Shining a light on the runaway maids issue

A rather long comment answering Stinni's comment on my previous posting is worth sharing for all (Stinni's original remarks in italics).

I’ve taken some time to reply to some comments you have received as I think that whilst it is representative of the opinions and experiences of many people, it only tells half the story. Here’s the other half.

One of our maids ran away one day shy of her three-month trial period.

That’s a change from the oft -told story of the maid being returned one day short of her trial period – and not receiving a bean for the work she’d done. Then she gets another trial period elsewhere, same thing. Each time she was told that her wages were withheld against the cost of getting her.

That first phase when she has just arrived is a very difficult one for both housemaid and employer. There is a language barrier and a cultural barrier as well. Many housemaids are young and uneducated and find themselves overwhelmed when they arrive.

Now seems to me that sometimes a maid is truly incompetent and is returned, to her agency. This incompetence may be evident after a couple of employers, but, as is often the case, the expectations may be unrealistic. How many people should have to work 7 days a week in their job? How many people should have to work long hours, then fall into bed exhausted for a few hours sleep before being back to work?

I know that it is a risk to pay an agency for a housemaid and then find she doesn’t fit with the running of the household. Some people want independent housemaids who show initiative (at the risk of making a few mistakes) and some want toe-the–line housemaids who are not allowed to get one thing even a little bit wrong. It’s like any relationship in life, some work better than others. That trial period is essential, but it needs to be well managed, for both side’s sake.

It was a scam that she had going on with the owner/manager of the agency we dealt with.

If you know it was a scam then you should report it and get it dealt with. If you have reason to suspect that it is part of an ongoing racket then many more people are going to be subject to the same thing and that is not fair on anybody. Please bring some accountability before the agencies! Someone should be tracking how often this happens. Those agencies worry me. At the end of the day it’s all about the money, not the person.

They made KD400.

Who did? The agency and the maid. So that’s 400 KD split between them. Why is it worth the maid’s loss of income and her sponsorship for a cut in 400KD?

If she's ever caught though, we get to pay her ticket home. Makes NO SENSE.

You’re right it doesn’t make sense. However, if she has not worked the full two years for you then you do not have to pay her full fare home. This is exactly why so many maids stick it out in a bad job. They know that if they run away they will not get their airfare paid so they stay with their misery instead.

But hey, that’s the same in many jobs here. Even throughout the business world. A broken contract means paying your own way home, so the only reason people stick with an unsatisfying job is so that they can get their airfare and a letter of release.

Another maid working in my husband's family home ran away because she figured out she could make more money hooking down in Fintas.

Now, on a going wage for maids of 40-50KD month, from which clothing and toiletries are deducted, it’s not hard to see why the grass looks greener on the other side and women do run away looking for other opportunities. They think they will have the freedom to come and go as an independent human being instead of living life under lock-up.

The trouble is that having got to the “billiard halls” the grass is not always greener and many maids are trapped against their will. Some have to pay in advance in anticipation of their change of sponsorship to an “outside” i.e. shop worker, or similar, visa. The visa is bought on borrowed money which the maid has to work to pay off. She has therefore ended up with herself in slavery.

So who is paying her when she becomes a hooker? There would not be prostitutes if there were not randy men with problems! People need to look to the cause of these problems and do not punish those who are just one part of the problem. Men have a lot to answer for in this (and any!) society when they see women as sex objects only and don’t keep sex within marriage.

Here’s a curious observation about relationships:
When there are problems between the husband and wife they are often linked to finance. If the wife hasn’t got her needed/wanted money who does she borrow from? The housemaid. Silly maid, some would say, for lending it. But what is she to do? Not pay it? Get kicked out? Make her daily life miserable for not complying with her employer’s wishes? When the money is not paid back she can be added to the long list of those who have not been paid their wages.

When she got caught, my sister-in-law had to pay her ticket home. Again, not fair at all.

To have broken her contract meant that the maid was to pay for her own ticket home, or return to the sponsor to work out the rest of the two year contract. If the system is so transparent that the employer is paying for the ticket home then why are there so many maids waiting for their ticket home. “So many” = about 1,000 at my rough calculation (based on embassy and prison numbers. Someone please correct me if they can add more information.) A few questions for anyone who can help me:

What should a maid do when, at the end of her two year contract, her employer refuses to repatriate her? If, as this person is stating here, the sponsor is responsible for her airfare, who will enforce this and how can she make it happen?

She doesn’t have her passport.
Should she:
A) stay in the house and hope that some how, some day, her employer is “done” for having an overstayer
B) believe it when she’s told “ next week/month…”
C) run away

When her sponsor renews her visa, against her wishes, what should she do?

When her employer (who may or may not be her sponsor) kicks her out on to the street and says “You want to go home, right, here’s your bags off you go,” what should she do?

Every single worker coming here is fingerprinted and put in the system somewhere. Why can’t the sponsor who brought the maid here be contacted after 2 years and asked “ Where is worker -----. “ and have the file checked off as returned home or renewed. (after providing some evidence.)

A maid should be working for the person who sponsored her and not sold on to someone else – especially against her wishes.

Part of the problem here is the inconsistency with the 200KD cost for a foreigner to sponsor a housemaid while it costs a Kuwaiti only 20KD. This encourages a racket in slave trading whereby a maid is brought in by a Kuwaiti to work in the home of someone of another nationality, at some comfortable profit to himself.

I’m also concerned about how this system is used to place maids in the homes of repeated offenders who should be blacklisted as maid abusers but are managing to employ maids through other people’s sponsorship. When the maids run away from this situation, without their paperwork, their employer /sponsor is untraceable and not going to cough up for their airfare.

If you have a couple of stories to relate here of your bad experiences with housemaids then how many employed housemaids does this represent? Over a period of years and throughout the extended family there must have been a number of maids employed and I’m pleased that you do not have stories of theft or other problems to relate. You must be very appreciative of the work that your maids have put in.

Maids run away all the time

WHY???? I’ve never had a maid run away from me. Perhaps that’s because I don’t beat mine and I do pay them.

I've never come across one that ran because she was abused or not paid.

Where did you meet these runaways? The run away or want–to-run-away maids I’ve met at hospitals, people’s houses, embassies, the park, talked to outside their homes, etc., consistently say they have not been paid or they have been beaten.

I’ve seen many maids whose bruises were in no way self-inflicted (I don’t quite see how someone could run a hot iron over her own arm or completely bruise the back of her legs, buttocks and up her back.)

On a much more minor scale, I’d like to know what the local guidelines are for what constitutes abuse. A very common sight I see up and down the streets of our neighbourhood is the Clorox hands. Women whose skin is chafed and raw from doing the washing. When I ask about it I’m told that she’s not allowed to wear rubber gloves, she hasn’t been given any cream for dermatitis and if she wants any regular hand cream she has to pay for it herself. This is “talking at the rubbish bin” conversations which I’ve had with several women. They are rarely allowed out of the house and I haven’t been able to talk for long. The maid next door got slapped on the face for talking to my maid when she was outside. Many women have no life outside the boundaries of the house; many are not even allowed to take the rubbish out to the kerb but have to call the driver to collect it from the door.

I am a social person and the solitary confinement that some of the women describe would start to drive me crazy. Among all the raped, abused, unpaid housemaids I have met there is only the one who made me cry. She told me she was not allowed to talk to the housemaids of the other families when they came to visit. I know that many maids quickly make friends among the maids of the employer’s extended family. To hear about her having to spend the two years in solitary confinement, not allowed to talk to her children at home, nor to the people around her here, just broke my heart.

I've met plenty that claim they were abused, raped or not paid but end up telling me they lied to score a better salary.

And did it work? Did they manage to get a salary increase from 40 KD to 60 KD or something like that?

I know some of them are treated badly

Too right they are. What does that mean? The beatings they receive, the slap on the face, or just the complete lack of dignity with which they are treated? How about not even being allowed to have a walkman to listen to at night? How about not being allowed to send and receive letters from home? Or have a telephone by which they can SMS family at home. (I know that there are standard answers to most of these: We don’t want our housemaid to get a boyfriend and/or run away.)

Housemaids are people as well. It is up to the woman herself to take responsibility for her actions. Why can’t she have a day off a week and have a social life? Not all women will be only looking for a boyfriend! I once gave a woman a gift bag of soap, shampoo etc and then her employer had a, accusing her of having a boyfriend! The housemaid was a young, married Moslem woman who enjoyed some kindness from me in her life. What has her employer got against that?! This is the woman who is not even allowed to visit her own sister. These so-called “protections” do not help a person but drive them to defiance. Ask any parent of a teenager, they’ll tell you it’s the same thing with teenagers. Employing a housemaid means finding that balance between responsibility and independence.

What is treated badly? Sleeping on the kitchen floor with no personal space for privacy (surely in itself that is Haram?)? Having a Bible taken away by an agency and being told that it’s not allowed here?

but you would be surprised to find out how many of them are deceitful.

Not surprised. I know it. I’ve been stolen from and lied to. But that doesn’t give me a reason to state that house maids are trouble and take the attitude of “get them before they get me” which I’ve found among many employers. Just as in the current blogging re: Bangladeshis, it is racist to state that Bangladeshis are responsible for the crime here, so too is it not possible to state that all housemaids are thieves and should be kept in their place.

Many workers come here with the idea that they are to “serve their time” and go home with the money. I know of several cases where sisters or cousins have been here working in the same city for their 2 years, and never seen each other and rarely even been allowed to talk to each other on the phone. They’ve never even seen the Kuwait Towers. Compare that to the freedom of life that those who can read this now are currently experiencing. Housemaids bear the demeaning attitude of their employers and live a life of subservience because they know that at the end of it they will have money to support the family at home. Imagine then the insult when the money is not forthcoming.

Not that the lying is at all justified, but one has to ask what motivated it. Could it be that they were also lied to? I met a woman who was a qualified dentist at home and signed up with an agency in her home country thinking she was coming here to work in dentistry. It wasn’t until just before she left that she got the contract and read that she was coming to be a housemaid. Given that she had already paid money to her agency and that she was wanting independence from a marriage that had gone wrong she decided to go ahead with the job anyway. Not a good start to her time here, and it only got worse when she arrived to a job with just one day off a month and a complete disrespect for the fact that she was a mature woman who could think for herself and did not want to be treated as a slave.

People have come here at all levels of the work force thinking that the wages promised would be sufficient to live on and save some money. Over and over again, the lies have been perpetrated that an employee has to pay for their own visas, medicals, etc. and have had it deducted from their wages, leaving them well short of what they had anticipated.

In this area at least some progress has been made and thanks to FALCON (Fostering Awareness of Labour Conditions) there are now pamphlets in circulation informing workers of their rights.

The fact that we are having this “conversation” in English and using the cyber world to do so means that we are in a different world entirely from the experiences of many housemaids. It’s my turn to make a sweeping generalization – to which I hasten to add “NOT ALL” when I say that there are many Bedoon, who are lesser educated, who treat their housemaids like animals. They are fed little, work long hours, sleep little, get a slap for anything that is done wrong, and are generally very run down before they do run away. This is where some attention should be focused.

The newspapers here are publishing regularly the cases of abuse that have taken place. My goals are 1) to see a public recognition of this as a national problem and 2) see the perpetrators of these crimes brought to justice. Publicly, so that others may learn that it is not acceptable to treat a maid as a slave.

To those who feel the need to defend the employers, I again state, not all housemaids are angels, and there are thieves in any level of society but this does not, in itself justify the lock-up conditions under which many have to live. There are some caring benevolent employers here and they have an important role in society as role models to others for their kindness and humanity. These are the people to whom housemaids return after their two year visa expires in the knowledge that they are appreciated and valued.

Another handout to employers of runaways?

Amazing.

Employers of runaways may be let off hook
By B Izzak, Staff Reporter
KUWAIT: The National Assembly's Interior and
Defence committee yesterday approved a proposal filed by MP Ali Al-Deqbasi
calling to exempt sponsors of runaway domestic maids from paying the airfare for
their repatriation back home. The proposal states that the fare should instead
be paid by those sheltering them or the government.

That's right... an employer who abuses and/or doesn't pay their maids, forcing them to runaway to find shelter in their embassy, is to get a further let off from having to pay for the maid's repatriation. And that's after the maid, as a registered criminal having runaway from her slavemaster/employer, is forced to spend several weeks in prison before being deported.

And the National Assembly's Interior and Defence committee approved this! With guardians like this, who needs enemies.

The employer often gets off paying repatriation anyway in a number of ways: registering a fictitious crime against the runaway, hiding the identity of who the real sponsor is, or where they live (given that a lot are effectively under house arrest), or simply not fronting up or using the "wasta" card when the embassy/police call.

Can't say that all maids/runaways are angels, but come on...

Judge for yourself

I agree that news writers should file accurate reports, but how do we know whether the writer in question in this case (today's Kuwait Times) wrote an accurate report or not...

Kuwait sentences writer for offending judges

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait's criminal court has slapped a female writer working with Al-Watan with a three-month suspended jail term for writing an article deemed offensive to judges, the daily reported yesterday.
The court, which issued its ruling on Saturday, ordered the suspension of the jail term for three years but asked Aziza Al-Mufarrej to pay bail of KD 1,000 and pledge good conduct.
Mufarrej was convicted of writing an article in which she accused a judge of accepting a bribe to issue a verdict in favour of a businessman. Editor Sheikh Khalifa
Al-Sabah, a member of the ruling family, was also fined 520 dollars for allowing
publication of the article.
This is the first jail term ordered under Kuwait's new press law which was passed by parliament in March and was considered to be more liberal than the previous legislation. The verdict is not final as it must be confirmed by the appeals and supreme courts. The daily said its lawyer will appeal.
If Mufarrej is convicted of an offence during the three-year probation period, she would be required to serve the jail term immediately if the sentence was upheld by the higher courts. - AFP

The crime in this case as it's reported is of writing something negative about a judge. In a civilised society, if the alleged claim is baseless, then the reporter and newspaper would publicly apologise. If there is a crime, then the guilty party has been found out and the full weight of the law should swing into action. In this upside down world that is Kuwait, the investigative reporter is fined with the threat of imprisonment, and the alleged criminal doesn't get investigated (as far as we know).

Sad. We all know that corruption is pervasive in Kuwait, but whenever it is exposed it seems as though the law upholds the whistleblower as the criminal.

Bangladeshis leading crime rates... or are they?

Talk about a misleading heading in today's Arab Times...

Bangladeshis top crime rate: Statistics issued by the Ministry of Interior
show until today, 3,143 crimes have been committed by Arabs during this year.
2,750 of these crimes are attributed to Kuwaitis, reports Al-Watan daily.
Statistics also show Egyptians topped the list of criminals with 549 crimes,
followed by bedouns, Bangladeshis, Indians, Syrians, Saudis, Iranians,
Pakistanis, the Sri Lankans, Jordanians, Palestinians, Filipinos, Iraqis and the
Lebanese. Bedouns are accounted for 508 crimes, Bangladeshis 541, Indians 251,
Syrians 218, Saudis 210, Iranians 209, Pakistanis 157, Sri Lankans 107,
Jordanians and Palestinians 85, Filipinos 65, Iraqis 55 and the Lebanese
51.

The numbers published show that Kuwaitis top the crime rates, not Bangladeshis!

...actually the figures don't add up. Lets see - 2,750 crimes committed by Kuwaitis, 549 by Egyptians, 508 by Bedouns, 218 by Syrians, 210 by Saudis, 85 by Jordanians and Palestinians, 51 by Lebanese... that equals 4,371 Arabs already, a bit more than the 3,143 reported. Maybe the difference is between the number of crimes committed versus number of criminals, but who is any the wiser.

Of course it would be sensible when quoting statistics to compare to actual proportions of the population, and then adjust for sex and age factors, i.e. strip out the elderly, children and % of women, ...but that may show an even worse picture than what has been released for publication in the press. And then, what about all the unreported crime... there's thousands of abused maids sheltering in embassies, and unpaid labourers living in squalid dumps denied their basic human rights. Rule of thumb here suggests 99% of this crime is unreported... or maybe it just ain't viewed as a crime!

Why bother publishing anything if you can't get the basic facts right. Is this just more fodder for the masses to justify the recent decision to deport Bangladeshis and stop any more entering the country? If we're going to have a blanket ban based on nationality, can we not stop the nationality leading the crime rate stats from entering the country instead!

Mirage

One of the very few writers worth reading in the Kuwait Times is Dr. Sami. This article published today, I think, really hits the nail on the head.

The mirage of Kuwait's scientific research

By Dr. Sami Alrabaa, Staff Writer
Baheeja Behbehani writes in Al-Qabas, Nov 16, that she is thrilled by the
news that the Kuwaiti Cabinet is discussing a proposal to create a "higher
council for research." This council will be in charge of coordinating scientific
research in Kuwait. Research conducted by the Kuwait Institute for Scientific
Research (KISR), Kuwait University, and by the Public Authority for Applied
Education and Training (PAAET) will be coordinated by this proposed council.
Behbahani adds that coordinated research would help Kuwait resolve water,
electricity and environmental problems. What is Dr Behbehani talking about?
Research in Kuwait?! What is this? First of all, the question is, is there
any research in Kuwait and who is doing this research? Years back, in the 1980s
a colleague was honest enough and frank to publicly say in a speech at the
Kuwait University Club, Kuwait loves modern things and institutions that sound
modern. Kuwaitis are fond of coining or adopting big names like university,
research, etc. However, what remains at the end of the day is the name and
nothing else. In fact, by international standards, Kuwait University and the
newly-founded private universities qualitatively cannot be and maybe should not
be called as such. The name is too big for these organisations. They are rather
schools or community colleges, at best. "Our students leave these schools
unqualified, unfit, and incompetent," said Nasser Al-Khorafi, a Kuwaiti tycoon,
in an interview with the Deutsche Welle TV. If KISR did not have those Western
researchers, no research would be conducted. An American friend who works for
KISR told me, the locals are unqualified to do research and unwilling to learn.
They cash good salaries for doing nothing. The place is merely a money-mill. The
same applies to Kuwait University. As a former insider of Kuwait University, I
could fill volumes with "research" stories. Practically no serious
research has ever taken place at Kuwait University. For Assistant and Associate
Professors to be promoted to full Professors, the majority of local colleagues
concocts their own research data, plagiarise, and/or ask an expat colleagues to
write research papers for them. The Public Authority for
Applied Education and Training (PAAET), is the worst in terms of research and
promotion. No research has ever taken place in this institution. Research and
publication credentials are not required or bypassed pertaining to appointment
and promotion. A former colleague of mine who used to work for Kuwait University
as a language teacher moved to PAAET. There, she was appointed as Associate
professor, albeit she had never produced one single refereed publication. So,
where is the research Dr Behbehani is talking about? Hence the proposed "higher
council for research" will have to be added to all those modern facades of
Kuwait. If someone does not know Kuwait and had never been to Kuwait and reads
about the council, he/she might think, what a modern society Kuwait is! We
should be reminded that not everything that glitters must be gold. Mirage is
endemic to the Arabian Peninsula and its research desert. Things in this desert
sound and look modern, but they are not. It is all a mirage. Places in Kuwait
that call themselves universities and academic institutions are fancy buildings,
but they lack qualified human resources and do not deserve the title 'academic.'
Think of the latest shameful scandal at Kuwait University whereby one of the
best academic books has been banned. Unfortunately, oil revenues in
Arab Gulf countries have generated wealth - temporary wealth - but failed to
generate creative brains. History does not remember wealth. It remembers brains. drsami@kuwaittimes.net

UAE police: a bastion for human rights?

Kuwait Times today had an article that made me laugh, and think that at least justice may be served in this one case...

UAE detains Kuwaiti woman as Filipina domestic claims
torture

KUWAIT CITY: A Kuwaiti woman has been detained by the United Arab Emirates
police for allegedly torturing her Filipino maid, reports Al-Watan daily. The
daily quoting a reliable source said a complaint filed by the Kuwaiti woman with
the UAE police accusing her maid of running away from her home after stealing
100,000 dirham landed the woman in jail. After the Kuwaiti woman returned to
Kuwait, the UAE police summoned her because the authorities wanted her in
connection with the complaint she had filed there. However, when she arrived in
the UAE, she was shocked to find the maid had sought the assistance of her
embassy and filed a complaint with the police accusing the woman of torturing
her. According to a reliable source, the UAE authorities are said to have
ignored the complaint filed by the woman. The case is expected to come up for
hearing soon.

How many cases have been registered in Kuwait against Kuwaiti employers for abuse of their maids? Now that would make interesting reading.

Unfortunately most abused maids aren't able to travel with their abusers to other countries, & then have an opportunity to runaway & seek help where "wasta" can't be brought into play.

Islam is a tolerant religion... Let's sever ties with Denmark

In yesterday's Arab Times we read of how Kuwait's esteemed MPs vote to sever ties with Denmark...

MPs nod on ‘non-binder’ to cut ties with Denmark

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwaiti lawmakers on Tuesday passed a non-binding resolution with a 25-12 vote on severing diplomatic ties with Denmark while some of them wanted similar action against the Vatican for insulting the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). They also called for boycotting Danish products. The MPs earlier voted in favour of a two-hour session on Tuesday to discuss the insults to the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). The MPs also recommended the formation of a KD 15 million fund to defend the Prophet (PBUH)…
... Abdulsamad said Kuwait should make full time efforts to clear the image of Islam and suggested the Kuwaiti government and the National Assembly should join hands and launch a sustained campaign in the Western media. “It is essential to present a clear image of Islam and its tolerant teachings towards non-Muslims,” he added…
...MP Adel Sarawi said the special session reflects on Kuwait’s commitment to defend the image of Islam and added this session should be translated into English and broadcast internationally to express solidarity with Muslim countries…

So how exactly is severing ties with Denmark or the Vatican presenting a clear image of Islam and its tolerant teachings? Do Muslims have a completely different interpretation of the word "tolerance"? If I were to say I disagree with the teachings of Mohammad and think that he's a false prophet, whoa... look out. If I said the same about Jesus Christ, no one would bat an eyelid. Which religion is being tolerant of a person's opinions? And, that's without going into the scenario of Muslims converting to Christianity and being ostracised from their families, and threatened or actually killed for their faith!

These guys obviously don't get it - the more the try to defend the image of Islam, the deeper the hole they dig! I am sure a KD15m fund could be spent more wisely.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with anyone attacking my faith in God. I also like to think I have a sense of humour and am not easily offended. I can see the funny side of cartoons - even if they were to attack Christianity instead of Islam. In most cases I can think of, these so-called attacks on Christianity are skewed towards the Church and religiosity, and have nothing to do with the fundamentals of faith.

To summarise, Abdulsamad, Adel Sarawi, Jam’an Dhaher Al-Harbash, Daifallah Bouramiya, and the rest of you – get a life! How about debating some of the important issues facing the country, instead of patting yourselves on your own backs and attempting to look religious.

...time to go out and stock up on my KDD red grape juice!

Kuwait can become another Dubai

As reported in Kuwait Times today...

‘Be serious, Kuwait can become another Dubai; Region stable:
Bonino

KUWAIT (KUNA): Kuwait can become another Dubai in
the area if Kuwaiti officials work seriously towards this objective, a senior
Italian official said here Wednesday. Visiting Italian Minister for
International Trade and European Affairs Emma Bonino told KUNA, in an interview,
it was not impossible for Kuwait to have similar advantages to Dubai if there is
a serious commitment, and that this “decision is up to the Kuwaitis.”

But does Kuwait want to be another Dubai? What's the attraction or advantages that are seen by Ms Bonino?

• A place that is free to dream dreams, never mind about the practicalities
• A haven for smugglers, crooks and vice
• Masses of poorly paid expat labourers working on a huge number of construction projects
• Having an even taller tower / larger shopping mall / bigger indoor ski dome...
• Traffic jams
• Glitzy shopping malls and conspicous consumption
• Vast disparities between rich and the poor
• The monopolistic behaviour and guardian of morals of its telecoms provider
• Spiralling house rents

All that glitters is not gold.

Or, maybe, because it's a country that even with all its warts, still works... or at least provides a good place to visit for a break!

Another handout?

If you're living in Kuwait this won't be news, but may be of surprise to outsiders.

…Finance Minister Mishari Al-Humaidhi said last month that the government has
given some $5.5 billion in cash handouts and salary hikes to Kuwaitis during the
past two years.Still, newly-elected MPs are demanding further pay rises and
handouts with a projected cost of billions of dollars for the public purse.
Several lawmakers are demanding a salary increase of $170 per month for Kuwaiti
employees which the government said would cost around $1.3 billion a year. On
Wednesday, 29 of parliament’s 50 MPs submitted a bill that would write off an
estimated eight billion dollars in loans owned by citizens to Kuwaiti banks.
Parliament is also considering another bill that would channel 25 percent of
annual profits from state assets into a fund that would distribute the income
equally to all Kuwaitis… (contd. - Arab Times 2/11/06)

That’s right, a bill to write off citizen’s debts. What message does that send out to citizens who try to live within their means? Are there any?? And as for non-citizens, bear the extra inflationary costs… or leave.

Let’s hope common sense prevails again, as the Kuwait Times also comments in todays newspaper…

A similar attempt in the previous term failed to get off the ground when the
government boycotted a parliamentary session held to debate the issue. (Kuwait
Times 2/11/06)

Mahmood.tv blocked by Bahrain's Ministry of (dis)Information

Because Mahmood has the courage to write in his own name and call a 'spade a spade' the Bahraini authorities have blocked access to his blog, which of course is still available on mirror sites or via proxies within Bahrain. Check his site out if you haven't already -http://mahmood.tv/.

Wishing you all the best Mahmood in your fight with the dark side!

No visa transfers for Bangladeshis

Kuwait Times front page today...

No visa transfers for Bangladeshis

By A Saleh
Staff Reporter KUWAIT: The Ministry of Interior yesterday issued a decision
banning all visa transfers of Bangladeshis residing and working in Kuwait to
other sponsors. The new resolution stipulates that unless a sponsor wishes to
renew the expired residency of a Bangladeshi worker, the latter would have to
leave the country immediately. This decision has been taken in light of the
alarming increase in crimes committed by or involving Bangladeshis recently. The
main aim is to drastically reduce the number of Bangladeshis residing in Kuwait
with a view to decrease the crime rate in the country. The ministry also plans
to swoop down and apprehend not just Bangladeshis, but all those found to be in
violation of residency laws, particularly those who work for companies than
their sponsor's.

Talk about another 'sledgehammer to crack a nut' - an overused phrase in this part of the world. Wouldn't surprise me at all if crime continues to rise, even amongst Bangladeshis, as now they've got even less chance of legally getting away from crooked employers, and will have even more of an incentive to take-up a life of crime.

... and let's continue to ignore the real problems.

Hmmm. Wonder if we'll see an announcement from the Bangladeshi Embassy.

So where's the next bunch of 'guest' workers to come from? Africans from Darfur, Congo or Zimbabwe wouldn't be too popular. Chinese probably have better prospects at home now and don't have the right religion. Hard-working Nepalese are extremely popular, but they're a more finite resource - and they still have the wrong religion. Indonesians - no, too many potential problems with all the Indonesian maids in the country already. I guess the next best source of cheap muslim labour will be the Central Asian states... so don't be surprised if we see an influx of Uzbeks next. Mind you, that still won't solve the crime problem - you'll just see an influx of more sophisticated criminals!*

Or, a radical solution I know - you could try and instil a work ethic in nationals and get them to work for a living... no, not very realistic is it.

*Which reminds me, why haven't we seen newspapers writing about the major ATM fraud going on in Kuwait at the moment - or haven't I been reading the papers closely enough!

Labour Ministry refuses to help Sulaibiya camp 'captives'

No comment...

Labour Ministry refuses to help Sulaibiya camp 'captives'

By Nawara Fattahova

KUWAIT: A death in the desert. An unscrupulous employer. An unconcerned
Ministry of Labour. All this has translated into untold misery for about 1,300
labourers held captive in a squalid camp in Sulaibiya. A few weeks ago, Kuwait
Times reported that a well-known contracting company was holding the workers
captive in the camp. The men, hailing from Egypt, India and the Philippines,
complained of unhygienic living conditions, meagre food supplies and ill
treatment. They all had come to Kuwait to work at the Burgan oilfields and
though being accommodated in flats in Mahboula on arrival, had been transferred
to the camp against their will. After arriving at the camp, the workers found
such squalid conditions that they immediately complained and asked to be
relocated. According to an employee living in the camp, "There are no telephones
or transportation, we have to drink contaminated water and the stench is
terrible in addition to the place being infested with insects." The problem
wasn't resolved despite continued complaints and the news report. In fact,
matters now have worsened. Yesterday, one of the Indian workers, Bino Stephen,
died at the camp. Now the defiant residents are refusing to release his body to
the guards in retaliation against the appalling living conditions and allege
that Stephen's death was caused by the unhygienic conditions in the camp. "We
want to find a solution to our dreadful situation by having our living
conditions improved or have us repatriated back home," said Mohammed, one of the
workers. Four other inmates have been ill since last week. "We suspect malaria
to be in the air here, and with no doctor around and no one to help us, we are
in real danger," he pleaded. "The stubborn and adamant employer has refused to
employ a doctor, as well as sanitise the camp to improve hygiene, and having no
other option, we decided to complain to the 'Shuoon' (Ministry of Social Affairs
and Labour). But somebody snitched on us and informed the management of our
intentions, and since then we have been held here in captivity," Mohammed
added."The employer also used 'wasta' through a friend who is a police officer
to threaten and dissuade us from going outside, warning action from the police
or Shuoon," another worker named Ashraf said. According to him, the municipality
shut down the camp six months ago, but through connections, the company
succeeded in reopening it for them to stay to save on rents, he said.Kuwait
Times attempted to speak to officials at the Ministry of Social Affairs and
Labour to see what - if anything - was being done to help the residents. An
officer in the complaints section of the ministry, who refused to give his name,
when informed about the recent death in the camp said, "I wouldn't call the
death of one person a disaster, and then complaints have to be registered
personally, so if they can't come, we can't help." When asked if the ministry
intended to send an inspector to check the living conditions at the camp, the
official replied, "I'm sorry we can't send any inspector. We are concerned about
our officials' health, and can't risk letting them fall sick or getting
infected."

Kuwaitis encouraged to interact with the public?

Here's another lovely brainfart...

CSC OKs ‘encouragement bonus’ for Kuwaitis in contact with public

KUWAIT CITY: The Civil Service Commission (CSC) has approved an “encouragement bonus” of 15 to 30 dinars for Kuwaiti employees who directly interact with the public in the course of their jobs, says Al-Rai Al-Aam. A reliable source said the decision will be implemented with effect from Sept 1, 2006, adding “salaries of Kuwaiti employees who have direct contact with public will be increased by 30 dinars. While citizens who have indirect contact with the public will get an increment of 20 dinars, secretaries and others who have similar jobs, will get a raise of 15 dinars per month.”

Love to see how they implement this one... they'll probably just give KD30 to everyone in the end. Good time to be a Kuwaiti with a KD50 rise in salary for all nationals being discussed, a KD200 "bonus" payment this week, etc. Meanwhile the poor get poorer, with mandatory insurance fees being hiked. And too bad if you can’t get to one of the few outlets to buy the insurance which is necessary for the bureaucratic residency process, or when you do, they decide to close their doors on you as happened this last Thursday...

Meanwhile, expatriates preparing their health guarantee transactions done so that they could carry on with residency renewal procedures, were disappointed Thursday when all health insurance offices refused doing any transactions for them, reported Al-Watan pointing out that applicants who wanted to avoid fines for delay in getting their residency renewed.
On their part, health insurance officials, said that the halt was a result of a ministerial decree banning the office work on Thursdays and asking to distribute Thursdays' working hours to other working days so that ministry employees would not have to work on weekends. They added that despite the ban, all employees were readily present at their offices in case another sudden decision was issued.
On the other hand, some applicants said that they wished the ministry would reconsider the decision as Thursdays were the only days they were able to do their transactions on as they had difficulty getting leaves during working hours....

The far reaching hand of the boys in blue (or brown, in this case)

Arab Times last week again...

Brand new car stolen: A Lebanese woman has filed a complaint with the Khaitan
Police Station accusing an unidentified person of stealing her brand new car,
reports Al-Anba daily. The car was stolen in Lebanon. (my emphasis)

Yeah, well, obviously some people have more faith in Kuwaiti police than I have. Was she hoping for some sympathy, given the plight of the poor Lebanese who have had their homes demolished by the IDF lately? I can imagine the Kuwaiti police response...

Sticks and stones can break your bones...

...but names can never hurt you. Or so I thought. Not so, according to the Arab Times last week.

Kuwaiti assaulted in Jordan: A Kuwaiti youth studying in Jordan, identified only
as M.N., was allegedly assaulted by a group of Jordanian youths of Palestinian
origin, while walking along a road with his wife, reports Al-Watan daily. The
assailants followed him up to his house and attacked him again. He says one of
the attackers hit on the hand with a brickbat (sic) causing him a fracture. The
student added surprisingly one of the assailants filed a complaint against him
at a police station and he was summoned for interrogation.

Kuwait Traffic Laws

Since it would be interesting to know what I could potentially be thrown into jail for, having heard stories of other expats losing their licences over rather innocuous traffic incidents, I came across this list of traffic fines on the Q8cars website which makes interesting reading.

I suspect the heavy-handed laws will be applied on a discretionary basis... if you have 'wasta' you needn't be worried.

Ignoring the obvious mistakes and misuse of the English language, the offences and fines range from the sublime to the ridiculous...

Up to 3 months prison for trying to arrange to...

Repair an accident without written permit from the concerned destinations

... looks like I'll never get all those dents out of the car as a result of the wife's near misses with more serious accidents.

Other gems include:

Moving on the road edge
Animals guard negligence of leading and observation
Speeding below minimum and not sticking to right side of the road
Trespassing with unclear vision
Trespassing while vehicle in front of him is willing to trespass
Trespassing at heights
Driving motor vehicle dosnt enjoy power and security conditions
Not providing sun block on the front pane
Invalidity of vehicle's color
Not writing numbers on doors
Not providing height shaft
Not leaving adequate space
Causing annoyance of others
Turning on the radio loudly

Basically, if you get stopped by traffic police, you're screwed... unless you have wasta.

I've also tracked down the Ministry of Interior website which allows you to view outstanding fines, so you can check whether they've levied a travel ban on you I guess. Unfortunately, it's only in arabic.

Flickr blocked by Fastelco

WTF! Fastelco have blocked Flickr! Amazing.
Looks like we'll all have to use proxies now, as they do in other gulf regimes that abuse human rights.

Don't know if Qualitynet have also pulled the plug.

So, let me understand this... the Ministry of (dis)Information want to block websites to save people from themselves, because they may be tainted by the big bad outside world... so they're then forcing people to learn how to bypass their silly blocking. And as a consequence, really open up pandora's box.

It doesn't really take too many brain cells to figure out that once people learn how to use a proxy server (which in the real world isn't really necessary), you then can roam the internet relatively freely, and now you're really exposing yourself to the big bad world out there... websites that have, shock, horror,... alcohol, pork, porn (not that I would know), free speech... ...oh dear.

And finally for today...

Cafe attacked
KUWAIT: In response the Israeli attack on
Qana, which killed nearly 60 Lebanese civilians, a number of Rumaithiya
residents assaulted a local Starbucks, asking for the coffee shop to be shut
down. Hawally police arrived on scene and managed to disburse the crowd with
minimal incident. Security forces will increase their presence in areas with
large populations of foreigners.

A. If any cafe deserves to be attacked or shut down for serving a poor excuse for coffee, it would have to be the "McDonalds" of coffee. (A pet gripe of mine, though I did manage to get my local baristas to understand that a latte by definition starts with a double espresso, and is not supposed to be some insipid hot milk with added coffee flavour. And, fresh coffee means beans roasted within 2 weeks, not roasted 6 months ago and freighted to Kuwait.... I digress).

B. I thought that only local citizens frequent Starbucks anyway! Does Rumaithiya Starbucks have a totally different clientale than other Starbucks outlets?

And as for the Lebanon war, don't get me started on the media bias here. Sadly, my sympathy for the Lebanese plight is being overshadowed by the ridiculous behaviour of locals and the local media in providing moral support for Hezbollah, an organisation committed to acts of terrorism, and who least we forget, provoked Israel into launching this war! Of course, Arab leaders are not going to take any serious action against Israel and quietly live in hope that Hezbollah's power is severely curtailed. But when it comes to war, it is always the innocents on both sides, and the truth, that suffer.

Key Education posts should only be for the incompetent & inexperienced - Islamists warn

Another snippet from today's Kuwait Times...

Attempts of political blackmail in ministry
KUWAIT: There has more heated
political exchanges regarding key leadership posts in the Education Ministry.
Islamist MP Jamal Al-Kandari, who is considered a member of the Islamic
Constitutional Movement (ICM), has warned the Education Minister Dr Adel
Al-Tabtabae that he would grill him in case he excludes
(sic) competent and experienced people from key education
posts. (contd.)

Yeah, I think the reporter has got this one about right! Islamists don't want competent people in positions where they may have some influence...

Any competent Company Chairmen (or Chairwomen) out there?

In the Kuwait Times today was this odd little snippet...

State urged to take action
KUWAIT: The chairman of companies
whose share price has declined recently has explained that the losses incurred
by those companies are on the rise due to downward movement of the market. He
said: "It is a very worrying matter and disturbs the chairmen of many
companies." He pointed out that things are going to the worse unless government
takes action to stop decline in the market. He explained that share prices have
reached a very low point.

Duh! What a brainfart. Automatically, you have given proof that you are not fit to chair a company, along with your Chairman buddies... (please let me know who you are so I know not to invest in your company!... I hope it's not my employer!!).

Prices of company stocks in Kuwait, as in the rest of the Gulf were getting way out of kilter with fundamentals, as they are wont to do when easy money can be made and investors get greedy, ie. if I buy at 'x' price, it will continue going up so I can sell and make a nice handy profit, as there's always another sucker who will come in and buy when the price has gone up. As with all speculative stockmarket bubbles, eventually they pop! Stockmarket investing lesson 101.

How exactly is a reduced share price affecting your core business? Or is it that you've lost money investing in shares? And now you want the State to action... please. Next you'll want the head of the KSE! (Oh, that's already on the agenda!)

And you thought the American legal system was bad...

So much crap printed in the local media, and so little time to comment...

You never know by the reporting whether justice is being done or not. Here's a couple of examples in today's papers...

Death sentence
KUWAIT: The Court of Appeal has approved
the execution of two persons for smuggling hashish and opium into the country
from Iran by the sea. The court did not listen to the suspects' lawyer who
claimed that they did not know there were drugs on the boat. They also claimed
that there were other sailors on the boat besides them.

Appeals acquits 3 securitymen in kidnap, rape of Asian
woman
KUWAIT CITY: The Court of Appeals Tuesday overturned the verdict of the
Criminal Court and acquitted three securitymen — M. Al-Ajmi, S. Al-Otaibi and H.
Al-Shimmari - who had been accused of kidnapping and raping an Asian woman,
identified only as D.Y. On June 25, 2005, the Criminal Court had found the men
guilty and sentenced them to 15 years in jail. According to case papers the
victim was stopped by a police patrol on Aug 11, 2004 in a suburb of Nugra and
taken to the Nugra Police Station and was left in the custody of the prime
suspect, Ajmi.

After checking her identification papers, Ajmi convinced the
victim that she was in legal trouble and accompanied her to a nearby chalet
where he raped her after promising to help her with her ‘troubles’. He took her
mobile phone number and let her go. She added four days later, Ajmi called her
and told her that he wanted to ‘mediate’ in her problem. He took her to a café
where he introduced her to the other two accused. The men allegedly hit her on
the head and neck and raped her inside their vehicle because she resisted their
attempts. The victim said Otaibi took her to a desert and the other two men
followed them in another vehicle where the trio raped her. Then, Otaibi returned
her to her home. The victim then filed a case with the Chief Prosecutor. The
police station officer testified his investigations revealed the three men had
committed the crime according to a case filed by the victim. He added the men
had verbally admitted to committing the crime.

In major crimes, if it is committed by a citizen their name will most likely be withheld, yet for a similar offense, not only is an expat's name published, but the convicted criminal's photo is published (in the case of smugglers, with all their confiscated contraband).

Here's another run-in with "Justice" that's just plain funny...

‘Angry’ judge detains bedoun: A bedoun youth holding Colombian citizen and
identified as M.S, was detained for 24 hours upon orders of the Traffic Court
judge, reports Al-Rai Al-Aam daily. The youth was attending a session on traffic
violations and when the judge remarked on his long hair, he retorted saying it
was his ‘personal freedom’. The angry judge ordered the youth’s detention for 24
hours. The youth who is studying at an unidentified institute begged the judge
to delay execution of the ‘verdict’ saying he had to appear for his examination
but the judge refused to budge.

So, I'd like to know if it's illegal to have long hair, or it's illegal to talk to the judge, or what?

Tribal democracy

Two articles in the Kuwait Times, one after the other in the same column has left me a little confused...

Bail for 14 accused Kuwaitis

KUWAIT: Capital prosecution has started an investigation into 14 men accused of participating in by-elections. Sources revealed that the accused include 12 candidates and two other Kuwaiti men. The accused are from the Ajman and Mutari tribes in district 22, Hawajer tribe in district 24 and Enza tribe in Jahra. All were released by a bail of KD 1,000 each. One of the men is former MP, Ali Al-Hajri. The men all denied taking part in by-elections, insisting they were holding consultation meetings. Sources predict that the number of people involved could rise to 200 once criminal detectives establish the names of car owners who are known to have been at the by-election headquarters.

Otaibi favoured by Otban tribe

KUWAIT: Saadoun Hamad Al-Otaibi won 665 votes in a by-election of the Otban tribe in district 21 "Ahmadi". He is expected to represent the tribe, which could form an alliance with the Awazm tribe for the next parliamentary elections.

So is it illegal to have by-elections or not? Or does it depend on which tribe is holding them?

Maid Murderer?

Today's Arab Times...

Hunt launched for Nepali maid in murder of Filipina colleague

KUWAIT CITY: A Nepali housemaid strangled her Filipina colleague to death in their sponsor’s house in Shamiya before escaping. The cousin of the house owner, who is currently out of Kuwait, called securitymen when he found the Filipina maid lying dead on the bed. When securitymen rushed to the scene they found that the bedroom, which was shared by the two maids, was a total mess and the Nepali maid was missing. Forensic officials examined the corpse and concluded the Filipina maid had died due to strangling. Securitymen are investigating the case and are looking for the Nepali maid.

Call me cynical, but I smell a rat. I wouldn't be surprised if Nepali maid is missing due to either a) also meeting a similar fate, b) not wanting to be accused of murder, even though innocent, and doesn't want to hang around to prove innocence whilst suffering at the hands of the police, or c) is absconding from the real murderer...

New Contracts for Domestics

Here's some good news, in theory, for new maids arriving in Kuwait, as reported in today's Arab Times...

New contract gives domestic workers KD 40 salary, day off

KUWAIT : With the labour sector comprising an important component of economic and social affairs within any country, the Interior Ministry announced plans to intervene in the issuance of domestic labour contracts. Major General Thabet Al-Muhanna, the Interior Ministry’s undersecretary and Colonel Adel Hashash, head of Public Relations spoke of the Ministry’s plans to intervene in domestic labour contracts through a new law that will be enforceable as of July 01. Speaking at a press conference Sunday, Al-Muhanna said the contracts will be signed by three parties instead of the previous two.

“The contracts shall now be signed by the domestic labour office, the sponsor and the worker”, Al-Muhanna said. He added that the contract will be signed under terms and conditions which provide the domestic helper no less than a monthly salary of KD 40 and a day of rest each week within or outside the premises of the house. “All these are carried out to ensure safe and healthy conditions of the worker’s atmosphere and deliver an objective to Kuwaiti and non-Kuwaiti sponsors”, he said.

I'm not sure that it will make a difference. The Domestic Labour Office is only another level of bureacratic rubber-stamping. Everyone knows that salaries in contracts are falsified. What a maid is actually paid will continue to bear no relation to what it says on the contract, no matter how many people rubber-stamp it. Similarly, who's going to monitor whether a maid gets their day off? Are we going to see a change of heart by employers to let their maids take a day off? Will Kuwait's shopping malls and other public places be packed with maids on Fridays having their day off? Unless domestic workers'' rights are covered by labour legislation which is supported & upheld by a judicial system, then this is just another good intention, that in reality will be ignored by the hoi polloi.

Deport the Innocents; Ignore the Guilty

Well, OK, maybe they're not exactly innocent, but desperate times call for desperate measures. In today's Arab Times, but this could be any day's...

30 female staff detained: During a four-hour campaign Friday 15 inspectors from
the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor in cooperation with 25 policemen raided
several billiard halls after dusk and arrested 30 female employees for violating
labor law which bars women from working in men’s halls after 7:00 pm, reports
Al-Watan daily. The violators have been referred to concerned authorities prior
to their deportation from the country.

What I'd be interested in knowing is a) do these women know that they're working illegally? and b) what's being done about their billiard hall employers? If they're just prostitutes (which is what the new law is trying to prevent), then the question still applies - what happens to the pimps / men paying for their services? ... you can guess the answer to that.

If you dig a bit deeper, you'll probably find that most of the female staff are illegals because they have runaway from abusive employers...

Free internet telephony... but you have to go to jail first

In today's Kuwait Times...

Central Prison talk
KUWAIT: As from the beginning of May, the central jail will start providing inmates with the facilities to communicate with their relatives (voice and picture) through special computer programmes and the Internet. The move has the blessing of the First Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister, Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak.

And I thought it was illegal to use VOIP in Kuwait! (...to ensure that the Ministry of Communications keeps raking it in on international phone calls). Certainly the same newspaper gives us stories now and again of asian ex-pats being arrested for selling telephone calls over the internet to their buddies. Maybe the Central Jail has bribed the Ministry of Communications & Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak. Just a conspiracy theory (as another journalist would say).

But, this is excellent news for the inmates, many of whom are incarcerated for the "crime" of having run-away from their employer because they've been abused, raped or not paid their wages, and are waiting deportation to their home country.

And soon there will be no teachers

Also in the Arab Times, 25th April...

Sack decided in home tuition

KUWAIT CITY: Dr Humoud Al- Sadoun, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education has come to a decision to terminate all the teachers who are known to privately tutor citizens and expatriates, reliable sources told Al Qabas. These sources further state the Ministry is also planning action against the students who take private tutoring. After an initial warning to stop indulging in private tutor sessions the Ministry will take further action if needed. The punishment consists of terminating these students from their educational institutions. A strict eye will be kept on the teachers and students who take part in private tutoring through observers and supervisors at schools.“The punishment for the teachers is as severe as that for students. Expatriate teachers will be deported and Kuwaiti teachers will be removed from their current jobs and will also be prevented from teaching in any of the Government schools. The Ministry of Education is believed to be currently setting up a team that will follow up on teachers who publish advertisements on private tutoring lessons in the newspaper.

This is just downright bad policy! What planet do MoE people live on.

Any teachers out there willing to comment on this brainfart!

Traffic congestion & the intellectual debate

Arab Times 25th April...

Traffic congestion tied to no limit on car ownership; ‘3 million violations in 2005’

KUWAIT CITY: Assistant Under-secretary for Security Support Services Major General Thabit Al-Muhanna says among the major causes of traffic congestion is the lack of restrictions on the number of cars an individual should own because there is no law that sets the number of cars one can own. He also indicated that the traffic congestion has started shifting from the commercial areas and government departments to residential areas. Muhanna made this statement during a meeting organized by MP Adel Al-Sarawi with residents of Khaifan, adding that Kuwait finished its major street projects in 1985 when the number of cars were as low as 650,000 and the plans were made according to those figures. Now that cars in Kuwait have reached nearly 1.2 million, the roads can no longer handle the existing cars which cause congestions because the roads remain unchanged. He explained that it used to take him 10 minutes to reach his work but now takes thirty minutes or more. Even if a thousand policemen were to control the traffic congestion it would be to no avail unless the road users were to cooperate with them. He remarked that according to statistics given by the Ministry of Planning, by 2030 the population of Kuwait will reach 50 million, indicating that traffic issues are not only road related but also behavior related as reports in 2005 claim there were 3 million traffic violators — traffic violation being considered a crime in a state like Kuwait.

This is a funny article on many levels (and shows the deplorable level of journalism from the better of the 2 English language papers):
a) how is restricting the number of cars an owner can have going to solve the traffic problem. It isn't physically possible to drive more than one car at a time!
b) do you really want to try and implement a law to restrict the numbers of cars a person can own! I'm sure the Prime Minister will really be backing that one!
c) haven't you guys heard of long-term planning, or even medium term planning, when it comes to traffic? When it comes to socialist style 10 year economic plans, yep, we have a whole government ministry (the Ministry of (mis)Planning) to do that, but when it comes to something practical...
d) why don't the public cooperate with traffic police? Hmmm, I wonder why... would it be because if you have wasta it aint a problem being stopped, and if you don't have wasta then any excuse will do to give you a fine, arrest you for violating residency laws, etc, etc.
e) If by 2030 Kuwait has a population of 50 million I'll eat my hat! Another example of the 'pie in the sky' thinking of said Ministry of (mis)Planning. It's just a matter of time until the oil starts running out and then population growth will go in the opposite direction.
f) 3 million traffic violators... I think you mean violations - otherwise we have more violaters than the number of residents in Kuwait!
g) "traffic violation is considered a crime in a state like Kuwait" - classic! Human trafficking and denying of basic human rights for housemaids isn't a considered a crime though. Priorities, priorities.

Keep your mobile switched off if youre wanted by the police!

Another story in today's Kuwait Times...

Man forces wife to drink his 'urine', beats her up
KUWAIT: A Kuwaiti woman reported to police that while she was leaving her home, her husband forced her into his car. The man then drove her to a distant place, assaulted her, took her handbag and gave her a bottle containing a yellow liquid. The man told her "this is my urine and you have to drink it." The woman resisted, but he hit her, forcing her to drink it. The man then dumped her home and escaped. Police could not contact the man as his mobile was switched off. Investigations are on.

So to frustrate a police manhunt just keep your mobile switched off, ok.

Road rage - Kuwait style

Reading the local English papers is always good for a laugh. Today's Kuwait Times...

...a source revealed that a fight between a Kuwaiti man and Egyptian expatriate took place after a road accident in Salmiya. After they got down from their cars to assess the damage, they started shouting. The Egyptian then got a wooden stick to assault the Kuwaiti, who brought a sword from his car. The Egyptian man then ran away, with the citizen running after him. A man informed police that a Kuwaiti was chasing an Egyptian with a sword. Police rushed to the scene and arrested both of them. The men reconciled at police station, and did not file a case.

What a privilege it is to drive in Kuwait

Kuwait Times yesterday:

Driving license
KUWAIT: A few months had passed since the new conditions for issuing driving licenses for expatriates were announced without any single exception, official sources stressed to Al-Watan pointing out that only 26 categories of expatriates were entitled to the license. Further, the sources explained that expatriates needed to be university graduates, getting KD 400+ salary and should be in Kuwait for at least two years before applying for the driver's license, all in attempt to solve many traffic problems and reducing the numbers of cars on roads. (sic)

The English in the article is a little difficult to understand, but the gist of this is that to reduce the number of cars on the road, an official brain-fart is to make it more difficult to have foreigners driving on the roads… Given that a large number of Kuwaiti families employ an Asian ex-pat driver, no doubt a lot of wasta will be called upon to get around this latest inconvenience.

Good news - my wife is finally a legal driver in Kuwait after several painful months of paper chasing from one bureaucratic office to another. Can't wait for her to write up her experience.

Royal Prince busted

It's good to see that the long arm of the law occasionally reaches to those normally outside the law. Yesterday's Arab Times reported on a member of the royal family who has obviously been given a long leash in the past (and is probably from the 'other' side of the family). I wonder if we will read in the future about the Royal's name, a conviction, prison sentence, etc...

Interior orders arrest of royal in drug bust; Cocaine, hashish

KUWAIT CITY (Agencies): Kuwaiti police have arrested a member of the ruling
Al-Sabah family with a large drugs haul, including at least 10 kilogrammes (22 pounds) of cocaine, newspapers reported Friday. Al-Qabas newspaper quoted unnamed security sources as saying the prince, whose name was not revealed, also had 120 kilogrammes (264 pounds) of hashish. His arrest came at the orders of Interior and Defence Minister, Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak al-Sabah, who is a leading figure in the ruling family. The Al-Rai Al-Aam daily gave a different breakdown of the drugs seized, saying they consisted of 18 kilogrammes (40 pounds) of cocaine, five kilogrammes (11 pounds) of heroin and 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of hashish.

The drugs were found at the royal’s house, the paper added. The sources said “the arrest took place in tune with the orders of the First Deputy Premier, Minister of Interior and Minister of Defence Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah who indicated the same laws should be applicable for all with no exceptions.” “All people are protected under the umbrella of the law,” the minister is reported to have stated.

Rights group demands release of Saudi reporter

If the fundies don't get you, the security forces will instead...

Rights group demands release of Saudi reporter
DUBAI:
Security forces have arrested a Saudi journalist who received death threats for his criticism of strict interpretations of Islam, and now he faces charges of doubting the Islamic creed and "harbouring destructive thoughts," a human rights group and Saudi officials said yesterday. Rabbah Al-Quwaii, 24, a reporter for Riyadh-based newspaper Al-Shams, was arrested April 3 after questioning Islamic doctrine in frequent writings on Internet discussion forums, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement demanding his release. Saudi government officials confirmed the arrest and said Al-Quwaii faced prosecution in court on unspecified anti-Islamic charges. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak on security matters.

Human Rights Watch said Al-Quwaii reported death threats last year after he
wrote articles alleging that the kingdom's strict interpretation of Islam was
contributing to the growth of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. "Saudi
security forces apparently believe they are there to abuse citizens like Rabbah Al-Quwaii rather than to protect them," said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch. Other liberal Saudi journalists also reported death threats to police without results, the rights group reported.

In November 2005, the group said, the governor of northern Hail Province ordered police to investigate the threats against Al-Quwaii after a newspaper reported that assailants had smashed the reporter's car and left a note saying "next time, its you." But instead, intelligence police arrested Al-Quwaii in the city of Hail, after luring him there by asking him to fill out paperwork related to the investigation of the death threats. Saudi officials provided similar details of the arrest to The Associated Press, and said Al-Quwaii had also received written warnings and threatening letters to halt his anti-Islamic writing. Human Rights Watch urged Saudi Arabia's minister for human rights, Turki al-Sudairy, to open a public inquiry into the role of the kingdom's security and intelligence services in al-Quwaii's arrest. State investigators have refused to allow Al-Quwaii to speak to his lawyer or fully
disclose charges against him, Human Rights Watch reported.---AP

Inter-sex friendships

And even more from today's Kuwait Times:

Inter-sex friendships
KUWAIT: The head of the Academic Guidance Unit at the College of Arts in Kuwait University Sahau Al-Sahau confirmed his rejection of friendships between males and females as it contradicts the Muslim traditions practiced in Kuwait. He said if friendship exists between the males and females, it should not go beyond being colleagues at work. Al-Shahu expressed his comments during an interview with Al-Rai Al-Aam last Saturday. He expressed regret as his comments were misunderstood as encouraging friendships between men and women.

Well, I'm sorry, I have to disagree with Mr Sahau Al-Sahou, and please don't misunderstand me when I say I encourage all you guys and gals out there to build friendships. Maybe, just maybe, if there were platonic relationships between males and females in this place we wouldn't see the same level of social problems that are clearly evident from the imposition of a "traditional" muslim culture.

Who'd want to be a Teacher!

In today's Kuwait Times:

Teachers interview

KUWAIT: The Ministry of Education have started interviewing a number of teachers in Syria, Egypt and Jordan to teach in Kuwait. The ministry specified that the salary of the new teachers would be KD 350 for male teachers including (sic) a housing allowance and KD 290 for female teachers. The Civil Service Commission rejected a call from the ministry to increase the salaries of expatriate teachers, reported Al Qabas.

I hope that it's a spelling mistake and a housing allowance is in addition to the pitiful salary. Even if the housing allowance is excluded, a fresh Kuwaiti graduates recieve more! And why the discrepancy by sex? A further indication, if it ain't obvious, of the lack of quality in education here. If you're going to pay for monkeys, you're going to get monkeys... I'm sure there's a good arabic proverb for this.

Mind you, it probably is good money for those that sign-up and come, and the job won't be very demanding.

Thank you (Dis)Information Ministry for wasting Court time

In today's Arab Times:

Appeals also acquits Seyassah: The Court of Appeals recently upheld the verdict
of the lower court which had earlier acquitted Al-Seyassah daily in a case filed
by the Information Ministry accusing the daily of publishing an article which
damages the country’s relation with Syria and Lebanon, reports Al-Seyassah
daily. The said article states the presidents of these two countries are not
likely to remain in office by the end of October 2006.

Let's hope the folks in the (Dis)Information Ministry responsible for this waste of time in the courts don't remain in their office by the end of October 2006. On a positive note, it's good to see justice being done!

Doesn't the (Dis)Information Ministry realise that by pursuing a strict censorship regime, they're doing more to damage Kuwait's relations with other countries than an innocuous remark made by an individual who manages to get it published in a newspaper?

Fire, fire,...

Yesterday's Arab Times had this snippet...

Fireman late, room destroyed: A room of a house in east Sulaibikhat was totally
gutted due to delay in the arrival of firefighters who lost their way, reports
Al-Watan daily. It is reported that names and numbers of this area have not
given yet and the fire service department has no information about the addresses
of the area.

This reminds me of the article Mark posted on his blog, when even after the firemen arrived at the site of the fire, it took them half an hour before they were in a position to do battle against the flames. Then he wrote about another fire 10 days later.

Just as well we didn’t have a house fire when we were living in Hutteen, South Surra. In fact, tough luck if you happen to live in South Surra full stop. Still no street numbers, and houses have been there for up to 7 years! Pizza or other fast food delivery places refused to call on us even though our house was easy to find. We were on a main road – the 206, you can’t miss the place… uh uh.

It was a nightmare getting furniture delivered. The problem is that the guys that do this kind of stuff, and it doesn’t seem to differ whether or not they have a working knowledge of English or Arabic, just have no clue when it comes to directions. Draw them a map – forget it, they can’t read maps. Mention main road numbers, 40, 50, 206… nope, they don’t use them. The best you can aim for is them finding a landmark in the suburb, in our case it was often the KFH, and then going to find them to bring them to our place. You could say take first left, first right then continue on this road ‘til you see red villa on the corner with palm trees outside, but they either still managed to get lost, or weren’t confident of not getting lost and wouldn’t budge until you found them. Only in Kuwait! So you can imagine what it would be like if there was a fire.

New Publication & Press Law is a farce

I was going to write an article about the changes in Kuwait's new publication & press law, until a professional journalist beat me to it, and expressed my sentiments (in words much better than I could do). Thankfully, journalists in Kuwait still feel they are able to express their opinions. So, if you didn't read this in today's Kuwait Times already...

POLITICAL INSTINCTS
Unanimous betrayal
By Alrazi Al-Budaiwi

All attending 53 members of the parliament voted in favour of the new Publication and Press Law...Wow! This is impressive but at the same time fishy, just like the law itself. I mean, after four years of disagreement, not a single MP voted 'no' or at least abstained. Not a single MP thought that press freedoms should be guaranteed as opposed to shackled by laws. None of them thought that laws should protect journalists instead of placing them in a straightjacket?

We all heard MPs and government officials praising the law after it was passed, calling it a triumphant achievement that Kuwaiti people should celebrate. Well, if the people of this country unanimously celebrate such an achievement, I as a journalist will pass on it and abstain.

The most highlighted "achievement" of this law is that it would reopen licenses for new newspapers-to citizens. However, I'd like to note that the government, represented by the information minister, still has the right to refuse granting a publication license to any applicant. The new law only gives applicants the right to seek the court if their application for a license was denied by the information minister. Although this might be the only "advantage" of the new law, I do not see any festive achievement. In fact, I think the rest of the law, especially concerning punishments against press crimes, is disastrous.

You also probably heard advocates of the new law claiming that it would not allow jailing journalists. Well, just do not get too excited and swallow the bait. According to Article 26 of the new law, "if the publication contradicts the national interests, serves a foreign body or state or breaches the social and political system in Kuwait, then the fine would range between KD 3,000 and 10,000." Although the law does not mention jailing, neither does it say that journalists shall not be jailed. In fact, the law applies a heftier fine in addition to "the implementation of stricter punishments stipulated in another law," which could include jailing. In addition, even if journalists escape jailing, she or he would not escape the exaggerated fines, which will pressure editors-in-chief to practice stricter censorship.

Moreover, the violations mentioned in the law are too vague. I mean what does "contradicts the national interest" mean? If we unanimously agree on what's in favour of the national interest, why do we need democracy? Maybe we need it to deliberate for four years and then unanimously vote to deny journalists their right to express their thoughts about what is of interest for the country.

The same goes for the part about breaching "the social and political system". I mean who draws the lines? Like most journalists, I have a lot of criticisms on the social and political system. In fact, as a journalist I am supposed to be critical of these systems and this law deprives me from an essential freedom that I need to fulfil the obligations of my profession as it threatens me with jailing. Obviously, the law failed to consider the nature of journalism as a profession and thus failed to protect journalists.

Advocates of the law also claim that according to their law, no newspaper will be subjected to closure. Again, do not swallow the bait. They only changed the procedures. Actually, Article 27 of the new law permits the criminal court, instead of the Ministerial Council, to revoke the publication license or suspend the newspaper for a period that does not exceed one year.

Although the law obviously shackles the freedom of press instead of guaranteeing it, I was not outraged when it was unanimously passed. As I said in a previous article, I do not expect any positive change from this National Assembly, not to mention the newly formed Cabinet. However, I was gnashing my teeth when I read a statement issued by the only legitimate institution representing Kuwaiti journalists describing the law as "a significant addition to the country's public freedoms".

Nonetheless, I refuse to give up for anger; therefore, I looked at the bright side: At least now I know why the Kuwait Journalists Association has been the only NGO of its kind recognised by the government.

New hire at NBK

Who said you don't have to be a criminal to work here, but it sure helps...

Court allows banker to work off debt in Kuwait

A SENIOR Brisbane banker facing a lengthy jail term for theft has been allowed to accept a lucrative overseas job to work off his debts before he is sentenced.

Jason Richard Huigens, 39, will soon travel to the Middle East to take up the $190,000 a year position with the National Bank of Kuwait so he can repay the $133,640 he stole from the St George Bank in 2005...

full article link.

Were you aware of Kuwait's marvellous health system?

According to an article in the Kuwait Times on Feb. 1...

Kuwait has lowest death rate: Al-Ajeel
KUWAIT: Dr Abdullah Mohammed Al-Ajeel, director of the medical statistical analysis department at the Ministry of Health, said yesterday that Kuwait has the lowest death rate worldwide. Al-Ajeel said that the world statistics proved that Kuwait has a death rate of 1.9 per cent for every 1,000 people during the period between 2000 and 2005. He added this was proved by several international publications, such as the World Resources Institute, World in Figures for 2005 and the Top 10 Of Everything for 2006.

He indicated that this low percentage is due to the high standard of medical services provided in Kuwait and the presence of a qualified medical staff as well as the high-tech medical devices.
Al-Ajeel said he believed that also the high medical awareness among the citizens and residents, thanks to the campaigns of the Health Ministry, is another reason for the low death rates.

According to the lowest death rates agenda published in the World in Figures, the UAE ranked second with 2.4 per cent for every 1,000 persons, followed by Bahrain with 2.4 per cent, then Oman with 3.3 per cent and Qatar and Saudi-Arabia in sixth place with 3.7 per cent. - Kuna

This is typical of the rubbish provided by official spokespersons and published in media in this part of the world. We have the lowest death rate in the world… so the Ministry of Health to justify its existence has to announce that it must be because the country has the most advanced medical services in the world... This rather contradicts with experience on the ground. If you live in Kuwait you will know that medical services aren’t as good as they’re cracked up to be – why else would the royals always go abroad for medical treatment, or pay for treatment for citizens abroad? In fact according to a world ranking on health system performance, in 1997 Kuwait only ranked 45th in the world.

Let’s surmise the real reasons for a low death rate, (asuming this is in fact true)... Could it be that non-citizens are shipped back to their countries of origin when their useful working lives are over? With a quick bit of analysis on the web you will find that Kuwait ranks second in the world for the proportion of the population aged between 15-64. However, Kuwait is ranked 192 out of 193 countries, ie. 2nd last, for the proportion of the population aged 65 years and over. Mystery solved - if you don't have many old people, then it's no surprise that there's a low death rate!

Some other really interesting stats from the same website:
Kuwait is 3rd in the world for CO2 emissions per capita, which is no surprise, but is in last place for the number of prisoners per capita… that’s quite surprising given all those recalcitrant maids, drivers, labourers, et al. I suspect there’s some fudging of the numbers by the Ministry of the Interior. On a positive note, in the same day, the Kuwait Times reported the following:

Small motorcade
KUWAIT: Informed sources revealed that HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad has asked that only two cars accompany him when he moves about the country, rather than a large security motorcade. Sources said troops from the Amiri Guard went to his Salwa residence to accompany him to Bayan Palace which surprised the Amir, as no order had been given to that effect.

Good to see that the new Amir is a bit more ‘down to earth’. I hear he’s also canned the hordes of Amiri guards outside the palace and the horn blast to announce his arrival and departure which, as a staff member who I hope doesn't mind me quoting, said “…I felt like I was in an English castle in the middle ages!”

Today's lesson: Don't smack your wife while driving

... wait 'till you get home! Just joking.

Back in action, after a wee sojourn from blogging. Almost left Kuwait altogether until my owner in a magnanimous gesture allowed my iqama to be transferred to my new employer!

Anyways, here's a pearl of wisdom offered by the Kuwait Times today...

Don't smack your wife while driving
JIZAN: A man died after he lost control of his car, Al-Watan daily reported. Angry with his wife and driving in typical fashion of Saudi Arabia - fast and with utter
disregard for traffic laws - the man smacked his woman in the face. In
retaliation, the wife grabbed the steering wheel, causing the husband to lose
control of the vehicle. Because he was driving like an angry Saudi, the car was
careening down the road at an unsafe speed. As a result of expressing anger by
driving really fast, the car flipped several times. The wife is recuperating in
the hospital; the husband is underground.

I have no further comment.