Oh, absolutely, I would never knock anyone who makes an effort.
Unfortunately, you can put in all the effort you can but if you're not qualified (and with the experience to boot) I'm afraid you're not going to get anywhere. All the people mentioned are nice guys, but they should never have been put in the positions they are in. At the end of the day, if it all goes tits up, they'll take a wrap that they don't deserve.
With regards to the Bahraini's, sorry I wasn't clearer (been doing time-zone hopping as SLF a lot in the last 72 hrs). When I was referring to the dead wood I meant those (expat and Bahraini) who won't move with the times.
With reference to expats teaching Bahrainis, what I meant was I'd like to see a training based approach where young and promising Bahrainis are taken under the wings of qualified expat management and prepared to eventually take over the helm. Isn't this sort of apprentice scheme what Sayer is doing over in BAS?
The ab initio pilot scheme shows what happens when locals are appointed who aren't qualified - giving Command so readily to cut costs (as GF management at the time believed that local 'labour' was in some way cheaper than 'expat' labour) didn't work. But don't get me wrong - promote people if they are qualified, as boilermaker suggests.
BTW, anyone know what's happened to EaH since he's gone west?