Your Uncle is Deaf

Or as we say in Bahrain: 3mmek asmakh, an epithet normally reserved for situations where no matter how much advice one gives, even very reasonable and much needed advice, the receiver of such words of wisdom is completely and utterly deaf to those words. Such is the situation with the Ministry of Information, or at least maybe specific parts of it who still think that they should be affiliated to the Police forces or the CID instead. Maybe they have to come to the realisation that as most countries in the world have done away with such an edifice, they are padding their nest and preparing themselves for different future pay-masters.

Here’s the proof:

INFORMATION MINISTRYS UNDER-SECRETARY HAMAD AL MANNAI SAID THE INCREASE OF REGISTERED WEBSITES WAS STRONG CIVILISED SIGN OF THE AWARENESS OF THOSE IN CHARGE OF THESE WEBSITES OF THE IMPORTANCE OF ADHERING TO THE POLITICAL LEADERSHIPS DIRECTIVES ON THE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION WITHOUT HARMING UNITY.
INFORMATION UNDER SECRETARY SAYS REGISTRATION OF WEBSITES ON RISE – bna

Apart from leaving you to notice the obvious spelling mistakes in the nugget above which is taken verbatim from the Bahrain News Agency’s website, another organ that employs 78 people to churn out releases like the good stuff above, a fact that in itself raises a multitude of questions (the Ministry might want to explore replacing those 78 with 5 kindergarten students who might have a better grasp on both reality and language skills, thus saving the country its sanity, reputation and its coffers a few bushels of dinars) I resent the fact that the honourable undersecretary of (dis)information is labeling all of those who choose not to register their websites as uncivilized, unpatriotic and disloyal, given that the respected gentleman should know – owing to his position – that website registration is completely voluntary. Unless, of course this is yet another reversal of government position on the freedoms of expression that we most certainly lack and now continue to restrain us from our rights especially by his emphasis of the tripartite committee put in place to subjugate any intellectual dissent by threats of imprisonment and shutting down of websites and other forms of expression under the ubiquitous raised flag of their own special brand of social mores and patriotism, forgetting that this is a wholly unconstitutional pursuit in their haste to trip over each other to please their own masters not hesitating for an instant that their positions dictates the delivery of good advice which is sometimes counter to the instructions they are given.

Let me go back again to this idiotic press release, if you would allow me to, by highlighting the fact that the respected undersecretary does not offer any substantiation whatsoever in the way of numbers or even comparisons of those who charged through his exalted offices begging to register their websites. Not that they actually have a published list on the internet that shows such registrations of course, so we should really be excused for thinking that they might well be pulling hares out of their collective empty hats to impress – well, not us, certainly – but some gullible idiot who actually believes their tripe.

WHY are they so hung up on registering websites? And WHY do they time and again come back to the same lost cause with pedantic abandon is simply beyond me. Is someone somewhere actually winding them up like toys every time the stupid bunny stops his racket because they just like the noise? Or is this a calculated step to continue to keep the country busy with these mundane and trivial pursuits rather than concentrate on actual human and institutional development so that we too can at least attempt to catch up with those who have barged into futures of their own making as evidenced by the huge numbers of growing middle class families while ours atrophy to the point of disappearance?

Well, Mr. Al-Mannai, with all due respect of course, THIS website will NEVER register with your ministry, even if your wishes become law. I would rather abandon it altogether than acquiesce to such an idiotic, unproductive and unwarranted request which is completely devoid of even a smidgen of added value.

And yes, thank you very much, my patriotism and civility do not need nor require your approbation or affirmation.