any other route for that matter.
Re: They Won’t Cut our Palms
Yes, I was very pleased when I read about this in the paper. This is the first time in my memory that the government has listened to the voices of protesters and corrected themselves (except of course for Nancy Ajram and Big Bro). I hope this tradition will continue.