stunning photos that sparked Bahraini protest

We've heard about the role played by Facebook and Twitter in the middle-easter/north-african uprisings but i for one was unaware of the role played by Google Earth/Maps in igniting opposition in Bahrain. These Are The Controversial Satellite Photos That Set Off Protests In Bahrain.

here we see the mansion/compound/estate of the prime-minister dwarfing not only the national stadium but whole city districts.

scroll through em. the captions are a little bit confused but the general gist seems to be that the Bahraini powers that be had taken all the land by force (everything the state does is based on coercion) which created an entirely artificial and false over crowding 'problem'. in the time worn 'problem-reaction-solution' power and money grabbing tactic of violent statists everywhere the Bahraini rulers were then able to swoop in and 'solve' this over crowding 'problem' which they themselves had created with ludicrous coastal land reclamation projects. the fact that there were was literally miles and miles of land laying empty and wasted was seemingly ignored or, from the tone of these 'revelatory' photos' captions, actively suppressed. the real beneficiaries of these houses built on sand in the sea were banks and construction companies, no doubt owned by or paying the Bahraini rulers.
another issue this highlights is a favourite bugbear i hold against the state which is home-ownerism. i will write a tediously indepth ramble on this tool of slavery later (something to look forward to eh?) but until then a brief overview:
the state controls land use which directly affects prices. he who controls and limits supply of something which is always in demand has his hands on the reins of a lucrative monopoly.more often than not the ultimate land owners are the statists themselves or their chums within the elite power groups. in the case of the 'traditional' uk our randomly german royal family still own vast swathes of land on this tiny island most of which is held by a tiny percentage of families. by limiting the use of this land it artificially inflates rents on the land they own. a less direct benefit of this control which is often missed is that because land to live on is ridiculously over priced one must strive to earn huge amounts to pay for the space required for a bed, bathroom and kitchen. the higher your mortgage/rent the more you must earn and what happens when you earn more? you generate more tax for the state to take.
if this sounds far fetched just imagine the amount of people that want to build a home in or around your house. then imagine how many permissible plots are available. now apply the iron law of supply and demand and bingo - massive land prices. this doesnt bear objective analysis. why cant we voluntarily trade land? i want to give the farmer cash for his field and he wants to give me the field for cash. why not? because if land use was dictated purely by economic supply and demand of the market and voluntary agreements (which would probably include voluntary covenants etc to preserve particular areas) then the cost of land would plummet. rulers have always had most of their wealth in the form of land. even in the age of ipads this still holds true. crown estates would be worth fuck all and elite 'portfolios' would similarly tumble. thus the coercive power of the state is directed at limiting and controlling this market. other forces from within and dependent upon the state serve to propagate myths of homes as investments, nimbyism, green belts (featureless fields are not natural wildernesses) and cramped living as normal.
i hate home-ownerism. it is the essence and life blood of the rat race and affects so many aspects of life. it is an insidious form of coercion that almost all of us have been blinded to.
why do we work our entire lives? people hundreds of years ago without the benefits of our time saving technology and productive industry worked less hours than we do today. why? by being forced into mortgage/rent slavery we become desperate for work. the employment market is tilted toward the employer who has the pick of hundreds of desperate wage slaves. conditions if you are lucky enough to hop on the rat race are shit. really think about it - yes there may be air con, water coolers and spinning chairs in your office but its hardly the natural way to spend your waking hours is it? every hour you spend in your shitty job is one hour closer to death, one hour less that you could spend doing what you want. one hour less to be disposed of voluntarily. you are forced to work. you are a slave and the main engine of this slavery is coercive control of land use.
back to Bahrain.

this perfectly illustrates how the powers that e use the tool of land use control. there is nothing in the area owned by the ruling family member. they are not doing anything with it. it simply serves to inflate prices elsewhere and, as i have explained, tax receipts and rents.

now it is important to repeat that i am not a statist socialist. i do not endorse the coercive redistribution of justly earned land and wealth. i am opposed to this kind of shenanigans not because it is an unfair distribution of wealth - there will be people with more than others - its only natural. but these photos from Bahrain are not an example of justly earned land. ownership of this land is derived from coercion. im not going to research the history of property titles in Bahrain but you can bet your arse that the rulers did not earn whole island through voluntary means.
if anyone on our soggy island understood the impact on their life of coercive control of land use they too might feel moved to stamp their feet a little. one can only hope...