Pesky swine.

Great. 
Fantastic.

Wonderful. 

Swine flu. Swine bloody flu. The man-made disease that has nothing to do with bloody swine has arrived on our sunny shores, despite parliaments ridiculous attempt to prevent it from doing so by banning pork. Hurrah!

It was bound to happen. Not just because of the utter ignorance of our elected peers who were likely delighted by the emergence of this new strain of evil, but because Bahrain is a prime candidate for such a disease - especially now that students are coming home from all across the world for the dreaded summer.

If parliament really cared, they might have done a bit of reading on the subject. Instead of trying to use the panic to pass pointless legislation, which they are guilty of doing, they might have been better served trying to limit the influx of US Military into our Kingdom. That there have been no cases, reported as yet, amongst the servicemen and women in Bahrain does not mean that it wont happen. Look at Kuwait, with 18 or so sniffly new cases. We're hosting an aircraft carrier. There is a lot of room for sniffles to hide on board a ship bigger than Manama. The families of military personnel are set to flood back into Bahrain, bringing with them their savings, pets, thoughts, and quite possibly, disease. But our guardians, the mighty Members o' Parliament think it wiser to prevent our damnation instead of protecting our health. 

Get sick for all we care. As long as you don't eat pork, drink alcohol or try to interfere with our much deserved pay raise, it's all good. We're busy with other shit.. y'know... important stuff. Important stuff, like, well... family law. 

Yeah, we've gone from swine flu to family law. Why? Because, of course, of parliament. And because I'm rambling. 

Last week, parliament passed a long-awaited family law draft that aims to improve the status of women. This law was intended to govern things such as personal status, marriage, divorce and custody. It is, as anyone who has ever read our local excuse for a newspaper knows, a much needed start. And it sounds good. So far. The problem is that this long awaited law will only improve the status of Sunni women. Only Sunni women. No Shiites, because that'd be, well... bad. 

The initial draft, submitted by the government, did in fact cover both Sunni and Shiite women, but Al Wefaq, the voice of Shiites in our 'esteemed' house of representatives, rejected it without compromise. Why? Because according to Al Wefaq, the Parliament is not qualified to debate or decide on family matters rooted in religious jurisprudence. 

So, the government revised the draft, changing the title from 'family law' to 'family law: Sunni section'. It sounds like a bad sequel to an awful movie, starring the woman from Judging Amy and the guy from Law and Order. And it gives way to a two-tiered family status that will be chaotic at best and barbaric at worst. It is patently unfair and unwise, in every possible way. 

And, thanks to the entire Shiite block of parliament walking out, the family law sequel was passed. It has not yet been signed into law, and over twenty NGO's have appealed to delay that happening, arguing rightly that endorsement of the law would slow efforts to introduce a common family law to Bahrain. Who is left for our parliament to alienate? Expats? check. Liberals? check. Non-Muslims? Check. Labourers? check. Women? check.  The only people that are likely to have anything good to say about our attempt at democracy are conservative, Muslim, Bahraini men with no logic... oh, wait... they're the MPs. 

That's what parliament have been up to.  

That, and well, giving themselves a massive pay rise. A pay rise that they believe they deserve. A pay rise that takes them even further out of touch with reality. A pay rise that in the end, will likely be their undoing. I for one believe that parliament should double their salaries. Not because they earned it, but because by doing so, people with brains and qualifications would be more inclined to compete in elections. And these people, with a hint of intelligence and a smidgen of logic, would likely win whatever seats they contested. And the MPs of old will have to kiss goodbye to their fat paychecks and numerous benefits. They will be relegated back to the real world, where their self-righteous indignation will go all but unnoticed. And maybe, just maybe, Bahrain will be able to reclaim a bit of its squandered pride. 

But first we have to deal with that pesky swine flu.