About a year ago, I wrote in my previous blog about an idea I long had which I believe would solve many of Bahrain’s problems. I was very creative, very imaginative, but very serious. I looked into the increasing health issues we are facing in Bahrain, such as diabetes and obesity. I looked into the financial strains and energy problems. And finally, I looked into the lack of awareness each of us citizens have with regards to those problems.
My solution was to kill all those birds with one stone. I suggested that we dedicate large spaces in different parts of Bahrain and fill them with stationary cycles, treadmills, and other resistance sports machines. We then connect those machines to large batteries, where they would be charged when people are using those machines. The batteries in turn would provide electricity to nearby homes and/or facilities.
Here’s the thing, since there is free healthcare in Bahrain, we can make it mandatory for those seeking this free service to register certain amount of Watts per month on those machines. If they don’t reach the required number to charge that large battery, they would not be eligible for free healthcare, only a discount based on the output they produced.
Moreover, anyone interested in serving his society or doing charity work can jump on those machines, and perhaps gets a certificate. The rich can obviously provide for their healthcare so they wouldn’t necessarily need to register their hours, while the poor who cannot afford to pay for healthcare can entertain their bodies with a good level fitness while registering their hours and charging the ‘environmental friendly’ batteries.
Yes very creative and very imaginative, but hear this. I was invited few months ago to visit Guilford College in Greensboro, NC. While taking a tour, our guide was pointing to different buildings and the technology behind each of them that makes them extremely environmental friendly. When we entered the gym, I was surprised to find out how ‘imaginative’ and ‘creative’ they were. My idea was right there in front of me. The tour guide pointed to the stationary cycles and treadmills and mentioned that they were connected to batteries that provide electricity to the gym! Wow! I was so proud.
We all have great ideas like mine, but one main problem exists that makes them stop right there in our minds and never actually see light and reality. Why is that?
See the birds I was talking about above and the single stone to kill them all? When we reach the implementation phase, it requires coordination and collaboration by many government entities, which is something we seriously lack. What we do instead, is get very imaginative and creative in killing one bird with one stone, and there’s nothing so special in that. Each ministry finds solutions for its own issues which in turn is not the optimal thing for the collective government. At the end of the day, the solution is very costly, very inefficient, and very sad no matter how electronic it sounds. We, the people, end up having less and more costly services.
I have almost twenty different examples off the top of my head, but because they are directly related to my full-time job, it is ethically irresponsible to share it in public. However, what I can say for the love of my nation, is that we can easily look at successful manufacturers that use recycling materials as their raw material. We can see how they successfully were able to lower the cost of their products through this process, which in turn helps us the consumers able to afford buying them. Let’s see and learn how each of their departments operate in collaboration to become more environmental friendly, search for cheaper raw material, and become more competitive in the market.
Before finding solutions to our problems, we should first find ways for our government entities to work more coherently with each other, that should solve most, if not all our problems.
Dr. Saqer AlKhalifa 
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