Or at least try another way to silence critics, maybe by constructive talks and doing real, tangible changes to avoid being harshly criticised.
This is the gist of an article in today’s New York Times, featuring bahrainonline.org’s webmaster Ali Abdulemam and discusses how both the web and satellite television has given voice to usually disenfranchised people, and curtailed governments’ ability to control information flows as they have done in the past by confiscating or restricting the circulation of papers and magazines. The article also discusses the have/have-not divide along sectarian lines which I found disturbing, but honest.
The thing I didn’t like about it however is that it seemed to have been written with Ali’s exclusive points of view, with others having cameo appearances only to give the impression that the article is balanced.
I would have liked them also to have discussed the press law, the attacks on personal freedoms and the advancements we have seen on the island by the various endeavours in progress now like the employment scheme by the Ministry of Labour, the FTA and the various strides the EDB has taken as in the labour, education and financial reforms too, would have made the article more balanced.
Comments
Re: Give up already!
Who’re you talking about?
Give up already!
While few are going to disagree about the need to tackle unemployment or discrimination, this article’s got a very stale smell about it because its out of date by several months. The sell-by-date was November 2005 when the Islamists started their demonstrations to derail the women’s rights activists’ campaign for the Personal Status Law. Everyone interviewed in the article talking about democracy – Ali Salman and Ali Abdulemam – was in November signing petitions and leading protests demanding less democracy saying that when it comes to legislating on the rights of women and children elected MPs can have no role and instead only clerics should have this authority. Its an ad hoc approach to the legitimacy of elections that’s symptomatic of Islamists across the region, but because this journalist’s not done his homework/or even worse found that this might complicate his story we get treated to the Islamists’ bullshit completely unchallenged.
Scorpio
Give up already!
Its good to see the international media taking interest in the Bahraini political situation especially since George W Bush keeps bashing on about Bahrain’s democracy model as mentioned in the article.
Its difficult to be balanced about something so glaringly-obvious as a shoddy democracy.
Good for you Abdulemam… long live BahrainOnline.
Give up already!
Lets be honest… who is willing to talk to foreign publications about whats going on in bahrain without tip toeing around issues? The ones that have their buttons pushed already, like Ali Salman and Abdulimam.. a government official will paint everything with peaches and cream…no wonder any newspaper won’t be interested. The voice of reason is silenced with threats of being outcasted like the aforementioned gentlemen.
The Joker
Re(1): Give up already!
Ali Abdulemam
Give up already!
Too lazy to read the NYT article so I came here instead 😉
Zaydoun
Give up already!
Bahrain has progressed considerably since 1999. Sure we can mention a lot of things that could have been done better. But in all honesty to tack Education, Labor, and Economic Reform… Not to mention the added transparency – Tender Board, Questioning of Ministers, Additional Freedom to the Press over the years, we are starting to talk about our real problems publicly. Take a look at (Kuwait aside) any other GCC country’s newspaper, and you will see nothing but international news and praise of things in their own country. No wonder arabs are so focused on Palestine, and Sports. (Not saying that the Palestinian Israeli issue isn’t important – but we need to solve our own problems too) Our own problems make us incompetent on a global scale. I think the way we are moving will make us more globally competitive, and that we are definately on the right track. The more we support the King and the Crown Prince the more we will see changes as we’ve seen in Telecom, and Electricity (Power Plant Privitisation) and with the new port and port operator coming on board – we are moving at a much faster pace than a lot of people in this region. The amount of projects that are being undertaken in Bahrain are only a result of true investor confidence otherwise we would not see projects like Durrat Al-Bahrain, Al-Areen, Amwaj, Bahrain Financial Harbour, World Trade Center, Four Seasons, Salaam, Riffa Views, Zallaq Hotel, BIC Business Park, LuLu Towers, and Lulu Islands all at the same time, not to mention the new Marriot, Rotana, and Banyan Tree Hotels currently being built. This is all a product of increased stability and economic reform. Thats my rant
Give up already!
Thank God it was Ali who was interviewed and not you. Otherwise, we would have been left wondering which fairy-tale land it was that you were describing.
Give up already!
[quote]The thing I didn’t like about it however is that it seemed to have been written with Ali’s exclusive points of view, with others having cameo appearances only to give the impression that the article is balanced.[/quote]
This is the inherent problem that the NYT (and others) have had for several years now. OPEN and FLAGERANT BIAS with little or no attempts to give the other side of a story or idea. The truly scary part is the Editors at the Times despite having more than one scandal and being caught with their hands in the cookie jar on more than one occasion REFUSE to correct the problem. Then they wonder why circulation is down.
Give up already!
Personally, I think he’s full of it!!
Or at least, to myself, as I couldn’t identify with his empty, hollow, bubble.
HMD
Re: Give up already!
Attacking the messenger, are we?
Didnt we go through this just a week ago on mtv, hmm?
Re(1): Give up already!
[quote]I couldn’t identify with his empty, hollow, bubble.[/quote]
That’s all well and good, hell I don’t think I could identify with having to live under the specific conditions that Ali does. But pray do tell, if you’re going to volunteer a statement like that, don’t leave us in the lurch. Tell us why you think of him and his “empty hollow bubble” the way that you do.
Just curious, is all
Re(1): Give up already!
Well John I don’t know how you can accuse me of attacking the messenger when it has been well documented with how the NYT behaves. How many scandals does it take? I don’t call that attacking the messenger DIB I call it pointing out the truth. The NYT has a definite and exposed bias. Just happens that bias falls into your own political ideology now doesn’t it? Be honest DIB, your so far left of center that some might think you are to the right of being left. Fess up John. It is good for your soul!
Re(2): Give up already!
The NYT has a very clear very set pattern:
Step 1: Self righteous pomposity mixed with patronizing its readership with shit eating language.
Step 2: Mix in corruption, nepotism and if all else fails making things up.
Step 3: Get caught out
Step 3: Self flagellation and hand wringing from the editorial board. Someone resigns.
Repeat until there’s more staff than readers.
Give up already!
My interpretation of the article was not that it was an overview of the political situation in Bahrain but rather presenting how the Internet can be used to undermine the administration in power. The “ruling elite” phrase the NYT uses to describe Bahrain’s monarchy is also a phrase used by the American Left to describe the Bush administration. It further makes a point of associating American military power with Bahrain’s monarchy.
Remember that the core audience for the New York Times is left to hard left readers in Manhattan. This article advises them in a new tactic they can use to overturn the Bush administration.
That said, the part about the Egyptian security officer interrogating the arrested blogger about his patriotism was a pretty embarassing scene.
Steve
Re(3): Give up already!
That was quite evident from this article and I wish they made the effort to be impartial and interviewed people from the “other side” to balance it out. They seem to have gone for the sensational route. Which is a shame because the article did have some good points; alas, those were lost in the impartiality cloud.
Give up already!
the link in the article… http://www.bahrainonline.org...
Batelco does not allow to visit this cite
Re: Give up already!
click for larger picture
Not that it would made any difference had you got in today. They are closed today “for maintenance” and will be for another 4 days it seems.
Highly suspicious!
Wash The Pillars Clean Of Hate
I might also point out for the third year in a row, Muslims have written “America” on one of the pillars at Mina, identifying it as the devil to Muslim pilgrims. If you continue to identify America as an enemy of Islam and incorporate that doctrine into your sacred rituals, don’t be surprised that we take you at your word and deny your visa, profile you at airport security, and give you suspicious looks in public places.
It is pretty clear that Islam has singled out America as the enemy, though America remains the most free place in the world to follow any faith, including Islam. Instead of fiercely asserting that Islam means peace, why don’t you fiercely live it?
Steve
Give up already!
It seems strange to me when I keep hearing about the discrimination that shiites say they are facing while 2 out of 3 shiites in our office are tardy, lazy, do not bother to show up for work inspite of being called repeatedly, they say that they do not have a car or their car is in the garage, futher when reporting time is 09:00 AM they call at 09:15 AM and say they will be alte and come at 10:30 AM ( I am not exaggerating).
The fact that they are shia may be conincidental. faces are not clean shaven, clothes are not ironed or well worn by one of them, then they ask why their salaries are cut or why people scold them. But they come with latest editions of mobile phones even second hand ones for BD 115.00 but no money to pay for the car. One has 3 mobiles all in the office (WOW).
For me they are humans not shia or muslim or hindu buy in the opinion they are probably discrimated shia who curse their fate.
They want us to employ Bahrainis, send more, I will train them like I have done for years, but don’t blame me for their tardiness, or bad appearance, or car problems or shiite discrimation. You want accountability from the government when public are like this.
No government is perfect and King Hamad and the Crown Prince are really working ahrd for your people. Take the change and be good citizens. Stand for election and get your loved ones and friend to vote for you and make difference. Staying away and pointing fingers is for cowards and brain farts.
Re: Give up already!
[quote]… projects like Durrat Al-Bahrain, Al-Areen, Amwaj, Bahrain Financial Harbour, World Trade Center, Four Seasons, Salaam, Riffa Views, Zallaq Hotel, BIC Business Park, LuLu Towers, and Lulu Islands all at the same time, not to mention the new Marriot, Rotana, and Banyan Tree Hotels currently being built.[/quote]
and you want to tell me that these projects have anything to do with us, bahrainies!!
while this huge number of projects running at the same time could have a big role in the employement of bahrainies but the truth is they mostly employ ‘asians’.
and the revenue of these projects are directed to the pockets of few people.. very few in fact.. what we, bahrainies have out of these projects is only thier problems.. a huge load on the infra stuctures, more crowded roads problems in electricity and water sipply and more..
Land value is going up madly and still a large number of bahrainies are without ‘owned’ houses or land.. and are still living in rented flats.. and the rent is going up like…
and they say there is no land to build houses.. but they can find enough land and money to get these projects running
and when they are completed .. more unemployment .. as most of these projects will employ ‘experts’ from ‘outside’ to run every thing from low to high rank jobs..
we might have find a vacancy for a driver or a watchman job in one of them.. but I am not sure
Re(1): NYT Credibility exposed, again.
The New York Times has been doing this for years. Their reporter Walter Duranty spent the 1930s winning his Pulitzer reporting remarkable progress from the Soviet Union while covering up the repression and famine killing tens of millions. There was no Internet then to mobilize an army of fact checkers to review their stories and publish the results. The beauty of the Internet is that it has broken the monopoly on mass communication held by the liberal elites, who have been corrupted by that monopoly, and decentralized the news business. That’s why the old media hate the Internet.
In this particular photo, you can see for yourself that the object is no missile but a 155 mm artillery round. It has not been fired or you would see significant scarring on the case. So the next questions you might want to ask is if that round was not fired into that village, how did it get there and what are those villagers doing with it. My guess is that it was scavenged from a depot to be used as an IED.
Steve
Re(1): NYT Credibility exposed, again.
Its not just the Right that the NYT pisses off – witness the bullshit Judith Miller was selling on behalf of the Pentagon in the run up to the Iraq war or the utter cravenness of their Washington correspondents’ coverage of hopeless George W. Bush. If an Arab newspaper was as arse licking to the local emir or president as the NYT was to Bush in his first term you could understand it (while being deeply embarrassed of course), but from a paper supposedly dedicated to holding politicians to account it deserves utter contempt.
This article’s an expression of the same smug complacency – keeping to a set story line no matter what the facts: in this case repeating the liberal guiltmongers’ spiel that in the Middle East that the best hope for democracy lies in the ‘clerical led’ (never use the words ‘Islamist’ or ‘fundamentalist’!) opposition movements. Hence the whole thing’s told from Ali’s perspective. Its an approach that doesn’t stand up to the facts which is why anything difficult has to be either ignored completely, spun away or dismissed as the work of what’s described as the ‘very young’ and so of little consequence.
When it comes to the more trivial stuff the NYT just makes it up: so Al Wefaq’s campaign to ban lingerie mannequins in shop windows is attributed to elected MPs. Attributing it to Al Wefaq would make Ali Salman, who is described sagely as ‘ticking off all the steps the Iraqis have taken toward choosing their own leaders
Re(4): Give up already!
Why couldn’t they have interviewed a liberal or someone from the Left to balance it out a little?
NYT Credibility exposed, again.
It looks like the NYT has a serious credibility issue. Have a look at this. A shame that a publication that was thought to be a benchmark of journalism at one point, has succumbed to this level.
Re: NYT Credibility exposed, again.
Examples like this Mahmood are sadly everywhere. I kind of view the NYT like so many despot Arab regimes. They just don’t get it. They world has changed. People are no longer shackled by single news sources. That thin vale of fog is being lifted from peoples eyes and time and time again the NYT and others (ie CBS et al) get caught red handed with not only their hand but the bleepin’ whole arm shoved in the cookie jar. For most normal people one would think they would recoil and help set a sinking ship, but they don’t, and you can bet there will be more things like this happen. They simply cannot keep their editorial ideas out of the news. Either in words or pictures. Sadly The Old Gray Lady has turned rancid yellow. Now DIB come and defend your favorite rag!!