Category: Kuwait

Can we have normal looking trees in Kuwait? Please.

Some pictures from the Michael Jackson tribute that was held yesterday on the Marina Mall beach are up on the Facebook group. It seems the cops came and broke up the vigil because they thought it was witchcraft! I didn’t go but looking at the pictures I think it looked like a pretty cool and proper vigil. I read someone got into a fight with the police, if anyone has more information please post it below. Here is a link to the Facebook group with the pictures. [Link]

Note: You need to have a Facebook account to view the pictures.

Just got an email and SMS regarding a Michael Jackson candle-light vigil and tribute that will take place tonight at the Marina Mall beach from 6:30PM till 11PM. Here is a link to the Facebook page. [Link]

I passed by 360 today and this is what I thought:

The Good
– The interior of the mall is probably the nicest in Kuwait. Looks very fancy with a mixture of wood, marble and carpet.
– Finally there is a proper Nike and Puma store
– Geant Hypermarket is huge
– Toys R Us!
– A lot of new brands launching at the 360
– Food court looks pretty

The Bad
– I would say only 20-30% of the shops and restaurants are open, everything else is still closed
– I was expecting a larger Toys R Us
– I compared one item at Geant which turned out to be more expensive than Carrefour. The WD HD TV player costs KD35 at Geant and KD31 at Carrefour. This of course isn’t an accurate assessment but it still gave me the impression that Carrefour is cheaper.

The Ugly
– Parking or should I say the complete lack of any parking. I was there during the day, the mall wasn’t packed and I couldn’t find parking. Its bad enough the parking isn’t shaded but the fact that there wasn’t enough parking during the middle of the week at 1PM is just ridiculous. I had to park illegally like a lot of people and I was lucky I even found an illegal spot. A friend passed by last night and told me he had to wait in a car jam for 20 minutes around a kilometer away from the mall and in the end he left because the line into 360 wasn’t moving.
– There were nice looking fountains outside but when I got closer they stank of sewage and were murky green and dirty.

[YouTube]

Kuwait won 3 gold medals, 3 silver and 5 bronze at the recent Asian Youth Games that were held in Singapore. I checked out YouTube and managed to find two interviews with two Kuwaiti participants, one of them is Hessah Al Zayed (above) who won a bronze in shooting while the other is a table tennis player (below). Overall Kuwait came 9th out of 39 countries that participated in these games. Thats pretty cool.

[YouTube]

I found this logo at one of the Oula gas stations and I am assuming its their new logo. I couldn’t find any information on it online and their website doesn’t seem to be updated.

The IMAX theater at 360 Mall will be opening on July 5th and it will be playing Transformers 2. I tried to purchase tickets from the KNCC website but it seems you can’t at the moment. [Link]

via 360Dewan

The Scientific Center of Kuwait now has a Penguin display! [YouTube]

A fire started around 4:30PM in one of the buildings in Dajeej that contains furniture shops. Due to the size of the fire the firefighters weren’t able to tame it. He shot a video which you can see above and also pictures which you can see below. [YouTube]

Update: Here is another good video [YouTube]

AndyQ8 just posted a list of shops that will be opening at the 360 Mall.
Click on continue to see the full list.

Looks like someone online is selling Kids R Us tshirts (and other random stuff). I think they would have been cooler with maybe Kids R Us written on the back. [Link]

Thanks Adam

I was at Souk Sharq when I noticed their beautiful grass. It looked perfect all nice and green on a very hot sunny day. But sadly, on closer inspection it turned out the grass was fake, a really good fake. I couldn’t believe it wasn’t real until I pulled up the grass from one of the edges to reveal its carpet like application.

Kuwait Government Online is a very helpful site with information and forms on different government procedures. [Link]

Thanks K.TheKuwaiti

Some good news, back in 2006 I posted about how Kuwait had the most corrupt diplomats in New York averaging 246.2 parking tickets per diplomat. Well the new 2009 results are out and Kuwait is no longer first, instead they’re second! The Egyptian diplomats now lead the way with the most unpaid parking tickets while Kuwait is following closely behind owing nearly $1.3 million in unpaid fines. Here is the link to the article. [Link]

On a similar note Marzouq posted about the Kuwaiti embassy thats based in the Ritz Carlton in Singapore. Looks like the best place to be if you want to be a Kuwaiti diplomat. [Link]

Note: Stop emailing me hate mail. I wasn’t the person who wrote the article or call the diplomats corrupt. Since those of you who emailed me are too lazy to click the link here is a quotation from the link that explains how not paying your tickets means you are corrupt:

“In a great paper for the National Bureau for Economic Research, two researchers have found that the number of parking tickets that legally-immune foreign diplomats accumulate in NYC and refuse to pay is a great measure of how corrupt their home countries are.”

Direct all hate mail to the New York Daily News, the National Bureau for Economic Research or your diplomats.

360Dewan uploaded the video above onto YouTube of a Nissan Patrol Land Cruiser on two wheels at a traffic intersection. Best part of the video is when the Patrol gets chased by cops at the end. [Link]