Meeting Bahrain’s lady ambassador; Visions of the Universe

LONDON — I was in Bahrain when King Hamad broke ground by responding to a voluminous report on human rights violations committed in his country. By appointing recognized international lawyers and giving them a free hand to investigate the accusations, he then responded by promising that something had to be done. The international group was the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI). Professor Cherif Bassiouni, a former war-crimes lawyer for the UN was head of the panel.

It was unusual because the king himself was making the promise of a new order based on the results of the investigation.

 â€œAny government that has a sincere desire for reform and progress should understand the benefit of objective and constructive criticism,” he said.

The whole event was so unprecedented as to be exceptional. That was December 2011.

So it was opportune that I was able to talk to the Bahraini ambassador to London Alice Samaan or two years after that promise on this visit. Of the many things she said to me about changes in her country including the appointment of an Ombudsman, the most interesting was about a group called the “Citizens for Bahrain.”       Mohammed Al Sayed, one of the founders of the group, sent me an email and described the group thus.

“I would like to firstly introduce our group ‘Citizens for Bahrain’.  It is a group of young Bahrainis who are aiming at providing a moderate perspective of events taking place in our country.

 During the unrest it was only the opposition and Government being listened to overseas. In Bahrain it was extremist and sectarian voices on both sides shouting the loudest.

‘Citizens for Bahrain’ seeks to reflect the views of the majority of Bahrainis who are not taking to the streets every Friday; but have their own views and criticisms of how the Bahraini Government have handled the situation.

We seek to engage journalists, NGOs and politicians; either directly or through our written material. Kindly find attached a number of our articles that highlight the situation in Bahrain with regards to the opposition’s terrorism and the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry’s recommendations.

You may also see our other articles on our website www.citizensforbahrain.com. Please do not hesitate to contact me for any further information.”

This is a welcome development not only for Bahrain that a citizens’ group is actively participating in reforms instead of just rioting in the streets and being easy prey from predators more interested in supplying them arms.

To me, Filipinos should accept the invitation to keep in touch with them and get a perspective that is not falsified by people outside their country. Keeping in touch with them through media can be less helpful than creating direct communication lines. Bahrain is only one country through which we can start a people to people contact. There are others but this is a good beginning not only for Bahrainis and their cause but also for Filipinos.  With millions of Filipinos working and making the region their homes, it is time that we have this direct political connection.

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Miscellany: While Veronica of Al-Jazeera is in Doha, her family is here. Husband Mark is on CNN assignment to photograph the royal birth. Their two children tagged along with him to London to meet with their cousin Felix.

My architect daughter Marta and husband Simon will soon be moving to Hong Kong so this was a bidding good-bye spree in London. Mark has been here a few days now because the royal birth date was wrongly predicted to  happen a few days ago. This has been changed to today, July 20.

But we will soon know. The arrival of a royal baby is announced by placing a proclamation behind the iron railings of the Buckingham Palace.

It may be an anachronism but the announcement will be made on a headed Palace notepaper for all the people to see as the royal family has done through the centuries. It will confirm the sex of the baby and signed by the royal doctors.

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When visiting London, it is good to take advantage and go see its many exhibits.  Reading through several ongoing exhibits I picked “Visions of the Universe” at the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich.

It caught my attention because it said it included Galileo’s hand written notes when he made the startling discoveries on how our planet  Earth related to the Sun. It turned to out that the small note could be hardly read. Never mind. It was a thrill to know that something Galileo had written in the Middle Ages could still be seen today in an exhibit in London.

 It was awesome to walk around the halls with spectacular photographs of galaxies, nebulae and millions and millions of stars.

This is an incredible exhibition. We hear and read announcements of discoveries in astronomy but never put together in a hall with such awesome photography. It is an incredible experience worth paying for a ticket from the Philippines.

“To put it bluntly, this is the most beautiful and significant exhibition I have seen in ages,” writes Jonathan Jones of The Guardian.

From Galileo to the present time it shows how far man has progressed in his efforts to understand  himself and that despite the awesomeness of his discoveries, he returns to the humbling experience of what it means to be part of it.

I would recommend “Visions of the Universe” to anyone who has a chance to visit London.

It captures images of the heavens over the centuries, from the earliest hand-drawings to photographs in the medieval ages to photographs taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. 

My favorite among the photographs is that which they called “Mars Window.”

Indeed it is the highlight of the exhibition. It is a 13-metre long panoramic projection of the Martian landscape as seen by NASA’s Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity rovers on the surface of the red planet. According to the brochure the panorama was stitched together from dozens of individual images.

“Projected on a large scale, the installation gives the feeling of standing on Mars itself.” In fact, it could be the panorama of a desert on Earth. I just sat there, staring at it, feeling it, letting it all sink in — a vision of something so strange yet so familiar.  That is the Universe and we are part of it.