Bahrain, Errol Flynn and Bernie Ecclestone.
From todays Guardian Newspaper:
Twenty Bahraini medics who treated activists wounded during anti-government protests were jailed for between five and 15 years in sentences that were immediately denounced by medical bodies and human rights groups around the world.
The sentences were handed down by a military court set up to handle the trials, which stemmed from an Arab spring-inspired uprising in the country in February and March. It was crushed with the help of armies from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Thirteen of the doctors and nurses received sentences of 15 years in prison, while another seven received terms of five to 10 years.
All of the accused were charged with committing crimes against the state, during an uprising they insist was peaceful and popularly inspired.
Most worked at the Salmaniya Medical Centre in Manama, which became a focal point of the uprising. Government officials claimed it had been transformed into a base for a plot to overthrow the 200-year-old monarchy.
The formal charges were for stealing medicine, possessing weapons and occupying a government hospital. The medics were also accused of "inciting hatred to the regime and insulting it, instigating hatred against another sect and obstructing the implementation of law, destroying public property and taking part in gatherings aimed at jeopardising the general security and committing crimes."
The doctors, all of whom denied the charges, were among dozens arrested for joining protests led by Bahrain's Shia majority against the government headed by the country's ruling Sunni minority.
The protests were quickly cast by Bahrain's government as a sectarian plot ordered by Iran. The crackdown that followed the demonstrations led to the imposition of martial law and the Gulf Co-operation Council sending troops to the island state.
Now, I’ve always been under the impression that doctors swore (or at least, paid lip service to) The Hippocratic Oath, which basicaly means that they treat anyone that requires medical attention regardless of colour, creed, politics or religion but soley on the persons need for medical attention.
(In America recently a doctor saved the life of a murderer on death row who had suffered a heart attack, the fact that he was over seventy years old and in a wheelchair didn’t deter the doctor from performing his duties. And so the man was in a fit state when the following week they executed him.)
So that’s the Bahrain part of the title of the Blog taken care of, so on to Bernie.
Bernie Ecclestone as the man in charge of Formula One should step up and take a morale decision not to run one of his races in this poor, in everyway, apart from financialy, excuse for a country.
And now before you ask; where does Errol Flynn come into this? Well in 1935 he made a movie called, Captain Blood, based on a novel by Rafael Sabatini.
The film starts as follows:
In seventeenth century England, Doctor Peter Blood (Errol Flynn) is convicted of treason against the King for aiding a wounded friend who had participated in the Monmouth Rebellion in accordance with his professional duties. He is sentenced to death, but by the whim of King James II, Peter Blood is sold into slavery in the English colony of Port Royal in the West Indies.
Which brings us right back to the medics in Bahrain.
For those of you who are interseted, the rest of the film goes something like this:
Peter Blood is bought by Olivia De Havilland, treats the Governer’s foot, escapes, becomes a pirate, kills Basil Rathbone in a duel, returns to Port Royal just in time to save it, is rewarded by being appointed Governer & then gets to shag Olivia De Havilland. And all in under two hours.
