Category: Information

Yesterday I got served with a court order, Benihana are suing me because of my post about my experience at their restaurant. If you haven’t read that post yet you can check it out by clicking [Here]

I’m currently getting legal advice from my lawyer Khaled Al Shamali who is actually a fan of my blog (that’s important) and I will be fighting this case in court. Originally my lawyer told me not to discuss this case with anyone but I feel it is important to share this with everyone since it doesn’t just effect me but the whole blogging community be it in Kuwait, UAE or anywhere else in the region. So after talking to my lawyer again, he’s now given me the green light to be transparent and open with everyone regarding this case.

I’ve uploaded the court order I received yesterday and you can download it from [Here]

The court order is in Arabic but if someone ends up translating it to English I will post it up as well. Benihana have the right to sue me but I don’t believe I said or did anything wrong and I stand behind everything I said and wrote in that post.

I’ve personally been threatened with lawsuits a number of times before, I know another popular blog recently got threatened with a lawsuit from a restaurant as well and I am sure there must be other bloggers who at one point in time have also been threatened. If blogs were recognized like newspapers or magazines we would all be protected from lawsuits like this but at the moment we aren’t. I find this unfair and if I end up losing this case what will it mean to all the other bloggers? Should bloggers be afraid to say anything negative about a company? Should all our posts just be happy happy joy joy?

I’m hopefully not going to lose this case and will try my best to win it and set an example so that other companies understand that if they don’t like something they read on a blog they can’t just sue the blogger.

I’ve been receiving an overwhelming amount of support on twitter. Honestly as much as I am a geek I never really understood or realized how powerful twitter can be until now. I literally have over 50 pages filled with tweets from people all over the region offering support. It’s really unbelievable and a lot and I mean A LOT of people from UAE have also been rallying behind me on this and according to one twitterer (is that the right word?) the Benihana topic is currently trending in the UAE at #8 at #3. A lot of people have also been leaving comments on the Benihana’s twitter account @benihana__ and on their Facebook page. But a few moments ago they deleted ALL the comments from their Facebook page but luckily I saved a pdf with some which you can download [Here]. They were actually a lot more than that before they were deleted. a reader saved a screenshot of all the comments which you can see [Here]

So thank you everyone for your support, I will try my best to keep everyone posted along the way on everything that takes place regarding this case.

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Update: I just finished an interview with the Dubai Abu Dhabi based newspaper The National. I will also be on air live tomorrow at 11AM Dubai time on the DubaiEye 103.8FM.

Update2: An amazing reader translated the court order to English. You can download it [Here]

Update3: Please no one call and harass Benihanna or their employees. You can show your support in other ways. Thank you.

Update4: The National article on this lawsuit is up and you can read it [Here]

Update5: I’m now on Gulf News [Here] CNN iReport [Here] and TNW Social Media [Here]

Today is the first day of the InfoConnect exhibition. If you’re looking to get a new Internet subscription or to renew one, InfoConnect is usually the best time to do it since they usually have the best deals going on. I still don’t have details on any of the offers taking place but as soon as I get them will post them here.

Location: Kuwait International Fair Grounds, Hall 6
Date: January 30th, 2011 to February 5th, 2011
Time: 9am – 1pm and 5pm – 9pm

The entrance is free. For more information click [Here]

According to recent figures published in the Arab League’s annual economic and social report, Kuwait has the second highest life expectancy in the region. Kuwait came second with a rate of 77.4 while Qatar came first with 78 years. That’s not bad at all considering our eating habits. [Link]

Last week I posted about how Go Sport at The Avenues was strangely selling Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister clothing. Well I was emailed some more information regarding this. Turns out the A&F and Hollister items at Go Sport are 100% authentic. Go Sport was given rights by the host brands to sell both A&F and Hollister clothing. The only thing is that their merchandise is last seasons not the latest. Another thing I found out is that Go Sport falls under one of the companies of Al Homaizi Group. I am assuming they will be bringing both those brands to Kuwait in the near future.

The one thousand dinars grant is causing a lot of controversy. Yesterdays post already surpassed 200 comments and the conversation still hasn’t stopped. One impression you might get by reading all the comments in that post is that people will only be using the money for superficial things. That’s not the case for everyone. Below is a story of a Kuwaiti girl who wants to remain anonymous. She won’t be using the money to buy a new phone or go on a shopping spree, instead she will be using the one thousand dinars grant for something much more important to her. Please take the time to read her story below.

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Hi, I am a 27 years old Kuwaiti girl, I am not privileged and I need an operation to be able to speak and eat.

I was born with a defect called underbite which means my top jaw is very very small. It would be easy to fix at a young age but I am very unfortunate to have ignorant and illiterate parents. I didn’t know what I had was a defect, I only thought I was ugly as that’s what my mother kept telling me.

I have very severe underbite, it is so bad that I can’t breath with my nose and so I have to keep my mouth open all the time to be able to breath. I can’t chew solids because my teeth don’t meet so I only enjoy chocolate since it easily melts in my mouth.

I can’t pronounce many letters and all my life people have avoided me. People seem to think I am mentally retarded when I speak. I’m not, I am just like you. I am smart and a graduate of Kuwait University. I even used to have a job before I had to quit because of the none-stop teasing.

I reached to a point where I had enough of all this so I begged my family to help but they refuse to even talk to me. My mother thinks I’m ugly and not like my sisters and no one will marry me so why bother even speak to me? (I know this is stupid but what can i do? This is how my family thinks). So I took action all by myself. I figured I can do it, I am a Kuwaiti living in Kuwait so it should be easy. I went to a public clinic that transferred me to another one that also transferred me to a dentist who removed 2 of my healthy teeth and told me that was it and that I was fine. After that I saved up money and went to a private clinic, the doctor told me the teeth that got pulled out had nothing to do with my problem and that everything could be fixed with an underbite correction surgery. He told me the first thing I needed to do was get dental implants to replace the two pulled teeth, so I did that. Then I needed braces for a year and I did that too.

After one year of work, the surgery is all I have left, so I went again and tried the clinic, I thought after all these years maybe they have an idea about my condition. But once again the public clinic transferred me to a hospital which transferred me to a dentist but this time I got yelled at by the receptionist telling me I shouldn’t be here.

I gave up on them, I researched online about doing this operation in Kuwait and all I found was one doctor that could fix me at a cost of KD5,000 and another doctor but in Lebanon that can also fix me but for $12,000. So this is what I am doing now, I am saving up to do this operation and hopefully look, speak, and eat normally.

The KD1,000 Amir grant is bringing me closer to my dream, so thank you Amir of Kuwait.

I am only sharing my story with all of you so that maybe someone in charge can read it and fix the public health care system in my country, Kuwait. I have never used this iPhone or Blackberry everyone is having, we live a very simple life and no matter how many times we fight at home, I am grateful and thankful for my family and country. I would never change them, maybe I’d change the way they see me, but not them.

Last week I posted about the new order here intercom system at the Gulf Road McDonalds thinking it was something new in Kuwait (sorry I don’t use drive-thru much) and it turned out to be something old… very old. BUT, now that the system is setup I noticed the McDonalds one has a screen right under the mic where you place your order. How it works is you place your order by talking into the mic and then the employee at the other end punches in your order into their system and you get to see what you are ordering on the screen in front of you. So say you ordered a Big Mac combo and she heard it as a Quarter Pounder combo, you would be able to see that on the screen and correct her mistake. Now don’t shoot me if it turns out this system is available at every bakala in Kuwait, I haven’t seen it before myself.

Just found out a huge fire broke out last night at the Agility warehouse. Hopefully no one got hurt since the fire looks huge. I hope my boxes of Coco Puffs are also safe. If you work at Agility and have information on this fire or pictures please [Contact Me]

Update: Here is a video, the fire is HUGE [YouTube]

Update2: An Agility employee had the following to say regarding this fire:

Hi Mark… Just wanted to set the record straight after seeing some of the comments about the Agility fire. I am an Agility employee. We’ve lost a 20,000 sqm warehouse last night which was occupied by our commercial customers only. No US army business was conducted there. Luckily no employees were hurt and we are working on multiple fronts to normalize operations for our clients who have been very supportive.

Kuwait’s came 61st in the 2011 Index of Economic Freedom with a score of 64.9. Its scored 2.8 points lower than last year, with declines in five of the 10 economic freedoms, including a large drop in labor freedom. In the Middle East and North Africa, Kuwait ranked 8th out of 17 countries. It’s the only GCC country to drop in points but it’s overall score is still well above the world and regional averages.

Bahrain came in 10th place in the full world ranking.

Here is a link to the full ranking [Link]
Here is a link to the detailed breakdown of Kuwait’s score [Link]

Thanks FYI

On yesterday nights episode of Arabs Got Talent on MBC4, a Kuwaiti opera singer and the Kuwaiti PK Jaguars made it to the next round. I couldn’t find a video of the Kuwaiti opera singer but the video above is of the PK Jaguars. [YouTube]

Update: To watch the Kuwaiti opera singer click [Here]. He kicks ass!

The video above is in Arabic but its about savings in the GCC. Kuwait and Saudi scored the lowest in terms of savings while 93% of the people questioned believed their savings were inadequate for their future needs. [YouTube]

The GulfRun race day is creeping up quickly just over a week left before everyone heads out to Bahrain for the two day event. Today everyone got together at the Al Falah car wash in Kuwait City to give the cars a nice rinse before applying the final sponsor stickers and heading out to 360 Mall where they will be parked the next two days for the car show.

The car show in being held at 360 Mall on Friday and Saturday (Jan 14 & 15). You will be able to check out all the cars up close, buy some Gulf Run merchandise and also raffle tickets to win some great prizes. Here is the link to the Gulf Run website [Link]

Organica Fish & Chipshve opened up their second branch yesterday. Their new branch is located in Salmiya, Salem Mubarek Street near AUK. Trying to be Fahad posted about some of their product benefits which you can read [Here]

Here is the link to the Organica Fish & Chips Facebook group [Link]

The blog 965malls went around The Avenues yesterday and took a picture of every store front that had a sale. In total they counted 98 stores on sale! They then took the 98 pictures of the store fronts and put them together in a collage which you can see a part of in the image above. Check out their blog for the full image and more [Here]

Today is the first day of REUSE 4.0 which is being held on the premises of the Australian College of Kuwait. REUSE 4.0 features a dynamic mix of art galleries, music, film screenings, mixed media installations, a lounge, go-kart sprints, trendy eco-fashion & accessories, prizes, surprises & more. My brother got invited to exhibit his abandoned Amiri Hospital pictures at the event and he was there yesterday and took some pictures of the event which you can check out below.

REUSE 4.0 is being held from today January 11th till Thursday the 13th. It’s open from 4pm to 9pm and you can get a lot more information from their website [Here]

Last month I posted that the menu of Peacock will be transferred to Rangoli once the Radisson SAS closes down for renovation. Turns out that information wasn’t correct. Al Bustan all day dining was transferred to Rangoli, Peacock on the other hand was closed with the hotel. For those of you who don’t know Peacock, it’s one of the most popular Chinese restaurants in Kuwait and was recently nominated the best fine dining restaurant in Kuwait.

Picture from the Traveling Chemist