Bahrain: Humanity lost among sectarian divide.

On Facebook, a pic of a man on fire was displayed with the caption that he was a Shiia that caught himself alight while setting some tires on fire. The comments under it were a litany of disgusting and very telling opinions about how Sunnis and Shiia see each other during these days of blood shed. Most of the comments were along the lines of  he deserved what he got for being a protester/terrorist despite the fact that he was dying a most horrible death. My reply was this:

This man may have been "the enemy" or a Shiia before he set himself on fire and thus might possibly warrant every mean spirited comment left here, but the moment he set himself on fire is the moment all of that hatred should have been dropped and the humanity of this man allowed to shine through. At the end of the day Sunnis and Shiia must see each other as first human beings, then Arabs, then Bahrainis, and lastly (if you must) as Sunni and Shiia before any thought of peace can come to Bahrain. If a man on fire dying a horrible death cannot let you drop the hatred even for a moment and have a second of empathy for him then where is the future of Bahrain headed? Not towards peace that is for sure because each side sees the other as less than human...even during the last moments of an agonizing death. There is no peace to be had in that depth of hatred. 

So Much For Freedom of the Press

If anyone cares to they can check out todays Gulf Daily News...it has the very same letter I posted below...I sent it to them...however they have cut much of it out...the really angry parts. Sort of leaves my letter just sounding whiny and mediocre...not really what I was going for. When I called my contact at the GDN she said they have to edit to keep the govt happy...and I thought there was freedom of the press...just the other day Les Horton was talking about his daughter hearing him "fart" and seeing him "pee" ...sort of a shocker for the GDN I thought but was actually happy thinking they would have no problem putting my full letter than...no such luck...apparently reading about farting and peeing is not as shocking as reading about a culture that keeps girls from being physical in public for fear of giving the male population hard-ons...now whose in charge of what gets printed anyway....George you need to grow a bit of a back bone if you want the GDN to be something to be proud of...right now its hardly more than a rag for what the Indian population are up to...with a few token pieces on helping the poor labour force or who salamed who among Bahrains "elite"...pardon me while I yawn. How about you guys go to those elite while they are busying salaming each other and congratulating each other for a another new car purchase....some land bought(stolen) from some unlucky fool that happened to own land that was soon to be very valuable because of the land shortage in Bahrain...or attended some conference or another that affected nothing but the amount of bullshit that gets spouted on a daily basis by those same elite....and let them hand out some salams and backslaps to the poor labour force that never gets either....just a thought.