A nation is a complex entity, unnaturally forged in a geography. The nations we are so passionate about didn’t exist just a few generations ago, and may not exist a few generations from now. In a nation it is never the case that all folks will get equal privilege. Even the best of the nations have backward regions, where folks from other regions won’t consider shifting/settling.
A military tribunal in Bahrain has sentenced eight prominent opposition activists to life imprisonment and 13 others to lesser prison sentences, on charges of seeking to topple the monarchy and collaborating with a foreign terrorist group, among a host of other charges. The group was arrested in March as part of the Saudi-backed security crackdown on pro-reform protesters who had occupied the Pearl Roundabout in the capital Manama.
When there is breaking news in the tiny island state of Bahrain, you are not likely to hear about it on the local television or radio channels. Instead, the first place it is likely to be reported is on one of the scores of Internet discussion forums run by Bahrainis. This is just what happened earlier this month when someone posted a message on the popular forum BahrainOnline.org breaking the news that the site's founder, Ali Abdulemam, had been arrested by the National Security Agency.
I am a freelance journalist based in Karachi, Pakistan, with experience in radio, television and print. If you're interested in my personal musings, check out my blog or my twitter account.