Category: Interesting

A reader shot and uploaded the video above taken today at around 4PM. Don’t know what would start a fire in that little cockpit but hopefully the crane operator managed to get away unhurt. [YouTube]

Thanks Mohammed

re:kuwait have a good idea which I hope someone reads and decides to implement. A lot of people have phones with built in cameras which can also geo-tag photos. That means you can take a picture and the exact location of where that picture was taken would be stored in the picture. What re:kuwait are suggesting is this:

What if some government entity creates a website where people can upload photos they take of things they feel are broken or wrong, such as graffiti, broken lamps, potholes, whatever. These photos are uploaded to the website by a few people wanting to do good for their community.

The government can then prioritize what needs to be fixed for example and find the location of the problem with the geo-tag. I think that would be an amazing idea. Here is a link to their [Post]

I saw this on 4thringroad and thought it was pretty cool. The ministry of public works have setup a live stream of the new Jaber Hospital that’s being built. I know there is nothing exciting about watching a hospital being constructed but if you look at the bigger picture here this actually could be a start to something bigger.

If the ministry can stream live footage of a hospital being built then they can easily start streaming live footage of traffic on highways. Imagine being able to check out the traffic on the 5th Ring Road before heading out or checking live footage of multiple roads and then deciding which one to take. I think that would be very cool and extremely useful so hopefully this live stream of the hospital is just a start to something a lot bigger. Here is the link if you want to watch the hospital being built. [Video Stream]

If you’ve got a Kuwaiti passport you’re lucky since according to recent data, a Kuwaiti passport allows you visa-free entry into 71 countries topping out all the other Arab countries. Lebanon on the other hand ranks at the bottom with the likes of Iran, Yemen and Syria ranking higher. Here is the list of Arabic countries rankings:

1- Kuwait 71
2- Bahrain 67
3- Qatar 66
4- UAE 64
5- Oman 61
6- Saudi Arabia 57
7- Egypt 43
8- Jordan 39
9- Syria 39
10- Yemen 38
11- Iran 34
12- Lebanon 32
13- Iraq 27

On the other hand the British passport topped the whole list allowing visa-free entry into 166 countries. Here is the link to the full article [Link]

Picture from zDistrict

A reader emailed me to tell me that Kaifan Co-op recently installed Cash Guard machines. I’ve seen them before I think at the Shamiya Co-op and thought they were pretty cool. Basically it’s connected to the cash register and once your total is tallied up you pay the cashier and they place the money into the machine which then spits out the change if any.

Now I’m curious to know how much money was actually going missing from the regular cash registers that the Co-ops had to resort to installing these what I am guessing expensive machines? I found a video on YouTube on how they work which you can watch below.

[YouTube]

Thanks Laila

A reader called Ahmad emailed me some pictures showing how his neighbor installed telecom transceivers on his roof (above) and then covered them up to look like tacky decorations (below). I’ve seen telecom towers made to look like gigantic palm trees but never seen something like this before.

The reader already emailed the baladieh on two different occasions but nothing has happened yet. According to the reader:

These are very close to the other houses including my house and it is hazardous to the health. The house owner actually doesn’t live in this house but he is renting the whole house for different families.

I’m curious to see how this issue gets solved, hopefully Ahmad will keep us posted on the outcome of his complaints.

A reader emailed me to tell me that Kuwait was featured in the most recent issue of National Geographic Traveler magazine (Oct 2010). A cool thing of course if it wasn’t for the fact that the article was very superficial and spoke mostly about shopping at The Avenues. I’m serious.

Outside The Avenues, the 125°(F) desert air is rising in waves from a sea of luxury cars in the mall parking lot—Land Rovers, Mercedes-Benzes, and Hummers, with a Ferrari or two thrown in. Inside, I’m swept along the marbled concourse by a tide of men in dark sunglasses and ankle-length white robes. Nearby are wives, sisters, and daughters, some in headscarves and designer jeans, others cloaked head-to-toe in flowing black garments, or abayas, and some walled behind face masks . Housemaids and nannies trail behind—domestic servants imported from the Philippines, China, and elsewhere—lugging the day’s boxes and bags.

Understanding the Kuwaiti passion for retail requires a brief civics lesson. Kuwaiti citizens—who make up only one-third of the country’s expat-heavy population of three million—benefit from a lavish package of petro benefits, including plush government jobs. “People get paid for doing relatively little, or nothing at all, and they get paid extremely well,” says Mary Ann Tetreault, a professor and specialist in Gulf affairs. “Shopping is really the only way to distinguish oneself from one’s peers.”

You can check out the full article on the readers blog located at [read-my-blog.com]

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

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

The video above is by Kuwaiti rapper A To The G and he actually mixes in English and Arabic. Video is well shot but skip the first minute. He’s an NES and ACK graduate and you can check out his YouTube channel [Here]. Oh he’s also a boxer.

The second Kuwaiti rapper is a guy going by the name BigMo. Below is one of his songs you can listen to and you can check out the following link for more songs. [Link] Pretty good stuff.

Booty. Drugs & Liquor final by BigMo

Here is his Facebook group. [Link]

The Kuwait Zoo surprisingly has a twitter account. Not only that but they’re actually pretty active posting photos and videos. You can check out their twitter page [Here]

I was wondering around tonight when I stumbled across an old photography store. Some pictures in the display grabbed my attention and when I looked inside I spotted an old man sitting reading the Koran and two other interesting photos. I decided to go in and check the photos out and I ended up spending around an hour there talking to the old man.

I won’t mention the photographers name or the shop location since I want to give him his space and privacy but he’s a Lebanese guy who ran away from an abusive father and took the bus and came to Kuwait in 1959. He hasn’t left since… not even once. He worked a variety of jobs here and there and in the end became a journalist and took some really great photos, some of which many of us have come across in one point in time or another. He ended up opening up his own photography shop and it’s been there ever since. Today the shop doesn’t sell anything, he doesn’t have any customers nor even a store sign. He broke the sign ages ago because to keep it up he would have to pay a fee of KD25 a year which he didn’t want to. He sold all his negatives to a newspapers years ago for KD200 and has a few photos he kept which he was selling framed for KD25 a piece but someone bought his photo and then made copies and started selling them for KD1 so that income stopped.

While there I spotted some old cameras behind an extremely dusty display that looked like it hadn’t been open since the 80s and my God what a beautiful camera collection. He had cameras from the 70’s and early 80’s still boxed brand new! He even had the beautiful rangefinder Konica S3 from 1974 which I had purchased used off eBay for KD60 last year, except he had a brand new one all boxed up and priced at KD45! He also had two brand new Nikon F3’s from 1980, a Vivitar 35EE, a Vivitar 35EF, Mamiya 135AF and boxed up Hasselblad but I couldn’t tell what model it was. I really want to buy them all but I don’t think he wants to sell them. He’s pissed off at the whole world, he’s depressed, he’s really old and he doesn’t want to sell anything. He told me 5 months ago his residency expired and he’s now living in Kuwait illegally. He feels that he’s been forgotten and no one cares about him or remembers him. How could someone who’s been in Kuwait for 50 years non stop still require an ikameh to live here? It made me realize that if I lose my job tomorrow I would have to leave Kuwait as well except I am young and I could always move to Lebanon and start a new life or something but this old man, where would he go? He’s easily at least 80 years old, he doesn’t have any family, never married, no relatives and he hasn’t been to Lebanon in over 50 years neither does he want to go back…

I had to leave but told him I would come back again since I wanted to listen to his life story and maybe give him some recognition with my blog. I also promised him the next time I go back I would bring my laptop along since I was telling him about the Internet and he told me he had heard about it but had no idea what it was. I told him I would come back and show him since he seemed eager to know how it worked and who invented it and how it looked. I asked him what time to what time I could find him at the shop he told me 24 hours. Turns out he lives in the shop.

Yesterday BuYousef emailed a link to an article in LIFE about Kuwait dating back to 1959 which contained a good amount of pictures and information. He had found that article by using the search feature in Google Books and it made me realize I might be able to find other hidden treasure and I did. Since his email I’ve been reading old articles none stop and I’m still not 0.0001% through them all.

A search for Kuwait in Google Books will get you tens of thousands of results but I managed to narrow down the search a bit and found the ones below:

1952 Venus is a crook in Kuwait
1955 Proved in the Blazing Heat of Kuwait!
1958 Fresh Water from the Sea
1959 Kuwait: the fabulous sheikdom
1961 A dusty vigil
1965 Everything’s up to date in Kuwait
1975 What happens when the oil is gone?
1979 Bite that tiger
1980 Solar power station for oil-rich Kuwait

Some of the interesting stuff I read weren’t just articles about Kuwait but articles that mentioned Kuwait. I didn’t post them above because there were too many but I did read some interesting stories like I was reading an article from 1961 about a Nazi war criminal that was hiding in Kuwait and then I read another small snippet from someone in Kuwait who had sent a letter to Boys Life. It’s just random bits like that which I found really entertaining to read. Google Books is just amazing.

Not sure if many people have noticed this but street lamps have unique numbers on them. I remember reading once that these numbers are used to identify the location in case of emergency like say you get into an accident and you call for help, you could read them the number on the lamp post and they would know exactly where you are. I wonder if that applies in Kuwait.

Awhile back a reader sent me some PDF files related to the construction of the Kuwait Towers and Kuwait Water Towers. The PDF’s contain photos, sketches and information regarding the projects. For example according to one of the PDF’s the total cost of the Kuwait Towers was KD4,700,000 (or $16,450,000) while the cost of the Water Towers was KD2,800,000 (or $9,800,000).

Among the different sketches and architectural plans lies an interesting bit of information. According to one of the diagrams (close up crop above) there was a discotheque and dance floor planned in the Kuwait Towers on top of the restaurant along with an indoor garden. That would have been a pretty cool club although I don’t know how efficient the elevators would have been carrying the crowd up and down. You can download all the PDF’s and check out a ton of pictures from the construction to the completion of the towers by following this [Link]