Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
To this day, a special relationship can be felt between the Bahrainis and the sizable ex-
patriate British community that extends well beyond the landscaping of public parks and
the building of roundabouts. Bahrain regained full independence in 1971.
Oil - Bahrain's Black Gold
In the middle of the desert, roughly in the middle of the island, stands a small museum
sporting marble pillars and a classical architrave, wholly unbefitting of the landscape of
nodding donkeys in the vicinity. But the museum has a right to certain pretensions of
grandeur; it marks the spot where, in 1932, the Arab world struck gold - black gold, that
is - and with it, the entire balance of power in the world was transformed forever.
The first well is in the museum grounds, with polished pipes and cocks worthy of the
momentousness of its role in modern history. The discovery of oil could not have come at
a better time for Bahrain as it roughly coincided with the collapse of the world pearl mar-
ket, upon which the island's economy had traditionally been based. Skyrocketing oil rev-
enues allowed the country, under the stewardship of the Al-Khalifa family, to steer a
course of rapid modernisation that was a beacon for other countries in the region to follow
well into the 1970s and '80s.
When the oil began to run out, so did the fortunes of the government, and in the last
decade of the 20th century the country was shocked by sporadic waves of unrest. The
troubles began in 1994 when riots erupted after the emir refused to accept a large petition
calling for greater democracy, culminating in the hotel bombings of 1996 (at the Diplomat
and what is now the Ritz-Carlton Bahrain). Despite many concessions, including the es-
tablishment of a constitutional monarch in 2002, the political tensions have yet to be fully
resolved.
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People & Society
The National Psyche
Bahrain is so close to the mainland it is joined by a causeway to Saudi Arabia. Bahrain is
nonetheless an island, and there is something of an island mentality to be felt in Manama
and microcosmically in Muharraq, too. It is difficult to pinpoint the differences between
Bahrainis and other
jizari
(people of the Gulf) inhabitants, but perhaps it lies somewhere
in the Bahraini identification with the wider world, a feeling engendered by the centuries
