Category: Complaints

Yesterday I posted the picture above on my Instagram account of a new tshirt I had ordered online. It took me a month to get the tshirt because it was on backorder and so when a friend of mine pointed out that a local fashion store was selling a locally printed version (i.e. imitation) I got upset for two reasons:

1) If its a good creative idea you support the designer who came up with the idea and you don’t get a local printshop to reprint the design for you

2) The store that was selling the fake tshirts (I won’t mention the brand and any mention of the brand in the comments will be deleted) is actually a very well respected brand and one that I actually liked

So I visited their Instagram account and found the tshirt listed for sale there and in the comments I read the following:

The tshirt was by a local designer and not the official one in NYC so I left the following comment:

To my surprise instead of them apologizing for selling imitation goods they responded with the following comment:

I stayed diplomatic and responded highlighting the fact that they themselves said it was by a local designer and not that they had permission from the official brand to reprint it in Kuwait. I also tagged my friend Fajer the lawyer in the comments so that she was aware of the situation as well. A few moments later they deleted all my comments and blocked me from their account.

I decided to contact the original designer just to make sure I hadn’t made a mistake and turns out I hadn’t. According to the designer who created the orignal tshirt she never gave anybody permission to sell or reprint her tshirts. In fact the local store was sent the following email to cease sale of the tshirts:

VIOLATION OF TRADEMARK – Remove Immediately
We have been notified that you are in violation of our trademark ‘Ain’t Laurent Without Yves’. Please immediately cease sale of all materials with our trademark logo on it; Should you continue to sell these items we will pursue severe legal damages for profits lost.

We never gave you, or any other vendor permission to sell our product with our slogan on it. Your claims on twitter are false and are damaging our brand.

The reason I am pointing this situation out is to discuss how criticism is handled in the region. Even when I was right I got attacked and a lot of other people do too. We should be able to have freedom of speech and criticism actually helps companies (and people) to know how they can improve. People in the region need to calm down and start accepting criticism.

If you’re interested in the tshirt above you can purchase it directly from the original designer at whataboutyves.com

I didn’t know the Ahmadi Park had a zoo yet alone one that looks this depressing. Based on the pictures a reader sent me this zoo looks even worse than the Kuwait Zoo.

Thanks Meshal

Back in November a Golden Jubilee monument of Kuwait’s Constitution was revealed in Martyr’s Park in Kuwait City. The monument looked really cool surrounded by a beautiful garden and a water fountain. Fast forward a few months and the design of the monument and surround garden is being finalized and two things caught my attention.

The first is they’ve now erected a high metal fence around the monument and monument garden. There is literally another park inside the Martyr’s Park and one that is going to be closed off to the public.

The second issue is they’ve basically cut the Martyr’s Park in half by building the Golden Jubilee monument park across the Martyrs Park from one side to the other. The oval running track which people used for exercising now ends in the middle as roughly demonstrated by the yellow box in the image above.

These two issues kinda seem like poor planning to me. I understand they probably erected the high metal fence to stop barbequers from barbequing inside the monument park but I think they could have created some sort of path way that would still allow people to at least walk up close to the monument but keep them outside the monument garden. Right now there is a hole in the metal fence which is how I got in a took my picture but once the hole is closed you won’t be able to stand in front of the monument or even get near it. It also sucks that the running track has been sliced in half since they could have shrunk the Golden Jubilee monument space slightly and built the whole thing inside the oval instead of over it. Oh well…

I have no clue who’s smart idea it was to turn the empty piece of land behind my building into a garbage dump. That yellow truck on the left actually came, dumped some garbage and then left!

Update: Another truck just came and dumped more garbage. Kinda reminds me when the garbage contractors were having a turf war on the HBO show The Sopranos. Someone is really pissed off at someone.

Update2: Looks like we’re in a handover transition period between two different garbage contractors and this issue should be temporary. According to Arab Times the new contractors are charging around KD5,000,000 a month to clean up the garbage, a lot more than the previous company because they’re supposed to do a much better job and adhere to a higher standard. You can read the article on Arab Times [Here]

I’m trying to renew my Civil ID but the website keeps telling me to go and come back after 2! Why??

The same friend who shot the picture of the “Desert Dance Floor” also shot the video above he took at one of the campsites. That’s a lot of crap all over the place and surprisingly it’s not an isolated incident. It’s like not one single camper cleaned up after themselves. [Link]

I read about the state of the desert after the camping season finished but I didn’t think it was that bad until I saw it for myself today. I was heading south on the 40th when I noticed a huge plot of desert with trash as far as the eye could see. I went off-road and headed towards the area and was completely shocked at what I saw.

Campers had left all their trash behind including full sofa sets, toilets, trash bags and just random items like wood and god knows what else. And it wasn’t just one campsite it was the whole area filled with sofas and toilet seats all over the place. It’s absolutely disgusting.

Personally I think the municipality should just leave everything the way it is and not clean up after the campers. As long as someone is picking up the trash people are not going to learn to cleanup after themselves.

What’s the purpose of these new plants pots that are being placed on the Gulf Road? If anything these cement blocks are actually blocking the greenery behind them instead of making the Gulf Road any greener.

Why do we NEED to spray each other during National Day? What happened to the old fashioned way of hanging outside the car with flags or dancing in the middle of traffic?

Photo by Hareesh

Update: I just witnessed two incidents which kinda puts into perspective why spraying of any kind during National Day celebrations should be stopped.

I decided to walk to Marina Mall instead of taking the car to avoid traffic. While standing at an intersection with other people to cross, a car drives by with two girls I would say around 20 years old and they slow down and started spraying everyone waiting to cross the street with water.

The second incident I witnessed was on my way back home. I left Marina Mall from The One exit and there was a gang of around 8 guys walking with Super Soakers. They started spraying these three Egytian guys who were sitting on a bench outside The One minding their own business. The Egyptian guys were begging the guys to stop and the guys just kept laughing and spraying them. They soaked them completely with water and laughed and continued walking looking for new prey.

This is not normal.

[YouTube]

Just a few days ago I posted about an article in the Kuwait Times on how stray dogs were being poisoned. Well a reader who works in the Free Trade Zone sent me some pictures and a video he shot today. According to him they have a lot of stray dogs in the Free Trade Zone and they’ve never caused any trouble and they usually stay out of peoples way. But, it seems someone must have complained about them because someone came and placed poison for the dogs and a whole bunch ended up dying today.

So today morning while I’m sitting on my desk I saw every one standing near the windows watching something, I didnt give it much attention because usually we watch the Flamingos but this time it was different the dogs ate the poisoned food and started to have these weird shakes so i went out side running and I found them dead. -J

The video above and pictures below are graphic. Please look at them.

What upsets me even more is the fact there is a solution to the strays and it’s already being applied in Ahmadi and it’s working! The program is very successful so why can’t it be applied all over Kuwait?

[YouTube]

This has to stop!

Is there a reason why gas stations don’t get longer hoses so that cars who have their gas tanks on the left can still fill up from a hose that’s on the right?

I spotted the garbage bin above while in London. It has a built-in LCD screen on the side that broadcasts the latest news. My question is this. If London can afford to install cool looking garbage bins like this, then why are we getting extremely cheap and horrible looking Big Bird yellow trash bins instead?

Update: Here’s more information on the bins

– It displays market moves, weather forecasts and breaking news
– The rubbish bins also come with Wi-Fi connectivity
– Costs $1,800 each and orders are expected from New York, Singapore and Tokyo

[Source]

Last week while coming home from the airport, I tried to exit the 50th to the 5th Ring Road but I missed the exit. It didn’t make sense how I missed it but I somehow did. A few days later I picked up Nat from the airport and was again trying to take the 5th Ring Road exit and I ended up missing it for a second time.

Turns out they’ve closed the original exit and created a new one around 2KM earlier than before. There are no signs pointing to the new exit but whats more confusing is why does the current exit start so early and consist of 3 lanes that run parallel to the 4 lane highway. Weird. [YouTube]

Update: According to a reader this newly created exit has actually helped lessen the morning traffic. Previously it used to take him 45-60 minutes to get to work and now it takes 25 tops.

There’s a building being constructed right behind mine in Salmiya and recently trucks have been coming, parking in the middle of the road and literally closing a busy main road way causing a lot of traffic in the area. I’m sure this can’t be legal (I think) so I was wondering, in a situation like this who would I have to call to report this closure? The only number I know is the 112 emergency number but I don’t think that’s appropriate.

Around 6 years ago I posted about these amazing baseball fields off the 6th Ring Road right before 360 Mall (pictured above). There were two fields stuck next to each other and they both stuck out like an oasis in the desert. Well for some odd reason the fields are not there anymore. Below is how the baseball field currently looks like, it’s depressing.

It’s like they were never there! Luckily I took a few pictures of the baseball field back then and you can check them out [Here]