For days now I see daily reports in our newspapers that Bahraini fishermen, both hobbyists and professionals, have landed into hot water with our neighbourly Qatari Coastguards who seem to escort them directly to jail, without passing Go. At the last count, there appears to be 107 Bahraini fishermen in Qatari custody
In separate events, a Saudi cleric encourages adult breast-feeding as a legitimate way for gender integration, and a supposition that a Bahraini businesswoman is banned from importing erotic material on religious grounds could be converging trends. A far stretch of the imagination it might be, but these do ring bells of alarm.
As I leave this lovely city and bid adieux to new friends, its time for a reflection. I came here at the invitation of the German government’s Foreign Office through their embassy in Bahrain. I came rather hesitantly as I had to take ten full days off work at a time where we’re rather busy …
and Pakistan (as well as Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia and Iran I suspect) are going frantic over blocking websites they find… uh… offensive to their delicate sensibilities: “Before shutting down (YouTube), we did try just to block particular URLs or links, and access to 450 links on the Internet were stopped, but the blasphemous content …
Yesterday was a full day with us starting with a visit to Der Tagesspiegel and chatting with its editor responsible for both online and print media and then to the Bundespressekonferenz to listen to about a dozen ministerial spokespersons, who each in turn presented the latest news from his ministry and fielded questions from the audience.