{"id":4036,"date":"2011-02-18T18:19:37","date_gmt":"2011-02-18T14:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=4036"},"modified":"2011-07-16T12:09:27","modified_gmt":"2011-07-16T08:09:27","slug":"bahrain-retaining-reason-in-a-battle-of-emotions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-business\/middle-east-media-analysis\/bahrain-retaining-reason-in-a-battle-of-emotions\/","title":{"rendered":"Bahrain: Retaining Reason in a Battle of Emotions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s four in the morning. Outside my window there\u2019s a full moon \u2013 the harbinger of madness. Cocks are crowing and the thak-thak-thak of nearby helicopters has woken me.<\/p>\n

I am not a news reporter. I was not at the Pearl Roundabout when security forces cleared the area. Nor was I at Salmaniya Hospital\u00a0counting the bodies and interviewing the wounded. In the past 72 hours I have had phone calls and texts from friends\u00a0 \u2013 foreigners and Bahrainis \u2013 on both sides of what has now become a divide. They have\u00a0been telling me their stories and perceptions of events. In my judgement, these people are not liars. They are people of goodwill who pass on what they hear \u2013 some in anger and some in fear. Or both.<\/p>\n

I have learned something in the past three days.<\/p>\n

It is easy to form judgements based on reports of events thousands of miles away. You see stories from newspapers you trust, TV channels you believe would report the big picture as well as the minutiae, and reporters you respect. And then you form a view.<\/p>\n

This is the first time since the troubles in Northern Ireland that\u00a0I have lived\u00a0in a country in such turmoil. But\u00a0in the\u00a0days of the IRA campaign I was firmly on one side. It was my country in jeopardy. I walked through the streets of a city gripped by\u00a0fear the morning after a\u00a0bomb had killed 20-odd young people in a pub I knew well. I had no Irish republican friends. I could understand the grievances that led to the riots and ultimately the bombing and killing that blighted the next two decades. But understanding them is not the same as hearing them from somebody you like and respect. And it\u2019s certainly not the same as\u00a0accepting that murder, maiming and intimidation are\u00a0legitimate activities in pursuit of a political end.<\/p>\n

What I have learned from Manama is a lesson in emotion. That it is not anger that drives people to uncharacteristic decisions, but fear. One side fears the loss of its privileges, its wealth and political primacy. The other fears for the future of its children. It fears that the next generation will not be able to fulfil its dreams. It fears that\u00a0the sacrifices of the older generation for the sake of the next one will be in vain. And fear begets\u00a0decisions that are often rational, but are based on assumptions derived from emotion. On an intellectual level I have known this for as long as I have thought about it. But this is the first time that I have witnessed at close quarters the effect of fear on both sides of the divide. Among friends and acquaintances who I always thought were on the same side.<\/p>\n

When you watch tanks crush bodies in China, or see emaciated prisoners in Srebrenica \u2013 all from the comfort of your own home \u2013 it\u2019s easy to respond emotionally. To feel outrage and indignation. To condemn. But when you watch the stones flying in Tahrir Square through grainy YouTube videos, you only have the scenes continually replaying in front of your eyes, and the guidance of reporters at the scene, to help you form a view. What\u2019s going on? Who started this? Why is this happening? Half the time, the reporters have no more information than you do. Again, you rely on media you trust, and take a view. And even if you can\u2019t take a view, you watch with despair \u2013 another emotion \u2013 at the acts of inhumanity unfolding.<\/p>\n

But when you are living among the protagonists, and you have friends in villages and palaces, your critical instincts go on red alert. You are torn between the evidence\u00a0presented to you, and an unwillingness to believe that this is the whole story. Because to accept the story wholesale from one side feels like betrayal\u00a0of friends on the other\u00a0side. You say to yourself: \u201chow can this be true?\u201d<\/p>\n

These conflicts are perhaps not so troubling for\u00a0Nick Kristof of the New York Times, who dismissed as \u201cpreposterous\u201d claims from the\u00a0government that knives and swords had been found\u00a0at the Pearl Roundabout, on the basis that he saw women and children sleeping peacefully in the hours before the clearout. Why preposterous? Is it\u00a0not possible that some of the protesters, fearing aggressive action\u00a0from the police, brought weapons into the square for self-protection, though not necessarily for acts of aggression on their part? Equally, would it be logical for knife-carrying protesters to carry out attacks on policement armed with batons, teargas and shotguns?<\/p>\n

I mention the sword story because Kristof starts his article with the statement that:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a reporter, you sometimes become numbed to sadness. But it is heartbreaking to be in modern, moderate Bahrain right now and watch as a critical American ally uses tanks, troops, guns and clubs to crush a peaceful democracy movement and then lie about it<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The emphasis on the\u00a0last five words is mine. Harrowing as his report is, the only evidence he presents for\u00a0one of his central assertions, that the government lied about\u00a0the\u00a0events, is the story about the knives and swords. Is that evidence sufficiently clear to justify such a blanket statement?<\/p>\n

Kristof\u2019s story <\/a>eloquently reflects the indignation of the people he interviewed in the aftermath of the clear-out. He quotes eye-witness reports of brutality, and states that he has seen the bodies. He goes on to say:<\/p>\n

\u201cSo here\u2019s what happened.<\/p>\n

The pro-democracy movement has bubbled for decades in Bahrain, but it found new strength after the overthrow of the dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt. Then the Bahrain government attacked the protesters early this week with stunning brutality, firing tear gas, rubber bullets and shotgun pellets at small groups of peaceful, unarmed demonstrators. Two demonstrators were killed (one while walking in a funeral procession), and widespread public outrage gave a huge boost to the democracy movement.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All of which may be true. But as far as I\u2019m aware, he didn\u2019t witness the \u201cacts of stunning brutality\u201d earlier in the week. He didn\u2019t mention claims by the government that those fired on had lobbed Molotov cocktails at the police. That last year during Ramadan there had been alleged attacks on police in the villages, and that an innocent bystander from India had been\u00a0severely burned when his car caught fire, and that he subsequently died in hospital. That across many of the roads of Manama there are the scars left by tyres laid across the highway and set alight. He didn\u2019t consider that the violence inflicted upon the protesters might have been motivated to an extent\u00a0by fear on the part of police. They are humans too.<\/p>\n

I am not picking apart Kristof\u2019s article to justify the actions of the government or those of the protesters. I am doing so to make the point that he represents the New York Times, one of the most influential newspapers in America. And that if I was an American citizen\u00a0reading his piece, and I knew little about Bahrain, I might\u00a0have some sympathy for his suggestion\u00a0that it was time for regime change, made\u00a0with\u00a0the very simple conclusion that \u201cwhen a king opens fire on his people, he no longer deserves to be its ruler.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps\u00a0I would have come to\u00a0that conclusion if I was free of the welter of conflicting opinion and emotion to which I am exposed as a close bystander who actually lives in the country. But I probably wouldn\u2019t have considered that by the same logic it would have been right for Great Britain to have forced the abdication of Queen Elizabeth II after the shooting by paratroopers of 13 citizens in the 1972 Bloody Sunday riot in Londonderry, or for America to have impeached Richard Nixon after the Kent State shootings in 1970.\u00a0Yet in neither case did the vast majority of citizens consider such action to be either feasible or desirable.<\/p>\n

Emotions I understand. Kristof is human, and he feels emotion about what he reports. But what I have learned from this event \u2013 through experience rather than theory \u2013 is that it is easy to come up with clear-eyed conclusions when you witness one end of the emotional spectrum and don\u2019t consider all the other emotions in play.<\/p>\n

By writing this I realise that I run the risk of upsetting one body of opinion or the other. So be it. But I want\u00a0any Bahraini reading this to\u00a0understand that any form of violence, anywhere in the world, makes me sick to the stomach. I am for Bahrain. I love this small island and I love its people. I believe in human rights, in equal opportunity and the rule of law. These are my emotions.<\/p>\n

But if there is to be a way forward that does not involve repeated cycles of violence, it will be because the parties in conflict recognise the emotions of the other, rise above instincts for revenge and retribution and reach a settlement in which there are no losers. Too soon for that, perhaps. But with wise people to the fore, Bahrain can get there.<\/p>\n

[youtube]http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KsG3nTVtIL8[\/youtube]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STEVE ROYSTON: It\u2019s 4am. Outside my window there\u2019s a full moon , the harbinger of madness. Cocks are crowing and the thak-thak-thak of nearby helicopters has woken me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":4037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136,56,83,44],"tags":[423,18303,4490,18343,18300,2307,1314,4704,2756,4700,2529,707,4699,4243,4701,399,2520,2278,18322,18337,365],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4036"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}