Letter from Bahrain: It's a familiar sight in the Middle East, or at least on much of the TV coverage. Blinding, choking smoke rises to the skies. There is terrible, infernal noise. People scatter in all directions, hands over their ears. It could be Ramallah or Hebron at the height of the Second Intifada.
But instead of crying and screaming, people are laughing and joking. Arabs having fun? Muslims enjoying themselves? This is not the image that is prevalent in the West these days.
It isn't the West Bank or Gaza. The scene is Bahrain International Circuit, "the Home of Formula 1 in the Gulf". The event is a drag racing competition with souped-up, high-powered motors generating all the smoke and noise and excitement. The locals are having a good night out: it could be the Curragh races or Harold's Cross greyhound track on a Friday night.
In drag racing, two cars compete to see which one can accelerate fastest from a standstill. However there is no champagne for the winner, I am told. That would be a step too far in the Islamic world. But the atmosphere is effervescent in all other respects and brings home the point that there is another side of the Middle East that we don't often hear about.
Bahrain is generally quiet and peaceful, as are neighbouring Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. So too was Jordan until the recent horrific hotel bombings. There are other relatively peaceful places in the region.
That word "region" keeps cropping up in political conversation. Usually it is pronounced with an attractive Arabic rolling of the "R" as in, "what do you think of the situation in the RRRegion?" You've got to have an answer too, because like the less lethal topic of the weather back home, it's a subject on everybody's mind. Naturally, it was the topic of conversation when I met some members of Bahrain's fledgling parliament, officially known as the Council of Representatives.
The names and accents apart, one could have been sitting around a table with denizens of our own Leinster House.
The subject of demonstrations came up - they are still a relative rarity in many parts of the Middle East - and one stalwart announced that he had met a chap holding a placard denouncing unemployment. But when he tried to arrange a job for him, the fellow wouldn't take it, as he wanted to be in the state sector.
One has heard similar tales from conservative backbenchers back home, presented with equal good humour and earthy bluntness. And then there was the case of the anti-establishment activist who allegedly prayed in public for the death of the prime minister. Sure you couldn't have that, they said.
Bahrain introduced limited democratic reforms in recent years and there is still a fair amount of touchiness and sensitivity in the air, such as you don't get in more robust and established systems.
While very considerable strides have been taken by Middle East standards with the release of all political prisoners, for example, these were somewhat clouded when the authorities ordered the closure of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights, a move that has been the subject of a complaint at EU level by the Irish-based human rights group Front Line. This was followed by the exclusion of the centre's director, Abdul-Hadi al-Khawaja, from the Forum for the Future, a recent meeting of governments and NGOs jointly organised by the G8 advanced industrial countries and the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Al-Khawaja was able to meet the news media at a press conference in the Gulf Hotel after the forum had closed although he let an Egyptian activist do most of the talking. Never have I seen so many photographs taken of platform and audience at such a small event and since I did not see them published later, I wonder where they all ended up. Perhaps some jaded securocrat is perusing my manly visage even as I write.
Later in the evening, a demonstration was staged outside the hotel, clearly for the benefit of foreign journalists. The protesters highlighted unemployment and poverty in Bahrain and again there seemed to be a large number of photographers. One burly fellow who looked like an off-duty policeman smiled as he explained he was taking pictures for his home computer.
Taking a wider perspective, if stability in the Middle East can be assured, the Iraqi conflagration dampened down and a lasting deal cut between the Israelis and the Palestinians, places like Bahrain could have a bright future.
On the economic front, the oil is going to run out in another 15 or 20 years and Bahrain needs to prepare for the day when the crock of black gold will no longer be found at the end of the rainbow. It is cheaper and easier at present for employers to hire expatriate labour from India or the Philippines at low wages than to offer the jobs to Bahraini citizens. But moves are under way to change all this and to impose a surcharge on the employment of immigrant labour which would go into a fund to pay for better training and equipment.
It's a major cultural change, in a country where there are no personal taxes. But it's the same story everywhere: modernise or die. Meanwhile, perhaps attracted by the tax regime, or lack of it, controversial pop singer Michael Jackson has reportedly bought an island property in Bahrain.
Or maybe he just wants to go motor racing on a Friday night.