Sorry about the delay

I was too busy following a fellow Bahraini blogger's plight about governmental censorship and pending prosecution for his blog. However, all is well now because he succumbed to the gag order and is cooperating with the government. Read about it if you have some time. Very interesting.

On another note, I finally figured out what this picture above means. I've seen this image as a very large sticker covering the entire rear windows of cars here, and quite frankly made my ass very nervous. There's nothing quite like Arabic writing clenching a gun that makes an American like myself squirm. But, there is good news. I found out that this is a "support our Hezbollah troops" logo, much like a yellow ribbon magnet on a car back home. Albeit this is a much more violent logo. I still have to admit it's a bit unnerving still to see this driving around the country even though I know what it means. And here's my fucked up logic as to why-- you generally see this sticker on piece of shit cars as opposed to the hordes of BMWs and Mercedes here. What type of people drive shitty cars? Usually poorer, uneducated people. What type of people blow themselves up under the veil of Islam? Usually poorer, uneducated people. What type of people are much more likely to associate a westerner as a supporter of the Jews and hence against Hezbollah? Uneducated people. That's why these stickers make me nervous. Now, I'm fully aware Bahrain is, for the most part, a very safe place. There aren't roadside bombs. There aren't people blowing themselves up here. But, there are countries very close to us where this happens daily. It doesn't take much for them to get across the King Fahad causeway from Saudi to come over to Bahrain, the land of sin in the traditionalist Muslim view. I dunno, maybe I'm just being overly paranoid.

And maybe with good reason. Dad, don't read past this. And if you do, don't tell mom 'cause she will flip the fuck out. Get this--I just read in the local paper last week that we in Manama (the capital of Bahrain) are only 120km from Iran's nuclear reactor. That's what, 70 some miles? It's located right across the water from us on Iran's coast. This is where all the development of Iran's nuclear program that the world is talking about is taking place. Holy shit. Holy, holy shit. I tell you what, if the US decides to go after Iran next, and I hope to St. Mary Joseph Yousif that they don't, but if they do, I'm getting the hell out of this country. Holy shit. And what's worse? My neighborhood is primarily Persian (Iranian). That little article sure as hell made me stop and think, I assure you that. But then, one has to remember that you only live once and I'm experiencing things over here that 99% of the American population will never experience. I'm gaining extremely valuable work experience, and the cultural experience is near priceless. Josh and I venture into places that the American Embassy would have a heart attack over if they knew we went to.

Case in point, last night we went to a hotel within walking distance of our house and saw something I'm SURE 99.9% of Americans will never see. I've explained before about the hotels and the cluster of clubs and bars at each. Well, this place was no different. At first we went to a chill pool bar that apparently had just opened. The Bud was cheap, and the environment was laid back. Plus, no one was there except for two Saudis in thobes oogling the waitresses. Which, we found out later, they double as hookers. It doesn't matter how nice the establishment is in this country--I have learned that there will ALWAYS be girls for hire there. But for them to double as our wait staff is bizarre, although in hindsight it makes some of the other places we've been to make sense. I've seen it before, but didn't understand then. Anyway, since no one was really there, we had a good long conversation with the manager of the joint (who is Egyptian) and found out all kinds of cultural things about this country. It was very worthwhile. One of the things that really stood out was when he mentioned his salary. This is a third world country, one has to understand that, but this guy is college educated for hotel management, speaks multiple languages, and his salary is--get this--125 BD A MONTH. That's 331 bucks. That's it! I make well over 5 times that here! And this guy works from 8pm to 6am 6 days a week. Now, I'm sure his housing and meals are taken care of, but my housing is taken care of as well. Holy shit... And the biggest shocker? The girls (who were primarily Ethiopian) make 18 BD A MONTH!!!!!! (47 BUCKS!!!!!!!!) No fucking wonder they have to whore themselves out! It's really, really mind boggling. And imagine what kind of pay they must get in Ethiopia if they need to come here to work for 47 bucks! And, what's worse, these girls are at the mercy of their sponsor (the hotel). Generally, if you bring in expatriate workers here (workers from another country) the sponsor (employer) holds the passport of the worker, and the worker is basically an indentured servant to the sponsor. Now, that doesn't apply to Western expats like myself because they know we would never tolerate that and hence they would lose out on our talents. So western workers generally hold their passports and if they want to breach the contract and skip the country, they can (and they do). But for the poor expats--Indians, Bangladeshis, Ethiopians, Thais, Filipinos--they give up everything they have to work here in order to send money home and are basically slaves to the sponsor. Everyday in the paper you see articles about sponsors beating, burning, slapping, punching their expat housemaid, driver, etc, etc. And very rarely do the sponsors here get punished because the vast majority are Bahraini. And what's worse, even after the sponsor mistreats his employee, generally they force said worker to come up with money to pay for their passport back. It's a fucked up situation. I'm just glad to be an American here. I really feel sorry for these people. Anyway, back to the 99.9% of Americans haven't seen rant. So we leave this billiard bar and wander over to another one in the complex. Now this particular bar was set up like others I've seen here--a stage, a woman singing in Arabic, a guy playing an electronic drum set, another guy singing back-up and playing a traditional drum, and a guy on keys. Usually these 4 would be standing behind 4 to 5 Arabic "ladies" dancing--but far from nude, I assure you. What was different about this place was that there were no ladies dancing on the stage but rather a room full of Saudis, most dressed in mandresses, getting drunk and dancing in the aisles. It had to be the funniest, yet semi-disturbing thing I've seen in a while. Now mind you, we were the ONLY white guys (as usual) so we took a table in the corner and took the role of passive observers. These guys were taking the towels on their heads, wrapping them around their face like a veil, and dancing with each other like a Brittney Spears video. It was so fucking funny--it's a good thing my camera is broken, because I might have tried to covertly pull it out there and may have gotten myself into trouble;). So watching these guys dance like they were in a gay nightclub in San Francisco (except they were in thobes and towels) would make one think they were in some type of underground Muslim gay club. EXCEPT for the 20 or so blatant hookers walking around and sitting at various tables with these guys. Now I've mentioned I've seen plenty of hookers here, but most are modestly dressed by American standards and some are impossible to even tell they are hookers. But these particular hookers were next to naked (think Ohio State University oval in the spring.) The hypocrisy of the room was absolutely a mind fuck. Here was a room full of traditionally dressed Muslim men (presumably mostly Saudi) breaking all of the cardinal Islamic sins. Firstly, they were drinking which is a BIG no no for Muslims. Although I must say I've gotten used to seeing guys in mandresses drinking here in Bahrain so that's not a big deal to me--but Allah is another story:). Secondly, they were dancing like the western people whose ideals, lifestyle, and culture they seem to hate so much, and thirdly they were blatantly womanizing which is another HUGE no no in Islam. If only these guy's first, second, third, and fourth wives back in Saudi knew what these guys were doing over in Bahrain. Oh wait, they probably DO know but can't do anything about it. In Saudi women are treated just above dogs. They are not allowed to drive, vote, or even generally disagree with their husband. Western women are not allowed into Saudi, and if they somehow DO get in (for employment, etc) they have to wear the burka. Saudi is fucked up.

Anyway, sorry about the rant. It's been a few days.