Waiting for the post

An interesting rant in today's Kuwait Times newspaper...

Kuwait postal system works at snail's pace

KUWAIT By Celia Al-Manea: It's a well-known fact that mail is Kuwait is slower than the coming of Christmas when you are a child. The bureaucracy-ridden, inefficient and poorly managed postal service fails to deliver anything of value to its customers. Letters sent locally can take weeks, even months to arrive. Packages sit in the Shuwaikh post office for days and days while the notice sent to inform their owner of their arrival suffers the same time-consuming delays as all other letters. Most businesses and organisations that need to send letters or packages and ensure that they arrive on time, send them by courier. Because of this, privately owned courier services are flourishing in Kuwait. But the government is still funding a national postal office and spending millions every year to pay salaries, provide offices, electricity, computers, stamps, paper, uniforms, etc. Why then the service is no service at all? Why, when postal systems have been developing since the use of pigeons and are now complex, efficient and functioning organisations around the world, is Kuwait so far behind? Why when the country earns more than $40 billion GDP can't it fund an efficient and reliable postal service? Kuwait is renowned throughout the world for its innovative, efficient and clever use of water desalination processes. It is also respected for encouraging the scientific development and research of oil lifting and pumping processes. And yet, it can't send a simple letter from Salmiya to Shuwaikh. Why? Does the government think that communication among people and businesses is irrelevant? Are the people who run the postal system incompetent? Lazy? Corrupt? What prevents the government from turning its attention to something vital to the health and growth of a flourishing economy? Why do members of parliament have time to bitch and moan about mixed gender concerts but can't be bothered to ask why it takes two weeks for a letter to come from Hawally to Rawda? The postal system in Kuwait falls under the responsibility of the Ministry of Communication. The problem with this arrangement is that the Minister of Communication Mohammad Abu Al-Hassan is so busy defending himself from the internal threats of grilling that even if he wanted to, reforming the postal services would be impossible. I would send him a letter of complaint, but who knows if he'd get it.

[I won't bother putting in hyperlink as newspaper doesn't
archive web pages.]

What more can I say. I always have a laugh when I receive mail that has made it's way to my office desk. The first thing I do is check the Post Office's date stamp to see how long they've had my mail for... 1 week, 1 month, 2 months... incredible. And, that's if I receive it. Many things posted to me from NZ or the UK just don't arrive at all (including kid's birthday presents which is a pain). So basically I inform any company / person I deal with internationally, either deal with me via the web or email, or forget it. I guess this is how most Kuwaitis feel too.

The cynical view is, forget reform... too difficult. Accept that it's just another non-value adding employment scheme. Just don't make the mistake of expecting that it will work..., move on and use the latest technologies, and if you have to deliver physical documents, letters, things, well that's what courier companies are for.

But that's the problem in this country and why nothing works as well as it could. What happens is that even the courier companies have low standards, as anything will beat using the postal system. No one is willing to grasp the opportunity to reform... it's too difficult, it'll take to long, nobody cares enough to change things, as long as the place is awash with petrodollars we can afford to live with inefficiencies (rather than take steps to invest in infrastructure, people). Crickey, this is turning into another rant.... deep breath, calm down... So, what do I suggest. Don't settle for poor quality services. Lobby Government. Publicise the problems. Educate the wider public. Take whatever action you can - don't lie down and accept that change can't happen. Sure, we're talking about the complex changing of people's mindsets and attitudes, but we have to start somewhere.

Actually this reminds me of another failed state in the former Soviet Union I had the pleasure of living in - Uzbekistan. The telephone system was so crap, that when the market opened up around the same time as an alternative technology became available, mobile telephony (at extortionate rates to the consumer) took off. I doubt whether they've invested much in their fixed line telephone since. I do know that the country has continued to sink in the economic mire of institutionalised corruption fed by a despotic regime. But that is another story.

The big advantage here in Kuwait is that you do have a tradition of a ruling political class that listens to its people. It's just that implementation is the tricky part and most of the energy is going into rhetoric, and playing of political games, rather acts of service to the country. But, hey, that seems to happen everywhere in the world. Depressing.