Culture

Unintended official racial slur?

By on Thursday, January 25, 2007

Or is it symptomatic of our society?

«المباحــــث» تبحــــث عــــن مريضـــــة الإيـــــدز

صرح مدير عام الإدارة العامة للمباحث والأدلة الجنائية العميد فاروق سلمان المعاودة بأن الإدارة تتابع موضوع الفتاة الآسيوية المصابة بالإيدز باهتمام بالغ وشكلت فريقاً للبحث والتحري عنها وبالتنسيق مع الإدارات والجهات الأمنية كافة بعد التعميم عنها، وأن الجهود الحثيثة متواصلة لتحديد مكانها والقبض عليها في حال ثبت وجودها داخل المملكة. وأوضح العميد المعاودة أن الفتاة الآسيوية غادرت البحرين في تاريخ 16 نوفمبر/ تشرين الثاني 2005 حسب السجلات الرسمية ولكن من المحتمل أنها عادت بجواز سفر آخر، وقال، ليست هناك معلومات مؤكدة تفيد بوجودها في البحرين أو تقود التحريات إلى مكانها، ولم تتلق الجهات الأمنية المختصة أي بلاغ من شأنه التثبت من حقيقة أمرها باستثناء ما أفاد به كفيلها السابق من معلومات أرشدتنا إلى فتاة تم التحفظ عليها واتضح بعد التحقق من أوراقها الثبوتية أنها غير الفتاة المعنية، وأشار المعاودة إلى صعوبة التحقق من شخصيتها بسبب ما تتسم به هذه الجنسيات من تشابه كبير في الشكل. وأضاف المعاودة أن هناك تنسيقاً مع سفارة البلد التي تحمل جنسيتها الفتاة المطلوبة، وناشد كل من لديه معلومات عنها تقديمها للجهات الأمنية أو الاتصال على الرقم .17712768

The report above appeared in today’s Al-Waqt quoting the General Manager of the Investigations Department Brigadier Farouq Al-Mo’awdah in which he declared that an Asian AIDS sufferer might have snuck back into the island using an alternative passport after she was deported and is urging everyone to be cautious of dealing with her and report her to the police if anyone has any information about her. I’ve got several problems with this, but I’ll let it pass.

He goes on to confirm the difficulty in finding “people of this nationality as they all look approximately the same!”

I think some re-education is necessary in this case, don’t you?

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Comments

  2. Redbelt

    well, I think I read this before, happened in the US or UK or something.
    Story: Official said same remark, some person sued.
    The judge declared while it might be insensative to some, it might be very true to THAT PERSON. meaning that he may not have the ability to distinguish facial features of different races.
    therego: saying they all look alike> bad
    saying: they all look alike to me> hmm.. acceptable. As long as that person akcnowledges that they DO NOT look alike really.
    I used to bre unable to know who’s chinese, filipino, japanese or korean. But as I started studying Japanese (do not ask why), and got closer to people and culture I can tell the difference now.

  5. tooners

    i saw this article in the GDN today – about this woman. i wondered why they were putting out a national bulletin about her. is she a prostitute or something… they seem very concerned about her having AIDS. it’s not that easily transmitted, not like you can touch someone and give it to them, etc.

    and yes, i think this is a big time racial slur.

  6. hamad

    Before studying abroad i never was able to distinguish between the far east nationalities, except for Philipinos. I say its honesty not a racial slur :tongue:

  7. Maverick

    This would not happen if she was a Bahraini or GCC national. :angry:

    What would she feel if she saw this embarrasing display. What a violation of her civil rights. She may have caught the disease innocently. The officials screws up and makes a big a noise about it and puts his foot in his mouth at the same time….what a hat-trick? :whistle:

  8. Bedoon Esam

    :dizzy: :angry:

    So the report in GDN, so is it law now to start printing photos of AIDS sufferers. Being unable to differentiate the race of a person may be an indication limited exposure to the wider world considering the gentleman has been confined to this rock in the middle of the Arabian Gulf.

    Could GDN or the government agency issuing this picture be able to do this anywhere else in the World. Would the GDN or the Govt Agency now start publishing pictures of BAHRAINI AIDS sufferers.

    Does the concerned GOVT AGENCY or GDN even bother to think considering the low racial recognition ability, any vigilantes could go out and hurt other women with similar features.

    This has to be the worst case of blatant discrimination officially sanctioned and supported by the local media. :sick:

  9. tooners

    Bedoon Esam, I so agree w/ you! When did it become the norm to print pictures of ppl w/ AIDS??!! Will they now start printing pictures of the Bahrainis suffering w/ AIDS that are out on the street? Or any other nationality for that matter.

  10. Jina

    I say its honesty not a racial slur

    Well that’s one way of putting it, but it’s also ignorance. The person with the title “General Manager of the Investigations Department, Brigadier” should know better.

  11. amal

    i know i know! i was thinking the same thing today.. how racist!
    it’s just so obvious! how couldn’t they see it?!

  12. Barry

    Hamad: Well, it just goes to show that with expeience with an ethnic group, you begin to be able to see the features that distinguish them from similar groups. It’s funny however, even here in California, I’ve had people say that Filipinos (with an F not a Ph, thank you :)) “Look like Mexicans”. Uh, WTF? We look NOTHING like Mexicans, and of course, when you get mixed people like myself, you get answers all over the place (people assume that I am some sort of Latino, because I “look it”, though I am half euro-mutt and Filipino).

  13. can we talk

    Barry,
    sorry but i also see a similarity in features between the Filipinos and the Mexicans except that the latter are darker. (!) not so surprising considering the country’s history, hence the names and some of the vocabulary. i don’t know how much interrelationship there was between the hispanics and the Filipinos, but i’m surprised that surprises you.
    My chinese friend told me she’d never gone out with a Brit while she was living there (for about ten years) because she found they all looked alike.
    and my south african friend didnt recognize my partner in a thobe because all “these guys in dresses look alike”
    and i have often been told “i can’t believe you’re bahraini, you don’t look like one” which i do not think is a compliment.

    people who don’t know people usually stereotype them. everyone unfortunately, the guy put both his feet in his mouth because he said it to a newspaper, which was not a politically correct thing to do. it wasn’t smart but it wasn’t malicious. maybe next time we should all think before we open our mouths.

  14. Dilmun

    I loved the GDN’s article oh my God asian with HIV please call this number if you find her!!!!! IDIOTS

  15. can we talk

    this time although it is not official, it still stinks. (note the last two lines of the column)

    reminds me of the time i read that we don’t get AIDS because we are a muslim country, stated by a ministry undersecreatary at the time.

  16. mahmood

    Oh come on CWT, didn’t you know that we are special? For goodness’ sake. I thought you knew that, it is taught to our children from LKG through to high school graduation and beyond.

    Shame on you!

    <ducking>

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