Summer daytime temperatures in Bahrain easily creep up to 46°C, making even minor outdoor ventures feel like expeditions into the mouth of a whistling kettle. But while the climate saps energy, it has yet to drain the passion and rage coursing through this tiny Arab kingdom, as tens of thousands of protesters proved last week.
The demonstrators marching outside Bahrain’s capital Manama were mainly from the Gulf country’s Shia community, a majority of the 1.2 million population, yet held at arm’s length from any true power. They were objecting to the country’s so-called “national dialogue,” a jamboree of state-appointed MPs and civil society activists supposedly aimed at delivering political reforms. The authorities insist this is a genuine reconciliation effort in response to the pro-democracy uprising in February and March, and the subsequent bloody military crackdown that left 30 people dead. But protesters say the dialogue only offers the veneer of change in a country where the establishment is loath to cede control. More...
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The demonstrators marching outside Bahrain’s capital Manama were mainly from the Gulf country’s Shia community, a majority of the 1.2 million population, yet held at arm’s length from any true power. They were objecting to the country’s so-called “national dialogue,” a jamboree of state-appointed MPs and civil society activists supposedly aimed at delivering political reforms. The authorities insist this is a genuine reconciliation effort in response to the pro-democracy uprising in February and March, and the subsequent bloody military crackdown that left 30 people dead. But protesters say the dialogue only offers the veneer of change in a country where the establishment is loath to cede control. More...
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