Back to the bickering

I was going to write all about my views on Obama this week but it turns out they're a little too controversial to put into print so instead I'm going to turn my attention to a topic I haven't broached in a little while: Bahrain's MPs.

It seems that there are some amongst them who have found that this week's must-ban cause is Bahrain's bars and nightclubs, claiming that: "the bars and discos are the scene for many problems, which in turn create chaos and disruption in the street or the neighbourhoods".

Open any one of Bahrain's newspapers on any given day and you will find the pages full of riots, Molotov cocktails, speed-related car accidents, the thefts of aluminium doors and cold store robberies - none of which are alcohol related. What you won't find many column inches on, are problems relating to nightclubs and bars. So why is it that the MPs can't find a more worthy cause to get excited about?

Driving near Saar to a friend's house on Friday (nowhere close to a club or a bar), minding my own business, I had to suddenly slam on the breaks as a Molotov cocktail landed squarely in the road less than two metres ahead of me, turning the road itself into an instantaneous inferno.

Luckily for myself, and all the other drivers behind me, there was a U-turn immediately to my left and I was able to turn around and take the scenic route to my friend's house. But had I been no more than a second ahead of myself, that Molotov cocktail would have been toasting the roof of my car and I dread to think what other damage it could have done as well.

You just don't get that sort of thing back in the UK. In a country where there's a pub on every corner and a nightclub on every other block, the one thing you don't need to spare a thought to is whether or not you're going to get fire-bombed driving down the road.

It would seem to me that there is much more to worry about in and around Bahrain than the evils of alcohol.

Yes, drunken behaviour can be problematic but in the grand scheme of things it's far down on the list of everyday dangers here.

It's very doubtful that the boys responsible for throwing the Molotov cocktail were under the influence of alcohol and whoever they were they didn't stay around to witness what they did, preferring instead to throw and run as fast as they could in the opposite direction.

They weren't aiming for anyone in particular, it was simply an act of hooliganism but the fact of the matter remains it was a dangerous thing to do and could have caused a lot more damage than it did.

Surely the MPs could concentrate their efforts on educating the young about the dangers of what, in any other place, would be considered an act of terrorism.

Perhaps they could find a way to teach the parents of yobs to exercise more control on their young rather than letting them roam the streets with bottles filled with petrol to throw at unsuspecting motorists. Then maybe the rest of us wouldn't need to turn to a stiff drink to calm our nerves ... Just a thought.