Middle East Focus: Major General Hooker and Bahrain Tourism……….

Arabia Deserta

Major General Hooker and Bahrain Tourism……….

“DUBAI - Bahrain is again being accused of encouraging prostitution to attract tourists, with a public representative charging that Bahraini police looked the other way while "gangs of prostitutes stood plying their trade" during the Eid holiday. The presence of prostitutes in Manama's hotels and streets is scaring Gulf families from visiting Bahrain, Manama Municipal Council member Abdulmajeed Al Sebea'a said in remarks published on Sunday. Sebea'a accused police and tourism department inspectors of standing “like scarecrows without the prostitutes being scared” during the holiday earlier this month, Bahrain's Gulf Daily News reported. "The biggest disaster is that GCC families were feeling uncomfortable walking in and out of hotels and furnished apartments and even on the streets as gangs of prostitutes in skimpy clothes stood plying their trade," he was quoted as saying. "The government should promote family tourism and not flesh (trade) by attracting youngsters and getting their money via alcohol, food, entertainment, hotels and prostitutes."………..”

Hundreds of thousand come to Bahrain from other states of the Persian-American Gulf during holidays. Most are Saudis, by sheer size of the country. They all seek what is not available at home: wine, or women, or song, or the ambiance, or all of the above. Some are families who want to be able to interact in public without the Wahhabi goons of the Commission for the Protection of Vice. Many are single men (and some women) seeking things that are frowned about at home, and I mean seriously frowned upon.
FYI: Bahrain will not seriously crack down on the, ahem, tourist trade. Too many potentates have interests in that, ahem, tourist trade. If only as owners of the huge hotels that cater to that, ahem, tourism. I got nothing against any kind of ahem, tourism, as long as it is between consenting adults.
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com