24/02/2005
Time for the hare to wake up and win Gulf race!
Vol XXVII NO. 341 Thursday 24 February 2005
By Amira Al Hussaini
I am green with envy every time I fly back to Bahrain after a few days in one of the neighbouring Gulf states and I really don't know why.
As a Bahraini, I should be proud of the developments and huge leaps forward being taken by the likes of Dubai and Doha, which is following close at its heels and not the miserable melancholy soul I am as the plane circles to land on the dusty tarmac of our only runway at Bahrain International Airport.
I should be proud to recall that what was sand and desert a few years ago in our neighbouring countries is skyscrapers and multi-faceted glass and concrete buildings and breath-taking world-class resorts today - which testify to the burgeoning trade and forward thinking that is embracing the future and its challenges at full speed.
Why am I so envious? Is it in keeping with the Arab mentality that makes us jealous of our neighbours' successes and excesses and happy for any of their shortcomings, in the hope that we may one day beat them to the finishing line?
This reminds me of the story of the hare and the tortoise. Do you remember it? Well, let me entertain you with its Gulf version.
Bahrain has always been ahead of the times, the pioneer in introducing education, democracy, empowering women, building a modern infrastructure and diversifying its economy, to name a few.
It has been the heart of the region, its commercial and banking hub, its transit port and was the first Gulf country where oil was discovered.
It was the first in this and the first in that.
Then, like in the fable, the hare looked behind and saw the slow and sluggish tortoise trying hard to cross the start line.
As in the fable, the hare decided to go for a nap.
Just like in the fable, the hare wakes up to see the tortoise sweating its way to the finish line.
But not like in the fable, just as we thought that the era of discoveries was over, the hare springs into action and pulls a trick from the hat - we now have another first to gloat about until the end of time.
After all, like it or hate it, we were the first country in the Middle East to successfully attract and host a Grand Prix.
Cheers hare. I knew you would make a comeback!
09:55 Posted in Travel | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email this
06/09/2004
Terror tag on Muslims reveals bias
Vol XXVII NO. 170 Monday 6 September 2004
By Amira Al Hussaini
I happened to be on a business trip to London as 1,500 children, parents and teachers were held hostage by 'Islamic terrorists' in a school in Beslan in the North Ossetia region in Russia, bordering Chechnya.
On the day I left Bahrain, the newspaper headlines showed a photograph with a line up of bloodied bodies, news of a Nepalese worker beheaded in Iraq and another 11 shot dead, again by people labelled 'Islamic barbarians'.
On the day I left London, the 53-hour school siege had ended with a bloodbath, leaving hundreds of innocent people injured and killed, including, of course, women and children.
Among the so-called terrorists were Arab Muslims, announced reporters covering the ordeal, in a tone which made this vital piece of information more important than the human tragedy which was unfolding by the minute.
At the time of writing this, two French hostages are being held, again by 'Arab Islamic terrorists' in Iraq, in a bid to blackmail the French government to back off on the hijab ban in schools in France.
You should have seen the disgust and horror on the faces of normal everyday people in the UK capital as they watched the television screens beaming to the whole world what Muslim terrorists were doing to innocent beings, who also have the right to live and work and go to school.
Even 'foreigners' who have lived in the Arab world and interacted with the 'Muslim terrorists' day in day out joined the circus, voicing their disgust with the inhumanity and lack of compassion of 'Islamic terrorists'.
At the same time the world's attention was grabbed by how the Muslims were terrorising the rest of the world, Palestinian children were overcoming another type of terror, in their bid to go back to school, but never mind, this will not be reported as people are now immune to the suffering of the Palestinians.
After all, it has been going on for half a decade and the Palestinians should have become used to it too. Parents should have become used to burying their children just as babies should have become used to living without their fathers. Wives should have become used to living without the support of a terrorist husband, whose only dream was to have a home for his wife, parents and children and to put food on the table for them.
The terror the Iraqis are being subjected to daily, is also something they should accept with a pinch of salt because the cluster-bombs which had maimed their children, the desecration of their holy shrines and the civil war situation their whole country has been thrown in, are only a natural price to pay for getting rid of the monstrous Saddam Hussein and the introduction of a free democracy, civil rights and liberties to a people who have been governed by an iron fist for decades.
I am not defending the hostage takers of Iraq or the gunmen who held the Russians at the school. All I am saying is that atrocities are being committed by everyone - Muslims and non-Muslims - and it is the poor unprotected civilians who are caught in the middle.
Double standards also hurt. They hurt more when they are distorted.
Why is the whole world adamant on coining Islam to any terrorist act involving Muslims? Why is Islam blamed for what individuals do?
Why can't we say Catholic Americans are terrorising Muslim Iraqis and Jewish Israelis are butchering Muslim Palestinians?
10:40 Posted in Islam , Travel | Permalink | Comments (5) | Email this