Shaken and stirred by ban

IT would be hard for me to ignore all the hoo-haa about the banning of alcohol sales in one and two star hotels but rather than jumping on the whole 'this is an abomination' bandwagon I'm more interested in the how it was done rather than the what was done aspect of it all.

When you consider that the implementation of laws concerning life threatening issues - like the transportation of workers in open trucks - keep being pushed back for months at a time it seems more than a little unfair that the law banning alcohol sales was passed one day and implemented the next. Are we to understand that saving lives takes months (if not years) but ruining the livelihoods of thousands can be done in 24 hours?

Hotel owners and all the staff that work in them have seen their world collapse overnight and for many it means that they will not be able to feed their families next month.

Thousands of jobs are at stake and for many it will also mean having to return to their homelands with no prospect of a job in a climate that is already plagued by recession.

Regardless of culture or religion, and ignoring the fact that many of us will miss going to the likes of JJ's for a refreshing glass of our favourite tipple, this ban is tantamount to telling fishermen they are no longer allowed to use boats or farmers that water is no longer allowed to them and not giving them time to make other plans for their livelihoods.

It seems to me (and I could be wrong) that the theory behind it isn't about the banning of alcohol as such but rather to try and do something about the ever increasing vice problem plaguing the island, with the majority of the one and two star hotels famous for the women that ply their trade in them.

This being the case, it would have seemed kinder and more logical to implement the ban on an outlet by outlet bases.

When you take into consideration the fact that a place like JJ's is very strict about its no prostitute policy and will evict a troublemaker at the drop of a hat, there seems no logical reason for banning its alcohol sales and forcing it to go out of business.

And what's worse is that this ban has done nothing to abate business in outlets infamous for their prostitution.

From what I hear, the girls and their johns are still going about business as usual, they're simply doing it high on soft drinks instead.

Only 10 days ago, the annual Traffic Statistics booklet revealed that out of almost half-a-million traffic violations less than 500 were alcohol related. That's only 0.1 per cent. So much for the argument that alcohol is the root of all evil!

It's fair to say that Bahrain's legislators have the right to pass any laws they see fit in order to protect religious beliefs and meet safety requirements but when alcohol sales have been allowed in Bahrain for as long as they have, an overnight ban of this kind can only cause damage to thousands of people.