My chief correspondent on Bahrain: "This is really funny:
As you probably realized Bahrain is obsessed with image and PR. They already have a token female Jewish Bahraini that dresses well and speaks great english as the Bahraini Ambassador to the US. And now, they decided to appoint a token female Christian Bahraini as the Bahraini ambassador to the UK. They think that by appointing these tokens they will prove to the world that they are a progressive monarchy. What they don't realize is that the west is propping them up for their own interests and not because they think they are progressive."