Pluuuhhezzzze!

Oh my gosh. Honestly. Some stuff you just can't make up. A couple of things - but the first is what really got me. Pluuuhhezzzze! Get a grip.

Apparently there is [was?] a satirical sitcom being shown on MBC [Middle-East Broad Casting - or something like that - they have five channels on local television, here, in the Sandbox] called, "We are all the sons of Kraya." I have not seen the show - of the five channels MBC has, two are broadcast in Arabic and I'd be willing to bet that the show which is causing a bit of a fuss is on one of those. The sitcom has offended "the people of Bahrain after a [Saudi] character in one of the series said that he was going to Bahrain to have a good time in its discos." Yep. That's all it takes to put someone's knickers in a knot.

Bahrain has much to offer, over and above any entertainment here - aside from the fact that in Bahrain men and women are allowed to be in public places together without fear of being arrested, thrown in jail and lashed - it has great shopping and movie theaters and fabulous restaurants and water parks and more - it is not all bars and "discos." [If there is a disco in Bahrain, I don't know where it is. I've never been there.] I have posted before, though, how the Causeway is a nightmare because there are hordes of Saudi men who go to Bahrain for a good time that cannot be had here, in the Sandbox, and sit in bars dressed in their thobes and ghutras clutching their mug of beer or whatever spirit is to their liking in a glass. Yes, that irks me. You want to drink even though it is totally, totally, totally "haram" and against your religion, that's fine by me, but don't be so hypocritical about it. If it is fine for you in Bahrain, it should be fine for you in Saudi Arabia. You are part of the problem - not part of the solution. Do something to change the status quo, here, and work with the powers that be to get restaurants to be allowed to serve alcohol or get bars opened. [Damn! Just now - out my window - I saw a pig fly by!!!]

Really, though, it is worth getting all worked up over just because some sitcom depicted a scene in which a Saudi man tries to talk his brother into going to Bahrain to have fun in a disco? And, that that translates to, "The Arab viewer will conclude that Bahrain is abundant with alcohol, prostitution and sins?" Apparently, it is, and it does. Oh my...

Then, there is this. A debate over birthday parties. Draw your own conclusion, but mine is that because this is something that "Westerner's" do, it must be a bad thing. Is there anything good that comes out of "Western" society in "your" eyes? I just can't even go here... as it will put my knickers in knots!