Bahrain: ‘Terrorist Plot’ Sparks Cynicism  · Global Voices
Ayesha Saldanha

Following a controversial news report about the discovery of a ‘terrorist training camp’ in one of Bahrain's Shi'a villages, Bani Jamra, Bahrain's ‘blogfather’ Mahmood Al Yousif writes a sarcastic post proclaiming his gratitude to Bahrain's Ministry of the Interior for making Bahrain a safer place:
I am ever so grateful to the Ministry of Interior for foiling the plot to overthrow the government, yet again, by a group of 35 youths who have confessed to not know each other yet intricately coordinate their heinous activities and practice the seditious act of throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails at printed targets attached to trunks of palm trees in secret palm groves.
Adel Marzooq writes on the same topic, referring to other parties who allegedly have intentions to destabilise Bahrain:
Meanwhile, Silly Bahraini Girl makes reference to the increasing legal restrictions being imposed on bloggers in Bahrain and the rest of the Arab world:
Although we may laugh at this or that and consider them as things which will never happen to us..you really never know. You may be next for a post you published with good intent or for the heck of it … such worries are taking away the fun of blogging :) What is a blog if we are to exercise self-censorship in every other word we write? How do we protect ourselves? How do we exercise our right to freedom of speech without being labelled as traitors to our countries, religion and God?
Hasan, who has recently returned from a long period of study in Japan, is rediscovering Bahrain:
This morning, I was up by 7.00am to drive my mother to her office in Manama. On the drive down Budaiya Road, between Saar and Manama, I couldn't help but steal glances at the sporadic schools of palm trees that pepper the roadside as I waited for the oh-so-aggrevating traffic to move. To those of you who haven't been to Bahrain, please don't confuse this image with the symmetrically alligned palm trees in Miami and Malibu you may have seen in Hollywood renditions of  paradise. Regardless of this, I find Bahraini palm trees somewhat more honestly – romantic and reminiscent of something that has gone a long time ago. Our very own palms of a paradise lost. On my drive back home, and since my grandmother had asked me to buy her 100-fils’ worth of Bahraini FlatBread, I decided to do some exploring in a locale I hadn't been to in ages.
After buying the bread (by actually getting out of his car), Hasan then takes a route home through some villages:
Here are some of my quick remarks on what I discovered/noticed: People in Bahrain should DO something about trying to uncover all the covered up relics in that area and make it a tourist attraction.
But he is disappointed by some developments:
There was this HUGE house in the process of being built in Al-Hajar's backstreets and it is ABSOLUTELY the UGLIEST house I have EVER seen in the world – which made me feel physically sick by just looking at it … I am also very disappointed that the construction at the entrance to Shakhura (near that other ugly ghost house near the Shakhura entrance signpost) resulted in the felling of that palm tree that was stricken in half by lightening in a storm in the early 90s that resulted in it being still living on the outside, but charred in the heart. I really liked that palm tree. It was the only magical thing about Shakhura.