Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
IT'S insane to think about how quickly a year goes by and as you get older the time just passes faster.
New Year's resolutions go out the window faster than you can think of them and by the time the year is over you realise you've done nothing you intended to.
In fairness, when I say 'you' I actually mean 'me' and out of my list of about 20 things I wanted to achieve this year I've completed only one - my new tattoo to cover up an old ugly one I had years ago... and even that was only done a little over a week ago!
The fact is that as many times as we promise ourselves that THIS year we really WILL stick to our New Year's resolutions, our convictions only last as long as it takes for whatever it is we've said we'll do (or not do for that matter) to become bothersome or impractical.
As much as I'd love to give up smoking or chocolate or any other such thing considered bad for my health, the truth of the matter is I need my nicotine and cocoa fixes to get me through the year - especially when it was as stressful as this one has been - so instead I'm going to undertake to do at least one truly good deed a month. And I don't mean leaving a bigger tip than usual or lending my neighbour a cup of sugar, I mean something that takes me out of my way or my comfort levels to help another human being.
In a world of approximately six billion people, if everyone undertook to do the same thing, that would be an approximate average of 200 million good deeds a day. That's a whole lot of good energy flowing around the world. I feel a John Lennon song coming on...
*****
For years now my friends and family back home keep asking me why I stay in this part of the world when there is so much instability in the region and I keep telling them that here in Bahrain, I'm probably in the safest part of the world I could be in.
Bahrainis are known for being the most friendly and tolerant people in the region and the idea that there might be terrorist attacks here is almost too incredible to believe. Yes, there are frequent riots with the odd Molotov cocktail thrown in - regular readers will remember I was very nearly hit by one just a few weeks ago - but these are mainly the result of bored and restless youths, trying to get the attention of the government. While there's no denying that they can be a little worrying at times, the thought that the troubles here would escalate into a full-blown terrorist attack seems silly to entertain ... Or at least it did, until recently.
There have been the odd attacks on Westerners west of the border (in Saudi Arabia) and many have speculated that it wouldn't be long before similar events crossed the causeway into Bahraini territory but few ever thought it would actually happen. And why should it?
Bahrain doesn't interfere with any other country's policies. For the most part, it mind its own business while remaining supportive of its friends and neighbours. Bahrainis are welcoming to foreigners and more tolerant than most of other people's cultures and habits. Internal politics aside, there seems little reason to want to attack Bahrain, unless you take into consideration extremists not being happy about there being an American naval base here. But if that were the case you would expect the attacks to be aimed at military targets, not the Diplomatic Area and Exhibition Road, where military presence is at a minimum.
The two Bahrainis accused of master-minding the attacks are both UK residents, one of whom has claimed asylum there. For whatever reason, he has found the need to be protected by another country. So, while in no way acceptable, it is at least conceivable that he truly believes he has reason to attempt the destabilisation of his native country. But for the suspects right here in Bahrain, such an attack is likely to affect their own friends and families - Bahrain is simply too small for it not to. What conceivable reason could they have for wanting to cause so much death and destruction on their own doorsteps?
The only logical answer I can think of would be money - of course that's pure speculation on my part and therefore not something I want to discuss in detail, but why else would anyone willingly go out to do serious harm to complete strangers without any other obvious cause to support?
It's easy enough to speculate and try to rationalise but in truth we'll never really understand why people do the things they do. All we can really be sure of is that thanks to the ceaseless hard work and determination of those who make it their life's work to combat such atrocities, a senseless act of mass murder and mayhem was averted.
Because so little ever happens here, it's hard to imagine that when the time comes the country is ready to deal with such situations but I for one can sleep better at night knowing that those who work behind the scenes to protect each one of us, obviously know what they're doing.
Do I still think that this is probably one of the safest parts of the world to be in? Yes, absolutely. I might be a little more inclined to look over my shoulder a bit more often but nowhere near as much as I would if I was back in the Western world.
