Category: Kuwait

Michel Hayek is an extremely popular fortune teller in Lebanon who comes on TV at the end of the year to share his predictions for the coming year. Embarrassingly, he’s so popular that according to him, 35% of the Lebanese politicians see him in private and most have started basing their decisions on his predictions.

Anyway, Michel Hayek has made a number of predictions about Kuwait I’ve listed below. Please don’t take these seriously:

– Kuwait’s Emir will be subjected to a few attacks and health problems
– A political crisis could lead to a siege around a highly symbolic and important building
– The earths crust displacement will result in cracks to a few buildings
– Kuwait’s mediation in a regional affair proves to be successful

So there you have it, Michel Hayek’s predictions for Kuwait. You can watch him read the predictions in Arabic on TV by following this [Link]

Thanks Najib

A fire took place late last night at Souk Mubarkiya. I don’t have any info on it just the pictures I was sent which I’ve attached to this post. Judging by these two photos the fire damage looks pretty extensive.

Update: Kuwait Times have published more details on the fire. It started around 9AM yesterday (Tuesday 1/1/2013) and it engulfed around 35 shops. [Link]

Mr Babu is a website that belongs to a friend of mine and I think it’s an interesting idea that should make shopping much easier for a lot of people. It’s an online shop but the way it works is different from other local online shops. Mr Babu is connected to a bunch of international online shopping databases and when you search for an item on their website it will find it for you, convert the price to Kuwaiti Dinars, add a shipping fee to Kuwait and then displays the price. You then place an order and they’ll get it for you. The price you see on their website is the price you pay for the item including shipping to Kuwait. There are no extra hidden shipping costs or anything of the sort.

I ordered the Bug-A-Salt (video above) from their website and since they had some local stock it was delivered to me the next businesses day. Most items though will take a week or more similar to when ordering using Shop & Ship or Borderlinx. The website is still in beta so it’s running a little slow but other than that its working fine. You can check it out [Here]

Update: In case the website isn’t working here is an explanation from Mr Babu:

We are overwhelmed by the traffic generated by your post which caused our site to crash (as you mentioned being in Beta stage we learn a thing everyday). Our team is working on the issue and will resolve it very soon. Thank you for using Mrbabu

Gallup measured positive emotions in 148 countries and areas using the following five questions:

– Did you feel well-rested yesterday?
– Where you treated with respect all day yesterday?
– Did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday?
– Did you lear or do something interesting yesterday?
– Did you experience the following feelings during a lot of the day yesterday? How about enjoyment?

The percentage in Kuwait who answered yes to all the questions above was 79% placing Kuwait in 17th place. Impressive. [Link]

Thanks Othman

This time it took place at a gas station. I don’t have any details on why the altercation took place or what happened to the victim. If I find out anything will update this post. [YouTube]

Note: Sorry for the bloody photos below but The Avenues cleaners weren’t available to mop up the mess.

Update: I added a second video below

Update2: Kuwait Times has “some” information on this attack. [Link]

Update3: The attackers were arrested. [Link]

I got an email from a reader saying that KDD products are now available at the Qurtuba Co-op. Only at the Qurtuba Co-op and not any other Co-ops as of this post. Usually the Co-ops are all united with their decisions but it seems there is some sort of internal conflict taking place right now and the Qurtuba Co-op was the first one to breakaway from the Co-ops KDD boycott and put KDD back on the shelves. I’m curious to see where this is going.

Thanks Kuwait Lover

[YouTube]

The video above is a TV interview with Colonel Adel Alhashash who shared facts regarding the stabbing that took place last night at The Avenues. According to the Colonel the incident started over a parking spot at around 10PM. The victim and the killer got into a heated argument over a parking spot in the basement and the confrontation then continued inside the mall. The victim was a Lebanese citizen, Dr Jaber Yousef who’s a dentist while the killer was with three other friends. During the confrontation in the mall the killer went and purchased a knife from Carrefour and then headed towards the victim and proceeded to stab him. Dr Jaber Yousef passed away an hour after arriving to the hospital.

According to the Colonel, The Avenues helped the investigators out a lot by providing them photos and CCTV footage of the aggressor. Because of those images the investigators were able to identify the killer but when they went to his home they didn’t find him there. They finally found him at a campsite in Bnaider where he was arrested. He’s 22 years old. The three friends who were with him have still not been caught but they will be soon.

When the Colonel was asked about the lack of presence of police officers at the mall the Colonel responded saying that with private locations such as malls the security is provided by the malls themselves and not the police. But, from what I understood in the interview this might change soon because of this incident and previous violent incidents that have taken place at malls.

There is a memorial page set up for the victim on Facebook and you can visit it by clicking [Here]

Update: Below is the photo of the killer

A super talented friend of mine just released a new single called Tara Aadi. It’s very cool since the music is made up of 8-bit sounds generated from a GameBoy. Here’s some interesting trivia regarding Tara Aadi:

1. All the sounds in the music played was generated by a real Gameboy console

2. The melody was conceived in Kuwait, but arranged in Bad Soden, Germany

3. The vocals were recorded at the Arabic Theater HQ, one of the main founders of Kuwait’s performance art scene

4. Besides collaborating with Hussa Alhumaidhi on the melody, Mishari was responsible for every aspect of its production

5. Mishari mixed the song in Aziz’s car on the way to get treated in Hadi Hospital. Mishari resumed to mix the song in Hadi’s parking lot in his PJ’s and a robe.

6. The song was made with the intention of getting people to smile, preferably while dancing.

You can check out the song by hitting play above or you can check out his other songs on [SoundCloud]

I never got to call the Baladiya hotline about the garbage issue behind my building since mysteriously the garbage was cleaned up and the garbage dumpsters brought back. But, a reader called 139 to complain about the garbage situation near his building and it got sorted out very quickly (picture above).

So if your neihborhood has a garbage problem call the Baladiya on 139 and they’ll get the mess sorted right away. Very impressive.

Thanks Mathai

A reader spotted this parked on the side of the road. Good to know someone cares about the quality of air we’re breathing.

Thanks epetome

Long time photo blogger BuYousef (real name Mohammad Abdullah) has taken his favorite blog posts about Kuwait and put them all in a photo book format. The posts range in subject like gardening, home life, local events, walks, photography and more. According to BuYousef it really is about nothing and everything with a theme of photography. Best of all it’s free so if you’re interested in checking it out you can download it from the Apple Store [Here]

As I mentioned a couple of days back I have 5 “Meet & Greet” tickets to giveaway. These tickets will allow you to meet Kim Kardashian at Millions of Milkshakes during the opening as well as take pictures with her. Since I will be interviewing Kim Kardashian for this blog I’ve decided the competition will be as follows:

What would you ask Kim Kardashian if you could ask her just one question? Leave your question in the comments below. The five people with the best questions will each win a ticket. I will decide which questions are the best.

Make sure you use your correct email address because I will be emailing the winners.

Update: Here’s a video of Kim talking about her upcoming visit


[YouTube]

Update: I’ve closed the post for comments so I can go through the questions. I was so not expecting to get 400+ comments I have no idea how I am going to go through them all…

Update2: And the four winners are…
Roy
Rehab
Q8 Teacher
~LE~

It’s been awhile since I’ve linked to the blog re:kuwait but Barrak has an interesting post about the Jaber Bridge, the bridge that will link Kuwait City to Silk City in the North. Barrak is not in favor of the bridge and wants the idea to be scrapped completely. He does have an interesting case which you can read [Here]

It’s been quiet here the past few days but it’s because I’ve been working on a bunch of stuff for the blog. As most of you know Kim Kardashian is coming to Kuwait next week for the launch of Millions of Milkshakes which will be opening in Avenues Phase III (picture above). Kim will be arriving to Kuwait on the 28th and then leave on December 1st to Bahrain.

I’m trying to get as much content as I can regarding her visit and right now I’ve managed to score 5 tickets to giveaway here on the blog. These 5 tickets are for a “meet and greet”, so 5 lucky readers will be able to meet and talk to Kim Kardashian as well as get their photos taken with her.

I’m still trying to figure out how to give away these tickets so if anyone has any ideas let me know. It will have to be some sort of competition and I already have an idea in mind but I’m hoping someone can come up with a better one.

I can’t believe the picture above is in Kuwait. CNN have an article on how land that was used during the 1990 invasion as an important base for Saddam Hussein’s army has now flourished into the beautiful landscape you see in the picture above. The article is not too long and they also have a short video about the reserve, both of which you could check [Here]