Today's News Review - 9 Sep 2007

A quick look and rant at todays news from our lovely GDN (Gulf Daily News) with a quick bit of commentary to follow:

- LOCAL NEWS SECTION:

Smoking may be outlawed in Bahrain
By MANDEEP SINGH

BAHRAIN could follow the example of an Indian city where smoking in public has been completely outlawed, the GDN has learned.

Health officials here plan to contact their counterparts in Chandigarh, which banned smoking in public places, including streets, in July, as they prepare new anti-smoking legislation.

Umm.. Pardon me, but I think Bahrain is getting more ridiculous by the day. Don't get me wrong, i'm not a smoker, but this is really starting to go too far. Sure, there are health issues, sure, there are problems, but going out and banning smoking completely is just stupid. Take a look at the shopping malls where smoking has been completely banned; in Seef Mall, all you need to do is go to the stairs or the hidden corners to find stubs and stubs of cigarettes. Those areas have become disgustingly dirty and smelly. Just understand that you can't tell people NO SMOKING full stop. Whether it affects the rest of us who don't smoke isn't the point; create specific smoking areas, smoking rooms, etc, and ban it in other areas. You can't tell the smokers who are actually semi-dependant on their tobacco for a stress-free life to go screw themselves! We're all human, and we're all free, and I would like to think that if I wanted to smoke, as long as i'm not affecting someone else directly, I would bloody well have the right to!

Suq 'will cut off homes in Muharraq'
By MOHAMMED AL A' ALI

A SCHEME to turn Muharraq's old suq into a modern market to revitalise its business may result in blocking access to homes in the area, according to a municipal councillor.

The plan to turn it into a pedestrians-only market will make it difficult for families to reach their homes, said Muharraq Municipal Council services and public utilities chairman Ahmed Al Awadhi.

Oh great, another Suq (local market) modernization plan. I'm still waiting to see the results of the original Manama Suq modernization plan which was planned, what, 8 years ago? Bloody hell, why does everything go so slow here?!

10,000 visit new water park in first week
MORE than 10,000 people visited Bahrain's newest attraction, the Lost Paradise of Dilmun water park in its opening week, it was announced yesterday.

It is the largest water park in the region and is located close to the Bahrain International Circuit.

That's a pretty good turn out (if the numbers are accurate); anybody here visited yet? We would love to see some photos. I hope they do well, and although I have my doubts (based on many, many other disappointments faced in Bahrain), I wish the investors the best on this project, and hope it actually ends up doing good for the economy (which we probably won't benefit from as the little people, but hey, that just life in Bahrain, isn't it?)

- WORLD NEWS SECTION:

Airline loses cool over hot skimpy skirt!
A 23-year-old US woman who boarded a Southwest Airlines plane in a short skirt for a flight to Arizona says she was led off the plane for wearing an outfit that was considered too skimpy. Kyla Ebbert said a Southwest employee asked her to leave her seat while the plane was preparing to leave the southern Californian city of San Diego on July 3. Ebbert said the employee told her she would have to catch a later flight. "You're dressed inappropriately. This is a family airline. You're too provocative to fly on this plane," she quoted the employee as saying. "I said, 'What part is it? The shirt? The skirt? And he said the whole thing." Ebbert was eventually allowed back on the plane after offering to adjust her sweater but said she was humiliated and embarrassed.

Really? Haha, that's just ridiculous; I wonder how short her skirt was. Seems Southwest Airlines have been getting tips from our Parliment members on how to run their business.

- BUSINESS NEWS SECTION:

Gitex opens
DUBAI: The 27th edition of Gitex, the region's biggest annual technology event, was inaugurated yesterday by UAE Finance and Industry Minister Shaikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

More than 130,000 people from around the world are expected to attend the show, which features 3,300 companies including 572 first time exhibitors.

Oh man.. What am I doing in Bahrain; I need to be there! If you don't know, this is the coolest technology event in the GCC; all the latest computers, laptops, cameras, phones, TV's and everything else to do with electronics is unveiled here. And if you want to buy something, this is the place to do it! I think i'm taking a day or two off and going to Dubai.

Currency union talks set
RIYADH: Gulf finance ministers and central bank governors will meet next month to discuss a single currency plan that has become difficult to achieve by a 2010 deadline, Saudi Arabia's central bank governor said yesterday.

Central bankers of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and four other oil producers agreed at a meeting on Saturday that "exceptional economic developments" made a 2010 deadline for a monetary union project would be "difficult to meet" Hamad Saud Al Sayyari said.

"Has become" difficult to achieve by 2010??? NO $#!T!!!! Considering you guys kept delaying any positive or constructive discussion about it, even though it's been in the pipeline for years now, you come out three years before the deadline and say it has BECOME DIFFICULT TO MEET?! Useless...

That's all for today.