Politics

What a surprise. The emperor is indeed naked.

Quote: Dubai, which until last week loomed tall – literally – as an enterprising, cosmopolitan, glitzy and happy antithesis to the Middle East’s economic stagnation, has now emerged as a sad monument to all that is ill about the pan-Arab economy, which includes more than a quarter-billion people but is smaller than Spain’s.

Elections fever warming up

The GDN this morning carried a piece stating that 8 women will be contesting the parliamentary and municipal elections in Bahrain in 2010. I hope they all get in. I’m convinced that they will do a much better job than the current crop of MPs and councillors whose vision, for the most part, is to turn this country into another Afghanistan, Iran or another flavour of religious/sectarian extremism.

Corruption Perception Index 2009

The 2009 CPI is out. As far as Bahrain is concerned, the trend of this index is lacklustre, trending downward from 27 with a score of a 6.1 in 2003 to 46 this year with a score of 5.1. Regionally, we rank right in the middle at the moment being 4th behind Qatar, ranking 22 in the world – with a best score of the region of 7.0, the UAE which ranks 30th with 6.5 and Oman at 39 with a score of 5.5. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait bring up the rear with 63 (4.3) and 66 (4.1) respectively.