It's the economy, stupid!

I’ve been on hiatus for the last few days. As a newcomer to this thing called blogging, I feel that I must choose my battles wisely instead of commenting on trivial matters if I am to gain an audience. Simply put, I’ve been looking for something to get my juices going. Something that really pisses me off, depriving me of my inner peace and my naïve belief in the innate wisdom of the Bahraini people. One mustn’t look too hard for this thorny nuisance, as it makes itself visible frequently on the last page of “al-Waqt” newspaper. Yup! You’ve guessed it! I am speaking about none other than the innocent looking Ms. Lamees Daif!

Now you might ask yourself, how this cupcake of a journalist can get under your skin, Mr. Nationalist? Well its simple. Because she doesn’t know what she is taking about!! See, every few weeks, when something malfunctions around the house, a clever little Indian handyman named Francis comes around. Whether it be faulty pipes or a crack in the wall, this man gets shit done. Unfortunately, journalists in Bahrain are not as versatile as Francis, but they think they are. Just because you maintain a column in a newspaper doesn’t qualify you as an expert on all matters of life, whether economic, political or whatever, Ms. Daif.

http://www.alwaqt.com/blog_art.php?baid=11028

Before I get way ahead of myself, above is a link of the article. The essence of what Ms. Daif is trying to say is that the current global financial crisis is a load of rubbish, and private corporations and banks are simply using it as a scapegoat to fire Bahrainis, who are costly to employ, and hire cheaper foreign employees. As if that is not enough to show the reader the extent of Ms. Daif’s simple mindedness, she continues to blame the government for not stopping these PRIVATE enterprises from firing their employees.

Ms. Daif was quite right to point out that Bahrain has done pretty well considering the extent of damage this crisis has caused globally. That is all fair and good in my book! But Ms. Daif seems to refuse to accept that some blowback (in the form of job losses) is inevitable. She claims that the 237 jobs lost (237 is the number of registered complaints with the Bahraini Workers Union, according to her) are due to discriminatory hiring practices carried out by the private sector to sack Bahrainis and hire foreigners. Unless you have been living in a cave, Ms. Daif, or are completely ignorant, you must have heard about the devastating effects of the financial meltdown on other countries. The number of unemployed Americans increased from 13,724,000 to 14,511,000 this past month! If you are not quite convinced yet, let me use a regional example. Dubai, with its fancy towers rocketing up into the sky, has been rocked harder than anyone could’ve expected. People are losing their jobs left and right, and property prices are estimated to have decreased in value by %75. And you still refuse to accept that 237 can lose their jobs in Bahrain, Ms. Daif? We live in the again of globalization, you should be happy the numbers are that low.

Secondly, and I’ll keep it short this time as I feel like I’ve been too harsh on you, what do you expect the government to do? You drag them through the mud, and fail to offer a solution or a way out of this problem. Oh wait a minute, not only are you unqualified to touch on economic matters, but you are also a pathetically useless commentator on political matters as well! The private sector, as the name implies, is PRIVATLEY OWNED. Since we live in a capitalist society, the government cannot tell a company not to fire an employee unless it has a direct stake in it. Only in communist economies can the government interfere with the private enterprise. Luckily for you, Ms. Daif, we don’t live in a communist society. Otherwise, your silly little article wouldn’t be published because you won’t have freedom of speech!