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!