This coming Friday, as reported in the GDN, will see the annual Birdman of Bahrain competition at The British Club. Following in the time-honoured tradition of doing silly things in order to raise money for charity, this is one of the silliest.
Competitors get dressed up in all manner of strange outfits sometimes accompanied by all manner of strange contraptions in order to see who can fly the furthest. In order to give them a start they take off from a three-metre high scaffold and, in order to ensure they land safely, they jump into the swimming pool. Well, obviously, if someone does manage to take flight then the sky is their oyster and I hope they have filed a flight plan with the authorities.
I have been involved with the birdman from the very beginning, the attached photo shows a very young Jackie Beedie competing in the first event in 1994 dressed as Superman. As a long-time member of the Bahrain Longsteppers I have also been part of the organising team as well.
This seems to be the only silly British event that has made its way to Bahrain, we don’t have any bogs to hold bog snorkelling events, I am not sure the BDF would be too happy at us rolling cheeses down the Jebel. There are no horse chestnut trees in Bahrain to have a conkers challenge and not enough Vikings for an Up Helly Aa.
Perhaps, we can invent particularly Bahraini-style events, like we could have a challenge to see who could park a car between the lines or see how many dates you can cram into your mouth at once, my favourite would be how many members of the family can you get into a Chevrolet Caprice. I think the current record is about 67.
The thing is, as silly as all this sounds, the reason behind it is to raise money for local charities. As the cost of living increases many people simply do not have enough spare cash to donate to good causes which creates a downward spiral as charities do not have the resources to provide the desperately needed assistance. Governments are also struggling to provide resources for the same reasons. So, the idea of providing an entertaining day out, to give the kids and adults something to laugh at without it costing the earth is a novel way to raise a few dinars and, because we attract a big crowd, we manage to attract a sponsor who enables us to reach or target and subsequently present a nice cheque to a deserving cause.
Back at the turn of the century we had quite a number of events along the same lines, there was the Soap Box Derby, the Raft Race, the Football Sevens and many others that I have forgotten about. Some of them fell by the wayside because of a lack of interest, some were told to comply with health and safety rules which were simply not feasible within the budget and some simply ran out of organisers with the old guard retiring and no new volunteers stepping forward to take their place.
It would be great to see some of the younger generation stepping up and the creation of some more madcap events. Pity there is no river in Bahrain because a plastic duck race is phenomenal ... perhaps Bahrain Bay could make a suitable location?
Jackie@JBeedie.com
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