This country needs “a Gibbs”. An act watchers of NCIS will be really familiar with. For others less fortunate, the act is best described as a swift whack on the back of a head the sharpness of which will bring that mind back to reason. Hopefully. But I fear in some cases it might require a shovel to effect the needed movement of neurons in solidified grey matter.
The shovel method is most certainly required to a head that belongs to a so called “educator” who mysteriously deduced that a young adult giving what is essentially monopoly money bought on a trip to Iran to friends at school as high treason in the form of “distributing counterfeit currency with the intent to shake the country’s economy.” A charge communicated to the Misery of Education which found it fit to escalate the matter to the Public Prosecutor who in turn – with a complete straight face and some might even think with collusion – imprisoned the girl for a few days “while investigating the matter” only to come out eventually with all charges dropped, most probably due to the ridicule heaped upon them by the press.
Although blame should most definitely be levied at the moronic principal who at best does not have any sense of humour, and at worst is riddled with dark and heinous sectarian intentions – a charge that school has been particularly riddled with and one might be excused to thing that this incident would not have received such attention had the Monopoly dosh come from the Emirates or Saudi or even Afghanistan – to be shared with full contempt for the Misery of Education as both have certainly put new meaning to educating our youth by terrorising them with the ever-present police ogre who are only too willing to acquiesce to their frivolity.
However, the blame in this case, as is in others, must squarely lay at the Public Prosecutor’s office who inexplicably dish out imprisonments “for investigations” as a matter of course and seem to emphatically dish that incarceration sentence out not to prevent people from fleeing or interfering with their “investigations”, but rather as a first phase of punishment in their heretofore unproven guilt; thus, over stepping their role from being an investigative service to that of jurists and executioners too.
Is this the education reform spearheaded by our Crown Prince I wonder? Apart from building higher walls surmounted by iron-work spikes to prevent people from getting into schools now has terrorising students out of their wits by imprisoning young impressionable minds for a frivolous and a completely legal activity of giving gifts clearly marked as “having no commercial value” and clearly – even to the blind of sight but definitely not those with that affliction affecting their souls – nothing more than Monopoly money? What kind of impression do those champions of education; in this particular case the headmistress and her cohorts at the Misery of Education, leave with the young girl other than hating education and most probably detesting the establishment too? Or was it a concerted effort to reach such a zenith in the first place?
What a ridiculous situation this is. Utterly corrosive and criminal too.
That headmistress should be removed from her post forthwith, she has amply demonstrated that she does not have the presence of mind or the kindness of soul to be an educator nor a person who should be tasked with guiding impressionable youths into a more complex world. She is completely unfit for the job. The same must be done to her cohorts, the unthinking uncaring automatons at the Misery of Education for allowing such an issue to be escalated rather than holding their minion back from further grievous mistakes and utter public embarrassment.
As to the Public Prosecutor, well, at the risk of getting pulled up by them again and unnecessarily imprisoned, I suggest that it is high time for their reform too. That shouldn’t be too difficult given the recent age of that organisation. The king might seriously consider giving them complete autonomy and independence to execute their jobs better after removing their current head who allowed his staff to use investigative imprisonment as yet another method of what could be conceived as state sponsored terror. His majesty might also want to ensure that an over-sight committee is put in place to look into infractions like these and provide redress for those who unnecessarily suffer by the misapplication of their power. At the very least, tell them, your majesty, that they should not dish out automagic incarcerations willy nilly like that but only if truly deserved when there is a genuine flight risk.
Failing that, let’s just declare Monopoly a tool of the devil and pay a readily bought cleric or two to haramize it.
Comments
I can’t believe the imprisoned the little girl! what type of educatation system do we have? what happened to students best interest first? aren’t they supposed to take care of them, look after them, hand them to the ploice?!
Imagine being 16 (or so) and in jail for having fun!
its really stupid. weve been discussing this at work today; these notes are actually in circulation and one of my colleagues with me in the office actually recieved a few of them. theyre obviously not bahraini money, they were not supposed to look like bahraini money, and theyre all over the place anyway!
why would you imprison a little girl who has no idea what its all about? its supposed to be something funny, or religious, or whatever it is, but its hardly trying to counterfeit money! its not like she even made them…
and if it was counterfeit money, would she be giving it to her friends? no she would be out spending it…
you see, our police/ministry of interior can sometimes hold the brain power of a squirrel. the obvious charge they want to place is non-patriotism, but there’s hardly much ground for it even here, is there?
Do they come with pictures of Shaikh Abdul Ameer Al-Jamri by any chance?
I would also like a copy of one with the Prime Minister’s picture on it, with “50% of this note’s value goes to the person in the picture above” written on it.
You mean it was illegal all those times I got saudi rials as change at starbucks/costa?
I have to say this is taken out of contentext (not by you commentors, but you know Mahmood fairly well, that this isn’t about counterfitting money at all.
Its that Somewhere in Iran, people are printing what Salman (comment 3) said..
And its about people that are handing this about, doubting how loyal they are to the ground they walk upon.
You know this is an effect of a Problem, not The problem. Dig deeper boys.
i’ve seen this money and one side does look just like 20 dinars, but the other side is clearly fake.
i think it’s utterly ridiculous that a young girl was put in jail for this. my FIL had many of them and tore them up the other day… i guess fearing that he’d be next. 👿
You tell ’em, Moomoo! It’s amusing that Bahraini educrats are the same as those in the good ol’ USA.
“as both have certainly put new meaning to educating our youth by terrorising them with the ever-present police ogre who are only too willing to acquiesce to their frivolity.”
The quote above has caught my attention as i was reading this post. And while it is somewhat true and applies pretty well to this specific incident, I still can’t help but be a little doubtful as to how it it could be any better otherwise. Is the police force ” or any other type of capable authority figure” present enough to prevent such acts as violent school fights, extreme bullying “sometimes with knives and razors”, sexual harrasement and sexual abuse? All of which are some of the horrible realities the bahraini youth face in our bullcrap public high, middle, and even elementary schools?
Author
If police could be trusted in this community in the first place, as that relationship has been sour since colonial times by the use of mercenary forces whose only dictate is to protect the interests of the empire – or now – the few and all the rest can go to the wall.
This situation has been ameliorated somewhat since the new minister has taken the mantle; however, something happened to revert the ministry almost back to the status quote of late. Which begs the question, why this reversal of fortune? Is it due to middle or even higher management agitating to return to total submission and repression as the only means of control?
The reason they were named in the article is clear – I think – in demonstrating the dangerous non-separation of powers between all aspects of government.
This, if allowed to continue, will most definitely explode and then it will be far too late to offer yet another cosmetic change to a situation which requires much farther drastic measures to correct or at least cauterise the wound to stop further deterioration of the situation.
I agree. It seems that this situation has gotten terribly out of hand. And the higher ups are either too ignorant, unwilling, or perhaps unable to attempt at any sort of drastic change. Ideally the solution could be quite simply a matter of specialization. Where individuals with the most skill and motivation would be assigned as educators and protectors. That way they would carry their job with much more vigilance and dedication. But that is the ideal solution. And a solution such as this is unrealistic. As public school teachers and principals are still unattractive jobs even for those hoping to work as educators. I’m not saying there are no good teachers, but it’s more like there are many teachers who should be putting more effort and paying more attention.
Hello,
I am not from Bahrain and I am wondering something about this incident. It seems incredibly ridiculous, as you have stated. How has it been discussed publicly? I know it has been a few weeks, but when this happened, were many people talking about it (not on blogs or the internet)? I’m just wondering how it was perceived by people in general.