I know I know. This country has gone way over the top in many things, the latest of which is their panic-stricken attempts at “controlling” swine flu outbreaks by closing all schools. They might as well close all shopping malls, cinemas, coffee shops, sheesha shops (well, they should close those anyway if they really are concerned about our health), mosques, churches and anywhere else where people might gather. Oh, cancel hajj, umra and visits to other holy places too. Come to think of it, they might as well declare marshal law and sequester us all in our homes until further notice.
All these measures don’t prove their kindness nor does it prove their over-protective love and affection of course. What it does prove, I think, is their confirmation that the public health is completely inadequate at best or just plain and simple sucks. Of course they have already proven time and again that education for the unwashed masses is just dangerous and could be done without completely. This is their chance!
Well, until they make up their mind what “national strategy” (hold your laughs and sniggers please), my suggestion to them is to force everyone to wear a mask, male and female. Prove to the world that it was US, the Illustrious Arabs, who invented this healthy and gorgeous contraption in the first place.
Maybe some enterprising soul could slap some Swarovski gauche crystals on them and sell them for a tidy some.
Yet another fashion craze is born.
You heard it here first folks!
Enjoy your Eid and don’t kiss and cuddle now.
Comments
how about this?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthpicturegalleries/5243655/Decorated-swine-flu-surgical-masks-in-Mexico.html
Author
hehe, that’s a step closer to Swarovski I guess!
You could add airports to that rationale Mahmood! and the KF causeway as well!.. hell, close down both entry points and let’s see if we feel any safer, right? That’s commerce down the drain!!
First the facts and outcomes of what just happened:
1. swine is no worse as a disease (in terms of number of deaths) as normal flu.
2. vaccines are coming out as i type this. governments are buying by the boat-load. Bahrain is amongst them.
3. by implementing this ‘draconian’ rule (interestingly Bahrain is singled out as the worst performer in responding to the outbreak based on WHO press release), Bahrain has gone wayyyy back with its supposed ‘reforms’.
4. Mekka with its 3 million people didn’t get a SINGLE death, had 200 cases of the flu and all recovered. That’s a massive concentration of people and look what happened!
5. Worse hit are the parents who now have to figure out what to do with their bored kids. Under normal circumstances, it is a fact that having bored kids is actually dangerous to society. Crimes would go up, civil disputes will shoot up and general unease will settle in major neighborhoods (it’s nice to welcome Eid the first day in the morning with burning tyres in the highway leading to and from Saudi, bored kids brain-washed as usual)
6. Teachers/educators feel out of control of the situation, have the tremendous task of re-organizing the student’s curriculum, trust me it must be hell in those rooms right now in the schools trying to organize themselves for an unpredictable future.
7. I know as a fact that faculty/teachers in some notable schools in Bahrain have decided to leave for good due to the fact that they view Bahrain as under Quarantine at the moment, and hence their jobs are not fulfilling anymore.
8. Other areas like banks and malls are feeling and now feeding the scare. bank rules now say that they have the right to check and throw out customers and staff the moment they suspect they have flu symptoms. one major mall has been under the really bad rumor the last 2 days that they caught someone with the flu and it says for people to go to city center..
With all the anger that is in me, i am not sure whether to be quiet about it and just publicly play with this game (which is gut-wrenching at the moment) or really find ways to fix this and pressure the government to reconsider the mistake they have done, or really HURT the government in the attempt to make them feel sorry for the actions they have taken. Perhaps if I was the head of major schools in Bahrain, I could just simply compensate back the money parents paid, stop or partially stop pay for teachers, in the aim to have teachers look for jobs outside Bahrain (actually encourage it!) and then see droves of qualified teachers leave. That’s it, leave! Let’s see how the government will attract talented teachers again!
One way more rationale way of fixing this problem is complaining to your respective embassies. Teachers, directors, go and complain in the aim of pressuring the Government to reconsider. seriously, let Bahrain become a serious case study for other governments around the world in the WRONG ways of implementing a national flu outbreak preparations plan.
The irony of it all is flu season is kicking in very soon, weather is changing around the world and people will get more sicker as we approach fall/winter, more reports will come up, and most certainly (with this type of rationale in place today) that schools will be further delayed for next November, the last month of the semester before December kicks in and most of it is holidays anyway.
This is the funny thing, Bahrain thinks it’s avoiding a national disaster for its citizens.. well thanks to MoH/MoE they just made one !! Another funny thing is Bahrain School. Good for them in continuing their education and classes as normal, thanks to the US Government.. I can picture families clamoring over the fences to get their kids into the school and the other schools stand to be ghost schools with no one there..
I’m sorry for saying this, but i had to say it, partly to vent off (it’s bottled up since a while!) and partly Bahrain needs to wake up before its too late.. and drown in its own inadequacies of handling a simple matter in which all other countries (even the most hard-hit) are controlling properly..
parents, teachers, any one out there who wants to say something!?
Author
I agree with you and sympathise with your frustrations Isa. We are seriously considering sending our son away to complete his A levels elsewhere if this goes on for much longer. The government evidently doesn’t give a damn about the country, its people nor its reputation for their despicable handling of this situation.
Add to that, please close down the Gov’t, Parliament, Municipality Councils, Governorates Head Quarters, Ministerial Offices, AND ALL OTHER GOVERNMENTAL OGANIZATIONS.
That way, we will definitely be making Bahrain a much heathier and happier place for all to live in!
Author
now that’s an idea I wholeheartedly support!
Great idea, love it!
I’ve put something on my blog today about the same topic.
I’m going crazy with all my kids bored at home.
Hope you don’t mind the link but this is very important
http://aliaalmoayed.wordpress.com/2009/09/23/i-feel-trapped/
Thanks for speaking up 🙂
Alia
Author
Of course! Thanks for your input Alia.
Dear Alia,
Thank you. Some of us really appreciate you telling it like it is. People need to be informed.