Category: Complaints

A couple of days ago the MOI announced a ban on riding electric scooters on roads. That makes total sense if it wasn’t for the fact that the reason people are riding their electric scooters on roads, is for the same reason you see people walking or riding bicycles on roads, we don’t have sidewalks.

I live in Salmiya where I’ve noticed a lot of people have started using scooters to commute around. I’m 100% sure they don’t want to be riding their scooters on the roads but are forced to due to the lack of sidewalks. Driving around any area of residential Salmiya and you’ll also notice people walking on the sides of the roads as well because there are no sidewalks. And this doesn’t just apply to Salmiya, if you head to other densely populated areas like Jabriya, Salwa, Hawalli, etc. you’ll also see the exact same situation there.

A lot of these people don’t earn a lot of money and with the pandemic right now most would prefer not to use cabs or busses. Add to the fact these same people who are being banned from using scooters to commute can’t even get driving licenses because of the laws in place that prevent them. Scooters are a great alternative for public transportation and it’s really unfair that due to poor urban planning, these low-income workers are now not allowed to use them to commute. It’s as if we keep looking for ways to make life even harder for them here.

The video above has been circulating WhatsApp showing the observation tower at Entertainment City crashing down as part of the Entertainment City demolition process. I was thinking about the park yesterday on how they could have refurbished it instead of rebuilding a new one from scratch. It wasn’t the best amusement park in the world but at least it had a history and character. Not everything needs to be completely demolished for a new version. Disney Land has been around since 1955 and is still very current, Coney Island amusement park has been around even longer since the late 1800s and has gone through various stages of refurbishment and revival.

Yesterday as part of the new partial curfew announcement they also announced the areas that will remain in total lockdown and that list included Maidan Hawally Block 10, 11, and 12. This one line caused such a massive amount of confusion and I have no idea why they announced it this way.

There technically isn’t an area called Maidan Hawally and so Maidan Hawally Block 10, 11, and 12 don’t exist.

Salmiya Block 11 where the American International School is located is the area generally referred to as Maidan Hawally. It’s adjacent to the main Hawally but it’s on the other side of the highway in Salmiya. On the Kuwait Finder app, on Google Maps and on Civil ID cards, it’s called Salmiya Block 11. Maidan Hawally is not the official name but there is a police station there called Maidan Hawally Police Station and this is what people know the area as so it can pass. But what is Maidan Hawally Block 10 and 12? Supposedly Salmiya Block 10 and 12.

I’ve tried to visually illustrate the above. The areas in yellow, blue and green are Salmiya. The area in yellow is what is usually referred to as Maidan Hawally. Everyone living in these three colored areas live in Salmiya according to their Civil ID and Kuwait Finder. The English School (TES) and the Millennium Hotel both have their addresses listed as Salmiya Block 12, not Maidan Hawally Block 12 (source 1 and 2). The Abdullah Salem Cultural Center have their address listed as Salmiya Block 11, but describe the area as Maidan Hawally (Source). The Coop in Block 10 is called the Salmiya Coop Society Supermarket (source).

So if the area is called Salmiya, if on people’s Civil ID cards you’re referring to it as Salmiya. If government supermarkets in the area are referring to it as Salmiya, why announce a total lockdown of Maidan Hawally Block 10, 11 and 12? Wouldn’t it be a lot clearer if you called it by what it is, Salmiya Block 10, 11, and 12?

If THAT wasn’t confusing enough, above is the graphic posted by @CGCKuwait that mentions the areas of lockdown. They don’t even mention which blocks of Maidan Hawally just that Maidan Hawally is in lockdown. So everyone would assume its block 11 of Salmiya.

But, Watan News have the actual video of the announcement up and they’ve transcribed the video which mentions Block 10, 11, and 12. So Watan is actually being accurate while the official source isn’t.

This is so frustrating and we haven’t even gotten to the specifics of what a total lockdown of those areas means since it also wasn’t clarified. Will people in Salmiya Block 10 still be able to book an appointment at Lulu in Block 9? No clue.

Update: Map has been updated to correctly show all of Block 11

Update2: There is supposedly another conference tonight to clear up all the confusions

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.

I’m not sure why this isn’t made a bigger deal of but one thing that really bothers me is how Kuwaitis are discriminated against when it comes to renting apartments. It’s one area where expats have it much better and I don’t understand why no one seems to be protesting this. It just doesn’t make any sense how everyone seems to be ok with ads advertising homes and then having a large note stating its “Only for foreigners” on it. How is this even legal?

I’ve had a lot of friends struggle to find apartments because they were either single male or female Kuwaitis. There is a post on Reddit right now by a Kuwaiti guy who had to leave home due to family issues and ended up living in his car because he couldn’t find an apartment that would rent to him. Eventually, he managed to crash at a friend’s place for a couple of months but now he needs to move out and he still can’t find a place that would rent to him.

salam people of r/Kuwait. some of you may have seen my post slightly less than 3 months ago about how i am homeless due to family issues and could not find a place that would rent for a single Kuwaiti male. i wish they would trust me because i am a nerdy guy whose day only consists of going to work and playing video games so i never have anyone over. i am very responsible with spending so inshallah i would never be late for monthly rent payments unless a great emergency occurs.

some compassionate people have messaged me either offering emotional support or offering to help me find a residence to rent. i was planning on accepting one of those offers after getting my salary but a chance for free stay came up and i took it. i am sorry for ghosting on those who offered me help but i felt too awkward to tell them that i didnt need it anymore (rude and stupid of me).

now unfortunately i have stayed more than was comfortable (2.5 months) for the friend who provided me with free stay. i need to find a place of my own before Friday otherwise i will have to sell most of my stuff and go back to sleeping in my car. it will make me so happy to find a clean place where i can sleep comfortably without hearing shouting all day and without worrying whether i will be told to leave the next day. source

It’s pretty absurd that a single guy who has a job and the ability to pay rent is forced to sell his belongings and live in a car because he is Kuwaiti and can’t find an apartment to rent. I’m not sure if it’s because a lot of Kuwaitis aren’t aware of this housing issue and that’s why it’s not a big deal, but if I was Kuwaiti I’d be calling up MP Safa Al Hashem daily to get this changed.

I just found out from a reader that some of my articles are being republished in the Arab Times. The thing is nobody from Arab Times contacted me about this so I’m not sure if this is the first time they’ve done it or something they’ve been doing regularly. Some of the articles have even been edited even obviously without my permission.

I’m having a hard time deciding if this is funny or just sad…

Thanks Adam

Since we got into the subject of banks in my last post, here is something that’s bothering me with NBK. Every time I launch the NBK app on my iPhone, I get the pop-up above asking me to agree on having NBK know (and most likely track) my whereabouts so that stores could target me with ads while I’m out shopping. Obviously this isn’t something I’m interested in but NBK doesn’t give me the choice to opt-out. The only options are either “Accept” or “Go to settings” with no option to decline. If you go to settings it just gives you a box to tick to enable NBK Geo Alerts.

If you don’t enable geo alerts and click cancel, the next time you launch the app you get the same pop-up again and have to go through the same process all over again. It’s super sneaky and anybody less tech-savvy would most likely have clicked “Accept” at the pop-up not knowing what kind of privacy they were giving up. I already made NBK aware of this issue twice on twitter but they don’t think this is an issue.

Does anyone have any insider information as to why none of the rain-damaged roads have been fixed yet? A lot of the roads look like the picture above which is usually how the roads look like just before being resurfaced, but I’ve never seen so many roads looking like that and for this long.

The road in the picture above at least is flat, there are some roads that are covered in potholes and bumps. Yesterday I noticed two very large potholes opened up on the Gulf Road, potholes large enough to cause flat tires or damage wheels.

Something is definitely up, my guess is the government is looking for a new contractor since the last one did such a terrible job.

I’ve got a Viva line and a friend called me last week and told me that when she called me Arabic music started playing. I never signed up to the ringback tone service so I called up Viva and told them what was happening and to turn it off. Fast forward to this morning and a friend calls me up and tells me the Quran started playing when he called me so he thought he had the wrong number. So I called up Viva up and told them to turn off the ringback tone again and also asked how it got activated in the first place? The call center guy told me Viva activated the Islamic ringback tone as part of their 10 year anniversary. So I got in touch with Viva on Twitter and this is what they had to say:

So basically, on their 10 year anniversary, they decided to activate a paid service on all their customers’ phone lines without informing them. On their 10 year anniversary as a gift to me, they activated a service I didn’t ask for without telling me. How much more unprofessional can you get?

Usually, I would have dropped them as a telecom provider instantly and moved my number to another one but I don’t think the other providers are any better.

I had a second number with Zain I wasn’t using but was keeping for nostalgic reasons. It was my first mobile phone number which I got back in 1995 when I was still in high school. Every month I would log in to the Zain website and settle my bill which was around 2KD. A few months ago I logged in and noticed on top of my usual monthly bill for my number, I had 500 fils to pay for a second number I hadn’t owned in five years.

When I was married, my wife’s number was under my name, then when I got a divorce 5 years ago, we shifted the number to her name. She spent over 3 years paying the bills and then around 2 years ago, she closed her line and moved out of the country for good. For some unknown reason, Zain decided to bill me 500 fils randomly out of the blue 5 years after the number stopped belonging to me and 2 years after my ex wife had closed it. I could easily have just paid it since it was just 500 fils, but it was more about the principle. I went to a Zain branch to figure out how this happened but they couldn’t figure it out so I just paid the 500 fils and closed my account with them and lost my high school number in the process.

I guess Ooredoo is the only telecom I haven’t tried but can’t imagine them being any better.

Can an engineer with experience in this field explain to me and my readers why our roads got ruined after the rain last week? In Lebanon and London, for example, it rains a lot but the roads survive, how come they didn’t in Kuwait after just a weekend of rain?

Also, why did some roads survive and some not? You can see that clearly on the Gulf Road where you would be driving and the road is perfectly fine but then get to one area where the whole top surface had disintegrated.

Can you please remove the super annoying video that plays every time I launch your app? Your app now shuts off my music and podcasts whenever I open it, and the fact that I have to wait 6+ seconds for the video to finish before the app starts loading is even more annoying.

Thank you!

Update: Carriage just informed me they’ll be removing the video next week!

Last week I posted about how the housekeepers category on the popular 4Sale website bothered me since they were basically allowing housekeepers to be sold like slaves (check the picture above). Someone at 4Sale definitely reads my blog since that same night they started cleaning up the housekeepers category. They removed all the posts where housekeepers were being sold in and introduced a new set of rules. When you now visit the housekeepers category on their website you get the popup below:

Roughly translated, the pop up says the following:

Dear customers, in accordance with the instructions from the cybercrime unit at the Ministry of Interior, please take into consideration the following points when posting advertisements in the housekeepers category:

– avoid posting pictures of the housekeepers or copies of their official documents
– avoid using the word maid and instead describe them as domestic workers
– you’re not allowed to mention their religion, skin color or price
– you’re not allowed to use the word for sale

Actually, now that I think about it, it’s possible that someone from the cybercrime unit actually reads my blog and not 4Sale. In any case, I still think more can be done by 4Sale. While browsing through the category I found a few posts that violated the new rules, but I personally think the whole category needs to be shut down anyway.

A reader sent me a link to an article on FRANCE 24 Observers website on a domestic worker’s experience in Kuwait. The worker was held against her will by her employer and was sexually abused for several months. In the end, she got rescued and you can now read about her ordeal [Here]

Since we are on the subject of domestic workers, can I say how much the housekeepers category on the Q8 4Sale website bothers me? I really like the website but this category basically allows domestic workers to be sold off like household goods.. [Link]

Note: I hid the faces not 4Sale.

A few days ago I went to Green Island with my new camera to take some pictures and was stopped on the way in. I had already purchased my entry ticket (1KD btw) and as I was walking in they spotted my camera and told me I couldn’t bring it in. I told them I had a camera on my phone as well but they were ok with that, but that I just couldn’t bring my camera in. I was like ok fine, I went back to the ticket window to return my ticket and get a refund, but I guess that would have been too much of a hassle for the guy because he asked me if I just wanted to take pictures? I told him yes so he then let me in with my camera.

I have no idea why they would be anti-photography, Green Island is a desolate place that has nothing going for it other than it being an interesting place to take some photos. So weird.

I’ve been complaining about the emergency lane rules ever since they were announced a few years ago. I think they’re just too complicated and didn’t make sense, either convert the emergency lane into a regular lane or keep it as it is.

Does anybody here actually know what are the hours you’re allowed to use the emergency lane in?

a) 6AM to 10PM
b) 6AM to 10PM only in case of traffic congestion
c) 6:30AM to 9AM into the city and 12:30PM to 3:30PM out of the city
d) 6AM to 9AM and 12:30PM to 3:30PM
e) None of the above

I actually don’t know the answer since I’ve posted all the above previously on the blog. Maybe none of the above are right since the timings could have changed and I wouldn’t know.

Recently the sister in law of a friend of mine got into an accident. I’ve met her a few times since she helped out on the blog a few years ago, a super nice person. She was on the highway with her 4-month-old daughter and nanny when she felt something was wrong in the car, so she pulled into the emergency lane and stopped. A car speeding in the emergency lane (max speed is meant to be 45km) crashed into her car killing her daughter and sending her and the nanny to the hospital. Such a horrific incident.

This sometimes it’s an emergency lane and sometimes it’s not is just a confusing and stupid mess. Either convert the lane to a regular lane or leave it an emergency lane. I don’t understand why they’re being so timid. This accident has caused an outcry in the media and hopefully, they’re going to solve this before any more lives are lost.