Scots in Bahrain for St.Andrew's

Thanksgiving in Saudi -- ironically, as Thursday is the start of the Saudi weekend, taking off Thursday is what we do every week, so Thanksgiving is by definition a holiday. We had long ago planned to attend the St.Andrew's Scottish Gala with colleagues -- 8 teacher-couples all told from our school and Cole's school booked hotel rooms in Bahrain for Thursday night. We drove over to Bahrain mid-day, went to (fancy) beauty parlor and (Pakistani) barber shop, then got our hotel minivans to drive us out to the party, on a remote British compound. Very Scottish, indeed...lots of kilts, including the UK ambassador who spoke of his Scottish roots. After speeches and a surprisingly good dinner, a ceilidh band played and all danced for several hours. What great fun...and the hotel van took us home. The next day was easy with some shopping on the way back to Saudi.
We were a bit hesitant about Bahrain, as news of demonstrations is troubling. We saw several police cars, but no overwhelming presence, nor any military troops. Also, the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry just announced its findings on Thursday. The government press noted the independence of the commission and the eagerness of the King to act on their findings of some problems in the police, with excessive force in the previous months. The opposition -- foreign, as internal opposition is muted -- notes the admission that government used excessive force and torture during its crackdown on the spring demonstrations. It seems that the Commission report will result in a few reforms, and will quiet a few people; but the Commission dealt only with the police response to demonstrations, and not to the root cause of those demonstrations. So those remain to fester. We are sorry to see such a clean, bright place as Bahrain so troubled.
On the way back home, we visited some colleagues recently moved to Bahrain -- a lovely house with a nice lifestyle...we could appreciate life there!
One notable difference: Saudi roadsides are strewn with litter. Bahrain is clean.

Comments

Riding the Bus often

From 201010 Saudi scenes It is ironic that this land of cheap gasoline has so much group transport -- buses. From 201010 Saudi scenes Our housing compound has a Toyota-Coaster bus that takes some to/from school (we usually go earlier and return later, on a similar bus that the school provides). Driver Yahya takes residents on the 90-minute trip down to the Big City shopping every Thursday morning. The above picture shows our group one Thursday, usually going to Ikea or the new Lulu's Hypermarket , or the Dhahran Mall. Coleman rides a different bus every day to and from school -- usually 100 minutes there, 80 minutes back. His bus is evidently an old tourist bus, usually comfortable but a bit dusty. The air-conditioning usually works too well. I've ridden it with him several times, to attend business meetings at the district office. From 201010 Saudi scenes There he is, at 5:45am every morning, at the start of the bus run. Fortunately only about 20 stu...

EUA: tanto estrago em tão pouco tempo

As part of my effort to learn about Portugal, both the country and the language, I'm subscribing to the centrist newspaper, O Publico . There are plenty of newspapers: conservative tabloids, and socialist and communist-sponsored daily papers; I find O Publico to be most sober, with consistently interesting columnists and opinion pieces, in addition to some local (Porto) news, with just enough sporting news to keep me chatting with the taxi driver. Today's opinion piece sums up, I think, European pundits' view of the U.S. government. As the title puts it: so much damage in so little time. I shudder at the rank incompetence and corrupt behavior, demonstrating a cynical attitude toward public service, showing indeed that the cruelty is the point. What scandal, what damage will be the tipping point to collapse this government? And what will it take to recover from the damage? Who will be able to trust the US government again, ever? Only ni...

Yikes! Russian Chocolate!

The other day we chanced upon a Slavic grocery store. We went inside, marveled at all the products from various eastern european countries, from Czechia to Poland to Yugoslavia to Russia to Kazakhstan. I grabbed a chocolate bar... and now I realize that it's Russian, imported via Germany. The ingredients list is written in Russian, Kyrgyz, and Uzbek; and a separate ingredients sticker pasted over it in German. No Portuguese or Spanish or English. Hmm. How did it get here? And what sort of sanctions are imposed on Russian confectioners? The chocolate itself is just okay, nothing special.

Thomas journals

Search This Blog