WARNING: The videos below are very graphic and are taken from different angles of the same horrific situation. The Bahraini government is barbaric and now the world sees their ruthless barbarism in action.
http://www.somah.com/2011/02/video-the-g...Bahrain: They didn't run away. They faced the bullets head-on
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/w...At least five people were shot, one in the head, and 71 others injured from rubber bullets, tear gas and being trampled in the chaos. As ambulances tried to rescue the wounded, the army opened fire on them too, witnesses said.
"We shouted, 'Peaceful, Peaceful,' but the soldiers continued shooting," said Mohammed Khalil Sham, lying on a gurney.
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/articl...If those protesting in Bahrain thought it would be a similar out come to Cairo, they were wrong... dead wrong! What was purposed as a peaceful demonstration was smashed by live gunfire, brutal beatings and attacks by "government-led" forces. In an attempt to have their voices heard they have succeeded... but not in voice of victory but rather in traumatized mourning.
I find it repeatedly strange that Western News covers little on the sweeping protests and massacres that are being graphically portrayed on the internet. It would seem that the violence and upheaval is still a bit remote for us to have to be concerned just yet. Like the quiet consensus is that this kind of thing could never happen here in the West, but it appears that we may too may be joined at the hip, with similar growing global concerns.
There is a distinct difference in the West though, it is the apathy that seems to drain this generation of it's desire for better. In the East people seem to have an unclouded vision of where things will be if they don't act immediately... based on their practical approach to the injustice they are forced to live in. Like the frog that gets boiled to death one degree at a time... these are much more perceptive, not having the distractions the West seems to be blinded by. You open the eyes of a young Westerner, the response you might get is... "If you can't beat them, join them!"
Like the mountain that seems too big to climb, and the journey that takes one step at a time seems too "ancient" an approach... when one can just fly over the problem. It is this mentality that sees the suffering of people as a page in a book, that can simply be erased by turning a page. This is why our family chose to travel by our own vehicle across the US, Mexico and Guatemala. NO resorts, NO compounds... we just stayed in our bus on the street. Nothing between us and reality! I think that if everyone lived a bit more in reality, they would be so fascinated... fantasy would be passay.
This is true about "life on the street" ...it is said that if a run-away spends more than a few months on the street, you won't get them back. Not that they would necessarily be lost or killed, but rather they will end up so enthralled by the excitement that you would be hard-pressed to get them to return to a life of normalcy. In this way too, these young lives in Bahrain, or Egypt and other Eastern countries, are so exited about the prospects of freedom that they are willing to die for it... while we on the other-hand are unwilling even to live for it!
We in the West voluntarily trow our time and our freedoms down the social-networking toilets, in hopes of finding a real life in fantasy land... when the real life might be awaiting us if we would unplug long enough to make something of ourselves. While others are reading about the news the Eastern youth are making it! SOME would say they are just "extremists" ...yeah, and they are the kind of people that carried our countries on their backs, from the cotton fields to the coal mines. Reality may not be comfy but it's honorable, noble, memorable and world-changing...
like the 29th chapter of Acts... it is still being written!
I'm sorry if I interrupted someone's two second attention-span, with the blood of innocent freedom seekers... that didn't happen to live in their neighborhood.
Well, at the rate things are going in this world, they will get their chance. It just might be YOU the next time portrayed on the news, dying for YOUR cause... like trying to get your internet hooked up! Look, IF there is an obstacle in the path of YOUR pursuit of happiness... maybe you just need a "road-trip" instead of your socially-prescribed morphine drip! Don't let apathy kill what there is left of you!