Richard - can you let me know when this will happen so I can make sure I am on vacation - NO-ONE deserves to see my naked butt!!! j/k BUT what I would like to say is the following:Originally posted by RICHARD
We just have to invent a Nudie Bomb, drop it over the Middle East and while everyone scrambles to find clothes...............
I have lived and worked amongst Muslims for 4 years. People ask me "what they are like?" I reply:
I look around the office and I see a PERSON, working for a living, paying off a house and a couple of cars, trying to save for a family holiday and hoping that one day his kids will get into a good university. I go to the shops and look around me and I see women who are tired of listening to kids whining, trying to pick up some groceries and get home to cook dinner for their family" - NOT any different from you and I???? I can relate to how Muslims feel when people assume that every Muslim is a terrosist - it's the same way I feel when people assume that because I am a "white" South African I am a racist - it's simply not true!!!
What I will concede however is that we are living in very volatile times, and incidents such as the recent prisoner abuse DO anger the average Bahraini - it has made it EXTREMELY uncomfortable for expats living in the Middle East (I KNOW that we are here by choice, but the reality is that in a Post-apartheid South Africa there are no career prospects for my husband, so we go where the jobs are!).
Yesterday I stopped at a traffic signal and a school bus full of local kids pulled up next to my car. They started pelting my car with rubbish - pepsi cans, juice cartons etc - NOTHING DANGEROUS, just upsetting, and the traffic cop on duty at the intersection just stood and watched.
Last week I walked out of class and have now refuse to continue teaching a student who said to me that "Berg deserved to be beheaded"- I am not talking about an uneducated man - this guy is a government employee with two degrees under his belt, who has studied overseas. As far as I am concerned I am there to help him improve his English - not talk politics!
The other thing I am waiting to see is how the people of Iraq cope with democracy. Bahrain became a democracy a few years ago, and we are experiencing a HUGE surge in crime. It used to be petty theft etc, now it is burglaries, car thefts, riots, brutal assaults and even some rapes. (A Bahraini guy was recently given a 1 YEAR jail sentence for raping a 14 year old, whilst an Indian Labourer was jailed for 1 year for stealing a mobile phone) The justice system is NOT designed to cope with people "finding their way" around this new-found freedom, and they are taking too long to amend laws and impose stricter sentences on law-breakers. My husband works in Saudi, and if you are so-inclined, you can go on a Friday afternoon to watch an execution, or hand amputation - I'm NOT saying it's right - but BOY does it send out a strong message to other would-be criminals!!!
Being here gives me a very interesting perspective on events - reading about something in local media, and US or UK publications, you would almost think it was two separate incidents!
I tend to stay of of the politics of the situation and just try to get on with my life, but it's not always easy.
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