Bahrain Stories

Ali’s day out

2006-05-21T14:49:00.000+03:00

Here is a tale of man’s contentment with the simple joys of life; the flip side to sad, old age.

By Rajeev Nair

Ali Hussein comes from a village in Sitra. He has an unfailing routine. Yet, unlike those who are stuck in the dreariness of “that-same-every-day,” Ali enjoys its harmony. Every day, for him, is a happy day of no surprises. That, you might think, is the blessing of old age. But no, life hasn’t been exactly a serene bed of the expecteds.
Only recently, Ali woke up one morning to a stroke that has affected his right facial muscles. He says he cannot feel the touch, and tears come pouring out of his eyes, often uncontrollably. He must live with those tears now for which he keeps a cotton pad by his left eye. He also wears dark goggles, and chews on gum more like an exercise.
Ali’s day starts at 4 am. He prays, goes to the mosque and after breakfast at 6 am is ready for another of his day out. He sets off from home in his pick-up van at 7 am. For four hours, he is on the roads, plying passengers — which is also an extra source of income for the man, who earns a pension having worked earlier with the Agriculture ministry. He has seven children — some of them work, two girls are married and the others attend school.
Ali is 51 of which some 15 years had been with the agriculture ministry, working mostly on date palms. For the last five years, he has been driving the pick-up and a taxi (which he takes out mostly on Fridays). He likes the pick-up better more so because of the spacious convenience it offers.
He says he could have rested at home “but that would make me sick.” He wants to meet people, see his land; and his only dislike are “snooty” people from some of the neighbouring countries.
His routine is pretty straight-laced: By 1.30 he is home for lunch; he then sleeps for two hours, has coffee and is out on a stroll until prayer time. After dinner, he is back for another stroll with friends until 9.30 and it is time to retire.
To sleep and wake up to another day, which would be the same as yesterday and the day before…
All he can do is to be thankful for his small blessings. So he lifts his hands to his lips, and in that vintage gesture of gratitude to Almighty, he throws it heavenward…
From man to God, the best mortals can: A thankful salute.

Portrait of an artist

2006-05-21T14:48:00.000+03:00

The aesthetics of creation is the theme of an exhibition to be organized by Bahraini artist Moosa Aldemstani at the Bahrain Arts Society from May 21

By RAJEEV NAIR

NOTHING should shake you when at work is the advice of Moosa Aldemstani, and he demonstrates it with an example from his own life.
As one who loves to do portraits, Moosa spends his weekend evenings by Bab Al Bahrain. During one of those sessions, as he was finalizing the touches on a visiting American’s picture, a mentally challenged man came up to him.
He studied Moosa for some time before turning to take a piece of paper and “sketching” the artist. He passed the scribble to Moosa, who though stunned, accepted it and kept it in his bag. That is when the man turned and emptied a coke bottle on Moosa’s head before strolling away. “I was dressed in white, wanting to go for a meeting afterwards,” says Moosa.
He however controlled his urge to react, simply sat on, and continued to draw. It was now the turn of the tourist to be surprised. “No matter what happens around you, be strong and concentrate on your work,” says Moosa. An unwavering commitment, he says, is an essential for all artists.
And that is what he had gained and nurtured ever since he decided to become an artist and joined the Bahrain Arts Society. He recalls enjoying the patronage of the Society officials. Deriving inspiration from them, he continued to paint — oil, acrylic, portraits… But the stamp of Moosa is reserved for his watercolours.
When Moosa displays his watercolour works, art lovers in Bahrain know that they can see some masterful brush strokes. That is why Moosa has showcased 41 watercolours for the exhibition, which starts on May 21. The theme is rather simple but trust Moosa when he says it is also challenging because he is actually trying to capture the beauty of God’s creations on canvas. He does that in various sections: Human beings, animals, birds, fishes, nature… This is Moosa’s tenth solo, an annual showcase at Bahrain Arts Society.
Moosa is an art teacher too and heads the art section at a primary school in Hamad Town. He also paints portraits and does not miss out on the weekend evening sessions at Bab Al Bahrain — a habit of some 20 plus years. “It is not an easy task,” says Moosa. “You must learn to concentrate on your work even when people crowd around you.”
He starts with shaping the face before proceeding to the eyes and nose. Moosa says the toughest portrait subjects are children “because they are fidgety.”
A few years back he trained in fine arts in the Philippines, at the University of the Philippines Diliman. The three-year fellowship not only helped him understand the intricacies of Oriental art, he also picked up Tagalog, a skill he sometimes uses to surprise Filipinos. For the record, Moosa also speaks Hindi.
He returns from the Philippines impressed by the artistic awareness of the people. “Unlike in the Gulf, it is not just the rich who patronize art there. Even the common people love paintings and are willing to buy them.”
Moosa says watercolours are a tough medium because there is no way you can correct the strokes. It is not unusual for Moosa to tear up paintings that are nearly completed if a stroke is made in error. Initially, he used to sketch his paintings in pencil before proceeding to use watercolour. Now, he is more confident and works straight with the colours. He works mostly during night, and summer holidays see him reach his creative peak.
Moosa is comfortable doing abstract too, elements of which are reflected in his impressionist watercolours. But as bottom lines go, this is one artist who loves to see his pictures communicate with the audience. That is possible, he believes, by picking subjects from life around him.

Life is a tale of woes for jobless in West Eker camp

2006-05-21T14:47:00.001+03:00

By Rajeev Nair

Prabhu Narayan, an Indian, has not seen his youngest son Ajith, who is now seven years old. “Every time I call home, he picks up the phone — and when I hear his voice, I feel a stab of pain running through me,” he says, seated on the floor of his room in the West Eker labour camp. He is jobless and fighting a case for pending dues.
He is one of 27 employees of a private establishment, who are facing a bleak future after being jobless and waiting for the mercy of their employers. Most of them had resigned from work but had been held back because of alleged non-payment of dues.
After many months of total penury, they see a glimmer of hope after social workers in Bahrain visited them and provided them cash allowances (which most of them summarily sent home). They also receive daily food supplies from the generous. And every supply they get is neatly documented by these men — from the name of the donor to what and how much was given.
Every one of the 20 Indians and seven Pakistanis has a bitter story to narrate, and all of them have just one dream — return home as early as possible.
Prabhu, a driver who was drawing BD110 monthly, had been working with the company since 1987. He last visited his home in Benares in 1999. Two years later he tried going home again but he says the company delayed his trip under one pretext or the other for five years, even when he requested leave because his father needed urgent medical treatment. Prabhu says he resigned but has been forced to stay back to get his dues. He had to cancel the marriage of his daughter, which was scheduled for May 10, because he is not sure when he can go home.
The camp is home to some 80 employees, and workers say they have been asked to vacate the premises too. “We pay BD3 per month as rent, and there are 5 to 6 people in every room,” says Prabhu. The facilities are far from satisfactory — leaking taps, bad sewage and a dilapidated kitchen are only some indicators of the poor living conditions that these men have to live in.
But more pertinently, they need to return home because there are more pressing concerns awaiting them. N Karuppaiah from Tamil Nadu, India, needs medical treatment. He has been diagnosed with diabetes and he shows a medical certificate from the Ministry of Health to prove it. The medical resident has certified that “he is unfit for duty and needs six weeks off.” Rajaiah from Andhra Pradesh, a painter by trade, has a big lump on his throat, which doctors said needs a surgery. He has been advised to do it in India for cost reasons. Both of them have been away from their families for many years now.
Abdul Rahman Badardin, a 51-year-old Pakistani, resigned from his job over a year back when he developed a cataract. He had done a surgery about two years back and now, his other eye too was turning dysfunctional. Yesterday, he visited American Mission Hospital, and he needs BD250 to perform the surgery.
Sher Nawab Khan from Peshawar has been working in the company for nine years and last went home three years back. “All I want is to just go to my village,” he says.
Thirty-seven-year old Prasanna Kumar, an Indian, is the only son in his family, and his ailing mother needs him by his side. Juripothla Sailu, also from Andhra Pradesh, had to postpone his daughter’s marriage. B Lingaya, from Andhra Pradesh, had to cancel his marriage twice because he was denied permission to travel.
Yesterday, Fazli Haq, assistant community welfare attaché at the Pakistan embassy, visited these men. He told Bahrain Tribune that the issue has been brought to the notice of the under-secretary of Labour, Bahrain, by the embassy. He hopes that an amicable solution will be arrived at soon.
The Migrant Workers Protection Society has been in the forefront in highlighting the plight of these workers and help — in cash and kind — is trickling in. For the 27 people, that is the only solace in their otherwise bleak existence.

Bare the soul

2006-05-21T14:47:00.000+03:00

Bahraini artist Samia Engineer’s first solo exhibition, currently on at Bahrain Arts Society, is a statement on femininity, a call to release the triumphant spirit of women from their imprisoned bodies

By Rajeev Nair

Stripped bold, the women in Samia Engineer’s exhibition in Bahrain are also a showcase of the artist’s personal courage. The profound frankness and brutal honesty of the Bahraini artist’s works could be a shocker, especially when viewed from within the lines of conformity, attributed, rightly or wrongly, to contemporary Middle Eastern art.
Devoid of flashy envelopes, Samia’s figures stand for the existential dilemma of women, the world over. “I am agonized by how the society looks at women just for their figure, for amusement, as dolls… They are not given their value and it bothers me a lot,” says Samia.
Every stark figure in the exhibition is a scream from her within, she says. The female body comes to stand for “prison” and “suppression” in her exhibition titled Concealed or Revealed, that features an eclectic selection of media from acrylic to plastic to paper and meshes.
The statement Samia makes with her exhibition is unambiguous: “Release women from their imprisoned bodies; I want people to treat women with more respect.”
Obviously, she was worried about the intense reactions her works would have elicited. “I had to crush or marginalize such thoughts and think about being adventurous,” she says.
Though it took about three months to put together the works for this exhibition, Samia has been working on her women figures for some years now. Cutting one-inch pieces of the brown paper from shopping bags (which in the Middle East have been replaced with plastic), Samia initially used to draw straight pieces. “Then I took the challenge of trying to put a whole figure to that paper piece,” recalls Samia.
She shaped her figures closer to reality, “as pieces of meat,” until it became an obsession for her. “If a day passed without drawing two or three figures, I used to feel something missing in my day. It was a great relief for me.”
But art wasn’t a cathartic journey for Samia. “I enjoy the process; I appreciate beauty in life and nature. Art, for me, is a spiritual prayer, and when I immerse in creation, I feel out of this world.”
Samia had realized early in life that she was gutsy. “Life has made me strong and I never accept defeat.” Driven by that self-knowledge, she doesn’t hesitate to call her exhibition an expression of herself. “I am telling others who I am.”
An assistant professor with University of Bahrain, Samia has long been avoiding the spotlight. In her 36 years of art education experience, she has taken part in just a handful of group or duo shows. The current solo, therefore, marks the arrival of Samia, in full bloom, to the Kingdom’s dynamic art circuit.
Art has been life, indeed, for Samia. She grew up in a creative environment with encouragement coming in from her architect uncle. Education seems to have remained one of her priorities. She has a doctorate in Art Education from the Pennsylvania State University and a Masters from Bristol University, UK. She also holds an advanced diploma in teaching and is trained in ceramic and textile printing.
Though she works in diverse media, she loves collages, which best express herself. Her media include basil flowers, photocopies of pictures, and sticks and dried leaves to recreate the childhood fancy of making dolls — the local Barbies. By resorting to different media, she also avoids the risk of being repetitive with her women figures.
Those figures, she says, are going to be her trademark. She can sense them staying with her for years to come. “It might take some years for me to shift from this creation but as I carry on, I will make them in different ways,” she says, “ all as part of growing up” as an artist. “I can’t restrict myself to a mould. I keep changing every day.”
Her initial apprehensions have been allayed after the exhibition opened to encouraging response. “Most of the people who came thought I was courageous and the women told me that I brought out what had been inside them.”
As you study Samia’s women, it suddenly daunts on you that they have no facial features and the dolls have no mouths.
That, according to Samia, has been deliberate, a symbolism that stands for the “frustration of females.”
The least she could do, as a thinking, reactive individual, was to give vent to that… through her brushstrokes.

Oh so bohemian!

2006-05-21T14:46:00.000+03:00

Rania Kamal, a Bahrain-based artist, says she has a bohemian streak that allows her to take life, and art, as it comes

By Rajeev Nair

The new palette of Rania Kamal is a whole shop. She calls it So Bo Ho and every nook, cranny and corner of the outlet has been designed — hand-crafted, actually — by Rania. Yes, even the walls, which she has painted in diverse hues… The wares on display — fashion wear, accessories, books, pens, knick-knacks — have all been chosen personally from the creators, says Rania.
The shop sort of distils the bohemian spirit of Rania. A take it easy, take it as it comes attitude towards life that reflects on her art and career too. A Palestinian brought up in the UK, Rania studied film in the US, has worked in Hollywood with Dimension, a part of the prestigious Miramax studios, and is on the verge of working as associate producer on a Hollywood flick.
So what is the lady doing in Bahrain, setting up a shop and running it in Budaiya? Well, the answer lies in the carefree spirit of Rania, who loves music, art, fashion and films, in no particular order.
The Middle East sojourn, touring the land with her television professional husband, has indeed brought out the artist in Rania. She was in Dubai and desperately seeking good works of art for her home. Unable to find the right ones, she set to work. That she was trained in art helped, and the result was a sprawling canvas which was left to dry on the floor of her home, the very day that her father flew in from the UK. He couldn’t understand why his daughter had spent a fortune on “modern art” and that is when Rania broke the news: It was her work.
The back-hand appreciation from her artistically inclined father was enough trigger to encourage Rania. That first painting, incidentally, is now in the collection of a Saudi prince.
She painted with a vengeance, perhaps making up for the lost years, and predominantly drew faces and figures. Rania is choosy about her clients as well as her exhibition venues. “My canvases are so big that exhibiting them needs a high ceiling,” she says. Rania values her paintings as if they are her children, and she wouldn’t mind giving them free to a true art lover but never to art snobs. She must be sure that her works will get the attention and care they deserve.
So Bo Ho is currently her new canvas and she has been working hard on the retail outlet, which is hardly a few months old. She created special textures for the walls, and has brought in a “bohemian” feel to the place, with a once-only collection of fashion goodies. “In fact, this place is a reflection of all that I have learnt.”
Rania continues to maintain her brush with art. She says every painting is a “joyous release” for her. But despite the feel-good quotient of the paintings, she is surprised that, of late, people have been pointing out “dark shades” to her works. “I don’t know why…”
She likes strong hues; in fact, fire is a recurring element in her works. But more importantly, she describes her art as a very “fluid, organic” process that is still “organized chaos.”
Above all, however, anything she does is a reflection of her bohemian self, one that celebrates her motto in life: “Be true to yourself and don’t be boxed by what others think.”
That, on final cut, is all about individuality.

Mamma Mia! Sironi is here

2006-05-21T14:45:00.000+03:00

In Italy, legend is that you might have to wait up to three months to dine on celebrity chef Adelio Sironi’s delicacies. He is now in Bahrain whipping up an exclusive degustation menu at Ritz-Carlton Bahrain

He is one of the most respected and renowned Italian chefs alright but ask celebrity chef Adelio Sironi to serve a “simple” spaghetti with tomato sauce, and you would hear him groan: “Mamma!”
That basic dish, according to Sironi, is the toughest in Italian cuisine. And the day you get it right, know that you have made your mark.
Sironi, 44-year-old, has many years of kitchen experience to his credit, and has worked around the world — from most of Europe to Australia and Japan. His travel plans are made on impulse, and the journeys are mostly reserved for the winter months. “I would read about a celebrity chef in some part of the world, and if I feel like working under him, I shoot him a mail.” Sironi is rarely turned down. So he globe-trots, gains experience on varied cuisine, and incorporates them into his own repertoire.
For a die-hard Italian chef, Sironi, surprisingly, is open to outside influences, those that may come “even from the moon.” Like all hearty Italians, Sironi loves good food. He took a liking to the profession, and trained at a hotel school, before hitting the road and working with an array of outlets.
Currently, he is with Bvlgari Hotels and Resorts, which prides in serving “classical Italian” cuisine. “Bvlgari seeks perfection — as in a diamond,” says Sironi. That perhaps explains the full-house that the hotel’s restaurants fetch every day. As for the huge waiting list of diners eager to be fed by him, Sironi has just a few words to say: “A miracle…” he exclaims, as he lifts his hands heaven-ward.
He says every one can cook, just as every one can sing, but only those with passion, make good chefs (and good musicians). His own asset is his never-say-die commitment to cooking, and a mind eager to learn new lessons. He is seeking fresh learning from Bahrain, and is already charmed by the “positive energy” of the people he has met here.
As celebrity chef, Sironi is much sought out by Spanish television channels. He says such exposure is important, especially because today’s customers are a savvy crowd. “They are very smart and they know exactly what to eat when dining out.”
An ambassador for Italian cuisine, Sironi says the popularity of the cuisine is not without reason. “Italian dishes appeal to any one, anywhere in the world because it is simple, healthy and tasty.” His only plea to diners is to look beyond “Italian cuisine as pizza and pasta. There is so much more out there.”
He is serving a sampling of eclectic Italian goodness at The Ritz-Carlton Bahrain Hotel & Spa’s Primavera restaurant as part of the Lifestyle event running through April 28. Created after painstaking pre-research, his menu features: Baked eggplant parmigiana with tomato basil coulis; Slow-roasted veal fillet with tuna mayonnaise sauce, Maldon Sea salt and roasted zucchini; gratinated lasagna with goose liver flavoured with vanilla oil Borlotti beans puree; lamb stew with artichoke, flavoured with fresh mint and red chilli; and cherry clafoutis with yogurt sherbet and white chocolate fundue.
Sironi says his 70-year-old mother, who is even now very active in the kitchen, is the “world’s best chef.” He learnt the ropes of cooking from her, and all he does is pass on that learning to others and share his own home-good dishes with diners.
But visit his mother and try cooking for her… Oh no, that scares the living daylights out of Sironi. The world can heap him with praises but… Sironi adds with a smile: “It is extremely, extremely difficult to impress her.”

Let’s talk

2006-05-21T14:44:00.001+03:00

Public speaking, according to Lance Miller, the 2005 World Champion of Public Speaking, is about communication — of putting across your message that also enhances the lives of the listeners

By Rajeev Nair

Lance Miller would say “cha” and at the end of the seven minutes plus of his speech, the 1,800-strong audience would chorus, “chink.” A “chink” to every “cha” and 1800 cha-chinks accompanied Lance Miller to the victory stand of the 2005 World Public Speaking Championship.
Cha-chink, the sound that accompanies the validation of parking tickets, was a metaphor Miller had drawn to convey the importance of recognizing the worth of others to eventually realize one’s self-worth. For Miller, stating that message, any message, in one short phrase has been the key to effective public speaking.
Miller is also the president of The Way to Happiness Foundation, which has distributed the world over some 66 million copies of the book, The Way to Happiness, authored by L Ron Hubbard. Ever since he won the championship title in August 2005, Miller has been addressing Toastmasters around the globe and alongside, spreading a little cheer to other people’s lives.
But is he happy? “Yes, I am a very happy person,” Miller says confidently. Yes, he also passes through unhappy moments, as any human being does, but he discovers leads to being happy from the little hand-book. “Happiness stems from the activities we do in life — it is based on how we treat others and how we are treated; it is based on the choices we make. The Way to Happiness is a simple, straightforward guide on making good choices in life.”
Miller says that contrary to public perception, he has lost at more speech contests than he won. “But I gained most where I lost,” he says. He once lost in the semi-finals after over-shooting the allotted time by one second; the next year, he was too pre-occupied with winning that almost ignored his audience. When he eventually won the championship, he realized that his victory was one driven by his competence rather than luck or another participant’s bad day. By then, winning or losing didn’t matter to Miller because every speech had become a means to deliver his message to the audience.
Miller was in Bahrain to address the Toastmasters in the Kingdom, and he returns to Los Angeles, where he lives, charmed by the people here. “Every one has been so wonderful; they have so much passion for life.”
And a passion for life, which he terms “Life Force” is the bedrock of a good speech, according to Miller. A good speech is 50 per cent Life Force — energy, enthusiasm, conviction and passion.
They are vital because public speaking is not merely about standing up in front of people — “it is to discover who you are.”
He discovered himself better through the 13 years he has been associated with Toastmasters. For one who switched over from sales, Miller says “sales is very much in line with pubic speaking in that you have to influence people and improve their lives” either way. Now, he sells happiness, if you may.
Miller says that no matter how good an orator you are, you must stay on to it. With public speaking, “if you don’t use it, you lose it,” he adds. Like all orators, he too had his stage frights, the lack of words, the tongue-tied-ness, but for him, the most difficult part was to discover what his messages were going to be. Overcoming stage fright is only a negative gain, which you can accrue fast. Positive gains in public speaking include how you craft your words and gestures and put vocal variety. You also need to channelise the fluttering butterflies in your stomach into a formation that enhances your speech’s energy level.
Miller does not look for audience approval; rather he is interested in creating a bonding with the audience that enables him to communicate his message stemming from his own life story. And his story is about a “guy in a good family with good education and good background” with many dots in life still to be connected. All he wants, through his speeches, is to encapsulate his everyday struggles in life. He speaks to audiences — treating them as individuals, addressing specific people for few vital seconds.
Miller does not try to deliver the perfect speech; he wants his speeches to be effective. A good speech, according to Miller, therefore is one where “the speaker’s attention is on the audience and the audience’s attention is on the speaker.”
It is a thoroughly involved two-way communication, where, like Miller, you can have audiences to “chink” for your every “cha.”

citytribune@gmail.com

Lance Miller’s Speaking Tips

The Three Knows:
Know your audience
Know your message
Know your room

The Three Parts of Speech
50 per cent Life Force – energy, enthusiasm, conviction, passion
30 per cent Message – your message stated in one short sentence
20 per cent Mechanics – speech structure, writing, vocal variety, gestures, props

Remember:
Public speaking is not acting: You are talking to some one
The only solution to stage fright is speaking
If you want to be a speaker, you have to speak
And the golden rule: Did your speech communicate?

Dreams to the past

2006-05-21T14:44:00.000+03:00

The past becomes a spontaneous reality at the Heritage Festival ongoing at Bahrain National Museum. From songs of yore to traditional toys, the festival captures the essence of yesteryear goodness

By Rajeev Nair

It is hard not to be charmed by the enthusiasm of these children in colorful grabs hopping to the rhythm of the folk songs they sing. One leg up, one step forward, the other leg up, one step backward, they circle around in a graceful sweep before sitting down in cue for the next row of performers to dance.
There are moments when the choreographed unison of movements gives way to a faltering step but the children simply smile and move on. It isn't the showpiece perfection that matters; it is how much they have come regain part of their own heritage – if only through a piece of dance and music.
Indeed, heritage is a throbbing reality at the Bahrain National Museum as the Heritage Festival reaches its final day on April 25. 'Let me tell you about my dream…' announces the huge hoarding that shows children bedecked in the finest of traditional attire.
It is a dream they are recapturing from adults — from people like Suad Haikay, Mariam Al Kaabi, Rabeah Bukamal and Haya Al Jowdher, all teachers, who have been painstakingly working for over a month to teach children songs and dances from their own childhood.
Haya, a teacher at the Muharraq Primary School, has taken songs on family life for training her students, two of them rocking to sleep "baby dolls" as the rest dance and sing around. "It is an old song," says Haya. She has only choreographed it with dance movements from her own vast repertoire.
Suad Haikay of Fatima Bint Al Khatib School has lent an extra touch: She has composed songs to go with childhood games (those of yore where kids got together to juggle pebbles) and also treated "old songs in a modern way." Some of the songs are sheer fun — boys and girls arguing over whose games are more joy — while others are in praise of the rulers and the land.
Over the last month, Suad has taken her students to a recording studio, and the recorded songs are played out at the venue as the kids dance to the melody. The 37 children also indulge themselves in games — of the sort that are lost to modernity. In the past, even a wheel can give children immense delight — today virtual wheels and dashing cars give half as much fun.

Sweetmeats galore
Fun can also be a sweetmeat that frail hands fry in golden ghee even as many faces look on with mouthwatering anticipation. Traditional food showcase is a highlight of the festival — and children mill around old women seated by small stows frying khanfaroush and kababs in oil. The khanfaroush is sweet, the taste of egg pronounced over sugar and flour — it is served on special occasions like to the groom on his wedding night or to men returning from a long journey; kababs are flat – they are made from dough, fried in oil. Expert hands also make the flat kuboos ragag, all lapped up hot on a windy evening.

Hands that make the cradle
Salman Ali Saleh Al Ghafas makes wooden cradles. He is 75 years old and nothing can divert his attention from work as he sits huddled by dried palm leaf trunks that are cut to size and carefully placed together to make the cradles. Oh yes, they rock too – thanks to a strategically placed wood piece by the base.
These days, wooden cradles aren't exactly popular but, then, they have found another utility – they are showpieces, which could be why Salman calls his collection "cages" instead of "cradles."
He has been making them since he was 12 years old, and he has over 100 designs exclusive to him. You can place the order today and take them home tomorrow or even visit his home in Sanabis, where he continues on his trade despite the fact that his subsequent generations have moved on to modern vocations.

Drumbeats from yore
And so it falls on young men like Khalid Mohammed, who continue on trades practised by his parents and grand parents and keep the flame of tradition alive. This young man from Muharraq makes paper drums from cement sack covers and waste tins. He also makes more professional drums out of leather at his shop in Muharraq but for now, the quickly made 'tabols' from paper and tins are fetching easy acceptance among children. Their price: 500 fils. Khalid says that tabols are particularly popular during Ramadan.
A little away, Noor Yusuf Abdullah, a middle-aged man, has more traditional toys for children. He makes coin boxes, wooden monkeys, fans and sponge crocodiles. His primary vocation, however, is making small showpiece wooden dhows. He says that the coin boxes and small wooden cradles for dolls are very popular among children.

More links to the past
There are more facets of local heritage on display: Women weaving baskets, traditional attire on sale, a range of antiques on display by the Bahrain Bazaar (how about picking up a cinema memorabilia dating back to the 80s announcing old Hindi films?), a book shop, a multimedia outlet, and then, in an exact replication of a typical household setting, old women sit by a decorated bed tending to "babies" and helping little children pleat their hair with basil stems.
The clock ticks back to several years behind here but then, as the saying goes, those with the past know the road to the future.
In the journey to tomorrow, a pit stop by past glory can be a surefire morale booster.

Fast forward to the past

2006-05-21T14:43:00.000+03:00

Recreating the aura of the past is a painstaking job. Naji Ali, a Bahraini, working at Sheikh Issa Bin Ali Al Khalifa House explains why

By Rajeev Nair

It is a must-stop list in the itinerary of tourists to Bahrain. But for many residents of Muharraq, the Sheikh Issa Bin Ali Al Khalifa House, once the royal seat of power, is more like an extended neighbourhood, which had been part and parcel of their living. The ruler’s house was once the fulcrum of their life — especially of the older generation, who might have vivid memories of the royalty at work.
The younger generation has tales for comfort — stories that are real, larger-than-life and fictional — which they hand down to friends and strangers.
For many others, the walls of the 1800 building are still a throbbing presence. They must understand the heartbeats of the past, from the only tangible remnants of yesteryears — the walls, and try to recreate the aura of old world charm.
Fifty-five-year-old Naji Ali, a Bahraini, is one such individual. He continues and keeps alive the process of restoring the “palace” which today attracts visitors from all around the world.
The ‘round-the-world’ attribute is not a cliché: And the proof is in the visitor’s book, the current one starting off with the entranced note of an Italian tourist and moving on to expressions of appreciation by visitors from Brazil; Australia (“Excellent insight into days gone by); Germany (“Very good restoration); the UK, US, India and many more from the Arab world. Seasoned architects also endorse the work as do engineers who compliment the sheer marvel of the wind towers.
One of the more striking features of the Sheikh Issa Bin Al Khalifa House is the sheer sense of cool and shade that welcomes visitors. By the wind tower, which brings in the gushes of air from all four sides, the breezy air is a pulsating presence. With wooden doors that can block rain-water, the ingenuity that has gone into the construction of the wind tower deserves a standing ovation. Who, indeed, conceived this simple convenience, which can give modern-day air-coolers a run for their money?
There is perceptible silence inside the House. It makes you pause and wonder: Years back, down these sandy walkways walked the King. The home has large courtyards, a feature that is fast disappearing from modern Arab construction. Wooden doors, with intricate carvings, open to high-walled rooms with ceilings of hand-woven mat and palm trunks.
With four specific sectors —Sheikh Quarters, Family Quarters, Servant Quarters and Guest Quarters — the home is adjacent to the Grand Mosque, its minarets visible from the inner courtyards. There are two accesses — from the north and from the east, which was traditionally for the guests.
From the majlis in the Sheikh Quarters, where the royalty held court, modern-day Muharraq springs to life. Below the ornated windows, through the wooden railings, the rulers would have watched their citizens go about their routine.
The palace follows a simple planning and architectural design. Made from coral stone, mud, gypsum, lime and date palm leaves and trunks, the palace has employed materials brought in from Iraq, India and the East Coast of Africa.
Not to be missed are the kitchen tools and utensils, still on display by the walls, blackened from soot and fire. Big cooking vessels fed large families and visitors; wooden and stone predecessors of modern mixers and grinding machines lent true culinary flavours to the food cooked.
Rajan Edacheri, who assists the manager of the house, says visitors could go from 10 to 50 and more on any given day. For BD2, indeed, the tour is a trip down history lane.
Even as visitors marvel at the durability of the one-metre thick walls of the house, Naji Ali continues his work unabated. He is involved in minor repair and renovation works. With some 30 years of masonry experience, he also gives finishing touches to the ceilings including painting the mats and turnks in various hues.
He mixes gypsum, sand and lime in water and dabs them on to a layer of gunny bag fixed to a wooden wall. The sack is to absorb the mixture. The walls normally do not have a wooden support but at this particular section of the house, it is essential to cover the modern electrical fittings. Otherwise, the source of light was lamps, which continue to adorn the home as artifacts from the past.
Naji Ali takes pride in being part of restoring a crucial element of his heritage. He says the gypsum mixture is very strong but is not used in modern day construction because the stone blocks needed for building old-style homes are very expensive.
In busy Muharraq, old and new buildings are closing in on the Sheikh Issa Bin Ali Al Khalifa House. But as heritage houses go, here comes alive a true experience of history that no text book essay can offer.

Fuelling success

2006-05-21T14:42:00.000+03:00

Understand the crux of your business, stay honest to your local sponsor, delegate responsibilities and trust your people: Living by that mantra, C.K. Menon, an Indian entrepreneur based in Qatar, today runs a business empire worth over INR 4,000 crores

By Rajeev Nair

Even as you dabble with the number of zeroes that takes to describe C.K. Menon’s net worth, the Indian businessman based in Qatar would have planned his next business venture. This time, he is coming to Bahrain, to establish a BD5 million dialysis centre that aims at lending timely and cost-effective medial support to kidney patients.
The dialysis unit will also mark the entrepreneur’s first foray into health sector. He is opening a similar unit in Dammam too, apart from polymer and pharmaceutical production facilities in Saudi Arabia, which can employ about 200 to 250 people in each unit. Construction is also ongoing in his native Kerala for an international school to be run by UK educationalists. It will derive synergy from the up-and-coming Smart City project, which is just a kilometre away from the school.
Healthcare and education are not sectors that Menon, chairman and managing director of Behzad Group of Companies, eyes for “huge profits.” That comes from his core business — trade and transport of fuel oil, and from which he will never veer away.
The recipient of the Indian president’s award for outstanding non-resident Indian this year, Menon’s biggest learning from the last 29 years of doing business in the Gulf is “to never try to con your sponsor.” Sponsors in the Middle East are not greedy, adds the 59-year-old. “My bedrock of success has been the trust I have developed with my sponsor.”
Running his business empire with some 350-core staff, Menon, however, is hesitant to invest in India, right now. After all, he has gone through a bitter phase in life, running one of the largest transport companies in Kerala. Following labour issues, he did what was unthinkable in the 70s. He gave his transport company of some 75 buses to his staff. “In four years time, all the buses were auctioned off.”
Menon, who practiced at the Kerala High Court for three years, moved to Qatar much against the wishes of his family. “My wife hid my shoes and trousers, and I landed in Mumbai in my bathroom slippers,” says Menon. In Qatar, he found a trusted sponsor and a few good friends, and with the capital raised, he hit off big time with the Behzad Group that today runs a fleet of vessels and trucks all involved in the “tricky business of fuel trade and transport.” He also manages a bakery in Qatar, which his sponsored had been running even before teaming up with Menon.
Home being where the heart is, Menon, after making his millions, decided to invest in Kerala. Some nine years back, he opened a transport company out of “sheer nostalgia.” It closed down four years later. “That was the only loss making investment in my entire business life. I lost over INR55 lakhs.”
Menon attributes it to the lack of good work ethics in the state’s workforce. “They are not afraid of losing their job — and that gives them a damn-care attitude,” he says. He would also like to see more political stability, where successive governments don’t run down on the development efforts of their predecessors only for the sake of opposing.
He takes the shifting trends in the Gulf business sector, currently, with a spirit of optimism. The nationalization moves in the labour market, he says, are “inevitable. Wouldn’t you have done it in India? At least, people in the Gulf are not envious of your success. They don’t mind if you prosper so why do you complain when they reserve jobs for their future generation?”
Menon says labour disputes and strikes that are becoming rampant in the Gulf region will soon be resolved when the “governments find a way to address the problem of local business houses going bust, as it happens so frequently now. This was not the case some ten years back. The governments are baffled about how to address the issue. It calls for tough measures, which might affect the local businessmen and that is why the governments are treading cautiously.”
A philanthropist, who donated INR25 lakh to the tsunami affected, Menon is also a director of Norka (Non-Resident Keralite Affairs)-Roots, a welfare agency for NRIs, and director of Modern Indian School, Doha. He is also the patron of Adarsh, a centre for children suffering from cerebral palsy in Kerala.
During his visit to Bahrain, Menon met Indian Ambassador Balkrishna Shetty, and offered support to the Indian Community Relief Fund. The Bahrain Keraleeya Samajam hosted a reception, chaired by president G.K. Nair, in Menon's honour at its premises on Thursday.

Are you e-ready to learn?

2006-05-21T14:41:00.000+03:00

Will traditional models of learning equip you at the Knowledge Economy workplace? No, says, Dr Helen Lange, director, MBA programme, and associate professor, Universitas 21 Global. She explains why

By Rajeev Nair

New Economy is not a cliché any more. It is the every day reality. The new drivers of global economy demand new skills and new knowledge in every sector, across the board. Naturally, to be in the vanguard of the New Economy, the executives of tomorrow must be equipped with new knowledge.
Dr Helen Lange, director, MBA programme, Universitas 21 Global, says traditional teaching methodologies fail to impart the sort of flexibility and adaptability expected of students in the modern workplace.
E-learning, especially one that hinges on the student’s will and motivation to study, thus, offers a fresh alternative. That is precisely what Universitas 21 Global, a pioneering on-line educational initiative has been advocating for the last three years.
And the strategy seems to worked well: The prestigious MBA programme of U21 Global, which sees some 18 global universities sharing resources and learning, has been recording a doubling of student strength every eight months. And the students come from all walks of life and all corners of the world — the basic requirement being a good first degree, command of the English language and three years managerial experience.
The on-line U21 “university” has become a veritable meeting place of eclectically oriented business minds — of people, who have a wealth of hands-on knowledge that they, perhaps, share in no other platform.
Here, as on-line students, their bonding in virtual classrooms breaks barriers conventionally associated with the brick and mortar classroom.
Dr Lange, who was in Bahrain to attend the Middle East e-Learning Technology Forum, says the e-learning MBA programme has fetched great response in the Middle East, India and Singapore, with Bahrain alone having over 110 students.
In a changing marketplace, where there is no “one size fits all” educational programme, the on-line teaching of U21 Global offers a distinctive advantage, says Dr Lange. This is because individual participants in the learning programme are very “outcome focused” as against the “input focus” in traditional learning.
By working in and as teams, students gain quicker responses to problem solving. The emphasis, she says, is on creating student-centred, learning-centred programmes that generate knowledge in a high-quality learning environment. “Every student is involved in the process,” she adds.
Dr Lange says U21 Global’s student body has three dimensions: An eclectic industry mix that brings in global competencies, the seniority of students and their levels of experience. U21 Global has attracted a number of senior executives maybe because many of them hesitate to return to a traditional classroom environment, says Dr Lange.
In today’s world, where students are inundated with choices and educational options, Dr Lange says the MBA is going to be relevant at any point in time. That obviously springs from the relevance of management programmes in any work environment.
The U21 Global difference lies in the students “coming up with their own solutions,” says Dr Lange. “What is more important are analytical skills, and the ability to solve complex problems while working together as a team.”
That, in essence, also sums up the demands of New Economy.

What the hack!

2006-05-21T14:40:00.000+03:00

Are you on-line? If yes, beware. Even as you read this, a pro could be hacking into system or turning it into a zombie for large-scale cyber crimes.

By Rajeev Nair

The price for callousness can be terrible. Agreed, you have “nothing” on our desktop. And your being IT-savvy extends to working on Word or Excel and surfing the Internet.
But what if your PC is one of the many computers that have hacked into, say, the White House network? What if your PC has been manipulated for use in financial crimes?
You don’t know it but your PC has been made into a “zombie” by a hacker with all the wrong intentions. And you have fallen prey to their devious ways simply because you were ignorant or complacent.
It is not just your PC being rendered a Zombie that you have to worry about, says Ahmed Aldoseri, chief consultant and CEO, Innovate (www.innv8.com). Ahmed is a certified ethical hacker and he will share his expertise through a professional workshop to be held from April 29 to May 4 at the Mercure Grand Hotel. Ahmed will help you think and act like a hacker so that you are one step ahead when it comes to securing your system.
Hacking is not irrelevant to Bahrain. Ahmed says that financial institutions in the Gulf are always a target. “Bahrain has always been a financial hub, even more so than Dubai. The number of offshore banks of which you will never hear is tremendous,” he explains. “The concern comes from the fact that we are a peaceful people by nature and we assume everything must be safe. This is reflected in the way our PCs are set up – everything is open. By nature, people don’t want to worry about their system – they don’t want to remember more passwords and they leave the connections open.”
Ahmed’s own research in Bahrain’s cyberspace reveals many unsecured connections, the problem accentuated by the broadband Internet and the wireless on-line access most users enjoy. “To gauge the number of wireless connections in Bahrain, we drive around town with a wireless detector and laptop (in what is termed ‘War Driving’). On any given strip of road, at least 50 per cent of the houses or buildings have wireless connectivity,” says Ahmed.
Add to it flagrant violations in wireless applications (Internet cafes in Bahrain offer illegal wireless access to your homes — there are some 15,000 unaccounted on-liner users in the Kingdom and Batelco is reportedly planning a competitive package to curb the menace). In fact, IT geeks can easily enjoy free Internet with a little road trip round the city thanks to wireless connectivity.
From a hacker’s point of view, unsecured access to your network is like having your backdoor open inviting the intruder for mischief.
With no regulations in place regarding cyber-crimes, the hacker can thus stand right outside your door, tap into your system, call you up and inform that he is up to his prank and there is nothing you can do about it.
Though the term hacker has that devious edge, almost bringing to mind the visual image of a hooded goon, in real life, he could be that dapper dresser right next to you in the café with a laptop. This very moment, he could be hacking into your system unabashedly.
From his insider’s perspective, Ahmed knows that systems have been hacked in Bahrain. Website defacements have occurred; networks have been brought down. And often, it has been child’s play. With his workshop, Ethical Hacking and Countermeasures, Ahmed wants to enable participants to defend their networks by learning how to attack them. A simulated lab with live systems will be set up and in the controlled environment, the participants will be taught how to hack and be “ethical hackers.”
Ahmed calls himself an “ethical hacker” — ethical because he has the permission of the organization to hack into the system; he hacks to defend a network and has only good intentions. He knows that training someone to “think like a hacker” comes with the risk of the knowledge being misused. Which is why he has a rigid screening process for the workshop and every participant is also made to sign an agreement that his knowledge will not be misused.
In today’s age of ‘Script Kiddies’ where IT-savvy youngsters download “scripts” that in turn gives them access to others’ passwords, Ahmed says, hacking has become child’s play. “I have a nephew and the things he does simply amazes. This moment he would be talking to a friend on MSN and the next, he has that guy’s password.”
These smart alecs, however, might not know that they too are being used. By downloading scripts, they might be making their own machine open to a third-party hacker who will eventually have their machines under his or her command. Zombies!
Ahmed, an IT geek with a masters in Strategic Business Information Systems from the UK, is an ardent campaigner for the cause of a cyber-law that provides a framework to address cyber crimes including hacking. He is working on a draft based on experiences from neighbouring countries and his own research.
He says it is not difficult to secure your system. And that is crucial because “every day is a risk; day in and day out, your system could be manipulated, used as a storehouse for third-party files and all those viruses, and all along you said, “there is nothing on my PC.”
Remember that “nothing” is not an excuse. At the end of the day, you can still be held accountable for a cyber-crime committed by another person.

Playing on fire

2006-05-21T14:39:00.000+03:00

Fear is an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real. So says Martin Sterling of MIB Global — UK’s pioneers in the art of fire-walking as a corporate management tool

By a CT reporter

Martin Sterling. Sterling, as in pound sterling? “It is also as in trustworthy and dependable,” says the man in black, and you know that Sterling is a man of words, the right words. He doesn’t prove you wrong.
Sterling was in Bahrain to bring in the art of walking on burning coals as a management strategy to overcome fear. As one of the founders of Management in Business (or Men in Black) Global, UK, he has joined hands with Gulf Training Solutions, an associated company of the Baisan Institute of Hospitality Management (BIHM), in popularizing this tried and tested technique in fear management in the Kingdom.
Fear is the overriding factor when it comes to walking on burning coals. But Sterling doesn’t advise you to have no fear. “One should fear because it is a signal,” he says. “The only time you do not feel fear is when you are dead. So what you should do is not be frozen by fear like rabbits caught in the headlight… You must be motivated by fear because it is a stimulus like happiness and sadness.”
Walking on burning coals is a technique he learnt during his visit to India to study Kalari, an ancient martial art. “I was also exposed to fire-walking and lying on a bed of nails but because of my martial arts experience, I looked at it in a different way. Rather than thinking of it as mystical, I understood how it was possible and it excited me.”
He took the learning to the UK and having heard of fire-walking as management exercises in the US incorporated it into MIB’s offering. He approached Fujitsu, convinced them of the exercise and lo, fire-walking was embraced by the UK’s corporate world as a motivational tool.
There are some hard facts to burning coal though: “Coal burns at 1236 degree F,” says Sterling. “To put that in perspective, aluminium melts at 1100 F, paper burns at 451 F and human flesh at 300 F.” Walking on burning coals, thus means exposing yourself to four times the burning temperature of flesh. “We have some 25 people today and they all will do this with no pain or injury whatsoever,” asserts Sterling. “At the end of it, they will realize that the only reason it looked impossible was because they believed it was impossible. It was the belief that was holding them back.”
He integrates that learning into the work place and goads people to achieve targets that people thought were impossible.
Sterling says there are three physical reasons why you can walk on burning coal: “You burn wood that breaks into carbon, which radiates heat excellently but does not conduct. It is like touching a cake in an oven at 300 degree; the cake doesn’t burn you, but the metal sides of the oven would. Second reason is the Leiden-Frost Effect, which means any moisture on your feet will evaporate taking the heat. And third, you are moving and not standing still.”
But walking on burning coals is preceded by an almost hour-long training by Sterling and his team, who make the participants realize that fear is nothing but an acronym for “False Evidence Appearing Real.”
On final count, the exercise is about “changing your beliefs because it is false beliefs that control your life, not reality.”
And conducting over 5,000 fire-walking workshops around the world, Sterling has learnt a sterling lesson: “We all have infinite potential. We are all divine jewels of the creator but so often, we get dusty. And we need to blow that dust off… with fire-walking or any other exercise.”

Yen for success

2006-05-21T14:38:00.000+03:00

Jellyfish: They see nuisance; Sami A Al Saif sees opportunity. They call it junk; Sami says ‘Yen.”

By Rajeev Nair

During their peak landing period of some 30 to 45 days, jellyfish plague fishermen. Smacks of jellyfish sting human flesh, clog boat propellers and slide into fishing nets. Hovering on the top one-metre of the sea surface, these marine invertebrates also bring untold misery to swimmers, and, hold your breath, to sophisticated power generation plants.
Engineer Sami A. Al Saif, a 39-year-old, Saudi national, had his first brush with jellyfish when he was called to assess a unique situation at the Quraya power plant in Saudi Arabia. The mechanical engineering graduate from the University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia, was working in the engineering and design department of Saudi Consolidated Electric Company. He also had a Padi licence to dive and had worked in Quraya as a trainee.
Quraya’s problem was familiar to most desalination, power and chemical plants in the coastal belt. Every year, during summer, the plants had to be shut down, if only for a few days, when jellyfish swarmed into vital plant components. At Quraya, the jellyfish would clog the cooling water. The “traveling screens,” which were to clean the water of junk material, were not equipped to handle the 100 plus tones per hour of jellyfish that accumulated. The screens, at best, could tackle 7 to 10 tonnes per hour.
Unchecked, the jellyfish would plug the condenser and the plant had to be shut down temporarily. Handling some 20 per cent of the power grid of the Eastern Province, every shutdown would invariably affect power supply.
A Japanese consultancy team was hired to solve the problem. One of the experts joked to Sami: “It would have been nice if you could make use of the jellyfish.”
“What could you do with it?”
“Oh, they have a lot of uses – they can be eaten, they go into making a number of industrial and chemical products.”
Sami forgot all about it until he attended a high-level crisis meeting called immediately before the Gulf War to create a master plan to tackle oil spills, if Saddam Hussein let loose them as was widely feared. Some 50 plants were represented at the meeting and on the sidelines, every one had but one query: “Is jellyfish a problem for you?” It was, for most, especially when their smacks swelled out of proportion.
After four years with Saudi Consolidated Electric Company, Sami moved to pursue his family business — import and trading of frozen foods and manufacture of medical products. His company also processed frozen seafood, which is supplied to the military and major catering companies. With his involvement in marine trade and import, it was only logical, and logistically efficient, that Sami looked to Bahrain.
“When we started our Bahrain operation, four years back, the labour laws were investor-friendly and setting up the business was easy,” says Sami, seated at the office of Shell Fisheries Company in Salmabad. Bahrain offered many advantages that Saudi couldn’t, including swift visa processing. (Sami says the picture has changed since then – and we will get to that, shortly).
Trading extensively with the Far East, Sami, once, had an enquiry for jellyfish. That triggered old memories. Here was a problem, a menace, that was testing the patience of people and costing them money. And, as flip sides go, the problem was also presenting itself as an opportunity.
But it was not as simple as merely collecting jellyfish smacks and exporting it. Sami, with the help of his clients, embarked on an extensive research for the first two years.
Jellyfish landings peak during summer and technically, the business is confined to one season every year. “We worked during the first two seasons on a non-commercial basis to develop different products from jellyfish — food grade and industrial,” recalls Sami. Experts were roped in from Australia but there wasn’t a one-way strategy to process the jellyfish for the simple reason that the species vary in different seas. (The jellyfish found in Bahrain shores are of low grade, compared to landings in Mexico and Australia). That meant ingenious technology painstakingly developed at Shell Fisheries under the supervision of Sami.
He does not divulge the finer details of the species he uses at his factory nor does he want to get into the intricacies of the production process. The reason is simple: Competition is heating up. Anything Sami says could be a give-away, which is akin to putting years of research and expertise down the drain. He, however, reveals one example of the industrial use of jellyfish: “They are used as additives in the manufacture of paints as replacements for lead and mercury.”
Sami also shows a batch of food-grade jellyfish, processed and ready for export. Much like dried French fries, these are a rare delicacy in the Fareast. (Sami recalls finding jellyfish on the menu of a local restaurant – only, they were bringing it in from Japan).
Sami had successfully converted a problem into an opportunity — today, of the total volume of business of Shell Fisheries (in crabs, shrimps and other fishes plus jellyfish), 40 to 50 per cent are accounted to these bell-shaped, tentacled creatures composed of 94 to 98 per cent water. But more than that fact, it is the contribution he makes to Bahrain’s economy at the micro- and macroeconomic levels that make Sami’s achievements remarkable.
At the microeconomic level, he provides direct employment to fishermen in at least 20 to 25 per cent of all fishing vessels in Bahrain because he has an arrangement to buy jellyfish from them. This is equivalent to providing about 250 jobs to Bahrainis daily. They are trained to spot the different species of jellyfish, sort them and handle them efficiently. Sami has “pilot” fishermen in all villages too, who are given 100 per cent support in buying the jellyfish and providing technical expertise.
Sami also offers higher price to jellyfish catches than to crabs, shrimps and other local fishes. (Prices however vary according to factors like international price, size of the jellyfish, how far it was from the shore, and its protein content, among others.) This is particularly pertinent in the face of declining fish catches in the region.
“At the micro level, individual fishermen can now fish for one more product,” says Sami. “Instead of concentrating on the usual catches of crab and hammour, here is a new commercial species, sitting on water, and no one had been taking advantage of it.”
This leads to macroeconomic benefits like job creation, upgradation of boats and reinvestment in the fishing business, apart from export revenues through the processed products. “Also, by channelising their attention to jellyfish, for nearly a month, the other species are not fished, which helps in replenishing their stock.”
But alongside his growth, Sami has concerns too. The changes in the industrial and labour climate of Bahrain have forced him to stall all his expansion programmes in the Kingdom. “In Bahrain, there are two main problems now: One is the availability and price of land to establish business. We want to expand but we still haven’t been cleared land for which we applied when we started the project. Two, it is hard to find trained hands locally,” adds Sami, who also laments poor work ethics. On the fishing sector too, he finds the need to revisit existing laws, which, he says, leads to complacency and poor labour efficiency.
Currently, Sami has three companies in Bahrain. Apart from Shell Fisheries, which boasts of the Kingdom’s “only seafood processing plant that conforms to EU standards,” he manages the Bahrain Industrial Products Company, which takes care of industrial jellyfish products. The third is an industrial consultancy.
Sami shuttles his time between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. His wife, Mai, an architect, is instructor at King Faisal University’s College of Interior Design. They have three children: Abdulrahman, Gena and Lena.
Sami hasn’t been going Padi diving of late and for all his switch from engineering to the world of fishes, know that, there is a systematic man at work, who goes about his job with mechanical and meticulous precision.
And if you still wonder how the Quraya plant solved their problem of jellyfish, all they needed were some quality nets.
For Sami, and Bahrain, the problem opened a new model in success.
But to sustain that momentum, well, that is another story…

Let’s chat

2006-05-21T14:36:00.000+03:00

Dots and dashes … welcome to the niche world of Bahrain’s amateur radio operators

By RAJEEV NAIR

CQ (Calling anyone)
QTH (Location) Bahrain

Dread could be what gave the world science fiction — a mortal fear that what if the Martians do invade the world. But death is what strengthened the world of wireless communication — the sinking of the Titanic.
Since those formative years of experiments by Heinrich Rudolf Hertz and Guglielmo Marconi, amateur radio has gone through a series of regulatory ups and downs. However, when it comes to the last word in communication, even die-hard wizards of the hi-tech world would agree that there is nothing to beat a seasoned amateur radio operator at work.
Today, amateur radio (or ham, as it is better known) is not about bleak and black stories. It is about a niche lifestyle, a passion, a keeping-the-flame-alive solidarity or just plain nostalgia…
But when that time comes, as if often does in different parts of the world, when lights go down and mobile phones conk out, a few dots and dashes hurtling down ether highway would make the difference between life and death, help at hand and continuing distress…
For all those pessimists, let us just say, amateur radio will be your last tangible hope for survival. For all those optimists, ladies and gentlemen, amateur radio could be your one-stop hub to the rest of the world. Here, you can forge friendships, nurture the bonding and see life from a fresh perspective.
And that is what a group of amateur radio operators in Bahrain continue to do since the Amateur Radio Association of Bahrain (ARAB) was founded some 30 years ago by British engineers and radio enthusiasts, who had been working for the Kingdom’s telephone company.
Even though on-line chatting has seemingly made the world of amateur radio almost redundant, know you all that Bahrain continues to nurture a committed group of radio enthusiasts, who meet every second Tuesday 8 pm at the association’s club near Mina Salman.
Going under the amateur radio network’s identity, A92C, at least 15 veteran radio enthusiasts meet to share views, exchange information or simply hook up to the world from the amateur radio sets installed at the club. Most of them have their own sets — some as small as a size of the palm to others more intricate.
For the uninitiated, amateur radio is all about using a two-way radio for communication. To be a radio operator in any given location, one has to become a member of the local Amateur Radio Association.
Bahrain had been the central regulatory body for amateur radio operators in the entire Gulf earlier, says Dhiya Al Shurougi, secretary, ARAB. However, it has now been bifurcated, with the rest of the GCC having another regulator while Bahrain had been under the Kingdom’s Ministry of Transport.
With the founding of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), the licensing procedures of amateur radio operators are currently being revisited. Adel Eid, president, ARAB, said the movement of radio licensing to TRA came as a surprise to the association but he is optimistic that once the procedures are firmly in place, ARAB can work towards popularizing amateur radio amongst the younger generation.
The sole criterion for being a radio amateur is to be passionate about it. A basic knowledge of electronics and the works helps but more significantly, it is about pursuing a passion that cuts through geographical boundaries.
Since it is regulated, amateur radio in Bahrain too is open to only selected band frequencies but that is more than enough to connect to the whole world and foster friendships that come alive through the crackle and splutter of radio waves.
Unlike the fictitious personalities one assumes in on-line chatting, amateur radio does not offer anonymity. You have to identify yourself through code words that represent your association. Adel Eid, for example, is A92FF while Dhiya is A92DQ. A92 stands for ARAB while subsequent names start with A. A92AA, for example, would refer to one of the very first members.
Amateur radio needs a radio (or set) and antenna — that could be bought for anything from BD200 to BD5000 plus — and these days, laptops and computers are integrated into the network to make communication faster. All you need to do is tune in to the assigned frequency, identify yourself with your codename, listen to other amateur radio operators in the given frequencies and strike a conversation. This could be through a hand-held mic or through Morse code (by the more seasoned user) or typing into the computer (if linked to the set). The clarity of communication depends on weather and climatic aspects including the sunspot cycle.
Dwight G.Yaw (N9NYC), an American, who now works in Bahrain, is an expert in Morse code. With 20 years of amateur radio enthusiasm to back him, one of the first “things to do” in Bahrain, for him, was to join the local amateur radio association. He has used his amateur radio experience at times of calamity including a devastating earthquake in the US. For him, amateur radio is relevant, even in the face of the Internet revolution, for the simple fact that it works when everything else is down and out.
“For most people, amateur radios may not be relevant any more. But when everything else fails, you can still work an amateur radio with the simplest equipment — a car battery or even power it from a bicycle-pedalled power generation equipment,” adds Dhiya, a Bahraini. He recalls relaying a message for medical supplies from an African nation to the supplying organization in America following a communication hitch between the two.
Thomas B Pullyard, simulator development engineer, Gulf Air, who has moved in to Bahrain recently, agrees. He has enjoyed listening to amateur radio for long and before he knew it was hooked to the passion. Dr Mohammed Ali Al Buflasa, a Bahraini physician, is another member of ARAB. The eclectic profiles just go on to prove how ARAB membership has cut through professional and cultural divides.
Dhiya says ARAB’s communication brief is across-the-board but avoids politics, religion and topics of commercial interests. Many members recall sharing a passion for short wave radio as children or during their youth and listening to BBC Arabic and the World services, which eventually led them to amateur radio. Their passion is increasingly becoming niche — but that isn’t a bother.
Adel Eid, an employee with Alba, would like to see more youngsters coming into the field. Passionate about his hobby, Adel says there have been touching moments galore during his many years of amateur radio interaction. It included talking to the blind and to terminal cancer patients… “It is as if you truly touch a person’s life – you are out there, in a very physical sense, talking, listening, communicating…”
With computers being hooked to the amateur radio network, it is possible to transmit images through the air waves. That brings amateur radios close to the desktop messengers.
Then there are the tangible, collectible gains. Every time you make contact with another amateur radio operator, you send out QSL cards to prove that the conversation took place at the specified time. It is an irrefutable proof of communication. QSL cards are sometimes personalized with photographs of the radio operator or even pictures of his or her pets, details about his country and what not. ARAB used to send out QSL cards that depicted the first landing of the Concorde in Bahrain.
There are competitions too: To reach to the maximum countries across several band frequencies. Adel recalls holding a competition to coincide with Bahrain National Day, which evoked considerable response from around the world.
Unlike online chatting and telephones, amateur radio is not about absolute convenience. As Dhiya says, amateur radio’s reward is the patience it builds in you… as well as the joy it brings, which can be compared to that of sighting a rare bird by a bird-watcher.
Yet, it is also about minding the machine, surfing the ether through knobs, making your self loud and clear and connecting…
Man and machine thus work in tandem — that is a joy of accomplishment, which modern day luxuries have long ceased to offer.

ENDS

A mall for all reasons

2006-05-21T14:35:00.001+03:00

Take an inventory of everything under the sun, and cross-check it against what is up for grabs at the flea market alias Chor Bazaar in Issa Town. Tick, tick, tick… oh yes, you might find them all out here. And if you missed those elephants or ostrich eggs, well, why don’t you place an order and return next week?

By Rajeev Nair

Photographs: Majeed Mohammed

As first reactions go, the Chor Bazaar at Issa Town comes across as Bahrain’s most throbbing recycle unit. Nothing that enters this pulsating unit, which hosts a milling humanity every Thursday and Friday, ever goes waste.
Every thing here is recycle-able and reusable…
And every thing comes for a price that lies in your asking. Bid and bargain, cajole and ridicule, and you can take home deals that would put the best in-town “SALE” to shame.
From pins to peacocks and mats to cats and hammers to Hummer parts; from baits to beds and scents to cents and apples to Scrabbles, the Chor Bazaar has it all — except, of its own, a definitive history.
“Why is it called Chor Bazaar,” we ask Mehdi Salah, a seller of knick-knacks perfect for domestic workshops. He doesn’t know.
We repeat the question to a business veteran, an old Bahraini, who sells an array of goods. “That is because there are people here who are not straight in business… Chors… thieves….” And he laughs, perhaps, in jest…
Chor Bazaar, obviously, isn’t a shelter for stolen goods. It is the marketplace where you can buy your choice of ware for “a steal.” To net that, mind you, you need to be loud (shor) with your bargaining.
Typical of all flea bazaars, Chor Bazaar too has a large collection of second-hand stuff. Indeed, “second hand” is the in-thing at this market unless you discount the presence of mass-produced, cheap, “second grade” stuff that are heaped on makeshift tables inside and by the rows of shops.
A slice of the Chor Bazaar repertoire — in virtually any shop — shows used clothes, grinder jars, old clocks, batteries, tape recorders, vases, hammers, nuts, bolts, screws, hooks, jugs, jars and cassettes. There are specialist shops for used furniture, kitchen appliances, electronic goods, and, as is wont in the IT age, for computers. Scooped out integrated circuits share space with old keyboards, dirty mouse pads and small monitors.
A perfect showcase of life’s every needs, Chor Bazaar also has stalls selling fruits and juices, near-expiry milk and cheese, and toys and car stereos. Also coming in singles, pairs or by the dozen are cats, dogs, love-birds, goats, doves and peacocks. And then there are the hobbyists…

Hobby time:
Abdul Razack Abdullah Mohsin visits the market every week to display his collection of stamps, coins, currency and telephone cards. He sits away from the din spreading out his albums. He comes to sell, buy or exchange — and he sells only the “doubles or extras” that he has. The weekly market visit is not “business” for him — he is strengthening his 20-year-old hobby, adding value to his collection.
He is particularly vocal about the telephone cards, digging out from his collection one of only 1000 cards issued by Batelco in 1986 as ‘trial phone card.” He also shows one of another only 1000 cards that feature the name of the telecommunication company’s top executive, Andrew Hearn issued in 1992. He has coins from around the world and a handful of the anas, paise and rupee that were in vogue in Bahrain prior to 1964, when the first currency was introduced (he has that too). He shows a coin, which was legal tender in Qatar and the UAE, and fishes out coins, which his father gave him when he entered school in the early 60s.
The value of his ware is decided by rarity and antique value but even contemporary collections have found their worth going up. A 100 fils coin issued on 04-04-04 to commemorate the Formula 1, he says, easily fetches over BD10.
For Abdul Razack, the market place is a meeting place of like minds, especially when he stumbles upon people who share his passion. Until that happens, he happily plays the “teacher” to kids who find the coins in his collection an irresistible draw.

Under his watchful eyes…
Not far from Abdul Razack sits Mehdi Salah. He might not know why Chor Bazaar is called so but he sure knows this place can bring in the moolah. So he sits by a chair, watching the customers clamour by his shop to pick and choose knick-knacks galore. He sources some “first hand” goods from companies, which need to offload their stock.
A man rushes up to Salah, shows a curtain hook — he wants a dozen of them. Salah doesn’t have them but knows a shop that sells only nuts, bolts, screws and hooks. He clutches close to his hip a plastic bag — dinars smile from within. Business, obviously, has been good.

A veteran who calls this ‘home’
Hassan Al Ghattan has a Black Sabbath audio cassette in his hand. He is deliberating whether to play it instead of the Boney M that flows out of his stereo. Music is dear to the man, who can talk on and on about the new German flute in his collection as he clicks his fingers in tune with ‘Hurray, hurray, it’s a holi-holiday.”
Ghattan has seen much of the world. A frequent traveler to China and the Fareast, Ghattan has been running a successful business house in Manama too. He, however, likes to be at the market every week because “it is like my home.” He studies the crowd, watches co-traders and has kind words for the men, who respecting his age and experience, visit him, exchange niceties and a cup of tea.
Once, his shop in Manama was the place to go if you needed an English MC, and he continues that love for music with his collection of oldies. At Issa Town, he mostly sells toys, brought from around the world. One aspect upsets him: “Some businessmen here are not straight; come to me next week, and I will show you the full proof…,” he says. He knows that such traders can spoil the reputation of the market but he leaves it at that: “What can I do, anyway?”

Why just two days?
Ibrahim Ahmed Abdul Rahman has a genuine concern: “Why aren’t they allowing us to sell from here throughout the week?” He sells the entire range of fishing accessories. He pays about BD30 per month as rent for two shop spaces and must incur the charges of operating a generator. He brings his ware from Saudi Arabia and Dubai. “Do you know how much of these all I must sell to make a profit?”

Before the big game…
From the market, Ahmed Abdul Aziz must go to the football fields. He sells a range of nuts and corn to game revelers. Until the games start, he will be here, as has been the practice since the last five years, selling dry nuts that are the delight of children.

One for the cat
Mehdi Issa is engrossed in his work. He has to complete one more cat trap during the day and then move on to building a bigger pen for peacocks. A carpenter who had served Gulf Air for 30 years, Issa is spending his retired life productively doing what he knows best.
“This is an easy job,” he says, as he hammers down a nail to bind the last wood on to the cat trap. “I can make ten of them a day and two of those bigger ones,” he points to the peacock pens. People place their order to him during the weekends; he works over the week and meets the orders. “I have eleven children — they are all married and well settled. This job keeps me happy,” says the 67-year-old.

And then some…
Are the vices of modernity catching up with the market place? For 500 fils you can take home DVDs of any of the latest films at stalls that have started outnumbering traditional “second hand ware.”
And by the heap of books lies Gandhi’s autobiography: My Experiments with Truth, a sad book, dog-eared and old. Any takers?

Clicking the whole story

2006-05-21T14:35:00.000+03:00

A good photo poses questions and gives answers, says Michiel Munneke, managing director, World Press Photo Foundation. He was in Bahrain for the inauguration of the World Press Photo exhibition at Seef Mall

By Rajeev Nair

Surprisingly, the core staff of World Press Photo does not comprise a photographer. “In many cases, photographers are bad managers,” says Michiel Munneke, managing director, World Press Photo Foundation. “The World Press Photo Foundation is about management; we run about 100 projects a year and it is important to have people who are well organized.”
But the staff shares with photojournalists around the world a passion for news and photography. The Foundation, thus, serves as a facilitator for photojournalists to document the world through their lenses.
Over the last ten years, the foundation has also been focusing its attention on educating photographers. Munneke, a graduate in communication studies from the University of Amsterdam, says this is important because unlike writers and television crew, most photojournalists are people who learn on the job. “Our aim is to create a learning environment and to that end, we support local institutions in the majority world.”
The stress on education is perhaps the one significant shift in character of the 51-year-old institution, which began as an award instituted by the Dutch photojournalists union in 1955. The core strength of the foundation, however, remains undiluted: That is showcasing the best in photojournalism every year and documenting the photographs for posterity.
Munneke says the Bahrain exhibition at Seef Mall, ongoing through May 26, is an important event for the foundation, which had been finding difficulties in having a proper presence in the Gulf States. Sadly, though, there is very little regional representation in the 200 plus images and none at all from Bahrain.
He says great pictures need not necessarily come out of shocking tragedies. While the World Press Photo of the Year, undoubtedly, will be about an issue of international significance, “delicate, intimate moments from every day life,” can still figure in one of the ten categories of the prize list, says Munneke. “If you have a keen eye, you can make some marvellous photos from around the corner, right here in Manama…”
A good photojournalist, according to Munneke, is one who has a “certain curiosity to news, one who has a very keen eye that is well-developed and is someone who tells what I didn’t know. A good photojournalist not only gives answers but also raises questions.”
A good photograph, thus, is one “that invites you to learn more about the subject. It makes you wonder what the image is all about and is a combination of outstanding technical execution and relevant subject matter.”
Having been associated with the World Press Photo Foundation since 1995, Munneke sees photojournalists around the world trying new ways of communication. “Despite the number of newspapers and magazines, there is very little space for photography yet there are photojournalists who dig into certain subjects with determination for many months together.”
Munneke says that while technological advances in photography have made “photographers a little lazy especially when it comes to editing” creativity still retains the upper hand. “Photographers tend to put a lot of images on CD and leave the decision making to editors, which is a sort of weakness. It is the photographer’s duty to present their best picture because a lot of editors are visually illiterate.”
The World Press Photos are picked by a jury of 13 drawn from around the world to represent virtually every participant. “We have a mix of photographers, directors of photo agencies and picture editors, and we also ensure gender balance because it is important for the group dynamics.”
The group dynamics, says Munneke, will also serve as a self-correcting mechanism against biases in choosing the best. “You have to accept the fact that people coming from diverse backgrounds, also come with their sets of prejudices. Every selection process, therefore, comes down to serious arguing, almost like a game…”
He accepts that “if we invite 13 other people to go through the selection, we will have a totally different set of winners,” but what the foundation guarantees is a “200 per cent fair system.”
Munneke likes to share one learning from all his years of scrutinizing the world’s best photographs: “A lot of things that happen in the world have the tendency to repeat themselves but be careful, never, ever to be cynical.”
The reason is simple: Every photo is a new window to the world.

citytribune@gmail.com

FOCUS ON EDUCATION: Michiel Munneke says the World Press Photo Foundation lays stress on educating photojournalists around the world.

A SLICE OF THE WORLD: Guests at the photo-exhibition.

Spin to zen

2006-05-21T14:34:00.001+03:00

After the drinks are done, the dances are over and the decibels come down, there is a moment of silence for the deejay at the turntable. That is a dreamlike moment... when DJ Ravin realises that another night's mission has been accomplished — of making people happy

BY RAJEEV NAIR

TALK ABOUT LIFE’S IRONIES! The noisest place on earth — a few sq ft of dance space that resonates to heavy metal strummings, vinyl screeches and frenetic drums — also brings trance-like peace to some.
For those who seek bliss on the dancefloor, there is not better guru to ask for than DJ Ravin.
And hey, DJ Ravin is spiritual to boot. The rugged air of the man, for sure, is deceptive. He is not a bothered soul seeking answers; he is a contented man who has discovered the answers. And it all lies in what he does best — music.
One of the world’s readily identified faces of deejaying, Ravin must be credited with bringing in a drastic new flavour to the dancefloors. He makes you sway to World Music, and in his inimitable blend of music you can discover a Black Sabbath, the haunting melody of a flute, the alluring strains of a sitar, a pulsating Rajasthani beat, a confident classical alaap and what you may!
Eclecticism with a tinge of Oriental spiritualism is the stamp of DJ Ravin – the man and the music. It is an intelligent combo, which has already sold over 500,000 plus copies by way of the Buddha Bar titles.
Born to Indian parents in Mauritius, the 39-year-old moved to Paris as a teenager where he pursued his childhood passion — music. He worked in a music shop and played at private parties. Claude Challe, the owner of Les Bains Douches, one of the hottest Parisian nightspots, introduced him to electronic fusion and World Music.
After working with Claude Challe on records such as The Flying Carpet, Loverdose and Nirvana Lounge, Ravin checked in to Buddha Bar restaurant in 1997. He conceived the first two Buddha Bar titles with Challe before moving on discover the soul of Buddha Bar with his subsequent compliations.
The ambient dance music of Buddha Bar, where DJ Ravin plays, now echoes from nightclubs around the world — from Bahrain to the Barbados. DJ Ravin travelled down from New York to promote his compilations in Bahrain at Euphoria, Seef Mall, and after regaling partylovers at The Blue Elephant, he flew to Mexico, for another gig, in another continent.
Every audience is different, DJ Ravin tells City Tribune in an exclusive interview. "No two places are ever the same — no, not the venue, not the people."
But across the world, he achieves one commonality: "Make people happy, make them dance, decorate their place with (his) music..."
DJ Ravin wouldn't call himself a musician. “I am more of a sound engineer, not a musician,” he says. Being one of the most recognised faces of deejaying, however, does not put pressure on him. "I am cool, releaxed. I have no pressure."
He attritbutes that to his style, which like himself, is “simple.”
“Nothing has changed in my life,” he adds, “nothing at all, ever since I was selling records in shops.”
He is happy to see deejaying gaining acceptance. “Initially it was a big challenge. Now, even big stars ask us to do remixes. DJs are doing a good job on the clubbing scene, and we create another kind of sound."
Ravin's biggest influence is Indian classical music. “That is my roots. I am not so much into Middle Eastern style but Indian music, yeah, yes... And I am improvising all my life. I just do everything easy, and when you do a good job and people love it... that’s the best part of music.”
For all the modern and contemporary takes in his repertoire, DJ Ravin unwinds to old Indian music — “stuff like Mukeh, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle...”
And for one who seeks the zen in music, Ravin doesn’t call his music spiritual — “let us say it is more emotional.”

citytribune@gmail.com

Captions:
BLISS OF MUSIC: DJ Ravin says he is more of a sound engineer than a musician.

Photo: Noor Mohamed

Spin to zen

2006-05-21T14:34:00.000+03:00

There’s no escape!

2006-05-21T14:33:00.000+03:00

Run… escape to the end of the world. But, sooner or later, they will catch up with you. They don’t need your blood sample to implicate you… Any surface that you touched would bear your cells adequate to generate your unique DNA profile

BY RAJEEV NAIR

THE MAN WASN’T SMOKING a pipe. Nor was he in long, black overalls. Darn! Where did all the spookiness of detectives at work go?
Here is Dr David T Croke, a man who has worked with courts in Ireland, helping the administration nab criminals and bringing them to justice using the most foolproof of all criminology techniques — DNA profiling.
Croke is every inch the biochemistry professor and geneticist that he is. Seated at the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland — Medical University in Bahrain office, Croke, who has been working in human genetics and genetic variation in the human population since 1985, knows that hinging on his reports is individual liberty. That makes him all the more responsible — detective airs can rest easy, here is a scientist at work.
Croke, who serves at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, was in Bahrain to lecture on DNA fingerprinting to Bahrain Medical Society members. He sees the popularity of DNA profiling, especially in movies, as an indication of how the technique has matured over the years.
“The technique has been in use since 1980s in most countries but then, it wasn’t very well understood and was challenged in courts. Now-a-days DNA profiling is a routine part of many criminal investigations apart from being used in paternity tests and identification of victims in disasters. As a technology, it has become more mature now.”
DNA profiling essentially looks into analysing variations in human DNA — the building block of all cells. Though 99.9 per cent of DNA in human body is similar, the 0.01 per cent variation is still of significance.
“We have six million base pairs of DNA in every one of our cells, and 0.01 per cent still means 3 million base pairs — that is a lot of DNA variation,” explains Croke.
Two standards are followed in DNA profiling: The CODIS standard, followed in the US, where 13 markers (places in our DNA where we differ as individuals) are tested; and the SGM Plus, used in Europe, where 11 markers are tested. “Both methods share eight markers in common.”
In DNA testing, a sufficiently large number of markers are studied to generate a profile that is more or less unique to an individual. “The chances of two people having the same DNA profile is less than one in a billion, and remember, there are only 6.5 billion people in the world,” says Corke. In a court of law, where guilt is proved “within reasonable doubt” one out of 6.5 billion surely stands “within.”
DNA “samples” can be easily obtained. Even objects where the suspect has touched can yield enough cells needed for a DNA profiling. In those cases where the human body is badly decomposed or burnt, mitochondrial DNA can be employed to get useful information.
Croke says DNA profiling techniques are becoming less expensive with every passing day, making it an aspect of forensic science within reach of every force.
The flip side to the testing, he says, doesn’t come from DNA profiling techniques per se. “The most important thing is to ensure that the analysis is done correctly using recognized and internationally accepted lab procedures. The samples must be free of contamination and they must not be interfered with in its journey from the scene of crime to the laboratory.”
He cites the OJ Simpson case as a classic one, where lawyers countered DNA profiling proof by questioning the veracity of the sample.
In a court of law, considering other factors don’t come to play, DNA evidence is now regarded as the gold standard, says Croke.
Debates are being waged on building DNA databases of the entire population as an easy method to identify criminals.
“In the UK, anyone who is suspected of a crime or has been convicted must give a DNA sample, which is kept in freezers and their DNA profile stored in a computer database. This has been running for the last 11 years and there are over 2.5 million DNA profiles. But so far, they never have seen a match in profiles by random chance,” observes Croke.
However, he feels that it is a step too far to run a database of all the people, their DNAs being profiled even as they are babies, “because that become an invasion of your genetic privacy.”
Croke has learnt one truth from all his years of work: “Human genetics has taught me that under the skin, we are all just members of the same highly variable species. Irrespective of ethnicity, colour, where we live, we are just part of that one species…”
He recommends that if only we realised nothing at all about genetics except this fact, the world would become a much more peaceful place to live in.

Caption:
Genetic detective: Dr David T. Croke says that under the skin, we are all one (at least in a billion).

Photo: Majeed Mohamed

Zoo on call

2006-04-08T20:38:00.000+03:00

If animals need a home, they can always call on Abdullah Hassan Salman, who owns a “zoo” of snakes, crocodiles, horses, dogs, monkeys and gazelles at Shakurah near Saar.

BY RAJEEV NAIR

Photos: Majeed Mohammed

YOU HAVE HEARD OF STABLES that sneak in a hyena or two, and of shelters that give refuge to stray dogs and cats. Abdullah Hassan Salman, a 40-year-old Bahraini, makes news not because he has one of the Kingdom’s “animal farms.”
Sung or unsung, he is already a hero — to the animals, he shelters. And that makes Abdullah’s life a remarkable tale about the bonding between man and animal.
“My family gave up on me a long time ago,” smiles Abdullah, as his eyes chase the scurrying of the many puppies across his ‘stable’ (for the lack of a better word) in Shakurah. You hear the place before you actually spot it. If this is an animal symphony, leading it are chirping monkeys on vocals accompanied by parakeets drumming on their perches, puppies strumming on in playful glee and birds of all hues backing up the well-timed neighs of horses.
Amidst them all lie in royal but light slumber, Habhas — The Attacker, a Great Dane that is also the favourite of Abdullah.
Habhas identifies with the pulse of the place. Now eight years old, Habhas has been with Abdullah ever since birth (to parents that were pets of Abdullah). He understands every command of Abdullah and the camaraderie they share is remarkable.
But then, Abdullah can talk to every pet of his — from those stealthy alligators to the raucous baboon — and they all seem to understand this man, who left the military after ten years of service to pursue what his heart willed with all fire and passion. Lucky that he has an English girlfriend, who understands and shares his passion for animal care.
Indeed, Abdullah’s “zoo” is not about housing animals for fancy. He extends to these animals sheer kindness that comes as its own reward. He goes to the animal market in Bahrain, and often buys birds and animals that are indigenous to the Kingdom. He then nurtures them in his stable until they are ready to go back and fend for themselves. The indigenous animal tribe in his collection, currently, includes local owls that are fast being endangered.
Today, he spends much of his time with his animals, which have grown in number over the six years since he started the stable as an extension of his hobby. Initially, he only had a horse and dog — now he has crocodiles, African pythons, camels, gazelles, a baboon, monkeys, dogs of numerous breeds, cats, peacocks, sheep, deer, horses and ponies, falcons and pigeons galore.
The animal population varies, with the summer months seeing a steep increase. The reason is simple: During vacation months, many owners have little other alternative but to disown their pets.
Abdullah breeds pigeons though the principal demand from his clients is for dogs. “To breed dogs you need special care,” explains Abdullah.
People come to the farm either to give away their pets or to gain new ones. Either way, they are welcome, says Abdullah. It is not uncommon to find children with their parents touring the premises taking in glimpses of animal life at such close quarters.
Abdullah says money is not the driving force in maintaining his stable. He needs to spend at lest BD250 to BD300 per week on feed for his 200 plus animals. “Some months, I make money (through sale of animals), some times I don’t.”
No, Abdullah does not have any regrets. “Animals,” he says, “are more trustworthy than human beings. People are scared of animals. That comes from a lack of understanding of animals. All they need is a little kindness…”
That comes to Abdullah oh-so naturally. He had to stir the African python from a slumber in its cloth haven for a photo-call. The python fell to the cage with a thud. It elicited an instantaneous reaction from Abdullah: “Sorry, sorry, sorry…” he muttered to the snake.
Abdullah has given refuge to stray dogs and cats and he visits the animal market every week without fail to add on to his stock. He says that the crocodiles, picked up from the market, might have ended up in Bahrain from Saudi Arabia, while the African python is from the UAE.
Of all the animals in his farm, Abdullah says, only the baboon can be at times cranky. Though there are two helpers at the farm, Abdullah tends to the baboon personally as well as to the crocodiles.
The spirit of camaraderie seems to have rubbed on to the animals too. A horse and a boxer at the farm are at their playful best with the dog almost assuming the pose of a horse whisperer, their faces brushing against each other.
Apart from a few horse stables and the office of the Bahrain Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Abdullah’s “animal farm” is surrounded by immaculately constructed rows of new villas. The high-life is catching up and Abdullah is aware of rumours that he might have to look out for an alternative shelter for his animals. Of course, he is bothered.
But for now, it is life as usual – running from one pet to another, staging a mock fight with the indignant sheep that refuses to give him a hand-shake, clutching close to his heart a Brazil chameleon and mocking around with the monkey…
It is a perfectly tuned two-way bonding… May that cheer abound!

Living in past glory

2006-04-08T20:36:00.000+03:00

With the delay in the long-promised renovations, the Water Garden, a landmark in Manama, crumbles with age and indifference

By Rajeev Nair

Photographs: Biju Haridas

It seems ironic that just a few metres from a board that warns, “Offenders of cleanliness regulation shall be subject to the provisions of the General Hygiene Order,” there lies a dead and decayed bird. By the boats that were the cherished pastime of families, today, ducks, swans and cormorants glide past the carcass of the bird, dead many days before.
This pond had seen cleaner waters. Now, a white cormorant’s underbelly is green with the brackishness it had gathered from the water. Every dip into the water makes the bird darker and greener just as the once-white swan, which looks in dire need of a freshwater bath.
A tour of the Water Garden evokes sadness that surpasses the happy cheer of carefree children jumping up and down the trampoline. It is the melancholy of nostalgia – memories of a better yesterday, when this park was the meeting place of hundreds of families, the favourite jogging ground of the health fiends and the invariable excursion point for school children.
The families still arrive – they have little other options. The joggers too come – the Water Garden still can give a lungful of fresh air. And the school children are regulars even now — but aren’t they all owed a better time? One that recreates the past glory of the park, when its cages had a variety of birds and animals, the pond was cleaner, the computer-video games corner was livelier and overall, the park presented a picture of robustness than silent decadence?
A former school principal, who is a regular morning stroller at the Water Garden to this day, fondly recalls the yesteryears when the park served as a vibrant alternative to the regimen of schooling. The video games would have children queuing up and the rides offered thrills unparalleled.
Today, he is saddened by the pollution that has crept into every turn — accumulated waste, overflowing bins, broken down wooden stairs, a dilapidated men’s toilet and sad, empty cages. The ones with life inside are occupied mostly by hens —unique feathers on their legs don’t make them stellar attractions. There are a few peacocks, sharing space with garden trolleys.
Once there were love-birds too – now agile sparrows and swallows fly in through the gaps of the cages, have a go at the feed of the peacock and hens, dip in their water and fly out to freedom. You can almost sense the despair in the peacocks… what do these cages give them, no, not even the gratification of being watched by curious little eyes…
A train that criss-crosses the extensive pond is popular among children though its rails look rusty and old. There are other fancy rides that too are lapped up by children. But there could have been much more to this place. Instead, what you see are dried up pots with withered flowering plants, a horde of waste gaping through the huge holes amongst the wooden planks of a stairway, protruding nails and a few boats partly sunken from disrepair.
Once upon a time, that rock garden had a jet of water streaming through its slopes – today, waste has been dumped into its innards. There are the little blessings though: The fine breeze, the children, the greenery, the chirping of birds, the overall air of playfulness that any park gives…
But why do you return from the Water Gardens a trifle sad? Why doesn’t your mind resonate to the unbothered cheer of children? Maybe the promised renovations would help! Or for starters, the dead bird could go…

Virtual buzz

2006-04-08T20:35:00.001+03:00

Bahrain has a vibrant blogosphere and recently, the Kingdom hosted its first international bloggers meet

BY RAJEEV NAIR

PHOTOS: MAJEED MOHAMMED

THEY ARE ABOUT NEWS, VIEWS AND all that juice. And that is precisely why web blogs, better known as blogs, have exploded out of their virtual homes and sailed into mainstream consciousness.
An interactive diary of the Internet age, a blog bears the stamp of its creator. From wacky to wicked and silly to sly; from intelligent to garbled and hilarious to heinous, blogs come in all kinds.
But as bottom lines go, blogs are about the written word. Blogging too hinges on the art of writing. Shock or awe — the right word makes all the difference to blogs.
But thanks to their very nature, blogs have the ability to be seen, heard, read, distributed and debated without most of the shackles that come with print or audio visual media. That is, if they aren't clamped down and "blocked."
Bahrain, not surprisingly, leads the Gulf region in the sheer dynamism that goes on in its blogosphere. And its blogs cover the spectrum of topics — politics, personal, music... or, as most blogs tend to be, random ramblings including ample doses of self-celebration.
For the more seasoned players, blogs have become a way of life. Why, Bahrain boasts a blogger, who is recognised at malls and requested for autographs. But Mahmood N. Al Yousif, managing director of Gulf Broadcast and Professional Systems, truly deserves every bit of adulation that comes his way for being a blogger.
For one, he does not resort to the easy way out in blogging. He doesn't hide behind the comfort zone of anonymity, which makes him extra bold as he occasionally lashes out at issues and subjects that irk his sensitivity and sensibility.
Two, the blogging community of Bahrain is almost unanimous in its vote that Mahmood is one of the pioneers of blogging. And he took to it quite by chance, while at work with some 40 others from around the world creating a free-to-all content management system.
"My first blogs were entries to test the system," recalls Mahmood. The comments started coming in and the whole exercise snowballed into a major exercise in blogging for the former avionics engineer with Gulf Air, who also earned a pilot's licence before switching to professional broadcast projects.
But what perhaps makes Mahmood's blogs all the more "readable" is his wickedly funny copy, a straight from the heart, straight to the heart style of writing that spares no one. Visit Mahmood's den (as he calls it) and you are in there, (to use the cliche), for life.
"I don't intend to be funny," says Mahmood, as he readies for first international meet of bloggers in Bahrain. "Sometimes out of frustration, people explode, cry or laugh. I chose laughter." That innocuous-sounding statement is pretty loaded. It is also a pointer on what spurs on Mahmood to blog.
Blogging in Bahrain, observes Mahmood, has developed in a viral fashion "because it is a natural thing for people to talk. And computers have made it easy to put their talk on paper. They simply upload their thoughts... they want to respond to things that intrigue or frustrate them." Blogs, thus, might sound like a close cousin of diaries. But they aren't (see box).
Mahmood says the "openness over the past few years in Bahrain" could be one reason why many bloggers do not feel the need to take refuge under pseudonyms. "It has become a natural thing for people in Bahrain to criticise, they have lost the fear..."
Which explains the sheer dynamism in some of the entries in the Bahblog community. The Bahrain blogosphere truly cuts through geographical divides. Bahrainis living outside the Kingdom, expats who once lived here, all continue their love-affair with the country through blogs. Some of the seasoned bloggers in Bahrain have for the last 18 months been meeting regularly to exchange views.
And the recent international meet which had bloggers from Belgium — some of them meeting face-to-face for the first time — underscored what blogs have indeed achieved: Break down barriers (except blocks, but of course).
Frederik Haentjens, who initiated the international bloggers meet along with Mahmood, says that even if some bloggers chose to remain anonymous, it is possible to develop your own community because through constant interaction one starts recognising the writing style, the vocabulary, and punctuation or the lack of it... "This meeting is a perfect example of blogging breaking down virtual and reality barriers."
Some of the Belgian bloggers, who were in Bahrain run "shocklogs" — weblogs to produce shocking discussions by posting various shocking content. "They have a specific audience," explains a shocklogger. "We try to provoke people and get reactions with moderators keeping a balance between what is right and wrong. With a shocklog, things could be so radical that if, for example, you open with saying you have a yellow flower, at the end of five comments, it would have become blue... People tend to start on political debates even when the subject is not related to it."
Mahmood calls his blogs — in English — as "bridge blogs" that aim to bridge cultures. For him, every blog is a reaction. "I am not creating news but responding to news that provokes you. In Bahrain, bloggers react in their own specific ways. We even have school children who blog and it is very intriguing to read what they write."
Except for two or three professional blogs that generate money "which are blocked and unblocked and blocked and unblocked" most blogs work to encourage debate, observes Mahmood. His blog has never been blogged. "I don't censor myself, I believe in freedom of expression and constructive journalism. I am not a professional journalist but I know where the lines are."
He doesn't mind holding a point of view even if it is controversial as long as it leads to a constructive platform. In essence, he is for freedom of expression that comes with social responsibility. "I ought to be responsible. For better or worse, I am looked at and sometimes emulated."
The satisfaction from blogs, most bloggers agree, comes from the comments to their posts. Mahmood says the experience of reading the first comment to his post was "unbelievable — here was someone actually reading my rambling."
Mahmood feels that blogs have become alternative media that sometimes even gives out news breaks. "Blogs are not just alternative media; it is citizen journalism." Reiterating the credibility factor of blogs, he says, "Very rarely do you find a blog that does not link to a reference or refer back to the source of original idea..."
He rates Kuwaiti blogs as exciting in content and style; Omani blogs as "nice and mushy," Saudi blogs as "careful and cautious," the UAE ones as occasionally "interesting" but with too many snooty bloggers, and Qatari blogs as "non existent."
But Bahrain does take the crown for sheer vibrancy: "There is nothing we don't write about..."

Boxes:

Blog vs Diary
Bloggers still debate on where a personal diary ends and a blog starts. The essential character of a personal diary — personal — is lost in blogs, obviously. The Internet is abuzz with the blogs vs diary debate with the more creative ones coming up with elaborate differences between the two.
Here is from vaidehinatu.blogspot.com: "It (diary) follows the rhythms and tunes of only one soul. Should a diary be this open so anyone can access it...? ... once everything goes on-line, things become less personal and more generic... "

For the uninitiated
Blogs (for weblogs) are web-based publications consisting primarily of periodic articles normally in reverse chronological order. Blogs range in scope from individual diaries to arms of political campaigns, media programmes, and corporations: Wikipedia
John Berger coined the word 'weblog' in Dec. 1997. Peter Merholz condensed it to 'blog' in 1999.
Blogging became as easy as a three-step process with the launch of Blogger by Evan Williams and Meg Hourihan.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog)

Then and dhow

2006-04-08T20:35:00.000+03:00

Arabian dhows now employ only a smattering of wood. Fibreglass is the in-thing. And to make a 28-footer, all it takes is a handful of people

By Rajeev Nair

Photographs: Biju Haridas

Wood is a luxurious necessity, an expensive must-have, at the dhow building yards in Muharraq. In today’s age of convenience, hard-to-find wood gets easy replacement in fiberglass. But, come to think of it, do these leak-proof vessels have it in them to scale the waves and navigate the world as the rickety wooden dhows of yore did? Has the advent of convenience also killed the spirit of adventure?
Wooden dhows are increasingly sailing into the annals of history. A significant facet of the Gulf region’s history is, thus, becoming museum pieces. But nostalgia be damned! If all it takes are six workers, a few rolls of fibre, some buckets of resin, a little carpentry work, an old wooden mould and a handful of days of waiting, fiberglass dhows are more than welcome.
And that is precisely the mood at the dhow building yards, where more employees work at making fish nets than on a dhow. Building dhows don’t call for years of experience either. Expatriate workers, who walk in with virtually very little knowledge of boats, become seasoned hands in very few weeks.
Prakash is from Tamil Nadu, India. He has been at the dhow yard for seven years, coming in from India, as a rookie, with little work experience on boats. Today, he can take you through the intricacies of building dhows, describing the process with clarity and depth. Beside him lie boats in various stages of finish.
The principal raw material that build the boats do not come any more as clumsy logs that must be cut to size and polished to perfection. Fibre rolls can be easily laid on old wooden moulds that form the starting point of dhow building. Dhows vary in size from 17 ft to 28 ft, all dictated by customer choices. Most dhows at the yard are for fishing and cater to local demand.
The first task is to roll fibre on to the boat mould, the number of layers of fibre, decided by the customer. Prakash says 15 to 16 layers of fibre are commonly used and make for boat hulls that are over an inch thick. Fibre layers are alternated with layers of “roving,” after which it is given a coat of resin. Brown or white colour resins are commonly used; brown being the preferred choice for fishing dhows.
The fibre mould is left in place for about 15 days. That is the time needed for it to “set.” Simultaneously, the deck of the dhow is also built – again by casting fibre over moulds. The set structures are then fastened to wood (the first entry point of wood in the actual dhow building process) and pulled out of the mould using a crane.
Pramesh, a Bengali worker, is a veteran in the fastening work. It calls for carpentry expertise and he is assisted by Sashidharan, also from India. Their expertise will be called for in later stages too — especially in creating stations for the engine and the steering as well as to store the fishing nets.
Before the deck is firmly placed on to the body, there is a lot to be completed in its innards. Most important is to build fiberglass containers for carrying ice (these rectangular boxes would return from the sea with the catch of the day). There are two spaces set aside for storing fishes — one, on the surface of the deck and the other inside.
Once the required frills –the cabins, the stairs down to the base, the sleeping spaces and seats — are done, the dhow is ready to be hauled out by cranes. They are not tested in water but then with fiberglass, Prakash says, the dhows will be totally leak-proof. It is the customers who finally paint the dhows to protect against the zoo- and phytoplanktons that stick to their surface.
For the dhow building yard, their work is over.
Yes, the fiberglass dhow almost comes out in factory-like precision. There isn’t the sheer romance you expect to be associated with skilled people working on wooden structures that they never can be sure would float on the sea. An extra chisel on the wood and their entire calculations could go wrong…
And now, all you need are rolls of fibre and roving and an old mould (which too is giving way to fiberglass)…
So where is the magic in dhow building? Has it become another run of the mill exercise, an anybody’s job?
Perhaps it has… But then who is to judge the merits and demerits of where convenience begins and laboured expertise ends…!

Soulful melody

2006-04-08T20:34:00.001+03:00

Renowned Pakistani singer Atta Ullah Khan Esakhelvi has only one advice to up-and-coming singers: Work hard and build your individual style.

BY RAJEEV NAIR

Photos: Biju Haridas

AFTER MEETING LEATHER-CLAD junkies posing as musicians, it is always a welcome break to meet a singer, whose claim to fame is the strength of sheer melody.
Pakistani singer Atta Ullah Khan Esakhelvi fits into the bracket of “legends” — veterans who have touched countless hearts through the power of music.
It amuses him therefore to think of today’s youngsters lip-syncing on stage. With some 400-plus hours of recorded songs to his credit, lip-syncing would be out of the question for Esakhelvi, even if he’s given the option. “How would you know which song will be requested by the audiences?” he asks.
His vast repertoire necessitates that he sing hours together when performing on-stage. That is what he did in Bahrain recently, with a crowd turn-out that took the organizers by surprise.
Esakhelvi, however, wasn’t surprised to see the huge gathering of music-lovers. That is because he believes in the bonding between singers and listeners – an attachment that will not die down the next day.
And hasn’t Esakhelvi been bonding with audiences cutting across boundaries! One of India’s premier music portals, musicindiaonline, describes him as a “top international artist; his soulful voice just takes over you…”
The cross-border appeal has translated into two albums he cut with Hemalatha twenty years back and another with Vijay Bhatt. On a more contemporary note, he will sing three songs, including the theme music, for the Bollywood production Mein Phir Avoongi. Esakhelvi thus joins the group of Pakistani artists, who are making tremendous headway in the entertainment industry.
But Esakhelvi says it is natural that artists in both countries find cross-over appeal. “After all, we share the same culture and heritage. When I am in Delhi, I still feel I am in Lahore; and when I am in Mumbai, I feel as if I still in Karachi,” he says. That sentiment, he knows, is shared by his counterparts too when they tour Pakistan.
For a musician, who belongs to the old school — of having been raised the hard way, taking beatings and scolding from masters, slogging it out on auditions and working the way up the ranks — Esakhelvi feels that quality of music has taken a beating today.
“Now, the focus is on quantity. Television channels need footage to fill in 24 hours of their time and there is no quality check as any and every song finds its way to television.” He sees singers mushrooming every day – only to be forgotten the next. Nor do their songs stay on your lips or mind.
It gladdens him that audiences still flock to his concerts. “I am touched by their love and respect. My audiences don’t expect me to wear jeans and dance; they want to hear me singing and we have to keep alive that flame of pure interest in music.”
Esakhelvi sings in Saraiki, Urdu, Punjabi, Pushto and Sindhi; he has acted in three films and composed music for eight. He believes that a folk base is the root of melody and tries to accommodate the eclectic tastes of audiences. He wants to popularize good music with the new generation and thus help the youngsters keep in tune with their heritage.
Esakhelvi, who has numerous albums to his credit and many laurels as recognition of his outstanding work, pans the concept of remixes. “You must work on your music, you must build your style and that is how you must make your name in the profession…”
That, as bottom lines go, is his advice to youngsters too.

Songs for a cause

2006-04-08T20:34:00.000+03:00

The first annual charity concert 2006, today at 6.30 pm, GICC, Gulf Hotel, is the culmination of over 11 months of dedicated work by Samir Habib-Allah and his team

THE first of ideas on an April First day is normally the stuff that lends to jokes for the rest of the year. For Samir Habib-Allah, however, the last 11 eleven months have been nothing less than hard work to pursue a brainwave that came to him on April 1, 2005.
Samir set out to channelise music for a meaningful cause. Along with his friend Fawaz Al Gosaibi, he conceptualized the idea of a charity concert that will have a definite objective.
“We didn’t want to create a pool of money that would be open-minded,” says Samir, busy with the last-minute preparations for today’s The Annual Charity Concert (TACC) 2006, held under the patronage of Shaikh Abdulla Bin Hamad Al Khalifa, at Gulf Hotel’s Gulf International Convention Centre. “The money raised from the concert will go to build an extension for a wood work room and multipurpose hall for Hope Institute.”
A banker, Samir hopes to invite the sponsors and all whosoever else have put in their mite, for the proposed construction’s inauguration to uphold the credibility and integrity of the event.
An accomplished musician who had won a prize at the Battle of the Bands 2003 leading the group Myoclonic Jerk, Samir says he was moved to conceive the charity event because of the “socio-friendly family environment of Bahrain.”
Planning and executing the event, he says, has helped him build new friendship and nurture existing ones. “Many people have been volunteering to work on the event; many of those involved in the logistics have provided us subsidized rates so that more funds can be generated for the charity.”
For the 1,500 capacity crowd, there is much to look forward to at the event. Samir and Lisa Morgan, the two lead vocalists, will perform with a ten-piece band, as 35 members of the Manama Singers provide back-up vocals to give the songs a “gospel feel.”
Samir, a 40-year-old Libyan-German, who has been in Bahrain for the last eight years, says the songs will not have any religious overtones. “They are picked specifically to reflect the feelings of friendship and hope.”
Starting with the song Aquarius and winding up the nine-song concert with Let the Sunshine In, the concert will also feature two dancers from Victoria Dance Centre moving gracefully to the melody of Aquarius and Shine on You Crazy Diamond.
Lisa Morgan has been harmonizing the choir members while Abdullah Jamal, a Bahraini, does the mixing. Maestro Sound handles the sound effects. Rehearsals had started in earnest from January though most performers have a long history of working together.
Samir wants to make TACC an annual event and identify different and worthy causes as beneficiaries. Samir expects to raise BD50,000 with today’s event. “Almost 80 per cent of the tickets have been sold through our booth at Seef Mall,” he adds. Tickets, priced BD8 and BD5, can be bought at the venue too.
Together, yes, Bahrain can “let some (more) sunshine in” to the lives of Hope Institute children

A SAD STORY

2006-04-08T20:32:00.000+03:00

What if life happens to be a perennial struggle, decades of a monotonous repeat? What happens if you are old, sad and lonely? Here are glimpses from Bahrain, stories sad and untold. Until now.

BY RAJEEV NAIR

WE HAVE A LOT OF SAD STORIES HERE,” said Suad Hamada, Tribune’s staff reporter. Her statement was shocking and loaded. It stopped me in my tracks.
We were working on another report when we met these old men at the Central Market in Manama. On a Saturday morning, away from the din of the wholesale market, they sat on their trolleys gazing into nothing. There aren’t many sights inside the market these men wouldn’t have seen. They have been around for decades, and like living relics of the market’s past, they look at you with a nonchalance that comes only from near-total hopelessness.
It is one of those sublime moments in life… when you realise that anything you say, everything you think, would be nothing but clichés. How do you describe these sons of the soil in dirtied thobes, huddled close in what looks like the only respite from their monotony — the spirit of togetherness? Most men in this group have the same stories to say; they have the same pains, the same expectations, the same worries and the same dreams of their future.
Yet, in the ‘ordinary-ness’ of their being, you realise that every one still has a story to tell. There would be little to embellish their lives and there are few frills to add colour, but what they do highlight is the undying resilience of the ‘common man’ – the courage to fight on and hold to their belief that ‘tomorrow could be a different day.’
It hasn’t been that way, though, for Ahmed Abbas Habib — at least not during the last 45 years. The 70-year-old has done the same job, in the same place, all these years — pulling cartloads of vegetables for strangers who tip him a pittance. He earns about BD2 to 3 per day but he still has to work because, as his friends say: “He has to support his family and there is no one to help him.”
Ahmed Abbas Habib has weak ears; his friends literally shout to him to make themselves heard. For 45 years, he has witnessed the market stagnate, grow, stagnate and grow and all he knows for sure is that “he is dying; each day, every day, a part of him dies but what can he do?” He does what comes easy. He ties a grey thread around his wrist — pulled out from the gunny bags that he carries. That is to fight the pain that creeps up his arms as he pushes the hand-trolleys. It is a sad sight: Amidst the wrinkles of his hand, the thread that seems to cut into his skin… What do you do about fate that demands and extracts continuous misery?
For Mohammed Jassim, the answer is simple: Say nothing. He has been working at the Central Market for 35 years; he isn’t very old but he had started off in this job as a youngster and he continues to do so. What is the fuss about, he seems to ask, about this routine that expects nothing from strangers expect the little wage for work.
Syed Fakhir Syed Hassan, 63, is more vocal. Compared to his peers, he is a “fresher.” He has put in only 14 years at the Central Market (as if there is more to be learnt to become a veteran!) He was a farmer, has a large family of 10 children, and then his landlord “took away his land.”
He had to find an alternative source of living and the Central Market gave it to him, like it does to anyone who needs. He is affected occasionally by back pain but that is not something to be flaunted; he must work and a little back pain is no excuse to shun it. And what do you shun, anyway? Your very livelihood? Many of the old men do get pensions which help them with a better standard of living. But not every one is privileged…
And then there are the issues at work. Youngsters are stepping in to do what has been these old men’s only wage-earner, and vegetable merchants go the extra length to help customers by carrying the bags to the cars — haven’t they conveniently eliminated the middle-men? — these old men who are handed down a few coins? It irritates some of the workers but, surprisingly, even as they air grievances there is a surprising lack of malice.
Hassan Ali, Abdullah Ali Hassan and Hassan Ali Salman chip in the problems that “free visa holders” create. But they know that it is a source of livelihood — and who are they to deprive anyone of their day’s bread?
After all, with some 10 to 12 hours of work, isn’t what they get to take home — a little bread for hungry mouths?

Art on success

2006-04-08T20:31:00.000+03:00

Through his documentary Models of Success, Art Jones, a lecturer at the University of Bahrain, puts the spotlight on successful women in the Arab world and seeks to inspire youngsters

By Rajeev Nair

Photographs: Biju Haridas

Serious and no nonsensical, Art Jones drops his guard when he makes a point. What follows is a self-assured laughter that adds on to underscore his observations. Here is a sampling:
“You don’t have to twist the arm of 15-year-olds to switch on the television….” Pause. Laughter.
“You don’t have to browbeat them to go to the movies…” Pause. Laughter.
And then, he drives home his point: To reach out to the youngsters, therefore, “you have to listen to them and observe what makes them tick…”
That, precisely, was the starting point of Models of Success, an eagerly awaited documentary to be premiered in Bahrain on March 19 at Seef Cineplex. Seeded from the ideation process for a research project at the University of Bahrain, where Art Jones works as lecturer, the 30-minute film has an unpretentious premise: Present role models of successful women from the Gulf region so as to inspire future generations.
The challenge was to not reduce the project into another cliché as well as to make sure that it does communicate to the target group.
“There are many women who are achievers (in the region),” says Jones, “but they also have last names that make it pretty clear as to why they are achievers. With all due respect to them, they would not in our estimation, resonate with the village girl who will see them on television…”
Jones therefore had to chose women who were successful in their own right and might – those who rose through the ranks, slogged to success and afterwards, chose to share their experience with the community. He feels the documentary is important for those youngsters at universities who have a “sense of wandering, intellectually and spiritually,” not knowing what they want out of college… or life.
Goaded on by that premise, he realized that a research project seeking to inspire youngsters had to be in a medium that appeals to them. And so, television, it had to be.
In the six to eight months since ideation to conceptualization, Jones had sifted and sieved the resumes of several women achievers from the region before he chose three of them. The bottom line was clear: “They had to came from environments that matched our target audience,” explains Jones.
Jones chose Huda Mohammed Janahi, a Bahraini, and the first woman in the Kingdom to get a commercial registration to open a cargo company; Sabah Al Bahlani, a director of health education in Oman; and Sonia Ashour, an interior designer-turned-entrepreneur from Saudi Arabia.
By that time, what started as a university research project had broadened in its scope and goals. Jones sought out sponsors, with support coming in from Batelco. He took the project to Seagull Film Production, a 25-year-old media company with many documentaries and shorts to its credit.
Ali B Al Ansari, managing director, Seagull Film Production, warmed up to the idea. “I feel that women work harder than men. They have to take care of their family, the house, their own self and then, the business too.”
Seagull took care of the production and technical aspects and shooting was completed in four days at the residence of Dr Hashim Hussein, head of Unido Bahrain office. Art Jones had no doubt that the language of the documentary had to be English — it being the “language of mass communication.” But Models of Success will also have Arabic subtitles.
Essentially, the documentary describes the success story of the three entrepreneurs — the role models — through the perspective of a young Bahraini girl, Enas Al Fardan, who is also the production manager of Models of Success.
Though the documentary had its structure in place, Jones says that “nothing was really scripted.” That meant candid heart-to-heart interaction by the four women, who had only met some 24 hours before the shoot. Despite coming from three different sub-cultures, “because of their profile, the chemistry among the four women was super-amazing,” explains Jones. “The entire crew marveled at it and it was unbelievable that we didn’t script it. The exchange was so warm and heartfelt it was hard to believe they didn’t know each other.”
The three success models, indeed, lead remarkable lives. Huda Janahi is the winner of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Award for Young Business Leaders for Best Arab Start-up Business (Female) and recently won global recognition from the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation for being a role model for Arab women entrepreneurs.
Sabah Al Bahlani focuses her attention on addressing the needs of those who are disabled. “She is extremely committed, so much so that she adopted a young girl, many years ago, who has no hands. The girl is now going to start university as a graphic design student. She is an amazing kid also because she has an amazing mother,” observes Jones.
Sonia Ashour, a graduate in Arts, started with almost nothing and from small contracts for interior design she now does full embassies and projects around the world.
Jones says the documentary has generated considerable interest in several Gulf network channels, which would ultimately take it further afield to the ideal viewers — youngsters in villages, who often find real-life role models lacking.
He feels that the documentary would appeal to them because “it is colourful, spectacular and sparkling; has a nice music track by Bahraini composer Hashim Al Alawi; and during the course of the 30 minutes, the viewers will see dynamic, visionary role models who are true trailblazers.”
So, here, begins the countdown… to more success!

RIDING HIGH

2006-04-08T20:30:00.000+03:00

A young Bahraini presents a horse stable and happy rides for the public at Marina Beach Park

By Rajeev Nair

Mohammed Tamimi took his endurance horses from the city stable to his desert farm but he couldn't take the fun out of the city's children. So, even after eight years, he continues to offer a horse, camel and pony for the Kingdom's public to ride on at the Marina Beach Park.
The three animals – Yakshan, the horse; Johnny, the Pony; and Mezionna, the camel – aren't exactly young. They have withered stronger turfs; powerful strides and races are their yesteryear pride. Today, they simply walk along Abdul Manaf and Abdul Rahman, who lead them on with children and adults astride.
The animals are part of many a visitor's evening routine. One full round by the sandy ground, enjoying the evening breeze, is a source of delectable fun for the little ones, who find Johnny the Pony irresistible with its short stature that is anything but intimidating.
Mezionna — the name means wild beauty — has the looks of a bored veteran while Yakshan is nonchalant. "Have your fun, guys," he seems to say.
For Tamimi, this is more fun than serious business. "I never intended to make money out of these rides," he says. At 500 fils per child and one dinar per adult per ride, there isn't much money to be made anyway. "I feel happy for the families that come here," says the youngster, who also owns a stable nearby, which has five horses.
There used to be more. The power horses are now in his desert stable, readying and being readied for endurance races.
Tamimi and his brother, Mishal, who is also into endurance races, initiated the idea of the park rides. Tamimi says the initial days were tough but soon the fun caught on. Today, he presents and prepares horses for public ceremonies and private events, while, deep in his heart, he has "big plans" for the stable. But what it would be Tamimi wouldn't say: "You wait and see," he smiles.
The stable could have been out of a cowboy Western with doors of wooden panels, saddles by the dozen and horses trampling on the sand.
Tamimi makes it a point to be at the stable every day. Horses are his passion and, to boot, he loves his work. He recalls hanging around at stables from a very young age, tending to horses, riding them and taking them out on races. "We built this place from nothing," says Tamimi, watching the children clamour to take a ride on the animals at the nearby park.
Starting the joy rides with the camel first, he added on the pony and the horse to give visitors more choices. Today, the park is frequented for its rides by all nationalities, says the animal-keepers Manaf and Rahman, who have been working here for the last four years. They do not let the visitors ride the animals unattended. "Even if they offer ten dinars, we do not let them go alone," says Manaf.
Visitor flow has been more or less steady, largely determined by the weather. A breezy day, not very warm, means a busy evening for the animals. Though the rides are from 3 pm to 10 pm (and sometimes up to 12), animals are sufficiently rested in between, say the keepers.
Undeniable is the sheer fun that children get out of the rides. Approaching the animals with curious eyes, stepping on to them with caution and a mix of fear, eyeing their parents who beam back in pride, the young ones gallop on…
Three steps and they turn back. They wave to their parents.
And they are on… a joy ride.

YEN FOR SUCCESS

2006-04-08T20:29:00.001+03:00

Jellyfish: They see nuisance; Sami A Al Saif sees opportunity. They call it junk; Sami says ‘Yen.”

BY RAJEEV NAIR

Photographs: Noor Mohammed

DURING THEIR PEAK landing period of some 30 to 45 days, jellyfish plague fishermen. Smacks of jellyfish sting human flesh, clog boat propellers and slide into fishing nets.
Hovering on the top one-metre of the sea surface, these marine invertebrates also bring untold misery to swimmers, and, hold your breath, to sophisticated power generation plants.
Engineer Sami A. Al Saif, a 39-year-old, Saudi national, had his first brush with jellyfish when he was called to assess a unique situation at the Quraya power plant in Saudi Arabia. The mechanical engineering graduate from the University of Petroleum and Minerals, Saudi Arabia, was working in the engineering and design department of Saudi Consolidated Electric Company. He also had a Padi licence to dive and had worked in Quraya as a trainee.
Quraya’s problem was familiar to most desalination, power and chemical plants in the coastal belt. Every year, during summer, the plants had to be shut down, if only for a few days, when jellyfish swarmed into vital plant components. At Quraya, the jellyfish would clog the cooling water. The “traveling screens,” which were to clean the water of junk material, were not equipped to handle the 100 plus tones per hour of jellyfish that accumulated. The screens, at best, could tackle 7 to 10 tonnes per hour.
Unchecked, the jellyfish would plug the condenser and the plant had to be shut down temporarily. Handling some 20 per cent of the power grid of the Eastern Province, every shutdown would invariably affect power supply.
A Japanese consultancy team was hired to solve the problem. One of the experts joked to Sami: “It would have been nice if you could make use of the jellyfish.”
“What could you do with it?”
“Oh, they have a lot of uses – they can be eaten, they go into making a number of industrial and chemical products.”
Sami forgot all about it until he attended a high-level crisis meeting called immediately before the Gulf War to create a master plan to tackle oil spills, if Saddam Hussein let loose them as was widely feared. Some 50 plants were represented at the meeting and on the sidelines, every one had but one query: “Is jellyfish a problem for you?” It was, for most, especially when their smacks swelled out of proportion.
After four years with Saudi Consolidated Electric Company, Sami moved to pursue his family business — import and trading of frozen foods and manufacture of medical products. His company also processed frozen seafood, which is supplied to the military and major catering companies. With his involvement in marine trade and import, it was only logical, and logistically efficient, that Sami looked to Bahrain.
“When we started our Bahrain operation, four years back, the labour laws were investor-friendly and setting up the business was easy,” says Sami, seated at the office of Shell Fisheries Company in Salmabad. Bahrain offered many advantages that Saudi couldn’t, including swift visa processing. (Sami says the picture has changed since then – and we will get to that, shortly).
Trading extensively with the Far East, Sami, once, had an enquiry for jellyfish. That triggered old memories. Here was a problem, a menace, that was testing the patience of people and costing them money. And, as flip sides go, the problem was also presenting itself as an opportunity.
But it was not as simple as merely collecting jellyfish smacks and exporting it. Sami, with the help of his clients, embarked on an extensive research for the first two years.
Jellyfish landings peak during summer and technically, the business is confined to one season every year. “We worked during the first two seasons on a non-commercial basis to develop different products from jellyfish — food grade and industrial,” recalls Sami.
Experts were roped in from Australia but there wasn’t a one-way strategy to process the jellyfish for the simple reason that the species vary in different seas. (The jellyfish found in Bahrain shores are of low grade, compared to landings in Mexico and Australia). That meant ingenious technology painstakingly developed at Shell Fisheries under the supervision of Sami.
He does not divulge the finer details of the species he uses at his factory nor does he want to get into the intricacies of the production process. The reason is simple: Competition is heating up. Anything Sami says could be a give-away, which is akin to putting years of research and expertise down the drain. He, however, reveals one example of the industrial use of jellyfish: “They are used as additives in the manufacture of paints as replacements for lead and mercury.”
Sami also shows a batch of food-grade jellyfish, processed and ready for export. Much like dried French fries, these are a rare delicacy in the Fareast. (Sami recalls finding jellyfish on the menu of a local restaurant – only, they were bringing it in from Japan).
Sami had successfully converted a problem into an opportunity — today, of the total volume of business of Shell Fisheries (in crabs, shrimps and other fishes plus jellyfish), 40 to 50 per cent are accounted to these bell-shaped, tentacled creatures composed of 94 to 98 per cent water. But more than that fact, it is the contribution he makes to Bahrain’s economy at the micro- and macroeconomic levels that make Sami’s achievements remarkable.
At the microeconomic level, he provides direct employment to fishermen in at least 20 to 25 per cent of all fishing vessels in Bahrain because he has an arrangement to buy jellyfish from them. This is equivalent to providing about 250 jobs to Bahrainis daily. They are trained to spot the different species of jellyfish, sort them and handle them efficiently. Sami has “pilot” fishermen in all villages too, who are given 100 per cent support in buying the jellyfish and providing technical expertise.
Sami also offers higher price to jellyfish catches than to crabs, shrimps and other local fishes. (Prices however vary according to factors like international price, size of the jellyfish, how far it was from the shore, and its protein content, among others.) This is particularly pertinent in the face of declining fish catches in the region.
“At the micro level, individual fishermen can now fish for one more product,” says Sami. “Instead of concentrating on the usual catches of crab and hammour, here is a new commercial species, sitting on water, and no one had been taking advantage of it.”
This leads to macroeconomic benefits like job creation, upgradation of boats and reinvestment in the fishing business, apart from export revenues through the processed products. “Also, by channelising their attention to jellyfish, for nearly a month, the other species are not fished, which helps in replenishing their stock.”
But alongside his growth, Sami has concerns too. The changes in the industrial and labour climate of Bahrain have forced him to stall all his expansion programmes in the Kingdom.
“In Bahrain, there are two main problems now: One is the availability and price of land to establish business. We want to expand but we still haven’t been cleared land for which we applied when we started the project. Two, it is hard to find trained hands locally,” adds Sami, who also laments poor work ethics. On the fishing sector too, he finds the need to revisit existing laws, which, he says, leads to complacency and poor labour efficiency.
Currently, Sami has three companies in Bahrain. Apart from Shell Fisheries, which boasts of the Kingdom’s “only seafood processing plant that conforms to EU standards,” he manages the Bahrain Industrial Products Company, which takes care of industrial jellyfish products. The third is an industrial consultancy.
Sami shuttles his time between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. His wife, Mai, an architect, is instructor at King Faisal University’s College of Interior Design. They have three children: Abdulrahman, Gena and Lena.
Sami hasn’t been going Padi diving of late and for all his switch from engineering to the world of fishes, know that, there is a systematic man at work, who goes about his job with mechanical and meticulous precision.
And if you still wonder how the Quraya plant solved their problem of jellyfish, all they needed were some quality nets.
For Sami, and Bahrain, the problem opened a new model in success.
But to sustain that momentum, well, that is another story…

A new age in music

2006-04-08T20:29:00.000+03:00

Bahrain has a new sound in music: One that comes alive at the private studio of Hashim Al Alawi, a talent sought out by Western documentary makers

By Rajeev Nair

Photographs: Majeed Mohammed

As a musician, Hashim Al Alawi bucks trends. He even defies them. That is a tough calling in today’s world, especially because instant fame is only one television channel away, provided you shape your ware to suit popular taste.
Hashim, a 27-year-old Bahraini, describes his style as more of “ambient New Age music,” the feel of which is hard to translate on paper – only because there aren’t many set structures for ready identification. However, you feel the difference — a radical departure from the accepted notions of Arabian tunes — when Hashim plays the oud or nay (Arabian flute).
Let us just say, “It is different,” and move on to the musical journey of Hashim.
Once again, there are surprises in store at every corner. For one, Hashim is not a trained musician. A media specialist with the Shura’a Council, he is a graduate in Business and Computer Information Systems from the US.
He remembers learning the piano as a child in a more “learn-it-yourself” fashion. An environment of music, helped. He listened, learnt, improved, fine-tuned and even before he realised it, music had become an abiding passion.
Which explains why the young Bahraini student in the US showed enough courage to set up a fledgling studio in his room. He mostly worked on his own music and composed scores for documentaries, which incidentally reflected on the power of music in bridging cultures.
One of his first assignments was to compose music for the documentary, Muslims in Appalachia, which looked at the lives of Muslims in the US. Significantly, it was produced by Vital Visuals, which creates visuals for “houses of worship” focusing on “the intricate interplay between religion, ethics and public life.”
The documentary was screened many times over on PBS stations following the events of Sept. 11, 2001.
Hashim also worked on their next documentary, Islam in America After September Eleventh. It too aimed at strengthening the secular fabric and eradicating the misgivings about Muslims in the West.
In the US, he also cut two discs, Desert Beats and Therapeutica – both exploring an unheard style of Arabian music.
Desert Beats, according to Internet resources, has maintained “a high ranking on the top 40 chart in both the World music and ambient genre classifications.” Hashim describes the music, especially the second part of the album, as one that takes your mind on a “psychedelic musical journey.”
For one so devoted to music, one question is tossed at Hashim, invariably: “Why didn’t he take up music as a career option?” His answer is rooted in regional realities. “Unlike in the West, here music is not looked up to – people tend to look down on it.” His IT education, thus, comes as a safety net, which helps him pursue his passion.
That manifested in Hashim setting up a recording studio at home. He has named the state-of-the-art facility, Mello Studio — to reflect the moods of his music, melody and mellow. He records his music here and helps friends with their recording apart from working on documentaries – the most recent being Models of Success showcasing successful women from the Gulf region.
Hashim, obviously, is in no rush to grab the limelight by adhering to the tried and tested commercial format of music. In fact, it hurts him to see incredibly talented youngsters being sucked into the world of musical clichés and never coming out of them.
Hashim says he has derived his early musical inspirations from the Arab world, especially from the music of Abdul Halim Hafid. But he quickly adds that it doesn’t reflect in the music he creates now. He feels he is treading on his own path, even creating one as he goes…
The lack of formal training in music doesn’t disturb him. “It all depends on what you hear and feel,” he says. That translates into practice as “listening to oneself” as he creates new sounds. It is an instant identification with the yearnings of his soul.
And when the two meet as one, Hashim knows, he has captured the mood, the melody, the music of the moment…
Isn’t that, on final count, what the magic of music is? The oneness of man and melody!

Age of contentment

2006-04-08T20:28:00.001+03:00

By the green oasis that he creates, Haji Marzook, 66 years old and arthritic, says happiness is a day’s hard work

By Rajeev Nair

Photograph: Majeed Mohammed

He must be resting his tired and painful limbs. But Haji Marzook knows that if he rests easy, he might never get to walk about again. Marzook, a Bahraini, believes that being on the move is what keeps him going.
A lot of the hard work goes into his alfalfa field in Bilad Al Qadeem. He cultivates the fodder grass on leased land, which extends as far as “where that tall palm tree stands.” He has two blocks of land – both with green expanses of alfalfa that sway in the evening breeze. He has one hired hand for help – a Nepali worker Prasad, who weeds the field and cuts the alfalfa when it is ready.
Marzook has taken on himself the tedious task of irrigating the fields. He has cut channels that run through the length and breadth of the fields. Water is pumped from a nearby well, which is then flowed into the desired field-beds. Discarded plastic and clothes are his temporary bunds, which Marzook adjusts to regulate the water flow.
Marzook has been with a governmental office working in the gardens. Since retirement, he has turned into full-time farming, which has two benefits: One, he can sell alfalfa bundles. Two, it takes care of the fodder requirements of his own stable. He has five cows, which yield about 12 litres of milk per day that sells at 300 fils per litre. The alfalfa bundles, cropping every month, are sold at 100 fils each.
For Marzook, farming is an every day occupation – almost like a fixation. He works from 7 to 11 am and 3 to 5 pm every day, snatching occasional rests in between. He walks around laboriously and watches nonchalantly the younger ones who idle around horses. Occasionally he shouts at them – but turns to wink at you, in that manner only wise old men can, as if to say, “It’s all nothing…”
The smile is totally without malice. It is one of contentment, which he says comes from being ‘independent.” More than that, perhaps, it must be his identification with the true bounty of nature: “Enjoy the breeze,” he says. “This is better than any air-conditioning.”
As if to prove the point, he sleeps every night without the aid of modern-day luxuries by an open window that opens to the fields he nurtures.

When dreams take wings

2006-04-08T20:28:00.000+03:00

Today is International Women’s Day. City Tribune profiles Huda Mohammed Janahi, a Bahraini and the first woman in the Kingdom to get a commercial registration to open a cargo company. And how she persevered to win it!

By Rajeev Nair

GIVE her a challenge and Huda Mohammed Janahi will approach it from perspectives uncharted. She will mull over them, break down the pros and cons and, even when all look bleak and hopeless, pursue her goals with unwavering determination.
That unflinching approach to issue is the bedrock of her success. It has won her numerous laurels — from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Award for Young Business Leaders for Best Arab Start-up Business (Female) to the more recent global recognition by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation for being a role model for Arab women entrepreneurs.
These triumphs are hard-earned. And the higher she climbs up the ladder of success, the more hard work she puts into her business.
The chief executive of Global Cargo & Traveller’s Services and Regional Trading Establishment, now, puts in more hours at work than when she started her firm some seven years ago with two employees in a small shop in Muharraq. “Now, I am at office by 8 am and continue work till about 4 pm,” says Huda.
With an investment of about 1000 dinars and a whole lot of confidence, Huda decided to start cargo operations – a field she discovered as promising and ever-growing. She had many years of experience working in travel and cargo; her husband and father too were well experienced in the field. Having also worked in a bank, Huda knew she could crunch numbers effectively and roll out a successful enterprise if she got the fundamentals right.
But things looked hardly inspiring, initially. Huda was refused a commercial registration licence only because “women are not given cargo licences.” She decided to forge on and opened shop on a friend’s name. Continuously working towards her goal, Huda enrolled for the United Nation’s Entrepreneurial Development Programme, which she believes has been instrumental in fetching her the commercial registration in her own name.
After two years of consistent follow-up, Huda had finally fetched her first vital victory. She became the first lady in Bahrain to have a commercial registration for cargo and clearance operations.
“Every day there are difficult things,” says Huda. “But I don’t say no to challenges. I try more and more. I study the problem from all sides and step by step, I solve the problem.”
Successfully balancing the three roles of wife, mother and entrepreneur, Huda believes that women, be they in the Arab world or elsewhere “can excel in any field they chose to give their heart and soul. And meeting the responsibilities at home or the workplace does not have to be at the expense of the other.”
With five commercial registrations under the flag of two principal companies, Huda agrees that today her responsibilities have grown manifold. “But I do not consider them as a burden,” she says.
Global Cargo, her start-up company, now has some 33 employees and seven offices including in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. She is looking at opening offices in Qatar and Kuwait. Also part of her ambitious expansion plan is a free zone company at the Bahrain International Airport. Other business interests cover outdoor advertising, wholesale of jewellery and watches, Grand Prix merchandise and a beauty salon.
Huda, who studied Accounts at the Bahrain University, does not believe in resting on her laurels. She upgrades her skills, considers herself to be a constant learner and likes to see “women having equal opportunities at the executive decision-making level.”
She has also brought in tremendous innovation to her freight transportation, logistics and supply management business, with Global Cargo having been involved in the logistics of dolphins, whales and sea lions. The winner of the Investor of the Year Award from the Jordan Investment Board for Young Innovative Entrepreneur, Huda shares her views with young Bahrainis through the inJaz Bahrain.
The 1000 dinars initial investment would be peanuts when pitted against her company’s current worth of over 1.5 million dinars. And if there is one lady she would like to thank it all for, Huda says, it would be her mother. “She brought us up, all of nine children, well. And all are doing good in life.”
Huda has been feted for the high level of Bahrainisation she has achieved at her work place and is a regular invitee to workshops on women in leadership. She encourages her college-going daughter Fatima and son Khalid to take an active interest in business just as she takes inspiration from her father.
At every staff party, she felicitates her father. From one generation to the next, the untiring flag of entrepreneurship is being passed on.
And Huda, indeed, turns a new leaf in entrepreneurial vision through sheer determination and a focused approach to well-rounded goals.

Net a catch

2006-04-08T20:27:00.000+03:00

Fishing net factories in the city suburbs highlight craftsmanship and teamwork

BY RAJEEV NAIR

PHOTOS: MAJEED MOHAMMED

FANCY THE FISHERMEN OF YORE. He rows into the mighty waves, slowly and steadily, until he is but a speck in the vastness of the sea, and then he balances on the boat to cast his fishing net… It flies through air, forms an arc against the sky and then plunges into the depth of the sea. As stones and lead drag it to the bottom, the fishes are trapped inside, and feeling their weight, the man hauls the net on-board.
It is a laborious, tedious, and sometimes, wasted task.
Cut to the convenience of modern times. In motorised boats, fishermen cut through the waves and in place of their huge nets, all they would have are wire-mesh nets that are sunken into the sea-depths. The nets are nothing but traps — there is little chance that fishes entering through either of the two trap-doors will ever find their way out, except, of course, the tiny-weeny ones.
These fishermen are more relaxed. They are savvy too. So they take out their GPRS, mark the position of the dropped net and return to the shore. Next day, they arrive, flash out their GPRS, locate their nets and pick them up with a hooked metal chord.
Whoever said fishing was a tough task? Haven’t these men just netted boatfuls of wriggling fresh fish?
These durable nets offering total convenience for fishermen, especially the less seasoned ones and the amateurs, are a flourishing business in Bahrain, with demand coming in from Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Basket nets are also becoming symbolic of an industry that is being plagued by dwindling catches. When there isn’t much of the ocean’s expanse to scout, what do you do but wait for catches by setting traps as if in a forest!
Whatever the direction that the debate on “ethical fishing” takes, one fact stays undeniable. The fishing net industry in Bahrain is a fine example of practical craftsmanship. At one of the factories in Al Burhana, the first feel on entering the premises is that of stepping into a flourishing cottage industry with many skilled hands cutting random movements in the air with thin wires. There is a constant rattle, a whirr, that accompanies their work to serve as ambient music.
Most of the workers acquired the net-making skill after coming to Bahrain. At this factory, virtually all the employees are from Bangladesh. One of the younger ones, Haripad Anath, says he has been making the fishing nets for the last two years. He learnt the craft from Gopinath, who is a seasoned worker with some 15 years of experience.
The warp and weft of the net are woven with a certain rhythm that comes from swift hand movements on the wire imported, chiefly, from China. The wire is wrapped around spindles, very much like the huge rolls of thread in textile mills. They flow to the hands of the worker, who spins and turns it with flourish.
The wire is sharp, and to avoid injuries, the workers wrap their fingers with thick cloth. One weave to the left, one to the right, another to make a knot and soon the wire starts acquiring the specified shape. Mostly, they are semi-circular and vary in size from 3 ft to 10 ft and more.
An expert worker can create a large-sized net in less than two hours, says Haripad. An average worker easily makes about 50 smaller wire nets every day, he adds.
Holes are left on either sides of the basket to which conical wire traps are fitted. These are the “doors” that allow in the fishes, which, once inside the basket, can seldom find their way out. They have little option but to swim around in circles, often beating (to death) their fins and tails against the conical meshes.
While these nets may be convenient for an easy catch, old-timers would rather go for the cast nets. Ali Hussein, a fisherman, laughs at the nets.
He says the use of GPRS in fishing just goes on to show how uncouth the industry is becoming. “Earlier, these people could mark their fish nets with floats — no one would touch it because it was believed to be unethical to take some one else’s catch. Today, they cannot use the floats and so go for modern gadgets. But does this make fishing any more enjoyable?”
It would be hard to answer Hussein.

Fear? What's That?

2006-04-08T20:26:00.001+03:00

To walk on fire? Isn’t it cool?

BY RAJEEV NAIR

I WAS NOT GOING TO DO IT. No way was I going to be part of this management mumbo-jumbo…. Walk on fire! Bare foot? My foot!
So it was, with all cynicism, that I met Martin Sterling of MIB Global. For a martial arts exponent turned management expert, wasn’t he convincing (see main story)!
I wonder aloud: “Can I be at your fire-walk training?”
“Oh you must and you should also try it out,” says Sterling.
Fear, I realised again at that moment, is leaden cold. I could feel a tremble. I swore myself that under no circumstance would I do the fire-walk. I am a reporter, you see. I don’t kill. I report murders. I don’t fire-walk. I simply report on fires.
But what the blazes, I decided to give it a shot anyway, blistered feet be damned!
Along with the management team of Global Training Solutions and a few students, there I was in their training room, eyes closed, acting out how I look when I feel cheesy, concerned or incredibly happy.
Reporters don’t stand with their eyes closed. I feigned an eyesore, rubbed my eyes, took sly glances, saw the 20 odd men strike various postures… until Steve Drake, also of MIB, caught me. I winked and closed my eyes hard.
The postures were to help understand yourself better. How do you hold your head, stoop your shoulders or transfer your body weight when you are concerned, sad or happy? How does the body language change in different situations?
Sterling explained the physics of burning coal; he reassured us that in the 5,000-odd fire-walks his organisation had held around the world, there never has been an injury nor a blistered feet.
But then, I hadn’t been on their training sessions!
Sterling then hit a raw nerve. He talked about fear. “A hero and a coward — both feel fear. You can control it or be a victim. So what are you going to do with your fear?”
I am a reporter. I have your quotes. I can walk out.
But I stay.
“Fear is a signal,” Sterling continues. “It prepares you for action.”
The MIB team moved on to the next lesson, which was about breaking the shell of embarrassment in us all. We cut invisible lemons with invisible knives, sucked its juice and felt it sliding down our arms.
That was another lesson for the day: “Reality is far removed from your false beliefs.”
Otherwise, why did the leftie shift his “invisible” knife to his left hand?
MIB guided us to shift our focus from points of stress and pain… to ease and confidence. “From the bedroom to the boardroom it is what is in your mind that controls you, not reality.”
Fire walking, somehow, seemed far from my mind. Yes, I could run away, but what the heck, I might even give it a try. No one knows me here, anyway.
Sterling and Drake then wanted us to be our happiest best, give our achiever’s smile, feel the triumph and, as the countdown went from 10 to 1, shout in unison, yes, yeah, yup or whatever that you shout when you feel unbridled joy…
Our minds were being conditioned to triumph. That took us to the last step: Rehearse the fire walk.
“What’s your name?” shouts Sterling.
“Are you ready?” he continues.
“Off you go…”
And we, full-grown adults, lift our arms up in the air, shout ‘yeah, yeah, yeah” and walk an imaginary fire with the infectious enthusiasm of five-year-olds.
That was it. We were ready for game.
Fear? What is that? I want to go down there, walk the burning coal and do it first.
I threw my shoes and lined up along with the others. I didn’t notice the people around. I looked at the burning coals. No, it wasn’t intimidating.
Tony Ferrel of MIB, who made the fire and readied the coals, walked on them first — as if to inspire us better. But weren’t we ready, already?
“Who will go first?” Sterling shouts. Many hands go up in the air.
I am third. Sterling asks my name. Asks if I am ready…
I remember shouting my “yeahs” and a few steps later… I had walked the bed of burning coals…
I had walked on fire.
Sterling gives me a bear hug. And I say aloud: “It is cool.”
Cool? Burning wood is cool?
Oh yes, it is!
One by one every one had walked. Our photographer Majeed too. He was still wearing the victory smile when he descended from cloud nine to the 11th floor yesterday and downloaded his pictures for these pages.
And then Sterling turned to douse the coal. The hiss was unmistakable. That coals could have made perfect tandoori. And we had walked on that.
Pity, Sterling wasn’t there to help me drive through rush-hour Shaikh Zayed Road traffic in Dubai.
Oh yes, I dread it. If I could walk on fire, maybe, I can tackle that too…
Well, maybe….

Dubai meet adopts SAICM

2006-04-08T20:26:00.000+03:00

Bahrain rallies with Arab Group to work on chemical management

By Rajeev Nair

It’s official, though not legally binding. The world now has a strategy - the Dubai Declaration - in place for chemical management.
The International Conference on Chemicals Management held in Dubai has adopted the Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM).
The Dubai Declaration is the culmination of three years of expert discussions initiated after the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. The summit set a date of 2020 for the world to phase out toxic chemicals and reduce their harmful effects on human life and environment.
Many developed countries, especially from Europe, have pledged $10 million towards the Quick Start fund to roll out the SAICM implementation. The Dubai meet also agreed to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) serving as the SAICM Secretariat.
WWF International, an NGO, called the Dubai Declaration a “half loaf of bread, not well baked” while UNEP, which had been spearheading the discussions, said “it is a good start.”
Klaus Toepfer, executive director, UNEP, termed the Dubai Declaration as a “vital compromise” which will be a “living document to be developed over time.”
Bahrain, an ardent supporter of SAICM, had rallied under the umbrella of the Arab Group, which reiterated its commitment to chemicals management as outlined in the Cairo Declaration on SAICM at the seventeenth session of the Council of Arab Ministers responsible for the Environment (CAMRE) in Cairo on Dec. 21, 2005.
The three-day meeting in Dubai had hit roadblocks from the word go with the US and its allies demanding changes in the terms of ‘financial considerations.’ A consensus emerged after a parley of discussions that went through Monday night.
On NGOs and CSOs describing the Dubai Declaration as “falling short in addressing issues such as precaution and substitution, or ensuring sufficient financial and technical implementation assistance for developing countries,” Toepfer said: “There are concerns on both sides (developed and developing countries) on not realised expectations, and it is not only vital but obligatory for NGOs to say we have to do more. But we see it as a start. I simply ask whether the glass is half-empty or half-full. We believe it is half-full.”
Clifton Curtis, director, Global Toxics Programme, WWF International, said the Dubai Declaration “missed a real opportunity to be much more forward looking, innovative and ambitious. It is disappointing that they did not put more flesh into the skeleton.”
He flayed the US for seeking to “narrow the scope and usefulness of the agreement, by making it difficult to understand, and deleting references to institutions like the World Bank or GEF that are important sources of funding for developing countries to implement the agreement.”
Describing America as the “lead opponent to a comprehensive agreement,” he said countries like “Australia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Canada and India were making interventions that were not very helpful.”
Presenting the stand of the Arab world, Maged George Elias Ghatttas, Minister of State for Environmental Affairs, Egypt, on Monday called for the greater participation of civil society organizations and private sector in chemicals management. Arab countries said they would include SAICM in their national and regional development plans.
The Arab Group also underscored the need for disseminating information on sustainable development and chemicals management widely to protect vulnerable groups.
The Dubai meet saw three distinct interests at play led by the US and its allies -predominantly Australia; the European Union and developing countries. The US was largely concerned about the financial burden it would have to bear for the work on chemicals management by developing nations.
The developing nations demanded that “new and additional” financial resources had to be allocated explicitly for chemicals management without diverting the existing resources for poverty alleviation and other development measures.
Though the European Union was generous with funds towards the Quick Start fund, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) say EU nit-picked on the word “additional” in the context of financial resources. Europe also wanted the world to adopt a “precautionary” approach in the use of chemicals while the US was content with the risk management procedures it routinely adopts and did not want to include food and pharmaceuticals under the purview of the approach.
IPEN’s (Integrated POPS Elimination Network) Jack Weinwerg said SAICM could have been adopted in the last prepcom meeting in Vienna. “We failed in Vienna, only because of one country – America. So we came here with great concern. Here again, the US government has been extremely regressive. They have blocked several important things; the most serious was the undermining of the potential of securing financial resources. The real needs are very large.”
Weinwerg characterised Africa as “the most dynamic” in leading the process. He said Africa and the Arab Group were steadfast on their commitment to SAICM in letter and spirit. “The Arab Group was consistently close with the NGOs. They were very honest and forthright in addressing the concerns.”
S Ali M. Mousavi, deputy secretary, National Authority for Conventions on Chemicals, Iran, said “both developing countries and developed countries, especially EU, are not fully satisfied by the document. But then that is the meaning of consensus - some times there is a positive balance, other times there is a negative balance.”
Mousavi wasn’t euphoric about the Dubai Declaration. “After three prepcom meetings, you expect a more legally binding document, and a lot of reliable funds. Both are not happening.”
Diplomatic stances characterized the approach of many developing nations and countries in transition. India, for example, happily welcomed the not legally binding status of SAICM because it is one of the largest producers of chemicals.
C Jayakumar of Thanal, an NGO, said 60 per cent of the global production of hazardous chemicals is in India with the country hosting the only official DDT manufacturing plant in the world, in Eloor, Kerala.
ENDS

Tourism drives region’s construction boom

2006-04-08T20:25:00.000+03:00

But beware of ‘possible negative effects’ warns CSOs, UNEP

BY RAJEEV NAIR

A high ranking official of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has cautioned the burgeoning waterfront developments in the Gulf region to be “aware of possible negative effects.”
In an exclusive interview with Bahrain Tribune on the sidelines of the ninth special session of UNEP’s Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum being held in Dubai, Klaus Toepfer, executive director, UNEP, said the ongoing construction boom in the region is directly linked to tourism. “You see the investment in tourism here, the artificial islands being created… (but) you must be very careful and aware of the possible negative effects.”
Toepfer said the ongoing UNEP session is crucial for the region especially because energy and tourism are two of the central topics of discussion. “Since the region is a hub for tourism, it is very good to have ministers from around the globe discuss tourism here.”
“In Bahrain or wherever in the Gulf, discussions on tourism are linked to the desert and the sea,” observed Toepfer. “We have here civil society organisations (CSOs) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) - also from the region. We are happy to have them give us advice, to ask questions, maybe criticize, and we will see what they are working out.”
Despite the emergence of inter-governmental bodies and an increasing focus on trade-related discussions globally, UNEP is not losing its ground, said Toepfer. “It is understandable that there are different interests in the world. We are headquartered in Africa, where poverty is detrimental. There are one or a few governments which believe that fighting poverty by stimulating economic development will be a problem for job creation. We have proved again and again that it is not the case. We contribute to capacity building so that people are better aware of the chances that environment gives.”
Avoiding a direct comment on the brewing Iranian crisis, Toepfer said “UNEP has a good track record in post-conflict assessment” having actively involved in important projects in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Right now, it is a political discussion (on Iran)…. Our friends in Vienna are in the driver’s seat, which is good and correct.”
Toepfer said the Dubai meeting would be a step forward in chemicals management. Though the sessions on the International Conference on Chemicals Management have seen the US and its allies and the rest of the world bitterly divided on the “financial considerations” clause in the “Strategic Approach to International Chemicals Management (SAICM)” the UNEP official said he is “realistically optimistic that we can go really a step closer. It is not easy to come to results.”
Adopting SAICM is regarded as important step to have a toxin-free world by 2020 with an already alarming number of 70,000 chemicals in circulation and 100 new ones added each year.
The US had demanded that the terms of reference on “financial considerations” should be reworked and sought to delink poverty eradication from chemicals management.
On the importance of the Chemicals Management conference to the region, Dr A. Basel Al Yousfi, regional industry officer, UNEP Regional Office for West Asia in Bahrain, said there are some stockpiles of pesticides in Yemen, Sudan and Syria. “This is a major concern, especially for the agricultural sector. The Arab groups are looking at a more comprehensive strategy for management of chemicals – from the point of import to disposal. They are trying to link this to the multilateral environmental agreement.”
Dr Habib N El Habr, director and regional representative of the UNEP Regional Office, added: “Bahrain, like the other Arab countries, has a unified position. The Kingdom has discussed their position on SAICM with the other Arab countries. They have come up with a position paper, which is presented by Egypt on behalf of the group. Basically what they are looking for is a position where they will get financial instruments to look into the implementation of SAICM. They are for SAICM and are somehow antagonized by the position of US.”
The CSOs and NGOs in a strongly worded statement said the current terms of reference in SAICM are crucial for protection of the environment as well as for the health of current and future generations. They were unequivocal in condemning the US stand, and also added a gender reference to chemical management issues.
In their comments on ministerial consultations on tourism from a global perspective, the Global Civil Society Forum said tourism is acutely linked to environmental degradation in a two-way relationship. “Unsustainable tourism can cause massive environmental degradation, which will eventually make the destination undesirable to tourists,” observed Zoë Chafe of Worldwatch Institute.

ENDS

Books Ahoy!

2006-04-08T20:24:00.002+03:00

Eight years later, the world’s oldest passenger ship and largest floating bookshop returns to Bahrain

By Rajeev Nair

Serve good books – that is MV Doulos for starters.
Doulos, a Greek word for servant, is only two years younger than Titanic. Icebergs of bankruptcy and ill-health have hit the 130-metre ocean-going vessel as it changed hands and names four times in its 92-year-history.
Yet, it plies the seven seas, taking good books in its innards, spreading good cheer and hope.
In a way, Doulos, operated by the non-profit charity organization Gute Bücher für Alle (Good Books for All), underscores the triumph of the written word. Why else should some 18 million visitors walk in to Doulos to buy books? Yes, bargain prices on books and even CDs and videos, are a lure but more than it all, the ship is a floating showcase of the good tidings in reading.
Berthing in Bahrain after its third visit in1998, MV Doulos will be open for visitors from March 2 to 12 from 1pm to 11 pm. A special ladies and children’s morning will be held on March 6 and 8 from 10 am to 1 pm. Entrance to the ship, anchored at the Mina Sulman Port area, is free for the public.
Jason van Haselen, project co-ordinator, MV Doulos, says the ship that brings “knowledge, help and hope” expects from Bahrain, “a warm welcome and many opportunities to cultivate friendships.”
That shouldn’t be a tough call considering that in its earlier visit to the Kingdom, Doulos had 35,000 visitors on board. The earlier visits in 1994 and 1995 were equally successful.
The book showcase in Doulos covers the gamut – from science, technology, sports, hobbies, cookery, the arts, and philosophy. “These books are chosen to meet the educational and social needs of the local community; a large selection is devoted especially to children,” says Jason. “The educational and children’s books are probably most popular in the Middle East. Local language materials often supplement the vast array of English books. Our aim is to provide books at affordable prices at all times.”
Doulos replenishes its book stock every few months via containers ordered from either local book stores or publishers in the region she visits. Individuals can donate books provided they obtain approval from the Book Exhibition Manager onboard Doulos, informs Jason.
Sale of books enables the ship to sail from port to port, where the crew engages with the local community and work with various charity organizations.
Defying age, Doulos adheres to stringent international safety requirements with the 320 plus crewmembers conducting safety drills on a weekly basis.
Ultimately, Doulos is about taking the good word wide and far. “What better way to do it than by ship,” says Jason.
Books, they say, “open your mind, broaden your mind and strengthen you as nothing else can.” Isn’t the sea, another open book of knowledge? In MV Doulos, thus, words meet their match.

Cool facts
* Doulos is Greek for "servant"
* Some 1,000 meals are served daily on Douos
* 3,700 litres of paint deck up the ship every year
* 40 nationalities on board
* Over 18 million people visited the book fair since 1978
* Doulos has visited over 500 ports in 102 countries
* Doulos carries 100 tonnes of literature – close to 500,000 books
* Doulos's record number of visitors in one day is 24,200 at Taichung, Taiwan in August 1988

Making a difference
* Doulos carries 'love packs' of food, clothing and medicine from South Korea to Vladivostok, Russia in August 1992
* Doulos took a 'heart transplant' – an electrical overhaul in Cape Town in 1993; 170 volunteers worked for six months to replace the old DC current equipment with a more economical 220 V AC current system
* In May 1994, Doulos offered medical assistance in a rescue operation for survivors of a burning passenger ferry on its way from Saudi Arabia to Egypt on the Red Sea
* Doulos survives Typhoon Kirk near Kagoshima, Japan, in August 1996. Other ships run aground while Doulos takes very little damage
* Doulos teams works with the street children of Cebu, the Philippines

Winds of change
* Doulos, built in 1914 and launched on August 22, is the oldest passenger line still sailing the seven seas
* She was called Medina, Roma, Franca C and, now, Doulos
* She was freighter, migrant carrier, cruise liner and floating bookshop
* In 92 years of her life, she was rebuilt and reengineered twice
* She, as SS Medina, first carried onions from New York to Texas
* As Roma, she took pilgrims to Rome; and settlers from Europe to Australia
* The current owners, German charity Gute Bücher für alle (Good Books for All) purchased the vessel on November 4, 1977

Size matters
Gross Tonnage - 6804
Length Overall - 130.35 m
Width (beam) - 16.60 m
Cruising Speed - 10 knots

Praise and panning for Bahrain

2006-04-08T20:24:00.001+03:00

Geo Year Book lauds Hafira landfill; spotlights on Sitra industrial discharge

Bahrain has come in for praise and panning in the Geo Year Book 2006, the third annual survey of the changing global environment produced by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
In the Year Book’s Overview of West Asia, Bahrain has fetched commendable citation for finding new landfill sites for waste management.
Highlighted in a separate box is the Green Apple Award that the Bahrain Directorate of Environmental Control had won for the Hafira Industrial Landfill Site, which is described as “an example for the design and operation of hazardous waste landfills in similar geographical locations.”
UNEP has chosen the site “in the preparation of a set of guidelines for the design and operation of a waste landfill in hyper-arid areas.”
The Year Book said the “project contributes to sustainable and integrated waste management in Bahrain by making it possible for companies to stop storing industrial and hazardous wastes on their own sites.”
The survey however highlighted the “contamination of coastal areas due to reclamation, land filling or discharge of industrial effluents from coastal factories such as those north of the Sitra industrial zone in Bahrain.”
Praise has also come in for Bahrain being one of only four countries in the region to have completed the greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory. The other three are Jordan, Lebanon and Yemen. However, no country has taken any measures to reduce emission so far, the report said.
Population growth, urbanization and pollution will continue to be the major challenges for West Asian countries, according to the survey. The Gulf region, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE, have become one of the highest per capita commercial energy consumers in the world and GHG emissions have risen.
On the downside for the region are the challenges posed by urbanization and waste management with existing sites reaching their limit, resulting in air and water pollution.
The survey also warned the Gulf region, which is entering “another development boom with several mega projects in the pipeline” that “if not well planned, such development could have significant environmental impacts in the region.”
Dr Ibrahim Abdel Gelil of the College of Graduate Studies at Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain, who had contributed to the sections on energy and air quality of the Geo Year Book, told Bahrain Tribune that the Kingdom has taken serious consideration of the three environmental issues that face the country.
“Currently, we see some deterioration in air quality; there is concern about waste management and thirdly, there is degradation of coastal area due to land reclamation and filling with all development projects, unfortunately, having come near the coastal area.”
But he said the government is looking for other options in solid waste management, has put in place an integrated air quality management programme and already made environmental assessment mandatory for any land development in the coastal areas.

Praise and panning for Bahrain

2006-04-08T20:24:00.000+03:00

Art in motion

2006-04-08T20:22:00.001+03:00

A captivating sense of movement is the highlight of Master Taiwanese artist Dr Chi-mao Li’s works. He exhibited his paintings at Ritz-Carlton Bahrain

BY RAJEEV NAIR

Photos: Majeed Mohammed

WHY DOES AN 80-YEAR-OLD MAN, born in a remote village in China’s Anhui province feel that Bahrain is his second home? Why does this man, who has age-defying looks, dip into his ink-bottle and paint — only in black on white canvas?
Dr Chi-mao Li answers both questions with his paintbrush. Dressed in white but for the black shawl and shoes, the Master Taiwanese artist takes his hand, a trifle shaky, as he dabs the first touch of black on plain canvas. The spectators are still shifting on their feet, craning their necks for a better look.
Dr Li dips his brush in ink again, throws a circle on the canvas, and turns to splash on more ink. A shape has formed: It appears to be the headgear of an Arab. The flowing robes follow; the man is on the move, riding fast on horseback, the animal’s tails in wriggling motion. The Arab stretches his hand out, and Dr Li places a falcon onto it. He stands back, gives the painting a quick glance.
The spectators, pin-drop silent now, let out small gasps of ‘wow,’ and then they clap. It is a thunderous appreciation for the work of a man, for whom art is life itself. From Anhui, Dr Li has travelled far, teaching students, training artists and showcasing his skills for the connoisseurs. He earned numerous laurels along the way, and also fell in love with Bahrain, a country he often visits.
For him black and white are the most beautiful colours in the world. “Look around in the Middle East; the clothes of men and women are in two predominant colours – white and black,” says Dr Li, through his Chinese interpreter. He draws his affinity for the two hues from Chinese culture — white for the sun and black for the moon.
His die-hard affinity for black and white is also the reason why he likes to work on traditional ink painting, which he has redefined from a Chinese context by pushing the frontiers of his subject matter. From scenic vistas to groups of people to portraits and abstract renditions, his repertoire is vast and varied. And that is how he likes it to be. “Black and white are the only permanent colours,” he adds.
Capturing motion in art is his specialty. “In my role as a teacher at universities, I have laid emphasis on teaching movement in drawing,” says Dr Li. And then he adds: “That is the most difficult part in art.”
How does he tackle the problem? “Well, experience,” he smiles, before adding, “I still practice a lot.”
He elaborates: “When you try to add momentum to your painting, you have to use your mind and feelings. For all artists the world over, the challenge in art is to get the sense of motion right.”
And it comes effortlessly to this man, who derives inspiration from the ordinary. Anything and everything can be his subjects.
As styles go, Dr Li’s art can only be described as eclectic. He has moved from abstract to impressionism to abstract and back. “It has been a long journey of various styles and influences,” he says.
He feels at home in Bahrain. “I feel there are similarities in the Arabian and ancient Chinese cultures. In fact, I don’t feel any difference at all. That is why I keep coming here. I feel comfortable here, I feel that Bahrain is my second home.”

Let’s chat

2006-04-08T20:22:00.000+03:00

Dots and dashes … welcome to the niche world of Bahrain’s amateur radio operators

By RAJEEV NAIR

Photographs: Biju Haridas

CQ (Calling anyone)
QTH (Location) Bahrain

DREAD COULD BE WHAT GAVE THE world science fiction — a mortal fear that what if the Martians do invade the world. But death is what strengthened the world of wireless communication — the sinking of the Titanic.
Since those formative years of experiments by Heinrich Rudolf Hertz and Guglielmo Marconi, amateur radio has gone through a series of regulatory ups and downs. However, when it comes to the last word in communication, even die-hard wizards of the hi-tech world would agree that there is nothing to beat a seasoned amateur radio operator at work.
Today, amateur radio (or ham, as it is better known) is not about bleak and black stories. It is about a niche lifestyle, a passion, a keeping-the-flame-alive solidarity or just plain nostalgia…
But when that time comes, as if often does in different parts of the world, when the lights go down and mobile phones conk out, a few dots and dashes hurtling down ether highway would make the difference between life and death, help at hand and continuing distress…
For all those pessimists, let us just say, amateur radio will be your last tangible hope for survival. For all those optimists, ladies and gentlemen, amateur radio could be your one-stop hub to the rest of the world. Here, you can forge friendships, nurture the bonding and see life from a fresh perspective.
And that is what a group of amateur radio operators in Bahrain continue to do since the Amateur Radio Association of Bahrain (ARAB) was founded some 30 years ago by British engineers and radio enthusiasts, who had been working for the Kingdom’s telephone company.
Even though on-line chatting has seemingly made the world of amateur radio almost redundant, know you all that Bahrain continues to nurture a committed group of radio enthusiasts, who meet every second Tuesday 8pm at the association’s club near Mina Salman.
Going under the amateur radio network’s identity, A92C, at least 15 veteran radio enthusiasts meet to share views, exchange information or simply hook up to the world from the amateur radio sets installed at the club. Most of them have their own sets — some as small as a size of the palm to others more intricate.
For the uninitiated, amateur radio is all about using a two-way radio for communication. To be a radio operator in any given location, one has to become a member of the local Amateur Radio Association.
Bahrain had been the central regulatory body for amateur radio operators in the entire Gulf earlier, says Dhiya Al Shurougi, secretary, ARAB. However, it has now been bifurcated, with the rest of the GCC having another regulator while Bahrain had been under the Kingdom’s Ministry of Transport.
With the founding of the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), the licensing procedures of amateur radio operators are currently being revisited. Adel Eid, president, ARAB, said the movement of radio licensing to TRA came as a surprise to the association but he is optimistic that once the procedures are firmly in place, ARAB can work towards popularizing amateur radio amongst the younger generation.
The sole criterion for being a radio amateur is to be passionate about it. A basic knowledge of electronics and the works helps but more significantly, it is about pursuing a passion that cuts through geographical boundaries.
Since it is regulated, amateur radio in Bahrain too is open to only selected band frequencies but that is more than enough to connect to the whole world and foster friendships that come alive through the crackle and splutter of radio waves.
Unlike the fictitious personalities one assumes in on-line chatting, amateur radio does not offer anonymity. You have to identify yourself through code words that represent your association. Adel Eid, for example, is A92FF while Dhiya is A92DQ. A92 stands for ARAB while subsequent names start with A. A92AA, for example, would refer to one of the very first members.
Amateur radio needs a radio (or set) and antenna — that could be bought for anything from BD200 to BD5000 plus — and these days, laptops and computers are integrated into the network to make communication faster. All you need to do is tune in to the assigned frequency, identify yourself with your codename, listen to other amateur radio operators in the given frequencies and strike a conversation. This could be through a hand-held mic or through Morse code (by the more seasoned user) or typing into the computer (if linked to the set). The clarity of communication depends on weather and climatic aspects including the sunspot cycle.
Dwight G. Yaw (N9NYC), an American, who now works in Bahrain, is an expert in Morse code. With 20 years of amateur radio enthusiasm to back him, one of the first “things to do” in Bahrain, for him, was to join the local amateur radio association. He has used his amateur radio experience at times of calamity including a devastating earthquake in the US. For him, amateur radio is relevant, even in the face of the Internet revolution, for the simple fact that it works when everything else is down and out.
“For most people, amateur radios may not be relevant any more. But when everything else fails, you can still work an amateur radio with the simplest equipment — a car battery or even power it from a bicycle-pedalled power generation equipment,” adds Dhiya, a Bahraini. He recalls relaying a message for medical supplies from an African nation to the supplying organization in America following a communication hitch between the two.
Thomas B. Pullyard, simulator development engineer, Gulf Air, who has moved in to Bahrain recently, agrees. He has enjoyed listening to amateur radio for long and before he knew it was hooked to the passion. Dr Mohammed Ali Al Buflasa, a Bahraini physician, is another member of ARAB. The eclectic profiles just go on to prove how ARAB membership has cut through professional and cultural divides.
Dhiya says ARAB’s communication brief is across-the-board but avoids politics, religion and topics of commercial interests. Many members recall sharing a passion for short wave radio as children or during their youth and listening to BBC Arabic and the World services, which eventually led them to amateur radio. Their passion is increasingly becoming niche — but that isn’t a bother.
Adel Eid, an employee with Alba, would like to see more youngsters coming into the field. Passionate about his hobby, Adel says there have been touching moments galore during his many years of amateur radio interaction. It included talking to the blind and to terminal cancer patients… “It is as if you truly touch a person’s life – you are out there, in a very physical sense, talking, listening, communicating…”
With computers being hooked to the amateur radio network, it is possible to transmit images through the air waves. That brings amateur radios close to the desktop messengers.
Then there are the tangible, collectible gains. Every time you make contact with another amateur radio operator, you send out QSL cards to prove that the conversation took place at the specified time. It is an irrefutable proof of communication. QSL cards are sometimes personalized with photographs of the radio operator or even pictures of his or her pets, details about his country and what not. ARAB used to send out QSL cards that depicted the first landing of the Concorde in Bahrain.
There are competitions too: To reach to the maximum countries across several band frequencies. Adel recalls holding a competition to coincide with Bahrain National Day, which evoked considerable response from around the world.
Unlike online chatting and telephones, amateur radio is not about absolute convenience. As Dhiya says, amateur radio’s reward is the patience it builds in you… as well as the joy it brings, which can be compared to that of sighting a rare bird by a bird-watcher.
Yet, it is also about minding the machine, surfing the ether through knobs, making your self loud and clear and connecting…
Man and machine thus work in tandem — that is a joy of accomplishment, which modern day luxuries have long ceased to offer.

ENDS

Animal farm

2006-04-08T20:19:00.000+03:00

Wild west in town....Dying lifestyle? A hyena scare in the city puts the spotlight on animal farms that thrive in the heart of Bahrain

By Rajeev Nair

Photographs: Majeed Mohammed

The Wild West of Bahrain lies unperturbed in the heart of the city. In Bilad Al Qadeem, meaning the Old Town, the Kingdom has its “cowboys” on horse back watching over young kids playing a game of football by a country road riddled with potholes.
There are old men who tend to cattle – their hats aren’t Western; in place is the flowing white of the Arab headgear. In plastic boots, they wade through canals dug out for irrigating alfalfa fields and look up as the youngsters ride past.
All it took was a turn from the bustling highway and the Kingdom opened up a different world. Here, life pulsates to a different resonance – that of animals and man in peaceful co-existence. Except, of course, for a wayward hyena that scared the wits out of locals as it, reportedly, went on a rampage biting chicken, scaring dogs and killing birds.
The homesick hyena has returned to it home but it also called attention to “animal farms” — stables, which apart from domesticated animals keep caged foxes, wolves, monkeys, snakes and, by the more adventurous, even alligators…
While the implications of wild animals on the prowl are certainly of concern, these stables highlight one aspect of the local lifestyle that is fast dying out. For, it must be remembered that along with the “stables turned zoos, ” there are farms that keep an innocuous monkey or two, if only for the heck of offering the children a delightful distraction from routine.
And won’t the kids have fun! At a stable City Tribune toured, two young girls couldn’t take their eyes of bright yellow chicks pecking at the cage. The sheer delight on their faces as a caretaker handed out a chick each was unmistakable. Wariness readily giving way to easy friendliness…
The wooden doors of the stable, kept in place by a long rope, opened to a world of sheep, goats, camels, horses, mules, swans, ducks, hens and guard dogs. The warning sign, “Beware of Guard Dogs” was flung aside as Boxers and German Shepherd looked on sheepishly from their chains. Braver was a black goat that walked out to us, “the intruders,” cocked its neck to study us better and let out a bleat of approval. A flock of sheep wanting to rush to us, walked away disinterested. These boring human beings, we tell you! Roosters crowed in unison, swans chased the ducks out of their way in hellish unison, pigeons cooed from a safe height and a parakeet tapped at a (micro-wave-able) bowl of milk.
A camel, chained to one leg, was restless. As it moved around in circles, the swans baaed harder, jumping out of its way. From the midst of the animal cacophony, a radio spluttered to life and men went about their work – feeding hens, washing horses, clearing up the waste… Wolves in a cage had little ferocity while wily foxes still hid their cunning in their bright eyes. But poor litting things – aren’t they lean? Monkeys kicked up a ruckus in their cages but posed happily for photographs.
And beyond them all lay a bull – tied to its legs, bleeding on one – watching helplessly those hens that decided to stage a fight right by its side. The animal “would go” tonight: Killed for meat. Did it know? Does it care?
By the stable were dumped huge tires, two old carriages, heaps of junk from modern life… It was the casual air of a farm that had little to look out to the future. Yes, there are the occasional visitors who might buy a goat, a horse, a hen or a camel… But what after that? The workmen are aware that some other stables have been issued eviction notices. Will the trend catch up? Will the stables die out, giving room to high rises? Outside the gate, not far away, is a row of houses. Children ride their tricycles, boys rush past on their bicycles and then.., it is the world of cars… The city has caught up to its door-step but for some stables, time can stand still – very like the lively farms in farflung lands.

Aged gracefully

2006-04-08T20:18:00.000+03:00

Bab Al Bahrain is old and less thriving but it throbs with life

By Rajeev Nair

Luck drives Bab Al Bahrain.
Luck that becomes a tangible reality, which you can scratch and win at the souk’s fortune stalls.
Yet, luck isn’t money for many merchants at the oldest shopping hub of the Kingdom.
Luck is to stay put, not to pull down the shutters and wait with optimism for customers who now opt for more upmarket malls.
Which is why Bab Al Bahrain feels its age. The worn out shops wear a dash of faded colours by night but a deeper dilapidation stares at you from the vacant glances of its old-time residents.
On an average day, Bab Al Bahrain does not open to a vigorous buzz; instead it kick-starts to laid-back charm.
It also lends itself to a clichéd take: “The market juxtaposes the old and the new.”
The old and new here are two distinct entities. The old fights for foothold. The new struggles to win. The two meet. At every gully, every corner, every by-lane that ends on rows of closed down shops.
Once upon a time you could have got lost in the teeming crowds. You would have clutched hard to the hands of your little ones as the crowd hustled and shoved, shopping bags spilling over from their hands.
This morning, a child runs on the pavement. Strolling behind, his dad watches him leisurely. There are no crowds to block access to his child. They have given way to trailing cars that are on a perpetual crawl.
Yet, today as in the past, a different turn at Bab Al Bahrain will still take you to another world. One far removed from the SALE tags that line electronic gadgets and gaudy garments in glittering shops.
One that stops at the crumbling outlet of Abbas Hamza, where he sits silent but smiling in front of gunny bags of powdered spices. There are bottles of rose water and aluminum cans half-full with grains too. He is happy to be photographed – almost like an everyday ritual that he plays out before tourists. But he has little to talk about his business.
Mohammed Noor Nabi, however, is more vocal. He is from Bangladesh and has been working in the tobacco shop since eight years. The pungency of fresh tobacco from Oman cuts through the air. He sorts them, not forgetting to add that each variety would taste as distinct as a “bidi and Rothmans.”
Blankets and bulky suitcases tumble on to the narrow lanes. Textile shops glitter in the imported glamour of fancy forks and salwar suits. But business isn’t all that rosy. Salim, an Indian who works in a readymade shop, says customers are fewer over the years. Indians returning home on vacation used to be his principal customer base. “Now, they feel clothes are cheaper back home,” Salim adds.
By the roadside, Hamza, a 23-year-old Bahraini, sells fruits. He has many baskets of local fruits and one with tamarinds from Thailand. Business has its brisk moments. And dull ones, too. Yet, when he sits waiting for the next customer, Hamza can still hum a rustic tune.
Business has its ups and downs, notes Mohammed Dawood who works with a perfume retailer. Yes, people do go to malls, he agrees. But the lure of the souk continues.
If only, there was better parking, rues Kaiser Shahzad, who continues into the third generation, the handed-down legacy of a sweetmeat shop. Aloo Basheer’s samosas have been doing the rounds for 45 years; so excuse the driver ahead if he brakes his car to make a quick purchase.
And there are new people (youngsters to boot) like 25-year-old Farman Ali, who shifted from another corner of the city to Bab Al Bahrain, recently. He has opened a shop for antiques and pashmina shawls. When Westerners visit, he says, there is good business.
Another turn takes you to the “Fish corner.” Around the statue of two fishes caught in a cross-leap, people sit – idling away on a Monday morning. Video shops selling pirated audios, book shops with magazines from around the world, multi-hued posters, gold shops, clock repairers, sweet vendors, toy corners, and then, a small board that simply states: “Goods once sold can be changed but not refunded.”
Up ahead, two old men pull heavily laden hand-carts with ease while nearby, two much younger ones sweat and swagger trying to pull up a medium-sized refrigerator…
A broken down restaurant has the name of fairy-tale princess. There aren’t pumpkin carriages outside; only an old woman reaching out her hands for alms.
By another alley, another old man, his yellow cane fortified with green plastic tape, has been striking the same posture for many hours. Despite the outstretched palm, the man has a dignified grace – one that only age can lend.
The sun is shining on him, and a lady, caught in the traffic jam, reaches out to give him a coin. He stands up laboriously and in returning to his seat, decides that sitting down might be too much trouble for his age. So he saunters on…
Like the sad, old tale of Bab Al Bahrain…

ENDS

Harley Matters

2006-04-08T20:15:00.000+03:00

Mother and daughter vroom down Bahrain’s highways

By Rajeev Nair

Roll out on a Harley-Davidson and you ride into a family.
That is what Harley-Davidson riders in Bahrain have realised ever since the motorcycle company opened dealership in the Kingdom.
Leading Bahrain’s HD flock of 146 men and 3 ladies is Lisa A. Schlensker, a gutsy Texan, who has been living in the Middle East since 1991.
She was first photographed on a Harley when she was only three years old, along with her uncle. She learnt riding from her brothers and passed on the passion to her four children.
Today, having been there and seen it, riding a Harley from Geneva to the south of Portugal for days and days together, Lisa is compelled to see the bike as less of a mystique. “It is a job for me,” says Lisa, who is the Middle East Manager for Harley Owners Group.
But the fun element of Harley is kept alive by her children, all four of them, though today it is Rhiannon Kelso, who wouldn’t tire riding on a Harley. An account executive with T&M Eventscom WLL, Rhian likes “to put the knapsack on my back, go visit a friend, hop into a mall…” all on the HD.
The bike runs in her veins. “It is family. When you go long distance, together with people who have the same goal of getting on the road and feeling the wind on your hair, you forget everything,” says Rhian. “The road never ends, and when you live to ride and you ride to live there is something magical about it.”
It is that “magical” feel Lisa refers to as the “mystique.” Harleys have been her business ever since she opened the first dealership for the bikes in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia with Rhian’s father, Larry Kelso, in 1997. Since then, Harley dealerships have been opened in Jeddah, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Riyadh and Qatar.
“I am a single mom, I have four kids,” explains Lisa. “It is important for the job to succeed. I cannot look at it just as a Harley rider. At the end of the month, I must bring in the numbers.”
But the business-talk immediately gives way to reveal the true passion binds the HOG family in the Middle East. “Being the HOG Manager is a non-paying job but it is very important to bring the knowledge of what HOG is to the Middle East.”
HOG, today, has more than one million members and being part of the group is to be part of a lifestyle that hinges on social activities including raising funds for worthy causes and pertinent issues. “HD crosses all boundaries,” says Lisa. “It crosses over everything.”
For the very reason that HOG does not demarcate people on sex, religion, nationality or culture, Lisa feels it is “no issue” that she, a woman, is heading HOG in the region. “The vice president of HOG is a woman; women enjoy high positions in the company. That is normal because HD is about family and women are traditionally better at the thought process than men.”
Yet, being a woman Harley rider matters in the Middle East because “it (seeing them on a Harley) shocks the hell out of people,” says Lisa.
For Rhian, it is a matter of personal safety when men in cars move closer to take her mobile-phone shots. “I don’t think they realise that they are endangering my life by coming too close.”
Motorcycle safety is an issue everywhere, adds Lisa. “It is a proven fact that cars do not see bikes. You must therefore make yourself incredibly visible,” which the flashy attire of HD riders accomplishes.
In the Middle East, the HOG family has over 1,000 members including 50 women. The number grows at an impressive 20 per cent annually. In Bahrain, apart from Lisa and Rhian, two Bahrainis, Sumer and Soha, keep the flag flying high for the fairer sex.
Lisa and Rhian debunk several “theories” about HD riders. Their leather jackets, steel chains, heavy boots and the thunderous roar of their machines contrast the fact that an average HD customer is a “46-year-old, college educated, drawing a 6-figure US dollar income,” says Lisa. “They are bankers, lawyers, doctors, sheikhs, princes, movie stars, you name it… and also truck drivers and plumbers. That is what is so cool about it.”
Cooler still is the fact that when you are part of the family, and you know there is Lisa, like a proud mama, riding behind you, correcting you, cautioning you, shouting at you as if you are a kid, you become part of the group.
As Lisa says, “then you feel the togetherness, sense a magical energy and once you enjoy it, you are hooked for life…”

ENDS