On the Qatar Bahrain naval skirmish 25, May 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Bahrain, Qatar.Tags: Bahrain, Fishing skirmish, Gulf naval skirmish, Qatar, Qatar Bahrain skirmish
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A few more scraps of information regarding the Bahrain-Qatar skirmish:
- The GCC are discussing a system that would allow each member state to fish within each other’s boundaries, reinforcing the idea that it was just a fishing-border demarcation incident
- Manama said that Doha is still holding 106 Bahraini fisherman
- Qatar downgraded its representation at a Bahraini Petrochemical conference
- This incident where the Qataris shot a Bahraini fisherman comes less than a year after a Qatari coastguard boat rammed a Bahraini boat over, I believe, similar issues
- The Bahraini Foreign Minister (rightly) said that the Qatari coastguard ought to have shot at, for example, the ship’s engines and not the sailors
- Qatar initially dropped all charges against the sailor that it shot and his crew but later changed their minds. They also refused to let a Bahraini medical crew visit him.
Update:
Qatar has released 9 Bahrainis who had been held over the recent trespassing incident.
The (unusually informative) article in the Gulf News also pointed out a latent issue between Qatar and Bahrain being Qatar’s refusal to acquiesce to the appointing of Mohammad Al Mutawa, Bahrain’s former information minister, as rotating GCC Secretary General. Although it is Bahrain’s turn to appoint the post, Qatar are apparently angry over Mutawa’s stance over the now settled border ICJ conclusion between the two countries.
Multiply raped maid repatriated & charges dropped against Saudi 25, May 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Saudi Arabia.Tags: human rights abuses, Maid human rights, Maid raped, Saudi Arabia, Saudi maid, Saudi rapist
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A Filipino housemaid in Saudi Arabia who was repeatedly raped by her employer over a period of three years is to be deported after the case was dropped. She was paid £1900 by the Saudi rapist as well as two months wages that she was owed totaling (for both months) £150. She also has to pay her own way home.
Hat tip: Al Bab
Kuwait to ban BlackBerry 25, May 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Kuwait.Tags: Ban Blackberry, Blackberry, Blackberry ban, Kuwait, Kuwait bans blackberry
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Kuwaiti dictators authorities are to ban BlackBerry Messenger service in the country. They are perturbed as it can be used “to spread rumour and call for strikes”. How scandalous. On hearing this did anyone else automatically think of Canute trying to hold back the waves?
Viciously racist Emirati comments on Indian plane tragedy 25, May 2010
Posted by thegulfblog.com in The Emirates.Tags: Indian plane crash, Indian plane crash comments, Racist comments
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This blog post appeared on http://www.al-emarati.com. It is a truly viciously racist, cruel, vile and stupid piece of writing, which seems to get worse every time you read it. Whilst there is never any logic or sense to such ravings, what exactly does he think would happen to the Emirates if all the Indians left? Whilst decrying their ‘pernicious’ effects on his country he wholly seems to forget that without the hundreds of thousands of Indians, Philippinos etc the Emirates would stop working overnight.
If he wants to live a wholly Emirati life without foreigners in his country then he needs – quite literally – to go back to the desert-esque lifestyle as his grandfather experienced. I do not mean this in a mean, pejorative way but wholly literally: there are simply not enough Emiratis to run a fraction of their own services and industries, ergo, if he hates foreigners so much then he needs to eschew every trapping of modern life.