Another 365 Days

Yes...another year wasted. Literally wasted. 

All 365 days gone, with no tangible achievements. 

When I look at myself in the mirror, all I see is new wrinkles, a silver lining around my forehead (won't admit it's grey hair) and excess weight. 

Great! I have been taking good care of myself, you see! 

It has been a year of turbulations and the lastest human tragedy - look at how selfish a human being can be - is truely a befitting end to a year which started with tragedies and ended with more heartbreak and suffering for millions of people. 

While the selfish me had no concerns (that's not really the truth) over the last few days, other than securing a table over-looking the dance floor for New Year's Eve, millions will usher the New Year grieving over their losses as they come face to face with the scope of the tsunamis. 

A Sri Lankan woman was quoted by the world news agencies as crying: "Why did You do this to us, God?" after the wall of water crushed her life, hope and aspirations. 

Is God really to blame for all the atrocities that man has committed?

Homeland..!!

I don't want to be ungrateful to my homeland: But who is? 

Humanity and treating people with dignity comes from within. It should be nurtured from a young age, and should be allowed to blossom in an environment where people are treated fairly and in a humane manner. 

This Utopia isn't possible everywhere because some people are infested with mental problems. 

When given a chance to flex their muscles on weaker people, they are merciless and brutal because that is the only place they can prove their strength. 

Abusing housemaids, children and wives is not uncommon in Bahrain or any of the other countries in the region where anything happening within the confines of the home should remain secret. 

Can the police tell us how many children are abused by their fathers? 

Or can they tell us how many wives are battered by their husbands? 

Or better still, can they tell us how many housemaids have been raped and impregnated by their sponsors and then bundled back to their countries on the earliest flight back home? 

No, they will not have the courage to address those serious troubling issues. 

They can't. It doesn't serve any purpose and people should turn their eyes away from anything negative which would show my Bahraini people in an unfavourable light. 

The Bahrain Centre for Human Rights' Migrant Workers Group is picking on the system by highlighting the plight of those people, some authorities have argued. 

Others have tried in the past to muzzle the Press from carrying "too much bad publicity about Bahrainis" in the paper, saying it hurt the country and the economy. 

Oh please! Give me a break. 

How can a man who has abused his housemaid hurt the economy? I will try to refrain 
myself from using four-lettered words, following the advice of a close and dear friend who told me that this site is written by a pervert! He did not know that it was me. And frankly, after what he said about not allowing his daughters to access this site, well...I just couldn't tell him it was me. Anyway, I am getting side-tracked again. 

Back to hurting the economy. Yes. Hurting the economy hurts (I am sorry if this sounds like a quote from G W BUSH), especially when the abused housemaid is denied a decent meal, a place the sleep in, time off, time for herself, time to have a bath, time to practise a religion and time to maybe, perhaps, I don't know... maybe an afternoon off. 

I wouldn't dare ask for a full day off because what if the maid decides to find a boyfriend, and God forbid, have sex. 

Oops... sorry! I did it again. What I mean here is what if the maid is allowed to wander outdoors and engages in inappropriate behaviour with a member of the opposite sex. (Is this acceptable?) 

I don't know what is more scandalous here and what hurts the sponsors more: that the maid is abusing the trust they have given her in making her a slave at home and treating her like a member of the family by rationing her meals so that she doesn't become as obese as the sponsor, his wife and children or that someone of such a low 
level could consider herself human enough to have a sexual urge? 

Could the sponsor be angry that she had refused all his improper advances and decided to make out with a street cat? 

Or perhaps the sponsor's wife is angry that the maid is getting it while she isn't? 
I don't know. I really don't. It really is scary how a sick mind thinks. 

The problem of abusing other people here is simple: There is no respect for the law. 

How do you respect a law which is not implemented equally across the board? How do you trust a system which treats people with discrimination? 

Employers know they will get away with their hideous crimes because they are above the law. Employees know they will never get justice because those who are responsible of upholding the law apply double-standards. 

As a Bahraini, it hurts me to admit this. But read my lips: this is the truth, the whole truth. 

I am not a bitter Bahraini. In fact, I think I am a better Bahraini. 

I have just had a very successful vision correction surgery. I see things a whole lot better now.