I rushed on the news of the launch of Viva services, and boy was in for another treat.. 21MB unlimited and FREE internet connection that is one LIMITED, and TWO not free and THREE with a connection speed that drastically varies based on your location within the country.
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All through elementary school my parents imposed a very strict rule of going to bed by 8 PM; there was very little room for discussion or talk about it.. Bedtime meant bedtime back then..
8PM was when the “main news bulletin” of the day was aired, I clearly remember being dragged to bed while the TV showed people walking up to the Amir (at the time) kissing him and moving on, I don’t recall making it to the rest of the news bulletin when the real news was aired.
Little changed since then, local newscasts still start with news of “exchanged cables of good wishes” and “visitors for his majesty the King” no matter what mess the whole world is going through.
As absurd and witty as this might sound to anyone exposed to international media, it is totally acceptable by local audience. The local government exercised a monopoly on the local TV, radio and press until the early 2000 and it continues to control it closely till today under the guise of protecting national unity and making sure to minimize public dissent, the situation in the rest of the Arab world isn’t of much different with a few exceptions.
The mindset of those in charge are still stuck back in the 1970s, still believing that they can control and limit the exposure of news by blocking websites and turning a blind eye to stories that isn’t in line with the country’s political standpoint.
The latest events of Tunisia and now Egypt revealed to the world the amount of aired propaganda aimed at keeping the people subdued. I watched with astonishment how the language of the TV stations changed from calling the protesters “mobsters and hooligans” to suddenly “brave youth who are desperate for change” in a couple of days.
While AlJazeera showed millions in Tahrir Square chanting “Down with the regime” local news channels showed quite streets with normal orderly traffic, while AlJazeera showed protestors sleeping in tents determined not to leave until the president is out of the office, local news channels showed people standing in line at banks to withdraw their salaries.
It took the regime a while before it wakes up to the situation and realize that their barricade was infiltrated by International news agencies, and responded with the imprisonment and attack of the news reporters and their cameramen all the way to dropping the AlJazeera channel out of their satellite.
Our suffering doesn’t end with blocked websites, blogs, youtube clips, facebook groups and local forums, but has now extended to online trolls and propaganda websites and threatens to impose even more control on social networking sites .. boy is it fun to live in a country where the big boys fear free press!
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Image Courtesy Of: R. Motti
It’s funny that when I was trying to research “Healthcare in Bahrain” in came across a pretext that seems to be floating around more than 4 websites. It starts as follows:
The quality of healthcare in …
I watched with great excitement the events as they unfolded in Tunisia; in all honesty I had very little hope that the events will evolve and reach where it reached today. No matter how much …
إننا نعي – تماماً- وطأة المشكلة الإسكانية في البحرين، ولكننا لا نقبل بأن تحل بأسلوب ”على قد لحافك” و”حمدوا ربكم” و ” طرار ويتشرط”، فنحن دولة نفطية نملك أراضيَ شاسعة للهبات، ونصرف الملايين على مهرجانات …
Profitable in a YEAR?! Who are they fooling here?! You are talking about a company that had accumulated more than 1 billion dollars in losses in less than 5 years and you’ll turn it profitable in a year? Without pumping more money into it?!
Details of Symptoms and Recovery method used for the “iframe trojan” infection on my Wordpress blog.
A breeze of fresh air is the least I could describe the recent disclosure of Spring of Culture 2010 events in its 5th year.
It has been five year since it was launched, amidst all the …
1. January 2003 – The Bahraini Saudi Bank
نقلت صحيفة «الوسط» وغيرها من الصحف البحرينية صبيحة الجمعة 10 يناير/ كانون الثاني 2003 الآتي: «اعلن المصرف البحريني السعودي حدوث تجاوزات
فيه تم بموجبها منح تسهيلات ائتمانية لأحد عملائه …
كان حديث جل المجالس التي حضرتها خلال الإسبوع المنصرم يدور حول مهرجان صيف البحرين، امتلئت صفحات الجرائد وشمر كتاب الأعمدة عن سواعدهم للدوس في بطن هذا المهرجان و بهدلة المنظمين و المنسقين ممن عملوا على …
بسبب اللأحداث التي كانت تعصف بالبلاد ايامها، كانت بدايات عام 1995 هي اوائل ايام تعلقي بالسياسة، اذكر جيداً كم كنت متعطشاً لأخبار ما عرف بــــ (الإنتفاضة) حينها، أخبار تلك (الملاحم) التي تسطر في أزقة الديه …
We had a decent online community, and a good thing going. I used to skim BahrainBlogs before my daily round on newspapers and local forums for my local news digest.. We have just lost all of that.. Why?!
كنت من أشد المتحمسين لحملة “لا سني.. لا شيعي.. بس بحريني..” التي أطلقها محمود اليوسف في العام المنصرم، كنوع من الإحتجاج الحضاري على المهازل التي آل إليها الوضع في المنطقة بسبب الصراعات و التفرقة الطائفية …
For someone who calls himself a blogger, I admit being an embarrassment to the local blogging community! I average around one post every 2-3 weeks now (and that is only on good days, or when …
Island Blogs:
