De la débauche au Bahrain

Un article intéressant sur les moeurs des populations du Moyent-Orient. Surtout, je dois dire, c'est l'art de faire de la politique et de la mêler à la religion que je trouve admirable! "The Sunnis don't have any other political issues, so this is their priority," says Khalil Marzooq, deputy leader of the Shiite Al Wefaq bloc in Parliament. "But when they bring up something that's compliant with our religion, you can't expect us to oppose it. We don't want Saudi drunkards, and we don't need their money."

Lisez plutôt!

Upon Sober Reflection, Bahrain Reconsiders the Wages of Sin

Island Reliant Upon Debauched Visits From Thirsty Saudis Looks to Clean Up

The Wall Street Journal – June 10^th

By YAROSLAV TROFIMOV

MANAMA, Bahrain -- Every weekend, bumper-to-bumper traffic blocks the causeway into this small island nation as visitors from nearby Saudi Arabia flock to delights unavailable at home: movie theaters, bars and, for some, commercial sex.

With few other attractions, Bahrain's booming tourism industry thrives on the island's reputation as a freewheeling oasis just a short drive from major Saudi cities. Bahrain has little oil of its own; tourism, mostly by the four million Saudis who cross the causeway each year, accounts for a tenth of its economy.

All of this is endangered, as Bahraini legislators press to scrap the country's drinking laws -- currently the most liberal in the Persian Gulf -- and to impose near-total prohibition.

Alexander Yee via Flickr

The Twister Club in 2008 in Gudaibiya, Bahrain.

"I'm sorry to say, but Bahrain has become the brothel of the Gulf, and our people are very upset about it," says parliamentarian Adel Maawdah, one of the promoters of the new legislation. "It's not only the drinking that we oppose, but also what it drags with it: prostitution, corruption, drugs and people-trafficking."

The Parliament's elected lower chamber unanimously approved a motion last month to prohibit alcohol in hotels, restaurants, duty-free shops and aboard Gulf Air, the national airline. Lawmakers acted amid outrage over a widely circulated men's Web-site article placing Bahraini capital Manama in the world's "top 10 cities to pursue vice and debauchery." The prohibition proposal must now go to the upper chamber, appointed by King Hamad, and to the government for endorsement.

Not even Mr. Maawdah expects that Bahrain will enact a complete Saudi-style ban in the immediate future. The government, however, is likely to respond to parliamentary pressure with fresh curbs. "Nobody is talking about banning alcohol completely," says Sheik Mohammed bin Essa al Khalifa, chief executive of Bahrain's Economic Development Board and a prominent member of the royal family. Still, "we all want to put restrictions on sleaze, and this will be for the good of Bahrain."

Already, just before last month's Parliament vote, the government forbade alcohol and live entertainment in dozens of one-star and two-star hotels popular with weekenders from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, the two Gulf countries that outlaw booze. It also clamped down on prostitution, which is illegal but widely tolerated, rounding up and deporting hundreds of women. In earlier restrictions, Bahrain has begun to enforce legislation that prohibits alcohol consumption during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and has closed popular wine shops in residential areas.

"Step by step, they're tightening up," a Western diplomat says. "In the medium term, it may well come to a complete prohibition."

This drive contrasts with other Gulf monarchies, such as Qatar and Abu Dhabi, where harsh drinking laws have been relaxed lately. "When everyone else is opening up, we're going in the opposite direction," complains Ebrahim Sharif Alsayed, leader of Bahrain's secularist Waad movement. Bahrain's ruling family, he adds, "is allowing the Islamists to gradually Islamize the society."

Bahrain's alcohol debate is part of a clash between religious and secular values throughout the Middle East. But it also has blurred the country's sectarian divide, offering a rare point of agreement to Sunni and Shiite Islamists who've been at loggerheads for decades. While Bahrain's royal family is Sunni, two-thirds of the native population is made up of Shiites whose leaders complain of systematic discrimination.

Like Mr. Maawdah, the initiators of the alcohol ban are all Sunni Islamists aligned with the regime. "The Sunnis don't have any other political issues, so this is their priority," says Khalil Marzooq, deputy leader of the Shiite Al Wefaq bloc in Parliament. "But when they bring up something that's compliant with our religion, you can't expect us to oppose it. We don't want Saudi drunkards, and we don't need their money."

That's a viewpoint shared by Bahraini government officials. They point out that, regardless of alcohol, Bahrain offers wholesome family entertainment options that are outlawed in rigorously Islamic Saudi Arabia: multiplex theaters, a water park, and shopping and dining spots that aren't segregated by sex.

"We'd like to move away from the bachelor tourism to family tourism, where there is a higher spend per person," says Sheik Mohammed, the Economic Development Board CEO.

Not everyone is convinced this strategy will work. Unlike Dubai, the region's main tourism magnet, Bahrain has no beaches to speak of. Its plans for an ocean aquarium and indoor ski slope are years away from materializing, slowed by the global credit crunch. The country's historical sites are largely limited to a couple of medieval forts and the Gulf's first oil well.

"Do you think the tourists come here to Bahrain to see my face? There are tourist places in Saudi Arabia that are one hundred times better than in Bahrain," exclaimed Ahmed Sanad, president of the Bahraini Society of Hotel and Restaurant Owners. "They only come here to drink, and to have happy time with a Chinese or Thai girl."

Mr. Sanad's one-star hotel, Zubarah, is among those already hit with the alcohol ban, imposed on one-star and two-star establishments in April. Sitting in his office on the top floor, Mr. Sanad fished out brown envelopes with recent days' earnings -- averaging about 90 dinars ($238) a day for his 33-room building. Before going dry, he said, Zubarah raked in about 1,500 dinars a day and was packed with Saudis.

The bar on the ground floor was locked on a recent night. The adjoining coffee shop was filled with dozens of bored prostitutes sipping soft drinks, with nary a customer in sight. This was in stark contrast to three-star hotels on Manama's central Government Road that are still allowed to sell booze, and where crowds of Saudi males dressed in traditional Bedouin attire ogled exotic dancers while cradling ice-cold beers.

One of these Saudi visitors, Salman Homairi, says he comes to Bahrain almost every weekend from his home city of Dammam -- and that he will stay away if alcohol becomes unavailable. "You need a drink to be able to enjoy other things," he beamed. Another Saudi, Mahmoud Shammari, a 35-year-old father of two, chimed in to say that he could live with a booze ban as long as he still had access to "girls" in Bahrain, and then proceeded to list the prices for various nationalities of prostitutes prowling the lobby.

Mr. Sanad says he has no choice but to shut down in coming weeks. Instead, the hotelier is opening elsewhere in Manama a three-star hotel at the cost of 2.5 million dinars, hoping to obtain an alcohol license for the new establishment -- and to lure back his usual Saudi clientele.

Some other investors, however, are already sufficiently spooked by Bahrain's campaign against drinking to shelve any further spending. Paolo Arca, the Italian co-owner and manager of the Oliveto restaurant in Manama, says he's putting on hold a project to pour about 500,000 dinars into a second restaurant until there is more clarity on the issue.

"Who's going to come here if they can't drink anymore? Financially, the entire economy would collapse," Mr. Arca said, as Oliveto customers raised glasses of prosecco over a pork-heavy lunch. Should prohibition be imposed, he added, "I'll close down and go back home the next day -- and so would many others."

Write to Yaroslav Trofimov at yaroslav.trofimov@wsj.com

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page A29

Copyright 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Quotes

About children...

It takes a village to raise a child. (African proverb)

One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade. (Chinese proverb)

A three-year-old child is a being who gets almost as much fun out of a fifty-six dollar set of swings as it does out of finding a small green worm. (Bill Vaughn)

And my favorite:

It is not a bad thing that children should occasionally, and politely, put parents in their place. (Colette)

Des stages au gouvernement fédéral pour jeunes réfugiés

Interessante initiative du gouvernement fédéral que celle d'offrir des stages spécifiquement aux jeunes nouveaux canadiens dans un ministère fédéral. Pourvu que de telles initiatives s'ouvrent dans les "régions" et ne soient pas seulement offertes en capitale nationale, qu'elles durent plus longtemps que l'ère éphémère d'un gouvernement canadien et que leur impact se fasse sentir sur la jeunesse immigrante.

Durant la conférence du Réseau canadien de DEC (RCDEC), "Retour aux sources: partager une vision de la 7ème génération", une des questions que je me suis posées porte sur l'existence de ministères specifiques pour certains groupes: ministère de la jeunesse, Condition féminine Canada, Affaires indiennes et du nord Canada et Citoyenneté et immigration Canada (CIC). Pourquoi les emplois sont-ils strictement réservés aux membres de ce groupe pour ce qui est de certains de ces ministères (Condition féminine ou Affaires indiennes ou le taux d'hommes ou de non-autochtone est très bas -du moins dans les postes d'entrée) et pas nécessairement pour d'autres (Citoyenneté et immigration Canada pour les immigrants)?

J'ai toujours perçu le rôle de Citoyenneté et immigration Canada comme étant celui de simplement aider à faire entrer le maximum de personnes en faisant respecter la Loi sur l'immigration. Rien de plus qu'un "service de douane géant et sophistiqué", en somme. Je suis heureux de réaliser que me trompais. Peut-être un ministère d'avenir? En tout cas le fait que le programme du multiculturalisme y soit maintenant greffé va sans doute faire bouger les choses: le "Immigrant Settlement and Integration through Social Enterprise initiative" (ISISE) du RCDEC va recevoir des fonds de ce ministère justement pour aider les nouveaux canadiens qui lancent des initiatives en entreprise sociale et en développement économique communautaire dans le but de mieux s'intégrer dans leur nouveau pays.

Et il y a également la Commission de l'immigration et du statut de réfugié du Canada, "le plus important tribunal administratif indépendant au Canada (dont la) mission consiste à rendre, de manière efficace, équitable et conforme à la loi, des décisions éclairées sur des questions touchant l'immigration et le statut de réfugié."

Affaires à suivre.

Bon voyage!

Congrès pancanadien 2009 du Réseau canadien de développement économique communautaire. Comme souvent, quelques participants me demandent d'où je viens. Sempiternelle question à laquelle je réponds invariablement: "de Montréal". C'est un mécanisme de défense que j'ai développé et qui me permet de ne pas avoir à raconter tous mes voyages, mes âges, ni les paysages qui forgent mon identité.

Mais voilà: il est bientôt minuit, nous avons tous dormi entre quatre et cinq heures par nuit depuis deux jours, le vin a coulé à flot, ils sont sympathiques et ...ils parlent français! Alors je me lance. J'ai bien envie de discuter encore une fois de la question du "d'où viens-je?" et de repenser à mes amis "des deux mondes", d'ici et d'ailleurs. Ce qu'il reste de nos débats et des cartes griffonnées sur des serviettes de table se résume bien sur ce service de Google sur Facebook, le "trip advisor". Bon voyage!

1. Cotonou, Benin


2. Machu Picchu, Peru


3. Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe


4. Trou aux Biches, Africa


5. Banff, Alberta, Canada


6. Riobamba, Ecuador


7. Barcelona, Spain

• Create your own travel map or travel blog


• Find Cheap Flights at TripAdvisor

Argh!! Diaspora!!

Parfois, certaines des conversations auxquelles je participe sur d'autres blogs s'avèrent très intéressantes pour "Indigène du monde" et les personnes qui l'apprécient. Comme on attire l'attention d'un internaute sur un bon livre, un film extravagant ou de la musique douce, j'aimerais partager avec vous mes échanges au sujet d'un thème qui m'est cher: la diaspora.

Je me suis récemment imprégné de diverses influences, conversations et lectures sur le thème. Je reste coi devant chaque découverte et chaque question. Un mélange de passion et de curiosité me paralyse et me projette hors de moi à la fois: je ne sais encore que faire de tout ce qui m'entoure.

Je vous invite à lire le lien suivant qui parle de l'importance des langues maternelles africaines sur le blog de Ndack, et surtout à ne pas manquer les commentaires.

http://comprendreetagir.blogspot.com/2009/05/le-wolofranglais.html