Contemplation

I have so far been successful in avoiding the horrible events that some have decided to present us during such a festive time. I have also deliberately refrained from writing about it, mainly because I refuse to jump in amongst idiots to end up with a pointless row.

However, glancing so swiftly at the newspapers and some blogs these past few days to notice the (not so) pleasant news about our (not so) safe Bahrain, a thought revisited me since it last did when I had started a “straight-forward-times” blog. Perhaps people could do with a “good news” reporter, or, quite disturbingly yet so plausibly, people could do with a “bad news” reporter. I reckon that readers wouldn’t be satisfied either way, not the Bahraini public at least.

Why? Because “good news” will be regarded as being spin-doctored and “bad news” will be regarded as being incitive. Because the majority of Bahrainis have some sort of extreme neurotic attributional bias; i.e. if its good then its because of internal factors (because of us), and if its bad then its because of external factors (because of them). The majority’s thinking is logically flawed by the lack of subjectivity, bias, historical hatred and narcissism.

I snapped out of it, and thought to myself of how pointless it would be to try and report good news (or even bad news) to the public. Its already hard to find “good things” to cover, and bad news will only be taken any way but constructively.

I started feeling some depressive mood creeping in, but then I was save by another thought, derived from my passion for linguistics and communication. “People need dialogue!!”, I so simply figured. Perhaps the public could do better with hearing what they, only so far, think is the opposite opinion.

Scrutiny is ever so unresolvable when it comes to news of events, incidents, and happenings. It is less problematic when we have dialogue. We can simply talk some more. I don’t think we’ll have a problem there, for all we do is talk.

Do you have something to say?

I’ve been spending far more time on editing, customizing and tweaking my theme compared to posting (and even responding to comment, I apologize for that).

So I had an idea, which grew out of a friend’s request to help with their wordpress theme. Since I’ve been playing around quite a bit with wordpress and PHP (its a shame not to share good things), I will be offering to edit and customize wordpress themes on request. I’m also up for setting up blogs, and publishing the material for those who aren’t too friendly with web technologies (or computers in general).

Blogging is a revolutionary medium of communication, and so, by helping those who (for any reason) didn’t get around to blogging, free expression and thought will be promoted and, more importantly, exercised.

Finally, I’m not a programming guru, however, my experience is reflected in the blog. If you’re interested, you can contact me via email (see page footer).

I’ve almost completely stopped reading newspapers, and some blogs for that matter, and instead long for the more interesting and personal conversations I have with people when we meet for coffee.

This is because I feel that the material I read in newspapers and in some blogs is somewhat dull. The reason for this is not because they are not interesting (although most aren’t quite often), but because the platform they are contained within is not engaging enough; it is just not stimulating enough.

I have a passion for the written word, make no mistake in thinking otherwise, but I can’t help but remain reserved with it in some specific situations. I, for example, love the idea of text messaging and sending emails from a fancy gadget that one keeps in their pockets, but I get quite frustrated when there’s meaning beyond the text to be conveyed, I think it is ought to be spoken and heard. It doesn’t help when one is predispositioned to think that meaning extends words all the time.

Same goes for newspaper and blog material. Although authors proudly include their names on by-lines, their stories and articles rarely show minimal authenticity. Some think that going with a picture, so as it would presumably speak a thousand words, is witty, however, they fail to relate to it in any possible way. Even some readers’ letters and blog comments lack a justified reason of existence, where readers write disgraceful plea letters and blog commentators write “hmm.. interesting.. thanks for posting..” comments without any useful input.

Sometimes I find myself without a topic that interests me to write about. What I do then is follow a rule: “when writers have nothing to write about, they should go kill themselves”. Of course, I do not follow it literally, however, the thought of a defined solution for such a problem will probably result in the writer’s defiance, and thus provide material that is most dear to the writers themselves, their biography.

Comment is free by the way. Tell me what you think of this.

On November’s bloggers gathering, a fellow blogger suggested campaigning for a blood donation rally. Obviously, we would all think that it would one of the most humane things to do; saving lives. Right?

Not very much so, well, not by everyone at least. This story reports a healthy young Jehovah’s witness, 22 years of age, gave birth to twins (a healthy boy and a healthy girl), however, she did not make it outside the operating room. It is said that she died as a result of refusing a blood transfusion. This is believed to be due to her faith (read possible explanation).

I heard a debate on the BBC (radio) world service a couple of days ago, and I was left with many ethical dilemmas.

The Jehovah’s witness reason the refusal of blood transfusion on the basis of biblical texts which mainly portray the sacredness of blood to the creator and therefore one should abstain from blood.

Such cases lead to prolonged discussions - heated, emotionally grounded, discussion - about grand theological questions of life and death, about sin and atonement, about freewill and freedom of being. I will leave such discussions to be initiated by those who are further interested (you can comment, or you can buy me coffee).

However, I will leave you with one to tickle your magnificent matter (that is your brain, by the way).

The woman, in the reported story, decided to practically take her own life. This brings the issue of one’s ownership over his or her own life. Suicide is religiously considered a sin and socially frowned upon. Also, giving informed consent (in general) is a preserved right.

If we have ownership over our lives, then suicide should not be problematic at all, and we are fully rightful to give consent (to anything). Here we are shunned by societal beliefs.

If we do not have ownership over our lives, then we are not fully rightful to give consent. However, suicide and euthanasia can be dealt with.Here we are shunned by theological beliefs.

The topic has always been a daunting one to my mind, due to the lack thereof. However, it has come up at the last bloggers meeting that I’ve attended. And, upon my return home, a few thoughts came to mind, and it only tempted me to revisit this topic once again.

“What does it mean, for you, to have a national identity?” I asked, some didn’t hear it, some kept quite, some seemed to be thinking about it, and one person honestly said that they can’t possibly find an answer to that question. I realized that I stroked an open wound, and perhaps I write now to make up for it.

Without being too academic or pedantic about the topic, I’d say that, generally, the concept of identity is an evolving on. Locally, for (a simplistic view and) example, the Bahraini people (surely) have a uniquely individual identity, an another one that encompasses a larger group (be it professional, geographic, sectarian, and so..), and a grand national Bahraini one.

I’ve also come to realize that the smaller scope sets of identity do not necessarily, if at all, add up to the wider ones, at least on a personal level. I believe, regrettably, that that is exactly why the whole nation does not feel like “one” nation. Day in, day out, we are left disjointed; floating around to freely subscribe to a floating identity that only seems to be a shared one. It is never so, though.

Not only in Bahrain, but the result of this discontinuity in what ought to be a cumulative identity is having sub-group identities being more salient (on-line, if you like) than that of the more grand (national) identity. No wonder, then, that one is unable to define what it means to be Bahraini.

I may have rubbed off some pessimism off someone, but it only seems to me that the only things that we, as a nation, share in common are life-long debt, laziness, hopelessness, and the undying thirst for Vimto in Ramadhan.

Is it not about time that we did something about our environment? Although Bahrain has a couple of organizations that are concerned with the environment, one finds the local majority completely ignorant about issues like energy conservation, recycling, global warming and climate change.

Perhaps I would be criticized for claiming the ignorance of the majority here, and so I shall take up the challenge and bet the majority to prove me wrong on this one, for I’d be glad to lose this time.

The facts do remain though. Many people still litter, and many others leave their lights on unnecessarily, think that stand-by modes are energy efficient, crank up air conditioning to freezing levels, and cannot properly spell the word “recycle” (or any positively associated word with the prefix “re-”).

During the previous bloggers meeting, and thanks to a wiseman and a star, we had achieved the “blogger’s prophecy” (which requires the common presence of three or more bloggers at any one time and place) and an epiphany was bestowed upon us.

It was to do something “cool”; to become (following eMoodian fractionalogy) half blogger, half prophet, and half tree-hugger.

Prophecies don’t lie, and thus I found myself googling environmentalism and stumbled upon my inescapable destiny. I clicked-through to GlobalCool.Org. There, I came across one of my eternal loves, whom I fell even more in love with her after reading her following quote:

“Stop completely twatting your planet, because we haven’t got anywhere else to live.“

And so, my environmentalism mini-season begins.