Writing a short blog about our stay in Bahrain is not easy as it seems rather impossible to me to ignore the controversial opinions that are around about this small island in the Arabic Golf. I chose the title for this article exactly due to the fact that I am not in the position at all to judge and make conclusions. We have been there and kept our eyes open. We met with people and talked to them. We have been received with openness and friendliness – as it is part of the Arabic culture.
We saw the traces of the upheaval without really understanding the background. It is probably too simple to reduce it to a Sunni – Shiite conflict, to an autocracy that wants to stay in power. No simple answers: as the title says: the crow not always flies straight.
Bringing sports into the society to reduce the tremendous health perils
Wealth allows us to make our life simpler which does not necessarily mean healthier. So, the Western life style of convenient foods brought lots of health issues to the Middle East. You almost see more pizza scooters than cars in the street. It looks like a country is living on pizzas only.
Bahraini youth suffers from obesity, diabetes, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, one name it. The son of King Hamad al Khalifa Nasser is well aware that one cure for this problem is moving and eating healthy. The initiative of creating the Endurance Team Bahrain is one leg to achieve this goal. But it is meant to be only the beginning.
Since Nasser bin Hamad al Khalifa founded the Bahrain Endurance Team last year the small Island of Bahrain moved right into the focus of the triathlon sport and so did the questions around its political regime.
The attitudes towards Bahrain are controversial. One cannot forget the forcefully suppressed upheavals from 2011.
When you enter Bahrain now, as a tourist you don’t feel suppression of any kind. But police check-points are densely and wide-spread and so are fences with barbed wire. The military presence is in the air. If you walk through the Shiite areas in Manama, you still see the traces of the riots.
And if you talk to the native people, who are so open, so hospitable, then they decently will mention to you that they would like to live in a democracy like ours. Even though, they are not aware of how brittle the foundations of our democracies are and how many wars it took to get there.
My view might be biased. I spent too long a time in the Middle East to be able to draw conclusions straightforward from what I hear and read. The Shiite-Sunni* conflict has a long history in the Arabic world. It finds its purest and most radical incarnation in Iran and in the Isis. To write at this point about why this is the case and how the West contributed to this situation is impossible. But one thing should be made quite clear here, we had and still have a huge share in this conflict.
Some snap-shot facts – extremely simplified – from which you may draw your own conclusions
In Iran the Shiites are in power, in Iraq as well, in Saudia it’s the Sunnis, in Bahrain, the UAE, Oman it’s the Sunnis, Syria is ruled by Alawites who are close to the Shia branch of Islam. Pakistan is split slightly dominated by Sunni moslems. The Taliban are Sunni Moslems. In Yemen the Sunnis fight the “Shia rebels”
ISIS are Sunni moslems. The past of these countries as being former colonies and then arbitrarily divided regardless of ethnic origin and belief casts its shadow into the present time.
Due to the natural resources of the area the military presence and the power play between the super powers became everyday life in the Middle East. Huge American military bases are located around the Arabic Golf and the Straight of Hormuz to safeguard resources and our ideology, others may call it defending our culture and the core of it: the human rights. Bahrain is only one among many bases.
The play of powers is everywhere – depending on the side you find yourself your life is good or bad.
Sebastian Kienle and Jan Frodeno have been approached by Human Rights Organizations and had to argue why they are part of such a team. One could easily say, it’s because of the money. The majority of Westerners is in the Middle East because of money, also the wars the West is fighting in the Middle East are due to money. Rarely these people experienced us as having a heart beating for them and their cause. We judge, we don’t even try to connect with them and their culture.
We should have standpoints as individuals, but we should avoid to present ourselves as judges and as moralists. Especially at this moment of time where hostility in Europe towards refugees from war-shaken countries like Syria and Afghanistan has never been more pronounced since World War II. We should be careful when raising our voices and avoid to fall into the trap of anti-islamic propaganda.
Patches of modernity mingle with the long history of the country – observations of two travelers
When flying into Bahrain from Dubai you feel like in another world, from vibrations of over 200.000 volt down to 10.000 maybe the airport is still small. I spent one night in transit on my way to Dubai in 1986. Everything seems unchanged. The immigration procedures are quite laid-back. The first you feel when stepping out of the airport is the warm December sun and the soothing winds. The roads are wide and occasionally congested, but compared to Dubai it is all easy going and not stressful at all. The scooters with their fast food deliveries sneak through every niche on the road.
The skyline contrasts the Souq
The skyline of Manama is impressive but easy to overlook. Shopping malls are extensively big compared to the size (765 sqkm) and population (1.34 mio) of Bahrain. The prices for Europeans are high as the target market is the Saudi customer. Building activities appear to run on high velocity. One wants definitely to catch up with the gigantic neighbors.
The 4 to 5 story buildings at the fringes of the skyscrapers give the place a cosy touch. There we still found the small shops and the craftsmanship places run mainly by Asians (mainly Pakistani and Bangladeshi), all bachelors, which give the suburbs the lively colors. The locals complain it. They feel overrun by the Asians. Likewise appears the Souq.
When we reached the very end of the Souq we discovered the Shiite area. It turned out that it was still the month of Moharram, the first month of the Islamic Calendar.
It is a month in which the Moslem people commemorate Imam Hussain’s victory in martyrdom. Therefore we saw everywhere the black and green flags and the paintings of the Karbala, the story of sacrifice to save humanity from extinction.
A little bit hesitant in the beginning we accepted the invitation of a group of men for coffee and tea. They made us familiar with Muharram. These are the experiences that help all of us to lose our preconceptions and fear of each other. It was just great.
The Tree of Life
We drove through the desert cut through by pipelines all over, the landscape appears destroyed. No place for camels to move freely anymore. The camps of the workers are tucked in the middle of nowhere and sand, all dry and arid.
But then on the horizon of dust and bright light the famous tree becomes visible.
Since more than 300 years this tree resists all odds and ends while the settlements surrounding it have long been destroyed and covered by sand. These destructions haven’t been peaceful either, times didn’t change in this respect.
Race day – 70.3 IRONMAN Bahrain
The canceled swim saved our bad conscience and the whole morning. We had been careless, up way too long and therefore had decided not to go to the swim start. Lucky we, it got canceled (we didn’t know this until after the race). We hit the bike course just in time at a crossing in Manama with an exciting view on the cyclists, excellent point to collect footage.
Then we rushed to the Formula 1 course, a piece of beautiful modernity, where the run course and the finish line are located. The picts will tell more than all words at this point.
The old fisher shacks framed by the Manama skyline – a deep harmony of contrast wrapped in the evening sun
At the end of the day on the way to our hotel we took a break at the fishermen’s wharf. The sun was already low, shortly before sunset. Wonderful light for filming. The shacks were built of all kind of scrap, amazing. The skyline of Manama gave them an extraordinary fascinating background. And again people were so friendly inviting us to use their landing stages to have a better view on the skyline. They couldn’t believe that we were more interested in their place.
All together a spot of peaceful coexistence: people of different ethnic groups and beliefs, cats, geese and ducks sharing their meals together, guys playing volley ball in the soft evening sun… we ourselves felt so deeply relaxed and at ease, just splendid!
Next day we left for Dubai, another adventure awaiting us. Of course, there would be much more to say. Maybe the videos following can compensate for some of the things missing in this text.
*The dispute among the Sunni and the Shiite branch of Islam basically is about who is the true successor of the Prophet Muhammed. For the Sunnis prophet Muhammad’s first Caliph was his father-in-law Abu Bakr, thus the legitimate true successor of the Prophet. For the Shiites Ali, the cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad is the rightful leader of the Islamic state.
