Every Cloud Has a Silver Lightning
Issue 15
Over many years, we advocated national culture, worked to arouse awareness in it and to highlight its great role within our generations. Many of our children when asked about the components of the national culture of Bahrain, cannot give a clear answer and some show a complete ignorance of their own national culture. Even some intellectuals do not have the same opinion in defining Bahrain national culture, and perhaps they are partially ignorant of it.
In the recent years, the official education authorities in Bahrain and the GCC countries attempted to include objectives to teach loyalty to homeland and train on some practices to enhance the meaning of belonging. This approach has been faced by indifference in some schools and universities and by resentment in some others. Even most of our national songs, have not well reflected the meaning of loyalty to the country and the real belonging to its land and the Arab culture. Songs have been associated with certain events and occasions, so they are often broadcast on radio and TV on occasions. We do not have national songs in our collective memory; songs that we always recall and sing, songs that live within our conscience. Perhaps we have been living peacefully, far from all that threatens our being and jeopardizes our destiny. We have been oblivious, living at ease, not considering seriously what has been “running deep”. We see the Bahraini flag fluttering on the masts at the times of festivals and formal occasions; some see it as a piece of cloth with two colours, without thinking of what it symbolizes at the political and national level. The national day has been, for many, nothing but a holiday.
Some peoples need a quake to awake from their coma, so as to see and know what is going around them, and realize the challenges, as life is full of lurking dangers, and forests are full of cannibals. We have to realize, before it is too late, that there are parties who work day and night to undermine the lives of innocent people, so only they enjoy security and peace of mind. What happened in Bahrain during the past few months of foreign interference and intimidating has been enough to strengthen the national loyalty of its people and arouse awareness of the values, symbols and the different components of national culture. As if people healed of blindness, as if they went out from the depths of darkness into light to realize new facts and cling to all that is related to their homeland, confirming that they belong to Bahrain with all what it represents, and that they are responsible for everything that could happen to it.
Homeland has become the family’s talk at home, the issue to talk about at work, and the subject of conversations between friends. Children began to ask innocent questions about their homeland. They hold Bahrain flags and use them to decorate houses. Young people roam the streets in their cars bearing national symbols and signs of enthusiastic words expressing deep love for Bahrain. Others engage themselves in reading about politics and economics to understand the meaning of what is happening. Bahrainis of all ages now compete to prove their loyalty to their homeland. The youngsters have made great use of modern tools to serve Bahrain and defend it.
Have we been in a need for such a quake to awake the national consciousness in people, and to realize that our Bahrain is so dear? They say “every cloud has a silver lightning!”
Folk Culture