Placcy Bag Country

When I first came to Bahrain in 1985 my girlfriend explained it should infact be called, 'Placcy Bag Country'. Every single item bought from a shop had to have at least one plastic bag put around it before it could leave the shop.

She explained they even had assistants whose sole job was to fill up plastic bags with your household items and then hand them to you. And quite often the formula was: number of items bought = number of plastic bags

How times haven't changed.



Today whilst attempting to buy two apples and a banana I had to fight off the shop assistants (note, not singular) who were desperate to put plastic bags (note, not singular) on my three pieces of fruit. It's almost like the light bulb joke, except this one goes, "How many cold store assistants does it take to put a plastic bag on a piece of fruit?"

Having finally heard my mumblings of, "no plastic bag",  "NO plastic bag",  "NO PLASTIC bag", "NO PLASTIC BAG", "NOOOOO PLAAAASSSSTIIIIIIC BAAAAAGGGGG", it turns out there is a follow-up question, "But Madam, why don't you want one?"


contact:  nomoreplasticbags@gmail.com

Here's a recent article from 2008 in which Gulf Weekly cronicles Bahrain's addiction to carrier bags:


BAHRAIN'S shoppers have blown the chance to go green by protesting about a leading store's plans to place a nominal charge of 20 fils ~that's half a cent US~ for its plastic carrier bags to encourage them to switch over to reusable jute bags, writes Anasuya Kesavan.

Customers were so outraged at the suggestion that management at Geant hypermarket in Sanabis was forced to abandon the environment-friendly initiative. Set to have been implemented this month, the company cowered to customer power and the risk to losing out to competitors.

It appears the majority of customers were simply not ready for change. Some of their comments were so explicit that they cannot be repeated in a family newspaper.

Management of one of Bahrain's leading hypermarkets has admitted it was baffled by the reaction of customers to plans to save the environment.

Many shoppers at Geant were furious when told of an initiative to sell plastic carriers for 20 fils to encourage them to use reusable jute bags being sold at cost price.

A similar scheme in Dubai was implemented without any furore and bosses hoped they would get the green light here too.

Geant Bahrain carried out a four-month long customer consultation in a bid to convince customers that the proposal was a positive measure to help save the planet for future generations.

Safi Faruqui, marketing manager, said: "Rather than getting any encouragement for the initiative we received several nasty comments.

"It's clear that most of our shoppers are not ready to change their habits and are especially not ready to pay for plastic bags.

"Sixty-seven per cent of the respondents would rather use free plastic bags of reduced quality. So we have decided to introduce thinner and lesser quality plastic bags and continue educating our customers through our various promotional campaigns.

"There is a major lack of awareness about the environmental damages caused by plastic bags in the kingdom.

"In Dubai, we were able to introduce the new scheme from day one," added Mr Faruqui. "Although in Bahrain we gave our customers four-months to get used to the idea and offered reusable jute bags of two sizes for just 500 fils and 800 fils, we don't think they are ready for it.

"These jute bags are a non-profit venture introduced by the company to genuinely work towards protecting the environment. We wanted to discourage the use of plastic bags.

"We did consider introducing bio-degradable plastics but they are far too expensive and ultimately the cost will only get passed on to the customer. We were also aware that everything will not fit in the jute bags and were happy to provide plastic bags for carrying large items."

The money raised from the sale of plastic bags would have been donated for environment projects through the Public Commission for the Protection of Marine Resources, Environment and Wildlife.

Geant is not alone in its angst about plastic carriers. After spoiling shoppers with complimentary bags that at times equal the number of items purchased, supermarkets across the kingdom are now trying a variety of ways to educate their customers and work towards a 'plastic bags' free trolley.

Currently the number of plastic bags given away just by the kingdom's hypermarkets and supermarkets is staggering.

Annually, Jawad Business Group gives away 100 tonnes of plastic bags while Al Jazeera Supermarket requires six million bags of assorted sizes and Al Osra Supermarket distributes 1.3 million plastic bags.

Monthly statistics at Megamart reveals a mind blowing 22 tonnes of plastic bags while Geant Bahrain has a figure of seven tonnes and Lebanon Trade Centre needs four tonnes of plastic bags. Add to this the figures from the cold stores, fashion outlets and others and environmentalists fear the island could be sitting on an environmental time bomb.

Conventional plastic bags can take up to one thousand years to degrade, increasing landfill volume and contributing to the hazardous build-up of methane in landfill sites.

Astonishingly, despite many outlets offering jute and cloth bags for a small price -_and many having given them away free during promotions - only 2,000 cloth bags have been bought by customers of Al Jazeera Supermarket, 6,000 at Al Osra Supermarket and 8,000 at Geant.

The bottom line however, remains the reaction of customers. Harish Sewani, general manager, Lebanon Trade Centre, said that the biggest problem faced by the supermarket is the lack of awareness amongst shoppers who do not realise the problems created by plastic bags and the fact that they use on an average 20 to 30 bags for their monthly shopping.

Creeds of Islam

I'm writing (and updating) this post in response to various blog posts and questions in which there seems to be some confusion between the differences between the two main Islamic schools of thought; Sunni and Shia/ Shi'ite/ Shiite/ Sheea.

This post does not attempt to explain all, or even most differences.  These have already been endlessly discussed in many forums and in reality is way outside the scope of my knowledge.   This post is simply a very short, 'helicoper overview' to the main differences between the different followers of Islam, as an outsider.  The aim being to remove all emotional words and to simply present the basic facts.





To make sure I didn't make any terrible mistakes I had the post checked before posting.  However, having said that, please bear with me; I'm not Muslim.  If you do want to add any basic information, to enlarge and expand the scope of this posting, please feel free to post in the comment section at the end.  I'd appreciate it.


Two Schools of Thought
I think most people know Islam has two schools of thought; the Sunnis and the Shi'ites. Whilst Sunnis are the majority in most Islamic countries, the Shi'ites are the majority in Iran, Iraq and Bahrain.


Sunnis [sun-nee]
Sunni Muslims recognize four main groups:

Maliki [maal-le-key]
Founded by Abd Allah Malik ibn Anas (715-795 AD). His book on the rules of law is the earliest known Muslim legal text.

Hanifite [han-nee-fite]
Founded by An Numan ibn Thabit Abu Hanifa (700-767 AD), this school of thought is based in Iraq and stresses the use of individual opinion when making legal judgments.

Shafii [shaar-fee]
Founded by Muhammad ibn Idris ash Shafii (767-820 AD). Shafii was a member of Muhammad's Quraysh tribe and was a distant relative of his. Shafii followed his own path, creating rules and legal opinions on matters which were not covered in direct statements made by Mohammed.

Hanbali [han-baa-lee]
Founded by Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Hanbal (780-855 AD). Hanbal's legal schoolhas become prominent in Saudi Arabia because it is the only school accepted by the Wahhabi Muslims. This school places its emphasis on the Hadith as the source of law and rejects later innovations made by other schools, scholars and religious figures.


In addition to the four groups there are various Sunni sects:

Sufi [sue-fee]


In Sufism the spiritual and mystical aspects are emphasized and singing is encouraged as a form of worship.

Wahhabi [wa-haar-bee]
Wah’habis believe every idea added to Islam after the 3rd century of the Mulsim era is/was false and should be ignored. The founder of the Wahhabis was Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab.

Kahrijite [Khar-ree-jite]
In Arabic, their name means ‘to wander’ and were, in effect, dissidents and rebels and chose to separate from the main body of believers, feeling the majority of Muslims had lost the ‘true path’.



Shi'ites 
The word Shi'a is a shortened form of Shi'at Ali, which means ‘The followers of Ali’. Shi'ites belives the Phrophet should choose the mullahs and a mullah must be sinless if he is to lead the prayers.



In addition there are various Shi’ite sects:

Alawis [al-a-wee]
The term Alawis means ‘followers of Ali’ and are also known as Nusayris. Located mostly in Syria.

Baha'i [ba-high]
The Bahai’s came into being in Iran, then called Persia during the 19th century. Although the Bahai's are descended from Islam, neither they nor Muslims think of Bahai's as being Muslims.

Druze [druze]
This group diverged from mainstream Islam in the 11th century when some Isma'ilis started to believe God could be found in the personality of a Prophet or Imam.  Located in/ around Lebanon and Israel.

Ismailis [ish-mai-lees]
the Ismailis split from the main group of Shi'ites because of a dispute over who should be considered the next Imam.

Fatimids [fa-tee-mids]
The Fatimids are a successor movement to the Isma'ilis and are descendants of Fatima and Ali through the line of Isma'il. In the 10th century, their descendants became Caliphs in North Africa, and ruled Egypt from 969 to 1171.

Zaidi [zay-aye-dee]
Formed by Zaid, a grandson of Hussain, the Zaidis believe the true Imam must publicly assert his claim to the title.

Nizari [niz-zar-ree]
This sect is well known, but under a different name: the Assassins.




Image: Al-Idrisi’s map of the world, taken from: www.islaminchina.wordpress.com

Sex Braggart Behind Bars

Right now from the sidelines in Bahrain we're watching the unfolding of a story in Saudi Arabia that has it all, soap opera-wise. Trouble is, for the man involved, it's real and he's in jail.

So, about two weeks ago, a Saudi man appeared on an international TV documentary and talked, no boasted, about having sex with lots of Saudi women and sex toys. And even though the TV show was broadcast from another country, he is now in jail in Saudi.

Why? In reality he hasn't broken any Saudi laws, except possibly that of publicising vice [tash-here] and he would've been doing that outside the country when he filmed the TV programme.  It was for LBC in Lebanon.

So, what has he done in reality?  He's broken social code number one: Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever talk about private things in public. Never, Ever.  Seriously; never ever ever.  And especially don't talk, or even worse boast, in public about having sex with Saudi women.


Media Reports
This is what Muhammad Humaidan from the UAE English language newspaper, ARAB NEWS wrote a couple of days ago:

JEDDAH: The Saudi who appeared on LBC’s “Bold Red Line” weekly program boasting about his sexual adventures and showing off sex toys in his bedroom before heading out into the night to cruise for ladies was arrested on Friday, Jeddah police told Arab News.

Two other men who had appeared with him were also detained for questioning in connection to the controversial television segment.

“Ali Mazen Abdul Jawad and two of his accomplices were arrested early Friday morning in an apartment of his friend,” Suleiman Al-Mutawae, acting spokesman of Jeddah police, told Arab News on Friday.

“The two others were his colleagues in the TV program in which a Abdul Jawad spoke about his promiscuous acts, which is a violation of the Shariah regulations on the one hand and against Saudi customs on the other.”

The crime in question is whether Abdul Jawad’s comments constitute the crime of publicizing vice, which falls under the tash’hir (publicizing) principle under Shariah. Anyone publicly advocating sinful behavior can end up before a judge who can administer a punishment at his discretion, a verdict known as ta’azir.

“Investigations to find the full details of the violations are underway. The culprits will be handed to the legal authorities for further action,” Al-Mutawae said.

It was rumored that police arrested Abdul Al-Jawad on an earlier occasion because of the public anger caused by the bold revelations. Some have called for his execution and there has been talk of sentencing him to years in prison and lashes.

A number of people have been demanding in the local press and Saudi websites to punish the man. There are unconfirmed reports that LBC may cancel the program, however attempts to confirm these reports with the broadcasting company were unanswered on Friday.

How to Read & Write Arabic 19: GHayn

The last post in the, 'How to Read and Write Arabic' series looked at the lettter Ayn, a letter which has no equivalent sound in English. This posting we'll move onto it's sister letter, GHayn, a letter which is very similar in looks to Ayn, you just need to add a dot on top.


Writing GHayn
Because GHayn is a connector you'll know there will be four different forms of the letter (inital, medial, final and independent) all of which are shown below. The pencil lines with numbers indicate the order in which you should write the letter, whilst the pink highlights indicate previous letters (on the right hand side) and the letters which follow GHayn (on the left hand side):


independent


initial


medial


final



Making the Sound of GHayn
Even though GHayn does have an equivalent letter in English, it isn't that difficult to say and is definately easier than AYN to get right.  Just gargle for a minute or so with water, making note of the muscles you use and the sound you make. That in reality is what's needed when you pronounce GHayn.

And it's easy to remember: G for gargle and G for GHayn.

However, as with all the other Arabic letters which have no equivalent sound in English, it's strongly suggested you have the sound you're making checked with a native Arabic speaker, if you possibly can.


Photos
This week I'm going to change the format slightly.

Because this series has been going for quite some time, I think most readers will know the difference between the initial, meidal and final forms, this week I'm going to just use headings and photographs, without highlighting the letters. I'm doing this to make the exercises slightly more difficult and it allows you read the entire word, rather than just one letter.

Unfortunately I've only managed to find initial and medial GHayns, try as I might there doesn't seem to be a final or an independent GHayn to be found!



Initial








Medial










Hide & Seek
Now see if you can find GHayn in the photos below:








Good luck with practicing, be sure to come back in two weeks for the next letter of the Arabic Alphabet, faa.

Those Sexual Differences

No matter where I sit, or what's going on, this is the big question I'm always asked,

"How do you cope with Arab men?"

or,

"Which men are worse, Arabs or Europeans?"

or

"What's the difference between an Arab and a Eurpean man?"



Take a Deep Breath
The last time I was asked this question was after overhearing an Australian man make fun of his wife.  She'd spilt some red wine over their restaurant table and there was wetness everywhere.

Loudly he proclaimed to the world, "Oh she's always like that, making a mess." Chairs were scraped back over the floor so everyone could hear him, and he continued to made one big fuss mopping up the wine.

Waiters were summound over, and then over again, to provide more and more paper napkins, allowing him to continue mopping and tell stories about the endless times she had done similar 'wrongs'.

Somehow his actions summed it up for me; the differences between Europeans and Arab men. Bear with me though, this is a generalisation.

With Europeans the put downs are subtle ~or not quite so subtle~ but always implicit, in this case the wife was 'stupid', 'clumsy' and 'annoying' but the words weren't actually said. Stories are told and subtly the story is given support as the wine was mopped up - wifey is stupid.  Easy to miss, but endlessly occuring.

With Arabs when there is negativity against a woman, and it definately occurs, then it's explict. It's not the subtle recalling of stupidity. It's simply a put down and you know it's a put down.  In someways easier to deal with.  You can rant and rave and get annoyed and state what it is that has PISSED YOU OFF.

So if I'd been at the table with my husband and had spilt wine over the table the waiter would've been summonded and asked to clean the table, and very little would've been said. It's a public place and negativity about the family is not going to be spoken, in any form verbal or non-verbal, to the outside world.


Work
There is a glass celing in the Arab work place, but then I think there is a glass celing in the western world. I can still recall the Arab man who was introduced to me when I joined an organisation as a Regional Manager, and he thought I must be the new admin assistant.  However, when it came to promotion, it was the western men who were chosen by the western CEO over the women who were performing more effectively.


Mothers
There is a traditional role played by women which is completely and utterly respected in the Arab world and which is not taken so seriously, in general, in the western world.  That is the role of a mother.  In my experience it is held in the highest esteem, a useful key role in life and the one person who binds the family together.  Mother-in-laws are equally important and I'm glad to say there is no such thing as a mother in law joke in the Arab world.


Marriage
In the Arab world it seems to me there are key wing clippings for women and the legal system.  Marriage for example takes away many rights for a woman {see wgaw blog archives: pre-nuptual arrangements, Hourly Marriages and thinking about divorce?}.  


Sex
I think another issue involving women's rights in the Arab world is our objectification. We're either, 'good girls/virgins' or, 'bad women/whores'.
~Why any man would want to marry a virgin is true mystery - where's the good sex going to come from if a woman has never had sex before?~

I once asked an Arab man to explain this prediliction for virgins and he enlightend me with the explanation,
"It wouldn't be nice to walk down the street and meet a man who had had sex with your wife."

I questioned him a bit more and he replied in the same manner, from an Arab man's point of view it's simply about the embarassment that might be felt if you ever had to meet a man who had previously had sex with your wife.

He then went on to expand his thought with a proclomation it wasn't normal to like virgins and was in fact, "a perversion, like when people use leather stuff ..."

Life in the Student Lane

Today I was a student and the person I spent the entire day with, my co-student, was a sista; a gen-u-ine  flaps-down, ninja turtle, sista.

The first thing she said to me was, "Do you use perfume?" I had ladelled the Arabic perfume on this morning and could be smelt from 20 feet. I knew I was being set up, but answered in the affirmative, "Yes I do".

She wanted to know if I liked men to smell me when I was out of the house. Again I knew this was part of the guilt-trip set up, but answered in the affirmative, "Yes I do". To which she explained, I'm sure to protect me but in reality, using a verbal red rag to a bull, "It's haram to wear perfume. What if there was a man with a bad heart and he had terrible thoughts about you because you are wearing perfume and he could smell you?"

I've been here long enough to know about the perfume thing. And the time has passed where I'm supposed to be responsible for the actions of men I've never met. I explained, in a quiet, but firm and dignified tone, "If a man wants to have those thoughts then he's the one having the thoughts and it's for him to control them."

The cheeky cat then started on the nail polish, but I interupted her before she could start, "Oh, I know about the nail polish, that's haram too." {for an explanation of Haram; see wgaw archive: haram} Then the other sista chimed in, "Only on some days". As my husband says, "You always know when a Muslim woman is having her period because she wears nail polish for a week."

Then the sista wanted to know what I thought of Islam. Well, that's a difficult question when you're not Muslim and just been told the things you do are Haram. I answered as best I could, "It's great, but it's not for me", then she wanted to know, "Have you read the Qur'an?", and to which I could answer truthfully, "Yes, several times."

That seemed to satisfy something in both of us, and we continued getting to know each other and even chose to sit with each other and share experiences at lunch time.   It turns out I quite liked her.

But back to the blog.  I'm not really sure why I'm writing this post, maybe because today's issue has to to with cross cultural mis-communication and the fact that even with all these years experience I could have easily made one big cock-up, communication-wise, this morning.

I'm wondering if it's possible to ever become 100% fluent at communicating in another culture?

Something for the Weekend Sir?

Appologies to anyone who finds nudity an issue, but this is too good to hide away in the cupboard; a Kuwaitia gets more than she bargins for ....  Again sent by a friend in Saudi.

Women Taxi Drivers

This follows on from yesterday's post about women in the workplace.

"GO MUNEERA GO!"

Segregation

Today in class I had a student walk out on me.  I was teaching 'Report Writing' for a group of management trainees, nothing strange/funny there, except for this one man who wouldn't look at me.

I'd forgotten there is a school of thought here which doesn't allow interaction with non-relatives of the opposite sex, in any way, shape or form.  This means no looking at anyone of the opposite sex, no shaking their hand {see wgaw blog archive: shaking hands}, etc. In reality, not communicating with the opposite sex.

I've experienced this thought process for many years. When I lived in England in the 1980s I'd shared a house with an English woman called Jenny, who refused to speak to men; she was (and presume still is) a seperatist lesbian feminist.

Anyway, back to the man in the classroom this morning.  When I asked him to work on an activity with one of the girls wearing a hijab {see wgaw blog archive: hijabs} he went into panic mode (eyes flashing then quick movements away, total body recoil, sallow colour entered his cheeks), I over came this by doing a quick change around and paired him up with another boy.

However, at the first break he siddled up to me and said he was too busy to continue with the course, he had to go back to work to answer emails. I asked him to come with me to the course administrator to explain what was going on.  This he did, and although he wasn't paying for the course, we really couldn't force him to take part in something he refused to join.

Although it's strange to be rejected completely on the grounds of being a woman, I realised today rejection does become easier with age. What once fascinated me, finding out about thought processes I didn't understand, was no longer interesting.  But I was genuniely sad for him.  And for the girl in the hijab who had been quite embarassed by his obvious dislike for her.

Zaar Dancing in Mecca

Getting rid of devils through dance:

How hot did you say it was?

One of my favourite stories about the heat happened whilst we were in Jordan:

We were having breakfast in our hotel restaurant when a little girl from England threw her entire 3 foot body at the window and pressed herself as close as she could get to it. She raised her arms above her head and continued to press or wriggle her entire body into the window. Finally when she was sure of her vision and the warmth she was feeling, she turned around and said with some astonishment in her voice, "Daddy, Dad-dy, it's still sunny".


Summer's Here
It's the 11th July and summer is here.  Instead of talking about how hot it is and how it's impossible to do anything outside, today's post lists some of the ways you know summer has arrived:


1. In the lift you can’t tell if the fan is on or off, the temperature feels the same either way

2. The sweat starts building up on the top of your head and runs down your face, taking your make-up with it, then runs past your armpits and down the small of your back and ends up in puddles around your backside. Then if it’s really hot, it continues to run down your legs and past the backs of your knees

3. The temperature feels the same whether you are standing in the shade (55oC/ 130oF) or the sun

4. If when you open your car door you look at the shadows on the ground you can watch the heat leaving the car in curls. Then you enter the car, sit down and burn your bottom on the seat. You attempt to turn the steering wheel but it is so hot it burns the skin off the palms of your hand. And you think about wearing gloves so you can touch the steering wheel, but it’s so hot your hands have swelled and the gloves are now too small to put on. When you finally manage to sit on the seat you find all your CDs have melted in the heat so now you can’t play your music and the plastic ballpoint pens have bent in half so you can’t write with them.

5. The birds in the garden have their beaks open and are panting

6. The water in the open air swimming pool is too hot to swim in after 10am in the morning

7. Your glasses steam up when you go inside and hit the air conditioning

8. The windows in your house are full of condensation because there is such a difference in temperature between inside and outside

9. When you go to the toilet you can feel the heat on your bottom coming off the water because the water is so hot

10. You switch off the water heater and use the water from outside

11. The pavements are so hot they burn your feet through your shoes

12. When you enter your office building you’re soaked to the skin and everybody sympathizes with you over the heat. And they’ll also be able to tell you the last day it was cooler and will compare today’s heat with yesterday’s heat

13. You think you’re going to die from heat exhaustion

How to Read & Write Arabic 18: Ayn

The last few posts in the, 'How to Read and Write Arabic' series have looked at some difficult letters for non-native Arabic speakers, Saad, Daad, TTaa and DHaa.

This week nothing much changes because the next letter of the Arabic alphabet also has no equivalent sound in English; Ayn.

For me 'Ayn' was probably one of the hardest letters to learn in the Arabic alphabet.  Not only does it have no equivalent sound in English, or any other European language for that matter, it has four quite distinctly different formats when it's written.  I'm just glad it isn't/wasn't the first letter of the alphabet; what a nightmare it would be if this was the first letter to learn!


Writing Ayn
Because Ayn is a connector you'll already know there will be four different forms of the letter (inital, medial, final and independent) which are shown below. The pencil lines with numbers indicate the order in which you should write the letter, whilst the red highlights indicate previous letters (on the right hand side) and the letters which follow Ayn (on the left hand side):

Initial


Medial


Final


Independent



Making the Sound of Ayn
Ayn sounds just like it's written in English - ayn. However, it needs some attitude adding to it.  The sound for this letter should come from deep in your throat, from that area around your Adam's apple. Apparently the scientific phonological term for the sound is, 'pharyngal voiced fricative', or to you and me that constricting sound you make when you gag.

Put your fingers on your Adam's apple and now gargle and make the sound of a large truck. It feels pretty daft, but you should feel your Adam's apple vibrate. Now control the large truck sound and change it in to an 'Ayn' sound.

As with the other letters which have no equivalent sound in English, it's strongly suggested you have the sound you're making checked with a native Arabic speaker - it's definately going to take some time to get Ayn right, but hopefully not too long.



To make this a wee bit more user-friendly you'll find some photos of Ayn below:

Initial
To start the word, or following a non-connector









Medial
When Ayn appears in the middle of a word

Final 
When Ayn is the last letter in a word


In this case, Budaiya, one of the suburbs of Manama in Bahrain


and in this case, Adfa or PAY




Independent



Hide & Seek

See if you can find the letter Ayn in each of the photos below:

What's Next?

I look forward to you joining me for the next letter of the Arabic alphabet; GHayn, a letter very similar to Ayn, but with a dot on top.