Dear Yanni,

This message is evoked by the melodies of your music in “Ethnicity”.

We belong to the small island of Bahrain, which you are scheduled to visit early next month as one of the participants in the “Spring of Culture” festival.

 

Since the late nineties, we’ve been listening to your magnificent music, dreaming that, one day, we will see you in a live concert held on our small island.

It is unfortunate that only one half of our dream will come true. You will come to Bahrain, but we will not be able to hear your cosmic music. The regime in Bahrain will prevent us from attending your concert. We are a group of journalists, writers, intellectuals and media workers, who have contributed to the promotion of the mission of the Spring of Culture festivals. However, we all stood against the festival of 2011. The Arab artist Marcel Khalifa, who is a devout supporter of issues for humanity, shared with us our standpoint. That is when the Spring of Culture festivals became a political tool for buffing up the face of dictatorship. In March 2011, the regime called upon the Saudi Army to come to Bahrain to repress the peaceful protesters at the Pearl Roundabout.

Throughout its long history, Bahrain had been a welcoming spot to all those who sailed across its sea or landed on any of its shores.  It uniquely embraced its inhabitants, regardless of where they came from, what sect or race they belonged to, or through which port they entered. There is a striking resemblance between Bahrain, featuring multicultural and ethnic diversity, and the music in your album “Ethnicity” – a range of musical instruments playing harmoniously together to create a melody that is so peaceful and so appealing.

You very well know that democracy safeguards the coexistence of diverse ethnicities and cultures. On 14th February 2011, and as part of the Arab Spring wave, the people of Bahrain fled to the streets calling for democracy. We wanted everyone on the island to take an equal share in the making of its music. The regime did not allow us to realize our dream and brutally smashed our musical instruments. Now, we no longer can compose our unifying national tune, nor can we orchestrate the racial and ethnic diversity on our island.

Dear Yanni,

You have strived through your music to serve your motto of “One World, One Nation”. We do not want anything more than to be part of this ‘One World’. We want to have the right to self determination. Your country, Greece, the cradle of Western civilization, invented democracy. We believe that when we have democracy, we will be part of this ‘One World’, as in the message of hope spread by your music.

Dear Yanni,

In your album “Ethnicity”, you amazingly count on the “great use of the human voice”. We want the ‘human voice’ on our island to be listened-to, just as it is listened-to in your music. Listening to the ‘human voice’ is a sign of democracy. Since 14th February 2011, people on our island have lost their ‘human voice’. More than 100 have been martyred for the ‘human voice’ and we would like you to greet them. Yanni, could you do that for them? They carried no weapons; some of them held roses while others marched holding nothing but their shrouds.

Earlier this month, 44 countries in the UN Security Council expressed their concern over the state of human rights in Bahrain. Here, the regime wants to reassure the world that everything is fine. They are doing this not by realizing democracy, but by propagating fallacies through their public relation firms, and by organizing festivals to which international stars and artists, like yourself, are invited.

Dear Yanni,

Would you want your music to muffle the voice of protesters for democracy on our island? The regime has invited you to perform in Bahrain to muffle the sounds of the weapons repressing our ‘human voice’.

Dear Yanni,

The regime in Bahrain has spent millions of dollars recruiting PR firms to improve its image before the international community, but to no avail. Last November, the international reality TV star Kim Kardashian was invited to present a show that was hoped would submerge and mute the real show on the ground: the show of people’s struggle for democracy. The outcome of Kardashian’s visit was no more than ridicule and poor credibility.

Dear Yanni,

We would like you to help us bring democracy to our country. It is up to you to decide the best way for helping make the ‘human voice’ listened-to in Bahrain. It is up to you to decide whether your visit to Bahrain will deliver a strong message for realizing democracy on the island, or for simply buffing up the face of dictatorship.