The Crown Prince’s renewed anti-corruption effort faces serious threats, particularly from powerful elites with a deep vested interest in maintaining the fig leaf of impunity.
The Crown Prince’s renewed anti-corruption effort faces serious threats, particularly from powerful elites with a deep vested interest in maintaining the fig leaf of impunity.
The battle for culture, the conquest of space, the re-interpretation of heritage and the competition for writing Bahrain’s collective memory are well under way in an island roughly half the size of New York City.
Greater Gulf unity is a popular demand. But in order for a union to work, if one were ever to see the light of day, governments in the Gulf must learn to set their priorities straight.
In the Gulf, it is all too easy to succumb to the temptation of catering to the population’s excessive tendency to consume as opposed to engaging in innovative entrepreneurship with an exportable added value.
This exclusionary cultural gentrification of Muharraq, while holding promising social and identity prospects for a handful, may risk alienating many locals.
Although conservatives within the ruling establishment will go to considerable lengths to ensure Shiite political movements are kept at bay, expect them to be equally relentless in ensuring an uncontested domination over its core Sunni constituency.
Given the country’s regressive welfare system and the absence of a progressive income tax regime, households on the top of the income ladder who can afford to consume more end up benefiting disproportionately.
