Category: News

The Commercial Control and Consumer Protection Sector has issued a citation against a shop for displaying the ‘homosexual’ logo, reports Al-Rai daily quoting sources.

The daily added, this happened when a number of shoppers complained about the sign and the concerned commercial control department sent officers to run a check and the signboard was removed and the person responsible has been referred to the concerned authority.

The sources stressed the need to abide by the laws in force and its responsibility in applying the law in its context that does not allow any irregularities that conflict with the laws and regulations. Source

You guys have probably already come across this article that was published last week since it went viral on social media. It was pretty vague with no mention of the shop and what was actually removed. After doing a bit of research it turns out the shop in question was Louis Vuitton. I thought they might have had a special display to celebrate the LGBT+ community but I did a bit of googling and couldn’t find any information or photos on a special display LV was using in their stores for this.

So I decided to ask around locally and turns out the display that was deemed offensive was actually not related to the LGBT+ community at all. LV have a window display called the dream catcher which features colorful dream catchers and someone must have complained to consumer protection that LV was displaying the gay pride flag in their display and LV was forced to remove it. The picture above isn’t of the actual dream catcher window display that was removed but one similar I found online and as you can see the colors don’t even match the pride flag or the correct order of the colors. Yet, they were still asked to remove it. So weird.

Last month I posted that Saudi Arabia is going to start offering permanent residency to some expats like doctors, engineers, innovators, investors and residents who contribute to the country. But now they’ve expanded the programme even further where you can also buy a permanent residency:

Saudi Arabia has opened applications for a permanent residency programme designed to attract foreign investment to the kingdom, but it will cost a hefty 800,000 riyals ($213,000).

…

The so-called premium residencies will allow foreigners to buy property and do business without a Saudi sponsor, switch jobs and exit the kingdom easily and sponsor visas for family members, according to the website for registrations. Source

That’s one pretty expensive visa. At first, I thought you needed to invest at least $213,000 for example by buying an apartment, which is reasonable, but turns out it’s actually the fee you need to pay for the residency. At least it’s a start and expats in Saudi have an option.

Last month I posted that FIFA was considering Kuwait to co-host the World Cup with Qatar, that offer is now off the table. FIFA originally wanted to increase the teams participating in the World Cup to 48, but Qatar didn’t have enough stadiums and facilities to host the extra games. So Kuwait and Oman were both considered to co-host since nobody else in the Gulf is in talking terms with Qatar at the moment. Oman didn’t have the stadiums to host the games and Kuwait wasn’t interested in co-hosting either so FIFA scrapped the plans to expand the World Cup.

As someone who wanted Kuwait to host the World Cup, this is obviously disappointing news.

Saudi Arabia approved a program that offers permanent residency for some foreigners, the latest sign of how the quest for non-oil revenue is prompting Gulf Arab countries to rethink the role of expats in their societies.

“The special residency is for doctors, engineers, innovators, investors and residents who contribute to the development of Saudi Arabia and lead to a prosperous future,” said Lina Almaeena, a member of the consultative Shura Council. The appointed body approved the program last week, with 76 members voting in favor and 55 against. [Source]

First UAE, then Qatar and now Saudi Arabia. Hopefully, we’re next.

Our roads are finally going to get fixed starting from today. The project of repairing all of Kuwait’s roads (including residential) is expected to take three years but, for the first phase they’re starting off with the main ones.

The first road that will be repaired is the 1st Ring Road, starting from the Gulf Road and extending all the way to the Jahra roundabout. The second to be fixed is Highway 40 starting from the 1st Ring Road down to the Bayan area. Third road to be fixed is the 4th Ring Road from Amman Street all the way to the UN roundabout, then they’re going to fix the 6th Ring Road from near 360 Mall (Zahra) towards the Subiya intersection, and finally the Doha Road starting from near the Entertainment City down to the 6th Ring Road.

Repairs will take place from 6pm to 6am on weekdays, and 12am to 12pm on weekends.

I’m surprised the 5th Ring Road isn’t part of the first phase and I’m disappointed the Gulf Road isn’t also part of the first phase since that’s the road I use 80% of the time. But, I’m just glad they’re finally starting!

Update: 💃 [Link]

Mercer’s Quality of Living rankings list was recently released and the regional order has pretty much remained unchanged. I thought Saudi Arabia might move up from the previous years because of the recent changes that have taken place there but their ranking hasn’t really changed. Mercer puts together this list by evaluating a number of factors including recreation, housing, economic environment, consumer goods availability, public services and transport, political and social environment, natural environment, socio-cultural environment, school and education and medical and health considerations.

1 – Vienna, Austria
74 – Dubai, United Arab Emirates
78 – Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
105 – Muscat, Oman
110 – Doha, Qatar
126 – Kuwait City, Kuwait
136 – Manama, Bahrain
164 – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
168 – Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
231 – Baghdad, Iraq

The list above shows Kuwait’s ranking compared to neighboring countries but if you’d like to see how your home country ranks in the world, you can check out the full list on Mercer’s website [Here]

Thanks Basmah

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Lt-Gen Sheikh Khalid Al-Jarrah has issued a decision to cancel residency stickers that are placed in the passports of expatriates. Such a decision is part of the ongoing upgrade process at various departments of the ministry, reports Al-Anba daily. [Source]

I wish they came out with this decision a few months ago before I got my new passport. Whoever stuck my residency sticker must have been blind because its tilted like 45 degrees, is partially occupying the adjacent page, and part of the sticker is also sticking out of the passport. Drives me nuts every time I see it.

Bangkok recently went on full alert because their air pollution level was high after their PM2.5 reading reached 152 which is considered unhealthy. The odd thing is, at the same time, Kuwait’s pollution level was reading at 155 and nobody cared. Nobody probably cared because 155 isn’t even high by Kuwait standards, I’ve seen it hit 358 and I’ve seen it in the 200s multiple of times. Even when it was at 358 which is three times worse than when Bangkok declared red alert, nobody in Kuwait blinked an eye.

So why is it that we don’t seem to care (me included) about the quality of the air we breathe. Is it because there isn’t anything we can do about it or is it because it doesn’t seem like an issue because nobody is making a fuss about it?

When in Bahrain last month my friend rented a Chinese car (BYD) and although I found the car pretty crap, one cool feature it came with was a built-in air quality meter because its a feature people in China care about because of the pollution levels there. With a touch of a button, the car could tell you how bad the air quality was outside the car. Sounds like a gimmick but it’s a car feature we should all probably want to have like the Chinese do.

If you want to check the current air quality in Kuwait, click [Here]

Thanks Nibaq

CEC Entertainment, Inc has signed development agreements with franchisees for 25 new Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurants across Mexico, Egypt, Kuwait, El Salvador and Bahrain, a news release said.

The company has been actively growing its international franchise footprint and currently operates 65 Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurants across 13 countries and territories outside the U.S., with the biggest concentration in Mexico and Saudi Arabia. [Source]

If you grew up in Kuwait during the 80s you’ll remember a place called Showbiz Pizza Place. In the US, Showbiz were actually direct competitors to Chuck E Cheese which was created by the Atari founder back in 1977. Chuck E Cheese went bankrupt in the early 80s and got purchased by ShowBiz Pizza Place. ShowBiz then went bankrupt themselves back in 1992 but Chuck E Cheese is still around somehow. I’ve only been to Chuck E Cheese once as a kid back in 1988 when I was in LA and all I remember is how similar it was to Showbiz. Back then it was full of arcade games and they even had an animatronic band like Showbiz. It was a lot of fun but not sure how relevant Chuck E Cheese is today…

The UAE cabinet has begun the implementation of 100% foreign ownership and 10-year residency visas for expats, investors and businesspeople.[Source]

What I found sad is the sub headline for the article which states that the new laws are expected to help retain expats in the UAE. It’s sad because most of the articles in Kuwait talk about different ways to get rid of us while UAE is appreciating their expats and wanting them to stay longer.

Sheikh Ahmed al-Yousef, head of Kuwait’s Football Association, said that Kuwait cannot facilitate the conditions of participating in hosting some of the World Cup matches.

Yousef told Kuwait’s al-Rai newspaper that it is hard to accommodate FIFA’s main conditions in Kuwait, the biggest of which is allowing all nationalities to enter the country with a visa upon arrival, including Israel.

He added: “Even if we selectively picked the teams playing in Kuwait, we cannot prevent the audience from attending. There are also alcohol brands that are sponsoring the event and would like to sell and promote its products during the games, and that is forbidden and criminalized in Kuwait, so how would we solve this problem?” [Source]

I didn’t even know Kuwait was even in the consideration to co-host the World Cup. This is such a huge missed opportunity, one which I don’t think we’ll have again. Qatar spent a lot of money getting the World Cup to come to the region so we basically would have gotten a free ride. The amount of publicity and visitors we would have gotten by hosting the World Cup, and all the improvements the government would have made to the local infrastructure, it’s so sad all this isn’t going to happen now.

Starting January 1st, Kuwait Airways will start flying to New York again non-stop. Kuwait Airways used to fly non-stop a few years ago but due to our airport’s weak security, flights to NY started stopping in Ireland for one more final security check. A non-stop flight to New York obviously makes the journey a lot quicker and practical, but with the new Kuwait Airways planes and terminal, it could also potentially be the best way to get to NY from Kuwait. [Link]

After Kuwait’s attorney general issued on Monday strict guidelines to ensure that children are adequately protected from the potential dangers associated with social media, an attorney told Kuwait Times 18 social media accounts were referred to the prosecutor yesterday. Lawyer Mohammed Al-Khaldi explained the new guidelines only expound on already existing juvenile laws which criminalize the abuse of children. Chief among the new guidelines is introducing age restrictions requiring social media users to be at least 13 years of age. [Source]

Looks like the government is on a roll cracking down on Instagrammers. The last sentence is a bit confusing because it sounds like anybody under 13 isn’t allowed to have a social media account, but I think they actually mean anyone under 13 can’t be exploited by the parents on social media. At least I think that’s what they mean…

Detectives in Kuwait have been called to investigate several social media influencers for money laundering, according to reports.

Arabic publication Al-Jarida cited sources as confirming the notices regarding more than 10 bank accounts belonging to social media stars.

The sources said the balances in some of the accounts exceeded millions of Kuwaiti dinars and the ‘fashionista’ owners would need to prove their source of income. [Source]

I clearly must be doing blogging wrong…

After getting their operation suspended back in September, the civil aviation authority have now pulled the license for Wataniya Airways. They were originally suspended because of recurring flights’ delays and cancellations and were given three months to get their act together. Seems like they weren’t able to do that so for the second time in the airline’s history, they’ve had to shut down.

This is pretty disappointing news since Wataniya Airlines were flying to some interesting destinations and more competition in the market is always a good thing. [Link]