...........Men at some time are masters of their fates;
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Julius Caesar Act 1, scene 2, 135–141
Some of us have been blessed to have studied Shakespeare at a young age, but sadly most have not, which would be a very interesting future post about education. For the moment though, I quote this particular line after having two conversations with some of the brightest young men in Bahrain. These two Bahrainis have stirred the muse inside to write these lines in support of these characters.
Now you must be curious as to what actually went through these conversations with these characters; it is not of value actually. What impressed me was the fact that these characters have shown me that God had answered my prayer in my previous posts and showed me two great examples of Responsible, Innovative, Broad Thinking and Ambitious citizens. Now two is not nearly enough to reform a society, but I am sure that more are out there. I have to admit though, they were raw uncut diamonds, but that shouldn't be much of a problem with the right guidance. One admirable quality was that not once did they refer in any shape or sense to race, color, or creed when referring to Bahrain. That would have been enough for me to admire. Now coming back to the quote from Shakespeare I will only add my voice to the idea that Change in any society happens within, but that we must not forget that you need responsible citizens to initiate this change. And as sure as hell, we cannot hope for the honorable (old) members of parliament to have the wisdom needed to reform society, because they are busy debating on the most important and patriotically issue of what color their new BMW cars should be.
We have all saw, read and heard the news coming out of Tunis this past week, and what a great example those brave Tunisians were. But even brave as they are they still needed that spark, that push, that catalyst to rally behind and use as the wind in their sails. It is arguable and controversial to how it started, with a young man setting fire to himself in protest, and I do not dare smear the reputation of a man sacrificing his life for his fellow citizens. But we do not need matches and gas to initiate change in Bahraini society, what we need is encouragement and enough space for young citizens like the mentioned above to express themselves without fear of reprisal from their peers. These individuals will one day lead the way to a better future in Bahrain if given the chance, and this chance is not demanded exclusively from the government but mostly from society itself. We cannot expect to look to the person sitting beside us to rise up first, instead you and I should stand up and voice our concerns to our beloved society, because it is, in my opinion, the only way which shows our patriotism and love for our country. Remember that out of all the conspirators against Julius Caesar, Brutus was the only one who participated in this act out of love to Rome (although he went on to regret his actions before he committed suicide).
I hang my hope on these Catalysts, these Underlings to rise and be recognized. (we all need you)
The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
Julius Caesar Act 1, scene 2, 135–141
Some of us have been blessed to have studied Shakespeare at a young age, but sadly most have not, which would be a very interesting future post about education. For the moment though, I quote this particular line after having two conversations with some of the brightest young men in Bahrain. These two Bahrainis have stirred the muse inside to write these lines in support of these characters.
Now you must be curious as to what actually went through these conversations with these characters; it is not of value actually. What impressed me was the fact that these characters have shown me that God had answered my prayer in my previous posts and showed me two great examples of Responsible, Innovative, Broad Thinking and Ambitious citizens. Now two is not nearly enough to reform a society, but I am sure that more are out there. I have to admit though, they were raw uncut diamonds, but that shouldn't be much of a problem with the right guidance. One admirable quality was that not once did they refer in any shape or sense to race, color, or creed when referring to Bahrain. That would have been enough for me to admire. Now coming back to the quote from Shakespeare I will only add my voice to the idea that Change in any society happens within, but that we must not forget that you need responsible citizens to initiate this change. And as sure as hell, we cannot hope for the honorable (old) members of parliament to have the wisdom needed to reform society, because they are busy debating on the most important and patriotically issue of what color their new BMW cars should be.
We have all saw, read and heard the news coming out of Tunis this past week, and what a great example those brave Tunisians were. But even brave as they are they still needed that spark, that push, that catalyst to rally behind and use as the wind in their sails. It is arguable and controversial to how it started, with a young man setting fire to himself in protest, and I do not dare smear the reputation of a man sacrificing his life for his fellow citizens. But we do not need matches and gas to initiate change in Bahraini society, what we need is encouragement and enough space for young citizens like the mentioned above to express themselves without fear of reprisal from their peers. These individuals will one day lead the way to a better future in Bahrain if given the chance, and this chance is not demanded exclusively from the government but mostly from society itself. We cannot expect to look to the person sitting beside us to rise up first, instead you and I should stand up and voice our concerns to our beloved society, because it is, in my opinion, the only way which shows our patriotism and love for our country. Remember that out of all the conspirators against Julius Caesar, Brutus was the only one who participated in this act out of love to Rome (although he went on to regret his actions before he committed suicide).
I hang my hope on these Catalysts, these Underlings to rise and be recognized. (we all need you)
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