A Bahraini F1F, the Bahrain GP and how we see it..
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Very glad to hear another side of the story; I think we all just hope for a peaceful outcome, we are not involved in the politics but the less bloodshed and violence the better.
Out of interest, LAK, are you a Sunni or a Shiite?
Thanks for posting LAK! I was a bit worried that we hadn’t heard from you through any of the recent events, so I’m relieved to hear that you’re well. I hope for you and your fellow countrymen that your situation continues to improve rapidly in the coming days.
Oh Wow! I’m beyond touched with all your comments!! Can’t thank you enough, whether you agree with me or not – thank you! It was one of the hardest things to write because with all the press we recently got, you’d probably think I’m not saying the truth. I really spoke from my heart and to think that I’ve managed to change some of your beliefs is such a relief, God I feel like celebrating! Being in Bahrain in this current situation and listening to how the world sees us is suffocating! I cannot describe it any other way, and you all have allowed me to breathe again and see that the world is not all bad. The world can see who we really are!! Our reputation cannot go down in a day, it simply cannot..
Ok sorry for my emotional rant LOL but I cannot help it (and if you want the truth.. you did manage to jerk a few tears out of me lol they’re happy ones.. This is the true feeling of freedom, I feel I’ve won the media’s propaganda, I do feel liberated in some sense and it’s due to your support – so thank you again! LAK +1 CNN, BBC, Sky 0 haha! Ok I need to calm down lol
@damonsmedley Oh you don’t have apologize at all, as I said I’m not asking for an apology, I simply do not blame you and understand that that’s what you see on TV! On TV the only scenes you see are of fighting, it looks like a warzone! But in Bahrain people are going about their daily lives I just came back from a shopping mall and it was bustling with ppl. If I didn’t know what happened I wouldn’t have guessed something was wrong in the country. There just was a huge rally of people all supporting our Prime Minister HH Prince Khalifa Al-Khalifa and he was there himself down in the streets shaking the people’s hands! If Bahrain wasn’t safe believe me he wouldn’t be in public! Wow thank you for trusting my single voice to be the other side!
@BenH Thank you for your heartfelt words, and I’m a 100% confident that the Bahrain GP will be back. And whenever it is back, it’ll be because the Bahraini people want it back not the people above, not even Bernie..
@NedFlanders Thank you for such an insightful reply. I don’t blame you, we too think that the use of force could’ve been avoided, but things are blown into huge proportions.. I cannot single handedly prove that but I know evidence will emerge and the truth will prevail. But still the loss of lives are sad no matter what..
The CP went on Bahrain TV unprepared very brave of him to step up and say yes we made a mistake, no one can deny how genuine he was
Re-Nick Kristof OMG!! I know right??!! Who would ever ever ever imagine someone as reputable as himself to not represent both sides? Why are all his tweets one sided? Beyond disappointed, just check out #nickkristofsays tags on twitter for some comic relief. Oh I just tried to search for the tags and they’re gone I guess they got deleted, they were popular here a few days ago, too bad they were hilarious to read, and sad at the same time that that’s being said about him. He should know better..
Oh and about being ‘paid’ or asked to be pro-government, they’ve accused the rally of a 100,000 ppl to be paid! I can tell you, no one paid me anything yet LOL! And to pay a 100,000 means that we wouldn’t have this problem in the first place! And calling up a 100,000 plus ppl is sure a waste of time! The people of Bahrain are so friendly, remember we are a small island and a very tight knit community, this is the true voice of the Bahraini people! We truly love our leaders and never asked something else in return for it..
@Steph dearest Steph, as I said you don’t have to apologize at all! And thank you apologizing on behalf of F1F, I feel that you all are like my F1 brothers and sisters, which is why I love the F1F community – nothing like it! <3 See @BasCB’s comment re-Nick.
@George thank you George for not jumping into conclusions even though everybody else says so! I might not been able to do the same if I was in your place, so I commend you for that!
@BasCB I agree with you, I wish they didn’t use the force in the way they have, but it has been blown into proportion as well, the army weren’t there to attack, more to protect, and they only attacked in self defense – they were attacked as well, and needed to defend. No one in their right sense of mind would intimidate the army! Yet the CP still said both sides are wrong, and withdrew the forces. One point I forgot to make is that after the withdrew the forces, as you may have seen in the news, they were allowed to freely go back, and they are still there peacefully with no forces at all! This just shows the world that our agenda was never to “kill our own ppl” lol
Of course the protestors’ demands are real, and HM the King promised that he will deliver, and that we are still moving towards change and that the path to reform is still going on..
Very good point about forgiveness, this is what we all need to do now. It’s weird but I kind of feel huge good is going to come out of this.. The Bahrainis are really stepping up to make a difference and make their voices loud and clear, and also the people are very aware that if we were to progress we need to forgive and forget and progress..
I completely agree with you, I doubt the race will happen now, but I’m sure it will eventually and when it does it will be huge!
Thank you!
@Keith I am beyond touched again that you’ve been concerned it truly means a lot!
@slr Lol I know it was long but I had to say it, that’s why I said thank you for taking the time to read it! Appreciate it :)
@Adrian J Thank you for your concern :) If the GP happens now it will mean that we have progressed, if not we’d be a work in progress and maybe have one later on, but most importantly we are out of the mess and have a mission stronger than ever to never go back..
@djdaveyp87 Aww thank you! Lol for my only sake? That’s very generous of you :D means a lot!
@xtophe Very good point! And I respect your views completely. I am not saying my view is the view of every single Bahraini, my view is the view that was not voiced by the media. There are still people who are chanting their death threats at the lulu roundabout, and they are doing so without being attacked – and that alone says we’ve made progress.
@sato113 The situation is calm in the sense that there are no more attacks. No more need to worry about more loss of lives. The CP’s promise to start National Dialogue has begun he already started to meet with all people from all political and religious parties, look at the video on the link I posted. People went to work today and resumed their daily lives. We have trust that things will be resolved. Sometimes you need to experience a bit of pain to truly know what your priorities are, and all people are feeling this and want to reconcile, yet there still is a very small group representing certain political parties that are still at the lulu roundabout.
@Ads21 Exactly Ads21, they’ve seen what’s happened in Tunisia then in Eygpt and automatically that we want the same things! Not all Arab countries are the same, each one has their own problems. Look at Libya now, very different!
Exactly, we all felt that too, and for the HRH CP to simply say “when I heard that news (referring to the last shooting that happened on the 18th) I hopped into my car, drove straight to the TV station, addressed the nation and appealed for calm” and from that literally there was calm! Very humble of him, very wise, very brave.. Everyone was touched, as Bahraini people we will remember this gesture for years.. I completely agree with you on the GP.. Having something go wrong in the GP is too detrimental and risky, knowing my country, Bahrain will not put anyone in that situation, it will either go one safely or be postponed for the best off all.. Yes it’ll cost us but that’s the least of our concerns right now, it will cost us way more if we run it and something wrong happens!
@BS Thank you even for leaving your comment blank. Shows me you’ve taken the time to read it..
I LAK, nice to hear some inside information, because at this days, big media companies don’t broadcast news. They broadcast what their administration wants them to broadcast, we can’t take them 100% serious, we must read between the lines to understand what’s really happening.
But about Bahrain, LAK, could you answer me a few questions?
– What form of government is yours? I read you where in a Constitutional Monarchy, but you have the same prime minister for 40 years? How is that possible?
– Is Bahrain really a democracy? Do you have elections? Are them really free?
– What did the protestors wanted in the first place?
And don’t misunderstand me, I’m not taking here any conclusions, but having 100.000 people in a rally pro-government is not that hard, and there’s no need to pay anyone, it’s just a matter of good brainwashing, look what happened in the fascist governments in Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal, etc. Most of them had big volunteered crowds, and none of them where paid. I’m not saying this is the case in Bahrain.
Very interesting insight on the situation. While I doubt the race will go on as planned, hopefully F1 can return later in the year once the situation is better under control.
Brilliant insight and while I always take the news with a pinch of salt, it’s reassuring to know that there is more than a glimmer of hope out there. There are always two side to a story, but it’s rarely only news worthy if you give one side attention. Pushing our western agenda in the UK and the US is all well and good…but thankfully we’re not all ignorant enough to expect our ‘values’ to be at the core of everyone else’s.
The video above reflects my feelings on the issue far better than any words can. The crux of the matter is that no matter how much support the Bahrain royal family/ government has, and no matter what course of action they take from here, people’s lives have been ended simply so the government can stop people from congregating on a roundabout. Even if this matter gets resolved tomorow and Bahrain lives happily ever after, there’s no bringing them back.
What a waste of human life
Hey LAK, very glad to hear all is so much calmer than we are hearing and most people are safe. I really do hope your country comes to a peaceful resolution soon.
I do have some questions though, firstly just to echo JCCJCC in what type of government is run in Bahrain.
Secondly here in the UK we were hearing that the internet was shut down and no media personel are allowed into Bahrain. Is this true? If so it sounds like the government know they are not so innocent after all but if what you describe is true then why would they do that? Surely its in their best interest to let the media in and see how Bahrain is actually running and get a better feel of what the Bahraini people want.
I hope this message doesnt come across rude or insensitive because thats not the intention, im just curious that all
Zahir- I reckon you might be thinking of Libya. No foreign media is allowed in Libya, and apparently they have switched the internet off too
Very sad to hear that & thanks for posting & letting many of us know the whole story.All I want to say that no one from this blog/forum wants that to happen & we all pray that things turns good for themselves & we all live in peace with the things we love most.
Be safe pearlaceous you are not along we all are with you.
I think a few things have to be put straight. I understand LAK’s concerns for his country but blaming it on the media is a little rich. It’s so happen that I am a media person and I have been deeply involved for several weeks in the Middle East situation. In Bahrein, as in Libya, Yemen, Tunisia and Egypt, my daily concern has been to have journalists on the ground reporting as accurately as possible the situation as it was developping and nothing I’ve read in various media about Bahrain was exaggerated. As the video posted by Dansus shows, the army and the police have been firing with live rounds for several days on unarmed Shiite demonstrators asking for more say in the conduct of their country, presently led by the Sunni minority.
To go back to the initial debate, F1 has nothing to do in a country where innocent people are being fired on with live bullets by the very same police that will ensure the “security” of the race a fortnight later.
@Ned: There are foreign journalists in Libya. I was talking to one of them five minutes ago. And they are trying to report the situation as accurately as possible in a situation of great danger.
@Keith. Your position on cancelling the race was very courageous and up to the point.wow.. just wow.
thanks for posting LAK.. until just then i’ve assumed things were the worse.
its really awesome that we have these forums to get information out there, that would otherwise be thwarted by the media..
hope everyone’s ok, we’re all thinking of everyone
@Movement Thank you for your wishes, I do believe we will emerge as a better Bahrain from this. Completely agree, after all we are all human beings :)
I don’t mean any disrespect Movement but the Crown Prince himself referred to himself as a Bahraini Muslim, and it’s time to end the sectarianism and stop the divide. At the end we are most importantly Bahraini citizens.
Again please don’t get me the wrong way, I just don’t want this article to be the voice of one particular sect. This is a view of a Bahraini citizen :)
@US_Peter Thank you so much for thinking about me! Means a lot, I hope so too, thank you for your sincere wishes
@JCCJCC Thank you for your understanding. Yes it is a Constitutional Monarchy. He was first appointed Prime Minister by the father of HM King Hamad, the late Amir Sh. Isa Al-Khalifa, before the latest constitution was written. He simply remained as the Prime Minister I understand many people may see this as being strange but we feel honored to have him as our PM. Serving for 40 years is a testament to his years of dedication to his work and for gaining the people’s trust.
We do have elections for the Parliament, we last had them last Oct. 2010. There are 40 elected Parliament members who are elected by the people a 100%, and then there is the Shura Council also 40 members who are appointed by the King. This page should help http://www.electionguide.org/election.php?ID=1511
This might be different to the way things are run elsewhere, but to Bahrain this only started 10 years ago! And we have come a very long way, and as the King said are continuing to improve.. The CP talks about the benefits of the past 10 years on his CNN interview. So far as a Bahraini I think the system works beautifully, the Parliament is the voice of the people.
Now about what the protestors want, I don’t want to give you any wrong answers as I don’t represent them. Plus there are many different demands being made, they want better jobs, salaries, etc.. Basically better living circumstances which is also the demand of any Bahraini citizen. Now the Sunni societies are saying that our demands are the same as yours basically, we are more similar than different.. Interesting times ahead that will only lead to a society that’s never been more closely knit both Shiites, Sunnis, and all other religions.
I know what you mean, but the people here really do not want to change the regime, even many of the protestors agree, they wet out initially to call for some reforms then matters escalated. So when they started making death threats and call for such a radical change, the whole Bahraini society was shook to the core and wanted to go out and make their voices heard that they do not want that. It’s the extreme polarized view of the protestors which caused the people to put their feet down and make their voices heard. Specially after the media coverage they got, and to say that the majority do not want that. I tried to answer you to the best of my knowledge, I hope you got some answers..
@Lord Stig Thank you for taking the time to read :) I hope so too, it might not be bad after all as it will be closer to the championship, we always had our races in the beginning of the season so it would definitely be exciting.
@AndrewTanner Thank you so much for your kind words! Yes there is a beacon of hope, thank you for understanding :)
@dansus @Ned Flanders Don’t remind me of such a terrifying sight! No one can accept this. And I’m sure this will be investigated! It is that same exact scene that caused the Crown Prince to get up head to the TV station and call for immediate calm and the withdrawal of the army. (In that video no one died, only one at the time of the CP’s CNN interview was critically ill.) I’m not defending anything but just mentioning that they were marching towards the army who took over the lulu roundabout and it became a military confined zone, and were clearly told to stay away from. They knew the dangers of what they were doing, and did it anyway. To make myself clear, I repeat they shouldn’t have been shot at! I just want to point out the danger and risk of the whole situation. I hope we heal after this, I hope we have explanations too..
@Zahir thank you for your wishes. Thank you for addressing the media issue (omg all of a sudden I feel that I’m in a press conference! Lol please know that what I wrote are all my personal opinions and I’m trying to answer the questions with the best of my knowledge. I can tell you firsthand the internet was NEVER shutdown. We were all on twitter reading news like crazy! This was a social media war, and the internet played a major role, in fact, it might have played the most important role in this. So no we had internet all along. People kept complaining that it was slow, maybe, but I had no personal problem at all..
About the media, I heard the story as well, not sure how true is it.. But in Bahrain the people have the freedom of speech, which is why the protestors chanted their death wishes and chants with their loudest voices. Secondly, I take the example of Nick Kristof who was openly taking the opposition’s side was never stopped contrary to his claims on twitter. If there were more media maybe the real picture would’ve came out better? People were just angry with him for his bias and he got hate tweets, but that’s it. He was allowed to roam as he pleased and write whatever he wants. Yesterday he even tweeted a picture of him getting a haircut at the lulu roundabout! Not sure whether to be happy that they aren’t really angry anymore if they have time to give a round of hair cuts, or be angry that the whole country is trying to heal and mend from their divide and are working hard to reconnect, reconcile, and progress, while at the lulu roundabout some were busy having a haircut..
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