Fwd: Closure of Natural History Museum in Bahrain

[Diana Horton]

Has anyone heard what has happened to the Natural History Museum in Bahrain?

Diana Horton
Biological Sciences
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA  52242
U.S.A.

--------------- Text of forwarded message ---------------
>Date:         Mon, 3 Oct 2005 12:45:27 -0800
>Reply-To: Kevin Winker <ffksw at UAF.EDU>
>From: Kevin Winker <ffksw at UAF.EDU>
>Subject:      Closure of Natural History Museum in Bahrain
>To: TAXACOM at LISTSERV.NHM.KU.EDU
>Status: RO
>
>I encourage all to send emails in support of retaining the Natural
>History hall and collections in this national museum. Please copy to all
>three email addresses.
>
>Best,
>--
>Kevin Winker
>University of Alaska Museum
>907 Yukon Drive
>Fairbanks, Alaska 99775
>ffksw at uaf.edu
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-acarology at nhm.ac.uk [mailto:owner-acarology at nhm.ac.uk] On Behalf
>Of A.Mohamed at uwalumni.com
>Sent: Monday, October 03, 2005 11:18 AM
>To: acarology at nhm.ac.uk
>Subject: Closure of Natural History Museum in Bahrain
>
>Natural History hall to be closed - please support us to fight this closure.
>
>Please forgive our intrusion into your working day but the scientific
>community here in Bahrain desperately seeks your support. Bahrain has a
>large
>national museum, mostly given over to cultural and archaeological finds; the
>museum however does include a small but vigorous Natural History section.
>Sadly the current Museum Director, Culture and National Heritage Assistant
>Under-Secretary recently informed the entire museum staff at a general
>meeting
>that the Natural History hall would be closed; the entire collection
>dismantled and along with its scientific collections, disposed of.  The
>decision to close the Natural History hall, museum staff were informed, was
>that the Natural History section has no cultural value, was out of place in
>a
>National Museum, was only popular with children and since the Director in
>the
>future didn't want children under the age of the seven to be allowed into
>the
>museum. Its closure would allow the display hall, offices, laboratories and
>storage space to be given over to more culturally acceptable displays beyond
>the intellect of children so providing justification for an admissions age
>barrier at the museum.
>
>The reasoning and arbitrary nature of the Directors decision without
>recourse
>to discussion, appeal or public debate is for the scientific community here
>in
>Bahrain difficult to comprehend and due to the local social structure
>incredibly difficult for us to contend internally within the country without
>support. It is for this reason we seek your assistance by way of letters of
>support in fighting this imminent closure and the disposal of the Natural
>History collections at the Bahrain Natural National Museum. A few words of
>support is all that we require, the museum web site has recently been
>disabled
>but we believe its email is still active, musbah at batelco.com.bh .
>
>We would be grateful for copies of supporting letter to be sent to us at any
>of the following emails listed below so that we can add them to our petition
>to His Majesty the King, Shaikh Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa.
>
>Thank you for your time
>
>Howard King, Bird recorder
>
>howardk at batelco.com.bh
>
>Dr. AbdulAziz Mohamed AbdulKareem, Entomologist
>
>A.Mohamed at uwalumni.com