Baby Steps

I have to apologize for not posting for quite a while now, but I’m back and let’s leave it at that.

For the past three months Bahrainis have gone from watching the news to making the news, and I do not see it as necessarily a bad issue. In fact if you pose an optimistic point of view you would try to find out the good in all of that. I would like to call what has happened as a wake up call to us Bahrainis who have so comfortably kept our heads under the bed sheets or have lived all of their lives ignoring those around us. In terms of social change we can already see a more active and aware society, yet it’s still lacking.

One of the issues I have with Bahraini society is that there was little or no action taken by individuals or groups. I mean that apart from established charity or political societies there is hardly any groups or individuals that take upon themselves to act in the hope of making Bahrain a better place. I remember that I have been to “Think Pink” charity dinner once and I was struck by the lack of Bahrainis in that charity dinner, and that the ones who were there were sadly just using it as either a place to hook up girls or because their boss was attending. Why is it that a society, and by that I mean the old Islamic state one, that was once famous for having established the basis for social cooperation is now a fading shadow of that. The funny thing is that when this society was much less wealthier it was much more socially conscious. This basic idea of social consciousness is what is needed in order to take those small but steady steps into having a society to be proud of being into. Why do we have to let the expats take those first steps for social cooperation? We lack neither the money nor the education to make our own society a better one.

We cannot expect government to take our hands for every single step; we need to be ahead of government in this aspect, and it doesn’t have to be more of the traditional charity organizations. We can have hundreds of different and innovative ideas that would target a sector of society or more. We see many new ideas coming into the world and we could use them and tailor them to fit our own moral and religious values. Also we have a UN representation office here in Bahrain just like everywhere, we can approach them and as them for guidance since they have so much experience. It is so easy to do yet people are reluctant and look to others to start any initiative before participating. This form of wrong thinking needs to be eliminated from our culture, and replaced with a more social conscious one instead.

There are so many needy sectors here in Bahrain as it is around the world, and the key to start is to take a look, listen carefully and choose which idea you support the most. Them all you need to do is to take some individual steps towards clearing all the government red tape that is required. The most important thing to do is not to look for others to join you from the beginning, but start as an individual and work from there, and believe me that others would eventually join in. another thing to keep in mind is to have your heart in the right place when taking this kind of venture.