27/03/2006
Pitfalls of a borrowed lifestyle...
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| News that demand for personal loans has fallen from BD681.3 million in 2004 to BD656.2m last year must have been welcomed with relief in many quarters - except banks of course! Who would want to see his profits drop, even if it was an indicator of a number of things, including perhaps that people have started to realise the dangers of the vicious circle of being in debt, the futility of trying to keep up with the richer Johns, or have become so poor that no bank will risk giving them loans. A number of banks have actually expressed their disappointment, blaming the Bahrain Monetary Agency for the fall. While it doesn't take a genius to figure out the reason for their dismay, I find myself thinking how long will the Bahraini society continue to survive on loans, with many living way beyond their means to sustain false appearances. Many youngsters, myself included, took the bait and reaped the short-term benefits of loans early on in their lives, only to regret it later as the repayments became a burden and one loan led to another, spanning a few decades to pay off. I personally had to take a loan to buy myself a car at the beginning of my career, since every job demands transportation. As I climbed the ladder, I thought I needed a better car, to reflect my new status, if not my salary! This called for another loan, even though I hadn't completed the first loan and you would assume that once bitten, I would be twice shy. Since I had already borrowed money and was in debt, there was no harm in adding insult to injury and treating my mother to a new car too. Well to say the truth, she deserved it and I shouldn't be bragging about it years later. As I was already up to my eyeballs in loans, there would really be no chance for me to see the world and enjoy myself without having to borrow more money. So a third loan sealed the deal and booked me holidays to Europe and the US, which I still boast about today - without mentioning that my travels and expenses were made possible thanks to bank loans and not my ingenuity in saving money. Needless to say, I never enjoyed the thrill of a full salary as it was distributed as soon as it was deposited in my account, while the banks doubled, tripled and quadrupled their profit at the expense of fools like me who always think they have made a great deal, when in reality they have been taken for a ride! * Amira Al Hussaini currently lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada |
22:47 Posted in Miscellaneous | Permalink | Comments (18) | Email this
06/03/2006
Sales ban on Doulos senseless
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It is great to see common sense prevailing at last and the Doulos being allowed to sell books!
But I still cannot bring myself to understand the rationale behind the decision to allow the world's largest floating bookshop to dock at Mina Salman, but ban it from selling its books!
It was like chopping someone's hand off and giving him a pen!
What have we got against the written word? Wasn't it the Holy Quran that ordered the believers to read? Wasn't it Prophet Mohammed who instructed his people to seek knowledge?
Why was the Doulos allowed to call on us, if we were to snub it and show the rest of the world our fangs and our "great sensitivity" towards books as if they were the plague?
Why were people who read in Bahrain herded like horses to water, but denied to drink from it? It's not like we are spoilt for choice when it comes to books in Bahrain so that the floating bookshop posed a threat to local businesses.
The sad fact is that if anything, we need more cultural activities and books to encourage people to learn, expand their horizons and fight intolerance and backwardness.
Revising the decision will not eradicate it overnight, but is a step in the right direction.
A quick search on the web exposes a sad reality, not only in Bahrain, but in the rest of the Arab world.
According to the 2002 Arab Human Development Report, Arab countries produced 6,500 books compared to 102,000 in North America and 42,000 in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Citing Unesco figures, the report says that book production in Arab countries is only 1.1 per cent of world production, although Arabs make up 5pc of the world's population.
To add insult to injury, Arabs produced no more than 1,945 literary and artistic books, making up 0.8pc of international production.
This is less than a country such as Turkey produces - with a population about a quarter of that of Arab countries, according to the report.
What a shame!
I will never forget how, after every holiday abroad, my bags were searched at Bahrain International Airport - not because they contained contraband items, but because they were full of books that made custom officers jump up and down with excitement!
The fact that the books were in English and contained very little graphics made them ponder on them longer than they would with other items, until I intervened and told them they were for my studies.
And I wasn't lying, for it was from books that I have learned more than I have at school, university and my working experience - all put together.
*Amira Al Hussaini currently lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
08:20 Posted in Current Affairs, Islam, Miscellaneous, Rants, Silly Boys | Permalink | Comments (11) | Email this
05/03/2006
Allowance a massive relief for homeless families
| Vol XXVIII | NO. 350 |
For the 40,000 families on waiting lists for government housing, there can't possibly be better news than the BD100 monthly windfall promised by the Premier.
While the amount will go a long way towards helping them meet increasing rent and possibly even afford better accommodation, I can't bring myself to imagine the costs the government would have to shoulder to meet this gesture, considering housing projects are coming up at snail's pace and the waiting lists and periods are, if anything, just increasing.
But it is a gesture, which once again reinforces the government's commitment to ensuring a decent dwelling for every Bahraini family, as stipulated in the Constitution.
Because of a lack of lands, haphazard planning, poverty, unemployment and the sad reality that there are so many dilapidated homes - which I will not bring myself to call slums - in many areas of Bahrain, it brings hope to many impoverished families which would otherwise have to continue stomaching appalling living conditions.
It is a remedial measure, which will at least help many families make ends meet and move to better accommodation.
It will be particularly helpful for the swarming families, who live like sardines in one room in an ancient family house that is too shocking, but accepted as reality in many villages and even towns in Bahrain.
BD100 a month will help them rent another shanty dwelling, which they will finally be able to call home, as they continue to wait for their promised home.
I really wouldn't want to be in the shoes of housing officials in Bahrain, for the issue is really a sticky one.
Most lands are privately owned, land prices are escalating at breakneck speed, the harsh arid desert climate is taking its toll on existing homes faster than government homes are actually being built and people are getting more and more frustrated with the long wait for a refuge, which will elevate their status from sardines to people who can at last aspire to dream of a better tomorrow.
For all the pessimists out there, who think that this gesture is another cosmetic fixture to appease the disgruntled, I say that something is surely better than nothing.
It is a laudable move that will enable the poor to breathe a sigh of relief at last.
My only hope is that the government itself deals with paying the deserving citizens their housing allowances in a transparent and systematic manner as soon as possible and not leave it to parliament or the municipal councils to fight over.
*Amira Al Hussaini currently lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
08:12 Posted in Current Affairs, Miscellaneous, Parliament Bashing | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this
02/03/2006
Caught in the web of Internet rip-off...
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| Batelco is doubling its authorised capital from BD100 million to BD200m! Hurray! What does this mean to me and you and all the other consumers under their mercy? Will it mean lower phone and Internet bills? I doubt it, not as long as their profits are climbing steadily - despite the "increasingly competitive telecommunications environment" if I am to use the words of its chairman Hassan Ali Juma. But let's face it, telecom companies are the same the world over and as a lucrative business, their primary concern isn't to bring you closer to your dear loved ones as much as to bring them closer to your dwindling purse. When we first arrived in Canada, we shopped for a few weeks for the best telephone deal. With all the promotions and competing companies that was possible, even encouraged by companies, which actually give you the chance to compare their rates with the competition. I opted for the $25-a-month unlimited local calls mobile phone - one for me and another for my better half. I was cursing and swearing for the first month about how much I have been ripped off for years when I now have a better deal for a much lower price. That was until the first bill came. It was a whopping $200! Angered at being taken for a ride again, I picked up the phone and called the company, explaining in as many words as I could put in a sentence how enraged I was. What on earth was I thinking? Did I really think I would get a deal from a telecom company? They said there were installation charges, connection fees, a fixed amount for caller ID, charges for receiving overseas incoming calls, another few dollars for ability to access the emergency number and other miscellaneous charges I would rather not draw the attention of telecom providers in Bahrain to - and all this multiplied by two! Oops! And before I forget, there is of course the 15 per cent tax on almost everything here, including your phone bill. But like it or not it is necessary and without it, I frankly feel naked, lonely, insecure and vulnerable to almost everything. It is my guardian angel and the only means in which I can get access to my family and friends with the click of a button until I get home and make myself comfortable on my sofa and log on to the Internet! This is where a new world opens, hugs me with its open arms and throws me into the heart of my Isa Town home - where my family huddles around the PC listening to me and seeing me live, doing monkey faces and relating to them how good or bad my day went. My one-year-old nephew Ali thinks I actually live inside the computer, which I really do, waiting for the minute my loved ones come online - when Batelco's servers are having a good day! * Amira Al Hussaini currently lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada |
06:52 Posted in Current Affairs, Miscellaneous, Rants | Permalink | Comments (4) | Email this
20/02/2006
That magic oasis of peace has disappeared!
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Nothing warms the heart this winter more than meeting former Bahrain residents and reminiscing about the Bahrain they knew until they left - the land of peace, calm and tranquillity and where the hospitality and friendliness of Bahrainis smothers you to death. It fills me with pride and joy to know that Bahrain has carved a niche for itself in the hearts of all those who have passed by the Land of Dilmun and experienced life as it was in that magical oasis of peace. "But what is happening in Bahrain now?" asked a man, who left Bahrain in 1995. "What do you mean?" I answered, trying to sound as naïve as I possibly could without laughing. "All the attacks on foreigners," he ventured to explain. "It isn't that bad, just isolated incidents," I replied, trying to steer the conversation to another topic. "And all the stabbings and armed robberies," he pressed. "What stabbings?" I interrupted. "You know. Locals stabbing expats!" he said. "No, I don't. And no society is immune to crime." All of a sudden the friendly Bahrainis have become knife-wielding vandals going about stabbing and attacking expatriates, as a part-time job or a form of recreation, I presume. As much as such generalisations annoy me, what annoys me more is the fact that workers are being attacked and the incidents are brushed aside as if nothing had happened. The perpetrators aren't punished simply because those victimised do not have the protection necessary to make them equal in front of the law. Over the previous two weeks, two attacks were reported in the GDN. One involved a Nepali employee attacked by a Bahraini at Al Muntazah Supermarket in Hoora, for no reason. The other was about an Indian driver dragged out of his minibus and punched by a local, following an accident in Salmaniya. Would those two have been attacked had they been locals? Would the man involved in the accident punched the driver had he been a Bahraini, wearing a thobe and driving a Mercedes? They would have thought twice, just as they should have done if they had any respect for themselves and understood the gravity of their actions and how they are interpreted by people around the world. Violence is an unacceptable form of dialogue and as such should not be tolerated, if we are to protect the reputation of our country. Whatever happened to reasoning, in a civilised manner? * Amira Al Hussaini currently lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. |
19:58 Posted in Current Affairs, Miscellaneous, Rants, Silly Boys | Permalink | Comments (20) | Email this
11/02/2006
Unfaithful Valentine given the bird by pet Ziggy...
| Vol XXVIII | NO. 328 |
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With Valentine's Day around the corner, there couldn't have possibly been a better time for one particular story to hit the headlines.
I can actually see men and women queuing up at pet stores, booking parrots as gifts for their loved ones.
Chris Taylor, of Leeds, England, thought his lover Suzy Collins was faithful, until their big-mouthed parrot ratted her out.
The couple was cuddling on the sofa when Ziggy the African grey suddenly sqawked: "I love you Gary".
To add insult to injury, the parrot also made smooching sounds every time the name Gary was repeated.
Ms Collins admitted that Gary was a lover she had been making hay with at home while Chris was out.
As a result, the girlfriend was booted out, along with the eight-year-old parrot, since Chris could not stand to hear him repeatedly calling Gary's name.
What really surprised me though is that Chris did not see any tell-tale signs, especially as the couple were conducting their affair at his apartment.
It must have been a rude awakening when Ziggy let the cat out of the bag, proving without doubt that parrots and not just dogs can be a man's best friend.
But there is a lesson to be learned from Chris' heartache - animals are more faithful than humans.
Having grown up in a household full of pets, I find this story amusing to say the least.
The pets we have had and still have are a source of great joy for all of us.
The parrots we have had and still have didn't create family feuds and our Persian cats were mute.
My hamsters would sometimes create a racket, but they didn't reveal anyone's secrets and my turtles, bless them, were oblivious to their surroundings. The most hilarious creature to walk into our house was the aptly-named Iguana, who made heads turn and squeamish girls scream their heads off when it as much as moved his head.
One day, Iguana decided to inspect our neighbourhood.
Before long we had our neighbours knocking on our door screaming, that our 'dinosaur' had escaped.
I wish they had done the same when one of our cats went out for a stroll.
As soon as it stepped outdoors, someone snatched it, put it in a cardboard box and went running off to sell it at the Isa Town flea market.
Amira Al Hussaini currently lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
08:32 Posted in Miscellaneous, Rants | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this
07/01/2006
Future of Bahrain too precious to squander
| Vol XXVIII | NO. 293 |
Doctors say that the only way to fight cancer is by early diagnosis. While they cannot guarantee a 100 per cent success rate in the treatment of all cases, the fact remains that patients whose illness is detected early fare better than those who have unknowingly suffered the disease until it was way too late.
Having said this, confronting cancer takes a lot of dedication, a strong will and an optimism to face an unknown tomorrow - whatever challenges it may bring.
It also takes the skills of a dedicated medical team, whose members know exactly what they are doing and the size, scope and implications of the vicious disease at hand.
In Bahrain, sectarianism, prejudice and discrimination are what are gnawing at our flesh, sapping dry our resources and tearing our nation apart.
Calls for a one-family spirit have proven to be a short-term balm for a cancer which is spreading by the day and which may prove terminal to the dream of a true democracy, adherence to human rights and a decent quality of life for all citizens and residents alike.
Fingers point out to one culprit when it comes to all the vices and problems at home and that is discrimination.
Every individual sees any concern or issue from his own perspective and is not ready to see the picture as a whole or to reach a compromise.
Every faction feels it is being wronged.
We seem to be at loggerheads and the future and reputation of Bahrain are far too dear to squander because of the egos and vanity of some.
When I was growing up, I had no clue what my sect was. All I knew was that I was Muslim, Arab and Bahraini - in no particular order.
My ethnic and religious background made no difference to me then, as it doesn't matter much to me today.
But society does not and never will judge me on who I am, but on who my parents are and on which part of the spectrum of ethnicities and religious ideologies they belong to.
I grew up in a truly cosmopolitan society. At school, we had Shias and Sunnis, Catholics and Protestants, Hindus, Buddhists and Jews, amongst others.
In my Utopia, we were all equal. It didn't matter what our colours or tongues were. We were all students with one goal - to get the out of school as fast and out into the world.
To be realistic, I could say the same about society at large, where people of different backgrounds are supposed to work together and co-exist peacefully.
The only difference is that real life is nothing like school. Maybe it is time they started mirroring each other.
Isn't it time to identify common goals and work towards achieving them?
09:37 Posted in Current Affairs, Miscellaneous, Rants | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
27/12/2005
A clean start in the life laundry
| Vol XXVIII | NO. 281 |
Do you miss Bahrain?" This is the question many people ask me day in, day out.
It has only been two months since I have left the home I have lived in all my life, the home of my fathers and theirs' before them.
I don't want to sound ungrateful or unpatriotic, but do you want to hear the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
I am glad I am out of there. I am enjoying the experience of being free and independent and I am relishing my time off work, during which I can read, write, paint - or just learn to keep house.
For the first time in my life, I am learning how to operate a washing machine, a microwave and an oven, not that we didn't have those commodities in Bahrain.
On the contrary, we had all those gadgets and more, but because we were so pampered and protected by our families, everything was ready for us when we got home or rather to the "hotel", as my mother refers to it.
Being away from home hasn't hit me yet and I really don't know whether I miss Bahrain or not.
It could perhaps be because we have been adopted by Indian friends, who lived in Bahrain for 19 years.
They have been here for eight years, but still love everything Bahraini and it is perhaps down to them that we have not yet felt the pangs of homesickness.
At this point, all I'm sure about is that I miss my immediate family, my mother, sisters, brother and their children and my dear and near friends and relatives.
Life is not the same without them. I cry every time I speak to any of them - and I know it isn't because we are benefiting the telephone companies by running up high bills.
I also closely follow all that is being written about home and still get annoyed when I surf the Internet and read about some of the things happening back there.
My blood boils every time I hear about yet another demonstration or rally. I cringe when I see newspaper headlines and continue to read the same stories I have read over and over again.
But whatever the situation, whether daily occurrences in Bahrain bring me pride or shame, there really is and will never be any place like home. A home is where your heart is and not your house.
l Amira Al Hussaini currently lives with her husband in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
04:24 Posted in Miscellaneous, Rants | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
24/09/2005
Job market needs a dose of work ethics...
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| I am delighted that someone out there has finally woken up to the fact that what our labour market seriously lacks is WORK ETHICS. It doesn't matter how many more millions - or even billions of dinars - we pump into training and rehabilitating our 20,000 unemployed people for jobs on the market if we don't focus on infusing this into those programmes. The Labour Ministry has said that it will spend at least BD30 million on training Bahrainis next year and an undisclosed "lesser" amount the following year. So far so good, because if we really want to find a solution to this mounting problem, which could grow out of proportion and cause chaos overnight, we really need to spend money. But wasn't it only in recent history that BD25m was siphoned off for what was supposed to have been the magical solution for our unemployment problems? The deal was that the Labour Ministry would be restructured, the unemployed trained for the jobs market and we would live happily ever after. Whatever happened to our BD25m? I know this isn't the issue and I don't want to probe too deeply. What concerns me today is how much more do we need to spend to teach people that work is an essential part of life, that people work to live and live to work and that without something meaningful to do, a person's life is worthless? How many more strategies do we need to draw up to teach people to wake up early, show up at work on time, take fewer days off sick and spend their hours at work doing what they are supposed to be doing - working, perhaps? It doesn't matter if it's your first job or you have a PhD in the field you are working in; it means nothing if you have been merely keeping that chair warm for 30 years; and no one cares if you are the only one in your specialisation to have ever set foot in Bahrain. What really matters is how professional you are in doing your job; how dedicated you are in serving your community; and how much you respect yourself and your job. Introducing work ethics into training programmes is a sound policy, which I hope would be followed through to the end. Let's start with the work ethics of those implementing training programmes. Their mission should be to serve Bahrain and only Bahrain. There should be no hidden agendas, no favouritism and no abusing the system for personal gain! I hope I have made myself clear. Now get back to work! |
19:38 Posted in Current Affairs, Miscellaneous, Rants, Silly Boys | Permalink | Comments (5) | Email this
18/09/2005
Corruption admission a courageous step
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| TWO policemen are behind bars for bribery. They were caught in an undercover operation following a tip-off from a man who claimed that they had promised him a job as a policeman in exchange for money. On the one hand, I am over the moon that the Interior Ministry has provided us with this scoop. We didn't ask them for the information. We had no inside knowledge. They supplied it voluntarily! I don't know if this is a one-off, or whether we will get to hear about more horror stories from their closed quarters in this era of open speech and democracy. I don't even know whether we will be given access to information and be able to tell our readers what the fate of those who abused their responsibilities towards their profession and their nation would be. On the other hand, I am scared. Scared because we put our trust in our police force and the last thing we want to hear is that some are corrupt, take bribes and abuse the very principles of the system they are being paid to uphold. I realise that not all people are the same. I understand that if one policeman is corrupt, it doesn't mean that all policemen are. But I also know that if there is one rotten apple in the barrel, we need to empty it, and weed all the bad ones out before we end up with a stinky mess. While I applaud the Interior Ministry for having the courage to make this announcement in black and white, telling the whole world that it is cleaning up its own backyard, I would want to see more openness. By this I mean, I would want them to tell us what is going to happen to those who have abused the trust placed in them. Like any other citizen, I want to know what the punishment of those who have let the system down would be. For it would really be a shame to announce that we do have corrupt policemen and then do nothing to show what was done to them to serve as a deterrent to others and build back some trust the system urgently needs. |
13:04 Posted in Current Affairs, Miscellaneous, Silly Boys | Permalink | Comments (3) | Email this