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Monkey See, MonkeyDo!
BY TARIQ KHONJI |
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| ISN'T it funny seeing people calling for democracy while destroying public and private property - and actually demanding restrictions on personal freedom? Bahrainis are good people, but some are way too easily swayed to the left and right. If a religious leader told them that drinking water was bad for them, many would probably believe it.
Take for example, the controversy surrounding the introduction of personal status laws, which aim to give more justice for women in the courts. Less than 100 women turned up at a rally to support it, while literally thousands demonstrated very passionately against it. What is going through their minds, I wonder ? “What? They want to give us the right to divorce our abusive husbands! How dare they! What next? Equality before the law? How can they do this to us!” This reminds me of a poll conducted before the last parliamentary elections, in which over 60 per cent of the female respondents believed that women should not have the right to vote. That's like saying: “We think we shouldn't be allowed to think.” What are you doing out there protesting then? Get back in the kitchen, woman! A colleague of mine gets deeply offended when I refer to these people as the ‘dumb masses', but I make no apologies for calling ‘stupid' by its name. The country suffers from a severe case of ‘monkey see, monkey do', which is why I think Bahrain is making a critical mistake by keeping education on the backburner, while it ploughs forward with labour and economic reform. There's more to learning than reading and writing. A revamp of the education system is needed fast, because the effects could take decades to be felt. There needs to be less emphasis on religion (brainwashing begins early) and more on critical thinking, because when you can think for yourself, a lot of ideals which were previously untouchable come crashing right down. Nothing should be perceived as beyond sound critical thought, in a mature civil society. No exceptions can be made for religion, authority figures, nationalism, tradition or anything else, because then you can never take things to the next intellectual level. Democracy can never work among monkeys !
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