Tear Gas at the Dairy Queen
31.12.69
Inside
a mall complex known as the "Freedom Souq," a food court features Taco Bell and
an A&W American Grill. The Navy Exchange -- basically a Target for overseas
military communities -- sells American flat-screen TVs, Nike sneakers, Dawn
dish soap, pleated Dockers and Right Guard deodorant. Like every other base,
vendors hawk the kind of local tchotchkes found in any airport, everything from
hookah pipes to carved wooden camels, belly dancing costumes, and genie lamps.
But
despite all the reassuring touches of Americana, the Arab Spring often erupts
just down the road. The confrontation between Bahrain's Sunni ruling family and
the predominantly Shiite protest movement seems, if anything, to be getting
worse. The decision by Formula One authorities to go forward with the popular Grand Prix race on
the island this weekend has sparked a renewed bout of protests against the
decision -- and despite the Formula One chief's remarks that Bahrain is "quiet and peaceful," policemen were recently
injured by homemade explosives thrown at them by protesters. Meanwhile,
Bahraini security forces detained two Human Rights Watch officials on April 15 for observing a protest against
the Grand Prix decision.
Source: Foreign Policy (blog)
Dreams of distant Mandalay
31.12.69
Part of my childhood was spent in New Delhi; in the evenings I would be taken to the sprawling manicured grounds of the huge tomb of the Mughal emperor Humayun, now a World Heritage monument and one of the loveliest walks in the city, alive with peacocks calling plaintively on still late summer evenings.
Today, when I return to Delhi I go for walks in the Lodi Gardens, a huge park which houses a series of mausoleums and a big ancient mosque. In the mausoleums are the graves of the Pashtun kings of the Lodi dynasty who ruled Delhi from 1451 to 1526, before the Mughals arrived from Central Asia.
The wind blows through the big stone buildings. When you step into them the domed ceilings act like sound chambers; a pigeon cooing unseen high in the darkened roof fills it with sound.
Source: Straits Times (blog)