Bandar....... The Twenty First!

Hassan Al-Fadhli

T: @Abo6aleB

Bandar was born in 1976.. on the Kuwaiti land he grew... and in its alleyways and old sidewalks he spent the most beautiful days of his childhood ,from the tin houses "The Shaabiah" he emerged to life with a soul that sleeps on a dream that is called a homeland to wake up on "non-belonging" until destiny led him to a moment where he felt the bitterness of silence, a difficulty to be patient about a life full of hardship and fatigue.He set himself loose to the free spirit inside him aiming for Taima square cleansing his soul with the pure freedom soil, after seeing that the water of justice and charity had been lost at his homeland…the homeland that couldn’t handle hearing his shouts … to bind him with the restraints of the material, narrow and closed prison….after it chained him with ”restraints” made of an illusion that transformed this vast country into absolute hell…!This introduction isn’t just a daily discourse about a character made of fiction, they are facts embodied itself in a free man in a square in Taima that was happy to have him present in it, a man destined for prison among tens of “Kuwaiti bedouns” from the fourth generation who are still forgotten in the drawers of their country…!Many people may not know this detainee and maybe his circle of a acquaintances doesn’t exceed the boundaries of family and close friends, but what he did was a great victory for his cause that made him – in the eyes of those who share with him the same worries and pain braver than those who their diwanias defend and not a hair of any official trembles for….!Our hero is the freed detainee “Bandar Al-Fadhli”, who was arrested after participating in “Taima demonstrations “that demanded the acknowledgement of the Kuwaiti bedoun rights in citizenship for those who deserve it and to other to be treated humanely ….Some people might be mixed up by Bandar’s name due to the list of the detainees having two who are called “Bandar Al- Fadhli”, these two who shared names and nicknames and a cause ….we mean with this “Bandar” a person whose name decorated the list of detainees ….awarding him the number “21”….!Bandar’s life is like many other bedoun whom are facing many hardships in providing a decent living conditions for a family of two daughters and a boy, working two jobs, a job that isn’t stable to spend the years of his life in another with a humble salary making him like many others barely making ends meet. Bandar didn't have any activities to be mentioned about his cause except for his constant and brave participation in every demonstration or gathering that aims to reveal the injustice against the Kuwaiti bedouns and to remind officials of this injustice ...!An attitude which is commendable and praiseworthy. Taking to the streets is a service to the cause making it the best way to express his pains and the pains of his brothers and sisters, he doesn't consider himself mislead by a party or another, but considers it as a basic human right. If it was really necessary to accept a charge like incitation, then Bandar is willing and proud to be called an inciter, no... he's also proud to say that what made him take to the streets is his fear about the future of his three children whom he don't wish for them to fall for the same future ...! If a few people still insisted to accuse the Kuwaiti bedouns of naivety and drifting towards the voices of inciters , then yes ...! we and "Bandar" don't see a harm in that, because we are really incited, but what incited us is prejudice not the their voices .... your injustice not their callings .... If there was any calling or messages of incitation in the first place .

Hassan Al-Fadhli is freelance bedoun journalist who ised to right for many Kuwaiti newspaprs. He is writing this article in tribute to his fellow bedoun friend Bandar AlFadhli who is recently discharged from detention that exceeds the normal proceedings.Bandar was released on a large bail (appr. US$ 2000) on February 23rd, 2012.

The original article was published in Alaan online journal on February 25th, 2012:
http://www.alaan.cc/pagedetails.asp?nid=99249&cid=52

Translated into english by: @Mohd_AlSalem

Who really knows Eid Al Ajeel?

By: Yousef B. Al Osaimee
@YousefALosaimee

I once asked him ‘where does a seeker find freedom, Abo Mohammed?’ and before I uttered these words, his answer was ‘inside an interrogation room?’
The only thing he couldn’t stand the most was injustice, I have seen many brave men telling the truth in front of tyrants during difficult times but never braver nor more daring than Eid. His soul carried the weight of many difficult times without a complaint heard by any of his friends or relatives. "A real man’s heart is sealed" the Arabian proverb says, by God I believe it was said in Eid Al Ajeel's favor alone.
When his interrogators asked him "what is it you are really after ?" he replied that all he wants is to be able to hold his little Mohammed and sleep soundly in their homeland with no persecution what so ever, I don’t want this child of mine, this innocent, blameless child of mine to live the same life as I lived, a life of state discrimination towards its own children.
Eid is a father to two beautiful kids, and as all stateless family providers, he works really hard to provide for his own family; in this constant struggles he never relinquished his right of existence and his right to belong to this country, His right to belong to this country was reinforced by the peaceful protestations and demonstrations that Eid himself stood in, rallying people and calling them to keep order and concentrate on the just demands they are calling for peacefully while holding their grounds without backing down.
Eid’s father served in the Kuwaiti Army for 40 years, he is no new comer to the country as the government claims , Eid Al Ajeel is a stateless from the 4th generation, so to speak, known now for his patience and diligence.
More than Twenty days ago Eid was called in by the Criminal Police of the Interior Ministry of Kuwait, along with other stateless activists. His interrogators think that the reason all these people are protesting, is Eid and not the constant and ongoing violation of human rights of the stateless of Kuwait!
Eid today is sharing a cell in central jail with his peers of Kuwaiti nationals and stateless bedoon who protested peacefully last month, hence all of them are equal in this matter, they are all equal under percautional detention. The unforgivable crime of Eid Al Ajeel is that he held the flag of his country, Kuwait high in the sky and the picture of the crown prince in the face of the efforts to eliminate and marginalize his cause; a land for his son to live in as a human being with all the rights provided by international laws.
Mohammed went to sleep the night his father was arrested without the shelter and security of both his father and his homeland.
Eid is still in custody under charges of conspiring against homeland security, the evidence to this conspiracy is the Kuwaiti flag they found in his car. Little knows Eid’s jailor that Eid is now freer than ever, cause he knows that his freedom can slip through the bars of his cell.

Omar Al Mokhtar, the Libyan rebel once said by the tongue of just cause: my life is longer by far from my jailers'.


Yousef B. Al Osaimee is a stateless Kuwaiti writer and activist. He often write on bidoun issue for many news agencies. He is also himself faced many police interrogations and law suits for voicing up his stances with the bidoun community.

the original article in Arabic was published in Alaan online news agency on 23/2/2012:
http://t.co/BgOw0Dls

Send a "wise man" and don't advise him

By: Rashed Khalaf
T: @MR_Rashid13

Send a "wise man" and don't advise him :says the Pre -Islamic Poet Torfah Ibn Alabd .When in need of a messenger Send a "wise man" and don't advise him .
almost a year ago Abd Al Razzag Al Fadli's family sent their "wise man “from his home in Sabah Al Nasser area in a need that is missed by the whole family and thousands more, a need that is seen by some as stolen rights appreviated by Abd Al Hakeem in a single word "Freedom" .
A freedom that he sought since he was a student in school repeating the national anthem "my home land Kuwait, glory is yours". The same freedom he seeks is close but cannot be reached. a freedom he dreams of every night to be awakened by chained vocabulary such as security restrictions, executive committee, central committee for the stateless, a green card and other words that makes him feel a stranger in a country he knows not another.
Abd Al Hakeem completed thirty five years of age, memorized the road to Taima. Since the 18 of February last year a connection grew between him and The "Freedom Square" an epic love story, which he reciprocated with it with flowers and blood donations to greet him back by encompassing him and patting his head, he gave it his feelings of gratitude after he regained his long lost patriotism and on its soil he regained his wasted affiliation, and became proud of him because he made the world know of it after it was a long forgotten place.
Abd Al Hakeem who never thought of committing to a woman because it will distract him from his goal and from Taima and its Square, he was used to going there armed with the flag of his country and the same words he memorized since childhood" my home land Kuwait, glory is yours", but how can the flag and the anthem be met with tear gas bombs, hot water and the special forces clubs.
The punishment that Hakeem, the lover of his country received didn't only include a deprivation to his right of communication with his beloved, it surpassed that, and he who was looking for freedom, free in his homeland became a prisoner.
imagine ....he stayed chasing freedom until it lead him to prison but for a young man like "Hakeem", this small prison didn't compare to the bigger one that deprived him of his absolute freedom, not caring and not wanting to get out of it, even when he was ordered to be released on bail he never hesitated and decided to remain with the rest of the detainee.
How can he be released alone and the freedom he sought for long be partitioned? the freedom he wants and wishes for is not only exclusive to him, it should also include, his brother Abd Al Hadi and to Ahmed, Nawaf, Bandar and Eid and lots more. Abd Al Hakeems brother Abd Al Nasser says :" My father and I refused the release of Abd Al Hakeem without the remaining detainees, How can we face their parents if we did that?"
With no prior arrangement Abd Al Hakeem took it upon himself to make the same decision. His family fully trusted the wisdom of his decisions even before they sent him to Taima in February of last year.


Rashed Khalaf, a bidoun columnist with Al Nahar Newspaper. This piece was published at Sabr online newspaper.

http://www.alaan.cc/pagedetails.asp?nid=99008&cid=52

**"wise man" stands for "Hakeem" in Arabic.

Fatima! Where is Bandar?

By: Ali Al Masoudi
T: @allmasoudi

My colleague always advises me to give myself 20 minutes of rest between work hours which is recommended by physicians to ward off anxiety and clear my head.
Because of that he used to come over to me every day, lodging himself in my office saying: "order me a cup of tea, and I will give you 20 minutes rest of your work!"
He sits and tells me about his life stories. Bandar is a nice energetic man who fills his day with work, occupy his mind with the worries of the Kuwaiti stateless bedoun which he is one of their fourth generation. His people witnessed a merciless inhumane pressures that prohibited bedouns of identity rights, freedom of expression, right of ownership and possession, formal schooling and medical treatment. So that giving them these rights became a charity not a divine right and a humanitarian merit acknowledged by all international laws as it should be!

Bandar is waiting the birth of his first born in a month from now with his wife our colleague "Fatima".
The newborn will be reliving the exact tragedy of his father and grandfather before him. Bandar was an excellent event coordinator, explaining to human rights activists the dire circumstances that the bedouns are living on the edge of life with unemployment and poverty in boxed tin houses in a country that big rich countries and small poor ones lived off its wealth. Bandar used to show up every Friday in the freedom square in Taimaa lifting his beloved Kuwaiti flag and a picture of the Amir demanding his natural right in a dignified and honorable life.
In the next day he showed me some of the pictures he took in those hours that he considers his only breathing outlet and precious window to the light of freedom. But..I haven’t seen Bandar for three weeks now and I haven’t witnessed his regular movement in the editing hall. yesterday I asked his wife- our colleague in the same newspaper: "Fatima? where is Bandar?"
Her voice wavered: " in prison with the bedoun who went to protest for their rights!!"
Do I have the right now to rest 20 minutes between my long working hours while Bandar maybe receiving the news of the birth of his first born while he is imprisoned by his country?



Ali Masoudi is a reputed Bedoun columnist who left the country to obtain the Qatari citizenship late in the 90's of past century. He is back in Kuwait writing for many news corporations. This piece is published in Sabr online magazine:

http://t.co/q5cg8xOg ( via @Sabrnews) 13/2/2012.

Translated by @Mohd_AlSalem

http://tl.gd/ft14b2