Frances Kaiser Witnessed Protests In Bahrain While Visiting Her Son

Frances Kaiser, longtime owner of Erina in Benny’s Plaza, and her son Eric had a much different Valentine's Day than did most people in East Greenwich. Eric lives in Bahrain, one of the Middle Eastern countries to experience protest and revolt recently, and his mother was visiting when the political uprising there occurred.

On February 14, the Kaisers were startled when tanks began rumbling past the house.  Bahrain is an island nation about the same size as Rhode Island, connected by a bridge to Saudi Arabia.  Eric’s home is right next to the bridge and just down the road from the country’s main army base, which gave them a front row seat.

Eric, who is spending March with his parents in East Greenwich, said the revolution in Tunisia in January seemed to kick off the domino effect that has spread through the Middle East. When things first started, everyone was very nervous and there were many stories of violence.  It got very worrisome when they started seeing tanks.

One person died in the first day of protests, and several other deaths occurred in the following days of clashes.

Many people drove to the protests in their Porsches, Kaiser said, and some of his Bahraini friends don’t quite understand why the protests happened because anyone who has traveled outside the country knows how good they have it.

Social media was a key tool in the protests, as it has been in neighboring countries.  However, Eric described it as a disorganized revolution.  Some protesters wanted a constitutional monarchy, some wanted a republic and some wanted to create the Islamic republic and rid the country of bars and clubs and make women follow the Islamic tradition.

After graduating from Boston University, Eric worked in Europe for a number of years. He has been in Bahrain for five years, working as an IT consultant for a packaging manufacturer.  His job has another year and a half to go. He and his wife Tamara, who is Swiss, live in what he described as a Western compound. They have two children — Anais who is seven, and two-month-old Caelan was born during the protests. The compounds are groups of 10 or 12 houses, which are quite luxurious and include swimming pools and company provided services.

He described Bahrain as a monarchy, which has seen some constitutional reforms but the King makes all the decisions.  King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has allowed a sort of parliament and some elected officials, unlike neighboring Saudi Arabia where that is not allowed. However, Kaiser added, it is the most progressive of the Middle Eastern countries; the only one where foreigners can own a company outright without a local investor.  Women and men are equal and there are night clubs, bars, theaters and other western-style entertainment. None of that is allowed in Saudi Arabia and on Thursday and Friday, which is their weekend, Saudis flow into the country by the thousands to enjoy what is illegal for them at home.

There is no poverty, according to Kaiser, and the average wage is $1,000 a month, as opposed to $2.00 a day on average in Egypt.  Education and medical care are free and there is free housing for people who can’t afford to buy a home. Many products are subsidized, including gas which is less than a dollar a gallon and there are no taxes.

Bahrain is a Sunni-run country, but 60-70 percent of the population is Shiite.  Although there are many wealthy Shiites, there is some religious discrimination. 

The country is important to the United States because it is the base for the Navy’s Fifth Fleet and all their related actions in that area of the world.

When the King asked Saudi Arabia to help him restore order, their tanks rolled in to welcoming crowds and television coverage.  The Kaisers followed the crowds to what is known as Pearl Square to watch and even took pictures.  The square featured a 300-foot-tall monument of six columns topped by a cement pearl as a tribute to the country’s pearl diving history.  The government has torn it down to erase it as a symbol of the uprising.

Kaiser said he and many Bahrainis believe the King took the right action, stopping the destruction of the country.  He thinks it will take five years to recover from the damage of the last several months.  People have stopped coming to the country and hotel occupancy is down 80 percent.  He expects small protests to continue, which he says will have further negative impact.

Asked for an overview of the Middle East, Kaiser says it is country by country and you can’t lump the whole Arab world into one group. 

“There is infighting between countries and they are not united against anything.  There are strong cultural and religious groups, strong democratic groups, strong western style countries and groups.  You can’t have this sweeping brush that says they should all have democratic governments.  I don’t think a lot of them even want that, they like their king.”