Tuesday, December 05, 2006

December 2006

Vol XXIX NO. 259 Monday 4th December 2006


I hope the lone woman makes a difference

By Amira Al Hussaini

Out of 21 women who ran for parliamentary and municipal elections, not a single one has managed to secure a seat, with the exception of Hawar Islands representative Latifa Al Gaoud, who stood uncontested. If figures speak the truth, then this is precisely the worth of respect 300,000 voters, who make up 72 per cent of the electorate, have for women in my country.

According to officials, the elections were run fair and square and it was up to the people of my country to choose their representatives.

Other than pressure from religious scholars, who came to the conclusion that the participation of women in public life was unIslamic, our people have had their say. Unlike the last elections, where some female candidates went on to the second round, the voting public has made it easier this time and eliminated them in the first round.

My fellow citizens have decided that women can be anything from ministers to Ambassadors to housemaids, from wives, mistresses and lovers to teachers, engineers and accountants - in fact, they can be all that they can possibly imagine, except of course municipal councillors and members of parliament.

Somewhere in the mentality of Bahrainis, there is a script which says that those two public offices are restricted for men only (preferably bearded ones), who know more about how Allah wants His creations to conduct their daily affairs than all the other citizens put together.

But if the performances of both our esteemed parliament and municipal council in their first four-years of our new born democracy are a measuring stick, then I fully understand why the general public has unanimously decided to shield women from such drudgery.

I am not a pessimist, but other than laughable drafts and suggestions, what comes immediately to your mind when I mention parliament or municipal councils in Bahrain?

Veiled mannequins? Veiled drivers? Segregated universities? Banning freedom of association? Restricting the right to public gathering? Or the classic: municipal councillors going missing in Thailand!

Leave the actual work aside and look at all the squabbles and fights which have plagued our democratic process, in an assembly where some members are blinded by their own narrow ideas to the extent that their only response to an opposing view is physical power, screams and verbal abuse.

And you want genteel women to be part of this unruly gathering? No thanks.

After all, we women can do much better and more noble tasks away from bureaucratic set-ups where a bunch of hairy men compete amongst each other over who can grow his beard longer!

Let's see if they behave better this time round, with the presence of a lone woman in their ranks.

(Amira Al Hussaini currently lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.)

Friday, December 01, 2006

October 2006

Vol XXIX NO. 206 Thursday 12th October 2006


Let down in New York...

By Amira Al Hussaini

After spending two weeks among the Press corps at the United Nations in New York, I fully understand why we Arabs have our place of pride among the most annoying people on planet Earth.

Ask any journalist in the UN who the people most unlikely to provide any tangible information are and the answer would straightaway be "The Arabs".

Then we say we are misunderstood, but why shouldn't we be when our doors are bolted shut and our mouths are sealed to the Press.

This hurts, especially for someone like me, who travelled to New York with grand schemes to write about my country and its accomplishments in the international arena.

What better time, when Bahraini Shaikha Haya bint Rashid Al Khalifa is at the helm as president of the United Nations General Assembly and our Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa heads the Arab Ministerial Council for Foreign Affairs.

With Bahrain taking centre-stage on a scale never witnessed before, I thought being close to action would give me an enviable insight into all that my country is achieving at the world body and to perhaps even be its voice to readers back home.

Closed doors, unanswered phone calls and unanswered questions are an everyday reality back home, even in this era of openness and freedom initiated by an ambitious reform project.

But I thought the situation would be different in New York.

How wrong I was! Three months of phone calls to a certain Bahraini official while planning for this trip, went unanswered.

I had even visited the man's office and met his number two, a good two months before the General Assembly opened, to plead for co-operation.

When I finally muscled strength and managed to speak to the man at the top, he denied ever getting my messages, in the sweetest, most genuine tone I have ever heard.

He even said his number two may or may not have given him the message!

With no choice left but to believe him, even though I can't see how my messages couldn't have gone through, I try to open a new chapter of relations.

I even increased the size of the circle to take pressure off this extremely busy man and move on to stalk the rest of the officials working with him.

Again, the phone calls continue to remain unanswered, the questions unuttered and the flow of information I so urgently need to fulfil my mission here obstructed, as if there was a conscious consensus to keep me away from the news.

Am I not a Bahraini journalist from a Bahraini newspaper, who has worked for almost 15 years representing my country to the best of my skills?

Have I not churned out one headline after the other praising my country's achievements and singing laurels to our successes, however humble they may have been to the rest of the world?

Am I not worthy enough of just a little bit of co-operation to serve my nation as it shines in the international arena?

To readers and my editors in Bahrain, I am sorry if I have failed you, but God knows how hard I tried.

What hurts me most is that I have failed myself and dashed my own expectations when I believed that respect for the written word could be salvaged amid bureaucracy and broken promises.

November 2006

Vol XXIX NO. 250 Saturday 25th November 2006


Voters have the right to question

BY AMIRA AL HUSSAINI

I don't know if I read this correctly, but I am sure I did. I am not sure I fully comprehended it though, for it surely needs an explanation.

According to newspaper reports, those who dare question the 'integrity' of the municipal and parliamentary elections being held in Bahrain will be referred to the Public Prosecutor, in accordance to Article 30 of the Elections Law.

The punishment in store for those who cross the line includes either a fine of BD500 or a six month jail sentence, or both.

Sitting in my livingroom here after, seeing both the Canadians and Americans going to the polls for elections over the previous few weeks, I rolled my eyes in disbelief when I read this article in Bahraini papers!

You should come and see how the citizens of the Lands of the Free conduct their elections and how television stations and comedians have a field day, with enough material to ridicule for weeks everything from the candidates, to the way the votes are counted.

In fact, people are still cracking jokes about the Florida count which brought US President George Bush Junior to power six years ago.

Should all those people be serving time in prison for questioning the 'integrity' of the elections process too?

What kind of democracy are we preaching if we have no right to question why, where, when, what and how things are run in our country?

Why can't we ask legitimate questions and why is asking for our rights as citizens a crime punishable by law?

I am sure there must be something wrong in this announcement or perhaps it is incomplete, because logically it defies the spirit of the democratic reforms initiated by His Majesty King Hamad in 2001.

If we are a free and democratic country, why can't we have the right to question whether the elections being held are fair and square and whether the voting process and results are transparent or not.

Nobody is accusing anybody of any wrongdoing, but what is wrong with knowing, understanding and fully comprehending the process in which we will be electing 80 individuals who will voice our concerns in five Municipal Councils and Parliament?

I see nothing wrong in posing the right questions, unless the authorities have a reason which they have not brought to the forefront yet.

Instead of giving us the opportunity to come to our own conclusions, I would appreciate a full explanation which would perhaps spare us the humiliation of sounding so unpatriotic, at a time when our country needs us to stick together to ensure a better tomorrow for our future generations.

* Amira Al Hussaini currently lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.



Vol XXIX NO. 228 Friday 3rd November 2006

Blog ban a slap in the face of freedom

By Amira Al Hussaini

What on Earth is happening in Bahrain? What is going on exactly and where, exactly where, are we heading to?

Aren't we supposed to be living the golden age of openness, transparency and democracy?

Are we not gearing up for the second parliamentary election in our modern history in a few weeks?

Aren't we a sovereign kingdom which is signatory to the Human Rights Charter and which has sworn to give people a say in their lives and freedom in their thoughts and beliefs?

If we are who we claim we are, then how can we also be a country which muzzles freedom of expression and dictates to people what information they can access and what they can't?

Banning a popular website mahmood.tv, along with others, was a slap in the face of freedom and against everything we claim we are!

How can we say we are open on the one hand, while controlling and censoring information on the other?

If we are really open and transparent, what are we afraid of?

Why aren't people allowed to question issues and express their opinions on what is happening in their country, communities and neighbourhoods?

Why can't we respect the rights of others to voice their ideas and concerns in a civil manner through writing?

Why is a pen more scary than a sword in our modern day? What is wrong with initiating healthy debates on issues which affect you, me and everyone else living in Bahrain?

What exactly are the authorities protecting us from?

With all my respect for Mahmood Al Yousif and all other bloggers, all that they are doing really is talking about everyday issues which go through any person's mind if he or she sits and thinks about what is happening on the ground.

These bloggers are not a threat to our national security. They are simply people keeping online journals which are open for others to read.

They are embodying the spirit of Bahrain - a democratic kingdom, which says that all its people are equal and free and have the right to speak their minds and question and debate concerns in a civil manner.

They are not taking to the streets burning tyres and hurling stones or Molotov cocktails. They are not leading demonstrations and blocking traffic and access to malls.

Most importantly, many of them are not even politically motivated, but are encouraged to write because it is a hobby they have grown to enjoy and which gives them wings and access to the lives of millions of bloggers, who share the passion around the world.

I don't have an exact figure but I would like to assure the authorities that there are thousands of Bahraini blogs in cyberspace, which are open for all to read.

Will those in power block them all? One is an online journal of the adventures of a Bahraini Dilmun cat!

Even if the Information Ministry blocks a website in Bahrain, I would like to enlighten the authorities by telling them that all that they are doing is giving free publicity to the unwelcome site and encouraging much more people to read it, just to satisfy their curiosity and see what the fuss is all about.

Blocking a site in Bahrain no longer means that the few thousand people who surf the Net will not be able to read it because it is extremely simple to bypass the proxy and access any blocked site with no trouble at all.

Besides, the block applies to Bahrain only, while people around the world still have access to the information being censored locally.

And yes... I am a tad jealous that Mr Al Yousif is getting more publicity than say me, or any other journalist in Bahrain and being punished for upholding his right to express his opinion.

For some weird reason, I have always thought this was the plight of journalists.

* Amira Al Hussaini currently lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

September 2006

Vol XXIX NO. 167 Sunday 3rd September 2006


On the highway to catastrophe

By Amira Al Hussaini

Awoman, a car and a map are a dangerous combination.

A woman with no sense of direction, who doesn't know her left from her right, North from her South or East from her West, is a sure catastrophe waiting to happen.

With a visitor from Bahrain gracing our small Hamilton apartment, my husband Amer realised I couldn't and shouldn't be set loose on the Canadian highways without a Global Positioning System (GPS).

After almost 10 months here, I still lose my way to our neighbourhood supermarket and find it difficult to get home if I take another route!

While he was busy at work, the deal was that I would be driving his cousin Ghaneya around, showing her the sights and scenes which make Canada a visitor's paradise.

On the day we picked up Ghaneya from the airport, we stopped by a store and picked up the GPS.

For technology-savvy Amer, it was a piece of cake.

For his technologically challenged wife, it was a different story.

While he spent the night reading up on his new toy, I briefed Ghaneya all about the high-end boutiques in Toronto and malls in Niagara we would be covering over the next few days.

The next morning, armed with our GPS, the sky was the limit.

I got into the car excited about the day ahead of us, placing our mentor and guide in its place of pride on the windshield, until I thought: "Did he even show me how to turn the damned thing on?"

After a few attempts, I worked out how to operate the machine.

I programmed it to take me to a place I knew how to get to and sure enough, after following a few directions, it showed us a new shortcut to the nearby mall! The GPS had passed its test and from now on, I would follow its directions blindly, I told my companion.

Our GPS, which we called Labeeba, became an indispensable part of any outing.

With her guidance, we travelled up and down Southern Ontario, taking in as much of the shopping and tourist attractions we could pack into daytime hours. There wasn't a dull moment as it had up-to-date maps and knew exactly where everything was.

Turn left, it would tell me, and I would blindly do what it said - even when it led me to what looked like a dead end because, sure enough, after following a few more directions I would arrive at my destination in one piece.

But my honeymoon ended as abruptly as it started when we decided to go to MarineLand, in Niagara Falls.

After a few hours of loitering in the sun, watching killer whales and bears, we had our full and programmed Labeeba to take us to the picturesque Niagara-on-the-Falls for lunch.

Before I knew it, we were on a bridge with the US flag dancing in the wind above our heads and a border checkpoint three cars ahead of us.

Looking east, we saw the mighty Niagara Falls bellowing below!

We were on the bridge to the US, with no U-turns, no passports and no ID papers!

To add insult to injury, Labeeba was adamant that we were on our way to Niagara-on-the-Lake, which was in exactly the opposite direction!

Try explaining that to the angry immigration officer who greeted us! It was a genuine mistake, I pleaded.

Five hours later, after having our photographs taken and all our fingers printed (all 10 with a full scan of our hands just in case), our identities checked, rechecked and checked again, we were allowed to turn back to Canada.

With wobbly feet pressing as hard as I can on the accelerator to return home, I sure was glad we ended up sleeping in our beds and not on a bunk bed somewhere close to Guantanamo!

*Amira Al Hussaini currently lives in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada



Vol XXIX NO. 184 Wednesday 20 September 2006


Migrant workers' plight a shame on our nation

BY AMIRA AL HUSSAINI

As leaders converge on the United Nations in New York to discuss ways to make the world a better place, I cannot but hang my head in shame.

For, while nations discuss the plight of the world's 50 most vulnerable countries, thousands of migrant workers back in my own country Bahrain are living and working in misery.

The outcry over the death of 16 workers in a camp fire in July, which not only destroyed their lives but also their families' future, seems to have evaporated into thin air.

Now, people are angry as to why 28 construction workers were injured when they were hurled from the back of an open truck this week. Do you really want to know why? Because they are poor workers with no rights or safeguards to ensure their safety or livelihoods.

Because we only cry and make our voices heard for a few minutes and then go on with our lives, taking their suffering, blood and toil as a matter of fact and continuing with our lives as if nothing has happened.

The truth is that the death of a few workers doesn't hurt us because they are just objects who do our dirty work for us.

They don't have a face, for all migrant workers look the same - they are dirty and smelly. They don't have a name, for they all take it with a smile when you stoop down from your ivory tower and call them Kumar or Raj.

What happens if one or two or three or even a dozen of them die?

Easy! You simply ship some more from some of the poorest countries in the world.

After all, these countries have a pool of 600 million people who are willing to take the risk of leaving their countries, homes and families in their quest for a better future.

Sadly, we seem to forget that like you and me, they too have feelings, hopes and aspirations; that they too want to secure a clean bed and good food on their tables when they return home.

We forget they may need time for relaxation and entertainment; that they have families and children and relatives, that they smile and cry, eat and drink and have the right to work and earn a living - without having to be humiliated and ferried to work like cattle, in the back of open trucks.

I am enraged, especially after listening to the UN General Assembly's Bahraini president Shaikha Haya bint Rashid Al Khalifa pouring her heart out over how migrant workers around the world were suffering to make ends meet.

Not one person from the Bahrain Permanent Mission to the UN, nor any of the delegates from any of our neighbouring countries, who heavily depend on the downtrodden workers, spoke out about their suffering on our shores.

I am however glad the world has eyes and the voiceless are getting a voice at a time when many officials are living in denial and refusing to go for regular hearing checks!

l Amira Al Hussaini is currently covering the UN General Assembly session in New York, US