I was trying to find information on the Anglo American School of Kuwait and by chance ended up finding a whole bunch of old photos of Kuwait dating back from 1960 up till 1984. I hadn’t seen any of them before and the one that grabbed my attention the most was the one above of a karting track in Ahmadi back in 1964. Most likely the first go-kart track in the region. There are a ton of photos, some are more interesting than others but all help paint a picture of life in Ahmadi back in the 60s and 70s. Check them out [Here]
I had no idea who Emmy was until a reader emailed me telling me about her. Emmymade in Japan is a YouTube channel where Emmy usually reviews different kind of candies (mostly from Japan) while eating them in front of the camera. Well it seems she has some Kuwaiti viewers because someone from Kuwait sent her a box full of treats all the way to Japan. It’s really fun watching her trying to figure out what everything is. [YouTube]
Exit is a short film that revolves around a Ministry building in Kuwait. It’s really not that great a video but I really liked the idea of a bored employee making a film at his workplace. [Vimeo]
Hamad Al-Tourah is a Kuwaiti writer and filmmaker who is currently getting ready to shoot a short film here in Kuwait in about 3 weeks time. Right now he’s in the pre-production phase and is currently casting actors/actresses for the roles. He is also raising funds to cover the cost of equipment and production so he’s got a Kickstarter kinda thing going on.
Here is the summary of what the short film will be about:
Playtime is a short film about Matthew, a 10 year old expatriate who’s just moved to Kuwait with his single mother, whose just been hired for a post at an American Army Base. One night, after his mother leaves him alone for the first time, he escapes to track her down. Instead, he quickly crosses paths with Dalal, a teenage Kuwaiti girl who lives next door. Fearing a second abandonment, Matthew convinces her to help him find his mother.
What Matthew doesn’t know is that Dalal needs more help than he and that the only way to combat his own feelings of alienation is to stop depending on the care of others. Having descended far into the depths of the Kuwaiti desert, Matthew must fend off some threatening characters and return the two of them safely home.
Hamad is trying to raise $8,000 to make the film and right now he’s at the halfway point with around $4,000. Every donation gets you a perk and you can donate as little as just $10. To find out how you can help click [Here]
A few weeks back I was having a quick bite at Hashtag when Dari the owner sat down with me and started telling me about PlusOne. It’s a fairly simple concept, anytime you order a burger just tell the cashier to PlusOne and they will add one Dinar to your total bill. The one Dinar you add will be matched by the restaurant and then a meal similar to the one you just had would be given to a low income worker. He invited me to pass by again when they were preparing the meals so I could volunteer and see how the system works for myself. So I did.
It was a pretty dusty day when I met up with Dari at Hashtag but that wasn’t changing their plans. I arrived just as they were starting to make the burgers. There were three other volunteers including the super nice Ms. Bibi Al-Ayoub from “Draw a Smile,” a charitable campaign that inspired PlusOne. Once all the burgers were ready we headed out to a location where street workers were coming together before being taken by a large bus to their compounds. As we arrived to the location so did a car from Chocolateness who were also participating that day.
The workers right away got in a very organized line as the volunteers started handing out the food one at a time along with a drink. Sadly that day there were more workers than there was food to give but hopefully as more people are aware about PlusOne that won’t happen again.
Right now the following restaurants are participating in this year long campaign:
If you’re interested in helping, just PlusOne to your bill when ordering from one of the restaurants above. If you’re a restaurant owner and want to participate, you can do so by clicking [Here]
Gourmet Magazine have a feature article listing some of the best burgers from around the world and Kuwait made the list. The featured burger from Kuwait is the Kuwait City edition burger from Smashburger. I haven’t had Smashburger yet so I can’t vouch for them but I am curious to try it now. Here is the link to the full list [Link]
If you’re familiar with Reddit then you should be familiar with IAMA (I Am A/Ask Me Anything). It’s when a person states what they do for a living and then allows people to ask them anything. An American girl going by the nickname GlitterNails posted “I was an “Alcohol Dealer” in a Islamic Country. AMA” and within the comments you quickly find out by Islamic country she meant Kuwait.
It’s an interesting read and if you’ve got the time check it out. Right now it has over 850 comments. [Link]
I’m out of the country right now so didn’t experience it but looks like an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.2 hit Kuwait around 7:30 in the morning. [Source]
According to a post on Mental Floss, Kuwait is among 21 countries with only one Olympic medal. I don’t think that is bad considering how tiny Kuwait is and how there is very little interest in track and field or most other Olympic sports. [Link]
Kuwait’s only Olympic medal was won by Fehaid Aldeehani in the men’s double trap shooting event at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Fehaid is competing again in this years London Olympics and was the flag bearer during the opening ceromony (pictured above).
You can check out the profiles of all the Kuwaiti Olympic athletes as well as follow their event schedules and other bits of information on the official London 2012 Olympics website [Here]
TJCfilms has been really busy lately releasing one video after another. His latest is the first episode of a series on the Kuwait Gridiron Football team. American Football that is.
This is the Kuwait Gridiron football team. Not Soccer…NFL style football. They are the official team of Kuwait. These guys are serious and want to take this team to an international level. This first episode of a hopefully ongoing series introduces the coaches, players and the drive and discipline these guys have. They are working hard to get tough so they can take it to teams all around the world and here in Kuwait. Next episode will be about their conditioning exercises.
I for one didn’t know Kuwait had a national Football team. Watch the video above or on [YouTube]
This is another angle of the fire that took place near Marina Mall which I posted about two days back. This video of the fire was taken from a tenant living in the building right above the fire. [YouTube]
40 years ago, NASA’s Landsat program launched it’s initial satellite into space (July 23, 1972). Since then the program has been tracking and recording changes on the Earth’s surface via satellite imagery.
Since it’s been 40 years, NASA commemorated the anniversary by selecting and compiling a list of its top ten stories or revealing images which it had stored up during its four decades of existence. One of the stories that made the top 10 was the 1991 Kuwait Oil Fires.
As Iraqi troops withdrew from Kuwait at the end of the first Gulf War, they set fire to over 650 oil wells and damaged many more, just south of the Iraq border (yellow line). These Landsat images show before, during and after the release of 1.5 billion barrels of oil into the environment, the largest oil spill in human history.
You can check out the top 10 stories and images on [WIRED]
Palm trees next to a building near Marina Mall caught fire in the morning, Some of the cars were burnt as a result. Kuwait fire department was quick to douse the fire, small video from the incident (I guess no one was injured in the incident)
Heard about this service ages ago but never bothered to find out how to subscribe to it. The MOI SMS service when signed up to it will notify you when you commit traffic violations. The sign up fee is KD1 and then it’s 40fils per SMS notification. Here are the sign up instructions:
To subscribe, send the following SMS: E(space)Civil ID
Example: E 1111111111
Send the SMS to one of the following numbers: Zain Subscribers 992
Viva Subscribers 55250
Wataniya Subscribers 1750
