E-Network Healing Initiative Leadership Linkage (HILL)…. A student linkage magazine

BAHRAIN LAST UPDATED ON: 7/08/16 KENSRI Editor:Adhithi.R Country Editor: Country Asst. Editor SYMBOLS & SIGNIFICANCE

National Flag National Animal: Oryx National Bird :Bulbul National Sport : Football National Emblem

National Flower: Adenium National Tree: Dates Tree Currency:Bahraini Coin Stamp Dinar Current issue: Greed, proper healthcare… Official language: Arabic faces a set of interconnected Capital: Manama economic challenges, from the question of how Government: Monarchy, to ensure future growth beyond the limited oil Constitutional monarchy sector to complex political-economy questions Population: 1.332 million (2013) about who the country’s growth and wealth benefits. It was the first Gulf state to discover oil and to start refining it, and was an early mover when it came to building on its energy resources. Bahrain built the first aluminum smelter in the Gulf, which now provides the country’s biggest non-oil goods exports. It was also the first Gulf state to develop a financial Centre, partly thanks to Lebanese bankers fleeing their country’s civil war. Uniquely in the Gulf, Bahrain’s single biggest economic sector is financial services, not oil and gas. Like Oman, Bahrain started diversifying its economy beyond oil well in advance of the other Gulf countries, since its oil reserves were limited. It produces only around 48,000 barrels per day from its sole onshore field; most of its oil revenue comes from a Bahraini share of an offshore field controlled by Saudi Arabia. It also has a local workforce that is better trained and more willing to work in the private sector than what we see in most of the other neighboring Gulf states, in part because people are not so rich. But unlike its richer neighbors, Bahrain has limited capital to develop and market these industries, which require foreign investment to develop further. It also needs to start importing natural gas.

Music with a cause Art Sports The of Bahrain is part of the Persian Gulf folk Bahrain has its own top-tier domestic traditions. Alongside , it is known for sawt music, professional football league, a bluesy genre influenced by African, Indian and Persian the Bahraini Premier League. It music. Sultan Hamid, Ali Bahar and Khalid al Shaikh (a features 10 football clubs that play a singer and player) are among the most popular two round robin set, with each team from Bahrain. playing a total of 18 fixtures. The Bahrain was the site of the first Persian Gulf- winners of the domestic based recording studio, established after World War championship qualify for the AFC II.[2] Modern music institutions in Bahrain include Cup. the Bahrain Music Institute, the Bahrain Orchestra and The league uses a promotion and the Classical Institute of Music. The Bahraini male- relegation system with the Bahraini only pearl diving tradition is known for the Classification League, Bahrain's called fidjeri. second tier football league. The Liwa and Fann at-Tanbura are types of music and dance season usually starts in September performed mainly in communities of descendants of Bantu and concludes in May, as in other peoples from the African Great Lakes region. football leagues. The first season was held in 1952. Although games are played on a home and away basis, almost all games are played at the Bahrain National Stadium. The bottom placed club is relegated with the team finishing second bottom entering a relegation/promotion playoff match. The most successful club in the league's history is Al- Muharraq SC. The current reigning champion of the 2011-2012 football season is Riffa club.

Leader

Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa has been the Prime Minister of Bahrain from 1970, taking Al Khalifa is the 1st King of office nearly two years before Bahrain's Bahrain, having previously independence on 16 December 1971. He is the been its 2nd Emir. He is the longest-serving current prime minister in the son of Isa bin Salman Al world Khalifa, the previous and 1st Emir. The country has been ruled by the Al Khalifa dynasty since 1783 Environmental Sustainability…. desertification resulting from the degradation of limited arable land, periods of drought, and dust storms; coastal degradation (damage to coastlines, coral reefs, and sea vegetation) resulting from oil spills and other discharges from large tankers, oil refineries, and distribution stations; lack of freshwater resources (groundwater and seawater are the only sources for all water needs)

Learning from the past and present for the future Bahrain was the central site of the ancient civilization. Dilmun appears first in Sumerian cuneiform clay tablets dated to the end of fourth millennium BC, found in the temple of goddess Inanna, in the city of Uruk. The adjective Dilmun is used to describe a type of axe and one specific official; in addition, there are lists of rations of wool issued to people connected with Dilmun.

The Bahrain Fort, location of Dilmun artifacts. Dilmun was mentioned in two letters dated to the reign of Burna-Buriash II (c. 1370 BC) recovered from Nippur, during the Kassite dynasty of Babylon. These letters were from a provincial official, Ilī-ippašra, in Dilmun to his friend Enlil-kidinni in Mesopotamia. The names referred to are Akkadian. These letters and other documents, hint at an administrative relationship between Dilmun and Babylon at that time. Following the collapse of the Kassite dynasty, Mesopotamian documents make no mention of Dilmun with the exception of Assyrian inscriptions dated to 1250 BC which proclaimed the Assyrian king to be king of Dilmun and Meluhha. Assyrian inscriptions recorded tribute from Dilmun. There are other Assyrian inscriptions during the first millennium BC indicating Assyrian sovereignty over Dilmun. Dilmun was also later on controlled by the Kassite dynasty in Mesopotamia. One of the early sites discovered in Bahrain indicate that Sennacherib, king of Assyria (707–681 BC), attacked northeast Persian Gulf and captured Bahrain.he most recent reference to Dilmun came during the Neo- Babylonian dynasty. Neo-Babylonian administrative records, dated 567 BC, stated that Dilmun was controlled by the king of Babylon. The name of Dilmun fell from use after the collapse of Neo-Babylon in 538 BC. There is both literary and archaeological evidence of extensive trade between Ancient Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley civilization (probably correctly identified with the land called Meluhha in Akkadian). Impressions of clay seals from the Indus Valley city of Harappa were evidently used to seal bundles of merchandise, as clay seal impressions with cord or sack marks on the reverse side testify. A number of these Indus Valley seals have turned up at Ur and other Mesopotamian sites.

Location of the Dilmun burial mounds in Bahrain. The "Persian Gulf" types of circular, stamped (rather than rolled) seals known from Dilmun, that appear at Lothal in Gujarat, , and Failaka, as well as in Mesopotamia, are convincing corroboration of the long- distance sea trade. What the commerce consisted of is less known: timber and precious woods, ivory, lapis lazuli, gold, and luxury goods such as carnelian and glazed stone beads, pearls from the Persian Gulf, shell and bone inlays, were among the goods sent to Mesopotamia in exchange for silver, tin, woolen textiles, olive oil and grains. Copper ingots from Oman and bitumen which occurred naturally in Mesopotamia may have been exchanged for cotton textiles and domestic fowl, major products of the Indus region that are not native to Mesopotamia. Instances of all of these trade goods have been found. The importance of this trade is shown by the fact that the weights and measures used at Dilmun were in fact identical to those used by the Indus, and were not those used in Southern Mesopotamia.