Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
It never ceases to amaze me how differently two people can see the very same thing. Not long after writing my article about the virtues of a good argument last week I was shown a classic example of everything I'd had to say on the subject when a person I was talking to was telling me how much they love their job here but how much they hate the place and the culture.
Having lived in this part of the world for most of my life I have to admit my hackles went up and I found myself very much on the defensive
It's something I've seen time and time again. People leave there own countries to go live and work somewhere else and then complain that the culture is backward or that's the people are oppressed. They're so convinced that their way of life is the only good way of life that it seems impossible for them to see that other cultures are perfectly happy with the way things are and that interference from the outside world isn't welcomed.
They come here and insist on trying to continue living their lives the same way they would back home, refusing to learn from or integrate with the local customs and way of life. I've lost count of how many people I've met who won't even try the local food, preferring instead to stick to the global fast food chains they know from back home or the myriad of restaurants that will feed them something they recognise, rather than trying something new.
When I called him on it he said that I should talk to more locals as the opinion he'd formed was echoed by the Bahraini people that he'd spoken to. I tried pointing out that due to the nature of his job, the cross section of Bahrainis he came into contact with was very small and localized and that if he bothered to get out and talk to the average person on the street he'd hear a very different point of view.
My point being that on every corner of the earth (yes I know the earth is round but just go with me on this one) there are locals that are unhappy with the way their country is run, you only have to look to what's going on in Iran to see proof of that, but there is usually a much higher percentage of people who are happy and proud of the their country and what it's culture stands for. Bahrain and other countries in the region are no exception. Of course there are those here who would like to see the country become more westernised but the culture here is thousands of years old and has been ticking along very happily for all that time. Not because the people have to do it that way, but because the people want to do it that way.
Yes there are those who would like a change and unhappy youths who can't find jobs take out their frustrations by burning tires and going on protest marches, but if you look closely at their reason's it not because they want an entirely different way of life, they just want a fruitful and successful life within the boundaries of their existing way of life.
Yes there are those who would like to see the government run in a different way but there are far more who are happy with the way things work here and thrive on it in a way they would never be able to if things here were run the same way they are in the western world.
It works because it's the way it's always been and not because, as my opponent tried to say: "They don't know a better way of life".
I have to admit that my irritation turned to amusement at those words. I suddenly realised I was talking to someone who basically had no idea what they were talking about. They were exactly the type of person I was writing about last week when I said that in order to be able to express your views with any credibility you had to be able to see things from the other person's point of view, even if you didn't agree with it.
I'd have had a little more respect for what he was saying if he'd swapped the word 'better' for 'different' since just because something is different doesn't mean its better but whatever word he used would still have elicited the same response in me because to imply that the masses here don't know what the western lifestyle is like is just preposterous. Television, internet and newspapers make it impossible these days not to how the other half lives. Not to mentions the millions of people in this part of the world that go off to study, holiday or spend a few years living in the west before coming back to settle happily back into their own cultures.
But then how could I be surprised at this man's attitude when the likes of French president Nicolas Sarkozy (who should be leading by an example of tolerance) wanted to ban the veil for Muslim women claiming that it's forced on them. More and more these days we see the younger generation of women here choosing to wear the veil, not because they have to but because they've made the decision for themselves.
Many in the outside world are convinced that women here have no choice, and in some cases that can be true but in many more cases, the way of life here is a matter of choice. Isn't that the very premise of western democracy, freedom of choice?
With that being the case, it's high time that closed minded visitors to this part of the world understood that not living life the way we do back home is a matter of choice for the majority here. Who is the western world to tell them it's wrong?
