F1 Fanatic

It’s the lack of attention the media are giving the situation in Bahrain. Because the media think Libya and Japan is more interesting, it’s easy to presume that Bahrain is fine now. Having said that, as I was writing this a quick 30 second piece on Bahrain just popped up on BBC news just now, though that’s not saying much.

Sadly what we are seeing in Bahrain in the past days, it looks like this has turned about as bad as in Libya.
The official Bahrain “media” and the government are talking about “terrorists” and “racistst” when they mean the people standing up for their rights. Then they started shooting them and beating them up.
That is no way to “protect” the civilians of the country. It is giving in to selfish thoughts about not giving up ones position and neighbours being afraid of having to give up power themselves.
Now from experience, that is the best way to breed terrorism, as shown numerous times before.

For me this makes it pretty likely that I will boycott the Bahrain GP in the unlikely case it gets on the calender this year.

It’s not entirely clear if the Crown Prince is responsible for this latest violence or whether the King gave the order. What is clear is that the two sides are further away from peace than they were in the immediate aftermath of the Grand Prix’s postponement. At this rate I can see it turning into a full cancellation.

“It’s not entirely clear if the Crown Prince is responsible for this latest violence or whether the King gave the order. “

I think its clear that the Crown Prince was at the head of the Moderate faction of the Ruling family, urging dialogue with protesters and introducing reforms. At the beginning of the protests it seems that the Crown Prince had the upper hand in the discussions in the regime. But the Saudis were extremely nervous about what any democratic reforms or threat of instability would mean for them and seeing the weak US administration not giving backing to reform movements it decided that the protests in Bahrain could be easily crushed.

Whether or not the Saudis were actually invited is still uncertain but its clear its influence in supporting hard-liners was far greater than any western backing for the moderate forces in the regime. The situation is now pretty tragic for Bahrain as before the crackdown it still had a good chance of having serious, stable political reforms towards a more constitutional monarchy. Serious attempts at reform early in the crisis would have certainly pacified protesters who were not seeking the overthrow of the royal family. Now we have a chaotic situation where the chances of democratic change have been nearly extinguished.

@Ads21 Hard to say with the CK, I got the same impression as you with him on the more pro-talks and reforms side. If so, that side looks to be on the losing side of the elites.

As for the Saudis being invited … Its hardly the first time foreign countries being worried about developments were “invited” by the receiving governments to “suppport”, more often than not it was a occupation.
I would be very supprised, if the invitation got there without serious pressure from the surrounding, <strike>invading,</strike> sorry supporting countries.

Getting rid of the monument really shows how deluded the informations are that get to the ruling elites. Do they really think, that changing the name of the roundabout and destroying the monument makes their people forget?
Surely the best way to give Iran more influence and possibly breed terrorists who see no other way to get their disconsent noticed.

We’re protesting against bahrain by building a banked corner in Abu Dhabi?

I think this is the story you were after: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/90941

I still believe that if the race is cancelled outright, it should not be for political reaons.

Like this one!… Ok, no i wont start it. Tempting though…
As for Bahrain, i dont think the race should go ahead, it’s no better now than it was earlier in the year. The media just got bored.

I think in the light of the infomation Keiths posted, this race would be akin to racing in apartheid South Africa, legitamising a regime clearly complicit in massive human rights abuses.

Some say they don’t think the race should be cancelled for political reasons, PM in this thread, unfortunatley thats impossible. F1, like it or not is a world institution and therefore it’s patronage is highly political. We must not go to Bahrain, an if we do, I’ll certainly not be watching Jake Humphrey and co deal with their gags on mentioning the protests. Or the Prince blithly welcome us to his wonderfull project, it’d be intolerable. Unfortunatley dramtically reduced veiwing figures is the only way the message will get through.