Travelling between the GCC countries

One of the many unintended benefits of the life of the Expat is the opportunity to travel and experience different cultures and countries.

Last week I had one such opportunity again to travel from the UAE to Bahrain and from Bahrain, through the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia back to the UAE. Now I have been to these countries many many times, both for business and pleasure, and have driven extensively in all three of them. This familiarity gave me the confidence to export my vehicle from Bahrain to the UAE... The Wise Expat and his family recently relocated from Bahrain to the UAE, and one of the last relocation tasks was to export the family vehicle, which has been standing collecting dust. On a side note, this vehicle can now be entered into the world's filthiest car and I would imagine that it would have a good shot of winning this title!

Back to the purpose for this entry..., Exporting a vehicle... now this is a task not for the fainthearted, or those who are challenges in the patience stakes... I have never seen so much paperwork needed for a transaction, and it felt like I was on a mission to collect as many as possible government stamps on my forms. With all the will in the world, I completed the paperwork successfully, and set of the next day to take on the might of the Saufi Immigration officials on the Bahrain/Saudi border. Having lived in Bahrain for almost three years, The Wise Expat has a strange familiarity with Bahraini officials. The Saudi officials on the other hand... is a different value proposition! You see, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia dont have a tourism culture, and visitors invariably get a sense that they are not welcome in the Kingdom. In Saudi, the vibe is... do your business and get out!

It is with this sense that I braved the Saudi border, and after spending the better part of the day on the Causeway, I was unceremoniously turned back because I did not have a transit visa before hand, when it was explained on a few occassions that one can obtain a transit Visa on the border.

As most visitors to Saudi will know, there just is no sense in negotiating with the Saudi Immigration officials... and because it was Friday, I had no choice but to abandon this export process and return to Bahrain. I got back on a plane to the safety of the UAE... thinking to myself... I should get a cargo company to move this vehicle!

Are the Jews responsible for the Credit Crisis

What was more Catastrophic to the world... 911, or the Credit Crisis of 2008...?

Watching the news screens around the world, I noticed the amount of airtime given to the American Mid Term elections, and as always, the world in general show a keen interest in the shannegans of the American elections. I raised this question, because it would appear, at least to the outsider, that the two issues this elections is fought on are the state of the economy, and the mosque in Manhatten... the mosque in Manhatten issue is the residue of the traumatic 911 episode, and the state of the economy can largely be tied to the credit crises that struck the world in general and the USA in particular.

I'm not even sure if we can call it the Credit Crisis of 2008, because the world economy is still reeling from the after effects of this self inflicted economic equivalent of a tsunami.

Is this MSNBC cartoon a fair reflection on the causes of the credit crisis...?

In my mind, there is no doubt, that the economic crisis should take centre stage in this election, and consequently, if I have to answer the question raised above, then certainly the issue of 911 should be relegated in terms of importance to the issue of the credit crisis.

Assuming we dont agree with this view, and hold them equally destructive and therefore, equally worthy of election fodder... which, it would appear, watching the news screens, is what many on the Republic Party side (or to be more accurate, the Tea Party movement) wants to do.

Consequently, they are trying to link the issue of the Mosque in Manhatten to the 911 issue by claiming it was Muslims who caused 911, and therefore we don't trust Muslims, and dont want their mosque in our midst...

If this logic seems appropriate, fair, and reasonable, then certainly the same logic should be applied to those who caused the biggest economic trauma to the people of the USA? There seems to be a national consensus that Wall Street should bear the brunt of the blame for the issues that caused the economic meltdown... but who is Wall Street...? Wall Street Firms, Wall Street CEO's, Wall Street Analysts, Wall Street Bankers, Wall Street Investment Advisory employers, Wall Street Lawyers... are pre-dominantly people from the Jewish Faith...! think Bernie Madoff, Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, Merryl Lynch, AIG.. and the list go on and on... Even the supposed good guys who were suppose to help America out of the crisis, and spent trillions in the process, Geithner, Bernanke... they certainly weren't Muslims!

No prizes for guessing how many Jews in this picture of Wall Street CEO's.

Muslims in America

So the Quran was never burnt by the loony Preacher and sanity prevailed. At least, he had his 15 minutes of fame, and I hope he is smart enough to capitalise on it all.

The whole drama, to my mind, raised a completely different issue... that of the manner in which Islam (and Muslims) are viewed in the USA.

The USA is in the grip of Mid Term election fever and the emotional issue that all is grappling with the building of a mosque in downtown Manhatten.

Populist outpouring against the mosque... It is evident the protest is not about a mosque, but about Islam in the USA!