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Coronavirus

Welcome to Stage 1

Today is the first day of Stage 1 and this means partial curfew for most of Kuwait. If you’re in one of the areas still in lockdown, I’m sorry about that, it must really suck. Salmiya blocks 10, 11 and 12 seem not to be in lockdown this morning even though it was originally announced they would be.

I was up early around 7 this morning and headed straight to the nearest Arabica to pick up coffee. The streets were pretty busy, the falafel near my place was packed and Trolley in Salmiya which is always empty had a queue outside. When I got to Arabica there were 6 cars waiting which wasn’t too bad compared to the Jabriya Starbucks line you can see in the video above. The Gulf Road was pretty busy and a lot of parking lots had the entrance barriers moved aside by people and cars were going in to park in the lots.

Everyone is obviously relieved the lockdown is over, I just hope everyone takes wearing a mask seriously and respects social distance. I’m hoping Avenues opening up in Stage 2 is enough incentive for people to follow the rules over the next 3 weeks. Stay safe everyone.

35 replies on “Welcome to Stage 1”

Im confused. Are the lockdown areas still in Total Curfew? or does the Partial Curfew apply to it?

Basically some r screwed some r enjoying u call it luck I’ll call it bad luck whatever it is but better b safe than sorry the amount of rush is same as how the migrant workers were seen rushing for a pack of Khubz hope this is realized by people how half of the population is hungry n starving n waiting for relief n half of the population r enjoying cup of coffee.

“I just hope everyone takes wearing a mask seriously and respects social distance. I’m hoping Avenues opening up in Stage 2 is enough incentive for people to follow the rules over the next 3 weeks.”

You would think. But lets be realistic here, people don’t give a rats backside, they are too selfish and stupid to care.

I just 20 min ago drove past Starbucks Sabah al Salem and the line was like 20-25 cars, no thank you.

Under isolation, it really does suck.

A very real source of anxiety is that with people being out and about, the cases will continue to increase and the isolation will be extended by 3 week increments.

I can’t see this move to isolate certain areas as anything less than discriminatory towards expats.

No one, not even those who are categorized here as an ‘unskilled/marginal’ workers should be kept in confinement for over 2 months. If COVID is your reason, then COVID affects us all.

Reserving the basic human right to freedom for only a select population is beyond regressive.

Hi Ed, I’m kind of tired of the age old argument that every new ruling that is enacted in Kuwait is discriminatory towards expats.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of Kuwaitis living in Farwaniya, Jleeb and Maidan Hawalli and Hawalli (I personally have siblings who live in Hawalli and they’re Kuwaiti).

So please, spare us the self-victimization.

Hello Tired Person,

Where I live, the specific blocks where Kuwaitis live have not been placed under isolation. I won’t bother explaining how that diminishes ones sense of self.

In the interest of having a productive conversation, could you please let me know how the new measures are not discriminatory and will lead to a reduction in the spread of COVID-19 across the country?

I empathize with your siblings who are under isolation, perhaps you should try it instead of adopting an uncivilized attitude while enjoying the privileges afforded to you.

I’ve had a look at your blog. Its interesting to find that you’re one of the millions who hold Indian cinema in such high regard. Don’t you find it appalling how a majority of their citizens are treated in this country?

Or are you too tired to care?

Completely agree. I live in one of these isolated areas and right next to my block is a small Kuwaiti residential area which is exempted from the lockdown. I cannot think of any other reason why this would be. Why not lockdown the entire area including the residential one?
Also Bollywood over Hollywood, how do you come off as such an entitled, arrogant jerk in almost all of your comments on this blog?

Not attacking. You’re just always rude. I don’t know if you know this is how you sound to others, or you just don’t care.
Commenting online is privileged and entitled? You do know that almost every other person has access to the internet, right?

Commenting online is commenting.

You’re name-calling, there’s a difference.Insulting someone and calling them all sorts of names, especially behind the luxury of one’s keyboard, is privileged as you’re doing it from a vantage point. Here’s my e-mail: [email protected]. I’ll send you my number and you can say whatever you want to say to me directly to my face.

But knowing people like you, you probably won’t.

How is insulting someone who hasn’t said anything to you not considered rude to you? I’m rude apparently so you want to be rude too by calling me names? That makes sense.

Hey Ed, if Kuwaitis can do whatever they want to do as you’re saying then why are the police stopping Kuwaitis who violate the curfew every single day? Tell me.

My mother and neighbors are Kuwaiti and they couldn’t go anywhere during the two week nationwide lockdown.

I don’t understand why people think Kuwaitis can do anything they want.

I think South Asians across the world and in the Middle East are looked down on and mistreated and I’m very much against that in every single way. I consider myself an Indophile so I try to be as connected to India as much as possible through my travels, my connections, my writing etc.

I’m not an Epidemiologist so I can’t say what will or won’t stop the transmission of COVID-19 but I have faith in the Kuwaiti government.

Hope I was able to answer everyone. I looked at my previous comments and I mostly spoke about how I want to go to some restaurants, I don’t see how that’s being conceited. People go to restaurants in Kuwait all the time. I’m not the only one.

The sad thing is that there is a 0.1% chance at best of places like Jleeb and Mahboula not being under lockdown for a further 6+ weeks regardless of how few cases there are there.

Apparently maidan hawally meant the block in hawally that has alqadsiya sports club and not salmiya blocks 10, 11 and 12

I won’t begrudge anyone whatever their standard of normalcy is. If they’re open, I’m planning on ordering food so I don’t have to cook again.

But, I really have to ask. What in the hell is open that SO many people are out on the road right now?!?! The intersections near my house were jammed at 6 this morning. Are people just out driving around just to drive around? Three wrecks at the same time within 500m. Amazing. Honking like there’s no tomorrow at every green light. Amazing.

And, was there ever an official English version of the phasing plan published? Are grocery stores normal now, or do you have to make an appointment? What retail places are open? When will places like Jarir open?

The Avenues. Are rules going to be enforced, or will that just be the beautiful people blowing past mask checkers until it’s pointless? Rhetorical question.

People just don’t want to be back home. Once i leave my office I’m gonna be out for as long as i can before going back home today.

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Again, I totally understand that. There should have been a plan to open parks, with social distancing controls put into place, so people had someplace to actually GO, and not just drive around cruising.

This country has some seriously bad driving. Making that the only leisure activity for a bored-and-recently-liberated populace might be the definition of piss-poor planning.

Then again, it seems anyone not driving is busy ordering Talabat. ARRRRGHH!!!!!

To be honest that just sounds like the high standard of Kuwaiti driving that I have become acustomed to.

I was an avid drinker of coffee prepandemic. I left my coffee grinder, beans & press at work so I am now detoxed from it. After initially suffering 3 days of migraine headaches I’m fine and don’t crave it. I wonder if I’ll start drinking it again once back to work??

Mark, Out of curiosity , how is the coffee taste? I think since they had their beans (unsold) for so long it should taste like sh*t.

Why would you think a brand like Arabica, or any brand would want to damage their image by serving stale coffee or food just to make a few bucks on the first day? Arabica is not serving coffee from 4 week old beans, they wouldn’t do that just for some bit of money. They’ve been operational during the lockdown because they had their drinks at Trolley daily. So the beans are fresh.

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Don’t they roast their own beans? I think the green coffee bean -If stored properly – has a decent shelf life before it degrades in taste.

Anyway, addicts probably won’t complain too much! Haha

yeah they do, green beans last months but he was assuming they were using beans that had been roasted before the lockdown.

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Does one need to make appointments for supermarkets outside their area of residence or is everything open?