You come from Bahrain?
Posted by admin | Posted in Posts | Posted on 05-10-2008
Tags: Bahrain, Culture, Middle East
11
I sometimes dread it when people ask where I come from. Not more than 10% of people who hear “Bahrain” as answer have some sort of idea where that country might be, but that’s not my cause of annoyance.For those who know that Bahrain is indeed in the Persian Gulf, there is one thing that comes to mind- wealth.
Some people might ask, but it’s those who assume who annoy me the most. For the past two months I made a lot of friends, mainly Indians given the demographics of the student body in my program. Despite the fact that most of these are actually Indian elites, owners of chains of businesses and are wealthy themselves- they love to point out that I must be wealthy. When at some occasions I said just that, it appeared that some have the notion that we’re unnecessarily wealthy, that is, it’s undeserved wealth; while theirs is hard worked for. Oh, and they use Bahrain and Dubai interchangeably.
- Public transport here is not very good, but getting a car is very expensive. I would’ve got one
- Used or new?
- Used, I’m only here for a short period of time.
- Get a new one it’s better
- It’ll be much more expensive
- But you come from Bahrain, you can buy a car!
- You mean you’re not rich?
- Actually, no.
- Everyone in Dubai was rich.
- I don’t know about that, but not everyone in Bahrain is rich.
- Only expats are poor.
- That’s very misguided.
- No one speaks Arabic there.
- Expats tend to not learn it.
- No, I stayed in Dubai for four years and no one speaks Arabic.
- You live on your own?
- Yes.
- Doesn’t it work out to be expensive? But it’s ok for you, you’re from Bahrain.
- I live 2 miles away from the university, you live across the street. Apartments where I live are much cheaper. Oh, and my scholarship actually pays for the rent not my dad.
- But your dad would, if they didn’t.
- He would if he could.
- You mean he couldn’t?
- No.
- Come on.
- I’m serious.
Oh, how many conversations like this did I take part in.
Its either that we are filthy rich, or we are camel riding, tent dwelling Bedouins.
It’s our fault. We never have any media that speak to others. And we all see what our filthy rich do whenever they go out. Anyone who been to London knows exactly what I mean.
Although I’ve never been to Bahrain (but I’d love to!
)I guess we all suffer from misconceptions.
I’m from Peru, and my country is widely known just for Macchu Picchu… if at all. People use to think llamas go around the whole country. I can’t deny there are huge Andean regions with llamas, but they never pass by in the cities.
So I can get your annoyance. I know the feeling.
All the best from Peru!
By the way, I love the name of your blog!
Redbelt:
I thought of that, but then again that’s what the filthy rich of any country and any part of the world do with no exceptions. I agree about the media part though, we’re not exporters of cultures at all.
Gabriela:
Welcome to my blog, and I’m glad you like the name! I know what you mean, specially about llamas. Although they did in Aladdin, camels don’t wander about in the cities in Arabia either.
I’m happy I have readers from Peru, my readers were almost all locals
An incentive to keep writing!
Coincidentally, I wrote a post for an American blog about this very topic just a few days ago:
http://www.jackieandfritz.com/2008/10/visitor-spotlight-manama-bahrain.html
Let me know what you think!
I wrote about a similar experience a couple of weeks ago. Apparently,my coworker, an Egyption guy, spread around work (in the US), his surprise that I, a Bahraini girl, would work. Apparetly, us Bahraini gals don’t lower ourselves with work, since we are loaded and sit on oilfields.
Here in Japan, they’re surprised that I’m from Bahrain and apparently know where it is, football does wonders! and whenever I say we also have a F1 track all i see is blank faces.
I met up with a couple of Egyptians today and one of them kinda pissed me off and had the same perception that I live on an oil field and filthy rich!
I explained to him that we’re not as well off as he thought, but bitterly replied at least its better than Egypt!
He went on and said why did you get a monbusho scholarship doesn’t the government give you more? I said I applied for the scholarship because I wanted to, I’m not looking for the highest bidder for stipend!
What an annoying conversation ! I cant believe that u continua talking , If it was me right after the second paragraph tell her/him , WHICH PART OF AM NOT RICH U DIDN’T UNDERSTAND ???
It remaindmes me of my fellow Arab from the Levant and north Africa who still belive that we drink oil instead of water ..and it was the same problem they came from a very wealthy Families and they still consider us the Spoiled Khaljee !!!
Ah, that misconception is perhaps the most annoying of all. It is usually worse when you are overseas. My friend in Leeds is, not surprisingly, friends with lots of English kids who are with him in university. They tend to call/nickname him the “Arab Sheikh/Emir/Prince.”
Ally
Thanks for dropping by and welcome to my blog
It sounds lame but it’s actually true. Do you think people are disappointed when we say that we’re not prices and princesses?
I also sometimes think that had I been actually rich, I still would not want/need to apologize for it. It’s this notion of “undeserved wealth” that makes some people sort of look down upon us just for being rich. The assumption that we’re not rich because of hard-work, but because of undeserved privileges.
People abroad don’t often get this, but Bahrain is a country where other people come to make money, not us. Whenever there is a huge transformation in terms of development, we rarely benefit. We are the ones that see these towers and 5-star resorts from afar. The country is being built in order to serve the interests of foreign investors and if we are not careful we will lose everything we stand for in terms of culture.
This country is growing beyond our expenses.
The reason why “no one speaks Arabic” in Dubai is because only 17% are nationals. Everyone else is an expat. What does that tell us? That’s us in 10 years.
Speaking of expacts however, not all of those are filthy rich (or come here to become filthy rich which is usually the case,) we still have to deal with migrant workers making 40 BD for construction work in unacceptable living conditions. In Oman the number of workers outnumber the population on a ratio of 3:1
Anyways that’s besides the point. But really. When we as nationals become part of the 5% minority there will be a lot to cry for… a lot.