Peeping Toms using high-rise blocks to spy on women in their homes have forced a change in Muharraq’s building regulations.
Owners of new multi-storey buildings in residential areas of Muharraq will now have to instal one-way windows that prevent people from seeing out.
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I don’t know if I should laugh, cry, shake my head in disbelief, or simply cease reading any more newspapers. The emotions are just so jumbled up about this one.
How can anyone propose to put one-way glass to prevent people from looking OUT? Wouldn’t that allow others to look IN? So what did we solve here? Or is it that people living in houses are more important or precious than those living in apartments? Why not do away with windows altogether and brick them up? Now that is a good solution isn’t it?
This is a typical knee-jerk reactionary solution: sleep on a problem only to wake up with a stinking brain fart! Brilliant.
Well done Mr. Al-Jawdar and his esteemed cohorts. He should most definitely be re-elected for the next term… oh, hang on a minute, this guy has already declared that he’s standing for Parliament come October! Well he’s done his homework and has excelled in municipality-issues, now he might has well try his hands at parliament. He’s got to be much better than the majority of parliamentarians we are lumbered with anyway, so why not add more fuel to the fire?
The hilarity (yes, I know I’ve been using this word a lot of late, but I can’t find another that would be more fitting to our situation in Bahrain over the last 4 years or so, sorry) is that he might actually complete the parliamentary theme; the more Islamists there are (from both sides) the better, get them busy and keep out of our way. Unfortunately; however, if that play-pen was hermetically sealed, then we might live happy in the knowledge that they won’t harm or bother anyone, but that’s not the case. Every decision they make will affect our quality of life and will further chase away any capital that might dare to come into the island. That’s not to say of course that parliament and their municipality breeding ground (yes, this might be the case for the next elections) are the only cause of our ills, far from it, they certainly contribute a goodly share though.
Take this honourable gentleman for example:
proposes that people who practise sorcery or fortune telling should be jailed for a maximum of two years and fined up to BD500.
“It’s becoming more popular for people in Bahrain to turn to fortune tellers and sorcerers to find out what their future holds or to act as mediums to harm others or make people fall in love with them,” said Mr Mattar.
“There are many homes around the country that are known to be practising black magic and if you drive past them a large number of cars from around the GCC would be found parked outside.”
He said such acts were against Islamic law, which warns against using the “dark arts” or taking advantage of people’s trust.
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After you have picked your jaw off the floor while trying to decipher this humongous brain-fart, think about this a little: This is an elected member of parliament whose only proviso for doing a good job is chasing away “sorcerers,” and “Satan worshippers” (arabic) and the like, while the much sought after Free Trade Agreement languishes in their desks because they don’t have the time to legislate Intellectual Property Rights on which the FTA hangs.
While they’re discussing, what is to them and their narrow interpretation of their job, extremely important issues, countries like Oman have signed the FTA and might already be in a position to overhaul Bahrain…
That condition – Bahrain being overhauled by countries which were very recently 20 – 50 years behind it – has become the norm. And you don’t need to be a God-sent prophet to predict the future of what is going to happen to Bahrain, do you?
Ooops, Ali Mattar wants to fine me BD500, throw me in jail to 2 years and brand me a sorcerer, a Satan-worshipper and a heretic! So I’d better shut up now.
Comments
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Ummm … Have they ever heard of curtains? Or blinds?
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The really frightening thing is that these ideas are vote winners with a lot of people otherwise they wouldn’t have been suggested by politicians who want to get elected.
Scorpio
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Mahmood same applies to me once i read the revolutionary innovation to install one way windows as if we ran out of problems which are more important and we are only left with this one. Especially in Muharraq, where is our muncipal council to come and see how crowded our ‘firjans’ are becoming becaure of haphazard building, it is on ‘monthly’ basis that we see new apartments are being built in over crowded neighborhoods without even providing parks for them. It is a nightmare really to go out with your car because once u leave ur park u will never guarntee it back. Another problem that Muharraq has and especially from the area that Mr. al-Jawdar represents is the ‘sakan al-3ezab
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You know, I’ve been critical of Islamists, what with their bombings and beheadings and “Death to America” chants, but hey, I can admit it when I’m wrong. These innovations smack of genius, pure genius.
If you have trouble with peeping toms spying on women in skyscrapers, it makes perfect sense to put one way windows on the women’s apartments. In the first place, why are these trollops prancing about their own homes where anybody can peek in their twenty-third story window and see their hair or an unclad ankle? Two way windows simply make decent homes into strip clubs in the sky. What’s next? Pole dancing in the kitchen? Common decency cries out for government intervention of the worst kind. Thankfully, the Islamists are perfect for the job.
Installing one way windows so that you can’t see out solves the problem by removing the sight of the offense. If the women can’t see anybody spying on them, then they can make no complaint and the harmony of society is restored. Who but the Islamists could think of such a solution?
Quite frankly, the problem of sorcery is one that has been sadly neglected in the West. The Islamists should be commended for spotlighting this source of woe in modern society. Keen eyed observers of everyday life can find the tell tale signs of the dark arts at play in many otherwise inexplicable events. For example, I was stopped dead in one of those giant traffic jams on the I-66 freeway here in Washington that occur for no apparent reason when I saw a black cat next to the road and the diabolic mechanics of the situation became clear to me.
Very often, girlfriends of mine would suddenly start screaming at me out of the blue, which was very disconcerting until I realized that it was through no fault of my own but rather that they were temporarily possessed by Satan. Sometimes Satan would force them to break up with me and find other boyfriends where they seemed happier, much happier. Yet I was not fooled by this sorcerer’s trick.
The Islamist crackdown on witches, while laudable, is far too tentative. Fining is too good for witches, I say. They must be burned! And I’m sure, if given free reign, the Islamists will get around to that.
Steve
[Modified by: Steve The American (Steve) on January 24, 2006 12:21 PM]
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They either made a mistake in the article, or they’re pretty dumb (either way somebody is dumb)..
I say reverse the windows.. that is give the ability to see the outside from the inside, and take away the ability to say from out to in. Just like those mirrors in interrogation rooms.
On another note, you can blind everybody and take away the ability to see altogether
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Simply amazing. I can only gawk at the stupidity of the average person to elect such psycho-paths.
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Yes guys this is the reality…This is what alot of people seem to want…A council of Clerics…And it doesnt stop here….Prepare youre self next year for Al Wefaq to join in the party :S
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LOL. this feature ’bout windows is … something. Bahrain is riping the crops of democrasy)). Wasn’t it bahrainis who elected those guys?
P.S. i advise that house of parlament, as well as MoPs’ cars and premises should be also equipped with those windows. That’ll shield them from disturbances of real life and help to concentrate their minds on resolving problems of high importance.
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Do I understand this correctly – that he can’t make people ‘promise’ to put in one-way windows, but if they want electricity then that’s the proviso? Sounds like blackmail to me.
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Well, am glad they are joining, atleast we will have politics who will discuss serious issues such as unemployment and the yemeni guy i just had a fight with outside the ga7wa after he broke my side mirror while throwing stones at his younger brother and then threatning me by prison coz his dad is in the army and how he is Bahraini and am thrash coz am “bahrani”.
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LooooooooooL Mahmood – that is pure hilarity.
One of the main reasons people buy high rises is for the view. And then they’re told to cover up their windows. Jokes!
[url=http://nasrawi.blogspot.com]nasrawi[/url]
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Under this new law, is there a provision where you can istall a webcam to check out the neughbours?.
Come on, whe hell would want to check out a girl from Muharraq anyway?
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You know what Mahmood, there must be a whole load of peeping toms who drive around town peering into ground floor windows. I propose that all windscreens in Bahrain should be replaced by this glass that folk can’t see out of.
Same goes for all spectacles and contact lenses…..
Meggie
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😀
Ahhhww, ,this is good!! The window story is just brilliant!!
But the sorcery stuff, it’s not exactly ‘only’ two years and BD500 in fines under the ‘islamic law
Brilliant
This is Brilliance….Thats all I can say…Sheer Unadultarated Brilliance!!
What is going on in this country, hey guys dont look west or east, try looking south and north.
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I see Chocho and Roger are upsetting folk in Muharraq with their unique style of voyurism, eh?
What utter utter bollocks!
Either the syphillis or the sikle cell aneamia have taken hold on these guys and rendered their brains into pure mahlabiya, or, this paramecium excreta actually thinks he has a solution. All that will happen to the potential peeping tom is that he’ll become a bloody exhibitionsit, only now he’ll know that he can’t see anyone but they can all see him, particularly at night when his blood will be up(among other things!) and he’ll put on a little Moulin Rouge type show for all those previously offended neighbours to enjoy. Perhaps a tight pink thobe with a hole cut discreetly in the front for artistic access, a flowing gold gutra and a glittery agal, all to the music of Helleh ya Rumaneh!
I cant stand it, I’m gonna flash my parts at the workers in the world trade centre, bye!
Live long and prosper
PT
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Try reading my post again, i mentioned the SERIOUS issues Wefaq are on about, and the whole mannequins ban bullcrap was ignited by Majeed Karimi from Muharraq council or whatever hes hiding under since the stone age.
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‘Serious issues’? You mean like the campaign to ban lingerie mannequins because they were ‘contributing to a rise in divorces’. How can you say this is any more of a serious issue than stopping people looking out of the window?
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Les Horton loses his mind every so often. Personally I don’t care if he does or does not have the mental sanity to function in normal society, I just wish he would make a definitive decision one way or the other! The inconsistency is more baffling than anything else!
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Has Les Horton gone out of his mind? Usually the guy’s alright but in today’s column he says Al Jowder’s scheme is a possible ‘solution’ for people who have a lack of privacy.
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I feel so foolish now that this obviously superior idea has been presented: the all wall apartment. However, in the Islamists’ defense, that is what they are trying to do in a virtual sense, if not physically just yet: wall the population in to tiny little cells where they can be controlled.
Steve
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How could the Islamists come up with such a stupid idea? Anyone with more than half a brain can see that the solution is not to install windows you can’t see out of but rather to build apartment block with [i]no windows at all[/i]. Of course, there’s still the problem of avoiding lascivious glances whenever people leave their home so I suggest that after a family has moved into its windowless apartment, their front door is immediately bricked up. Food and other essentials can be delivered to them by blind eunuchs via small slots in the walls.
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I’m with the earlier commenter:
When I walk around the house in my “home clothes” (I assume he doesn’t mean t-shirt and jeans) I make sure the blinds are shut.
So the newlywed is forced to “make” his bride cover up. He doesn’t want anybody else getting a peek at his goodies. That’s creepy.
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the thing with the windows comes short of removing the eyes by surgery… but then, there it could be that black magic would help somehow!
if Bahrain needs IP experts, i know where to find plenty of them.
http://gramatica.blogspot.com/