| Mr. Sharawi |
| His highness and gentlemen, I prepared three Scenarios to answer Ghazi you know whether he is going to be himself you know very rude or may be a little bit you know accommodating or just nice. Today he was between nice and accommodating and choose alternative 1 No B and please ignore whatever he says. Tonight is a change my relation with Dr. Hussaini May be you will never see us again because when we meet in first 10 - 15 minute we exchange what we agree on. Then we go on for four five hours disagreeing and last night we have acrimony of beginning on that would disagree, on my speech. I told him and asked him make a speech which I have prepared. He said No. you speech must be-this which I going to be in the speech Not Ghazi not yourself. |
| Any way the discussion reached a critical mass, there was certain dangers we are very grateful to cigarette and the right time save you know the soup is getting cold you know and the peace was regained where is the difference? |
| You talk about Bahrain. |
| So when I prepared everything I have, and my idea was of So Ok there was the perm way of life there was chemical Term. And the future. No body is Interested, the people have calling a natural people for the future. But people are calling for who pass middle age and they want to go back To History. You tell us what happened. |
| What I am going to turn out are pictures that happened to me as I saw them and there are Better pictures which only give you very clear idea what is happening. |
| Alright I just give you a few pictures of Bahrain I looked at it in the last say 55/60 year of my life. |
| What are the changes, I separate myself from nature. In our, my father's house grand father's house they drilled a well, It was a well for water, every piece of machinery was carried by hand. The wheel they put on a rod carried by four people. Every bit of instrument was carried inside. |
| You Know, there was no way to move a small gas engine. It has to be dismantled piece by piece and with boggled eyes I saw those pieces put together it took them one week to put in together. Later in life I Saw the biggest crane in the world brought by the Dutch, they took one thousand two hundred fifty tons of steel and concrete and banged for the cross-way Bahrain Saudi Arabia. |
| There were no instruments in Bahrain before to carry anything heavier than a donkey can pull and a man can carry and yet with those 50 years they have the biggest crane take a piece and just put in a place. This is one difference. When I was a child. Whether I am in barber house or a school. If a plane is to fly we use to leave the barber or the class to see the plane, when I became a father 5th years what attracted the attention of my little daughter is a man or a donkey going on the road. |
| You know I had to stop because you know her wide eyes boggled to see a man and a donkey because she never saw the donkey. And she saw him all the way going. When I was ten I was driven in the desert of Bahrain 20 miles to see the first refinery. That was the longest journey I did in my life. At that occasion they drove a car full of boys and It was a great adventure to see that refinery. |
| When my last daughter was at the age of ten she traveled 25 thousand miles to see the 30 countries of the world and she was at ease with herself as she wanted. |
| More important, in 1941 with the difficulties of the war the Bahrain government conducted the census the first census ever in the world and I participated with a boy because I carried the lantern you know the hurricane land, with the census recorder for one house of own quarter. Some body asked you are literate or not. |
| Al that time Bahrain was the most advanced country in the peninsula, At that time it was 2 - 5% of literacy. In the last census 96% of the Bahrainis going to the school. There are about 116000 of the university Students, in Saudi Arabia 140,000 Saudi Arabians students - studying in the universities That is the big change. More important than this when I left home for Beirut for education. The house has 32 members of my family, the square the grand father, the grand uncle, the Ants marry with there husbands. The husband with there wives children looked after the old and every body shared everything. We felt secure safe and happy. It was really a big family. At home there was grand-father. at home there was. Grand uncle. And they differ from every body. |
| There were 25 serving persons they ate same food. They shared whatever is available and I remember the grand Father had two advantage. |
| Whenever there is the basket of dates are brought, there was a small basket for the master. A few figs along with the some apricots of the season. But that was the only difference. He ate the same food the most junior member of the staff was given the same food to eat. If there is no fish they boiled prawns, dried shrimps and boiled lentils. |
| But there was a feeling of happiness and comfort. |
| Somebody got married they got the room for him. That also changed. |
| When my last daughter got her high school degree she was going abroad, my house was empty. |
| And some how may be the new generation willing to build their own nest. But that feeling of security has gone really from all house. |
| Now my difficulty with Ghazi come back is where I myself lived all this changes and where the changes took place in spite of me and I leave it for you if you are confused you blame him. He asked me to change my speech. In 1932 and 1930 four great Important events happened to Bahrain. |
| Sheikh Essa after ruling for 6 years died. He was the father of the country when he was there. But nobody realized at that time as I see it now that there was a change. That the life was changing in Bahrain. |
| Within our 8 months, The first well of oil flow to Bahrain in June 1932. Five month later the first British Air ways plane going from England to Australia opened the huge air root also landed in Bahrain - Nobody saw the significance of those events of course the both important event happened to me that I went to the primary. School. It was this too late civilization but in 1932, 1933 and it was the first school in Bahrain. At that time Bahrain was the heart of the gulf and may be if you see the zone Riyadh and U.A.E and part of the Persian coast. They were Arabs. Bahrain I think was the capital and the heart that area. |
| As a child from home. to School there was one boat after the other. |
| We made the boats in Bahrain. We got rods of Iron and with nails for the boats we got navigate there. |
| But the whole industry in gulf came into Bahrain. |
| And the climax there was Gosaibi, there were 4/5 families who sold the pearls and stuff to India and that was the source of income in Bahrain. |
| That island was connected with the sea it was also connected with pearl industry At the and of 1932 there was in the houses because my grand father, put small pump and a barrel on the top to Circulate the water around. |
| There was electricity and there were hospitals, schools and there was a liberal atmosphere about the island There was a bang the British put there business and brought also there football players, this is very important for us. |
| What I feel as a student this is very important. I feel different than my colleagues. I don't say that I was the most intelligent but something made me different. My father joined to the first club in Bahrain which was impressed with the Indian noise for independence with Egyptian noise for independence. |
| They thought they were backward so they brought the books and started learning the books. So at home there was Al-Hilal, reader digest and I got access to that. I go and see my grand Father and father meeting them in evening after dinner discussing what happened in India what happened in Egypt So just began to find out that I don't belong to a small community. |
| We heard that Italy invaded Ethiopia. Japan attack china and gradually my idea if the world began really to expand. |
| My uncle bought a radio but the radio was a big deal that time it needed to put string and wires. And one night I have to share with one man having experience. |
| Something else I found different in two ways I wore a sandal and the shoes. But my father said they went school bare foot. |
| Something I found also different I had a Handkerchief in my pocket I don't know what for? |
| OK I was just leaving high school I was very happy. |
| Then my father gave me the money and then I traveled for the first time to Karachi and Bombay. |
| In 1939 I read in the newspaper that the Britain declares was so I came back to Bahrain. |
| There were no higher School so in the summer of 1940 I was looking for a job. At that time I was 13 years old. |
| Then again luck. While I was looking for a job we got a mad man from the British Council. |
| He wanted to open a college in Bahrain My father was complaining that there is no good education in Bahrain and was put to jail for this So the British Government opened a college and I was the first candidate. |
| Italy sent a raid to Bahrain and dropped bomb to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia Any way we had a technical school. We have Kuwaitis they wanted to see out side bombing and one landed on my head. And there was blood coming out I was taken to the hospital and in right time they examined me. |
| I was safe. |
| Then I was taken for the school interview. They asked me the Question as why the world war II has been started- I was only twelve that time I said Hitlar wants to have a new system. |
| I was passed immediately So I joined the higher school but there were no teachers in Bahrain, There were no teachers to teach in secondary school. |
| But in the presence of few teachers. We studied and I got through the exam then that mad man the English said to me yousaf I will give you scholarship. My father arranged my traveling to go to Beirut I felt stranger I don't feel stranger in India and I don't feel Stranger in Bassara. |
| But I managed with mixed communities. I passed high school and the university. |
| I came back to Bahrain as a first degree holder from the university of Beirut But I came to a change. |
| Bahrain, when I Left Bahrain there were 31 people in the house and when I returned in 1950 the old men died and the family began to break-up. My father took my mother to Saudi Arabia. |
| I stayed in a hostel and as a teacher felt alright but that security finished which was in the combined family. |
| Three year later I got a Scholarship again to study in this country. |
| My father had 2 Saudi's and one evening he told to them that Bahrain is loosing the oil resources It was 1950 that time. And may be the Bahrain Government was going to build a fund or may be the country going on I shall study industrial chemistry based on oil, may be there is a future for it. At that time they were talking about fibers, long molecules there were petro-chemicals The British used it for the parachutes and Germany used it for lot of things. |
| I came back with very high degree highly qualified from Scotland. |
| I felt myself isolated because I did find myself agreeing to what was happening in the Arab world of evolution. It was difficult for me to adjust in the few noisy people. |
| I was going to start a new oil policy, there were changes in Saudi Arabia and I thought I will be part of that. |
| The old man and his advisor find me too young. To work with that. |
| They found I have one thing new that I know Arabic & English. |
| But they never allow me to touch the oil industry For forty five years of my life until now I never stopped complaining about the education system. I was a teacher, I was a hostel warden. But there was something in our system education that I was very wrong and the ministry of education was happy to throw me out and I was very strange to work in politics. |
| I never like the politics and want to go back to education. |
| I was back in education in 1957. I did 3 things There was a technical school There was boys school and girls school. I said this rubbish you join every thing So due to this change I was thrown again. |
| After that I worked then in the central Government. |
| The big ruler his highness was trying to form a central gou'the wanted me to be the part of that. |
| Somehow he formed an administrable council which turned into cabinet a year later and we began to see that the Bahrain is going towards independence. In 1961 the old man ruler died. It was a difficult Situation and there was a change. The old ruler trusted me but the young did not trust me. |
| I decided to pull out my of myself known there is no place for me in this picture. |
| Chazi knows this that I was offered a job in Saudi Arabia. It was SR 5000/= my salary and had a house at that time. I had my wife and my daughter So I continued. We talk with the people played bridge in the evening. The old ruler asked me to look after the Bahrainis in Saudi Arabia. |
| Eventually I developed the friendship with people of Saudi Arabia. And I eventually found myself involved with oil with development. |
| We Push the Bahrain and Arab league for the independence. |
| In 1967 war when oil was stopped those in Britain who thought they can protect the industry. Sudden we found Iran on our shoulders we were not prepared for independence The British handed over Yemen to other to control Yemen and we began to talk to the Saudi's for our future. |
| But basically Bahrain was developing at that time we realized that independence was eminent. |
| No question Saudi's helped us in this regard. Without my notice we began to find out that our political people our rulers began to have people like me. But as good and like Ghazi Gosaibi in Saudi Arabia and somebody from Kuwait. |
| We began to develop a feeling to build a new world a new society - with cooperation. |
| We felt a mission in our life to develop industry agriculture etc. |
| We had very good leaders but they left the spirit of cooperation to us. |
| The sense of mission that made the gulf from 1970 to what is today. We forgot the pearl industry we created the petro-chemical industry. |
| Today we produce 45 million tons of petro-chemicals millions of tons of Aluminum, steel etc. |
| Manama was a small town Riyadh was a small town. Kuwait also had. And now we have huge towns When I was a child there was no problem and boy is a boy and one day the master of the house announces that you are going to marry her and we accepted that and it was very nice. |
| Now everywhere or in Bahrain is the Problem of the generation. |
| We have 30 to 40% of foreigners. In the process of this change. |
| We did very well we help around Egypt. Lebanon. The Arab world is almost same. |
| We survived the first show we shall survived the 2nd show good leaderships good technocrats some are better than others but there you are. |
| Thank you very much. |
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شارع عبد المقصود خوجة
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