Kings of the Stone Age
Jun. 26th, 2005 04:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
i_kenderHmm... there's a great blog I read to keep up to date on current happenings in Bahrain (Mahmood's Den http://www.mahmood.tv). I like Mahmood, he's a businessman and father in Bahrain and often writes about things whiich anger him about the country and the lag-laden process of dragging it into the correct century. He encourages comment and discussion on his blog, and also tries to get all the local bloggers in touch, and to spread the word about blogging in general. And he's very funny too.
So he pointed me in the direction of this article in the Guardian (Bahraini bloggers fall foul of government http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1491474,00.html) ... apparently three guys (webmasters of Bahrain Online) have been arrested for 'inciting hatred against the government' or some spurious bullshit charge like that. And they're just the webmasters... apparently the 'offensive articles' were in the forums. They could face ten years in prison.
The government are also trying to come up with laws to control or restrict the use of Bluetooth, incredibly popular in Bahrain (presumably for flirting... and pranksters too, come to think of it). And they've just passed a law requiring bloggers to register with the Ministry of Information, which is one of the government offices. Sounds Orwellian, don't it? It should. They're in charge of censorship, among other unsavoury things.
Mahmood has responded by putting this at the top of his site:
"I'm NOT registering this site with the Bahraini government because: Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which the Bahraini Government has COMMITTED to sign says: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
Right on.
Huh. You know, guys, you can't really call it a democracy without freedom of expression. Bahrain makes me so angry. It's come a long way in the last ten years, don't get me wrong. Since the massive riots of the mid-90's when the distant sound of gas cannisters exploding became a regular backdrop to an evening. We've lost an old ruler, and got a new one. We (bizarrely) changed from a State to a Kingdom. There's been economic growth and development, an increase in democratic expression, the disbanding of the chilling Secret Police and their torture squads prowling the nights in jeeps bristling with automatic guns.
But it is not a democracy. It has some measures of democracy. That is not nearly the same thing. And the ones holding back change and development are the fat cat oil baron kings and their cronies, and the tyrannical barely-educated bumpkin religious preachers. Oil and brimstone, that's what the shackles around Bahrain are made from. Save us from the evil done in the name of gods and money, and give us our freedom.
And my parents wonder why I don't want to go back.
So he pointed me in the direction of this article in the Guardian (Bahraini bloggers fall foul of government http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1491474,00.html) ... apparently three guys (webmasters of Bahrain Online) have been arrested for 'inciting hatred against the government' or some spurious bullshit charge like that. And they're just the webmasters... apparently the 'offensive articles' were in the forums. They could face ten years in prison.
The government are also trying to come up with laws to control or restrict the use of Bluetooth, incredibly popular in Bahrain (presumably for flirting... and pranksters too, come to think of it). And they've just passed a law requiring bloggers to register with the Ministry of Information, which is one of the government offices. Sounds Orwellian, don't it? It should. They're in charge of censorship, among other unsavoury things.
Mahmood has responded by putting this at the top of his site:
"I'm NOT registering this site with the Bahraini government because: Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which the Bahraini Government has COMMITTED to sign says: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
Right on.
Huh. You know, guys, you can't really call it a democracy without freedom of expression. Bahrain makes me so angry. It's come a long way in the last ten years, don't get me wrong. Since the massive riots of the mid-90's when the distant sound of gas cannisters exploding became a regular backdrop to an evening. We've lost an old ruler, and got a new one. We (bizarrely) changed from a State to a Kingdom. There's been economic growth and development, an increase in democratic expression, the disbanding of the chilling Secret Police and their torture squads prowling the nights in jeeps bristling with automatic guns.
But it is not a democracy. It has some measures of democracy. That is not nearly the same thing. And the ones holding back change and development are the fat cat oil baron kings and their cronies, and the tyrannical barely-educated bumpkin religious preachers. Oil and brimstone, that's what the shackles around Bahrain are made from. Save us from the evil done in the name of gods and money, and give us our freedom.
And my parents wonder why I don't want to go back.
