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Complaints Coronavirus

A Rant

I haven’t posted a rant in years I think, but I’m really pissed off about two things, one that’s too late to be fixed, but the other one can still be.

The first thing I want to complain about is the way the lockdown was announced where it basically gave the whole population just a day to try and buy enough food for 3 weeks. That didn’t make any sense. The scenes I saw on Saturday were heartbreaking. It was survival, people tossed aside social distancing not because they wanted to, but because they were forced to. Supermarkets across the country were PACKED with large crowds, super long lines, and no social distancing. I shot the video below on Friday, BEFORE the lockdown announcement. It was a line for a mini-market down the street from my place so just imagine how long the lines were at major supermarkets across Kuwait on Saturday after the lockdown was announced. We don’t have a shortage of food in Kuwait nor a shortage of supermarkets, but the way this lockdown was announced late at night without having the proper infrastructure in place (like private supermarkets on moci.shop) or enough time for people to go out and stock up caused this chaos.

The second thing I’m really pissed off but is something that can easily be fixed is about how the information is being shared. 90% of the information is being shared only in Arabic. Why? I know Kuwait is an Arabic country so what? I’m Lebanese and I can barely read Arabic and I’ve lived all my life in Kuwait. What about the expats who aren’t Arab? What about the low-income workers who barely can communicate in their native tongue let alone read multiple languages? Kuwait is the home of many nationalities and in a crisis like this where it is important that every message gets across to everyone, you can’t have information being shared only in Arabic. You want everyone to use the moci.shop website to book appointments? Have it in multiple languages then. Right now if you visit the site its all in Arabic, even the option to change the language to English is in Arabic. At least have a tiny UK or American flag icon that people can click to translate.

You can’t disagree with me on this either, so don’t bother leaving a comment saying if you’re in an Arabic country you need to learn the language or gtfo. This pandemic isn’t the time for this. Right now the question should simply be HOW CAN WE GET THIS IMPORTANT INFORMATION OUT TO THE MOST NUMBER OF PEOPLE? And the answer is everything, needs to be published in multiple languages.

Instagram allows you to share multiple slides per post. Have the first slide in Arabic and then the next few slides in other languages. Hire people to do the translations, don’t have the money then ask for volunteers! And don’t just post on official channels. The MOH, MOI and other government agencies should coordinate with popular expat accounts like @kuwaitup2date and have important information published there. Go to where the people are and not just expect people to come to you.

Also, have all the information across all your media channels. I’m finding stuff for example on twitter.com/cgckuwait that isn’t on instagram.com/cgckuwait. Why? Why do I need to check all your social media channels to get all the info? Publish everything everywhere, it’s not hard to do.

Then you have other strange decisions. The visual I shared a while ago highlighting the different facilities that are available during the lockdown. The Arabic version was published as a permanent post in the @cgckuwait Instagram account while the English one was posted as a temporary story. Why? Why can’t both be stories and permanent posts? What if I missed your story today? So much stuff doesn’t make sense.

Just to be clear my issue isn’t just with the @cgckuwait account. All the issues I’ve mentioned above apply to all the official sources.

Anyway, I’m done complaining. Happy lockdown everyone.

103 replies on “A Rant”

Both of your complaints are 100% valid.

The decision to implement the 24 hour lockdown 1 day before it happened was the one that really grinded my gears though!

My mother and I had a Diet Center subscription which we relied on for daily food. They cannot deliver anymore which left both of us with empty closets. Naturally, this meant we were FORCED to go shopping, for my mother’s sake at least.

It was hell Mark. We barely managed to get some eggs and cheese. The people climbing over each other just to get basics was worrying.

I hope snap decisions like this don’t become commonplace. These kinds of things need at LEAST a weeks worth of notice.

Anyways, Stay safe Mark!

Worse is the racist people on social media saying that expats are flooding the supermarkets and not respecting social distancing, and complaining that all their branches were expats. Are they stupid enough not to realize that a lot of households are sending the helpers to wait in the lines!! I’m sick of this nonsense. And so what if expats are in the coops, they need to friggin eat too!

I totally agree on both points. But to be fair people kind of knew that the lockdown was going to happen a week in advance i.e. there were rumors ( I did my food shopping the minute I heard those rumors because I knew what would happen).
As for the information not being in English unfortunately this is a problem here. I’m Kuwaiti and I can barely read Arabic.
Totally get your frustration!

Dear hind, most of the worker class is not so tech savvy and do not gdt fb and insta posts in a timely fashion. Yes for others being proactive was required and there was no reason not to. Nonetheless it was a sad sight at all the supermarkets.

In the times of this epidemic we really need to be proactive and need to do rationing too. So many people are still living in a dreamworld of going for grocery shopping every week.
We purchased the masks when Corona was nowhere near Kuwait.
Also in March beginning itself we went shopping to buy the basic grocery for 2 months – Rice, Lentils, Flour.. and we use all that in a rationing way… these are extraordinary times and need extraordinary measures.

But yes i do agree that majority expats here are low-income workers who cannot read news and are so busy working and doing over-time that they don’t even know whats going on in the world.

This COVID-19 crisis has hit hard on the low income workers all over the world.

Honestly no one can expect people to act on rumors! Especially when authorities warn us about believing rumors and spreading them, the authorities debunked the full curfew several times, the repercussions of the short notice before implementation.

True. And imagine only being able to walk your dogs once a day. My dog can’t hold it for that long and it isn’t good for his health either.

Exactly. So that’s why I’m splitting up my 2hrs of allowed walking time throughout the day. Just to let them out to go to the bathroom and not stroll around the block.

yo same, I dont tell my mom cause she freaked out when she found out I take quick dog bathroom walks at night. But what else can I do?

Now every day after iftar I walk him a short distance in hidden alleys between houses lmao, if I see a cop I’ll just pick up my dog and run home tbh I dont care.

Last week during a short walk I saw a car drive towards me and it was someone who had an airport drive pass and they were just driving home, my heart stopped for a sec

Exactly. If i get stopped by the officials I’m curious to see what their response is when I say I’m just letting my pups do their business. Will keep y’all updated if/when that happens.

Im sure you know the culture surrounding dogs here isnt very compassionate.

They probably wont care and just drop ur dog home and take you to the station.

These guys wanna boast about catching someone, especially since the number of violators is broadcasted online.

My tip? No earphones, and stay alert. As much as I love a podcast on a dog walk I gotta hear cars around me now

Careful..You can’t split the 2 hours. The only time you can walk around your neighborhood is from 4:30pm till 6:30 pm that’s it..

I know and thank you for caring. There is no way my pups can not pee for 18½ hrs straight.

Sorry no idea why i put 18½ (maybe wishful thinking) My pups cant hold their bladder for 22hrs that’s basically animal abuse.

Add to that the countless expats who renewed their residency but have expired id’s, and the countless people whose address on the id is different from where they live and then u have people like me who don’t have a coop or Sultan in their area so simply get a “sorry there are no markets available in your area” (no shit Sherlock) and then it doesn’t suggest an alternative close by….total shit show if you ask me. And finally, how can people be upset with others who hoard, now, when nobody wants to feel like they might run out of something or other at any moment. Of course people are going to freak out and stampede and buy as much as possible. One final question: how do people who don’t drive get to the coop? No taxis and no buses and if I’m not mistaken, the metro is closed too 😉

Exactly! With the license permit restrictions over the past couple of years so many people don’t have cars! How are they supposed to shop! Assuming they find a close enough place to walk to, how are they gonna carry a week’s shopping list of groceries back home! Not gonna start with the safety of walking alone on ghost streets especially if ure a woman. It amazes me that these people were not given a second thought! It doesn’t make sense closing delivery and online options.

Now dont invent problems just for the sake of it. When did Kuwait become unsafe enough for a woman to not be able to walk alone on the streets? we could do with less alarmism in times like these atleast!

Yara does have a valid point. Some areas in Kuwait are only relatively safe. I have certainly been catcalled– both in the City and in Salmiya, areas one would think are ‘safe’. Be careful before you dismiss someone’s concerns.

My female American compatriot was grabbed by a van full of guys trying to take her dog out at night. Luckily they panicked when she screamed, but dont act like its totally safe for women to walk around at night. Maybe it is safer depending on what you wear or your nationality. How and where will people in Mahboula shop during this lockdown?

Kuwait is absolutely not safe for a woman to walk around by herself late at night. What are you talking about?

I’m a guy and I’ve been assaulted by kids in Salmiya. Left me with a scalp laceration from the rock they hit me with.

Yesss.. I was wondering the same.. How do they expect ppl without cars to shop? Not everyone is lucky or fortunate enough to own a car in Kuwait. I use the word lucky coz Kuwait has the lamest criteria for ppl to get a drivers license.

And Kuwait being safe for women.. it def is alot more safer than my own home country but its not completely safe. I was waiting down my building (IN BROAD DAYLIGHT – 8 AM) to be picked up by my colleague and a guy crept up behind me with the intention of either groping me or robbing.. who knows.. But i was lucky that i saw his shadow and walked out of the building and he walked away as i saw him.

At 8 am at the front door of my building waiting for my driver, a stupid guy stopped his car near the point I was waiting and he came to touch my ass. What he didn’t expect was that I chased him to hit him, but he escaped like a coward in his car. So don’t say that Kuwait is totally safe.

Unless your at a crowded place where tons of families/people congregate for leisure like a park, Salmiya/Marina Beach, Malls, etc, a woman is never completely safe and even then guys can still come up to you if your alone to romantically pursue you (though that’s not dangerous in itself… Guys tend to be really adamant and just… don’t get a hint?).

Alleyways and ghost streets are particularly dangerous. More Streets are devoid of people during late night. And all the lockdown make all of this worse. But I feel like you have to weary of lonely alleyways/street wherever you are in the world.

That being said, I find it repulsive that some (Indian) expats I have seen won’t let their daughters even go to the park/mall on a Thursday night and act as if Arabs will rape them on sight if there isn’t a man with them. Like. Chill. Don’t need to go extreme.

If the lockdown gave people more time, a week for example, people would have panic bought for a whole week. If the lockdown was implemented immediately, you wouldn’t find an appointment for a week, and the website would probably crash. Any way you look at it, it wouldn’t turn out any better. It’s the people’s behavior, and you can’t educate them in a month or two. The only thing I would think of that could have elevated the situation is if online delivery was still active for restaurants and supermarkets.

They managed multiple languages during the flooding in November 2018. I was impressed back then that all alerts were in so many languages. It’s odd that they haven’t managed to accomplish this for recent alerts, even though they’ve had so many weeks to work on it – unlike the floods which kind of came from nowhere!

The scenes we saw on Friday/Saturday at supermarkets were tragic. It should be used as a lesson for other countries in what not to do!

To get around this, I’ve been monitoring all the channels, because they’ve been doing this from the beginning. Twitter has been the fastest to find info on, but have to use the in-built translator from the app.

Something related that really is aggravating is that there’s a certain MP who has issues with the “demographic imbalance” that was slamming certain nationalities for weeks in Arabic, but in English was coordinating with accounts like KuwaitUp2Date to speak so friendly to them in English. I DM’d the account to tell him he should be ashamed of himself, as you could literrally go back a few weeks to see posts on the account with the MP’s xenophobic comments, and then all of a sudden the account is praising the MP, wishing them Happy Birthday, and playing voiceover clips of the MP addressing expats and telling them that the country is one and we all should work together.

Mark,

These are absolutely two great points. Spot on on both. We did “trickle shopping” for the last six weeks, anticipating this would happen. Yet when the rumor went from two weeks of lockdown to three, we had to do a shopping trip on Friday, and it was a crap sh** circus. So, good point on point one.

On the second, a measure of how able a country is to be an international market is its ability to communicate. The problem with all of these (sometimes conflicting) sources of information is it would require ministries to coordinate with one another. I can tell you first hand that the amount of stonewalling and one-upsmanship at the expense of the greater good is amazing.

Finally, where is the end? Is the rise in cases due to repatriation, so I’m two weeks, when people are finally symptomatic, we’ll see a decline after a few days of steady rise? Are they contact cases? Or at the end of three weeks, will someone say, “Well…still not solved…THREE MORE WEEKS!”

Finally, something that has never been tested is, can the Kuwaiti power grid handle its full population in the summer? All signs and models point to “no”.

Kuwait is slowly becoming a pot of boiling water, and we are all frogs. Great post. Really captures how a lot of us feel.

John not everyone was trickle shopping. I was like the cry wolf story they kept saying lockdown from the beginning and it never happened so didn’t take it seriously this time. Also was not in a position to overbuy since cash is limited.

Agreed, and not should you have been. The only reason we did was because we were listening to the “rumors”, and we saw what happened in the first 24 hours of Jordan’s total lockdown.

In an effort to reduce the number at the market, we also bought for three other families. My wife saw one Kuwaiti walking away with a half bag of groceries. All he did was added one more person the the sea of people. For a half bag of sweets and cigarettes.

A bit more notice would have let people apply a bit of common sense to being prepared. We were fortunate and a bit prepared. But, it shouldn’t have been that way. So…I totally agree and empathize with you.

I 100% agree with this post. They absolutely need to alert people in multiple languages which isn’t difficult to do in the first place. They could even use Google translate (not accurate but good enough) if they don’t have people to translate for them. If you want expats to get your message, delivery it to them in the language they understand best.

A days notice is more than we got for Mahboula lockdown.
2 weeks in, they close the hyper market and the bakalas are a joke…
Now we are in our 5th week of being locked down. All of the “emergency” delivery services – DONT apply to here or Jleeb.
The entire country is locked down and we are still gated in like cattle..
Ridiculous

Even though we were expecting the lockdown after the repatriation of the locals, people were not physically equipped to handle it due to lack of having a car, cab or public transportation. I saw many people breaking the 8am curfew and walking to Lulu at 6am in the morning to stand in the queues. These people are walking from Salmiya Block 10 and 12, long distances to and from Lulu lugging heavy bags. Heartbreaking. On 10th May, I went out to take videos which I posted on FB, of the people in queues at 4 supermarkets including Lulu. I myself couldn’t believe the where these queues ended. Lulu had one for men on the left and woman on the right and they were around the entire length of Salam Mall waiting for hours, unable to even have a sip of water. No one even thought about those having no means of transportation! At least the cops were lenient & understanding during the last 3 days & didn’t arrest anyone who broke curfew in the morning.

Fitna

MoH already asked for volunteers to translate since before crisis entered state, daily updates multi language
https://instagram.com/moh_media_office

Grocery delivery from Coop itself, book appointment to go yourself on Moci, or call 101 to arrange appointment, both coop and private supermarket available

Call any government entity or emergency services for guidance in your language

Thank you for being open enough to voice criticism, Mark. I feel your pain, and I know it comes from a place of frustration and, ultimately, care.

I’m a Kuwaiti who chose to not come back to Kuwait, and to ride this nightmare out elsewhere. I have my reasons for staying away, but most of them stem from my belief that Kuwait was not going to handle this outbreak properly when it eventually reached the country. I still believe Kuwait messed this up – from the initial flights that came in from Iran with the patient zeroes that weren’t quarantined, putting Kuwaitis up in lavish hotels on the government’s dime, the partial curfews, turning certain expat neighborhoods into WWII-style ghettos, a lack of decent communication to this total lockdown on a moment’s notice.

Unfortunately, this problem is the result of something long in the making: it was the way the people who run the show were raised that led us to this point. I know that there are so many Kuwaitis who are intelligent, hard-working, honest, perseverant and want to do right by this country, but the current government structure and relationships between certain power circles have squashed those people’s hopes and determination to a point where they were made powerless and frustrated, intentionally left out of positions of influence and either collapse into disgruntled lumps of “whatever, nothing matters, it’s too big a problem to fix” or leave Kuwait outright. The remaining dead weight, with their forged degrees, right last names and strong connections who pride themselves on their titles, award ceremonies, Instagram photo shoots and cheap PR are the ones calling the shots, and for the longest time I was always afraid that one catastrophe would push Kuwait to the brink of oblivion – and here we are.

Kuwait’s economy, already in increasing deficit for years, took a kick to the chest after oil prices dropped like a rock – despite the government blah blah blahing for years about how Kuwait 2035 will save us all, “more private sector” involvement and other spurious blather. The government blew tens of millions of dollars putting its citizens up in hotels around the world – my own brother was put up at a luxury hotel in Los Angeles before being transferred to a luxury penthouse in Beverly Hills [to which I ask, why this excess?]. People have been sitting at home for months, and the 90+ percent of the national workforce working in the government hasn’t had a pay cut when this would have been the PERFECT time to exercise that option because this outbreak affects us all as a people – but no. Kuwait’s social contract is one where the citizen takes from the state, but does not give to it. We are fed propaganda on the generosity of the state and its benefits, but we all know it’s unsustainable and will falter unless we address the elephant in the room: us, the people. Did you know that 69 percent of Kuwait’s total oil revenue as a state in 2016 was spent on government salaries? That’s nearly 50 percent of the country’s total expenditure for the year that went into people’s pockets. Over 90 percent of Kuwaitis work for the government, and an increasing amount of the forthcoming workforce would prefer to sit around unemployed waiting for a ‘government job’ that is little more than paid adult daycare than, Heaven forbid, having to really work.

Instead, we capitalize on xenophobia and alienating the expat, blaming him/her for taking our jobs, parasitically feeding on the nation and ruining our country. I’m all for cracking down on visa traders and illegal presences, but Kuwaitis need to take responsibility for their own country and the problems it is mired in. We as a people need to tighten our belts and make sacrifices, especially when the foundations of the country are growing weaker and weaker yet. I’m horrified that no articles from KUNA or the local papers have been talking about oil prices being 20 dollars a barrel today after lulling in the tens for weeks. ***SENTENCE EDITED OUT BY ADMIN*** Our culture of consistently reacting to problems after the sh_t hits the fan never served us well, but our leaders are not planners. They don’t communicate, and when they do, it’s in garbled English or arrogantly in Arabic only. This is an exercise to demonstrate the might of the government, not what’s right for the people. Kuwaitis were quick to applaud the closing of the airport in March, but why didn’t health officials quarantine those arrivals from Iran when we knew COVID-19 was running amuck since December? Why are we now enacting a total lockdown in the height of the summer where we know the power grid fails, and with barely three days notice? No planning, and too little, too late.

I know it seems like I went off on a wild tangent, but my point is this: we’re in the middle of a big problem, and a huge part of it – our lack of preparedness and inept handling of it – is of our own making, and unless we understand that we are accountable for everything and realize that this country is suffering under gross incompetence and negligence, we’re all doomed. It pains me to see people driven to fear, but enough is enough. I hope we can come out of this more informed, more grateful and more understanding that we need to do things differently if we want this country to survive and ultimately thrive.

Stay safe and healthy, everyone. To a better tomorrow.

That was really a good read, one of the best comments on Kuwait that I’ve read in a long time.

If there were 5 people in the leadership who had your insights, vision and the patience for critical introspection, Kuwait would have been the best country in the middle East.

Consider returning back to kuwait and taking up leadership to drive the country to change. Your views are good, but don’t be a backbencher just making remarks, kuwait like every other nation has a lot of them.

Wooooooowwwwww! ***this!*** My jaw is on the floor and I’m slow-clapping. Come back and run for office, this country needs you!

I agree with this!
Anyway, I just did my groceries today through the booking appointment. No crowd at all. but some items are not yet available maybe because of panic buying in the past few days. But at least you freely move without fear of contact with other people.

Stay Safe, Stay Home, Keep Praying!

A lot of people would have skipped risking their life at the supermarkets if people were aware that 1. Super markets would be open during lockdown 2. Coop would deliver during lockdown 3. Bakala’s would be open for a certain time during the day.

It’s all about communicating the complete message to the public

I went for a walk friday and saturday at 8am. Both days there were huge queues outside oncost , grand hyper, raie supermarket and sultan salem al Mubarak (which apparently shut yesterday at 1pm) by 8.05. Majority of people must live very close to those stores to get there by that time.
Point is if they had announced earlier that these places would be open during these 3 weeks and you can make an appointment to get what you need for a week then this mad rush might not have happened.
I’ve booked and been to lulu salmiya this morning and it was very easy and very quiet.

For those in areas that dont have much choice should be given opportunity to book in nearby areas. I was wondering what options anyone in rumathiya or shaab have whereas in salmiya we have alot of supermarkets operating.

The Sultan Center in Fahaheel(near the car garages) had a LONG wait time; however, they had the safest process in my opinion. They only allowed like 25 people in at a time and they gave those people like 30-40 minutes to show alone. It sucked waiting, but it was very nice to walk down aisles where maybe only 1 other person was in it. Of course all locals( even single men) were able to skip the 2 1/2 hour line, but that’s expected around here. I understood letting women skip, but 17 year old boys? Come on now. Anyway I give them props for making it a truly safe and peaceful shopping experience. Smart folks working in that branch.

Yesterday. This was the smaller Sultan Center in Fahaheel and not the one in Al Kout. The line wasn’t super long, but it took a while with the limited number allowed in, which was nice ONCE you get inside. They had plenty of food as well. All non-Arab and Egyptian expats had to wait in a longer line than everyone else. Not sure why young and healthy people were allowed to skip the line just because of their nationality. The last time I checked the Sultan Center was not a Co-OP.

Thanks for your rant Mark I was looking to find something like this somewhere!

This love hate relationship needs to end with this country! Sometimes you think things are just fine but something or the other just has to happen that ruins that feeling immediately!

Timing was 1 issue…

Info sharing was issue number 2… Dont say “restaurants will be closed especially those without delivery permits!!!” That gives one hope that atleast those wit delivery permits will be working… Which they r not now!

Issue number 3 is people who are pending the release of there ID’s from the ministry due to renewal or transfer! I cant book an appointment even if I wanted to!

Issue number 4 is not having ngos or whoever setup regurlar & dedicated checkposts for food distribution in mahboula & jleeb… mahboula seems to be doing better in this regard but jleeb is literally being treated like it does not exist!!! Atleast not my block… They come in un-announced, they r irregular & they just go! Feels very half hearted here…

& Lastly issue number 5 is there attitude with seeing the other 3 million as land cruisers & pajeros that they can just send to the service center when they appear faulty (I meant to use this as a joke but wtf to that!) & bring them back once they r up & running again…

At the start it really felt like everybody was a part of the national effort… Now a lot of us are just feeling neglected again…

Mark I understand your frustration. However, the lines at the grocery stores I think were unecessary, because most of those people went to stock up on groceries whereas the government said the coops will remain open and you can shop from with an appointment, so why all the lines?
Now, what Im upet about is the pet stores being closed and vets also, I have 3 cats and I couldnt find dry food or litter in my coop, and Im allowed one appointment per week so 🤷‍♀️

As for the the 2 hour walk, thats a joke, do you want to tell me that all of Kuwait used to exercise before? Now every single person during that time is out just for the sake of getting out of the house, so no social distancing in crowded areas- people are using it as an excuse to socialise

Again for the millionth time, you couldn’t book an appointment because the only option to book was for the coop and the coop was already fully booked. They just opened up private supermarkets last night.

By Post Author

Thank you Mark! How do we fight fake news if we are to rely on bad translations? Even if they do post in English, it’s so bad they leave us with more questions than answers.

Regarding the first complain, people unfortunately aren’t realizing that they can reserve permits to go to the co-ops once a week, instead they resolve their fear of the completely lock down with the ancient human instinct of hoarding food items as they purchase what seem to sustain one family for more than a month! They are not mindful to share the supplies and food items with others – this is why shelfs are emptying fast and more people are agitated on the entire matter. But this is what happens when man is driven by his instincts without controlling them and rationalizing his fear in the proper way, which is- things will be fine! Nobody will ever die of hanger in this country.

Regarding your second complain, I’m hundred percent behind you on it.

Hamad, I have to disagree with you. The issue was they had appointment system just for the Coop which in high density areas like Salmiya meant you could never get an appointment. 300,000 people live in Salmiya while the Coop could handle around 10,000 a week. Do the math. So the only option was to hoard food for three weeks which is what I did as well.

But, last night they added all the private supermarkets in the area to the appointment list so we can now finally get super market appointments.

By Post Author

True, such point slid my radar. In return, coops should increase their efficiency handling such numbers! To combat this sudden demand they should’ve allowed everyone to have the option to choose private supermarkets from the very start instead of people lining up, wasting their time, and they don’t even get inside at times! And once they’re inside the supermarket, many products are out of stock.

I hope all safety and tranquility at those dire times.

The funny thing is I booked an appointment to do grocery shopping in TSC this morning, shelves were fully stocked and the whole Supermarket was empty. Was in and out with no worries at all in less than an hour and that was with me taking my sweet a** time.

Then again fear really shakes people up so, to each their own.

Hello B, I would like to inquire of you the protocol for getting yourself to Sultan Center. Did you simply have the confirmaiton information at the ready on your phone in case you were stopped as you walked to the store? Thanks in advance for your answer!

Hey Union Jack!

Yup took a screenshot of the confirmation code, and they scan it at the entrance before letting you in to confirm your registration.

All in all a pretty simple process 🙂

Wow! 🙂

Never read a post from you like this before.

But you have a point. I pretty much knew that this lockdown was going to happen on Friday so I went to Lulu to stock up. Mark, you should have seen it. If I’ve caught the disease I caught it there. I even shot some videos.

There were hundreds of people, no social distancing.

Trust me – the cases will go up around a week to 10 days from now.

I do know it’s difficult for countries but more info would be appreciated. I’ve mentioned before my wife and kids have had to leave and I’m on my own here for the first time since myself and my wife met. I have no idea when I will see them again. Why? Because no-one would confirm whether the tourist visa would be renewed or not and we couldn’t take the risk.

In many ways they are doing a good job but in other ways a little more comms would have been appreciated. To them, tourist visas may not be a priority but to those families are split up it’s horrible.

I wish I’d recorded my 4 year old saying to me at the table at our last meal “Daddy, when the germs are gone will you come to me? Will I see you again?”. If I had, I’d send it to the ministry.

Fitna

MoH already asked for volunteers to translate since before crisis entered state, daily updates multi language 13 translations
https://instagram.com/moh_media_office

Grocery delivery from Coop itself, book appointment to go yourself on Moci, or call 101 to arrange appointment, both coop and private supermarket available

Call any government entity or emergency services for guidance in your language

First regarding the survival thing : there was no reason and still isnt for people to be panic buying like what you saw , all food related merchandise is still open , the government kept screaming for weeks dont panic shop, everything will be available to everyone, if you are claiming there aren’t any “private” grocery markets than thats just a delicacy you are looming for not necessity, which im sure u can live 3 weeks without, even people who cant afford eating and buy bread the government is supplying food baskets on a daily basis so dont complain in that field please, and honestly giving that one day heads up was wrong, it was supposed to be zero days heads up they should have just announced the full curfew has started whilst the partial was still in place, then u wouldnt have seen those STUPID panic buyers shoulder to shoulder or as you call them ( heart breaking survival instinct ) come on you know that all the grocery ( bagala ) super markets, bread company, dairy company , etc are fully operational and accessible to everyone, im sure you fine dinong people can survive 3 weeks without sultan center or savco

Turns out even your private supermarkets can be accessed via the online booking….. so the fact remains, they asked people for weeks to hoard shop and all shops will remain fully open, even xcite and ureka are still delivering, we ordered groceries from an online app 2 days ago and got it today

You’re delusional! You can’t expect people not to go out shopping right after the government announced a 3 week lockdown. How are people going to survive without food? moci.shop? Maybe you live in Qortoba or another fancy low residential area where 40,000 resident share a coop that can cater to 10,000 people a week. But, the majority of expats live in high density residential areas like Salmiya where its 300,000 residents trying to share a coop that can cater to 10,000 people a week. So you’re being very naive here. Only late last night did they add the private supermarkets to moci.shop.

You’re really fucking stupid if you think we were asking for private supermarkets because we were trying to be fancy. We were asking for private supermarkets so the 300,000 residents in Salmiya can actually have a chance of going to a supermarket no matter what that supermarket was. What an idiot, go back to your bubble.

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I don’t agree with the whole sentiment that they gave people only a day to buy food for 3 weeks. I’m sorry, but last time I checked, supermarkets are NOT closing down. They are still open, you want to get food during the lockdown, it’s as simple as getting an appointment. Also, if you don’t have enough food for 2-3 weeks ahead, especially during this crisis, then that’s on you. It was VERY clear a full lockdown was coming, and you should have prepared beforehand.

Information being in Arabic only is an issue, but I wouldn’t be THIS annoyed. There are enough English local newspapers and websites translating everything.

I mean you don’t have to agree but it’s a fact. Secondly it wasn’t as simple as getting an appointment. You’re saying that because you probably live in an area like rawda, qortoba, mishref, bayan etc.. where population is around 30,000-40,000. For areas like Hawalli (200,000) and Salmiya (300,000) you couldn’t book an appointment.

Finally which is the weirdest thing, you’re saying it was “VERY” clear a full lockdown was coming, how was it very clear can you explain to us? Do you mean the rumors of a lockdown? The same rumors the government was telling us to ignore?

Finally, the government has shared a list of official sources that we should follow for news, English newspapers and random websites aren’t on the list. So how do you differentiate fake news from real news?

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Mark your last two paragraphs here perfectly show why the government shouldn’t cooperate with accounts to spread information

My daughter got into the country on a work visa and the lock down went into effect. Now, this would mean, no medicals and no bio-metric done. So, now, she has no visa stamped and no id. Would you care to comment how people such as these who are new comers in this country that is new to them have to handle a situation such as this? As a matter of fact, she even got a new number that got cancelled after 30 days because she did not submit the national ID.

So, here we have someone in a new country with incomplete documents having no phone line and stuck for possibly another 20 days if not more.

The country is over saturated with expats, most neither professionals nor skilled, not willing to respect social distancing as seen today in gulf road, hoard shopping , illegal residents from them aren’t willing to leave and if so with rebellious manner, I respect everyone from where ever they come from and what ever religious background or ethnic group living in Kuwait, but do we actually need all these numbers ? 1.5 million Kuwaitis vs 2.5+ million expats ? Once corona is over isn’t it time to re think all of this ? No taxes, no taxes on money transfer, paying electrical and water bills that are 25% the cost of production, using infrastructure roads, hospitals, etc , for what ?

For what? For running everything that makes a country function from picking up the trash and cleaning the toilets to running the largest companies and banks. These 2.5mil aren’t just chilling on the beach all day…

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yeah hence what i said “over saturated” meaning not all of them aren’t required, but the majority aren’t. Do we need this much delivery drivers, co-ops grocery baggers, cashiers, security personnel, ( 400,00 illegal residents ) many many more jobs, beside the “they run all the big companies part” id rather Kuwaitis did it with triple the amount rathar than an expat who lives her for years and not contribute financially to the country, zero taxes zero commission on money transfers, the cheapest medical/educational expenses globally, electrical/water fees that are 25% the cost of production, no road usage fees,

Kuwaitis cant run the largest companies and banks here ? Seriously ?

Of course Kuwaitis can run the largest banks, anybody from any nationality can run the largest banks. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re the best person for the job. Giving someone a position just because of their nationality or who they know isn’t how you run a business. Alshaya just got a new CEO, he’s not Kuwaiti and the previous CEO wasn’t Kuwaiti either. Does this mean no Kuwaiti could take the job? No. It just means there was someone else more qualified that happened not to be Kuwaiti. You really need to stop with this Kuwaiti vs Expats mentality, it’s not healthy for the country. Kuwait wasn’t built by Kuwaitis alone, it has always been a joint effort with expats ever since oil was discovered.

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You are funny my friend. Expats contribute a lot to this economy as they pay the rent that goes into the Kuwaitis pockets. Think of the expat who has lived here for 2 decades and has paid rent, would have ended up paying off a huge sum of a mortgage back in their country and contributed to the economy and society back home but no they chose to serve this country instead. Money transferred out is not as much as money spent here even with groceries and the living standards going up. You are right that the population imbalance is an issue and will be taken care of once the lockdown and normality strikes. Futhermore there will be taxes to come eventually in Kuwait. It is getting harder to live here.

Rent ?? That’s the contribution ? Money transferred outside is not as much as spent here on groceries ?? I am the funny one ? As for getting harder to live here I hope so , so people who are here for the $$$ and nothing but the $$$ can migrate like the locust in search for a place to dry out

How can you say “not contribute to the country”? Those baggers and delivery drivers you’re talking about work long hours for our comfort. Some of them even earn pennies compared to the rest of the demographic. To give you an eg; During the lockdown I had ordered from a well known restaurant for dessert. They promised a delivery of 45 mins during partial curfew. They didn’t do that and they sent a Kuwaiti to deliver it once the order was cancelled. Instead of delivering to my doorstep, which is what normal delivery guys do, he left it with my security.
You want Kuwaitis to do the hard labor, fine, but make sure it’s not a handful of them.
The so called illegals came in thru a visa given by a sponsor. Maybe ask them.
Get rid of this “expat this expat that” narrative, specially during these times where expats are the ones who are most affected.

We don’t need a grocery bagger, I am old enough to bag my own groceries if you can’t or it’s ‘’hard labor’’ for you than you are part of this problem. We don’t need 5 companies dedicated for deliveries, we don’t need thousands of security personal who do exactly what a security camera does and nothing more. I don’t have a problem with expats being here, I have a problem with the ratio to Kuwaitis, and for the ones who aren’t actually needed here. And yes Kuwaitis like you who consider bagging groceries as ‘’hard labor’’ are one of the reasons for this problem

Funny you mention that because I found it funny how they got rid of the baggers at the Coops because they were afraid they were spreading the virus, but then they replaced them with kuwaiti volunteers. Is it really that essential to have people bag our bags? In a time of crisis like this can’t they let us bag our own bags? I guess not.

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Oh boy…blame it on the expats…

If Kuwaitis didn’t need them, they wouldn’t be here. As Mark said, if you can get the Kuwaiti kids to be garbage men, then you don’t need them. If you can get Kuwaiti moms to handle their own children, you don’t need them. Or drive taxis. Or rake leaves. Or build houses.

Oh, by the way, the wife and kids and I went out for a walk this evening. Only ones wearing masks. So, if you can get the Kuwaitis to follow their own rules…well…maybe expats help the rule-following ratio.

So Kuwaitis now are the corona virus spreaders in Kuwait and expats are the role models now , yeah I can tell from the Salmiya video today 🙂 we need expats , but only 30% of them, the reason why the other 70% are here is due to human trafficking and bad government governance on that. ( You neither collect garbage nor rake leafs or drive a taxi or build a house or are a nanny or are you ? ) so if you aren’t one of those jobs I guess you aren’t required here right ? 🙂 plus we ran our own country for 9 months during the invasion in 1990 working all those jobs so ….

Why do they not follow Sri Lanka’s example and have a day open between the lockdown. Example lockdown for 6 days and have 1 day where people can go out to get their essentials.

Fair points… but working with other channels to share information (like kuwaitup2date and other shit pages) and your gonna fall in a rabbit hole of problems. You’ll have people believing almost everything they see regardless of the source, something that we already have a huge problem with.

Official agencies should be the only source of these important matters

You’re talking about a government who doesn’t take too kindly with anybody criticizing their policies. That along with the attitude of ‘If you don’t like it GTFO’ is what is wrong with this country.

Wonder how long before you are asked to take this post down.