Category: News

Six Flags Entertainment Corporation, the world’s largest regional theme park company, and Meraas Leisure and Entertainment, have announced plans to bring a theme park to Dubai.

In a joint statement, the companies said a new strategic partnership will bring a Six Flags-branded theme park to the emirate. The project is planned to open in late 2017 and will be located within the multi-themed park project in Jebel Ali launched by Meraas.

I’m jealous. [Link]

According to an article published on Interactive Travel, the new Kuwait Airways planes that will start arriving at the end of the year will allow you to use your mobile phone during flight as well as connect online via WiFi.

The airline has ordered five A330s and seven A320s, all of which will be line fitted with Mobile OnAir and Internet OnAir. The first A320 and first A330 will be delivered in December 2014 and May 2015.

If this actually happens I might start flying Kuwait Airways again. [Link]

The airline’s first female CEO, who took control in December, said eventually she would like to reduce staff numbers even further.
“My target is 4,500 but I can’t do that this year,” she said.

The airline is undergoing a major restructure after two decades of being burdened with old, inefficient aircraft, staff protectionism and a bloated workforce of 6,000.

I want to be optimistic but I find it hard to believe they’ll fire 1,000 government employees. [Link]

Update: Nevermind, I missed the line that said all the employees they are going to fire are foreigners. Now it makes sense.

Short report by the BBC on Saad Lamjarred’s visit to Al Hamra Mall a few days ago. [Link]

Reuters have an interesting article today on why Kuwait is falling behind.

When Shawaf al-Shawaf wanted to register his kitchen tools business in Kuwait, the bureaucratic process took six months. In Saudi Arabia, it took him less than a day.

“If I need to go to a government department, I cancel my whole day because I know I will spend the whole time there,” said Shawaf, 24, who set up his company Dolsten in late 2012.

A 2013 World Bank ranking on the ease of doing business puts Kuwait at 104 out of 189 economies, by far the lowest in the GCC. The next lowest, Qatar, is at 48 while Saudi Arabia is at 26 and the UAE leads at 23.

I don’t think its just Kuwaitis who are asking, everyone is. Here is a link to the [Article]

Thanks Ahmed

Arabian Business released their list of “World’s 100 Most Powerful Arabs” and only two from Kuwait made the list, Mohamed Alshaya of MH Alshaya and Omar Alghanim of Gulf Bank. The 100 people on the list were grouped into various groups, Mohamed Alshaya made it into the “Leaders” group while Omar Alghanim made it into the “Thinkers” group. Check the full list out [Here]

The locally created The 99 comics has been banned in Saudi Arabia for religious reasons and the creator Dr Naif Al Mutawa is also being sued locally.

However, Al Mutawa, the CEO of Teshkeel Media Group has vehemently defended his work, saying that it had won universal praise, including from the Emir of Kuwait and President Barack Obama.

“Those who are attacking men are claiming that I am using the 99 Holy Names of God for my characters,” he said. “However, I never thought they would go as far as accusing me of blasphemy and atheism. I am surprised that this is happening in Kuwait, a country of law that respects the Constitution and freedoms,” he said.
Al Mutawa said that his work was under an Islamic company and funded by an Islamic bank.

“We have succeeded in presenting a positive image about the Islamic culture at international events. We had a role in dissipating the negative images of terrorism and killing that people had of Arabs. The series is being shown in 70 countries across the world,” he said. [Article]

The 99 is a comic book featuring a team of superheroes based on Islamic culture and religion that became a worldwide sensation. Dr Naif was featured on the front page of CNN previously as well as being mentioned by Barrak Obama in one of his speeches.

Fourteen suspects have been arrested in connection with an attack on a police patrol during a wedding party in western Kuwait City, the Interior Ministry said Friday.
…
The policemen had gone to the wedding party to demand that guests refrain from firing guns into the air during celebrations.
[Source]

I got the video on top a few days ago but didn’t really know what the story was until I read the article above. Pretty messed up.

Gizmodo has an interesting article on how most of the GCC countries are building railway systems. The article focuses mostly on Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE but Kuwait also makes a small appearance alongside Oman. Kuwait will most likely be the last on the list to get the rail system built if it ever actually gets built. Check out the article [Here]

Reports are coming in that a Kuwait Airways flight coming from Doha ran into problems with the landing gear and had to perform an emergency landing. Due to technical issues the pilot wasn’t able to tell if the left landing gear had opened or not and so had to spend an hour circling over Kuwait trying to sort the issue out.

The pilot was forced to fly at low altitude around the airport so personnel on the ground could give him a visual confirmation on if the landing gear had opened or not. The plane finally ended up landing safely without any incident.

I’ll provide a link to an official news source once I find one.

The video above is of Kuwaiti military graduates who celebrated their graduation by not only throwing their hats in the air but also throwing their weapons onto the ground. They were originally handed down a punishment for violating military regulations but were later pardoned. [YouTube]

[YouTube]

The Arab Times have an interesting Q&A with Kuwaiti film maker Shakir Abal on the demise of theaters (not cinema) in Kuwait. The most fascinating part for me had to do with censorship:

Q: So there is a very strict censorship in Kuwait?
A: When you read the censorship laws, it is not very strict. But the problem lies in the unpredictability which in turn is due to the fact that it is open to interpretation by whoever it is. So when you have invested say 50,000 KD in a play or 100,000 KD on a production, which needs to be done even before the first show is staged, you cannot afford for this one guy who comes from the censorship one day and tells you ‘Well this is wrong. You have to close the play down for whatever reason”.

Q: So you mean to say there are no clear cut ‘dos and don’ts’ as far as censorship is concerned?
A: The laws are not clear cut, and it is, unfortunately, being controlled by people who lack in knowledge. I am 56 years old. I do not like a 25 year old putting restriction on what I can see or cannot see. And that is what is happening. That is wrong. If a script is approved, it is approved. End of the story. If they cannot or do not know how to read the script, then it is not my fault.

Who would want to invest time and money in a show if it could get shutdown without warning by a censor? Obviously not a lot of people hence the demise. Check out the full interview on the Arab Times website [Here]

Arabian Business released their “100 most powerful Arab women 2014″ list and 9 Kuwaiti women made the top 100. Last year 11 Kuwaiti women made the list with the most powerful being Suad Al Humaidi who came in at number 10. This year Suad dropped down all the way to 46th place leaving Shaikha Al Bahar (pictured above) to take the top spot by coming in 21st place. Below is the current ranking of all the powerful Kuwaiti women who made the top 100.

21 – Shaikha Al Bahar
27 – Maha Al Ghunaim
43 – Rasha Al Roumi
46 – Suad Al Humaidi
50 – Faten Al Naqeeb
67 – Sara Akbar
78 – Donna Sultan
89 – Hanadi Al Saleh
99 – Ghosson Al Khaled

For the full top 100 list, visit the Arabian Business website [Here]

The 2014 World Press Freedom Index is out and it’s not good news. Even though Kuwait still leads the region in press freedom, Kuwait dropped down from 77th place all the way to 91. The reason? The arrest of two citizen journalists. Here is how Kuwait compares to our neighbors:

91 – Kuwait
96 – Israel
106 – Lebanon
113 – Qatar
118 – UAE
141 – Jordan
153 – Iraq
163 – Bahrain
164 – Saudi
173 – Iran

Check out the full list [Here]

Thanks yousefq8

According to the person in the video this incident took place today. The plane took off from London (my guess it was heading back to Kuwait) when it was forced to return and make an emergency landing after a hydraulic problem. [YouTube]