This weekend I am approaching 1 year spent living between Bahrain and London and it seems fitting to write a bit about Bahrain. A huge part that has made the experience possible is technology, I am in Bahrain whilst my family are in London, little over 14 years ago 'Google' was born...this is after the time that I was commenting on a cyber cafe in New York City, see earlier blog (Full on and Flat out in New York), now we speak every day using 'Skype', and with the time difference I get to read a bedtime story to my daughter every night. She is into princesses at the moment and over the past two nights we have been reading about Princess Aurora and the evil fairy Maleficent and the whole kingdom being put to sleep.
Much of Bahrain has the feel of a kingdom that is sleeping, glass towers twisting their way out of the ground at the Financial Harbour stopped mid-way, leaving a huge sculpture of dusty glass, topped off by an exposed concrete frame complete with static tower cranes, a monument to the insanity of the financial crisis perhaps? Jellyfish swim in clear blue waters of the dormant harbour, whilst kids jump off one of the many empty road bridges into the tamed sea below. The whole harbour did not exist when Google was born, now thanks to Google Earth we can see the whole process of change from coral reef to slumbering island in only a few years.
A family ride in a speedboat from a neighbouring new island to marvel at the monument. At the base of the monument the only sign of life is a small waterfall on the quayside and the hum of a pump, the towers’ life support system, labouring to keep the basement from being reclaimed by the sea. The pristine dockside gives way to piles of discarded timber, deal palm trees, site cabins. Pools of pink liquid lie undisturbed in the flat sand plain beneath the immaculate development road, one of three concentric rings that link all the parts of the new island to the main island.
Following the azure blue sea through a canal beneath the bridges, completed towers appear above a sand dune giving all the impression of a city abandoned in the desert. A climb up the ridge of the dune reveals another concrete structure being fed by a constant stream of trucks whilst tower cranes lift materials up to the level being worked on by a small team of labourers. A giant not sleeping but growing. Having seen the masterplan for Bahrain, known as 2030 Vision it is clear that the vision for Bahrain Bay is taking shape at a much slower rate than planned. I have to say looking around at the empty towers and abandoned schemes I am left with the question ‘who is it for?’. Meanwhile the work on the flyovers and intersections connecting the development to the ever expanding main highway continues relentlessly.
Manama October 2012
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