Author: Mark

This really doesn’t make much sense to me. [Link]

Thanks instant cravings

I’ve been meaning to post an update regarding the photographer for a few days now but haven’t had the chance. After my last post a very kind reader contacted me and told me she would be willing to finance the whole trip to the Hajj for the old man. She ended up passing by and meeting the old photographer and was able to get all his paper work and pass it on to a hamla who are currently processing them. Hopefully there aren’t going to be any issues and everything works out. Thank you to everyone who offered to help and a huge thank you to the reader who is making this old mans last wish come true.

I found this video on YouTube which is supposedly of Kuwaiti policemen beating up some Iranian drug traffickers at the Doha port. The video is very low quality so it’s very difficult to confirm that these are actually Kuwaiti policemen and that this actually happened at the Doha port. The policemen in the video above though are wearing flak jackets that are very similar to the local police. I also have no idea if this video is recent or not. [YouTube]

Update: replaced the video with a slightly better quality one

A forum member brought up an interesting topic which I hadn’t been aware of before.

It seems the one dinar note has a picture of Shuwaikh port on one side. The picture is supposed to be of the first ship which docked at Shuwaikh. It happened to be a Swiss ship, so it had a cross on the chimney, like the one that appears on the Swiss flag. For obvious reasons the cross was colored out. I of course didn’t believe the story, but then I happened to come across one such note.

The picture above is the KD1 note he came across that has the Swiss flag. I quickly opened my wallet and checked the KD1 notes I had and noticed the chimney on mine didn’t contain the flag (check image below).

I thought this was very interesting specially since I hadn’t heard of this before. It reminded me of the Saudi airlines logo which used to have a hidden cross in it as well (not deliberately of course). Below is a scan I made from the design book Pentagram: The Compendium regarding the Saudia logo and also a brief mention of the Swiss flag and the Middle East.

Thanks lloyd_911

A short video featuring Hasan Bomejdad, a player in the Kuwaiti national table tennis team on the hardships disabled people go through in Kuwait. The video focuses specifically on the lack of proper parking facilities or the fact that people don’t respect the disabled parking spots. [YouTube]

As I mentioned in my previous post the bear enclosures at the Zoo were the only decent ones. They had 3 enclosures next to each other for 3 different types of bears. I filmed a short video of one of the bears he seemed to be enjoying himself in the water. [YouTube]

Ibrahim Al-Mazeedi is a Kuwaiti country musician whom I posted about early in the year. He just released another song which you can listen to above. This is what Ibrahim had to say about this song:

I have released a new single – a very touching and personal one. It can be related to anyone in the Arab region. But I wrote it about Kuwait. Tell me what you think… listen to the words carefully.

[YouTube]

I get a lot of emails from people who want to setup their own blog under their own domain name and want to know where they can get a domain name from and hosting as well. Although I am sure I’ve posted this information before I figured I would do a quick refresh post about this.

Domain Names
I’ve tried a few domain name providers including DIrectNic and GoDaddy but my favorite is NameCheap. Their prices are decent and their admin interface is great and easy to use. Unlike GoDaddy (which I couldn’t stand) they don’t try and sell you services you don’t need every time you want to do something. www.namecheap.com

Web Hosting
My blog is currently hosted on Rackspace which you really don’t need if you’re just starting out. I originally started using Dreamhost and still use them to host some of my other sites. The biggest advantage to Dreamhost is the fact you can install WordPress (the software that runs this blog) with just a click of a button. Makes it perfect for a beginner to start blogging and they also have a free trial so you could try them out first before you sign up. I also think they give you a domain name for free when you first start or at least they used to when I joined up. www.dreamhost.com

I’ve got the following 5 Dreamhost codes that give $15 off a 1 year sign up and $100 off a 2 year sign up. These codes only work once and I only have 5 so if you try one code and it says it’s used try the second one. If all 5 don’t work it means they’ve been used up already sorry…

794847165544
910624757385
912484430318
915566572416
235249317682

Use the 12-digit code in the “promo code” field.

Please note the options above are not your only options. There are tons of domain name providers and even more hosting providers but the ones above are the ones I use and trust. If you have any questions just post it in the comments below and I will try to answer it.

Update: You can also use the code FIVEZEROOFF when checking out for a $50 discount.

After reading an article in Arab Times about the Zoo management accepting criticism I figured with that the Kuwait Zoo had turned a new leaf and has changed for the better. Well I was there today and nothing has changed.

To be fair, the 3 new bear enclosures are a huge improvement over everything else at the zoo. They’ve also fixed the Bony sign by covering up the bottom right part of the B so that it now looks like a P. And that’s it. Thats the only two things that have improved.

The worst part about the whole zoo has to be the security guards. People were feeding the animals, throwing bottles of water at the animals, throwing garbage and jumping over the protective barriers while the security guards did nothing. I went up to one security guard and asked him if it was allowed to feed the animals, he told me no it wasn’t. I then asked him why he was letting people feed the animals or kids throw bottles at the bears. He pretended to be dumb and asked me who was doing that, I just pointed to the crowd standing next to him and told him they all are. He just looked at me confused and wondered off. A few minutes later we were near the monkey cages and I noticed two little kids over the fence feeding the animals with their parents proudly standing and watching. What was even more terrible was the fact there was a security guard sitting on a chair also just watching. I went up to him as well and asked him why he wasn’t doing anything about the kids over the barrier. I asked him what if one of the monkeys bit one of the kids? He just smiled back at me, he didn’t care.

As you can see in the picture above the two kids are over the barrier. In the second picture below you can see the security guard in the chair watching the kids in the background over the barrier.

Everywhere I looked there were people just throwing stuff at the animals and no one was doing anything about it. But the thing is, it’s not their fault. People aren’t expected to know they can’t feed the animals and I only saw one “Don’t feed the animals” sign in the whole zoo. It’s the job of the zoo to educate people, they should put up signs in multiple languages telling people not to feed or throw stuff at the animals and they should be located outside all the cages and enclosures. It’s then the job of the security guards to enforce the rules when they are broken. In both cases the zoo has failed miserably.

One of the biggest events of the year is back with Kuwait Stock 2010. This year’s music line up includes a lot of great talent, here are the bands participating:

The Feeling
The Rebs
Revolution
The Juice
Dead Electrics
Jelly Shot

Location: British Embassy
Date: October 15th
Tickets/invitation inquiries: [email protected]
Website: www.kuwaitstock.info

Thanks Mahmood

Update: Just emailed asking about ticket prices and got the following

Thank you for your interest in KuwaitStock. The event is by invitation only. If you are known to a KuwaitStock sponsor and they invite you, they will let you know about what to do.

Please note that an invitation is not transferable.

Hope to see you soon

KuwaitStock Committee 2010

Girl’s, you’ve let us down. I don’t understand how Bahrain could beat us?! [Link]

Thanks FYI

I spotted this new air conditioned bus stop today in Kuwait City. It’s pretty spacious on the inside with one split unit providing the cold air and a long bench for seating. What’s interesting is the no smoking or you will be fined KD15 warning plastered inside. I wish they would apply that to malls and restaurants and not just bus stops.

Two years back I posted about the possibility of Kuwait building nuclear plants, well it looks like they’re going to be building four! I just hope they don’t put the guy in charge of the sewage treatment plants to handle the nuclear power plants. [Link]

There are some EXTREMELY lucky people out there. [YouTube]

Just found out about this site called the Dawood Treasury which contains vintage articles from old newspapers. They have a section for Kuwait (where I got the ad above from) and also sections for other neighboring countries. I think the site is still getting updated so it should be interesting once they add a lot more stuff. [Link]

Thanks e7mood