Category: News

CNN have put together a list of the 10 must-read blogs from the Middle East and my blog made it to the list! This is what they had to say about me:

Want a break from politics? Try 248am for a slice of Kuwaiti life

Mark Makhoul, 32, a creative director at an advertising agency, began his current blog, 248am, in 2005. Mark’s wife Nataly Tawil, a designer, makes occasional contributions to the blog. The pair are both Lebanese and live in Kuwait.

While it may not offer the political insight of some of the other blogs on the list, it does present a slice of life in Kuwait, covering art, technology and more, with lots of reader contributions.

And it’s not entirely without controversy … Makhoul is apparently being sued by a Japanese restaurant chain over a negative review.

Check out the full list and article by clicking [Here]

According to the latest report by CB Richard Ellis “How global is the business of retail?”, Kuwait City ranked 13th in the world the list of most targeted retail destination, up one place from 14th last year. Dubai and London tied for first place followed by New York in second and Paris third. 13th place is actually incredibly good (we tied with Berlin and Istanbul) since the 12 countries ahead of us are big shots like LA, Moscow, Hong Kong, Barcelona, Berlin etc. plus we beat out cities like Milan, Munich, Tokyo and Miami. Below is the top 20 list:

1 – Dubai
1- London
3- New York
4- Paris
5- Madrid
6- Hong Kong
7- Moscow
8- Los Angeles
9- Singapore
10- Barcelona
11- Beijing
12- Shanghai
13- Berlin
13- Kuwait City
13- Istanbul
16- Riyad
17- Milan
18- Munich
19- Tokyo
20- Las Vegas
20- Miami
20- Hamburg

You can download the full report from the CBRE website [Here]

Now slightly off topic, they represented Kuwait with two visuals in the icon above, one is a stretched out version of Kuwait Towers, but what is the other? Looks like our very own Taj Mahal maybe.

A reader emailed me the flyer above, I’m guessing Alshaya sent it out to their employees. I am also guessing the first Alshaya store is the Mothercare branch next to my house in old Salmiya. I remember when they opened up all those stores in my street, Mothercare, BHS, The Body Shop, Oasis, Next, River Island and whatever else I might have missed. It made the street pretty cool and they’re all actually still open here except I think Oasis which became H&M.

I know a lot of people don’t like Alshaya but I grew up with them on my street so I’m a big fan and I love how they’re bringing over American chains now (example Shake Shack). It’s sad though that their 2000th store had to be one that opened up in Dubai and not here in Kuwait. I guess it’s not something you plan… or at least I hope it wasn’t planned that way.

Thanks Joe

For some odd reason, smack dab in the middle of the Al-Anbaa Arabic newspaper website, there’s an English Edition of the paper. It’s a tiny section with not that many articles and I think it’s pretty weird. There isn’t an “English” button on the top of the page or anything like that, just scroll down half way and you’ll find it. I wonder if they’re planning on expanding it and having a proper English version of their website. [Link]

Thanks Abdulaziz

According to Arab Times “expatriates will no longer be required to pay for cancer diagnosis and treatment in all hospitals and medical centers, provided they are legal residents in the country.”

I think that’s really great news for expats like me living here. Here is the link to the [Article]

Just found out by mistake that there is a mini Olympics of a sort just for women that being held in Abu Dhabi for the next six days. Not sure if it’s been publicized or not but I just found out about it now and not sure if the games will be broadcasted on television or not. Kuwait is participating in the games as well as female athletes from Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and UAE. They will be competing in athletics, volleyball, equestrian, taekwondo, bowling and shooting. Not sure who or how many from Kuwait are participating so if anyone has more information on this I will gladly post it. Here is a link to an article about the games. [Link]

I just read that the incredibly fantastic architects Foster+Partners will be designing the new Kuwait Airport terminal. That’s basically amazing news because I was just recently starting to wonder when we would go back to awarding great designers with large landmark projects. I can’t wait to see a rendering of the new terminal and I can’t wait for it to be built. [Link]

Note: Picture above is of the Beijing airport which was designed by F+P

Update: In case you’ve missed my older post, the current airport (before all the ugly updates made to it) was designed by the legendary Japanese architect Kenzo Tange. Here is a link with some pictures of the airport in it’s original state. [Link]

This has to be the strangest thing I’ve read in ages. According to Badoo the compilers of the world’s largest ever study on online flirting, Kuwait ranked 3rd in flirtatious behavior online. 3rd place out of 200! Isn’t that so very weird?

Top 10
1 Athens
2 Moscow
3 Kuwait City
4 Baku
5 Tunis
6 Kiev
7 Beirut
8= Turin
8= Rome
10 Bari

Here is a link to the article [Link]

Thanks FYI

In honor of Kuwait’s National Day, Emirates is going to fly an A380 into Kuwait on the 26th of February. The A380 is the humongous double decker plane that has nearly 400 economy seats, 76 business class and 14 first class. I’ve never been on one before but a friend of mine did and told me it’s incredibly huge, they even have showers on board. Emirates won’t be adding the A380 on their Kuwait Dubai route anytime soon but it’s still a nice gesture from them. The Kuwait Airport has been A380 ready since the end of last year. [Link]

[YouTube]

Found the video above on the His & Hers blog. [YouTube]

Back in December I posted about a rumor that Alshaya was signing a deal to bring The Cheesecake Factory to Kuwait and the Middle East and today it became offical. Alshaya got the rights to franchise The Cheesecake Factory in the Middle East, North Africa, and Central and Eastern Europe. They will be opening up 22 restaurants within the next 5 years. Arabian Business has more details [Here]

via 2:48pm

Just found out a huge fire broke out last night at the Agility warehouse. Hopefully no one got hurt since the fire looks huge. I hope my boxes of Coco Puffs are also safe. If you work at Agility and have information on this fire or pictures please [Contact Me]

Update: Here is a video, the fire is HUGE [YouTube]

Update2: An Agility employee had the following to say regarding this fire:

Hi Mark… Just wanted to set the record straight after seeing some of the comments about the Agility fire. I am an Agility employee. We’ve lost a 20,000 sqm warehouse last night which was occupied by our commercial customers only. No US army business was conducted there. Luckily no employees were hurt and we are working on multiple fronts to normalize operations for our clients who have been very supportive.

Kuwait’s came 61st in the 2011 Index of Economic Freedom with a score of 64.9. Its scored 2.8 points lower than last year, with declines in five of the 10 economic freedoms, including a large drop in labor freedom. In the Middle East and North Africa, Kuwait ranked 8th out of 17 countries. It’s the only GCC country to drop in points but it’s overall score is still well above the world and regional averages.

Bahrain came in 10th place in the full world ranking.

Here is a link to the full ranking [Link]
Here is a link to the detailed breakdown of Kuwait’s score [Link]

Thanks FYI

The video above is in Arabic but its about savings in the GCC. Kuwait and Saudi scored the lowest in terms of savings while 93% of the people questioned believed their savings were inadequate for their future needs. [YouTube]