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Drama in the local blogosphere

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A bit of drama has erupted over the past few days between a few local American female bloggers. From what I’ve been able to grasp so far it turns out Expat and the City is not who she says she is, personal information on Crazy in Kuwait was released and supposedly American Girl’s World started all of this.

Personally I find all this drama entertaining to read but I’m also completely against outing someone who wants to remain anonymous. Even Single in the Shires recently posted that people have figured out her identity as well. There are plenty of good reasons to post anonymously in Kuwait so its very understandable why these girls would want their real lives to remain private. Plus, I don’t think it really matters if the blog stories or characters are fictional, a blog can be whatever it wants to be.

In any case this is turning into an episode of The Only Way is Essex, so if you’re bored and want to catch up on whats been going on, here are some links in chronological order:

Expat and the City 1
American Girl’s World
Crazy in Kuwait
Expat and the City 2

96 replies on “Drama in the local blogosphere”

Someone PLEASE tell Expat and the City to make her website public again because there were so MANY great posts about Kuwait’s museums and pre-oil houses

PLEASE! When I google image, ”pre oil Kuwaiti houses” the first thing that pops up is expatandthecity.com’s posts

Please!

I regret opening up that email yesterday!

Can’t we all just get along?

And if we can’t…just leave me alone.

I do agree we could have a reunion and I would be the one grabbing someone’s weave!

Who cares, get a life seriously… There is more important things to do, than reading this crap. Never heard about them before, and for sure this didn’t make me want to know more.

I do find it a bit odd I’m the one who is accused of ‘outing’ her. I’ve actually had her REAL information for well over a year which is what prompted me to stop associating with her via social media. I just have little interest in fiction. However, sharing what I knew with others isn’t my thing. Like you, I respect someone’s privacy. As for HOW she got outed, I really have no idea.

My ‘open letter’ to her isn’t an attempt at humiliating her or bashing her… again, not my thing. It’s really just to say, “Hey, it’s not the end of the world. So what? People know.” And while I have zero respect for her, I also have zero animosity towards her. Even with her recent little rant.

Everything was good, she didnt mind the bullying. Call her all the names you want, it wont bother her. She is a big girl.

What is not acceptable is your attitude towards her Hermes and Chanel collection.

‘My ‘open letter’ to her isn’t an attempt at humiliating her or bashing her’

Are you quite sure about that?

Please…cut the BS..I actually read through all of this that Mark attached and quite frankly you are all pathetic, so get back to all your pathetic lives (in your heads) and seek some professional help. If you are in the States as your blogsite stated, there is plenty of qualified doctors you can seek assistance from. What I think is that you’all (no pun intended southern belles!) become so competitive and obsessed with your Kuwaiti husbands/boyfriends that you create this type of bullshit only to expose yourselves as more American trash from the USA to grace Kuwait soil.

Trash maybe but I’m not sure that has anything to do with them being American. you telling me just cus Kuwaitis don’t do their whoring and boozing in public that it is somehow less trashy? You have cultures here that are less hypocritical and able to exercise their free minds to make choices – both good and trashy choices.i doubt anyone here has the moral high ground.

Plenty of Americans that don’t fit the contracting, overly-entitled, war supporting, promiscuous stereotype as there are Kuwaitis who don’t fit the stereotype.

Whoring yourself out in public and getting wasted and then ranting about it on the internet is considered trashy in ALL cultures, including American culture

This has nothing to do with cultures ‘exercising free minds to make choices’. Trashy is trashy.

yeah but my point is public or private – kuwaitis are just as trashy and just as non trashy. just cus you whore it up in dubai or bahrain or thailand doesn’t somehow make it less trashy

Bro I think it is pretty unfair to say Americans are trash. All countries have good and bad. I’ve been here for 4 years and I always try to build up Kuwait and shine a spotlight on the amazing people and great stuff to do here when it happens or go out and actually create events as well. Kuwait is great if you want it to be.

Sir, may I please jump in? Thank you.
Good American in Kuwait who writes well and makes sense – Dr. John Hayes.

Bad American in Kuwait – majority of bloggers who have horrible boring unwanted lives back home, jump on a plane to Kuwait – flash their passports around, treat other nationalities (mainly Asian) like crap, demean others, talk in racist language behind closed doors, accuse others of wanting to sleep with them while they openly flaunt a whale like figure with a plunging neck line- it goes on and on and on.

The only classy Americans I have seen – are the ones stateside, very few like a dozen trickle down to the Mid East who belong to that strata.

Well said Ahmed.. Trash truly trash. And if someone’s going to counter this by saying its wrong to call them trash then read the numerous confused Americans living in Kuwait blogs. Booty call, promiscuity, binge alcoholism, talking about their whorish love lives, begging for attention from males old enough to be their grandfathers, depicting pictures of empty cartons of booze the list is endless- it all amounts to that they lead shitty lives back home and are now wantonly using the blogsphere to get noticed!

The only blogs well worth reading are two or three or if am being generous – well four! Marks blog is on top of that list. It’s clean, well managed, has INTEGRITY and doesn’t talk of any of the crap the wannabes put down on their blog.

I was done reading American expat trash blogs a long time ago,.. Did I hear someone saying ‘no one put a gun to your head and forced you to read’ – to that I’ll say – am a reader – I’ll read whatever the eff I want to and most importantly form an OPINION – my perogative. Like they say in Kuwait ‘you don’t like it GTFO’!

Well… Sorry but this is total BS “Before this all went down our IP tracker has shown she has stalked this blog day and night for years.”.

“IP tracker” and “for years” 😀 even NSA can’t track someone by IP address “for years”.

Hello Nicolas.

i work for MOH in Kuwait for 32 years. in the internet you have 2 option, you have static ip and dynamic ip. for big countries like America and United Kingdom etc you get static, that is one ip for one account, this ip will always stay with you until you change the account by office.

because Kuwait is not that big country and we have not to many line inside, we have dynamic ip. this ip will change every time to new ip after 24hours.

it is very hard to track the person by dynamic ip to see if it is same person visiting website.

It all depends on the package you have purchased. You can buy a normal home connection, which usually comes with dynamic IP, or request a static IP (additional charges apply). In case of Business/Office connections, you get a set of 16 static IPs or a single dynamic IP, again depends on the package/plan you purchase.

What’s worrying is the type of language these people are using against Expat. If you follow what they were saying on Twitter they consistently made fun of her weight and calling her crazy. It’s like high school all over again.

This is borderline cyber-bullying even if those involved don’t think so.

I think the point was that the EATC was misleading people and that’s really not fair is it , then of course she was outed as being the writer of KBS too ( that hurt a few people). Perhaps she should just have written a ‘this is all fiction’ disclaimer on her blog and that would have been the end of it. Wonder what her reason for doing KBS was- she hit at you too on that mark , right?

There are plenty of good reasons to want to blog anonymously ANYWHERE in the world

even in the USA, there are plenty of good reasons to want to blog anonymously

Someone accused someone of pretending to be someone when that someone is really someone else and brought someone in the middle of this

There are plenty of good reasons to want to blog anonymously in the UAE

There are plenty of good reasons to want to blog anonymously in Lebanon

There are plenty of good reasons to want to blog anonymously in Tunisia

This issue isn’t just limited to Kuwait

When I first followed 248AM Marks writing was so good I thought he was a white American living in Kuwait! Now I know he’s not, but I still follow him religiously because he provides neutral posts and comments, and things that go on in Kuwait from the Arabic side that I, as a westerner, do not know about but I find interesting.
As a westerner in Kuwait I have a hard time with Kuwaiti bloggers, mainly because I doubt who they are, and what is the angle they see the place. I have met Arabs who say they are “Canadian,” or “American,” or “British,” but they just hold the passport for that country and have never spent a significant part of their life actually living there. Isn’t that kind of fake as well?
If you are a blogger who says they are American/British and then sprouts off Arabic, or shows an understanding of the Arabic world without an explanation, then I find this very confusing. This is not common knowledge; how on earth do you know this? No American or Brit knows Arabic! Who REALLY is this??
Lets be honest, an Arab American (or whatever,) living in Kuwait would move in completely different circles than a redneck American. Just, please, add this info to your bio/About Me page because then I can understand where you’re coming from.

Nunya, I have to ask. Do you really believe that no American or Brit speaks who lives in Kuwait speaks Arabic? I know many non Arab Americans and Brits who speak Arabic. I even know two rednecks who speak it. I am Puerto Rican and non Arab yet I speak Arabic. I mean it makes sense that anyone who lives in Kuwait regardless of nationality or ethnicity would speak Arabic. I mean it is the national language of Kuwait. What’s funny is that I have yet to read about the Drama going on and probably will not after reading some of the comments.

Well actually I am extremely surprised that you know many Americans (or whatever,) who speak Arabic! Nearly all of the westerners I know over here do not speak it at a conversational level anyway. From the parents I meet at the schools to the ones at work to the bbqs that I have been to.

it’s normal to learn the arabic lang in while living here.

Most of my friends here in Kuwait were american brits, Russins and most of them did not know any arabic but after awhile they learn some arabic but not fluently they can’t not read but can speak it to manage a life here.

Contrary to popular belief not ALL Americans are isolationist. You have quite a few who have decided to assimilate as much as they can into the local culture. By that I do not necessarily mean religion wise or even dress wise. What I mean is that many non Arab/Western expats have come to understand that if they want to thrive in Kuwait that they must mingle with the people and get to know both their language and their culture. Granted this is not the majority or even a large section of the community but the it is significant enough. Many have even learned to read and write Arabic. This does not include the non Arab/Western Expats who have converted to Islam and learned the language for religious reason. In the six years I have been in Kuwait I have discovered a large Latino community here that has flown under everyone’s radar mostly because as Latinos we tend to blend in by mingling with the people. So it is not difficult to find many of us who can read, speak and write Arabic. Even my sister who is neither Arabic or Muslim and has only been in Kuwait a year can speak enough Arabic to manage a life in Kuwait. I am wondering if you consider anyone who speaks a language in addition to English to be an American (or whatever).

Wait. Well written English = WHITE American? Are you for real? Black Americans can’t write? Arab Americans can’t write? Latino Americans can’t write? Brits can’t write? Australians can’t write?

The fact that your entire post is about trying to make sure people plainly state their nationality/ethnicity so that it doesn’t confuse or ‘mislead’ you is hilarious. Why’s it your business, anyway? You can’t understand where someone’s coming from unless they’re in a tick box for you to judge from?

If you are actually Western, thanks for making us all look like morons. Also, if you’re a teacher (since you mentioned meeting parents in one of your comments) you may want to stop using the term ‘or whatever’. USE YOUR WORDS.

But how can they know if they’re relating to the “right” kind of person if people don’t list their nationality and race and ethnicity? I mean, they may end up sympathizing with a brown person or seeing them as people or something! They can’t be expected to risk their KKK membership over a blog. /sarcasm

“White American”, honestly. I’d say it’s a shame that there’s no feature that reads every comment someone makes on a board/forum/website etc. back to them so they’d think twice before posting, but I doubt nunya would have seen anything wrong with their comment even after the 50th reading.

The only person Nunya makes look like a moron is him/herself.Maybe he/she should consider expanding his/her circle of acquaintances and stop associating with the more isolationist element of his/her expatriate demographic. The ignorant racism displayed by that ridiculous “…white American…” statement is stupid beyond belief.

And to enable Nunya to understand “where I am coming from”,; This was posted by a mixed race, brown Kuwaiti/German/Russian/French/Hungarian/Danish middle aged man.
…shit, I guess in Nunya land I am not supposed to speak English properly!! Oops, I better revert back to character…. stubid boy, why you making broblem for me? i am speaking the London wery nice.

I struggled scanning real quick through the links provided. I’m surprised that Mark even bothered posting this crap here. I mean, the subject is not interesting, the level of debate is a middle school childish and just plane silly.

Unless there were some real dirt being dug out and some serious scandals, I don’t think there is anything interesting about couple superficial expats arguing. Though what I found interesting is how both of the girls called each others “blog stalkers”. I sure hope Mark would not consider his devoted readers a stalkers! That is of course if his real name is Mark. lol

As a Kuwaiti I’m appalled that these cyber bully American women could write such nasty things about one of their own. Are they 12? Do women’s bags create that much jealousy? The expat blog and crazy blog should report them. There are things that can be done.

صج حريم يطلعون سالفة من ولا شي

Morale of the story….You can move anywhere in the world and blog as if you are still in Kuwait and run your websites. Go ahead, Mark, move to Amsterdam, move to Beirut, visit anywhere in the world your heart desires for as long as you want, fly in to periodically to check base and run your blog. It appears that is what some of these pathetic people are doing, the others used the word crazy in their blog title, need I say more.

That is how US contractors are using social media to promote us as terrorists and to promote hatred across our social structure.

Your doctor should increase the dosage of Prozac prescribed to you.
Free advice: the sh*t your smoking seems to have done damage to your brain as opposed to your lungs.

Reading through this post, I actually forgot to watch my TV show. Looks like the southern belle drama over a bag is good as SOA final season.

“Mark” is actually a morbidly obese African American lady posting from her trailer back in the States. The Lebanese Mark that everyone thinks they know is merely a paid avatar to keep everyone in the dark.

Am I doing it right?

Tried to open the links to find what all the fuss is about but all blocked out.

Too bad, no popcorn today.

I guess I’ll settle for Dog the bounty hunter instead

What disgusts me is that these American cyber bullies attacked Expat and the City, even though she wrote a post promoting their blogs a couple of years ago. Bite the hand that feeds is a lifestyle I guess. I stopped reading their blogs/twitter/instagram after reading their nasty comments. They can make as many excuses as they want, but at the end of the day, they bullied her. This is unacceptable. 3aib 3alaikum

Maybe it’s a ruse and the two main bloggers are both the same person- all a ruse for bigger stats in a ‘dwindling economy’ …. It was a boring load of kak anyway….hopefully that was the series finale.

‘Expat and the City’ was a 43 year USA military contractor named Rosie

Why would possibly she spend so much time and energy?

It’s clear that ‘Expat and the City’ was created by the USA government for spying reasons

that’s not a conspiracy theory, it’s just the truth

some people choose to turn a blind eye to this, but I will tell some ministers and MPs about this issue. USA has no business spying in Kuwait.

Kudos…you’re an idiot with that theory. Are you saying that US government spys wrote a blog highlighting the Chinese takeaway in Mahboola or wrote a detailed blog on American men living in Kuwait – probably her best posts. What I wonder is if she cashed out from businesses in Kuwait for advertising? And did they wonder why she never showed up for any invitations because she was really (purportedly) living in Florida? This highlights a sick mindset, scams on the local community, and the extents people use the internet for different self-serving reasons. But in the end, her demise was a blogged catfight over purses whch is what is amusing and shows how pathetic these people are and where they came from in the States before they came to work at Camp Arifjan.

Hey asp,

Are you high? You are probably one of the cyber bullies trying to damage control your cyber crimes. Nice try.

What surprises me, is that everyone assumes that the accussations are right. Expat & the City was run by three bloggers. One is outed and accussed of faking her whole life (plus presents). This person has lived in Kuwait long enough to know what she’s talking about. Don’t take someone else’s words for the truth.

Has she lived here a long time? Well you’d think she would know that a Kuwaiti man would never permit his fiancé / wife to post those sexual innuendo messages in public.
There were three bloggers you say- how do you know that? Did they ever post a video / photo for example? I can’t remember seeing that – could be three, or one or seven really.
As for taking someone else’s ‘words for the truth’ well they also seem to know what they are talking about , expat has immediately shut up shop and so I’m left wondering ( tho not for very long as it’s really not worth the effort )exactly why someone as apparently as gutsy as EATC seemed, would give up and run.
Oh @sarah – where does Amsterdam fit it? Did I fall asleep and miss something?
Anyway, moving on swiftly, yes we are.

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