Category: Kuwait

Last week the Public Authority for Civil Information setup shop at our offices for a few days and offered all the employees their services including setting up an e-Signature. Since it didn’t involve any effort, I decided to setup my e-Signature, but even after reading the documentation on it [Read it Here], I still have no idea what this will be used for.

Basically the procedure to setup my e-Signature just involved creating a pin for my Civil ID card. My Civil ID card now has a pin code in the same way your ATM has a pin code, except unlike my ATM card I have no idea what I can use this pin for. One follower on twitter told me KOC employees use it with a specific machine they have to get their salary statements and other documents. Do you use it? If yes, what for?

The alarm has been sounded again in Kuwait after figures for 2017 show that around 60 per cent of Kuwaiti marriages have ended in divorce.

Figures released by the Ministry of Justice indicate there were 2,001 marriages in January and February, down from 2,425 in the same period last year. The figures also show there were 1,193 cases of divorce in the first two months of 2017, up from 1,180 last year. [Source]

That would put Kuwait with Luxembourg in 6th place on the World’s Most Divorced Nations list:

1- Belgium (71%)
2- Portugal (68%)
3- Hungary (67%)
4- Czech Republic (66%)
5- Spain (61%)
6- Kuwait and Luxembourg (60%)
7- Estonia (58%)
8- Cuba (56%)
9- France (55%)
10- Lithuania (53%)

Brownbook magazine shot a short interview with architect Zahra Ali Baba who reflects on her research, the practice of architectural conservation and the importance of history in the development of Kuwait. Its less than 4 minutes, is interesting to watch and nicely shot, so check it out above.

Thanks absolving-disorder

A YouTube user going by the name jalili99Q8 has been uploading tons of old videos on Kuwait. The videos range from music videos, interviews, shows, documentaries and more. Personally I like the documentaries similar to the ones I’ve embedded in this post. Most of the videos I’ve come across have been in Arabic, but there are a few English ones and even if they’re in Arabic, you can still flip through them since the music is usually very 70s or Miami Vice 80s which is amazing.

I’ve shared some videos below but if you want to flip through his whole channel click [Here]

Thanks Twit

The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report for 2017 by the World Economic Forum is out and Kuwait pretty much comes in last place in the Middle East with the only other country that performed worst being Yemen. Below is Kuwait’s world ranking compared to other Middle Eastern countries:

29 United Arab Emirates
47 Qatar
60 Bahrain
63 Saudi Arabia
66 Oman
75 Jordan
93 Iran
96 Lebanon
100 Kuwait
136 Yemen

Going through the data I found one thing pretty shocking, under the section “Environmental Sustainability”, Kuwait came in before last position world wide in 135th place. We also were at the bottom of the list when it came to “Cultural Resources and Business Travel”, “Natural Resources”, “International Openness” and “Prioritization of Travel & Tourism”.

The highest position we reached in any category was 31st place for “ICT Readiness” (information and communications technology). In that category Kuwait came first world wide in “Mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions /100 pop.” and third world wide for “Mobile-broadband subscriptions /100 pop”.

If you’re interested in read the whole report you can download it from [Here]

Staged in Kuwait, my favorite local community theater group needs a new home since the rent is increasing at their current location. Over the weekend they posted the following message on their Facebook group:

HELP! SIK needs a new home. With rent prices climbing and climbing we have to vacate our studio rehearsal space this summer, leaving the future of all our activities in jeopardy. As a not-for-profit group working on very small margins we have been very lucky to have our rent frozen for the past five years allowing us to use a villa basement as rehearsal room and storage for everything that we bring to the stage. From kids drama classes to evening and weekend rehearsals, we run a busy program and desperately need to find a new place to call home. If you can help with great real estate contacts, offers, suggestions or the like – please get in touch via messenger. Our sixth season hangs in the balance and without a new home ‘Beauty and the Beast’ may well be the last show you get to enjoy from Staged in Kuwait.

If you can help then get in touch with them [Here]

I’m sending my Lotus to Bahrain this coming weekend so I needed to get a Power of Attorney done for the trailer driver. The process turned out to be pretty simple and the experience surprisingly good. Since I originally had trouble figuring out where to go, I wanted to post about it in case somebody googles this question in the future.

Kuwaitis
Originally I was told to get a POA I needed to head to the Liberation Tower [Map]. Once I got there though I found out it was only for Kuwaitis and instead I was directed to the Ministries Complex which is a short drive away. If you’re Kuwaiti, the area to get the POA done is located on the first floor of what they call the Ministry Mall at the Liberation Tower. Just head up the escalator, take a left, then another left and then one more left and head straight through the door ahead that says Ministry of Justice.

Expats
If you’re an expat and need a POA done, you need to head to the Ministries Complex [Map]. If you’re driving there in the middle of summer then be aware, the parking is a good walk away from the complex and there is no shade until you’re inside the Ministries Complex. Once you get to the Ministries Complex there are no signs to let you know which building to enter so just follow the crowd. Once you’re inside you also won’t find that many signs and when you do they’ll only be in Arabic. So ask around or look for the sign above that says Ministry of Justice, once you enter that doorway you’ll find the POA department.

When I got there I took a number and waited, there were around 15 people ahead of me but the POA department also had around 16 stations with employees manning them so the wait wasn’t that long. The employee I dealt with was very helpful and spoke both Arabic and English. The trailer company I’m using is based in Bahrain and they sent me copies of 10 ID cards of the different drivers they might send to Kuwait to pick up my car. I had to get the POA done for all 10 drivers and the government employee didn’t blink an eye, she took all the ID cards and told me it wasn’t an issue and typed all their info out.

The cost of the POA was a KD2 stamp and no running around involved, you just deal with one employee for the whole process. A super smooth experience.

Photo on top by Nawaf Ahmed

Is there a company that offers a mandoub service in Kuwait? Like say I need paperwork at the Ministry done, I could pay this company a fee to do the paperwork for me.

Four guys have taken it upon themselves to try and make sense of the local public transportation system by mapping the bus network in Kuwait. Wilfred Waters, Jake Massoth, David Uzoni and Wael El-Ahmady are aiming to get complete stop positions, schedules and 360 imagery of the entire bus network in Kuwait and they’re pretty much on track.

According to Wil, the schedule data is the most frustrating aspect of the project due to lack of driver discipline. Drivers stop between formal stops so a proper schedule can’t be kept but they’re trying their best to get at least a rough estimate. In regards to imagery they’re halfway done (similar to google street view but for the bus routes) but they’re trying to prioritize the schedule data for now since thats the information people are after the most.

The overall problem they’re trying to solve with this project is unnecessary car trips, privately or in taxis. By collecting all this data, they’re hoping to eventually create a Bus Routing App that would provide people with easy to access and understand bus routes and scheduling information. And I think they’re onto something here.

Looking through their map data (embedded above) I was able to spot a number of bus stops near my apartment building as well as see the whole route the bus would take. Turns out the bus stop next to my apartment could take me all the way to my office in the city, and even though I wouldn’t take the bus (I love driving), I did consider it for a second. I’m sure a lot more people would use the bus if they had route and schedule information on their phones.

Back in the early 90s when I was in Canada, I used to call the bus stop near my apartment building and an automated service would let me know how many minutes till the next bus arrived. That way I didn’t have to wait out in -30°C weather freezing my ass off. Kuwait needs to upgrade the whole bus network and make it more usable, if you could track busses in Canada back in the early 90s, I’m sure Kuwait can manage the same today. Kuwait is hoping the metro project will help solve traffic issues but it might be easier right now to get the bus system sorted out right. How difficult would it be to tell drivers to let people on and off only at formal stops? Or to make sure bus stops are shaded, and to create an app that would help people plot their trips and get accurate scheduling information. I don’t think it would be that hard, easier than building a metro system from the ground up thats for sure.

For more information on the busKW project, check out their website [Here]

Over the weekend I had to use the Kuwait e-Visa website to apply for a visit visa for my mum. While filling in her details I noticed some major spelling mistakes, ones I’m surprised haven’t been fixed already since the website has been active since last summer. Here are the mistakes just from the partial screenshot above of the e-Visa form:

– biulding should be building
– forth should be fourth
– governate should be governorate
– flour should be floor

Since this website is being used by visitors hoping to get entry into Kuwait, it’s not really a great first impression, and we haven’t even discussed the 90s look of the website either.

When I applied for my mums visa on Friday, it got denied the first time and even the denied page had a major grammatical error. “Your eVisa application was been denied” should be either “has been denied” or “was denied”.

If I’m correcting spelling and grammatical errors, then you can imagine how bad things are.

I applied for my mums visa again yesterday and it got approved the second time around. Completely random. On the plus side, even though it was the weekend, the approval/rejection process took a few hours and was pretty fast.

So whoever is in charge of the website, please fix these mistakes. I haven’t checked the other pages but I’d imagine there are probably mistakes on those as well.

Update: Spelling has been fixed!

Gulf Business released the 2017 list of top salaries in Kuwait and the top jobs according to their research are the following:

1) Chief executive officer/managing director – multinational: $34,271
2) Chief executive officer/managing director – local company: $22,178
3) Banking – treasury manager: $13,224
4) Information technology – manager: $12,097
5) Construction – project manager: $11,853
6) Legal – lawyer marketer/manager: $10,355
7) Banking – retail/personal banking manager: $9,625
8) Real estate – manager: $9,610
9) Banking – branch manager: $9,577
10) Healthcare – general practitioner/ manager: $9,416

I was comparing it to the list from 2012 and the biggest difference I noticed is that everything related to print media like advertising, PR and publishing, is now no longer on the list. No surprise there since that field has basically crashed due to the shift to digital. Check out the 2017 list [Here]

Photo by Mohammed AlSultan

A friend forwarded me the video above of the Fahaheel Expressway near Mangaf completely flooded. As you can see in the video a lot of cars drowned sank and many people were stranded. I have a friend who lives in Mangaf as well where their whole neighborhood flooded and all the underground parking lots filled up drowning their cars as well. Pretty messed up.

Thanks Ghadeer

There are currently a bunch of new hospitals being constructed and designed at the moment in Kuwait and thanks to a reader, I was able to get a bit of information on them. Below is a list of some of the hospitals currently in the pipeline along with their current status and links with more details on the projects:

Al-Adan Women and Children’s Hospital
Already under construction

Al-Razi Hospital
Under tender but paused right now due to budget constraints

Al-Sabah Hospital
Already under construction

Amiri Hospital
Already under construction

Kuwait Cancer Control Centre
Already under construction

Kuwait Children’s Hospital
Currently in design phase

NBK Cancer Hospital (Oncology and Hematology)
Already complete and awaiting commissioning

New Farwaniya Hospital
Already under construction

New Ibn Sina Hospital
On hold, awaiting budget and likely to kick off 2017-2018

New Jahra Hospital
Already under construction

New Maternity Hospital
Construction to begin any day now

Police Hospital
Was tendered and awarded and now awaiting contract signature to kick off

Sheikh Jaber Hospital
Construction nearly complete

Sheikha Salwa Al-Sabah Center for Stem Cell and Umbilical Cord
Already under construction

Thanks Jassim

It’s been super warm all January during the daytime, I’m in a t-shirt most of the time and at night I even have the air conditioning on when I go to sleep. It feels like the warmest January ever but I just went through the Kuwait weather history on wunderground.com, and it turns out it’s just an average Kuwait January. The coldest January in the past 10 years was in 2009 and the warmest was in 2010.

The huge bridge that connects Kuwait City to Jahra is now open. Last week I was heading back from Sabbiya to Kuwait City and got on the newly opened Jahra bridge and damn did it save me so much time. I think I probably saved anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes just because of the bridge. It’s super long and flies over all the small roads, traffic lights and roundabouts that you would usually have to take. Only downside at the moment is that the bridge ends as a two lane road outside of Cozmo/McDonalds Kaifan, so there was a bit of traffic at the end as the cars funneled, but the amount of time I saved still made up for it.

Oh and just a small note, there are no speed cameras on the bridge at the moment.

Update: Ok so you need to watch out for the parked speed cameras like the one pictured below. (Thanks Forzaq8)