Dear Radio Bahrain…

‘The Beat of the Gulf’, that’s what you like to call yourself. The only beating I can hear is the sound of my head against a brick wall when I listen to you. Oh, and there’s ‘The Gulf’s Number One’..is that ‘Number One Shit Radio Station’? Why or why is Radio Bahrain pure FAIL??

Is anyone listening to us, your potential audience who want to listen to radio in English, who don’t want to have to tune into that easy listening smoothy station or the BBC World Service because we want to hear local radio, radio with local news, a local flavour. Aren’t you ashamed that just over the Gulf, in Dubai we have Dubai 92. OK, so I’m not holding Dubai 92 up as the epitome of radio at its best but..

You just have to compare the web presence of both stations:

Dubai 92 has made the effort to produce a fresh, modern web presence with lots of information about programmes, presenters and regularly updated features to support their on air content. Meanwhile, over on the island of 2 seas..

you really party like its 1999. Yes, your website looks like it was last updated ten years ago. You could get a better result from a year 7 school IT project. It looks outdated and has ‘can’t be bothered’ written all over it. Pretty much sums up the station then.

What is wrong with Bahrain’s media? When the country is trying to present itself as a modern, business friendly destination its media is stuck in a rut. The radio and TV is not a national pride but a national joke. Where are the consultants to rebrand Radio Bahrain. Heck, you don’t even need to pay vast amounts of money to some overseas PR agency, you can just listen to people here on Bahrain. Look at Ammar’s Hala Bahrain Magazine. A local guy set this up, along with Bahrain Talent. You have the resources to rebrand Radio Bahrain right here under your feet.

But..it will take more than a new logo and a new website. You really do need to do a major spring clean. Keep Krazy Kevin, he’s a national treasure. Yes, I know that people moan about him but give him the breakfast show slot back, give him an excellent producer and a female co-host. Keep Marie Claire. She’s got the pipes for the job, all she needs is a producer. Producers should be working with a Programme Director whose  job it is make sure that Radio Bahrain has a ‘vision’ as to what it should be and that everyone is moving in the same direction. Until this happens, you will continue to sound like a bunch of amateurs. Even the late and great John Peel had a producer. It didn’t mean his hands were tied as to what music he  played, it just meant that he had someone there behind the scenes to make sure that his show was the best it could be. Binary Bill, DJ Imran can all stay too.

Please, oh please can you get rid of Ian Fisher. That man is only there behind the mic because he knows where the bodies are buried.  He must have something over you otherwise he’d be long gone by now. Or is there another reason? This is one fish that has definitely gone off.

I would like to finish by saying I’m writing this because I care. Every now and again and give you another chance only to switch over to the World Service after ten minutes. When will the day come when I’m pleasantly surprised by the new Radio Bahrain so much so that I stay in the car with the groceries melting in the boot because I can’t bear to switch you off?

Two very different Karbabads

Here’s a photo of Karbabad beach over the Eid Al Adha break in November:

and on New Years Day:

So what happened to the shack and the fishing boats? It was a very windy day on January 1st and the tide was certainly high. Since Eid Al Adha we’ve had a lot of stormy weather so maybe the shack was battered and destroyed by high tides and winds.

Happy New Year from Bahrain Taxi

This lazy old taxi has got of her arse and has decided to start blogging again. I will do it because it’s good for me, not because I’m particularly bothered if I have any readers. I used to get off on the amount of traffic that my old blog, Al Ain Taxi, used to receive and that compelled me to keep on blogging. At the time, Al Ain Taxi was one of the few blogs on Al Ain life and therefore I had a large and hungry audience! Once I moved to Bahrain, I discovered that I was a smaller fish in a bigger pond and therefore wasn’t getting the hits that I used to get. So I got disheartened.

That’s not the spirit at all, so one of my many new years resolutions is to pick up this blog where I left off, readers or no readers. After all, there are many Bahrain blogs that have died in the last year or so, some really good ones too.

When Michael Jackson Was the World To Bahrain

“After he was acquitted of child molestation charges in 2005, Michael Jackson pulled a disappearing act. At the end of June 2005 he went to Bahrain, the tiny 33-island archipelago in the Persian Gulf known less for its isolation than for playing host to the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet: If Jackson wanted to get away from all things American, he chose poorly”

When Michael Jackson Was the World To Bahrain

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Wanted: Female Lifeguards in Bahrain

Opening the GDN this morning I see another tragic drowning has happened yet again, this time a 9 year old boy. The government here is pushing for lifeguards to be on duty at all public pools and recommends that there should always be an adult who can swim supervising children in private pools. According to the article there is resistance to this because

“…families and pool owners said the presence of men at poolsides would be an invasion of privacy and go against Islamic traditions”

OK, so why not employ female lifeguards then? Just as we are seeing more and more female Bahraini taxi drivers wouldn’t it be great to see Bahraini women training to be internationally accredited lifeguards. Just a thought.

Majority think motorists in UAE ‘drive like maniacs’ – Transportation – ArabianBusiness.com

Majority think motorists in UAE ‘drive like maniacs’ – Transportation – ArabianBusiness.com

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So it’s not just me that moans about this particular little problem although I have to say that Bahrain has the safest roads in the region (12.1 road deaths per 100,000). I never drove in the UAE although as a passenger there was many a time I’d grip my knees til my knuckles were white. However, yet again pure ‘national pride’ has got in the way of common sense. Ishaq Al Falasi writes in response to the article  :

“..this is our country and we do own the roads, the air you breathe and the water you drink so keep on remembering such essential facts, and as said on many occasions, if you dont like it, i will gladly come and pack ur bags and drop you at your flight’s terminal. The problem is that most expats drive as though they still are in their jungles or rugged mountains…”

Sorry Mr Ishaq but I’d rather drive myself to the airport if you don’t mind…with my seatbelt on *lol*

UPDATE 21/6/09. Have a look at the website again, some of the comments make me wonder if there’s some people posting absolutely crazy comments just to wind the ajnarbies up!

Woken from my slumber

Making money out of Swine Flu

Not until Tubli Bay freezes over and Batelco increase their speeds and reduce their prices will Bahrain Taxi blog again!

OK, so it looks like Tubli Bay is not in line to become a rival to Funland but hey, it looks like Batelco might be coming up with the goods. Yes, I know its still lame compared to what we can get in the UK but at least its a start. While BT has been asleep she has mellowed a little thanks to the arrival of a little BT who came into the world last December via Jidhafs Maternity Hospital (a shout out for them, they were great). So I’m just happy that things are moving up a little bit in the internet department at least. All I need is for the driving to improve but a look at last weeks GDN says otherwise..

But I’ve already been there with the driving standards rants and I don’t even hoot the cut-in-fronters on the ‘crossr0ads of death’ anymore, I mean Ave 35 into Saar Ave junction (a well know author friend of mine who lives here calls it that). However, don’t relax too much, I still see enough tomfoolery to make my blood boil!

I’ve been in Bahrain for nearly two years now and I feel I have finally settled down a bit, but rather than being angry at everything and everyone I can see the wood for the trees and have opened my eyes to what a great place this can be. Having a baby makes you mellow…but not that mellow so this isn’t going to turn into a ‘what I did today on the way from Starbucks to Al Osra’ blog! Be warned!!!

If you’re British and you frequent The Aviation Club in Dubai, you’re fair game!

According to Nawaf of Al Ain.

This is his response to the news of our Hummer driver:

The husband and his friends
Posted by Nawaf, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates on Saturday 29 November 2008 at 00:08 UAE time

I wonder what this lady, her husband and friends had said to the young man. Maybe because they are British, their story could be adjusted and filtered as needed. The place where the accident took place reveals enough about the British people and their friends. All of you remember the British lady story, the one who was convicted of having an intercourse with a friend at the beach and have insulted a police man on his duty while he was advising them to go out of the public area.

Nawaf, my friend, there’s nothing like a mouthy Brit to get those anger juices flowing, don’t you agree? Maybe the policeman on Jumeirah Beach should’ve run over that sleezy couple with his 4×4, they did say some rather insulting things to that poor man, didn’t they.

Justice?

Two murders. One in Dubai, UAE and the other in Lowestoft, UK. Both of these men committed murder by running over their victims in a 4×4s. One man was jailed for life which means at the very minimum he will serve 21 years in jail,  the other man got 10 years and his car confiscated.

Now you would think the UAE with its harsher legal system would be the one dishing out the life sentance. You’d be wrong. Lets look at both cases:

The Dubai case involved a ‘young Emirati businessman’ named Omair Al Thani, no prizes for guessing that he’s not exactly scraping around the bottom of the UAE pecking order with a name like that. One night back in May this year he was inconventiently kept waiting for a little longer than he would like in a queue of cars outside the Aviation Club in Garhoud. Poor Mr Al Thani, sitting in his Hummer, was desperate to get going and there they are, in front of him, a bunch of British expats getting out of a taxi and taking far too long to move off. So he beeped them with his horn, flashed his high beams and expected the group to scuttle out of his way. Unfortunately for him, one of the men in the party wasn’t too impressed with Mr Al Thani’s behaviour and gave him some lip. This in turn wound up Mr Al Thani into a fit of road rage which led him to ram his Hummer into the group on order to ’scare them’. While two of the men where sent flying into a fence, the wheels of the Hummer went right over the woman.

Up to this point, you could argue that this was a accident, brought on by a fit of anger and that Mr Al Thani never intended to hurt anyone. However, anyone who would lose it enough to do this simply over having to sit in a traffic queue for a few minutes has some serious anger management problems and really shouldn’t be allowed behind the wheel of a car.

Rather than stopping his vehicle having realised the seriousness of what he had done, Mr Al Thani then reversed over the woman and then drove over her for a third time and sped off!

The judge on this case argued that Mr Al Thani’s ten year sentance was because murder was not premeditated:

“It was clear that the defendant was acting in a moment of anger and loss of control and thus the court rules out the presence of any element of premeditation,” Judge Nizami said.

The National Newspaper, 28/11/08

Surely though, having hit the woman and run over her he must have realised the seriousness of what he’d done and any rational person would not reverse over their victim and then drive over them a third time in order to make a quick getaway!

The Lowestoft case involved a the owner of a building supply firm and his girlfriend.  Christopher Cauter was described by the judge as having a ‘volcanic temper’. Back in July this year, witnesses saw his girlfriend get out of their Land Rover following a row between the couple. He drove into her from behind, knocking her to the ground before reversing over here and crushing her head. He then fled the UK to Thailand, having dumped his girlfriend’s body in the back of his car and abandoning it near Chelmsford in Essex.

The judge sentenced him to a minimum of 21 years saying

“The evidence has shown that you have been violent in the past on a number of occasions and that you are a danger to others”

BBC News online, 14/11/08

It can be argued that this murder was not premeditated either, that the defendant killed his victim in a fit of sudden rage.

So why did one man get a much harsher sentance than the other? What does this say about the UAE judicial system?

I see road rage every day in Bahrain. People become impatient extremely quickly and start to drive in a reckless manner putting life and limb at risk. All for what?

The person that flashes his high beams at you because he wants you to move out of his way. The person who beeps their horn and gesticulates behind you because you won’t illegally enter a yellow box at a traffic signal. The person who drives onto the pavement because they can’t wait while you make a left turn. The list goes on.

In my opinion, the pathetic ten year sentence which probably wont’ be ten years thanks to Vitamin W sends the message that road rage is not a serious problem and that losing your temper and killing someone is not as serious committing adultery. Where’s the logic in that?

Touchy-Feely Bahrain Taxi

Bahrain Taxi is back on the road having been alerted to a feature in last month’s FACT magazine. Apparently I’m not for the sensitive or conservative readers among you. Sod that, I’m still going to rant about the driving here until you all behave yourselves!

Anyway, in order to keep my more sensitive readers on side I’m adopting a more caring and delicate way of putting things. Here’s my first stab…

Dear Driver,

Please be nice and obey the traffic rules, stop tailgating and overtaking when you shouldn’t. Take your finger off the horn and chill. You will get to your destination soon. Oh and you might even prevent a fatal accident in the process. I can tell you that for free.

BT x