Snow, roundabouts, driving with Farouk, barastis

 

     It's snowing in the Seattle night right now. The snow is visible on the ground, the walkways, on top of cars and roofs but the snowflake size is only visible in the streetlight. It's early yet, maybe an inch or thereabouts on the small roundabout at the corner with several inches expected overnight. In the morning, the Second Impeachment of Donald Trump will either continue or wrap up, depending on whether witnesses will be called in light on the newest revelation. I will enjoy my morning coffee looking out the window at the snow and listening to the lawyers in the Capitol.

     Just letting my mind wander while looking at the light bounce off the falling snow, I thought of the roundabout in front of what the family called the Guest Palace and New Palace, just up the road a little bit from the house where we lived, the one Delong Hersent rented from Mr. Bastaki, the businessman and hotelier. I'm sure that you remember that house since you were in it many times. After all, I lived there. (You can certainly remember the garage where your car had to be parked from prying eyes since the license plate identified it.)

     Thinking about that roundabout in Bahrain reminded me that when I was learning to drive while we were living on the island, Mother was out of an afternoon with one of her friends. She'd left the keys to her brown Mercedes on the key rack and I sensed an opportunity for a little driving practice. I took the car out of the garage and drove down to the roundabout, went round and round it several times and then ...

whaddyaknow. Your good friend Farouk Algosaibi drove by and saw me driving round and round and motioned me to get back home. He was, shall we say, a bit cross that I was out driving by myself, without permission, and specifically because he was acting as driving instructor and I was not licensed to drive by myself. I promised never to do it again after my painful comeuppance and we resumed lessons shortly thereafter, in a day or two, and without my mother being informed of my activity.

        Farouk was driving his dark green Austin-Healey convertible with the top down and drove us out to what he called "the villages" so he could teach me how to use the stick shift and clutch away from the main streets. I was very bad at the clutch release for awhile and thinking back, I remember scattering chickens on the dirt sand road, more of a path really, and seeing children and families and critters in what I now know as Shia' Bahrainis living in poverty on the same small island where you lived in one palace and played in another. I asked Farouk about their houses, those things made out of sticks and straw that I could see. He told me they were called barastis and changed the subject to "pay attention to your driving."

      (Good thing it didn't snow in Bahrain.)

       I remember asking you about the barastis many years later when I learned what they actually were. Remember what you said? I do.

Dispute & Diplomacy Over 4 Persian Gulf Islands

Listening to the United Nation General Assembly speeches this week, I heard Shaikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan demand that Iran give up possession of the strategic and resource-rich Persian Gulf islands of Abu Musa and the two Tunbs to different historical claimants, namely the states of Sharjah and Ras Al Khaima, or, in the alternative, consent to let the International Court of Justice decide which country or countries have the right to them.

This is not a new demand. I wrote a lengthy term paper at university in the mid-1970s about the 1971 independence of Bahrain and formation in the Persian Gulf of the U.A.E. It included this matter.

( Aside: my research and result so fascinated my professor that he maintained a copy and was able to discuss it with me over 40 years later. I found that he'd used some of my work without attribution, but never mind, that happens at universities, students know it. He's gone now.)  

Most people who hear the demands of the Arab states with respect to the three islands claimed by the U.A.E and Iran do not know or recall that there were actually four Persian Gulf islands involved before Iran took control of the three disputed islands. The fourth was the British Protectorate of Bahrain, ruled in some aspects by the Sunni Al Khalifa family for over 180 years by 1971, but also by other countries historically, including Iran. 

The matter is multi-dimensional but a pedestrian summary would include: Bahrain had and has a majority Shia population with religious, family and other ties to Iran; aspirations for freedom, equality and dignity by the entire population, but especially the under-served Shia segments and those who know discrimination in many ways; a plebiscite asking if Bahrainis wanted to align with Iran or be independent; they heard promises from your family and the Brits of a constitution and rights and chose independence; the U.K. made a secret deal with the Shah, trading independence for Bahrain -- rather than restoration of Bahrain as a historical Iranian province -- for the restoration of Iran's historic right to Abu Musa and the two Tunbs. 

Influential factors have now changed. One of importance is that there's a Bahrain causeway connected to historical Bahrain some 18 miles long with special lanes for members of certain tribes on both sides. Tanks and armored personnel carriers rolled across that bridge to help your family and friends maintain power in 2011, and remain to this day, along with paid mostly Sunni mercenaries from other countries used to alter the demographic balance and suppress dissent in all forms.

To be fair to Iran, if the original 1971 deal is to be renegotiated, if the two member states of the U.A.E. who claim Abu Musa, Lesser and Major Tunbs AND the fourth island, Bahrain, all want to do what's fair, then the causeway built by the malign actor Saudi Arabia and a debt trap, must be immediately given to Iran, along with the full extent of territory stolen from the Arab Shia population by the Al Sauds in their historical rampage across Arabia. 

The planned causeway to Qatar could be built and Bahrain, then aligned with Iran, could share in the immense gas wealth and form a new, peaceful partnership. The fishermen of Sharjah and Ras Al Khaimah could resume fishing or buy shares in luxury hotels to be built on the islands.

You want something significant, then you give something significant, right? That's what happens in negotiations between equals. Some underestimate their opponent.

#Bahrain #UAE #SaudiArabia #UK #Sharjah #RasAlKhaimah #AbuMusa #Tunbs #Hormuz #StraitofHormuz #Iran #Qatar #Oil #PersianGulf