Bahrain and the Popcorn Revolution:

Bahrain and the Popcorn Revolution:

We Are Bahraini...

This is a letter that a mom of Janie's friends wrote to Sky News...I am posting it because all over facebook and the internet we see the side of the Shia, but rarely do we see the other side...just trying to be fair and balanced...

The True Bahrain - Repost for all those who missed it. Please share and send to all friends, family, media.

by We Are Bahrain on Saturday, February 19, 2011 at 3:46pm

Dear Sky News

I am currently living in Bahrain. I have lived here for thirty years. I am a British born naturalised Bahraini. I am a businesswoman and a mother of two.

I have been watching your coverage of the current situation in Bahrain with increasing dismay. It is not the whole truth. You are not talking to any of the Bahraini's who do NOT support the rioters. At this very minute, our streets are packed with thousands of peaceful Bahrainis loyal to the King and the Government who are marching throught the streets to make it clear to the world we are happy with our leadership. It is being broadcast on Bahrain TV, on Al Jazeera News, so why are SKY NEWS ignoring this?

Your Headines even as I write this are talking about "Anger in Bahrain', well yes there is anger, but not just anger from the illegal rioters. There is even more anger from true Bahraini's who are sick of external forces trying to interfere in our affairs.

Look at history, read Bahrain's Consitution, talk to Bahrainis and expats alike who live here in total harmony . I realise telling the truth may not be as sensational or provide such graphic headlines, but your handling of this is unfair and will only serve to jeopordise all the progress Bahrain has made since our King voluntarily brought about democratic and social reforms ten years ago. His Majesty had a clear vision for his country. Other Arab leaders who questioned his wisdom at that time now find themselves wishing they had emulated him. Bahrain is not Libya, Yemen, Tunisia or Egypt.

We live in the most free, open, liberal country in the Middle East, we have free education, and healthcare for all, women have equal rights under the law and there are jobs for everyone who REALLY wants to work. There are free Training Programmes, free business set up and development advice and grants, and press freedom that you will not witness elsewhere.

The rioters have lots of rights under our laws, they hold senior positions in lots of government posts, they hold 18 out of 40 seats in parliament and much more.
Drive through any of the shia villages either today or over the last four decades and you will find pictures not of Bahrain's leaders but of political and religious leaders of another country in this region. What does that tell you? Despite all of this blatent disloyalty to Bahrain, (some would call it treason) our government continues to do everything it can to meet their demands . Unlike Britain, where David Cameron recently admitted that 'multiculturalism had failed', Bahrain is a shining beacon to the world that multiculturalism can and does work.

It has worked here for decades. In Bahrain muslims, jews, hindus, christians, buddhists all enjoy religious freedom and we all live in harmony. Why? Because in Bahrain we recognise that abiding by the law and showing mutual respect for your fellow citizen comes before anything else. We are all "Bahrainis" before we are muslims, jews, hindus, christians, or buddhists and that is why multiculturalism works here in Bahrain. Of course multiculturism can only work where citizens respect the laws of Bahrain and love the country in which they reside. Therein you have the answer to why we have illegal rioters .

Many, many of Bahrain's wealthiest businessmen and women are Shia, why are they not amongst the rioters on the streets? Why do you not talk to some of them? I have many shia friends who are as equally appalled as I am at this current situation.

Why does your Reporter in Bahrain show only coverage of the injured rioters in hospital? Why not also the injured police? You showed pictures of weapons confiscated from the rioters, but you did not reveal that was where they came from. You have allowed your viewers to assume they were weapons used by police against the rioters. Manipulative reporting which does you no credit.

No one is more heartbroken than our King, that violence has been involved and that blood has been shed on the streets of our beloved Kingdom. His Majesty has been incredibly patient, some would say too patient, he has freed political prisoners and convicted criminals many times over in the hope that his forgiveness and generosity of spirit would serve as an example and would allow these people another chance to live a fruitful life and offer them the opportunity to tread the path of their fellow Bahrainis, showing loyalty and respect to their King and country.

All Bahrainis love their King, whether sunnis, shia, jews, christians. This love is the glue that holds our society together and will continue to do so even in our darkest hour.

Please listen to both sides, please report both sides truthfully, fairly and professionally. It is what we expect from SKY NEWS.

These rioters have every right under our laws to air their grievances and pursue their demands by legal, peaceful means.

Please read our Consitution and you will see what I mean.

Finally, to the instigators of this turmoil. For decades, you have failed to achieve the destruction of our country. You will continue to fail, because the people of Bahrain will continue to stand unstintingly behind their Leadership.

Hate destroys. Love conquers all.

Sincerely

Betsy B Mathieson

Don't Worry....We're Fine!

Greetings from BAHRAIN! 

To our friends and family at home...we are fine!  We woke up today to a phone call from our security guy here in the country telling John not to send the girls to school today.  It seems as though last night the riot police, in an attempt to prevent another Tahrir Square, used force on the protesters killing 3 and wounding 50 or more.  Obviously this is not the ideal situation for the country, but we are not alarmed...yet. 

Just like in any small town in America, rumors fly around here with exaggerations and inflated numbers.  The entire country is 34 miles long by 11 miles wide.  Not very big...and the latest census puts the population at 1.2 million.  We do currently have a security guy, who works for CPChem in Saudi, on the ground checking things out.  I am so thankful that he has been in country for the last three or four days.  Sometimes living in Bahrain away from the main group of families that are in Saudi can make you feel isolated...it can also sometimes feel like we are forgotten over here.  BUT, without Mark checking things out and reporting via text and phone we would have no idea what areas to avoid, if it is safe in general, if we should send our kids to school....Again, I am so very thankful and he has been invaluable...and it makes me feel a little less "forgotten."  HA!

I have gotten numerous emails and texts from friends and family wondering why we aren't scared or why we aren't coming home.  Since we moved here six months ago we have had so many demonstration notices I can't even count them all!  The Bahrainis like to demonstrate about everything.  There were numerous demonstrations leading up to the elections in October, there have been demonstrations calling for the release of 25 detainees accused of terrorism, there are demonstrations for everything.  Not that they don't have a right or reason to demonstrate, but we have just accepted them as part of our life here.  The U.S. Embassy does a good job of notifying Americans when and where the demonstrations will be and we steer clear of the areas.  Most of the demonstrations are held in areas we don't frequent and most are peaceful.

The protesters are not anti-American protests...they are protests against the government of Bahrain.  They want a new constitution, they want better paying jobs, better housing...and the list goes on.  Not that they don't have a right to protest, but compared to Egypt and Tunisia where all this started, Bahrainis have it pretty good.  The Bahrain GDP is four times Tunisias and SEVEN times Egypt's GDP.  In Bahrain they are afforded the right to demonstrate, they have some religious freedom, they have a parliament elected by the people, etc.  Relative to other Arab countries they have it pretty good here...but it is easy for me, as an American, to sit back and say that they have it pretty good...I might think differently if I was a poor Arab living in Bahrain.

You will probably also hear on the news that the protests here are not sectarian, but from what I have been able to read and hear from numerous sources, it is still sectarian.  How could it not be?  The Sunnis are the ruling party and they are only about 30% of the Bahraini citizenship...the rest are Shia.  I am obviously simplifying the plight of the Shia, but they are angry that they don't have representation in the goverment, aren't given government jobs, and have bad housing.  Basically it is an US against THEM situation...and I think it always will be.  To add to the unrest, Iran likes to stir the pot of discord here in Bahrain as well as other Arab countries. 

So to all our friends and family...we are fine.  We live very close to the Saudi Causeway and we are a good ways away from the vicinity of the big protests.  We are not going out any time soon and John is here with us until Sunday morning.  We are not scared...the girls are happy to have a THIRD day off of school (two for protests and one for the prophet's birthday) and they are sleeping soundly...as I suspect they will be doing ALL DAY.  The biggest disappointment will be that the Madeline's Valentine's Dance will be cancelled.  John is watching television and I am getting ready to go and take a nap.  There are men working on our tile in the backyard and we have plenty of rations to last us a few days (he he).  Just know that we would never keep our children in harm's way.  My warning is that you don't believe everything you see on television...I have seen some of the footage and they make it sound and look much worse than it is....

See you all in 4 1/2 months!

Insights on Revolution

Our pastor, Graeme Dunkley, has resigned from our church effective this summer and John and I are just sick about it.  We absolutely love him and we love his preaching style as well as his dry wit and humor!  We were so excited to find a preacher that we loved so quickly after moving here....so now we are left wondering, "What is UP, God?!?!?"  I know that he has great things planned for the Dunkley family as well as Saar Fellowship.

The following article is from our pastor's website...Graeme has such a great way of breaking it down that I couldn't have said it any better...so I stole it...

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Why the Egypt Revolution succeeded and the Bahrain one won't 02/14/2011 1 Comment   Why do some revolutions work and other don't? Here's a few reasons why real change in Bahrain is unlikely. Egypt is full of Egyptians, Bahrain is full of foreigners. Expatriates now outnumber Bahrainis. Expats don't care about the government as long as someone keeps signing their paychecks. Bahrains just don't have the numbers to revolt. The Egyptian army is full of Egyptians, the Bahraini army is full of foreigners. Strange as it may seem, the Bahraini army is 80-90% foreigners, and the police probably even higher. One reason the Egyptian revolution worked is because their army was reluctant to fire on their own people, and the junior officers had a lot of sympathy for the protestors. None of that is true here. Many in the police and military don't even speak Arabic, and have no compunction about about firing on citizens. There's no Tahrir Square in Bahrain. Bahrain has no focal point for public demonstrations, no place for crowds to gather. There may have been tens of thousands of people protesting yesterday, but they were doing it in isolated groups outside their villages. There was no 'strength in numbers'. And because there were no big crowds, there was nothing newsworthy. Nobody knows where Bahrain is. Most people in the West have heard of Egypt, some might even have been there on holidays, but nobody cares about Bahrain. As long as it doesn't causes trouble, the West is blissfully ignorant. And so, although lots of people went outside yesterday, and lots of police were busy, and lots of people got beaten and tear-gassed, nothing has changed.

January Update...

It just realized that it has been since Christmas since I posted last!  Time seems to be flying by in Bahrain!  Which is a good thing because we will be home to visit before we know it!

Ali went home in January to visit friends and go back to Aggieland.  *sigh*  It took me a couple of weeks to recover and pull myself out of the funk that I was in when she left.

January proved to be a month of illness.  It started with Madeline being sick the first week and continued with me being sick the second week and I THOUGHT concluded with Madeline being sick again, more severely, the third week.  BUT, no, Janie has been sick for about the entire first week of February.  Ugh.  My children have been sick more in the last five months than in their entire lives!  Every time there is a bug going around the school my children seem to catch it.  I was told to expect that the first year that we are living overseas, but I just thought that my children had a superior immune system so I wasn't worried...HA!  Turns out....they don't!  One morning I had to go and pick Madeline up from school because she was so sick she could barely move....thank goodness the nurses aid had the forethought to hand me a puke bag on my way out of the school as Madeline didn't even clear the school's hedges before she was puking.   Janie and I stood there and laughed because, well, isn't it always funny to see someone puke?  HAHAH!  We went straight to the International Hospital where the girls pediatrician is located....and after seeing how weak Madeline was she decided to keep her in the hospital for a while and hydrate her!  OH MAN!  You should have seen how quickly Madeline "recovered!"  It was almost comical.  The pediatrician, who is a total pushover, agreed to JUST give her a shot and run some tests to make sure it was just viral and let her go home with me.  But Dr. Mona is the most awesome pediatrician...she calls me at night to make sure that the girls are doing well and also to give me test results.  It is amazing how fast the hospital gives test results here!  In America we would sometimes have to wait longer than 24 hours...here it is never more than 25 minutes (for basic results, obviously)!

January also proved to be the month of villa improvements from hell.  We were told that they were going to be removing and re-tiling all of the villas.  The time frame from start to finish was two weeks.  Now...I have lived in the Middle East long enough to know that two weeks is very often NOT going to take two weeks...it might be more like four weeks...Inshallah (God willing).  January 3rd they began bright and early taking a jackhammer to every single 12" tile in our yard, around our pool, on our side patio, and on our front steps...everywhere.  It took them approximately one week to remove all the tile...with the jackhammer....then came the week it took for a worker with a hammer and chip away all the tile on the walls and columns.  Week three....nothing.  Week four....nothing.  At the beginning of week five I heard the workers outside again only to look out and see that they were starting to remove the tile from the villa across from ours.  I ran in to that neighbor at the mall the next day and she told me that they threatened to move out if the work wasn't done in two weeks like promised.  So for the entire fifth week the workers were removing tile from their house.  I called our property manager to complain and he assured me that work would be started....a few days went by and nothing....so I called our awesome realtor, Philip, to ask if we could threaten to move or at the very least withhold rent payment.  Philip called the property manager and they property manager promptly called me to apologize...again.  He assured me that work would be started THAT DAY...which was Saturday.  Sunday rolls around and I return home around 2:15 from bible study and lunch to find them TILING THE NEIGHBORS BACK YARD.  Many of you who have seen me flash know that it can be pretty ugly...BUT, fortunately I had just come from bible study, so I said a little prayer and called the property manager....let's just say I am not sure that I necessarily glorified God with my words, but I didn't do him any harm....I hope.  The conversation was a bit heated as I have been nice and polite for FIVE weeks...he assured me AGAIN that work would start on my villa ASAP.  Our watchman then came over to explain the delay only to get an earful of very angry "frustrations" from me.  I gave them one day to start work or we were moving out.  They workers were here bright and early Monday morning starting on the tiling.



Before

 

During

 

After...but not completed...



   

  

For the most part, the villas have been very good about meeting any needs and making any repairs we have requested....with, of course, the exception of my dishwasher that took 5 months to get.   In all of those five months all I every did was politely request the dishwasher once a week.  Five months of polite requests....five months....  I finally asked that John call and take care of it...he did....aaaand nothing.  A week later I finally decided to call the property manager myself and politely ask that they hook my dishwasher up ASAP...it was done THAT DAY. 



Our new long awaited dishwasher



Unfortunately all the workers in the villas are scared of me now....which I think is a bit unfair as I have been polite and patient for five months!  Apparently even in the Middle East the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

The girls are back to being busy again.  Both Janie and Maddie were playing varsity volleyball, but Madeline has decided that she wants to play middle school basketball with her friends instead....so I will be shuttling back and forth between basketball and volleyball practice...they can never be at the same times as the school isn't big enough to accommodate more than one or two different practices at a time.  Ugh. 

The varsity volleyball played their first Island League game last Wednesday against the British School of Bahrain....and while their school beats ours in aesthetics with their campus they couldn't hold a candle to our girls volleyball.  It was downright embarrassing.  I think it lasted 30 minutes and they won 25-3 and 25-6...They have their second game against St. Christopher's today...I think it will be much the same as the last match. 

Janie still loves it here.  She has completely immersed herself in Bahrani culture.  She has a great group of friends and she is rarely home...just like in the States!  Madeline still likes it here too, but she misses her friends a bit more...she has a great group of friends and does stuff with them, but really likes to be home with us on the weekends for the most part.  Both of them have an awesome group of friends from around the world.  They are the ONLY two who haven't lived overseas before...they have friends from the Seychelles, Egypt, Jordan, Japan, Korea, Italy, Palestine, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, America, Canada, Denmark, Bahrain, and the list goes on.  I love my girls because they don't care where you are from or what color your skin is...they judge people simply by WHO they are and not what race they belong to...

We had planned to go to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Oman for spring break with the girls and Janie's best friend, Allie, but we are kind of waiting to see if John can go with us.  Right now he is extremely busy at work and it doesn't look like he will be able to go.  I think we are going to go without him, but that really stinks because he loves to travel and he is really our comic relief.  They are working on his area of responsibility at work right now and they have so little manpower that he is having to stay in Saudi rather than come home on the weekends just to get his work done.  Duty calls.  He really loves his job so he doesn't complain...but of course that doesn't stop ME from complaining...he he....

We are looking forward to our trip home this summer.  I have a list of things we have to shop for when we get home and I cannot wait!  I think we will be home the last week of June or the first couple days of July.  Janie is planning on flying to the Seychelles with her best friend, Allie, to visit Allie's family.  John and I are having a hard time dealing with her flying all over the world by herself at 17...Ugh...we even thought of taking a family vacation to the Seychelles at the same time so that we would be "with" her in the same country....Janie wasn't really too fond of that idea....LOL!  So it is undecided whether we will be coming home to Houston via the Seychelles or not....

We cannot wait to see everyone!  We are also excited to be leaving the desert in the hottest months of the year....and this year we will be missing Ramadan!  Thank the Lord!