Category: News

Yesterday the New York Times published an article relating to Kuwait, but like most of the times we make the news, it wasn’t for a good thing. The New York Times had an article on the increase of book bannings that have gotten so extreme, we’re actually banning books that are not banned in Saudi Arabia. If that’s not absurd I don’t know what is.

Some of the books that were banned were written by local authors, so it’s not just foreign books that are being affected by this recent banning. Over 4,300 books have been banned so far since 2014 with 700 of them being banned just this year alone. Check out the New York Times article with more details on this [Here]

Last month I posted about an emergency lane tragedy where a mum lost her 4-month old child to a speeding motorist. The mum had pulled over into the emergency lane because of a problem with her car when a driver who was speeding in the emergency lane crashed into them. The mum has now written about the tragedy in the Kuwait Times. You can read her article [Here]

To be eligible, residents born in Qatar must have lived in the country for 10 years, while those born abroad would need to have lived there 20 years, according to the decree. A passing command of the Arabic language, proof of sufficient income and sound legal standing are also required.
…
Permanent residents will be able to establish commercial companies without needing a local partner and will be able to take part in national economic projects. Permanent residency permits can be withdrawn in certain cases. [Source]

When expats like me who’ve been living in Kuwait all their lives talk about wanting some kind of benefit or advantage over an expat who’s been in Kuwait for just a week, this is what we really want. We want the ability to live in Kuwait without requiring a sponsor, without having to renew our residency every year and the ability to purchase a home or open a business if we want to. We’re not asking for the passport or a social security check every month.

With all these recent negative articles on Kuwait here is one that’s good. BBC Travel shared a list of five places that make living easy and Kuwait made the list. The five places in no particular order are:

Honolulu, United States
Budapest, Hungary
Kuwait City, Kuwait
Auckland, New Zealand
Taipei, Taiwan

Not bad right? Check out their article [Here]

According to a recent report from the World Health Organization, Kuwait ranked as the least active country in the world. The most active country, on the other hand, was Uganda.

Most Active Nations:
1- Uganda
2- Mozambique
3- Lesotho

Least Active Nations:
1- Kuwait
2- American Samoa
3- Saudi Arabia

The WHO defines enough exercise as at least 75 minutes of vigorous activity or 150 minutes of moderately intense activity per week, or any combination of the two.

According to the report, 67 percent of Kuwait’s population failed to hit WHO’s recommended exercise target. That sounds absurdly high considering how much more active everyone in Kuwait has become over the past few years. Check out the full report [Here] or the summarized version on Bloomberg [Here]

Photo on top from Battle of the East

Wataniya Airways is temporarily suspending operations after “unexpected circumstances” that could not be avoided, board chairman Ali al Fozan announced yesterday.

The suspension is the second time in its brief history that the carrier has had to halt its flight operations.

“Three planes going out of service,” have left the carrier with just one aircraft available for commercial flights, Al Fozan claimed during a press conference in Kuwait yesterday as the reason behind “temporarily” suspending operations.

Wataniya had expected to add two additional aircraft and bring its fleet to six as of last month, he said.

But of the four aircraft it was operating, one Airbus A320 needs to have an engine replaced, while two others left service after the carrier ended a wet lease contract with Olympus Airways over objections by Kuwait’s civil aviation authority – the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). [Source]

Well that explains why they suddenly started having issues. Hopefully, when they come back they’ll have better planes and service since they were flying to some interesting destinations.

Local police have shut down a fish store that was sticking googly eyes on fish to make them look fresh. The story has obviously gone viral online with one tweet generating over 50,000 likes and 30,000 retweets! Too funny… [Link]

Not to be confused with the metro project, the rail project is designed to connect Kuwait with the rest of the GCC via rail. Once the project is completed you’ll be able to take the train from Kuwait City all the way to Oman. The first phase of the project will connect Kuwait City to Dammam in Saudi Arabia.

Although there is no relationship between the two, I’m sure everyone here would rather they began work on the far more interesting and useful metro project (pictured on top). [Link]

Yesterday, Kuwaiti race car driver Zaid Ashkanani scored a second-place victory at the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup 2018. The race took place on the Belgian GP Spa track, the same track the Formula 1 race took place on yesterday. Zaid is now 6th place in the overall rankings.

I couldn’t find any articles online with more details on the race but you could watch the start of the race above (he’s in the grey and white Porsche starting in 4th place) and make sure you check out his instagram @zaidashkanani

Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Saturday addressed an ultimatum to Wataniya Airways to resolve problems such as recurring flights’ delay and cancellation.

The DGC warned in a statement that in case the company failed to fulfil its duties properly, its permit would be suspended, effective September 6 for three months as an initial penalty, while compelling it to fulfil its financial and legal liabilities toward passengers.

If Wataniya Airways fails again to tackle these problems, it will be stripped of the license permanently.

The directorate said several warnings had been given to the company to no avail. It assured passengers that it would do its best to ensure their safety and rights, vowing to follow up on Wataniya’s commitment to secure their comeback either on its aircraft or planes of other companies. [Source]

I knew they were having delays and flight cancellations for a few months now but didn’t think it was this severe of an issue even though someone had even sent me a video of the crew loading up supermarket bags of food on the plane because at one point they had lost their catering contract. I hate seeing the airline fail like this since I worked with the original Wataniya Airways on their launch many years ago so when the airline came back again from the dead last year, I had high hopes. And even though I had an average experience flying with them back in November, it was still good having an extra airline to choose from when planning trips. Maybe this will be their turning point…

Captain Abdullah Bu Hassan from the Interior Ministry pointed out that engaging in this dance challenge could lead to payment of KD100 fine and imprisonment for three months once the case is referred to the court.

In addition, Al-Shahid daily has reported that Director General of Public Relations and Security Media General Department in the Ministry of Interior Brigadier Tawheed Al-Kandari has affirmed that the ‘Kiki’ dance challenge video clip, which went viral on social media, is a violation of the Traffic Law. Under such circumstances, the vehicle will be impounded and a citation will be issued to the motorist, he added. [Source]

Expats, on the other hand, will get deported (no not really, I don’t think so at least).

The story with the Kuwaiti influencer @sondos_aq doesn’t look like its quieting down anytime soon, but, this will probably be the last time I post about her since I’m pretty much over the whole thing.

In one of her most recent videos (watch it above), instead of apologizing and putting all this behind her, Sondos is now claiming that she is being attacked by the foreign media because she is a Kuwaiti Muslim who wears hijab. She then ends the video by promising to reveal the brands that have cut ties with her so that her followers can boycott them.

Brands don’t seem to be affected by her threat, MAC Cosmetics, Anastasia Beverly Hills and Phyto were three more brands to announce that they will no longer be working with her.

I have no idea who is handling her public relations, but whomever it is they’re doing a terrible job…

Yesterday the makeup brand Max Factor posted the story above on their Instagram account @maxfactorarabia distancing themselves from the influencer Sondos. Over the weekend Sondos had posted racial comments on her social media account which got picked up by news outlets around the world and caused a great deal of controversy locally.

From what I’m aware Max Factor are the first brand to distance themselves from her. Previously a reader had told me that Boutiqaat had dropped Sondos as well, but, that doesn’t seem to be the case since she’s still listed on their website and they’ve refused to comment on the situation when I spoke to them.

Anyway, I thought it was impressive that Max Factor disassociated themselves from Sondos since I didn’t hear of any brand dropping 3bodka after his incident.

Update: The cosmetics brand Etude House posted a story today also distancing themselves from Sondos although they don’t mention her by name. You can check their story [Here]

This story broke out over the weekend and it’s been picking up A LOT of media traction internationally. Local Instagram celebrity @sondos_aq recently went on a rant on the new local regulations requiring a weekly day off for Filipino domestic workers. You can watch her rant in the video above. To summarize, she thinks its ridiculous that domestic workers have to get a day off every week and that she doesn’t believe domestic workers should be able to keep their passports. Pretty racial comments and the worst part is, she has over 2.3 million followers.

Last month the Instagram celebrity 3bodka was caught abusing his dog, and now we have another influencer posting racial comments. Looking at how this is blowing up I wouldn’t be surprised if local authorities decide to create new laws or regulations to prevent situations like this from occurring again.

If you want to read more about this incident, check out the articles on CNN, Independent and Buzzfeed amongst other.

So last week there was a case of mass food poisoning in Kuwait because of a falafel restaurant in Hawalli. Supposedly the former partner of the restaurant conspired with an employee to poison the falafel and today Kuwait Times mentions they found the food to be contaminated with salmonella and other types of bacteria. Around 300 customers got food poisoned and yet none of the newspapers or news outlets have mentioned which restaurant had their food contaminated (at least none of the English outlets). I really don’t understand why news media continue to shy away from posting the name of the restaurant especially in a case like this where many other people might be infected and not know they are.

When there was an E. coli outbreak at Chipotle in the States, all the news outlets wrote about it, but if the same outbreak had taken place in Kuwait they’d probably just describe Chipotle as an American franchise.