BagNews Archives About Staff BagNews is a progressive site dedicated to visual politics and the analysis of news images.
Friday, May 25, 2012

Twitter

@bagnewsnotes »
Advertisement



March 18, 2011

Bahrain: Crushing the Pearl

By Michael Shaw

Bahrain’s foreign minister, Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, told reporters in Manama that the army brought down the monument because “it was a bad memory.”

from: Bahrain demolishes monument at Pearl Square

Are these people insane?

Bahrain’s leader’s don’t understand how much a public monument, especially a poetic one, is part of the emotional fabric of a city, its destruction only emphasizing its erasure and inviting every citizen going forward to fill in the hole with a memory of  the structure as well as the circumstances surrounding its demise.

Like any physical assault, the “bad memory” that also gets imprinted is this imagery of violence permanently recorded, in which a gem is shattered, the fingers holding it up are publicly crushed and the remains, evoking a hapless creature from the sea, are left abused and lifeless.

(photo: Hamad I Mohammed / Reuters)

« Prev

Next »

  • Nemo

    Nah, not insane. It is a a bad memory for the Khalifa family of autocrats and a message to the people of Bahrain. Not only did they tear the Pearl down, but they ripped up the square; there is nothing here for you is the message.
    How do people talk to their rulers who are not willing to dialogue, except with force. Obama the Speechifier extols the virtues of Gandhian non-violence, not realising that a) Gandhi left the violence to other elements of the anti-British movement; and b) the Brits were thinly spread on the ground in India and did have a modicum of civility. The House of Saud, the Khalifa’s, Yemen’s Saleh will not go down without a fight.
    As for Gadhafi, nobody likes him, so he is an easy target. He is not the US’s favourite autocrat.

  • black dog barking

    The power to destroy is far easier to demonstrate, far easier to implement than the power to create. It is easier to burn a book than read a book, incredibly easier to read a book than write one. Civilization is built from many creative acts yet somehow our history books mostly record the story of our destructive impulses.

  • http://www.appalachiawatch.org Appalachia Watch

    Bahrain’s leaders do understand how much a public monument means, especially to image makers and photo editor. This monument was the key to identifying Bahrain in a storm of images of protest in the Middle East.
    Visual savvy…

  • Martin

    The architecture of cities has been used before to control the population. One of Napoleon I’s legacies is the system of main roads throughout France, allowing the rapid movement of troops; Napoleon III used the same concept within Paris, destroying swathes of the city to create the famous boulevards. The reason? Ensuring that the population cannot rise up against his reign. It would be interesting to discover other historical examples. Let’s watch Bahrein: surely, the square will be given over to traffic, thus impeding possibilities of peaceful demonstrations.

  • Julia Grey

    The italic portion of this post is gibberish to me. How do I fix that?

    • http://www.bagnewsnotes.com Michael Shaw

      Julia, did you try refreshing? Is there still a problem with another browser? Let us know if it repeats on another post.

  • Pingback: these days, when a monument becomes a symbol of protest, you take it down | iconophilia

  • Julia Grey

    It’s fixed now.

    It WAS repeating on all posts when it was happening, but it’s not happening now, so I’m happy!

  • http://www.bagnewsnotes.com Michael Shaw

    Glad to hear it!

Recent Comments

Popular Topics

More topics »

Popular Entries


Archives

Recent Entries