Forging unity for development

Wednesday, 24 August 2011 02:31
The Peninsula Newspaper

Whenever the opportunity arose to take a vacation for some days from study, we took our things and went from our city Pensacola in Florida to the city of Los Angeles, California passing a distance of about 2,128 miles by car. The scenic is what draws us to travel, especially when we cross the stable bridges and the bridges that are suspended over the ocean, the rivers and lakes of Alabama, Mississippi, and even the swamps of Louisiana, passing through the cities of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. I admit that I am awestruck when crossing long and high bridges, especially if I am the driver, and it is as if I am having a nightmare, and the car in which I am is slipping back and cannot move forward on the bridge, which seems to be without end!

The questions that came to me at that time (in the mid-nineties of the last century), were why are there no roads and modern transportation links between the Gulf and Arab countries, especially those that are close to each other? There were no real problems in government funding, and even the private sector could have been asked to invest in planning and implementation. A lot of profits could have been earned from toll fees that could have covered some of the expenses in the projects. Why despite the economic strength are the highways, suspended bridges, railways and express trains that connect the cities of Japan are not seen in this region? Why was the Saudi Ottoman railway project (Hejaz Railway), of which a large part was destroyed in the First World War, not revived? This railway cut through the Arabian Peninsula, coming from central Turkey via Syria and going towards Madinah. It provided a valuable service to pilgrims by reducing the time of this arduous journey subject to bandit raids and the dangers and hardships of the desert. A journey that once took months could be completed in a few days after the establishment of this railway, which reached a length of 1,320km.

The barrier that stood in the face of the emergence of mega and ambitions projects that reduce distances between the capitals of the Arab countries was political differences and conflict at the land and maritime borders. Border disputes broke out in every country of the Maghreb, with conflict between Algeria and Tunisia, Algeria and Libya, Libya and Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco and Morocco and Mauritania. The conflict is continuing today between Morocco and Western Sahara, Sudan and Egypt, Iran and Iraq, Iran and the UAE, Iraq and Kuwait, Israel and the bordering countries, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the UAE and Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Some countries resolved their border issues peacefully and some are still in conflict. Bahrain and Qatar transcended their differences over borders, which lasted nearly 50 years, by accepting the decision of the International Court of Justice, which dealt the issue about nine years. The dispute strained relations between the two countries, including the postponement of a lot of joint economic projects. Iran still refuses to reach a solution with the UAE over the three islands (Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa). This conflict over about three decades is still stalling to accept the dialogue or just rule or litigation on the issue of its occupation of three UAE islands, which in the statement of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is like the Israeli occupation of Arab lands. The border dispute between Saudi Arabia and the UAE over Al Buraymi oasis is still there whenever we thought that we have been caught by its tail, it crossed the geographical distance and resulted in freezing the construction of the bridge between Abu Dhabi and Doha and withdrawal from the GCC single currency project!

The mother of all battles between Iraq and Kuwait and political and media campaigns with the revolutions of the Arab began again (2011) after the laying of the foundation stone for a port, ‘Mubarak Al Kabeer’, in Bubiyan Island, which lies in the far northwest of the Arabian Gulf in Kuwait. It is expected that it will be completed in a few years at a cost of about $1bn. The Kuwaiti port is linked by three bridges and highways. It is decided that it will be linked with the Gulf railway, which will serve the port. Iraq said that this port will “stifle” the only sea port of Iraq, because it will extend the Kuwaiti coast to a distance of 500km, while the Iraqi coast will be confined to an area of ​​50km. The documents of the Kuwait-Iraq Joint meetings recorded the discussion on the port between the two parties and no objection by Iraq, although the objection does not have legal justification, as long as Kuwait builds the port on its territory and within its territorial waters. The United Nations introduced a hotline. The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, pointed out that the dispute between Kuwait and Iraq on “Mubarak Port” must be resolved diplomatically. But when and where? It seems the crisis will not find a solution in the near future to go back to the first square in breaking the political differences between the two sister countries who turn into enemies in a flash.

The previous but not the last media battle was among newspapers in Bahrain and Qatar on the background of Al Jazeera English broadcast of a documentary programme about the recent unrest in Bahrain and before it there was a story of Bahraini fishermen and boats and their entry into Qatari territorial waters. No wonder if the establishment of the proposed bridge (bridge of love), which will link Qatar and Bahrain, which is one of the longest bridges in the world, gets delayed. The politics was trying to sow division among us, but the habits and traditions bring us together on love as peoples.

A few days ago we met after a long absence with the sons of my brother, half Bahraini from my mother’s side, at the ceremony in the middle of Ramadan through a popular and old inherited custom of our fathers and grandfathers, where children gather after Iftar in the form of groups touring the houses in the neighbourhood singing special songs and some prayers for the families in the houses.

In turn, the residents of the homes provide them with some nuts and sweets. The celebration of Halloween day is widespread in all Gulf countries but it is known in Bahrain and Qatar as “Alqarnqawah!” It symbolically refers to the depth of ties between the two peoples even in the simple popular vocabulary. What brings us together in Qatar and Bahrain cannot be broken by the disputes, quarrels, ideologies and political agendas, no matter what