Bahrain Today

"There are decades when nothing happens; and there are weeks when decades happen.” -Lenin

Further to our earlier message, please be aware that we continue to advise British citizens currently in Bahrain to remain at home until further notice.

There are numerous demonstrations planned in coming days and unofficial road blocks have been established in various locations around the country. Violence is possible at any of these. The Embassy is closed until further notice.

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Embassy Manama is advising all US citizens to remain in their residences until further notice due to the ongoing demonstrations and reports of violence throughout the past 24 hours. There is no indication that U.S. citizens are being threatened or targeted. Spontaneous demonstrations and violence are expected throughout the next several days.

Jake and I received these e-mails the day after our school was evacuated in the middle of the day as protestors cut off access to the financial district. Though the messages sound scary, I assure you we are safe.

The last two days we have gone to school in the morning, though with no students showing up we were sent home by 8. This morning the country seems eerily calm—everything is closed, no people on the streets. It seems to be the calm before the storm. The thought of a ‘storm’ is scary, but at this point it’s the general consensus here that something drastic needs to be done to end the lawlessness.
News is hard to come by, and unbiased news is almost nonexistent. Twitter is constantly updated though, and citizens want this to end for the sake of their country. They believe the protestors are not going about this the right way, that they don’t have a specific agenda. That being said, the arrival of the Saudi troops is not going down well either.

The Shi’a protestors have split into different factions, many realizing that this has gone too far. More radical protestors, many of them young men, are spending their time throwing rocks at Saudi troops and making barricades out of dumpsters, not realizing that the chance for diplomacy has slipped out of their hands.

Being here throughout this whole situation has brought the realization that Fox News isn’t the only absurd source of news in this world. CNN’s reports have received comments from Bahraini’s complaining about their biased nature; some of these comments have been removed by CNN, effectively doubling their message.

Since I began this post, both the US and UK Embassies have suggested that their nationals leave the country, and the King has declared a state of emergency for the country. All schools on the island have been closed indefinitely. We have been in close contact with school administrators and still feel completely safe. At this point we are going to see what happens today, and then decide if and when we should fly to the UK to wait out the storm.

I once again assure you we are safe and taking all necessary precautions.