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.