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Just Bahraini: No one’s a stranger in Bahrain (podcast+transcript)
By hisham
_Listen to podcast:
_ [audio:lfdpc1.mp3]
Transcript:
While research suggests that people are connected to one another within six degrees of separation worldwide, one of the charms of a small island country like ours is that everyone on it seems to be connected within a degree or two at the most.
Such closeness of relation in large cities or countries provides for happy coincedences, perhaps even serendipitous encounters. Yet in Bahrain finding out that for instance a certain stranger in a restaurant happens to be a friend of a friend does not call for celebration. It’s just the way things are. It’s part and parcel of our social fabric that has eliminated the need to mix and match happenstance with fate.
This has its pros and cons. On the one hand, everyone can identify with one another and appreciate where they’re coming from. On the other hand, you would think twice before flipping a bird at a tailgater.
On a more political note, one is to laugh in the face of feeble attempts by certain diseased elements of society that try to undermine and create a rift between Bahrainis. Such attempts are futile considering both the diversity and closeness of the country’s populace. A closeness that leverages for progress any dialogue that might occur as a result of political, religious or ethnic diversities. Note that I don’t say differences, since diversities as a word more aptly captures the beneficial aspects to society brought about as a result of different people arguing and debating.
While seedy individuals would love to turn that arguing into a political weapon to implement their crazed self-righteous vision of everyone being the same and basically have them subservient to pseudo-democratic, “shutmouth” politics, they forget one thing: no one’s a stranger in Bahrain. Which could only mean that our age-old channels of understanding and communication cannot be hampered as long as we appreciate this fact.
The Bandargate scandal could not have been more timely. Without it, who knows if the calls for fair political play would have been heeded before the elections. At least now the whistle has been blown, and if we’re to learn anything, our little garden of diversity needs a bit of weeding out.
It’s a small world they say. But it’s a ridiculously small island we Bahrainis live in. It would be truly sad if we forget that we, our parents and the ones before them have all toiled in the soil of this land. That each one of us has done his bit to make this little rock home. To make it a country in the purest sense of the word. A country that is its people as much as it is its place on a map. A country that’s right here, in our hearts, more than anywhere else. And no one can deny us Bahrainis the right to belong together no matter what our religious, political or ethnic affiliations are. For let us remember that in diversity we prosper and in unity we prevail against all odds.