Do we hate Macacans?

Bahrainis are becoming racist. This is my conclusion of the day. We are really moving in that direction. But who is to blame?

Well. If you live in a country with limited space, extremely limited resources, and a high population density, you would expect your government to do its best to manage the resources efficiently. If you were a rational logical human, you might also expect the government to implement some population growth-control mechanisms to make sure our numbers don't spiral out of control.

Now what would you say if, instead, the government started to import (in wholesale) foreign populations, naturalize them, and provide them with free housing and security-service jobs, while the original citizens are struggling with poverty and unemployment?

Exactly. You would lose it!

I will of course have to admit that I don't know how many Yemenis, Syrians, Jordanians, Pakistanis, or Macacans are being naturalized per year. All I know is that there are tens of thousands-- in Zayed City, Safra, and Riffa. I try to be understanding. As a self-proclaimed tolerant, liberal person, I try to convince my poor brain that they are not to blame, really. After all, if I was an illiterate poor guy somewhere, I would jump on that boat too in no time!!

But then don't blame Bahrainis for being angry as hell. My own brain is getting fried these days thinking how the government can be so dumb. Theoretically, the new naturalized peeps are Sunni and depedent on the government, therefore it can trust them to protect it in the event of any "Shi'i" disturbance in Bahrain. Realistically, though, the plan stinks to the high heaven! Sunni Bahrainis are feeling the pinch as much as the Shi'is (discounting some fanatics who all seems to be writers for AlWatan Newspaper).

It's one thing to naturalize legal residents who have been here for years and years. It's another thing to ship thousands illiterate bedouins from the tent to Bahrain (literally) and tell us to all get along! We can't! We don't want to hate anyone (Macacan or non-Macacan), but this country is poor and is struggling to provide basic services to its original citizens, let alone its imports!

The fact that the imports are starting to organize in gangs, are committing most of the violent crimes in the country, and creating Sunni-Shia tensions in the country doesn't help either.

We are in a mess.

Note: [No] thanks to the defeated George Allen of Virginia, Macaca (an old racial slur used in Congo against the native population) has become the most famous politically-incorrect word of 2006 in the U.S. Allen used it to point to an Indian immigrant.