Category: Kuwait

The building that used to house Elevation Burger and M’EAT on the Seef Strip just got demolished. No idea why, or whats going to take its place but I really like that strip and the area in general so its pretty disappointing it was demolished.

But, as I was discussing with someone on twitter, since the Ice Skating Rink and Entertainment City got demolished I no longer care as much about landmarks getting demolished. It’s become so normalized I’m just like that sucks 🤷🏼‍♂️ and a minute later I’m back to flipping through TikTok aimlessly.

I used to joke with a friend about that location being jinxed since everything that opened there always fails. But, Elevation had some great days there especially when they had their events.

Yesterday I was in the Free Trade Zone and noticed that they recently demolished the Villa Moda building. It’s so sad since the whole concept and design was so ahead of it’s time when it opened 20 years ago.

I also noticed a bunch of other buildings had also gotten demolished or were in the process of getting demolished in the area, but most were just regular boring office buildings, nothing like Villa Moda.

33 years ago on August 2nd 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. Abduljabbar Mansoor Marafi, an amateur radio operator decided to stay behind with his family and that decision eventually led him to become the last voice from Kuwait.

I hadn’t heard of his story until very recently and since its the anniversary of the invasion I wanted to share it since I found it really interesting from a technology point of view, but also the bravery involved. Marafi had been operating a sophisticated Radio Bulletin Board System (RBBS) using a personal computer and amateur radio set equipment long time before the invasion. He had even setup backup power supply in case of power failure which turned out to also be useful during the invasion.

When Iraq invaded, Marafi refused to flee hoping he could help his country by staying in Kuwait. During the early days of the invasion, Marafie used his radio to keep people outside of Kuwait in the loop with what was happening here. He was basically blogging before blogging was even a thing. When Iraq start cutting off communication in Kuwait from the outside world, Marafi’s radio system became even more important.

The easiest way I can think of to describe Marafi’s bulletin board system is to imagine a very basic version of email. You would send a message to a specific radio call sign (Marafi’s was 9K2DZ), and when that person later connects to their bulletin board system, they would see what messages they had waiting for them. I’ve embedded a video below from YouTube demoing this.

News of Marafi’s bulletin service started spreading by word of mouth in Kuwait. Families began giving Marafi messages to send to their relatives abroad, and families abroad started contacting radio amateurs in the countries they lived in asking them to send messages to their relatives in Kuwait through Marafi’s bulletin board. In addition to helping transmit messages between families, Marafie also used his radio system to expose to the outside world the horrors that were being committed by the Iraqis in Kuwait.

When Iraqis found out news was leaking out of Kuwait they suspected it was due to radio amateurs since all other sort of communication had already been cut. The Iraqis then started interrogating Kuwaiti radio amateurs and confiscating their equipment, including Marafi’s. But Marafi was expecting that and had set up a complete radio setup behind a false wall in his basement. The setup outside that was confiscated was mostly broken or old equipment.

The full story of Abduljabbar Marafi and his radio system is too big to tell in all its detail but if you want to find out more you can google his call sign 9K2DZ. Sadly, Marafi passed away last November.

I’ve uploaded a PDF of an article taken from the September 1991 issue of Alam Al-Computer. I borrowed some of the information in this post from that article and it’s really interesting to read. You can download it here.

Not sure if anyone noticed but the LED mesh around the Kuwait Towers has been replaced with solid green and red colored lights now. Back in 2015 when they first installed the LED mesh I suggested they should be kept permanently since it gave a Blade Runner look. But I take that back now, I think I prefer it without the wraparound screens but I wish they go back to the way things were originally with just a simple neutral light instead of the red and green.

The Kuwait Towers are old, and due to more than five decades of marine climate exposure, some of the decorative metal discs started to detach and fall to the ground. Back in 2020, the Kuwait Towers was awarded a grant by the Getty Foundation to conduct a technical study to identify the underlying problem behind the disc detachments and develop conservation protocols for carrying out repairs and maintenance. After delays due to covid, the study was finally completed this year.

A couple of weeks ago I met with architect Zahra Ali Baba (@zhrabba) and engineer Jaber Alqallaf (@jeemroom) both from the National Council for Culture Arts & Letters and part of the team responsible for restoration and rehabilitation of the Kuwait Towers. I got to hear about how they along with the rest of the local team collaborated with international experts on the study and it was very fascinating to say the least.

The towers were built out of concrete in the 70s and studded with 41,000 enameled metal discs in different shades of blue, green, and gray, and in a very specific pattern. In the photo above you can get a better idea of the mechanism that connects the discs to the spheres. Because the towers are located right by the sea they’re exposed to the salty sea air that has corrosive effects on both the concrete and metal. The study was conducted to identify the issues with the discs and then set a plan to fix them.

Another thing I hadn’t thought about before is the fading of the color. Over time the discs have discolored with exposure to all the elements and so the color of the towers today, is slightly different than they used to be.

I never really thought about the towers aging and I drive by them every day with the presumption that they’d always be there. But, unless there is a team working behind the scenes to conserve them, they won’t last forever. Thankfully we have a team, and one that really cares.

The garbage situation next to my house isn’t anything new, I mean, I’ve been complaining about it for over a decade now. But last week I had an interesting interaction with the Kuwait Municipality (baladiya) over it. At one point the garbage overflowed as it usually does due to the limited number of bins, but the garbage men were emptying the bin and leaving the overflowed garbage on the floor. The trash was just lying there for 4 days straight and the stench was horrible, you couldn’t drive by it without having to roll up your windows.

Eventually, I had enough and decided to contact the municipality over their WhatsApp number. I sent them a message at 8:22 AM, it was a photo of the garbage taken from my window and the location pin. A minute later they asked for more information which I replied with.

An hour later (9:36 AM) while leaving my house I noticed there was a baladiya bobcat and workers picking up the garbage and throwing it into the bin. They actually acted on the issue super fast. I wasn’t sure if the whole send a complaint thing over WhatsApp was still active so glad it was. ‭If you want to also WhatsApp the municipality over a problem you have their number is 24727732‬.

Alqabas newspaper published a list of 7 different things that could get you deported. A redditor translated the 7 things and they are:

• Fishing in the Kuwait Bay without permission
• Littering or Dumping waste in non-approved areas
• Driving without a valid license
• Taxi drivers who commit Serious traffic violations
• Indecent public behavior
• Working a different job than what’s on your work permit
• Not renewing annual residency

I like the idea of deporting people if they litter but if that were actually enforced, Kuwait’s population would probably be reduced to a million or less. I guess you could just enforce it for a short time, maybe deport a few hundred people to make a point and that would probably stop people from littering.