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Frustrated Kuwaitis ask, why is Kuwait falling behind?

reuters

Reuters have an interesting article today on why Kuwait is falling behind.

When Shawaf al-Shawaf wanted to register his kitchen tools business in Kuwait, the bureaucratic process took six months. In Saudi Arabia, it took him less than a day.

“If I need to go to a government department, I cancel my whole day because I know I will spend the whole time there,” said Shawaf, 24, who set up his company Dolsten in late 2012.

A 2013 World Bank ranking on the ease of doing business puts Kuwait at 104 out of 189 economies, by far the lowest in the GCC. The next lowest, Qatar, is at 48 while Saudi Arabia is at 26 and the UAE leads at 23.

I don’t think its just Kuwaitis who are asking, everyone is. Here is a link to the [Article]

Thanks Ahmed

49 replies on “Frustrated Kuwaitis ask, why is Kuwait falling behind?”

we all know why, so whats the use of commenting anyways.

One advice though, Change your attitude Sir, and it can change Kuwait, there is a lot of potential.

What attitude dude?

He is telling the truth. Here is my experience, tried to open coffee shop with four partners (we are all Kuwaiti) 3 of them dropped off and abandoned the idea, just because of the horrible long wait to process our papers in ministry of social affairs and labor (الشؤون)while we were paying the rent for the cafe location for 4 months but couldn’t start running it until we get the permission from those stupid people.

Simply reformating and reinstalling the same won’t work either.

Repartition, reformat and use a different installer. May even have to change hardwares too!

There is nothing wrong with Kuwaiti society, in comparison to other societies in the Arabian Gulf.

Kuwaitis have the least conservative society in the Arabian Gulf.

99.9% of Emirati women wear the black abaya and niqab. 99.9% of Qatari women wear the black abaya and niqab. 99.9% of Saudi, Bahraini and Omani women wear the black abaya.

Do the majority of Kuwaiti women wear the niqab and black abaya? No

We have our flaws, but at least our society isn’t ultra-religious to the point all the women are stuck in black for the rest of their lives

In Emirati and Qatari society, it’s not socially acceptable for women to wear anything but the black abaya. In Kuwaiti society, it’s socially acceptable and common for Kuwaiti women to wear Western clothes.

Seriously, Emiratis and Qataris are much more religious than Kuwaitis but Emiratis have no political participation so UAE has legal nightclubs and booze everywhere. If UAE had political participation among Emirati citizens, there would be no nightclubs and booze.

What women wear or if the society is religious or not is not a sign of modernity. The country’s economy and human development index AS A WHOLE is what matters.

You’re looking at the small picture.

@lucky dude…….we r on the same page bro,

you did not get me, i was talking about their attitude and how things can change if they change.

but surprised, 4 dudes, no wasta? shunu hada

well i run three businesses, and im moving to bahrain soon, they gave me all that i need, facilities, and quick goverment businesses, while here, the shuoon and baladiya and tejara, want me to pay bribes to make my papers finish in time, which is their job to begin with! im so sorry to say, i love kuwait, but i hate business in kuwait!

Refering to the picture posted, love how in Kuwait we have transformers, roads and streetlights set up in a new area FIRST, and then homes are built.

In so many countries, its the other way around. Credit to Kuwait where its due.

However, coming to the topic…
Sorry, my fingers are tired – Buqra In Sha Allah.

Ahh..to solve the many problems of Kuwait is so simple, yes, I said simple. You all demand to be managers, yet there are no managers. Two words come to mind that would solve a whole host of issues, one word is ‘regulate’ and the other one is ‘implement’. Start demanding that your government perform, you are really embarrassing yourselves in the GCC and you should have the potential to overhaul the ‘system’ because the groundwork has already been done for you in the GCC, you just have to care to change.

Witness the decaying infrastructure.

The awful, decrepit ministries

No visas for new companies

Lack of development in healthcare, education, IT, telecom, finance

Zero leadership or vision…..

And did anyone mention the 10’s of billions of dollars that gets sent away each year as Foreign Aid?

@Nathan Remember though, hospitals are only as good as its doctors. I’ll tell you a quick example, I had to be rushed to an ER in Kuwait vomiting with my head spinning The DR, trained in the ME, took my pulse, looked at me and said you have food poisoning. So I told the doctor, “but I don’t eat in restaurants in Kuwait”. “No you have food poisoning!”. Didn’t order any tests, which is how hospitals make money, just diagnosed me out the air like a god-like figure. So I hopped on a plane and went to Dubai, where the doctor, who was trained in the US, ordered an endoscopy where he discovered that I had a hernia and an ulcer in my stomach. The next four rooms were all filled with Kuwaitis waiting to see this doctor. So you can build a beautiful hospital, but if you can’t attract quality doctors, your hospital is rubbish.

Exactly, in Kuwait the idea is only to build these grandiose buildings and lobbies in hospitals. All of this decor means nothing, if the healthcare practitioners are sub-par. You can dress a monkey in the best suit, but in the end all you got is a monkey ( just a damn well dressed one).

There was this guy in another GCC country who was in severe pain and was rushed to the ER.

He came out running.

His friend asked, “what happened?”

He replied: “That’s our local market butcher wearing a white coat!”

We shouldn’t feel the need to defend our country for falling behind. You know as well as I do that Kuwait isn’t exactly meeting the demands of it’s society.

+1 just look at the above and below posts about how there is nothing wrong and everything is perfect. Every country in the world always has room for improvement. Howard Zinn said “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism”. You can love your country and still point out things that need to be fixed. In fact you should be doing that if you do love it.

The youth of Kuwait embody the hopes and dreams of this nation. They are the future generations that will be responsible for shaping the future development of this nation. It is also important that Kuwait utilize their current wealth wisely in supporting youth advancement. The GCC‘s six member nations make up one of the most youthful regions in the world, where one-third to one-half are under the age of 25. This is a very important point, because the bureaucracy hurdles that are not being addressed today will affect the society for decades. It’s great that this nation has the ability to fund its youth by sending them overseas for a quality education, but what happens when they are faced with crucial issues like ‘Youth Unemployment’ when they return home? Basically, when you implement key projects like the airport and the metro, to name a few, you increase job opportunities for your nation, and this is not being done due to the stagnation. You should encourage your youth to entrepreneurship, but as this article states, the ‘system’ goes against the process and the system needs to be overhauled, so it is the government’s job to acquire the knowledge from neighboring GCC nations, understand the obstacles that they went through in the process and implement them in Kuwait. Kuwait is like a horse with a broken leg, you can either shoot it and put it out of its misery or you can try to fix the leg and nurture it back to health.

The vast majority of our government institutions are filled with barely passed or high school drop outs who barely come to work and are impervious to being fired, all while collecting a starting salary of 750+ KD and guaranteed salary increases every year. Offices are baron with only 1 or 2 employees doing any actual work, and there are no repercussions for this behavior. Do you think theres any problems with that?

There are tons of offices that still utilize typewriters, 90s computers and printers from the 80s. Our new civil IDs have computer chips in them, and you’d think that there would be a centralized file on you where they can access all your information instantly with a swipe of it, but I have never seen anyone use it since I got it in 2007. Do you think thats anywhere close to being up to world standards?

On top of all of that we have a culture revolving around being peaceful and nice. but absolutely only to people you know or your family. Individuals cut in front of lines, skip numbers and if you confront them about it they ignore you or get hostile. 1-3 hours wait time for a 5 minute stamp is incredibly normal. Do you think theres anything wrong with that?

We are so backwards and misguided that it hurts.

Kuwaitis are not backwards. Kuwaitis are the least conservative Gulf Arabs.

99.9% of Emirati women wear the black abaya and niqab. 99.9% of Qatari women wear the black abaya and niqab. 99.9% of Omani women wear the black abaya.

Do the majority of Kuwaiti women wear the niqab and black abaya? No

We have our flaws, but at least our society isn’t ultra-religious to the point all the women are stuck in black for the rest of their lives

In Emirati and Qatari society, it’s not socially acceptable for women to wear anything but the black abaya. In Kuwaiti society, it’s socially acceptable and common for Kuwaiti women to wear Western style clothes.

Seriously, Emiratis and Qataris are much more religious than Kuwaitis but they have no political participation among citizens so UAE has legal booze and nightclubs. If UAE had political participation among Emirati citizens, there would be NO booze, no night-clubs and hardly any Westerners.

Seriously!?!?! Bringing up religion when what is being mentioned is the absurd entry level salaries and undermanned Government offices (and not for the lack of employees). Or the fact that the technology used in said offices a terribly out dated. Also, mentioned is the lack of respect, by both Nationals and Expats by the way, when it comes to cueing in line. NO ONE mentioned religion brother. Take a chill pill.

It’s not just about religion, Kuwaitis have the most liberal society in the Arabian Peninsula region.

Kuwaiti society isn’t backward – that’s my main point.

The United States used to be one of the most conservative societies in the world during the 40s until up to the 80s and no one called them backwards. What Yousefq8 more than likely meant, I could be wrong, is that Kuwait is backwards in regards to its bureaucratic systems. Also, the fact that the people here (once again both nationals and expats alike) do not feel they have to follow laws or basic common courtesies. Liberalism or conservatism have nothing to do with being backwards or forwards. Therefore your point is immaterial.

We get your point and so does the rest of the GCC, but what perturbs us is that you keep saying in the media that you are conservative and that is not what we see in the GCC. Emirati women are not suppressed, they are offered a whole host of opportunities because their government developed their nation, diversified the economy away from the oil and cared about addressing issues that effect future generations. Yes, they developed a tourism industry in the UAE that is why there are night-clubs in Dubai who you board those flights to attend, but what is experienced by Westerners in the UAE is religious tolerance. Emiratis are not obsessed with what expats eat and drink in the confines of their own homes and by the way, the UAE has strict Islamic Sharia laws, so if you cross the line, you will face charges. What we view, is that you would be better off to open your society according to what reflects who you are as a nation, and yes, that is not conservative. I heard a comment in the UAE, who said,”Who do they think they are, they come to the UAE with their noses up in the air and everyone knows that nothing is going on over there as far as a development plan”. You disembark with egg all over your face, starved for a solution to your stagnation and looking around saying “Why can’t my country be like this dragging your feet in the sand. It’s a fair question and it is a question that goes unaddressed, so if you are to hold your head high in the GCC, implement key development project, overhaul the system and reflect to the world who you are in a positive light. Although, how a women dresses is very important in the GCC, it is not the core of your problems, but will be used to judge who you are as a nation, unfortunately. If there was NO booze and no night-clubs in the UAE, half of you wouldn’t go there.

Emirati females are obliged to wear the black abaya due to their society’s rules. When an Emirati girl doesn’t wear the black abaya, she is labeled a whore by society.

Kuwaiti society doesn’t oblige Kuwaiti women to wear the black abaya.

So yes, Emiratis are very conservative and Emirati women are technically oppressed because if they don’t wear the abaya, they’re labeled whores.

Even in Oman, Omani women are obliged to wear the black abaya due to their society’s rules. 99.9% of Omani women wear the black abaya.

I am glad that Kuwaiti society isn’t like Emirati, Qatari and Omani societies.

My transportation business is derailed by Traffic Dept. immobilizing my vehicles for 2 months because of “Dukhaan” which honestly I can’t see, but they can.
Best of luck am not doing business again..lol

Dubai has on its cards a plan to create roughly around 277,000 new jobs roughly before 2020. How many does Kuwait plan to create? Also keep in mind I used the word create, not deport or expel allready existing expats from their jobs and fill them with locals.

The 277,000 new jobs will be for all sorts of levels and qulaifications. The Emerati’s pride them selves on the fact that they believe starting at square 1 is not shameful and work themselves into the Manager’s office.

Their government wants their citizens to have pride in themselves, to excell and depend on themselves. They want the same for the expat community also. So that is why they make it easy for them to start up small buisness. They know that if they make their citizens and expat community happy then they will invest in the country.

I cant say the same for Kuwait. Here in Kuwait the first question you get asked when you want to start a buisness or approach a local to stand as partner or a sponsor is whats my cut? or if you start the buisness then my son who just got out of college has zero work or management experience becomes the General Manager with executive controlling authority in the company.

Here the expat works his ass off to start it up run it into the green only to be told F off when the buisness starts running it self.Is it any suprise that Kuwait has the highest amount of foreign remmittance? Here expats send their hard earned cash by the truck loads back to their own country and contruibute to the foreign income of those countries rather than invest here in Kuwait. Why?? Beacuse they are not made to feel secure thats why !! Here an expat can get kicked out at a drop of a hat. His buisness can be taken over just as easily. So yeah why the suprise that Kuwait lags behind?? Like Ahmed said every body wants to be a manager. Too many chiefs not enough Indians.

Soon Kuwait will break a new record for the highest amount of Managers living off the state. Only good thing they have going for them is black gold will be around for another 100 years or so.. and their foreign investments will be around to keep every body rich and fed on state wellfare for another 100. So no need to worry Kuwait you are good for the next 2 centuries.

Unless of course use of oil becomes obselete 😉

” Every country follows its own path, according to the demands of its society ” the truest truth. Our demands for change are not met because we do not demand change and innovation. we demand nothing and we are compliant because we are lazy and are appeased by money to keep us quiet and calm the storm (whenever shadows of one arise). Our demands as a society are superficial at best- with each running to become the newest cupcake “business” owner. We are frustrated, but we also simply complain about the situation that highlight this frustration….and do nothing. We can all point at the bureaucracy and the corruption, and yes I also point and am frustrated, but we also are to blame for the lazy compliant environment we have helped fester into normalcy. I am not generalizing and I do know and appreciate that there are many hard working individuals that work for the betterment of Kuwait. That said however, our demands and frustrations are not met and change is not in the horizon until we change the very base of our structure and beliefs as a working society. You want people to demand change and to work hard, you make them hungry. Hell I would remove this sore pus from its very base: 1. Remove da3m il3amala- it helps the lazy thrive on laziness and 2. Re-evaluate the working laws- no Kuwaiti citizen can be fired & there must be a cap percentage on Kuwaitis in a private sector. Why bala? If a Kuwaiti wants a job, let them compete and work for it. You can’t get a managerial job because your credentials aren’t up to par? Tough luck. Work is work and there is no shame in whatever position you hold. You work what you deserve or what you are capable to handle. And finally, 3. throw one hell of a national tantrum storm (revolution anyone) whenever an unqualified individual in charge of our future is ‘appointed’. An unqualified person is unqualified, regardless of family name or money in the bank.

Firstly, allow me to state that I am not a Kuwaiti citizen nor a citizen of any GCC country. I am an American citizen and I do love Kuwait and consider it to be my home (regardless of what others might think about that). I own and operate a business here, so I know its intricate difficulties. I find it sad that in order to do anything one must either have strong injection of Vitamin Waw or pay rushwa to someone. Many of the laws that have been set up in this country are actually better than even in the United States, not saying all of them. Believe it or not it is actually easier to get a work visa here than in many Western countries. I believe someone mentioned the words “regulate and implement”, but you see enforcement is needed as well. Dubai is able to create 277,000 new jobs because it does not have to deal with the politics of a Parliament with MPs who want to see how they can benefit themselves any time someone brings a new idea to the table. I just came back from a trip to the Emiratees and I find that not only are the Emirates proud of being Emiratees but even the Expats are proud of living there. People talk about Dubai being an “Open” country yet completely ignore the fact that they are not a Democratic country, Maybe it’s due to the fact that their system works. Every time I visit the Emirates I find that even the Expats their are happy. Its amazing the conversations that Taxi drivers will have with you. The tension between the Emiratee national and the Expats is very difficult to find since they do not have politicians there to fan those flames while trying to get votes for an election. Everyone there seems to get a nice piece of the pie without fighting over it. I believe that the same can happen here. I was saddened when I returned from my trip and arrived at the airport to find so many sad and angry faces. I love Kuwait more than any place in the world and at time I feel even more than some Kuwaiti themselves. I want a bright a beautiful future for Kuwait, where EVERY one happy and proud to live here. I do not know what the future holds, only Allah ta ala does, but I am still hopeful for a good one.

Speaking of medical issues did any of you read this article in Arab Times ‘Poor services of MoH nurses slammed’

“Meanwhile, the lady confirmed her suspicion when one of her friends visited the hospital and saw a nurse who used to work as a housemaid in her house. She said the nurse had absconded from her friend’s house years ago, so she suspected the company may have employed many other untrained nurses like the one in question. She urged the ministry officials to intervene in time to stop the messy situation. She called for the officials to mount pressure on the recruitment agencies to sign up real nurses, because their action affects human life.”

I took my daughter to the clinic for her leg which had an infection, they gave me adol, I knew something was really wrong, took her to Mowasat and she had to have surgery the next day.

The Department of Motor Vehicles in Ahmadi is better than the ones in Brooklyn. It’s faster and people speak better English. 🙂 It’s not all doom & gloom.

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