Futile gesture

[stevengriffin]

In a totally futile gesture that I hope is repeaated by many I will not be watching the Bahrain Grand Prix this weekend.
Bahrain is a country where doctors who treat the injured are arrested and tortured. This has happened to doctors who trained with me in London. The country appears to be run by barbarians and sport has no place there. I enclose a piece from the BBC New website.
I hope they have a boring race and Jensen wins.



A medic who asked to remain anonymous because he fears arrest said that he is secretly treating approximately 50 patients a week in Shia villages.

"Some of these people are very seriously hurt," he told the BBC. He said he treated one man who had been hit in the head with a teargas canister fired as police were entering his home

"I had my fingers inside his skull. He was bleeding heavily. I didn't have enough equipment. I suture stitched the wound. I did what I could."

The medic says that many of the injuries are in the upper torso and head. He claims that it is a deliberate tactic of the police now to go for head and upper body shots.

Asked to describe the kind of injuries he is treating he told the BBC: "You see a lot of bruising caused by beatings. Those are not so serious but I am also treating birdshot wounds to the abdomen and chest, teargas and rubber bullet hits to the head and neck and skull fractures with internal bleeding."

He says that where the injuries are life threatening he tells families to take the patient to Salmaniya.

"But people refuse so I try and arrange for a private hospital to take them. I say: 'Look, he may be arrested but at least he will be alive.'"

No-one from Salmaniya Medical Complex or the Ministry of Interior was available for comment.

[RedRedWine]

You have my equally futile support.

[Terry]

Mine too

[jaredwood]

and me.

[stevengriffin]

Thanks gentlemen, I'm sure Mr Ecclestone will sit up and take note now...
My little tirade reminded me of the late seventies when I was living in a London School of Economics hall of residence. We used to have very earnest student union meetings, write a letter of condemnation of CIA activity against the Sandanistas to President Ford then retire to the bar with the warm feeling that the President would take full note of our concerns and that we had put the world to right. Happy days.

[andrewcliffe]

I'll admit I watched it, but it was the first race of the season that wasn't live on the BBC that I was home for.

Rather than pay Murdoch for the privilege of watching F1 on Sky (used to subscribe but most things I wanted to see were available on Freeview) I bought a Satellite TV receiver from B&Q and adjusted the dish from pointing over there <points> to over there <points about 7 degrees round and 5 degrees up>.

This gets me the free to air German RTL channel which shows the races live, and the radio is tuned to 5 Live or 5 Live Sports Extra for pretty much seamless commentary.