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Roots of civil unrest

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"Al Bander Report": Demographic engineering in Bahrain and mechanisms of exclusion. Maintaining Sectarian Division and Penetrating NGO’s The Al Bander report: what it says and what it means English Translation of AlBandar Report -Part1 English Translation of AlBandar Report -Part2 Original Report [Arabic] - Part1 Original Report [Arabic] - Part2 Summary and analysis By Zara Al Sitari, Bahrain Center for Human Rights- September 2006 A secret web lead by a high government official, who is a member of the royal family, has been operating in Bahrain with an aim to manipulate the results of coming elections, maintain sectarian distrust and division, and to ensure that Bahrain's Shias remain oppressed and disenfranchised, according to Dr.

"Al Bander Report": Demographic engineering in Bahrain and mechanisms of exclusion

The full 216-page report (in Arabic) can be downloaded from here (31MB). The secret web works through a media group, an electronic group, an intelligence team, a newspaper, a Shia to Sunni conversion programme, and civil societies to carry out these activities, the report says. How the web works: Main Operator 1: Dr Raed Shams What it means: The socio-economic foundations of Bahrain’s political crisis. A study of income inequality in Bahrain highlights the failure of the Government to extend its aid to those who need it most.

The socio-economic foundations of Bahrain’s political crisis

A few months ago, Bahrain’s Economic Development Board released a study for the third quarter of 2011 on income inequality in Bahrain. The study shows that the poorest 40% of the Bahraini population only got poorer in relative terms between the years 1995 and 2006, as they witnessed their share of the total annual income drop from 19.6% to 18.1% only. The report also highlights the shortcomings of the Ministry of Social Development and Human Rights’ social aid scheme, namely its failure to cover a considerable portion of Bahraini households that earn less than BD463 (approx. $1228) per month and that consequently fall below the country’s relative poverty line.

The report should not come as much of a surprise, as it merely articulates a dynamic of resource distribution that has been at work in the country for decades. Bahrain and the re-emergence of a middle ground. One of the first lessons you learn in news it that it’s usually the first narrative–not the best narrative–that becomes the narrative.

Bahrain and the re-emergence of a middle ground

A great example was on display yesterday, as Bahrain’s Independent Commission of Inquiry released its report into the events of February and March 2011. Within moments of the report’s release, which took place to great fanfare in the King’s palace, the newswires (AP and AFP, namely) picked up on one word–”excessive”–and ran with the headline: The commission had used excessive force to crush protests. It didn’t take long for everyone from CNN to The New York Times to Al Jazeera to get on board with that headline. That finding–an important one–is true and incredibly important. But I was a bit disappointed it soon became the only story. The other conclusions fall into two categories: important things the report finds and important opportunities the report provides. First, some of the report’s important findings: Like this: Like Loading...