Category: News

Washington Post published a not-so-nice article today about Kuwait that has been making its way around the web. The article, in summary, talks about how Kuwait is a significant polluter, has poor plans in eliminating emissions, and how nobody really cares, yada yada yada. One thing that did catch my attention though was in this paragraph:

An hour drive outside the dingy suburbs of Jahra, wind turbines and solar panels rise from clouds of sand — the fruit of Kuwait’s energy transition ambitions. source

What turbines?? I was pretty surprised I hadn’t heard of it before or seen any pictures. A quick search on Google Maps for “Shagaya Energy Park“, the name of the project, quickly pops up with imagery showing the turbines as well as the solar panels.

It’s on highway 70 which I’ve taken multiple times but I’ve only ever been as far as the Salmi scrapyard. The energy park is a short distance after which is why I never came across it. It might be worth checking out since it seems you can just drive up to the turbines if you go off-road. Here is the location on Google Maps

According to @Almajlliss, the baladiya will start fining people who plant greenery in front of their homes (on government property) 1,000 KD. Yup, if you want to make your neighborhood greener, expect to pay a hefty fine doing so.

I don’t know why stuff like this still shocks me and I really really don’t get this hatred towards trees here.

Kuwait is in the news again but for the first time in a long time, it’s actually for good news. Yesterday the constitutional court overturned a law that criminalized “imitation of the opposite sex” which was used to prosecute transgender people.

Back in 2007, the National Assembly voted to amend Article 198 of the law to criminalize “indecent” gestures in public and imitation of the opposite sex. Other than the fact the law was deeply discriminatory, it was also overly vague and should never have been accepted into law in the first place according to Amnesty International.

With the way things have been going recently, I’m personally surprised the law was overturned so I guess there is hope.

Update: Commenting has been closed

Kuwaiti lawyer Abdulaziz Saud Al-Subaie filed a lawsuit against the Ministries of Information and Communications, and the Communications and Information Technology Regulatory Authority, demanding the blocking of the “Netflix” platform in his country, against the background of its production of the Arabic movie “Friends and Dearest.”

The lawyer submitted his claim for “religious and moral” motives to the High Court, to block the platform that recently showed the film, which sparked widespread controversy, and its organizers were harshly criticized for its “bold” content. Source

From all the content on Netflix (and the Internet), the stupid movie Perfect Strangers was the one to trigger the lawsuit???

Thanks to climate change, temperatures in Kuwait could become too hot for people and wildlife in decades. How is this rich nation facing an uncomfortable future?

If you want to start your morning with a gloomy article on Kuwait then you’re not going to find a more depressing one than this today. Bloomberg published an article on Kuwait and how we’re basically all doomed here with increasing temperatures and no plan to cut greenhouse gases. The article talks about all our issues from bus stops to the political deadlock so if you’re looking for gloom, here is the link.

Note: If the Bloomberg link doesn’t work for you, the same article is on Yahoo.

Forbes Middle East posted about Yarmouk Park few days ago. Yarmouk Park is recognized as being the first environmentally friendly park based on recycled materials and waste. If you haven’t been to the park before you can check out some more photos of is @forbesmiddleeast

I got this video as a forward but didn’t post it since there was no way of knowing if it was in Kuwait or not. But, the local news media picked up the story, and turns out it was indeed in Kuwait. A lion escaped from captivity and was found roaming the streets before the owner found it and carried the lion back home. The weirder part is the environmental police attended the scene but didn’t confiscate the animal but instead helped the woman get the lion back into her captivity. I guess the plan to ban wild animals never materialized. Link

Update: There is some good news and bad news. The good news is the lion was actually rescued and is now at the zoo. The bad news is that the lion was found to be blind, deaf, and malnourished. They are currently investigating to see if she was born like this or if something happened to her.

For the seventh time in eight years, Kuwait has been ranked the worst destination for expats, coming in last place in the Expat Insider survey (59th out of 59 countries), Al Anba newspaper reported.

According to the Expat Insider survey, Kuwait ranks last in the Quality of Life Index (59th), with especially poor results in the Leisure Options, Personal Happiness, and Travel and Transportation subcategories (59th for all).

Kuwait is also the worst expat destination worldwide in the Ease of Settling (59th), with 46 per cent of expats not feeling at home while 45 per cent find it difficult to settle down in the country.

This report came out before the long weekend and I’m not sure if it’s newsworthy or not anymore. On the one hand, Kuwait being the worst place in the world for expats is newsworthy, but it’s for the seventh time so it now feels like old news. I also don’t think the ranking is going to change next year since it doesn’t look like anyone even cares what expats think of life in Kuwait. The article mentions that “Kuwait expressed strong dissatisfaction with the report” which means they don’t believe things are as bad as the report makes it out to be. Anyway, here is the link to the article. Link

Yesterday the Council of Ministers announced that anyone who doesn’t get their booster shot before 9 months from their second dose will be considered incompletely vaccinated. I’m guessing that your immune app will no longer show as green and you will no longer be allowed into some places.

If you’re eligible for a booster shot please go get one since I don’t want to go back to curfews and lock downs. The process is super easy!

Yesterday the Ministry of Health officially launched the app Q8Seha. Although the app came out last year I guess they considered it a soft launch since it really didn’t allow you to do much more than just book an appointment at your local government clinic. But, as of yesterday the app now allows you to access your laboratory results, radiology reports, and medical reports. This only works if you use one of the MOH facilities and not private hospitals or clinics. You can now also view your sick leaves through the app.

According to the MOH more features will be added soon. If you want to download it here is the link to the iPhone version. It’s supposed to be also available for Android devices but I couldn’t find the link anywhere.

Last week I posted about how you can now add your driving license to the Kuwait Mobile ID app as part of Kuwait’s move to digitization. Well according to the MOI you can’t use a digital driving license!

I guess the different departments didn’t coordinate together or something because although you can use the digital form of your CiviL ID as a form of identification, if you try using the digital driving license without having the physical license with you then you’ll get fined. Hilarious. Source

Note: If you prefer a horribly written English source, click here.

Update: Last night the MOI backtracked and released a statement saying that the digital license is now considered an official document. You can check that post here.

BBC published the video above a few hours ago on life in Kuwait during the summer. Not sure why the music had to be so dramatic, it made the whole video sound like we are suffering and dying because of the heat. One thing that caught my interest is the lady planting trees. I don’t know what her day job is but someone should put her in charge of saving Kuwait’s trees.

In case you can’t watch the video above, here is the Link

It’s been a while since a movie has been banned in Kuwait but according to Al Jarida newspaper, the Marvel Studios’ film ‘Eternals’ has been banned in Kuwait. The newspaper didn’t give any reason for the ban but it’s most likely because of the character ‘Phastos‘ who is the first openly gay hero.

I really wasn’t interested in watching the film but after hearing of the ban I watched the trailer for it and now kinda want to watch it. I guess I’ll have to stream it when it eventually comes out on Disney+.

Kuwait’s traffic authorities imposed a ban on delivery motorbikes on highways and Ring Roads starting from October 3, 2021 due to a rise in accidents. According to the Traffic General Department, the new regulation, issued to ‘streamline the delivery motorcycle service’ in the country, prohibits bikes delivering items to use the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh Ring Roads, in addition to roads 30, 40, 50, 60 and 80, as well as Jamal Abdul-Nasser Road and Jaber Causeway. source

No idea how delivery bikes are going to get around now, maybe just take the Gulf Road to everywhere? What should happen instead of banning them is to make the motorbike license test harder and at the same time enforce traffic rules (for everyone). But obviously banning things is always our go-to fix.

Also for those emailing me asking me to post a complaint about Deliveroo’s new service charge, I’m not going to. It’s a small fee and you can always use Carriage or Talabat if you don’t want to pay it.

Kuwait’s Abdullah Al-Rashidi just won a bronze medal in the Men’s Skeet Shooting competition at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Abdullah had previously won bronze at the 2016 Rio Games but as an Independent Olympic Athlete. Source