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Kuwait

Mirrored Concert Hall in Saudi Arabia

This huge mirrored concert hall was built in the middle of the Saudi desert for the “Winter at Tantoura” festival which ran from December 2018 to February of this year. It hosted a range of activities, including a celebration of the winter planting season, weekly cultural events, and musical performances from some of the world’s greatest musicians.

I’m kinda worried that Kuwait isn’t moving forward at a very fast pace.

Whenever I travel to smaller neighboring countries like Bahrain and Qatar I’m always impressed with what I see from everything like their infrastructure and skyscrapers to the cleanliness and organization. I was in Qatar last weekend and walking outside in a street wondering how the weather is so much cooler than Kuwait, turns out they had AC blasting from the floor. Crazy but it worked. And then, of course, you have UAE which is miles ahead of all of us.

But, no matter what, we always had comfort in knowing that at least we were better than Saudi. Now I feel we’re losing that as well. Not because of just one concert hall, but because of similar small and large scale projects. The country is also starting to loosen up. The WHITE “halal” nightclub in Jeddah turned out to be too much for them, but at least they tried. We’re all here looking forward to the new airport but I don’t think that’s going to be enough.

Just to be clear, this isn’t a rant so don’t start with the GTFO comments, I’m just thinking out loud here.

36 replies on “Mirrored Concert Hall in Saudi Arabia”

Completely agree. I was in Ras Al Khaimah a few weeks back and I loved that place even though it’s such a small emirate. It was so clean, organized and everything felt looked like it was being looked after, the roads, the buildings, landscape, beaches.

Born here and raised here and I do love this country but it also hurts me that we are lagging behind in almost everything.

I agree

We need to start with cleanliness and organization first. I’ve seen people in my area accidentally dump garbage outside the bin but don’t care to pick it up. Litter is a major problem in Kuwait especially in the inner streets of residential areas. If I had a dollar for every cigarette butt I came across while casually walking down a street, I could pay my college tuition. I wish there was a system or way to fine people who don’t dispose trash carefully.

The litter in residential suburbs is insane, even for the upper class neighborhoods. One of the HUGE problems I’ve noticed is the lack of lids on the government issued bins. 1 out of 10 in my neighborhood has lids, so even if a little wind picks up, trash is blown everywhere. Even reducing the amount of plastic baqala bags blowing around would go really far in making the country look more clean.

Mark, if you dont like it then GTFO & move to LA where the country is decades ahead of your current location

Being serious now.. infrastructure and skyscrapers isn’t necessarily a genuine sign of a real developed country, what is the point of having those designed, built and maintained by expats? And what happens if the expats decides to pack their shite and leave?

Don’t be short sighted.. think 25 years from now, oil obsolete? or frack knows what is the political status of that region is like? You guys have seen what the last months were like, and no one truly knows what other surprises that might unfold in the coming ones.

How about fixing the education system or healthcare for the long term benefit of it’s own people and expats? Otherwise, garbage in, garbage out.

Mark,

Please be in touch with writer Mai Al-Nakib. She is an authoritative source on these matters and I have been moved by what she has to say. It would be great to see an interview with her here or some guest writing. Thank you.

As a local, I genuinely believe that if we want to evolve as a nation, we have to change how the country operates; its a complete mess!

I can comfortably say that most of the governmental agencies are corrupt. If you want to get anything done with these agencies, the first thing that comes to my mind is: “who do I know there?”. Unfortunately, this became our norm. We know that it’s wrong, but for some damn reason, there aren’t any intentions to change that (other than a few places of course).

The citizens are to blame as well. A lot of us don’t care about the law nor the consequences that may follow (again, not all cases of course).

Change take time, a rule of thumb is around 20 years (i.e. time from kindergarten till uni degree – assuming uni degree is the average), hence, if the education system is not restructured; nothing will happen. And by restructure i mean an overhaul not e-learning and iPad based bull crap.

bro, its not an educational issue solely, as Abdullah said the entire nation and the way it operates is a complete mess. Education is merely one of the many factors. Immediate noticeable change -evolution- isn’t something we get to experience, as you said it, ~20 years could be suffice for us to see if anything change. What I like to deem as our problem with what we dictate as “change” specially when we compare Kuwait with KSA comes down to which one of those two nations will legalize alcohol first, open nightclubs, and such. That’s it for now.. time to do some errands under our scorching sun ~ to to rooo

Mark, check out the saudi season program. The program consists of 11 seasons every year. Each season has its own theme and duration. They each have their own events (hundreds of them), and each is celebrated in a specific geographic location. The programs were designed to improve local lives and attract tourists.

So far, 3 seasons have passed. Namely shargiah season, ramadan season and eid season.

Currently, theyre celebrating jeddah season. The events range from concerts to cultural events to street festivals. They even brought some of the most famous restaurants around the world to jeddah temporarily.

The mirrored concert hall you mentioned will be used for alula season this year.

Just an FYI

Not the people who bring the wrong kind of expats? Also let’s discount the fact that the capable ones from any country (Egypt or India or the rest) don’t want to come to Kuwait anymore because.. Why should they, they can go to better places.. Like Saudi for example. Not being sarcastic. People who moan about the quality of expats Kuwait get, also should understand that the country should do more to attract the right kind.

Kuwait is in a death spiral. Even a serious effort will not save it from total economic collapse in a decade or so.

Wait a second, when was Kuwait better than Saudi?
Governmental services are better in Saudi, censorship specially now etc…
Kuwait is a country that”s ماشية على البركة

I second that thought…

Since when Kuwait was better than KSA?

Is there some sort of competition going on?

How is it good to relish or feel any sense of achievement with such logic?

Have you ever thought that the people who reside in any place around the world set the standards and quality of living? Whether it was directly or indirectly.

A country’s forwardness or backwardness is a measure of its current state and needs. It is truly an unfair comparison, especially based on entertainment activities alone.

This is a universal invitation to begin or resume focusing on bettering ourselves, and the countries we reside in. It is better to make yourself welcome in the space you own, than demand it from others. The current state of affairs are very revealing.

Mark, you have voice and it counts.

While I agree that a lot of things need improvement and overhaul, it is no where as bad as people say it is. People in Kuwait generally have become very negative in social media and only post about sensational issues to get retweets. Hell even some of the comments above are of the same mentality (e.g. “Kuwait is in a death spiral”, ماشية على البركة”)
Economically, it is one of the best performing economies in the whole Middle East. It is the second country, after Qatar, that can withstand low oil prices if the prices were to drop tomorrow (https://www.e-marmore.com/Blog/Economy/January-2018/Why-are-the-breakeven-oil-prices-coming-down-for-G). It has the most foreign inflow of capital among all GCC countries (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DwejOIdXgAEKMC1?format=jpg&name=900×900), and all of us can agree it is doing extremely well in terms of foreign policy.

To reiterate my point, there are things that are bad in Kuwait (The whole road issue, government bureaucracy), but it is not as bad as people think. I say this after having lived in France for 3 years, and currently living in the US for the past 4 years. That’s my two cents.

No need to explain this to these people. These people don’t really take things like Economic performance, financial performance etc into account. Let them complain and the people who will work to fix current issues will keep trying to fix issues no matter how long it takes and what stands. And btw Kuwait can withstand falling oil prices for longer than Qatar. Used to work for that link

If by “It is not as bad as people think” you mean that “as people get paid, and can still buy stuff with what they’re being paid”, then yes i agree with you.

From a disappointed idealist point of view, it is more of what they can actually do given the temporary grace in order to build and sustain a long lasting prosperous country.

Don’t compare living in Kuwait with living in France or US, compare it with living in Sweden and Norway!

The point is with “the best economy” and “the best democracy in the GCC”, Kuwait can do much much better, and should be and should have been ahead of their neighbors decades ago. What’s the point of having all this money when 90% of it is going to salaries? when the ministry says we don’t have enough money to fix the roads? when for the last couple of years you’re in deficit? when you can’t change or pass new laws? when you can’t take a serious stance in fixing corruption?

To be honest, the law makers of this country are busy fixing expat ratio.
instead if they focus on more development and reforms through out the country, you dont even need to depend on oil tommorow. the expats are your strength and your attitude is your weakness.

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