And while on the subject of Dubai...

Apparantly women in Dubai are now able to divorce their husbands in Sharia courts. But, did you know...

... One new rule mandates that the mentally ill, lepers and the impotent cannot get married. (my emphasis)

So how do they test whether someone is impotent or not before they can be married?! Do Sharia court judges do a test on budding fiances? Do they take them to one of the hotels renowned for women of the night? And why on earth have the stupid rule in the first place?

I bet there's a few Emirati wives who wish their husbands were impotent!

Does the Road to the Future End at Dubai?

I came across an interesting article on Dubai when browsing blogs. Here are a few gems...

Although often compared to Las Vegas, Orlando, Hong Kong or Singapore, the sheikhdom is more like their collective summation: a pastiche of the big, the bad, and the ugly. It is not just a hybrid but a chimera: the offspring of the lascivious coupling of the cyclopean fantasies of Barnum, Eiffel, Disney, Spielberg, Jerde, Wynn, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill...

... Under his leadership (Maktoum's), the coastal desert has become a huge circuit board into which the elite of transnational engineering firms and retail developers are invited to plug in high-tech clusters, entertainment zones, artificial islands, "cities within cities" -- whatever is the latest fad in urban capitalism. The same phantasmagoric but generic Lego blocks, of course, can be found in dozens of aspiring cities these days, but Sheik Mo has a distinctive and inviolable criterion: Everything must be "world class," by which he means number one in The Guinness Book of Records. Thus Dubai is building the world's largest theme park, the biggest mall, the highest building, and the first sunken hotel among other firsts.

Sheikh Mo's architectural megalomania, although reminiscent of Albert Speer and his patron, is not irrational. Having "learned from Las Vegas," he understands that if Dubai wants to become the luxury-consumer paradise of the Middle East and South Asia (its officially defined "home market" of 1.6 billion), it must ceaselessly strive for excess.

From this standpoint, the city's monstrous caricature of futurism is simply shrewd marketing. Its owners love it when designers and urbanists anoint it as the cutting edge. Architect George Katodrytis wrote: "Dubai may be considered the emerging prototype for the 21st century: prosthetic and nomadic oases presented as isolated cities that extend out over the land and sea."

A good read, but unfortunately the author doesn't let facts get in the way of a good story. He goes a bit over the top when he talks about 'broad tolerance of booze, recreational drugs, halter tops, and other foreign vices formally proscribed by Islamic law' or 'unrestricted freehold ownership to foreigners' - as far as I'm aware you have to be a non-Muslim to then be able to obtain a licence to buy booze, for example, and there is no unrestricted freehold ownership for foreigners... it is only leasehold and legal property rights are still very murky.

Justice for women in Islam?

How many men in Kuwait have been convicted for raping a housemaid? And yet, there are hundreds, thousands even, of maids over the years that have been raped or abused, and yet are punished by the system while nothing happens to the perpetrator. How many sponsors are stopped from sponsoring another housemaid once it is known that they have raped, abused, and/or not paid their previous housemaid?

Whilst it's easy to be critical of the justice system, or lack of it, in Kuwait and other Gulf countries, it's not only here that there is a problem. I came across the following article in The Times written by the renowned Salman Rushdie which highlights the strict Islamic code that condemns women in Pakistan and India, and have 'cut and paste' it in full...

Where is the honour in this vile code that condemns women to die in shame?

Salman Rushdie
IN HONOUR-AND-SHAME cultures such as those
of India and Pakistan, male honour resides in the sexual probity of women, and
the “shaming” of women dishonours all men. So it is that five men of Pakistan’s
powerful Mastoi tribe were disgracefully acquitted of raping a villager named
Mukhtar Mai three years ago. Theirs was an “honour rape”, intended to punish a
relative of Ms Mukhtar for having been seen with a Mastoi woman. The acquittals
have now been suspended by the Pakistan Supreme Court, and there is finally a
chance that this courageous woman may gain some measure of redress for her
violation. Pakistan, however, has little to be proud of. The Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan says that there were 320 reported rapes in the first nine
months of last year, and 350reported gang rapes in the same period. The number
of unreported rapes is believed to be much larger. The victim pressed charges in
only one third of the reported cases, and a mere39 arrests were made. The use of
rape in tribal disputes has become, one might say, normal. And the belief that a
raped woman’s best recourse is to kill herself remains widespread and deeply
ingrained. For every Mukhtar Mai there are dozens of such suicides. Nor is
courage any guarantee of getting justice, as the case of Shazia Khalid shows. Dr
Khalid was raped last year in the province of Baluchistan by security personnel
at the hospital where she worked. A Pakistani tribunal failed to convict anyone
of the crime. Dr Khalid says that she was subsequently “threatened so many
times” that she was forced to flee Pakistan. “I was hounded out,” she says,
expressing dissatisfaction that the Government neither brought her attackers to
justice nor protected her from the threats that followed. That is the same
Government, led by President Musharraf, that confiscated Mukhtar Mai’s passport
because it feared that she would go abroad and say things that would bring
Pakistan into disrepute; and it is the same Government that has allied itself
with the West in the war on terrorism, but seems quite prepared to allow a war
of sexual terror to be waged against its female citizens. Now comes even worse
news. Whatever Pakistan can do, India, it seems, can trump. The so-called Imrana
case, in which a Muslim woman from a village in northern India says that she was
raped by her father-in-law, has brought forth a ruling from the powerful
Islamist seminary Darul-Uloom ordering her to leave her husband because as a
result of the rape she has become haram (unclean) for him. “It does not matter,”
a cleric has stated, “if it was consensual or forced.” Darul-Uloom, in the
village of Deoband90 miles north of Delhi, is the birthplace of the
ultra-conservative Deobandi cult, in whose madrassas the Taleban were trained.
It teaches the most fundamentalist, narrow, puritan, rigid, oppressive version
of Islam that exists anywhere in the world today. In one fatwa it suggested that
Jews were responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Not only the Taleban but also the
assassins of The Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl were followers of
Deobandi teachings. Darul-Uloom’s rigid interpretations of Sharia law are
notorious, and immensely influential — so much so that the victim, Imrana, a
woman under unimaginable pressure, has said she will abide by the seminary’s
decision in spite of the widespread outcry in India against it. An innocent
woman, she will leave her husband because of his father’s crime. Why does a mere
seminary have the power to issue such judgments? The answer lies in the strange
anomaly that is the Muslim personal law system — a parallel legal system for
Indian Muslims, which leaves women such as Imrana at the mercy of the mullahs.
Such is the historical confusion on this vexed subject that anyone who suggests
that a democratic country should have a single, unified legal system is accused
of being anti- Muslim and in favour of the hard-line Hindu nationalists. In the
1980s a divorced woman named Shah Bano was granted “maintenance money” by the
Indian Supreme Court. But there is no alimony under Islamic law, so orthodox
Indian Islamists such as those at Darul-Uloom protested that this ruling
infringed the Muslim Personal Law, and they founded the All-India Muslim Law
Board to mount protests. The Government caved in, passing a Bill denying alimony
to divorced Muslim women. Ever since Shah Bano, Indian politicians have not
dared to challenge the power of Islamist clerical grandees. In the Imrana case,
the All-India Muslim Law Board has unsurprisingly backed the Darul-Uloom
decision, though many other Muslim and non-Muslim organisations and individuals
have denounced it. Shockingly, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam
Singh Yadav, has also backed the Darul-Uloom fatwa. “The decision of the Muslim
religious leaders in the Imrana case must have been taken after a lot of
thought,” he told reporters in Lucknow. “The religious leaders are all very
learned and they understand the Muslim community and its sentiments.” This is a
craven statement. The “culture” of rape that exists in India and Pakistan arises
from profound social anomalies, its origins lying in the unchanging harshness of
a moral code based on the concepts of honour and shame. Thanks to that code’s
ruthlessness, raped women will go on hanging themselves in the woods and walking
into rivers to drown themselves. It will take generations to change that.
Meanwhile, the law must do what it can. In Pakistan, the Supreme Court has taken
one small but significant step in the matter of Mukhtar Mai; now it is for the
police and politicians to start pursuing rapists instead of hounding their
victims. As for India, at the risk of being called a communalist, I must agree
that any country that claims to be a modern, secular democracy must secularise
and unify its legal system, and take power over women’s lives away, once and for
all, from medievalist institutions such as Darul-Uloom.

The Last Information Minister

Some good news for Kuwait... I missed this one when I was out of the country. Anas Al-Rasheed is the new Kuwaiti Information Minister, and his stated goal in his new position is to CLOSE the Ministry of (Dis)Information!

And thou shalt not have thy hair cut in the same vicinity as the opposite sex

Reading the local newspapers always provides some light entertainment for foreigners. Further, it actually provides an insight into the cultural norms and values. I know I can't get a female hairdresser to cut my hair in this place, but I'd never even thought about, yet again realised, that it's illegal to have a hairdressing salon where both members of the same sex can get their hair cut. This little titbit from a recent Arab Times article...

... the Labour Department of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour
recently spotted serious violations said to have been committed by hairdressing
salons, reports Al-Qabas daily. In one incident inspectors from the department
raided a men's salon and discovered a special room had been prepared to receive
women customers. The salon has since been closed for violating the law.
Inspectors have also closed two women's salons for entertaining men...

Fijians the latest to be exploited

Looks like Fijians are the latest nationality to be exploited by a Kuwaiti employer. In yesterday's Arab Times...

Over 80 Fijian truckers complain about not-payment of salaries

KUWAIT CITY: Over 80 stranded Fijian truckers employed with a well-known
local logistics company and plying on the Kuwait-Iraq route complained Monday
about non-payment of their salaries for three months. Slamming the heavy-handed
attitude of the company, the truckers alleged that the company was flouting the
work contract signed in Fiji. ‘The company promised us that it would increase
our salaries after the completion of the probation period but its almost seven
months now and the company has neither hiked our wages nor it has provided us
work visas as promised,’ they lamented. According to the truckers, more than 400
Fijians were signed up as truckers by the local company and have been plying to
Iraq on regular basis. Taking umbrage at the low risk allowance to Iraq, a
trucker told the Arab Times that the company was providing the truckers a mere
KD 50 as risk allowance.‘

We have been plying in some of the most dangerous areas in Iraq including
Fallujah, Mosul and Baghdad but the company does not appreciate our efforts. All
of us feel very vulnerable while traveling to Iraq but we are helpless.’ ‘Some
of us tried to resolve the problem with the company in a congenial manner but to
no avail. The management threatens workers with deportation if they approach
them to seek their dues.’ Added a trucker ‘All of us have families back home.
Their day-to-day activities have been disrupted owing to non-payment of our
salaries. How are we supposed to feed our families,’ he demanded to know.

The truckers, who earn monthly salary of KD 175, said as per the new
contract the truckers were to be paid over KD 1,000 per month and that the
company has been turning a blind eye to their repeated requests. ‘All we are
demanding is good working conditions and our salary on time.’The truckers also
alleged that some of their colleagues were incapacitated and were in urgent need
of medical care. ‘Some 80 Fijians were recently either terminated or forced to
resign by the company. While some got their dues, others were repatriated
without paying their indemnity.’ Says a trucker ‘we are being treated like
slaves by the company. We are not provided rations by the company while
traveling to Iraq. All truckers have to take care of their own supplies. The
company does not provide us accommodation in Iraq and as a result we have to
sleep in our trucks. The truck is like our living room.’ (contd.)

Hmmm... a promised increase in salary from KD 175 to KD 1,000 per month. There are suckers born every minute.

Smelly in Salwa

I noticed in yesterdays Arab Times that an Egptian worker was killed when he was investigating drains in Salwa. Apparantly he was down a manhole and took off his mask to talk to a colleague and was overcome by toxic fumes!! This isn't the first time this has happened. I recall a similar incident happened a year ago, in Jahra I think.

How come there's toxic fumes in drains? What kind of toxic fumes are we dealing with here? What is the source? How is the low level of toxicity that we're all receiving on a daily basis affecting our bodies? Why isn't there more of an outcry about the environmental situation in Kuwait? Does anyone in this country care? Am I a voice in the wilderness?

Lesson #1: How to build a culture reliant on state handouts

What a farce whereby all Kuwaitis have their power and water bills reduced by KD 2,000. What kind of message does that give to honest bill payers? What about non-Kuwaitis?

That latest Governmental decision is on top of the KD 200 cash handout to all Kuwaitis and the salary increases to all public sector employees. Cost of these 3 decisions in total - a cool KD 460 million (over $1.5 billion), according to today’s Arab Times ‘Al-Shall report’. The rational for these payouts: appease the Kuwaiti politicians that would have otherwise blocked other ‘reforms’ like allowing women to vote…

Almost 2 years now in Kuwait and still no telephone line, because the Ministry haven’t built the infrastructure…

Why do the workers protest?

Today's Arab Times...

Workers protest as govt boots out 'cleaning' firm; Salaries unpaid for several months

KUWAIT CITY: In an extraordinary situation in Kuwait, about 3,000 cleaning
company workers of an unidentified company demonstrated and refused to hand over
the keys and other items in their possession to the workers of the new
contracting company when their company's contract with the Al-Razi, Maternity,
Chest and Allergy Diseases hospitals was terminated. A reliable source told the
Arab Times the company had violated one of the terms and conditions of the
contract by not paying the workers for several months and forcing them to
demonstrate and refuse to work thus disrupting the cleaning services at several
hospitals. When the workers refused to leave the premises at these hospitals, a
police force led by Director of the Security Directorate of the Capital
Governorate Brigadier Dr Mustafa Al-Zuaabi rushed to the place and threatened to
take action if the workers don't abide by the laws of the country. It has also
been reported after the arrest of one of the workers believed to be the man
leading the demonstration, the disheartened workers quietly left the place.
Those present during the negotiations were the acting Undersecretary of the
Ministry of Health Dr Ali Al-Seif, Undersecretary of the Legal Affairs
Department Dr Abdulkareem Jaafar, Director of the Legal Affairs Department
Mahmoud Abdulhadi, Director of the Chest Diseases Hospital Dr Fahd Al-Khalifah
and Director of the Maternity Hospital Dr. Mansour Sarkhouh. Most cleaning
workers get very low salaries - around KD 20 - but in the recent past the number
of protests by them have increased as they say even this meagre amount is not
paid to them for months.

That’s right boot out the workers who complain because they haven’t been paid – so not only are they not paid, they don’t have a job any more and they’re deported. And a new lot of workers are hired and the cycle starts again. The winner out of this merry-round - the Kuwait company owners. Lose one contract, that's OK... very profitable while it lasted, as very little in outgoings... and tomorrow I'll have another contract somewhere else.

And why exactly are the company names never released? Powerful families that can pay off the press me thinks. Wouldn’t want the reputation tarnished with bad publicity after all would we. Might not go down too well in the diwaniya.