Category: Politics
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The Flaws of Democracy
It’s not that I don’t believe in Democracy, but the way we work it these days is a big flaw. The direction we are moving towards promises nothing but catastrophe, and we need to adjust our headings. For a long time I’ve been arguing much about emotional decision making, and now, it is more…
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The Crown Prince and The Future of Bahrain
It was a happy day to me, when we all found out that His Royal Highness The Crown Prince of Bahrain was appointed the First Deputy Prime Minister to develop the performance of the apparatus of the executive branch. Since that day, a bit more than three weeks ago, many things have happened, many signs of…
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Bahrain’s Engagement With Western Journalists
Image courtesy of http://www.npr.org A few weeks back, I was contacted by Jason Stern, someone I knew from contributing to a previous project of his, asking about press freedom in Bahrain. Jason mentioned that he now works with ‘Committee to Protect Journalists: Defending Journalism Worldwide.’ We spoke for a while and I answered his questions…
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Fighting With Numbers
Is democracy all about numbers? Is it only about what the majority says? I’m not going bluntly say yes or no, I’ll take the easy way out and say it depends. Please, allow me to explain. Everyone interested in Middle Eastern affairs for the past couple of years have been deeply fooled, or fooling himself,…
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Chewed by the Lion’s Teeth
Once, a famous poet lived, more than 1100 years ago, by the name of Abo Tayeb Al Motanabi. He once said in one of his famous poems: “If you see the readiness of the Lion’s teeth, then do not assume that the Lion is smiling”. This verse is so simple and logical in its nature,…
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What I Want From The Dialogue
You may heard that the second dialogue in Bahrain will soon begin. There are many topics in my guess that social/political/government organizations will discuss, which most definitely include the issues where no consensus was reached in the first dialogue about a year and a half ago. They will include elections and how currently the electoral…
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It’s a Small Island After All!
Yes I always emphasize the significance of education, of knowledge, and of understanding to the various aspects of what makes a society seem the way it is. Bahrain, The Kingdom of Bahrain, is a small Island, but yet many around the world and internally fail big time to understand the domestic politics. The way I…
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What is Democracy?
I bet many of you have no idea what democratic institutions are. Whenever and wherever I go, the majority of people I face and engage in a discussion about democracy tend to define it the way they hear about it in the news. Today, TV, Internet, and Print media do offer a lot of insights…
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GCC Love, It’s Complicated!
This week was very hectic for me. Not physically, but the mental demand was massive. Back in the days when I was in the Army, I had enough time to do a lot. Somehow, I found time to do everything, including hours every day to keep up with preparing for my next set of lectures,…
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Common Sense 101
In 2001, I graduated from The Citadel and went directly to pursue my Masters in International Relations at The American University in Washington, D.C. There, I met Dr. Clovis Maksoud, a former Ambassador of the Arab League in the United Nations. In one of the courses I took with him, he said something that till…
Dr. Saqer AlKhalifa 