Video:
A Holiday Song

“Bahrain, where a Sunni monarchy has long ruled over a Shia majority, saw a brief flickering of Arab spring protests in February 2011. The biggest were brutally put down with the help of troops from neighbouring Saudi Arabia. Yet smaller protests have continued……….. Protesters are especially resentful that the government employs many non-Bahrainis in the police. The ranks of the well-paid security forces include many Yemenis and Pakistanis; Shia applicants for police jobs are usually turned away. The extensive use of tear gas has become another bone of contention; a document leaked in October exposed plans by the interior ministry to buy 1.6m additional rounds of the stuff. So far the Khalifas have been able to keep the protests under control, helped by the Saudis and reassured by the presence of America’s Fifth Fleet.…………”

The late Egyptian poet Ahmed Fouad Negm once tweeted summarizing the situation in Bahrain, succinctly:
“The neglected Bahrain revolution: in Bahrain you are arrested by a Pakistani, your arrest report is written down by a Yemeni, then you are tortured by a Syrian, after which you are tried in court presided over by an Egyptian judge. You are the only Bahraini among them”.
Cheers
mhg