We’re put on this blue marble for a brief time, achieve some things, go after things we desire, then our time’s up. Some achieve things that will be remembered in history, some will be forever forgotten. Simple enough, right? So why is it so hard to let go?

Why do only certain people have phobias? Why are some of us shy? Why are some of us overexcited? Why do we get hurt? Why do we kill?

Over the years we’d like to think that mankind has evolved for the better. We are now capable of doing many deeds, both amazing and terrible. We mix things that already exist and then claim them as our own. Our hunger for power has grown in time. We create new terms to label everything we do and make it seem right or wrong as we please. He’s a martyr, he’s a terrorist… He’s shy, he’s pathetic… He’s distinct, he’s a freak… He’s a loner, he’s abandoned.

Our emotions have also evolved in the same exact way and can be the root cause of many things, again, both amazing and terrible. We attach ourselves to many things and refuse to let go, which causes us to go the negative direction of self destruction. Our minds refuse to accept the fact that we can’t control what comes in and out of our lives. We just have to learn to make the most of it. However, what we can control is our perception of these events. Many people tend to forget that we have the power to direct our thoughts and emotions. No matter how hard or even impossible it may seem, it can still be done if you really want it to.

And on the other side, we repel things for our own reasons and dread introducing them into our lives again, if ever. We feel safe without them, we feel un-threatened, we feel at home.

A good friend of mine once wrote a verse that got stuck in my mind for years, it goes like this “Crying when we arrive, then we pack our bags and leave. Yet the magic in between can send us dancing to the grave or screaming”. It makes perfect sense to me because all my questions have one simple answer, we choose how to accept or deny the things we encounter. Some people refuse to deal with their fears simply because they don’t want to, not because they can’t. Some just naturally want to live as happily as they can to the fullest extent. Most are caught in between. The “magic” is how we choose to live our life and it will determine our ultimate fate.

So what happens after that? Can we really see what happens after our time is up? Most of us would like to think so. It gives comfort to us and the people around us, I suppose. Many times we strive to leave a mark of our existence just in case we can’t see what happens afterwards, whether it’s composing a piece of music, creating a painting, raising our sons and daughters, or simply just touching the lives of others.

Whatever our ways are, all we really eventually want is to be remembered by someone else after we’re gone. Think about it…

I’m not sure what it was, to be honest. As soon as I walked in the place, I felt like I didn’t belong. The faces of everyone around me seemed so unfamiliar even though I’ve known most of them for years. The smell of alcohol and nicotine lurking within the smoke in this dark place, the definition of sin at its finest; I wanted to leave immediately, but there was something different about that day.

As the crowds gather, the ambiance grew. The floor slowly becoming invisible, drowned by an endless loop of black and denim. A horizon slowly forms in front of my eyes; I now see the ocean of people in front of me. With an atmosphere of water and glycol, smelling like rotten fish and burning your eyes.

It was slowly starting to make sense to me now. My heart starts beating faster, my hands start to sweat, rage and excitement start to consume me. Is this what they call an adrenaline rush? I start to look around for something to release what’s in me, fast! Without realizing it, all the everlasting frustrations of my everyday life are slowly coming together… Traffic jams, stress, money, working with morons, listening to the well regarded unintelligent, living in a society that will treat you like a bag of shit simply because you disagree! It makes you want to scream but that just isn’t enough! All of it starts building up into this ball of energy, just waiting for that one small spark to set off the explosion.

And then, I see my haven before me. Everything else surrounding it becomes a haze. I see everything in slow motion. I can only hear what my ears want to hear. I see my friends next to me stretching their arms and legs, cracking their necks and fingers, breathing hard to build up their stamina, and drinking whatever they can get their hands on to top it off.

Now we march…

The crowd starts to get louder as we’re slowly making our way towards our sanctuary, squeezing between the endless mass of bodies and shielding our eyes from the blinding multicolored stage lights and constant flickering of strobe lights. It wasn’t long before the ambient chatter turned into a terrifying war cry. Strangers and friends standing side by side, all wishing us good luck. As we climb onto that stage, we enter the zone where no one can stop us now. This is our turn to speak, our time to stand.

As all the switches are turned on, the vacuum tubes heat up, speakers start to project the sound of humming that we all love to hate. The crowd starts to go crazy, screaming for us to set off the explosion that will set us all free. The sound of feedback and snare wires rattling unintentionally start to emerge. For a moment, we feel all alone. There is no one else besides us in our haven because the feedback drowned out everything else. Once it has reached that point where it starts to tear up your eardrum, you know it’s time to get the show on the road. All it takes is that first little step, that first note you play, that queue that starts the show. Once you overcome this part, there’s no going back.

The queue has started and the sound of a power chord hits you like a train, the beat of a kick drum thumping your chest, those thick bass strings booming in your heart, and finally the pissed off frontman yelling right in your ear screaming all the stuff you wished you’d said all your life! This is it… this is that one little spark we’ve all been waiting for, the one we’ve been dying for…

As the night goes on, we all release what’s within us. We are finally able to express our true selves freely. Everything I hated about that night suddenly became my escape, my escape from reality, an escape into this realm that was like no other, where no one judges you for what you wear or what you do. And I know why… it is because we are part of a brotherhood that no one can even dare to understand. I finally felt like this is where I truly belong.

The next day I wake up in my room. My neck hurts, my voice is gone, I have a sore throat, can’t walk without limping, can’t move my arms, drenched in the smell of cheap beer, and bruises all over my body. Was it all worth it? I wouldn’t change any bit of that night, and I’ll remember it as long as I live.

Metal for life my brothers and sisters!

My daily job is in an environment surrounded by family. I have left a steady job to come join the “family business” in hopes of being closer with them and, hopefully, to gain some recognition and experience on a career level as well. At first it was quite exciting, I could not wait to experience how it would be to have a formal email correspondence with an HR manager, and then go to his house and just watch him play video games. I always had my instinct tell me to separate my business self from my personal self, that no matter what happens at work, I will always go visit them later and pretend nothing ever happened and maybe even go as far as to just laugh it off.

However, with time, I started to get acquainted with our fiendish friend, Stress. It starts very simple, a few 12 hour shifts, some working weekends, staying up after midnight fixing other people’s messes… all this and without even thinking of asking for a raise or overtime, I always told myself that “yes I do feel appreciated because I’m committing this much of my personal time and my own family wouldn’t overlook that”.

That sentence started to disappear from my mind from time to time at an exponential rate. It has reached a point where I just fear the sound of my alarm on weekdays and suffer endlessly as I push the snooze button over and over again, and then to walk in late for work pretending everything’s fine.

Now I have kept all this to myself during most of the time I have worked here because I know I’m not the only one stressed out in this family, let alone the entire company. Things started to get stressful financially as well and our salaries kept getting delayed. This has caused even more stress on me. And then it hit me. I slowly started to realize that the others around me began to act strangely. My colleagues, and family, slowly stopped greeting each other as happily as they used to, as if they just got too annoyed to see each other. My new-found friends have started to become rude at times only to give an apology 10 minutes later sometimes. The people whose work I admire started to take it easy and not be as creative as they used to be. In the past year, I have seen more than 10 employees submit their resignation with a smile (4 of whom have submitted their resignation this very day), leaving the company, and in a way their family. Oh but that’s not all, our lovely viral friend Stress has also met our top management and has caused them to react in a very odd manner in relation to what should be the normal reaction. It really saddens me to see that a CEO will go as far as to spite their own family because they have chosen to leave their job.

Now my original attitude of separating my business self from my personal self was indeed forgotten by this time and I can’t help but just stare down at the ground every time I remember that I once had principles that high. I fell victim to the clever mastermind that is Stress and have forgotten my own morals and even hesitate facing my own family during gatherings because they’re going to be upset that I may be considering moving to another job, I would be seen as a backstabber and a traitor at best. All the while I see my colleagues slowly turning against each other and eating at each other to climb their way up, while others have just had it and left. I feel like I am literally losing friends and family members like this.

The worst part of it is that I know that this isn’t the only company going through this. The exact same scenario is happening to others while we speak, even in other countries! Think of this situation on a much larger scale, when the going gets tough, countries start going to war with the attitude of “survival of the fittest”. If only the world could have this sort of awareness like I did when I stared at the ground with shame, to know that we once had this attitude to be willing to work as teams, when we knew that violence was never an option and there are always methods to go around it, to actual have those high principles that now we can only dream of.

Our beloved friend Stress… it’s a funny thing indeed…

Winter is perhaps one of the biggest things I witness in my life that reminds me that we are part of a much grander scheme in this existence. Our long summers (ok very long…) mean the exact same hot and humid weather every single day and the sky is just plain blue with nothing to show for it. It gets pretty hard to really take a step back from your personal life and once again appreciate the world we live in when this is your daily routine. Winter has arrived late this year and we only saw clouds and rain for maybe one week so far before they took off and just left us with short memories and cold winds. These views and memories really leave me astonished whenever they are here, it’s like watching a beautiful painting all over the sky and it just gets nicer and nicer with every direction you look. The color schemes cannot be described by words and the shapes are just phenomenal. This year we had maybe one day of “heavy rain” so far which lasted maybe 30 minutes… I swear I was looking at it from the window like a 5 year old looking at chocolate (I mean my mouth was literally just open and I almost drooled!). And don’t even get me started on the different ways you can see nature’s beauty. Look at just these three images and just take your time and really sink in the view and notice the differences, really makes you think doesn’t it?

- River
- Desert
- Snow

You can just see how opposite things are in just these three images. Hot and Cold, Humid and Dry, Light and Dark. These opposing properties are what make life interesting to me. My definition of life is a series of tests and making decisions. These opposites just add to the mix of it. I cannot feel pain if I cannot contrast it with pleasure, I cannot feel cold if there was no heat, I cannot feel poor if there was no such thing as money and wealth. I think you get the idea.

No matter how much of an idiot I may seem at the moment, maybe this will clarify my point. This feeling that I get when I look at Mother Nature makes me wonder how things got to the way they are today. How are we alive? Why do we look the way we do? Why do we behave like this? Why do we think like this? Now I realize that most of my questions can be answered by using theories of evolution and scientific facts and other stuff, but that really doesn’t answer anything for me. Science, to me, just explains HOW things happened the way they do, it never explains WHY things happen. This in turn makes me look at the simplest of stuff and really notice for the first time how complex life is in crafting every single detail to be exactly right. For instance, I look at my foot and wonder why it’s shaped the way it is… Why do I have an extended part with toes? To keep me balanced when I stand. Why is it facing the front, it could’ve just as easily kept my balance facing the back, right? Wrong, it’s facing the front in relation to how my knee bends. Can you imagine my knee bending the same way it does and my foot is facing the other side? I wouldn’t be able to walk very easily. Why are our legs formed the way they are and not the other way around? Well it had to be one or the other, don’t you agree? Maybe that’s the beauty of life, complex and yet simple at the same time.

Ok I might’ve gotten way too deep with the small details, but I still think it clarifies my point. I had a conversation similar to this with one of my friends and he asked me some questions that I’d never thought I could answer. The one that really got me thinking was: Why do bugs exist? And suddenly without hesitation I answered: “To clean up our mess.” I was surprised of my own answer because I asked myself that very same question not too long ago, call it a coincidence maybe. But just take a minute and think about our relations with the other creatures who we share this world with. Every living creature has a purpose to its existence in some way or another. We breathe in oxygen and let out carbon dioxide because it’s not good for our body. Plants do the exact opposite! If I were facing a plant and all other factors were negligible, we’d both live for eternity breathing off of each other. I take in its leftovers and it does the same for mine. Another example (please excuse the unpleasant imagery), I eat meat from other animals and shit out what my body doesn’t need. End of story right? Nope, it goes in the toilet (well, in the right conditions hopefully), it goes to god knows where… then what? Little cockroaches start feasting on it. And they don’t complain about how I digested the good parts, they just start digging in and removing my leftovers from existence, just how I did with the plant (well, in context maybe). Why do spiders live? I guess they keep all other insects in check; they do eat them after all.

What I’m trying to get to is that all living creatures share this world and we complete each others’ lives. This has been going on for a bazillion years, and this presents the real portrait of nature as I see it.

Speaking of these different creatures, I’m going to stray a bit off topic because I want to focus on the huge varieties in our world. You ever notice that when a person tries to come up with a new creature, we’re always biased because of what we see? In most cases, this new creature will have 2 arms and 2 legs. If we’re trying to get creative, then we add other beings in the mix (body of a horse, eyes of a serpent, horns, wings… etc). It still shows us that we are biased. But just take a look at the variety that we have in the real world… We have 2 legs and 2 arms, so do most other mammals, if not all of them. Other creatures have one head and eight limbs. Others have no limbs at all. Insects have 6 legs in most cases, but then you got ones with 8 and others with 44 fucking legs. Our biases are also shown in our beliefs, for instance, many Muslims claim that no one knows how our creator looks like. Then others claim that Allah creates man with his right hand and destroys man with his left… Apparently someone decided that Allah has 2 hands. Is this really the case? Only Allah knows and no one can argue with that. Anyway, I won’t get into this topic, I’m just trying to prove that the world we live in has an infinite number of variations in creatures and no man gets to decide what comes next.

Now, where are we in all of this? Somewhere along the line, something went horribly wrong. One living creature wanted to be better than the rest, wanted more out of life… We call this creature a human being. Now don’t get me wrong, I love living life as a human (it beats living as a cockroach, I’ll tell you that!) but what has happened to the world we live in today? Over here in Bahrain, I hardly see any “nature” left… Some of the nice views we got here are artificial so they don’t count. Whenever I look at roads, I just think about all the little critters that could be living there building their homes. I’m not saying “Destroy All Roads”, but it really does make me realize that humans were very able to live their life normally without this facility. And it only gets bigger in any way you look at it. Lots of humans form a small society… The attitude of most humans today tells us that societies need to be disciplined, but did you see the movie “The Gods Must Be Crazy”? Before that Cola bottle arrived in their world, they had no such thing as greed. Can you imagine a world without greed? Moving on… Leaders of a society have a huge responsibility. They need to determine how the society lives, how the people are brought up, the conditions in which they function, and most importantly, offer them a life of value. As times passed, people have changed. Leading societies has slowly turned into a game of win or lose. Leaders are failing to see what’s best for their people and are just focusing on their own power struggle, which can be easily lead by greed. This has lead to violence, deaths, wars, bloodshed, and genocide. All for what? Money? Power? For how long? Does it really take a guy to throw a shoe at you to know that you did something wrong? (By the way, I’m not targeting the US with this, I’m just speaking metaphorically, please don’t misunderstand my point). With the way our societies work today, it can get very difficult to get lost in the maze of what we perceive as reality and forget that we are really one small part of the puzzle that is life. I cannot change the way that this world functions no matter how hard I try, but maybe reviving the glory of the earth might show us the errors in our ways. I’d really like to see a leading figure endure the end of days and think how his money and weapons of mass destruction can help him get out of that mess.

Humans usually resort back to some sort of faith for guidance. Irrespective of people being Muslims, Christians, Jews, Hindus, Atheists, they all have one common denominator which is that there is one core belief that they live by. A famous behavior in most people today is their failure to see another belief and accept it. This, I believe, is one of the biggest reasons why we don’t have peace in today’s world. Most Muslims see any other religion as their enemy simply because it’s a different faith… When did this happen? Why must I hate someone because of what they chose to believe in? It’s none of my business and I have to respect it no matter what it is! I have met people in the world who are Satanists, believe me they were some of the nicest people I’ve ever spoken to. I shouldn’t force my views on people and there is definitely no reason to put a barrier between me and anyone else if they don’t accept it. That’s just childish and stupid. Is it? Take a look at our world today and decide for yourself… I’ve had friends of mine who studied abroad being called terrorists simply because they’re Arab and Muslim. If these friends of mine ever held a bomb in their hand, they’d probably shit in their pants and have a heart attack first before thinking of blowing up anything.

Final conclusion: I believe in this and you believe in that, it doesn’t matter because in the end we’re all People, and we’re part of a much larger circle of life than what we see everyday. And it is at times like winter when I finally realize all of this and appreciate a world that we can all live in.

So much for a good, kind hearted muslim country. After reading this, I seriously want to leave this country!

And now, I leave you with her story…

PROMINENT SOUTH AFRICAN FILMMAKER JAILED IN MIDDLE EAST

What started as a dream to teach valuable filmmaking skills to Bahrainis in the Middle East, and help improve the local economy ended up in horror for 39 year-old prominent South African filmmaker, Amour Elliott-Setter. Only seven weeks after relocating with her family to the Kingdom of Bahrain in the Middle East to start a film school, Amour found herself in prison with her 20-year-old daughter, Gabrielle in what can only be described as shocking and appalling circumstances.

After being approached in South Africa in February 2007 by a local Bahrain businessman, Hejris Al’Shirawi with an offer of a business partnership in the Kingdom, Amour visited the island on two separate occasions to conclude business and finalize license arrangements with the local Ministry of Labor. She presented the Ministry with all her qualifications, course notes and a business plan for the film school, and on this basis Mr. Al’Shirawi was granted a business license to operate a film academy. Soon after her relocation to the island, Amour’s excitement turned to disappointment as the so-called business partnership did not materialize. After three failed attempts to get Mr. Al’Shirawi to sign a partnership agreement, she left the company, taking all her filming equipment with her and swiftly found a new business partner, who applied for a new working visa for her and her daughter, Gabrielle.

Amidst confusion about the cancellation of their working visas with their former would-be partner and awaiting the issuing of new working visas with their new sponsor, the mother and daughter team sought advice from various business sectors, including the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce, who all assured them that they would be safe despite their visas lapsing, due to the current Immigration Amnesty on the island. Eight hours after their visas lapsed the women were arrested and imprisoned, where they remained for seven days before being deported back to South Africa.

“Our visas expired at midnight on the 22nd August 2007, seven weeks after our relocation to the Kingdom. Earlier that day we received a phone call from the Hidd Police Station saying our previous would-be business partner wanted to meet with us at 8am on the 23rd August to “finalize” details of our migration to a new sponsor. Although feeling very nervous, we went along to the meeting, but he wasn’t at the Police Station. The Police told us we were required to appear in court, despite there being no paperwork to substantiate this. They insisted on escorting us to the courthouse in Manama. When we got there we saw our former sponsor and his English girlfriend, Angela Rencontre in the other room and were told to wait for the Prosecutor to hear our matter. 3 hours later we were still waiting and began feeling very suspicious, as the female police officer kept following us everywhere. We couldn’t even go to the toilet without her by our sides. We then telephoned our contact at the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce, who told us to go immediately to an attorney down the road, who was also a volunteer for the Human Rights Society in Bahrain. When we told police we urgently needed to see an attorney, they refused to let us go and said we were under arrest. We were then horrified to discover that a verdict had been reached by the Prosecutor in our absence!

From what we understand, our ex-sponsor pulled some strings with his friends at the Police Station, who coerced us to the courthouse. Whilst waiting around for the so-called meeting to materialize, Hejris approached the Prosecutor with fabricated stories about us supposedly stealing his editing equipment (which actually belonged to us and which we had brought with us from South Africa). We were so shocked that a fabricated lie could be presented to a Prosecutor in our absence, and that a verdict to imprison and deport us could actually have been reached without us being given the opportunity to defend ourselves or present any of our own evidence! What kind of judicial system is this? We came to this country to teach much-needed skills to their workforce and to ultimately help their economy and this is how we were being treated in return?”

Amour’s twelve-year-old son, Sebastian, was alone at her home on the north of the island in Amwaj while they were being detained and imprisoned. Their cats, which they had brought over from South Africa, were alone at home at her daughter’s villa in Hidd. The two women were in total shock as they were being transported to the Women’s Prison in Hidd. Upon arrival at the prison, Amour attempted to contact someone to inform her son what was happening and to arrange for him and the cats to be looked after. But the Prison Wardens refused to allow her to make any phone calls.

“I cannot describe to you what we went through in prison. We were not formally charged with anything, not read our rights, not given a phone call. We were told to undress completely, body-searched, made to squat naked on the floor for an agonizing length of time, and then thrown into an over-crowded prison cell with the clothes on our backs. We slept on the floor for 3 days, were never issued any bedding, soap, toilet paper, tooth paste or eating utensils. In-mates had to eat with their hands off stainless steel plates which were never washed with soap after meals, but just rinsed off under a running cold tap. My daughter was menstruating and was refused any sanitary towels by the Prison Wardens. Most of the toilets were broken and unable to flush or completely blocked. One of the in-mates banished to her own cell was dying of Hepatitis C, but still using the same toilet and bathroom facilities as all the other prisoners. Many times the prison ran out of drinking water, and the wardens delayed the issuing of more water, saying the in-mates were drinking too much water. Often the inmates at the end of the queues went without food at meal times, as there was hardly enough food to feed the 150 or so prisoners, and when food ran out people just simply went without. Four to five times a day the air-conditioners were switched off. With outside temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Celsius, the cells became overbearingly hot and stuffy, further exacerbating the already tense atmosphere in the over-crowded facilities. We had roll call about four times a day, where prisoners were insulted, beaten, humiliated and screamed at by arrogant 18 – 23 year old Arabic prison wardens who could barely speak English. We witnessed extreme brutality and racism, and were completely helpless. The worst thing was not knowing if my son and cats were being taken care of and if we were ever going to get out!”

After begging to be allowed to have her asthma pump for 3 days and being refused, Amour eventually had a very serious and almost fatal asthma attack. As she lay on the floor struggling to breathe, Prison Wardens completely ignored her pleas for help, despite the obvious situation. Other in-mates were urging the wardens to assist her by giving her an asthma pump, to no avail. It was eventually the hysterical crying of her daughter, Gabrielle that that brought them to action, and she was rushed to hospital in the police van.

“Upon arrival at the hospital I was treated like an animal. The male doctor who examined me at the Muharraq Clinic was rude and abrupt. I begged him to give me something to help me relax, and tried to explain that my anxiety was exacerbating my asthma, but he refused. I was administered oxygen, given a bottle of medicine and returned to jail after an hour. When I was put back in the cells I begged to keep my asthma pump with me, and was again refused. Over-night I contracted gastroenteritis from the appalling conditions and lay on the floor for a further 24 hours becoming severely dehydrated. No amount of pleading from my daughter to the prison guards helped. During all of this time we had no idea how Sebastian was coping and if our cats were still alive. The next day Gabrielle managed to convince the prison guards to let me see the Prison doctor at the clinic. I was virtually carried there by my daughter. The doctor put me on an IV drip for severe dehydration, and after an hour I was thrown back in jail again.”

Amour informed the prison doctor of her anxiety about her son and animals, and the doctor appealed to the Head of Security at the jail, a woman known only as Madame Shaikha, to allow her to make a phone call to check if her son was ok and to be escorted to her home to get clean clothes and a toothbrush. They were denied their phone call, but later that night the police escorted the women to Amour’s home on Amwaj Island to get clean clothes and a toothbrush, where they immediately phoned their ex-sponsor and begged him to release them. He was extremely arrogant and told Gabrielle that he had warned them he would have them imprisoned if they didn’t “play his game” and that since they had angered him, he had gone ahead and had them thrown in jail “to teach them a lesson”. The women begged and pleaded for their release, and said they would do anything he wanted. It was at this stage that they discovered that Sebastian had been alone at home for three days, with no clue what was happening to his mother and sister.

In the meantime their ex-sponsor had leaked word to South Africa about their imprisonment, and coincidentally Gabrielle’s family found out and began making frantic phone calls to the South African Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. With very little information to go by, the family was going out of their minds with anxiety.

The next day their ex-sponsor came to see them in prison, accompanied by his English girlfriend and a supposed South African Embassy representative (Zane Lambert), whom Amour recognized as one of Mr. Al’Shirawi’s friends. The women were lectured by both the ex-sponsor and the supposed SA Embassy representative, who said that they had committed very serious crimes and faced deportation.

“Right up until this point we still had no idea why we were in prison, as there were never any charges that were explained to us, except the Judge’s explanation to us at the court that our ex-sponsor had claimed we had stolen his editing suite and wanted us deported as a result. The lapsing of our visas never seemed like an issue to us because we knew of the Immigration Amnesty and had also been reassured by many professionals that we would be safe. Hearing them telling us that we had committed one of the worst crimes by being in the country “illegally” came as a shock. The so-called SA Embassy representative told us we were now considered to be illegal immigrants and were obviously being treated as such. After being told by our ex-sponsor how influential he was on the island, and admitting to having us imprisoned,
he said he would only release us if we agreed to pay him a substantial amount of money. A story, we discovered in prison, was only too common in these parts. “Pay us or we will leave you in jail”. We were so desperate to be released, we agreed to pay him any amount of money he wanted.”

Two days later the women were issued their return tickets to SA, but not before being made to sign an agreement with their former sponsor at the police station, where they were arrested. They were forced to agree to pay him the equivalent of about US$7,500. He agreed he would not have them blacklisted, and that they would be allowed to return to the country after their deportation to collect their personal belongings and continue working until they paid him back all the money they “owed” him. The agreement was that they had only three months with which to come up with the money.

A few days before their incarceration, Amour had read in a local Bahrain newspaper of an organization working to combat Human Trafficking in the Middle East. She approached them offering to volunteer her services as a filmmaker to help bring attention to the grave situation in the Middle East. She never dreamt she would end up being exposed to first-hand accounts of Human Trafficking. Whilst in South Africa, Amour had produced a short film on Human Trafficking in Africa. This short film has since been viewed around the world on various Internet websites, as well as television stations such as Skynews.

“We spent seven days speaking to prisoners and listening to their shocking stories. Most of the women imprisoned had similar stories. Recruited as teachers, engineers and professionals by recruitment agencies in Bahrain, they arrived expecting to walk into well-paid jobs. Most of these women are from India, Philippines or Bangladesh. Once collected from the airport by their sponsors, they were either informed they were being hired as housemaids or prostitutes. Many of the housemaids were then banished to tiny, filthy bedrooms and were expected to work from 4am to midnight. The local agencies retained their salaries for the first three months as commission, and they had no alternative but to be used as slaves until their situations improved. Expecting salaries of between US$1,000 and US$2,000 per month, these women ended up working for salaries of between US$100 and US$150 per month, if they were lucky! Other women were not so lucky. A 47-year-old women known only to us as “China” was recruited as a secretary. Once collected from the Bahrain airport, she was taken to a house, then blind-folded and taken to a near-by flat, where she was forced to work as a prostitute servicing local Indian and Pakistani men. At first she resisted, but was so severely beaten that she eventually surrendered and complied with her captors. Several months later she managed to escape, was taken to a police station by a Samaritan and instead of getting assistance, she was promptly jailed. Many of the women in prison were put there by their cruel sponsors, who refused to pay them their salaries and found an excuse to jail them instead.

At the time of our incarceration there were several women in prison with newborn babies. One young Indian mother who had given birth in Bahrain was apparently jailed because her baby did not have a Bahrain passport! Another Philippine mother, Marifie Remonde, who’s baby was born one month prematurely in Bahrain, was jailed immediately after giving birth because her sponsor claimed she owed her money. These babies were clearly malnutritioned and traumatized. One baby had lost a total of 4 kilograms in her first month in prison. It was common for the babies to go without their formula for up to three days, as the prison wardens stalled the issuing of their food. Another very beautiful, educated and sophisticated Russian woman, who was married to a Bahraini gentleman, was also falsely imprisoned. She was two months pregnant with her second child at the time of her incarceration and has no idea if she will ever get out before the birth of her baby.

I would say that 80 percent of the women in this prison were victims of Human Trafficking. One very sophisticated, well-educated and elegant Philippine lady, Alona Montemayor, who was working as an Estate Agent in Bahrain had been in prison for three months on false charges and had no idea if she was ever going to get out. I have read about the Human Trafficking problem in the Middle East, but never dreamt in my wildest dreams it was this bad! What shocked us was that the women kept telling us “you’re white, you will get out soon, white women never stay long in prison here”. During the 7 days of our incarceration, three white women were brought to the prison and released the following day. The first was a German tourist, who had been arrested with her boyfriend on the beach at sunset. Again, no charge, they were never read their rights and just thrown in prison. Somehow her Embassy got her out the next day. The second was an American citizen married to a Bahraini. She was innocently chatting in her car to another American friend who had just returned from Afghanistan when they were arrested and imprisoned. Her Embassy got her out the next day. The third was an English girl who worked for one of the local airlines. She had been caught drinking and driving and was out the next day after a friend had paid her fine at the traffic department.

Maria Sandra Torres Diaz was recruited by Al Faiha Manpower Services in Bahrain with promises of a fantastic income, only to be another victim of Human Trafficking and ended up in prison.
Pacita Sulifa had her passport retained by her local sponsor and jailed on false charges.
Susana Idanan did not receive her final month’s salary from her Bahraini sponsor, then jailed on false charges so her sponsor could avoid having to pay for her ticket back to the Philippines. Her family has no idea she is in jail.
Karanan Manpower Services in Bahrain recruited Imelda Daileg under false pretenses as well; she discovered she was a victim of Human Trafficking upon her arrival in Bahrain and then later jailed by her sponsor on false charges.
Porina Farina’s sponsor claimed she stole his Rolex watch, which he even offered as evidence in court! She was sentenced for 6 months on false charges, and has been in prison for longer than this.

On the surface Bahrain seems like an idyllic place to live. Supposedly a God-fearing and law-abiding people, one would think that slavery and human trafficking would never happen in a Muslim country, but it does.

A hand-full of very good people came through for us, and if it weren’t for them, we would still be in jail. It is my sincere intention to expose these human atrocities and assist these women in getting out of prison and being reunited with their families.

I truly believe that the man who sponsored us into the country had every intention of using us for Human Trafficking. I might be wrong, but Hejris Al’Shirawi had no intention of securing a business partnership with me, but intended to force us to be employees of his company, whilst claiming ownership of filming equipment owned by my family which is valued at over R200,000. How do I know this? I think his actions all speak for themselves. After we initially left his company he withheld our passports and only agreed to return them if we paid him a substantial amount of money. The amount of money he insisted on kept escalating the more entwined we became in the system until we were so desperate we agreed to his unreasonable demands. During our incarceration Mr Al’Shirawi had the cheek to contact people we know in South Africa, bad-mouthing us and making us out to be criminalsI Never once did he admit to anyone he contacted that he was responsible for our imprisonment, but made himself out to be the Hero and claimed we tried to take advantage of him! I fear he will try to approach more filmmakers in South Africa, as he now has a registered film academy in Bahrain and no qualified teachers. I would hate any other women to be approached by him, conned and forced to go through what we went through! This man should be blacklisted from ever entering our country again.

Human Trafficking must be stopped! Slavery must be abolished. Human Beings should have the freedom to choose their realities, and not be forced into hostage situations where they are used as mules, prostitutes, slaves and punch-bags for sick and twisted people! Human Trafficking is rife in Bahrain, and many, many influential people in the country may be involved. Please join us in this campaign to abolish Human Trafficking and do whatever you can to pass this email around the world to all your contacts. The more people who know about this, the better. Perhaps a large amount of people can put pressure on the Bahrain government to put elements in place geared for combating this problem. At this point in time the problem is conveniently being ignored by their government, in fact, I’d even go as far as saying that the problem is being encouraged by the government!

My daughter and I are currently documenting our experience in prison. However, we arrived back in South Africa with a few clothes and all our possessions are still in Bahrain, including our two precious cats and all our filming equipment. We have been advised by people working in High Security in Saudi Arabia NOT to return to the country, as our lives would be put into serious danger, given what we now know about Human Trafficking in Bahrain. A few friends living in Bahrain have offered to help us get our possessions back and we hope to raise enough funds to have everything shipped back to South Africa, including our cats. We will not stop campaigning until Human Trafficking is abolished and I ask that you join us in this fight in whatever small way you can.

Amour Elliott-Setter
FILMMAKER
Email: amour_setter@yahoo.ca
Mobile: (+27) 78 591 2044

APPEAL FOR ASSISTANCE by Michèle Schiess:

Amour and I have been friends and colleagues for over a decade. I received an sms the night before as they were boarding the plane in Bahrain, and collected them from the airport the following morning. Amour and her two children arrived in South Africa very traumatized – with only a few clothes and nothing else. They were taken straight from prison, allowed a few minutes to pack and taken to the airport for deportation. All their worldly possessions, including all of Amour’s business material and equipment (and their two cats) are in Bahrain and their situation is dire. They are in a catch 22, and asking for outside help is the only option right now. They are in crisis and need immediate financial help to start over. I appeal to each of you to donate what you can as a once off, in order for them to subsist whilst starting to re-build their lives in South Africa again.

Thank you in advance for opening your hearts to assist this family in need.

Please deposit donations into Gabrielle’s account:

Account holder : G. ELLIOT
Bank : ABSA BANK
Branch & code : PORT ALFRED
Account number : 910 442 7680
Type : SAVINGS
Reference : RELIEF
Swift Code : ABSA ZAJJ

Kind regards,

Michele Schiess
Filmmaker,
Johannesburg, South Africa
Tel: (+27) 11 464 3609
Mobile: (+27) 72 63 15 409
Email: sing4life@imaginet.co.za

I urge anyone who reads this to at least post it somewhere else if they are not able to donate anything.
Thank you

The great news is that Amour will be coming to Bahrain herself to launch a Film Academy. The opening launch will be held on Thursday the 12th of July at 7:00 PM at the Bahrain Business Incubation Centre in Hidd.

She will be handing out personal invitations to people who can contact her by e-mail as well as tickets for any friends that can come. She can be contacted through ( amour@tef.co.za ).

Here are some of the videos demonstrating her movie making skills:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3qmEH4iXqY[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCHnSjsTFCQ[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK5pBpnp6jE[/youtube]

You can see some of her peace supporting videos on her myspace profile, I couldn’t put them here because I don’t know how to link to a myspace video.

Hope you guys can make it!!

— INTERVIEW —

-FourteenG.net: Tell me a little about your experience when you guys played the Middle East at the Dubai Desert Rock Festival. How was the climate of the people: were you well-received? What was your impression of it?

-Robb: It was actually completely shocking, to be honest, you know. It was just one show and it was in Dubai; it was in the United Emirates and it was us, SEPULTURA was opening’a couple of other band, WITHIN TEMPTATION, MACHINE HEAD and THE DARKNESS. It was like totally out of nowhere and randomly THE DARKNESS was headlining, but this was when THE DARKNESS was worth something! [Chortles ensue] You know it was kind of scary when we were going over there, you know we were just like, you see all of this stuff on the media. We had never been there so we didn’t know what to expect.

Then my wife was literally pleading with me the night before, “This has got to be some kind of terrorist plot!” and I was like, “I don’t think so!” They were paying us a lot of money and I don’t think they would do that, you know. But I’ve got to say that it was in the back of my head and just landing there. We got there, we were expecting to see nothing but mosques and turbans and camels! We drive out of there and we the first thing we see is Starbucks and Roundtable Pizza! We were like, “What the f*ck?” and the next day it was McDonalds and Burger King and Arby’s and Nordstrom’s and Cactus Jacks! [Shakes head in disbelief, reliving the moment] They put us up in the Fairmont Hotel, they took us to the Rock Hard, I mean the Hard Rock Hotel for a press conference. It was like Las Vegas on crack but it was on the beach. So, it was like Las Vegas on the beach, which was the coolest thing about it. In the outskirts, it was a little weird but the show, I mean 5,000 people, kids from Iran, Grenada and just like all these crazy places like Beirut, and obviously Dubai and Saudi Arabia, and they were all just metal heads, you know.

[Beams] Long hair, METALLICA shirts, MACHINE HEAD shirts, SLAYER shirts, SLIPKNOT shirts, they were jumping and headbanging. They knew the “Machine Fucking Head”, [eyes widen] we were like, “What the fu*ck?” I mean, we ended talking to a bunch of[coughs]. They had kind of a big after-party and a bunch of the kids that were at the show actually got to come in and hang out. They were all just SUPER-COOL man! We were just talking! [Robb's phone rings unexpectedly] and we were just so freaked out what it was going to be like to be [there] You know how the media, especially here in America how the media really manipulates everything. We expected bombed out cities and it was one of the nicest cities you could ever be in, you know. But they hammer that perception into America and totally build that fear. It’s total fear-mongering and in the same they expected us to be a certain way. Americans, just a bunch of “la, la, la la’s” And you know it was this cool cultural experience that we got to trip off of.

— END OF INTERVIEW —

This is wonderful news for all metal heads in the middle east, especially ones on MidEast Youth who want people to see the Middle East isn’t just “mosques and turbans and camels”. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go listen to some Machine Head.

Muslim Demonstration In London

The purpose of the site I’ve given proves whether rumors, legends, stories…etc. are true or not. I just happen to come across this section and I regretfully say that I wasn’t very surprised when I read the status of this story to be True.

These photos are of protests that responded to the drawings made of our prophet (p.b.u.h.) and they all promote violence, a mistake they’re commiting as muslims. Everyone will agree that there are right ways to do things and there are wrong ways. What these guys are doing is pushing the boundries well beyond wrong and even more beyond extreme.

I am a strong believer in my religion as I’m sure many of you are, but it’s people like that who really make you just want to break something. What happened to the part where Islam is a peaceful religion??? Where are the kind-hearted muslims??? I now see how few there are. So far the only people I feel I can relate to are the ones on this site. I am very thankful to be a part of this site and I hope it grows beyond imagination… I just wish our struggle would have the support of more proper muslims around the world and not these fools who live by only the title of Muslim. It shames me to call people like that representors of our religion.

We should like gather up ideas and write a book or something to show just how wrong the world views Islam and show them that what terrorists or even protestors like the ones in that site actually are against what Islam is all about.

…Ahem…

“People who think they’re better than everyone else just because they have a long beard are really starting to piss me off! Sometimes it feels like they insist on just wanting to portray you as everything wrong in this world and they are everything right. And even when you try to explain yourself, they treat like you’re a kid saying “I know how to make a million dollars over night”. GROW UP YOU STUPID GUYS!!!

For the people who read this from different ethnicities, there are people living with us who intentionally grow long beards to show their devotion to their religion, similar to Judaism. However in reality they’re just trouble. To these days, some of the problems we have faced is usually something to do with them. I shall demonstrate:

First and foremost is Music. Music is a very disputable subject in this country (or region actually) simply because some people say it is “forbidden”. Let’s just break this subject down to the simplest explanations. What is music? A collection of notes and/or percussive sounds arranged to make some sort of melody (or not) that could be a representation of a certain idea (whether it be good or evil). In order to make music, you need creativity. And what is creativity? It is the ability to come up with new ideas from scratch or combine old ideas in a new way. To have creativity in your mind is a very precious gift from god. Everything we see and hear today was at some point just an idea in someone’s head. Creativity as I see it is a gift from god that is often overlooked. This form of creativity does not harm anyone so there’s nothing bad about it, even if it was representing evil thoughts. The reason these “religious figures” claim it is forbidden is that it distorts the mind of a person and can often cause it to do many things.

Can we get real for a minute here? If these so-called “religious figures” are so sure that music is forbidden, you’d think they would remember the reason why other things are forbidden right? Alcohol and drugs are forbidden because they harm the human body. In fact, any substance that can make you unaware of your acts is at some point harmful, which is why they are forbidden. That being said, there are many people here that smoke cigarettes but still claim to be very religious by heart, and whenever someone asks them why do they smoke, they said it wasn’t written in the Qur’an (as if cigarettes existed more than 1400 years ago). Can anyone just use their heads for one second? Cigarettes cause lung cancer, that’s the fact of it whether people like it or not. Since it is even printed on the box itself, I’d think people who stick to forbidding drugs and alcohol would also come to the conclusion that this substance would be forbidden too because it is harmful to the body similar to drugs and alcohol, the only difference is that it’s much less severe. However, these bearded morons have somehow put music up with these addictive substances for some reason, they say it is forbidden because when you listen to it, it “takes control of you” and causes you do weird shit (I’m guessing they’re talking about dancing/headbanging/mosh pits, etc) and they also say you get addicted to it.

One thing everyone must remember is that it is a true fact that you can never ever control what a person believes in, the only thing you can do is maybe influence it or enlighten them, but never control. People seem to always forget that. Whenever we have a local gig of some sort here (metal concerts to be more precise), we always have to see articles written in several newspapers about “devil worshipping acts” or something of the sort. And then when we say that we do not perform any of the written rituals and even try to prove it by showing video tapes of concerts, then people will start saying stuff like “we’re only worried for our children”. The guy who makes these claims (those who live in Bahrain will surely know who I’m talking about) once took it too far and said we kidnap and eat kids and drink the blood cats or dogs. We tried to fight back by having an interview with several of our friends and this hypocrite. Right there he started to change his strategy and say stuff like we are only worried about you because you are the youth of this country. And then he started saying other shit like “what if a little boy comes to your concerts and sees the dark and angry atmosphere and then he gets into it and becomes a devil worshipper even if you say you don’t send out that message. Well that may be because YOU didn’t do your job and raise him to be a freaking thinker! Maybe your attitude towards that makes kids seem like robots who will accept any information given to them and believe it. Remember that people think the way they do based on their personal experience and how they were raised. If you’re worried about your kids turning into devil worshippers due to concerts, try talking to them for a change and see their thoughts on the situation and where they stand about it, or if the situation gets a bit more serious, try convincing them that this is nothing more than music and that it should not control what you think, and that these are merely representations of what message the band is trying to send. There could be just that tiny slim chance that their interest in music is only just (gulp!) a hobby!

Use your god given minds to think a little before judging people by their appearance! I mean you’re going to a metal concert, what do you expect? Some guys wearing white and pink shirts and have like three vocalists and one keyboardist?? It’s a metal concert! Expect to see black clothes and long hair and spiked accessories, and most of all, expect a very loud sound! If you don’t like it then go hit your head on the wall of your choice! I’m not responsible for your stupidity, I will not pay for your ignorance!

If you are as “religious” as you say you are then I have a few things to say to you:
- It is wrong to make up stuff about people
- It is wrong to have a two faced personality or a double standard
- It is wrong to judge people without knowing them
- It is wrong to believe something without verifying it
- It is wrong to jump to any conclusion
- It is encouraged to ALWAYS give people the benefit of the doubt no matter who they are

After that interview I mentioned earlier, within the next few days he gave a speech in a mosque continuing with his old strategy: “These people worship the devil! We must get rid of them! Kick them out of the country! People who wear black are evil! Our children are in danger! Oh god WATEVER SHALL WE DO?!?!? How about SHUT UP AND GET A LIFE!

Once again he tried to demonstrate the “effect of heavy metal” on kids. Guess what he did? He did this lecture in front a large group of audience and brought in a mentally challenged person (who is not going to act normally of course) and then he claims that heavy metal did this to him.

Now because of idiots like these and even bigger idiots that believe them, we can never go and walk in the streets without some people looking at us like we’re dirt, when in some cases we even corner them in religious talks and leave them with nothing to say. Once it has gotten to a point where some bearded guy calls us from inside his car, expects us to go to him, and then tries to give us advice about religion and how he think he knows more about metal music than we do. I mean, if you really feel you’re that wise and mighty and powerful that you feel the unstoppable urging need to give advice to people before you die at that very second, the least you could do is get off your lazy ass go to them, not call them to come to you!

There is also another portion of people who think (and I would like to emphasize the word “think”) they are “modern thinkers”. These people attempt to explain why this type of music should be forbidden instead of just forbidding it with no explanation at all. I tried asking one of these “modern thinkers” about this subject and he told me that music should be forbidden because it gives people impure thoughts. Should I even comment on this? I decided to test him out. I told him when you listen to classical music, what do you think about? His answer was that he visualizes himself dancing with some girl wearing a long red dress (in other words he’s trying to say music enables lust). I asked another guy that same question and his answer was watching an orchestra behind a conductor. A third guy said his memories. That alone disproved his “explanation” because I showed him that this was purely subjective. So basically if music gives him impure thoughts then he can stop listening to it, those who listen to it for the sake of the art itself shouldn’t be affected by such a childish attitude. Then he tried to corner me by saying ok what do you think about when you listen to it? I told him I imagine the whole orchestra while they’re in a studio session recording and how it’s all done, because I’m into recording too and I could use the tips, nothing more, nothing less. The guy still tried to corner me by saying something like “What if a person listens to a song that talks about killing and then it influences him and he goes and kills someone, you can’t deny that the music didn’t push him to it”. Well my answer is: “If all it took for this guy to kill someone is just listening to one song then the problem lies with the person and not with the song. In this case the music isn’t an influence, it’s an excuse. If you shoot a person in the head, is it the gun’s fault? Or is it yours?” Stop blaming stuff for your pathetic actions!

You want to know my opinion about music in our religion? We have a category of actions simply labeled “Distractions” (Mulaheyat). This category has a very simple and straightforward explanation: It’s fine to do it as long as it doesn’t take you away from your god. It’s as simple as that! And some of the things under this can include gaming consoles, TV, just hobbies in general (which includes music). Now the weird part is that all of the other stuff mentioned are all considered normal here. Some people put off their praying just to watch some soccer match on TV or the F1 race or whatever but still want to give you a lecture about music and how it turns you into Satan or some other dumb shit like that.

However, I would also like to add that music that boldly encourages sexual behavior is, to me, one of the crappiest shittiest forms of music ever created (and I use the term music very loosely) Whenever I watch any music channel these days, all I see is one song after the other talking about how hot a girl is! It’s either about how some guy who’s just a sex addict that tries to cover up his own insecurity by explaining in details how tough he is, how many fights he’s been in, how many bullets he took, and how he wants to do it with some prostitute. If it’s not that, it’s some girl trying to explain how hot she is and how she makes guys go crazy in attempts to convince herself that she is still young and still has it, or sometimes they try to make a whole song about how they would reject a guy for some stupid reason (which returns us to the guys getting insecure and writing songs about how tough and sex-starved they area, it’s really just a cycle of stupidity when you think about it). I believe the psychological reason for this is the absence of self-confidence in them, maybe even self-respect.

I’m sure you’ll know which singers I mean by this. Those types of songs to me are the ones that should be forbidden because they show very little responsibility to what message they are sending out to people, especially because cases of HIV diseases are currently increasing more than ever. If they do anything to the world, it’s just widening a scar over and over again. All for a stupid minute and a half of upbeat dancing. But then again, that’s my opinion because I hate that kind of music, if you like it just for the hell of its groove then that’s your choice and I respect that. But I’ll tell you one thing, the day that some of those guy celebrities gets HIV or those girl celebrities get raped on the streets, trust me when I say I’ll celebrate it because they will do this world a favor and finally show that what they do is irresponsible.

You know what’s the sad part? It’s that these songs are famous worldwide and are best sellers no matter what message they send out, and guess what? I see more people copying this pop/rap shit than I see people becoming devil worshippers. Why doesn’t anyone say anything about that? If the main concern is distortion of the mind and stuff like that, then why not stop Britney from telling young teenage girls about how fun it is to be with guys? Take any one of her songs and just listen to what she says. These can make it seem normal for a girl to lose her virginity at such a young age and be totally fine about it because she might think it’s “fun” and not done out of pure love between two people, which could possibly get her pregnant or worse infected with STD if in case she carries on like this. Unfortunately, the subject of safe sex is completely absent here because apparently the idea of sex became very different than a bond between people, it is now considered the shameful act that must be avoided at all costs hoping it would not happen. If you avoid a disease, does it go away? What do you expect if you avoid sexual education and be irresponsible enough to not teach sons/daughters about safe sex? The result? More teenage moms and an optional dad with no job and no money.

Now back to the subject!

All I want is for these religious people to think with their mind and not just try to say what is right and what is wrong. Open your mind, open your ears, listen, and most importantly THINK before you decide anything. Ever since these guys have been put in power not too long ago, all we hear is: this guy said this or this guy said that or they said this is wrong. That same guy I was talking about a while ago also accused a cultural festival of giving the viewers ideas of sex just because a guy and a girl were dancing. It’s a freaking dance!!! GET OVER IT! There was no nudity or dirty talk. How is this supposed to portray sexual acts?? His case was that the girl unbuttoned the guy’s shirt and then they danced, so?
And according to him “no Muslim would ever tolerate this kind of act to be performed in front of an audience”. The funny thing is that his comments were dismissed by the organizers of the festival because according to them all the people that came there had fun and enjoyed the show, and he was the only one who didn’t.

This also brings up another topic, Guys and Girls. In the local gigs we do, it’s usually a public invitation and people would buy tickets to enter. Guys and girls who do listen to this music would want to go so naturally there are going to be guys and girls sitting in the same room. This subject has also been an easy target for people who don’t know how to think. They always seem to forget that we always provide security in the concert and we will not tolerate any kind of unwanted behavior. So truthfully speaking, their daughters aren’t in any danger of being violated in any one of our concerts, but again no one listens and will always use this against us by saying stuff like: would you allow your sister/daughter to go to places like these? Kindly remember that when some geeky Arabic singer comes and makes a concert, you have all sorts of stupid behavior between guys and girls going on, guys make out with girls, phone numbers spread around faster than germs, and nothing is said, only because it’s Arabic and considered to be the musical art of the middle east, more like a musical piece of bull crap these days since the actual feel of real Arabic music is almost entirely vanished with these new age Arab bullshit singers (you will notice that almost all the new Arabic video clips resemble clips made by Shakira, Britney Spears, Spice Girls, or in some cases the music itself is very close to western music). I have nothing against western music, but at least it’s called western because it is the western areas of the world that come up with his type of music, but copying western music and calling it art from the east is just disgraceful. I know me and my band play western music, but at least we admit it’s western but just with an added touch of middle eastern, we did not say we created a whole new thing and called it middle eastern metal.

Music is now also being viewed as a western threat because it is a means to reach the minds of the youth of the country. Yeah ok! like Megadeth’s Holy Wars is going to have a negative impact on this region, when it is really an awareness of the Palestinian struggles with Israel, or Lamb Of God’s 11th Hour, and many others. If anything, a large number of heavy metal bands actually support the people living here and are against these wars initiated on them, which is nothing but positive in my view and I have nothing but respect for these bands. And yet these mindless idiots continue to label them as dangerous threats and even devil worshippers. And in most cases, they continue to do so ONLY because these artists (or the majority of them) come from America. So fucking what if they came from America? They were decent enough to make songs supporting the Middle East during hard times, and what have the Arabs done in return for this? Sit on their ass all day blaming others. I, for one, am very appreciative of people who did show their support for us during hard times and I will never forget it. I just wish the “good kind hearted” idiots of this country realize it. True, I don’t support all the wars started by the US President, but I’m talking about the actual goodness of the people of the country, a government is not the country.

Now focus on the bigger picture for a minute. The world is changing, people are practically merging together, this country is becoming a multicultural society and it holds many religions. Of course there are going to be conflictions between beliefs of people, you’re going to see guys and girls holding hands and walking in the streets because they have the freedom to do so. These people don’t need some elected hypocrite to determine what should or should not be allowed in this country. Keep in mind I’m not talking about the actual government of this country, I’m talking about the people in general who encourage this type of behavior.

People who always focus on right and wrong are the reason this country is behind the rest of the world. Would you believe that there was a time that mobile phones with cameras and Bluetooth technology were not allowed? Their story was that guys take photos of girls without them knowing and then spread them. Don’t you notice they make it seem like it’s an automatic thing that guys will do this? Sometimes they will also go as far as blaming the girl for not covering herself up in case this happens. Not one thing about how wrong it is for guys to do this. And then the stupid verbal attacks started, saying that mobile phones with cameras should be forbidden because they are a dangerous threat to society. Need I say anything else? How much stupider can a person get? I mean, put a limit to how stupid your accusations are!! If you’re going to ban mobile phone cameras because of that pathetic reason, guys can easily use normal cameras to do the same thing. You going to ban those too? And then what? You’re going to keep saying: this is wrong this is wrong? Next thing you know we’re back in the stone age because cars have been banned because of the increasing number of car accidents.

If there’s a problem, take the necessary actions to fix it! Don’t just whine about it and attempt to ban it altogether. These technologies were made for a reason and were meant to benefit the people. If people here don’t use it that way, it’s their own fault, not the creator of the technology’s fault. Use logic for a minute! It’s not the mobile phone cameras or the music that are threats to this society, it’s the way people are raised and taught to think here. It’s the people of this society that are a threat to themselves.

Keep in mind this is all one guy that made all these ridiculous accusations, think about how many more encourage it.

And don’t even get me started about how these religious people are slowly separating the people of this country. Different segments of the same people are becoming enemies now because of false messages that these religious figures give out to people. I’m not preferring any segment over the other, I want this to stop so we could have a united country for once at least.

Fun Fact: This issue got that guy hit in his eye because of a rude comment that he said to a member of the other segment, and in all honesty, I think he deserved it, don’t you agree?”