I Am Who I Am Now, More Than I Were Before!

Things are about to change, and for the better my dear readers. This is a special occasion that in this post, and after such a long time of no writing, i come back to the world and gladly announce that I have found the gem where my soul resides. I have found my heavenly sent blessing. I have found at last my heart in the bottom of a crystal clear ocean.

I have been meaning to write this post a week or more ago, but I do apologize for the delay (I got my Princess to take care of). Regardless, I wish to declare my love to the one person whose birthday is tonight. But come to think of it, it's not her birthday, it's actually my life's birthday, since on this day and up until today God has weaved my life and hers to join up and meet in this beautiful place. So, yes, this is OUR birthday and I wish to celebrate it with all the world up in highest clouds where dreams meet reality and you cannot make out the difference. I guess you are just waiting to meet this one person in God's Earth that have made my eyes light up with a glow of happiness. Suffice it to say that this girl has enthralled me with her beauty, mesmerized me with her charm, spellbound me with her unending love, and most of all, made me realize just how blessed I am to have her.

On this day, this girl was born, and in my book i was meant to meet her and get my soul entwined with hers, so now that our life lines are joined up just like two roads meet and become a highway of dreams. Loving her was easy, being impressed by her came naturally to me, enjoying her quick wits reached me effortlessly, and so I am who I am more than I were when I'm around her. She was not the princess of my dreams, but she was much more than that, simply because I do not have such an imagination that can think of her before meeting her.

So now that you have read this litany of my love to her I can honestly tell you that I wish Shakespeare have come up with a thousand more words to add just to scratch the surface of my feelings towards her. Yet I believe my eyes tell of a hundred thousand happy dreams that have come to reality and out to the world. They say that someday love will find you, and I say to them it found me at last.

 I wish you princess the happiest of birthdays, for remember this is my birthday too... The birth of my heavenly dream!

To my fiance...

The Most Secret Smile

Heaven opened up through the corner
of her mouth. Holding back the smile that
would let loose all the angels. The sound of water
rushing down. The sound of her laughter, an amazing grace.

But still that smile could stop time, stop the water rushing,
and would make the music dissapear and be her. If her smile
can bs smelt, it would be the smell of a thousand roses.

Roses in black is what she is wearing with a crown of stars.
Stars would leap out of her smile, and burn the image in the eye
of my mind. I'm a captive, prisoner, nay slave to a look,
a single look. That bid me "fare thee well O dreamer O lunatic".

Smile O rose, and let the angels rush and pray for my lunatic soul.

Young Power

Recently I have realized that I wasn’t the only one here in Bahrain to have shifted jobs for three times. Actually it came to my attention that many young adults recently have been changing work for quite some time now. Maybe it was the environment I live in where almost 50% of people I interact with work in the BDF or the Ministry of Interior. Regardless, this fact is not a bad thing if you look at it from a certain angle, but it can be considered bad when people switch jobs because of unhealthy work environments. I am not prepared to talk about my experience in this post, but I will be talking more in general terms.

Unemployment in Bahrain is not a thing to joke about, regardless what the official figures show. I take this fact simply looking at the amount of people who have volunteered in schools and health services recently. It shows that many young people who already have their degrees are stuck at home jobless because there is a lack of opportunities that would fit their credentials or even come close to that matter. Of course I am a great believer in the power of the private sector’s potential to drive this country forward, but it seems that the private sector is lacking the drive that would eventually allow it to expand and compete with major regional powers like Dubai. Blaming the government is what you would normally hear from the other side of the argument, yet it seems that local business leaders have little interest in the Bahraini market or in developing it properly. So we see more efforts from the EDB in promoting Bahrain to foreign investment, and that in all honesty is like moving mountains, since it is useless to convince foreign investors to choose the unstable Bahrain to the more business friendly Dubai. This little opinion of mine regarding the economic environment here is basically going to affect the job market here and in turn will affect the average income of Bahrainis.

Coming back to my post’s theme, I am certain that many people who will read this will look back and think that they are not happy about their job or their work environment but that there is little or no choice other than sitting helplessly at home regretting a stable income. What would happen naturally is that all this energy that young people have will eventually be lost rather than be invested properly. It saddens me whenever I learn of a young Bahraini that moved to Dubai or Qatar to look for a job instead of settling here in Bahrain and benefitting from what this person’s energy can provide even in the short run, let alone those who give up altogether on the public sector and move to the old and stagnated public sector. This has many reasons to it in my humble opinion. I think that Bahrainis get along very well in work places regardless of their ethnic or heritage background, but it is a different matter when expatriates come into the equation. I do not wish to pinpoint expatriates as the main reason for putting down the Bahraini job seekers, but I think you would agree that some expatriates do look and act like mercenaries that are very territorial in regards to making money. Yet I have noticed a great many of them who have developed very patriotic love to this little island nation. Also there seems to be some lack of faith in the Bahraini worker that will force employers to look elsewhere for more productive workforce. This is a cultural norm here in Bahrain, because only a few generations ago did people actually realize that you would need to work hard to provide for your family. So a major campaign of awareness should be taken into consideration by both the government and the private sector in informing future job seekers that the time of economic socialism is over and taking it easy is no more a way of life.

There are other more economical and social reasons behind why people would move between jobs or seek them elsewhere and I could go on for volumes if I would want to research into it, but the fact remains that unless direct measures are taken then we would eventually see a lack of growth in a country that is desperate for it. Plus we would see more fertile ground for extreme ideals to take root in the minds of those who have the energy to act.

Bahraini Transformers

It’s not too strange to see that people you knew in the past have changed, for better or worse. It’s become a simple fact of life. Yet there are also those who remain as steadfast in the face of time. I’m not in the process of judging which is wrong or right here, I’m just observing how events erode characters. Or better yet, do events erode masks and show the faces behind?

It amuses me how I see people around me change, not that it’s a bad thing, but how easily they do. Changing ideas, ideals, and principals is not an easy feat in my humble opinion, so how about changing characteristics for example? So the question still remains, what does change people? I have seen in my life people change with positions for example, like when a simple employee that seems to be friendly turns into a power hungry, all controlling superior, but that has become normal I believe. I have also seen people change the way they see other people after a major experience like an accident or quick wealth, yet my real question is how can hundreds, not thousands change in such a short time? This is what I have noticed in my tiny country Bahrain. The mass transformation of thousands of individuals.

I have to admit that the events that took place in Bahrain in 2011 will bring change to any who have lived through them, for better or worse. Some have developed political awareness; some have grown a hatred for all that are different; some discovered a patriotic nationalistic sense, etc. so now the logical next question would be, how would Bahrain be shaped by its ever transforming people? No one can deny that we somehow miss the old Bahrain, and that bringing it back is going to be as successful as bringing a dead person to life. I also believe that dwelling in the nostalgia of old Bahrain is not very productive. The only way available is always forward, but forward does mean more change, and that is something for the future to decide.

I do believe that we as Bahrainis have been naïve for long, I also believe that some form of consciousness of the outside world is always a positive thing. Developing racial divides is never a good thing, nor does religious confrontations. But how about those who never changed? Will they eventually change or will they be swallowed up by the tide? Or will they feel like strangers surrounded by familiar faces? The future is not ours to decide, and we shouldn’t be vain in thinking that we can control it.

The Cupcake Society

Everyone can see that during the last year or so Bahrain have had so many cupcake shops that you might think they are mushrooms that spring out after a heavy rain. Of course this new, and abused idea, is exclusively one that is associated with Bahraini women and girls. It seems that most girls are experts in photography, fashion design and art. Not that it's a bad thing, its just a bit overdoing it when all of a sudden they become experts in those fields. Before I get scratched to death by hundreds of girls, I have to say that this post is NOT about girls interest these days. This post is rather about how our Bahraini society has taken the shape of those yummy cupcakes, and how as delicious as it seems, it is not a healthy society if you think more about it.

Imagine holding a cupcake, or better yet, get a cupcake in your hand while you read this post, but do resist the urge to eat it until the end. The basic shape of this cupcake is basically a lovely designed top, filled with the sweetest ingredients, and a plain sweet bottom. What attracts you most? The top. What part tastes the best? The top. For one I personally enjoy only the top part and tend to discard with the bottom part, simply because it's not as tasty as the top part. Now imagine Bahraini society as having the same shape, same substance and same structure. It's only the top part of society that is attractive, luxurious and all round delicious. But what about the rest? Just like the bottom of the cupcake, it's hidden, plain and sometimes discarded. Yet if you think about it, the bottom part is the one holding the top part up to be seen. By the rest of the world. Not very fair for the bottom part of the cupcake, or society for that matter.

Bahrain as a society have transformed several times during the last century, these changes have not all been bad or have been good as well. But nevertheless it is only the recent changes that have provided the "top" with more sugar and more glamour to be sprinkled on. And all the time the "bottom" looks on as the top becomes prettier and tastier than it can ever be. This wasted, hidden part can have such great potential as to achieve greater heights for all the cupcake, if only it had a fair shot. It doesn't mean that it will trade places with the top part, just a chance at being as sweet and beautiful as its top brother. The fear is that the top is now too vain to allow for any to take its place or to have a chance at showing its potential for fear of being discarded and left uneaten. This fear have transformed into less chances for anyone to achieve or for anyone to improve his or her position in the cupcake system. This stifling of creativity and youth can have grave consequences if society does not try and fight this cupcake mentality and introduce more opportunity to any who is willing to roll up his sleeves to think and work. Just remember that if the dinosaurs started thinking they wouldn't be museum exhibitions.

Now imagine if the cupcake you are holding is all sweet and pretty just as the top. Wouldn't that be amazing? It's impossible but very nice to imagine. But what can be achieved is to take a spreading knife and spread all this yummy cream all over the cupcake so that you can equally enjoy it all, without thriving any leftovers or any waste, except the paper wrap that was standing in the way of enjoying the rest of the cupcake. It would definitely not be a cupcake anymore, and be more like a chocolate bar that is lovely all over, from start to end. That would be a better choice than the cupcake you are holding right now, the one you will eat and enjoy but think differently of from now on. Did I just make you feel like eating something sweet? Yeah me two.

Learning from Beauty

The Arabian Peninsula is known for something that is more valuable than its rich oil fields, more elegant than its noblest lady, more sensitive than the delicate butterflies and a lot smarter than many who call themselves decent human beings. It’s the Arabian horse. This famous creature have captivated all who lay their eyes upon it and cast an eternal spell that will keep them bound to it. If we should look more and appreciate it we can learn quite a lot of how a simple beast of burden turned into an obsession of millions.

The graceful Arabian horse strides elegantly in between its ugly cousins. It raises its head always even when in battle, announcing to all that it is here and it would never bow down to any other. Its eyes scream with the most wondrous poetry that can sooth even the most savage beasts all while declaring its superior pedigree. Its strong bone structure and amazing endurance warns of those that will take beauty as a sign of weakness. Its sensitive nature is kin only to the most eloquent of poets that rise over the average sensitivity of human beings. Yet we seem to not notice that we can learn quite a lot from this creature, and this happens when ignorance is a state of mind not a statistic on a table.

Something to be noticed about the modern Arab is the lack of desire to learn and the inability to adapt rather than copy our western opposites. This fact has left us from being the center of the universe at one period of history into sadly a rock that orbits a bright sun. At first it was because of too much pride and the foolish sense of superiority, and then it developed into a feeling of despair and a dreadful inferiority. Yet we can still pick up the paces and shine again to become the lighthouse that once attracted the eyes of all of those that are beyond our borders. Just like the old myth of the phoenix that rose again from the ashes we can reclaim our rightful throne. It needs education, development and more importantly an open eye and mind.

The Arabian horse is but one treasure that we seem to have ignored in the pursuit of copying those who we believe to be superior to us in order to become superior like them. There are many other gems of our Islamic civilization that sadly have become objects to hide out of shame. As George Orwell famously says “He who controls the present controls the past. He who controls the past controls the future” can only be the way forward if we are looking for a brighter future for our future generations. If I’m wrong then I’m open for debate, because what I see is definitely is not right.

A Nation Divided

A picture, that’s all what I needed to force my hand to start typing this post. A picture on a website that was supposedly showing how thousands of so called “revolutionaries” are protesting in their cars. What it really showed was just a simple traffic jam on one of the roads to Manama. This is of course a blatant lie but what is sad about it that people willingly believed it as an actual fact. It’s been seven months since the start of the protests here in Bahrain, and the story is still to be continued. Only question is until when?

The Arab Spring came and turned to an Arab Winter and still we see Libya is still on hold until they catch or kill Gaddafi, Syria loses its sons daily and Yemen is looking more and more like the old Yemen of the civil war era. But what about Bahrain. You see if you really understand Bahrain then you would realize that there was never a spring, it was only a continuation of something that never ended. People who understand Bahrain know that there are three types of people; people who do not want the status quo and are constantly looking for a change in their direction, then there are those who are more than happy with the status quo, and then there are those who are just trying to live. And those of the last category are what matter the most. The term “Arab Spring” actually comes from the “Springtime of Nations” that was referring to the liberal movements of nineteenth century Europe. So can you explain to me again why the radical liberal governments of both Tunisia and Egypt were toppled?! Okay so it’s a movement towards more democracy, this I can totally relate to. But what if this democracy brings in radical elements of socialists or any other extremist elements? Makes you think doesn’t it?

I was debating with a lawyer a while back about how corruption, profiteering and backwardness didn’t help our government, but in having this debate we were actually believing that there is always a better way, and this is what constructive thinking is all about. We did not refer at all to the so called “revolutionaries” simply because we knew that willingly or unwillingly those that are against the establishment have divided this nation, and you should only look up the map towards Iraq to see how dividing a nation into Shiaa and Sunni would result into. Just like a separated couple, the children are the ones who bear the consequences.

On a final note, I do apologize for my rusty writing; I do also apologize for disappearing from this blog.