According to the latest Legatum Prosperity Index, Kuwait ranked 35th in the world. We came second only behind UAE in the MENA region although the list missed some important countries like Bahrain, Qatar and Oman due to lack of data. Lebanon ranked pretty low but what’s most surprising is Kuwait ranked better than Lebanon when it came to personal freedom.
You can check out the full list along with more details on the Legatum Index website [Here]
24 replies on “Kuwait is doing fairly well”
Well this will shortly loose momentum as the Parliament progresses. This morning, bulldozing all churches, really Kuwait? Woops there went personal freedom! And if they stay on that path- woops there goes the economy. I wouldn’t hold my breathe on this report, Kuwait.
That’s not true. The law maker is submitting a proposal to ban the construction of more churches and not the demolition of existing ones.
And that isn’t bad enough?!
it’s a proposal by one guy…
Here is the truth as it published!
https://www.marcopolis.net/situation-in-kuwait-government-economy-and-other-problems-1502.htm
every country in this world has one guy who is submitting this kind of proposals, bad ones…it’s nothing new 🙂
Uh they JUST approved a new church being built, please stop passing off rumors like everyone else
^^ This.
ArabTimes: MP Osama Al-Munawer might not be in his right mind when he announced his plan to submit a proposal on the removal of all churches from Kuwait, reports Al-Watan Arabic daily quoting MP Nabeel Al-Fadhl.
“Kuwaiti Member of Parliament (MP) Osama Al-Munawer announced on Twitter he plans to submit a draft law calling for the removal of all churches in the country. However, he later clarified that existing churches should remain but the construction of new non-Islamic places of worship should be banned.”
https://www.arabianbusiness.com/kuwaiti-mps-call-for-ban-on-construction-of-churches-445971.html
“A Kuwaiti lawmaker has criticised a fellow MP for calling for a ban on building new churches or non-Muslim places of worship in the country. ”
“It seems that MP Osama Al Munawer was not fully conscious when he said that he was mulling a bill to remove churches from the country,” MP Nabeel Al Fadhel said. “The constitution clearly stipulates religious freedoms and the right of all people to practice their religious beliefs,” he said, quoted by Arabic daily Al Shahed on Sunday.
Kuwait’s rulers have invariably supported religious freedom, he said.
Al Munawer, seeking to distance himself from the controversy, said that he had been misunderstood and that he never called for demolishing existing churches.
“I am not targeting existing churches or other non-Muslim religious buildings,” he said. “I said there was no need to build new ones. I do not want to get the parliament into a controversy as we have a lot of issues that need to be addressed urgently, so I am not going to respond to Al Fadhel’s comments,” he said.
https://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/kuwait/kuwait-lawmaker-under-fire-for-call-to-ban-religious-building-construction-1.982993
I stopped reading when I saw that according to them, Kuwait has more personal freedom than Lebanon.
Lebanon where a foreign government had checkpoints set up for years and years? And you could be arrested for saying things about another country? And there is secterian violence to this day?
Freedom does not equal “alcohol”, there’s a lot more to it
The foreign checkpoints got dissolved in 2005, this is a 2011 list. Plus that would be related to the countries “Safety & Security” not personal freedom. Same with sectarian violence, that’s related to “Safety & Security”
This is what they mean by “Personal Freedom”
When citizens enjoy their rights to expression, belief, organisation, and personal autonomy in a society welcoming of diversity, their country enjoys higher levels of income and social well being. The Personal Freedom sub-index measures countries’ performance in two areas: individual freedom and social tolerance. As illustrated in the chart below, the variables in the sub-index are categorised into these areas.
https://www.prosperity.com/freedom.aspx
Curious.. Are citizens actually enjoying rights to personal beliefs? There’s so much controversy and civil unrest involving Muslims (Shia vs Sunni) and Christians vs Muslims.. At least that’s what I remember from last year! I may be very ignorant on Lebanese politics though.. I do remember living there a long time ago and the first question I got from kids (I was 9 at the time) was whether I was Sunni or Shia. That was the first time id heard those terms in my life.
Anyway maybe the reason they scored low was on religious expression.
do you think you have personal freedom in Lebanon? are you talking about the same Lebanon we know?
BB check above on what Personal Freedom entails.
where is Qatar?
Good work by Kuwait. Although the Personal Freedom rank is way too low for a country with such a high per capita income. Personal Freedom– Rank 68th. Kuwait needs to work on that.
Keep up the good work!
is it just me or your comments are ALWAYS really derogatory about Kuwait ?
Mark’s aren’t at all, the commenters are a lot lol
I’m pretty sure if he didn’t like Kuwait he wouldn’t have been here for this long
Excellent link Mark, thanks for posting it. I like this paragraph from the Kuwait page especially the last line:
Kuwaitis’ access to entrepreneurial infrastructure is reasonable: the country places 44th for mobile phone ownership and 38th for the number of secure internet servers per capita. However, on internet bandwidth provision, Kuwait places in the bottom 30.
Haha yes this is definitely one thing everyone has to complain about
Although someone told me Australia is about as bad :I guess it’s just dependent on how far down the chain you are
You know what I found surprising – Saudia Arabia ranking above Israel on personal freedom! WOOP WOOP! Haha next time someone pulls something out about how Arabs have zero personal freedom and how they should follow the lead of their Israeli neighbours I will link them back to this. Thanks Mark!