Life without plans...

I haven't updated the blog in a while so while I am waiting for the tilers to finish for the day and leave so we can go to College Station I though I would post an update on our lives. 

We have only been in Texas for 19 days and it feels like we have been here for 19 weeks.  Seriously.  It was a whirlwind of activity when we got here because we had to get everything in the house hooked back up, buy a car for Janie, get phones, and get the girls in school all before John had to go back to Saudi.

The girls have been in school for two weeks now.  It has been an interesting transition.  I will leave it at that.  I really thought that the girls would come back to Texas and love it and want to stay, but hat has not been the case.  The girls have been ready to go back to the Middle East since we got here.  We desperately miss John.  I had been sick about the whole situation because of our limited educational choices for Janie next year.  I have been worrying and praying and praying and worrying...after a stressful couple of days regarding Janie's school we finally have a Plan A and a Plan B for next year.  I have been at peace ever since :)

Prom was a success...or so that is what she tells me.    Janie went with her friend Derek.  He is such a nice kid...we really like him!  There was something like 24 people in the limo all together.  Some ate at P.F. Changs and some ate at The Cheesecake Factory.  They felt like the group was too big to eat at one place.  Their limo broke down on the way home from prom at midnight that night.  Everyone made it home safe and sound.

As for the house....the house is starting to feel like the money pit.  We had originally planned to get tile put down in June before we came home for summer vacation so that we could come home to renovated floors.  Unfortunately we had to come home 3 months earlier than planned so we are now having to live through the renovations.  We have replaced both bathtubs in the bathrooms, we are getting our tile put down as I type this, and most of the inside of the house has been painted.  There is a bit left to do, but I will be taking my time.  The girls will be in school every day for the next six weeks so I will be dragging my projects out that long.  Since we will only be living here for a few months out of the year we aren't going to gut the house but just do enough renovations to make it livable.  We plan to sell it once Madeline graduates in four years, but then we planned to live in Bahrain for the next four years too...and that didn't happen. 

I have stopped trying to plan my life.  I figure as soon as I plan it then it will get turned upside down.  I am learning to go with the flow.  We miss our lives in Bahrain, we miss our friends, we miss our stuff that is still sitting in our villa there.  John will have to move our belongings as we are not scheduled to go back to Saudi until the end of August and the company wants us moved out of Bahrain by the end of July.  Poor John...pray for him because that is going to be a difficult task to do without me.  He only lived there on the weekends and doesn't know what stuff is ours and what is the Sheikhs.  He has no idea where things are stashed or what to send to Saudi and what to send to the States.  I know that God has different plans for our lives.  I am still looking for meaning in the recent disruption in our lives.  I still haven't found it....he he. 

Easter is coming up and the girls and I will be going to New Orleans to visit my family which we haven't seen in 10 months.  The girls are excited to see their grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, etc.  It will be a short trip as the girls only get Good Friday off.  Ali is going to come with us!  So excited!  This weekend we are going to Parent's Weekend at Texas A&M.  I am excited as I thought that because I was living in Bahrain I would be missing it, but now I get to go!  I wish John could come too, but he is back in Saudi until sometime in June.

I will be sure to post pictures of the completed renovations...if they are ever actually completed....

Come Back to Texas!

Most of you know that we were evacuated to Saudi Arabia from Bahrain by our company in March.  Last Friday the company made the unfortunate decision to close the Bahrain option to us forever.  Not only are the girls not able to go back to their school to finish the year, but they are also not going to be able to go back next year either.  The decision was devastating to our family.  The girls had a lot of friends there and they loved their life...as did I.  I cried all the way through the company meeting and when we went back to the villa to break the news to the girls there was more crying.  The company's stance is that Bahrain isn't safe right now...which is probably true, but the decision to not let us go back next year (made five months in advance of the actual date) is a monetary decision.  I understand that companies are in business to make money and it is unfortunate that this time we were caught in the crossfire.  We didn't think the company would do this to us because of our situation with Janie being a junior, but we were wrong. 

They left us some options that we weren't/aren't thrilled with...the girls could have gone to Dhahran Academy in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.  I have not heard great things about the school, but that isn't why we didn't want our children to go there.  The school is about an hour and a half away from where we live in Jubail.  That means that the girls would have to be on the road 3 or more hours a day.  The highway from Jubail to Dammam is very very unsafe.  There are so many fatal accidents on that road...I googled the road to try and find highway statistics (which is a joke...it's Saudi for goodness sakes!) and all I got were youtube videos of accidents.  Many many videos.  We had been praying about this a lot and John and I just didn't feel like that was an option for our girls at this time.  The company doesn't think that it is safe enough for our husbands to drive on the Saudi roads yet they think it is perfectly fine to have my children on those same unsafe roads for 15+ hours a week?  There are a whole host of other problems that come with the Dhahran school issue.  Everyone with a teenager knows that your life is where your friends are.  If their friends are 2 hours away...that is where they are going to want to be.  If the girls have to go to Dammam for extra curricular activities apparently the mother has to ride in the car with them and the driver.  I am unclear as to why, but that seems like a CRAZY notion.  I would be back and forth numerous times a week with them.  The driver doesn't stay in Dammam while the children are in school...he comes back to Jubail...if anything were to happen at the school or to the girls I would be over an hour away!  Women can't drive in Saudi so I would be at the mercy of a driver and the traffic.  Also, according to the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh web page if a car gets in an accident, assuming the passengers are not hurt, everyone goes to the police station (essentially jail) until fault is determined.  This is commonplace in Qatar as well.  Can you imagine 5 teenagers and a foreign national driver (not too highly thought of in Saudi) all being hauled off to the police station?  The nearest company security personnel over an hour away????  My children would be forever traumatized!  So, for now, we are in Texas.  We have taken a "temporary re-assignment" until June 30th to try and decide what to do.  It is unfortunate that most of the choices we feel like we have are NOT too family friendly.  The whole reason we chose to take the girls overseas was so that our family could be together.  Now....hmmmm....who knows.  We enrolled the girls back in Sweeny on Tuesday.  They were excited to see all of their friends again.  They really do love their friends, but they long to be back in Bahrain like we all do.

The girls and I flew in on Sunday afternoon...after 20 hours of traveling we were a little tired...although Janie DID sleep for about 16 of the 20 hours.  Alison and Susan were at the airport to meet us!  We hadn't seen Alison since she left to go back to A&M in January.  We hadn't seen Susan since August when we left!  It was nice to see them again.  John got here on Monday to help us settle in...he leaves this Thursday to go back to Saudi.  We are going to miss him desperately.  Our family won't be the same without him around on the weekends....HA!  We have been running around like crazy people trying to get the house livable again and get our errands completed before John leaves.  I have a rent car until June 30th, but Janie needed a car as well.  It is very difficult to have a teenager, used to her freedom, tied down.  We decided to buy her an inexpensive car because we know that if we decide to return to the Middle East we will need a car to drive on our visits home.  So we bought her a Nissan Altima.  It isn't the Lexus, but it's a car.  We are still paying on our Lexus as it sits in our garage in Bahrain.  Until something happens with that we won't be buying another nice car...

It feels like I haven't sat down since I have been home.  We had to get new sim cards/phones, get the internet connected, get the cable connected, buy a car, get insurance on it, enroll the girls in school, buy the girls new clothes because theirs didn't meet Sweeny dress code requirements, get new school supplies, schedule the tile to be installed, get Janie's drivers license renewed, get Janie a prom dress, buy a TV (ours are still in Bahrain), get estimates on some other home repairs that MUST be made now that we are home for 5 months, and the list goes on...

John and I woke up this morning and saw on the news that Madeline's favorite band was playing a free concert in downtown Houston for the Final Four festivities so we woke her up, got ready, and left.  While we were at the concert there were helicopters flying overhead....at first I was a bit on edge until I realized that they were just news choppers filming and not riot police getting ready to fire on protesters.....HA! 

We have had other major re-adjusting to do.  It is more difficult to be back in the States than I thought it would be...seriously.  I won't list any of the major issues we have had to face as we have to live here for a while and I don't want to burn any bridges or alienate anyone.  Some things have been very difficult to deal with and has also been very eye opening to the girls...they are now looking in to boarding schools abroad...specifically an American boarding school in a small town called Leysin at the base of the Alpine mountains in Switzerland.  It is a little over an hour from Geneva.  From January until March the students are allowed to ski on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.  It is included in their tuition.  It is difficult to get a senior in to a boarding school however.  We are still praying about the situation.  We are hoping that the company will allow the girls to board at the Bahrain School in the fall and then the issue would be taken care of...I am not holding out too much hope though, but it would be excellent.  I would live in Saudi Arabia with John and we would see them on the weekends.  I know that God is working in this situation and I have to believe that He is going to open the doors He wants us to go through...I am just praying that we recognize them and that we are in His will.

There are some good things that have come out of this situation.  We get to see Alison months earlier than planned and John and I are going to try and make a quick trip up to take her out to lunch and see her dorm room...which we haven't gotten to see yet.  We will also get to check out her new apartment that she is moving in to in August.  We haven't gotten to be a part of her college life/experience at all (except for paying for it) so we are excited to see her in her new environment.  Not being able to see Alison regularly has been the single hardest adjustment to life overseas.  I/We have missed her desperately, but we are so proud of how she has handled herself.  She is an amazing young woman!

We will continue to adjust...we will continue to pray that we make the right decisions regarding our families. 

I have to apologize to all my friends and family as I have not called one of them.  It has taken a while to get working phones and I have been crazy busy and a bit depressed about my situation.  I also wanted to spend as much time as possible with John before he has to leave on Thursday.  I will call everyone tomorrow or Monday.  I also need to apologize that I didn't get anyone presents...the company only gave us 3 hours to get our clothes and get out.  Soooooo....no Bahrain trinkets....sorry.

We aren't in Kansas anymore...

Well, we are going on Day 5 or 6 of being in Saudi....I can't really remember the day we came over....it seems like a lot longer than it is.  It's the same in Bahrain though...it feels like we have been there 7 years and not 7 months.

Things are good here in Saudi.  It is really pretty and I really like the compound.  If you don't leave the compound you might really think that you were somewhere in the Caribbean.  Our villa is right on the beach and we are right next to the recreation center.  The rec center has a two lane bowling alley, a jacuzzi, sauna, workout room, restaurant, beauty salon, library, etc.  It is very nice.  The other CPChem wives are what make the compound livable.  They are so kind and welcoming.  They really are like their own family here...that is one of the things we miss about not living on a compound in Bahrain. 



The front of our villa




The Rec Center




View from our back patio..the beach




view from back yard




The back of our villa

 We got to go to bible study in another villa yesterday.  There were quite a few couples there and the lesson was very interesting and thought provoking.  After the study we all ate and had fellowship...it was soooo needed!  It was nice to have something like that.  Shannon Richter cooked the meat and it was fabulous!  The meat was excellent as was the conversation.  Again, that is something we don't get a lot of in Bahrain...the small home group family fellowship....I do get to fellowship with other awesome women on Sundays in Bahrain when we do our Beth Moore bible study.  I miss them....

Yesterday after "church" we got a driver to take us to Khobar/Dahran to go to the mall and LuLu.  The mall was massive but poorly designed...it goes in a straight line instead of a circle that loops back around....very strange.  It is very tricky to get all your shopping done in between prayer time...the stores close during prayer times.  Yesterday the call to prayer in the afternoon/evening was at 5:50p and 7:20p...the trick is to be in a coffee shop or restaurant when it sounds so that you can still eat and drink and relax while you wait...we are not that experienced yet.  It is a little inconvenient, but not fatal.  The biggest inconvenience that I think it causes is with the poor driver.  Because we weren't experts at planning around the prayer times we were a little late getting out.  Then we raced over to LuLu to try and find a mattress pad for poor John...he cannot even bend over and put on his shoes as the bed here in the villa is horrible.  Of course we got stuck in traffic on our way there.  There were young men riding on the roofs of their cars wearing Saudi flags, little kids hanging out the windows, honking, cars stopped and celebrating in the streets, etc.  We had no idea what was going on...I am starting to think it is us...we bring demonstrations and celebrations wherever we go!  The driver didn't know what was up either.  Turns out the king decided to give the people a gazillion more dollars and raises and declared a holiday today.  I guess that is what they were celebrating!  I would be dancing in the streets too if I got another raise...that's two in a month that the king has given the people.  He is trying to prevent the kind of situation here in Saudi like we are having in Bahrain.  Anyways, LuLu was a nightmare!  There were TONS of people everywhere.  We went in and basically came right out!

The company held a meeting yesterday afternoon to give the Bahrain families and update on the situation and our possible return to Bahrain.  Basically we still don't know when we will get to go home.  The company obviously wants it to be safe to live there before they let us go home.  The girls school is supposed to start virtual schooling this Sunday with the plan that the school will re-open on Sunday, March 27th.  Pray that this is the case.  My girls and I really miss Bahrain.  We like it here, but it is like living in a hotel as none of our things are here besides the clothing we brought.  We left all of our belongings and our friends behind.  Please pray that the civil unrest dies down so that all parties can sit down at the "bargaining table" and begin to dialogue...because no matter how much the government suppresses and oppresses the opposition there is still going to be that undercurrent of resentment and divide.  The issues must still be dealt with and reforms must still be made.  Pray that God's plan (and He DOES have a plan) is carried out and those Christians that are still in country or will be soon would be used for God's glory.

This morning I ran out to town...just here in Jubail...with a driver to try and find John a mattress pad and some other things he had on the list for me to get....It was a mad dash to finish before the 11:50a prayer.  The poor driver had to deal with my scatterbrain!  He was a really nice guy from Sri Lanka...he has been in Saudi for 3 years.  He took me to Saco (kind of a hardware store), to the bookstore (to get a new iPhone USB cord because I left the 50 we already have in Bahrain), and to the grocery store.  While leaving the grocery store I was talking to John on the phone and when he found out how much the mattress pad cost he made me take it back...so the poor driver had to take me BACK to the hardware store...UFF!  It only took about an hour and a half, but it felt like a crazy mad dash!

I'm off to watch a movie and eat pizza with some of the wives....now this is the life.....:)

Evacuees...

Our beautiful view from our new livingroom...

I guess as most of you know by now we have been evacuated to Saudi Arabia by our company....*sigh*  It is absolutely beautiful here on the compound...it really does look like a beach resort somewhere in the Carribbean.  I am so thankful that our company cares enough to get us out of a dangerous situation.  And I am thankful that their compound is so gorgeous!  I need to thank whoever it was that arranged for us to get a villa at the last minute because John lives in a small two bedroom apartment...and we would have been just fine there, but we are so thankful that they were nice enough to get us a villa. 

It only took us a couple of months to fall in love with Bahrain.  We love the culture, the people, our friends, and even the food.  I have made some great friends and so have the girls.  Janie has the nicest friends and I am going to miss them coming over and hanging out and talking.  We are teaching them about SARCASM (as we are experts) and they are teaching us Arabic and their culture (by observation of course) and how to speak clearly without using too many words, etc..  I feel for them and their families because they are watching their country be torn apart...we have Saudi Arabia to evacuate to but their home is in Bahrain.

No one really knows what will happen in Bahrain...and there are no big news stories in the States about our civil unrest...and rightly so seeing as how Japan has been devastated by natural disasters and a nuclear meltdown.  I only have to look at those news stories to know that life could be soooo much worse. 

As best as I can see one of three things can happen.  Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, etc. have sent in their troops and it will either scare the opposition in to backing down and starting dialogue...hopefully with as little bloodshed as possible, OR....it will cause Iran to get more involved and they will try and intervene on the oppositions behalf...as has already been threatened.  If this happens, I suspect the U.S. (who has the Navy's 5th Fleet in Bahrain) and other E.U. countries will have to get involved as the GCC (Gulf Coast Countries) are our allies.  The last option would be that a civil war between the two sects in Bahrain will happen.  This will be the worst because I fear it will go on the longest and be the bloodiest.  I don't think you'll see big protests like you saw in the beginning of all this.  I think it will be street warfare like we started to see this week.  Gangs of thugs from both sides patroling neighborhoods and terrorizing the country.  Hopefully with the military support of the GCC the last two options won't happen. 

I ask that while you are praying for Japan and their people....just throw a little prayer in there for Bahrain and their people.  This is a sad situation for them and its more than just about it being an inconvenience or the fact that all this unrest causes the gas prices to rise in the U.S.  It is a volatile situation that affects the world in very serious ways.  So please pray.  Pray for peace in the Middle East...but especially Bahrain. 

The girls are in the middle of the second semester of the school year.  It would really stink to have to start at another school this year.  In Jubail, the school only goes up to the 10th grade so Janie would either have to home school, virtual school, or go to an International School in Dahran.  I do not want her driving over an hour to school one way on the Saudi roadways every day....I can't stand the idea that not only would she be over an hour away from me, but I cannot drive myself to get her if something were to happen as women aren't allowed to drive in Saudi.  I am praying that the unrest in Bahrain will be solved quickly so that we can get back to our lives and we won't have to make any of those decisions.  Janie actually has quite a few friends in Saudi, unfortunately they are all on the ARAMCO compound which is about an hour away.  Quite a few of the dorm kids that go to The Bahrain School are from that compound.  Hopefully she will get to go and visit some if we are here for an extended amount of time.

My family is crazy worried and this evacuation really isn't that big of a deal.  We are safe and secure....I am sure that they are baffled as to why we can't wait to go back to Bahrain.  And I know they are wondering why we haven't just flown home instead of evacuating to Saudi.  All I can say is that is that the thought of being that far away from John is excruciating to me.  I know we can do it...and we have before....but I unless there isn't another option then we want to be close to him.  I am a better person and parent when he is around.  I am a bit too lenient with the girls and he is my voice of reason...he is the balance to my check.  HA!  John loves his job...and his job is here...  I will say that the thought of going home and being near Alison again is inviting...but she has her own life and she is in college and growing up.  I miss her every day and I choke up even writing that line, but I feel like God moved us to Bahrain for a reason.  And until he makes it painfully clear that it's time to move back home....we will stay.

The compound here is incredible...there are lots of CPChem families living here....most of them have younger children.  The ladies that live here are so nice and welcoming.  I hope to get together with some of them as soon as my pity party is over....LOL! I think this is a great place to have a vacation, but I can't wait to get back to our old life...all of us in one house together with little to do tends to make for a grumpy set of women....poor John...pray for him.

A Skewed Self-Serving American Perspective of Bahrain

I have been talking to a lot of my friends lately about the whole Bahrain situation with the Shia and the Sunni.  I have even been chastising myself for taking sides...but as I sit and think about it further I realize that it isn't so much about Sunni vs. Shia in the mind of Americans, but more of the haves and the have nots.  I have been looking at the Bahraini situation with American filters....a westernized point of view.  How else CAN I look at it?  I have spent 42 years seeing things in a "western" way because I am "western." 

When you break the whole situation down the major problem they are dealing with in this country really isn't so different from the problems in America.   What people here AND in America fail to realize is that while OUR CURRENT government is doing little to help lower our own unemployment problems, the King has implemented policies to alleviate the issue.

Unemployment, especially among the young, is a long-term economic problem Bahrain struggles to address. In 2009, to help lower unemployment among Bahraini nationals, Bahrain reduced sponsorship for expatriate workers, increasing the costs of employing foreign labor. The global financial crisis caused funding for many non-oil projects to dry up and resulted in slower economic growth for Bahrain. Other challenges facing Bahrain include the slow growth of government debt as a result of a large subsidy program, the financing of large government projects, and debt restructuring, such as the bailout of state-owned Gulf Air.

What is causing the "global financial crisis" referred to above?  It would be easy to blame the housing bubble....blame Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac....but what about the non-U.S. economies that are experiencing the same housing crisis?  How does one explain that?  We could easily blame the greedy rich people on Wall Street and our politicians, and I am sure that they bear their fair share of blame, but it doesn't explain the problem in it's entirety.  Both of those answers would and could be accepted by the country...they give us someone to blame...we need someone to blame in our society.

Three of the six members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission created by the last Congress to investigate the causes of the financial crisis explain that it is not so easy to explain.  It wasn't just one thing or one entity that was at fault, but the product of 10 factors.  Only when these factors are taken together can they offer a sufficient explanation of what happened. 
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704698004576104500524998280.html

Statistics put Bahrains umemployment rate at 3.7% and Americas unemployment rate at 8.9%.  Hmmmmm....interesting statistics, no? 

So what do the protestors want?  I have been reading and reading different sources to see what they want.  In the beginning I believe the voice of the opposition had relevant concerns and wanted specific reforms to be made....now as I peruse the different media sources all I can find is that they want the King and his cabinet to resign (some of the more benign protesters) and/or they want "death to the King" (the extremists). 

In the beginning they wanted jobs, higher paying jobs, better housing, an end to sectarian discrimination, etc.  They wanted the government to provide these things.  That is where my "taking sides" kicked in...as far as I can tell.  It isn't about Shia and Sunni to me...it is about wanting to be taken care of by the government.  So looking at it through my strictly westernized eyes I get angry...just like I do when I am in America and people want something for nothing.  I guess that's just human nature, no?  I just makes me mad.  I/we have worked hard for everything we have.  We have been broke and on the verge of losing everything before, but I never once asked the government for assistance.  I didn't even get assistance from the government to pay my college tuition (because of that, it took me more than 17 years to finish).  We just worked harder...and when I didn't have a job and needed money I went and looked for a job....I took jobs that were "beneath" me in skill, wages, humility...you name it.  I needed to pay my bills and feed my children.  Did I enjoy cleaning someone elses toilets?  NO.  Did I like being the smartest one in the room but treated as though I was the dumbest?  NO.  But I did what I did to survive and make a better life for my family.

My "taking sides" in this situation has nothing to do with sectarianism...I am not prejudiced against the Shia nor am I pro-Sunni.  I am a Christian and I pray for both sides to come to a saving knowledge of Christ.  My taking sides has more to do with situational prejudices.  I often feel that if I can do it then anyone can...and I have found out the hard way that that is not the case.  THAT is the issue I forget.  I don't come from a situation where the government provides EVERY need so that is my prejudical problem them I intend on working on.  Showing grace and mercy to those that I have no empathy for because I cannot relate to them.  I will be praying for God to show me ways to pray for the country of Bahrain and for the Bahraini people. 

This situation in Bahrain reminds me of our own civil rights movement.  There is always a class of people in a society that is thought to be "less than" and here in Bahrain it appears to be the Shia.  I am not sure I will every really understand the differences and issues between the two sects, but that is because I am looking through my westernized eyes.  I come from a relatively young country that once had its roots in faith, but has now become so far removed from that we cannot comprehend a country that has roots in its faith dating back thousands of years.  I cannot look through those eyes as I don't have those eyes.  I can try to read and understand as much as possible, but I feel I will ultimately fall short.

Mostly I have come to realize that my stance is purely self-serving.  I like my life here.  I like my friends here.  I like living in Bahrain and the longer this civil unrest goes on the more likely our family will get sent home at some point.  I know it is selfish, but I want the two sides to work something out so that we can continue to live here in Bahrain.

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