The cost of a heavy hand

Bahrain is known more for its sleek steel and glass skyscrapers of high finance than the unpaved alleys of the disenfranchised tucked behind them. Indeed, the kingdom has worked hard to polish this veneer in recent years with a glossy international advertising campaign luring investors to “business friendly Bahrain.” But rosy adjectives were the first victims of the state security services’ repeated attempts to put down peaceful protests last month with truncheons, tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition, which left more than half a dozen dead and hundreds injured.  While economic incentives such as the possibility of 100 percent foreign ownership of businesses, low taxes and easy access to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf markets are certainly draws for foreign investors, blood and tanks on the streets of Manama are not. “If this [crisis] carries on, I’m sure it will have a more lasting effect,” said Salman Shaikh, the