Category: News

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

This has to be the most bizarre story to come out so far this year. I first heard about it a couple of days ago but then yesterday Associated Press published the story and so got picked up by the international media.

An Egyptian expat posted a video on TikTok during the dust storm last week complaining about the weather. That video caused him to get arrested and legal action will be taken against him. Arrested over a video complaining about the dust storm!

I just watched the video and can’t figure out what in it would cause him to get arrested. There isn’t anything in the video that should get him in trouble, the worst thing the guy said is that it was a shitty morning. I’m not gonna embed the video here because I don’t know anymore what can get someone arrested or deported, but here is a link to it, it’s still up on his TikTok account @ahmed_krombo. The guy seems like a chill dude based on his tiktok videos so whats going on? Why all this drama? I’m so confused.

Any person over 65 years of age in Kuwait can receive their COVID-19 vaccine directly and without having to book for an appointment, the health ministry announced. This includes both citizens and expatriates. Source.

This is pretty good news! If you know someone, either family members or maybe your baqala guy or barber that are over 65 and haven’t gotten vaccinated yet, let them know about this.

The Kuwait Society for Human Rights issued a statement a couple of days ago on the recent decision not to renew work permits for people over 60 years old. The statement was done with Google Translate and not edited so a lot of it doesn’t make sense, but the gist of it is there. One of their main arguments is that some people have lived all their lives in Kuwait with only a passport connecting them to a different place and so it would be inhumane to force them out especially since a lot come from countries that are unstable.

They also share their recommendations on what needs to be done including the need to abolish the kafala system which I’m hearing a lot of support for. I’m not sure how influential the society is in Kuwait maybe someone can let me know in the comments, but I feel like they lost an opportunity here to get support from international media outlets by not editing their Google Translated statement. Maybe someone could volunteer to edit it and send them an updated version.

If you can read Arabic then I’d recommend you check out their Arabic release here, if you don’t read Arabic then here is a link to their English statement.

I didn’t but a lot of people are tweeting that they felt an earthquake a while ago. Turns out a 5.9 magnitude earthquake struck South West Iran which is why it was felt over here.

Last year I posted about how Traffic Department’s instagram account @traffic_kw was very active and constantly posting videos of car chases and before and after videos of cars that had violated laws and then after they were caught. Over the weekend the Traffic Department posted a video of a tragic incident that took place last Sunday when one of their officers was killed by a reckless driver.

The video is in Arabic but with English subtitles and you can watch it above. It’s pretty sad and makes you aware that the roads aren’t just unsafe for us, but also the cops. A week earlier another police officer was lucky to escape injury when a speeding car hit his parked car. The video of that incident along with the officer recounting his experience can be seen below. We really need to try and figure out how to make our roads safer because it’s not gonna get better by itself.