2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003It’s been 5 years since I last posted about Big D, probably the most controversial musician I’ve posted about on the blog. For some reason, he used to get a lot of negative comments to the point he had to release a music video in which he responded to some of the hate. Love him or hate him though I like the fact he’s still going and “Open Your Eyes” is his latest track so check it out.
Last year the first McDonalds in Kuwait that was located on the Gulf Road closed down and Burger King and Pizza Hut took over the location. A few days ago they finally opened it up and it looks great. I didn’t try it since I haven’t had Burger King in probably a decade (sorry BK I’m a McD guy), but the place does look really cool especially with the LED panels that display color animations all around the structure. The new location is open 24/7 which is great for those late-night munchies. Google Maps
The new extension of Al Shaheed Park is currently under construction and will include a variety of new activities including:
Mountains playground
Maze garden
Outdoor skate and BMX park
Outdoor parkour and sky trail
Karting
Extreme sports building
Ice skating rink and snow park
Indoor Skydiving
The renderings in this post show the new ice skating rink, the indoor karting track and snow park. Our landmark ice skating rink was demolished earlier this year to make way for the new generic ice skating rink, and Discovery Mall is also meant to be demolished next, although nobody is gonna miss that. Check out my previous post on the new extension here.
Thanks Lovelykuwait
Back in September I posted about the Kärcher OC 3 portable pressure washer and how great it was. I had purchased it for KD43 from Ace but later found out it was actually mispriced and should have been sold for KD68 (which is too expensive).
But now Xcite is selling the same pressure washer for just KD33. That’s even cheaper than how much I paid!
So if you were interested in the washer but couldn’t find one or thought it was too expensive before, here is the link on Xcite.
Hello everyone, it’s Fajer the lawyer again, it has been a while since I have posted here, but Mark brought to my attention news of a couple that was filmed having sexual intercourse, in a residential area, in public, outside of a car, in broad daylight, and around people.
The incident reminded me of a fictional case study we studied in law school (my professor would come up with outrageous fictional crimes, for example, a man walking around with a fork and a human eye on it) for us to learn the law. I just never in a million years thought that my professor’s outrageous fictional crimes would actually come to life.
So back to the incident, here are a few legal points related to this video:
Public Indecency
Addressed in Article 198 of Kuwait Penal Code.
This is pretty much a law in most countries, if not all regardless of the countries religious or political beliefs. The Kuwait law does not allow nudity or sexual intercourse in public. Punishment is up to one year in jail or up to one thousand rupees (the law was written in 1960).
Sex Outside of Marriage
Addressed in Article 194 of Kuwait Penal Code.
Sexual acts for those above 21 years of age (not 18!) outside of marriage is punishable with 6 months to 3 years of imprisonment. (for both the man and the women, although the law starts off by accusing the man and then says if the women agreed to it then she would also be punished!)
Now for article 194 to occur, it clearly states that one important thing needs to happen and that is an official has to walk in on them while they are in the middle of the act. While studying this in law school, my professor made it clear that when it comes to sexual acts specifically, video can not be used as evidence. The only proof that the court would accept is an official walking in on the couple, or if the couple admits to the act in court. The most likely reason for this is that they don’t want to encourage people to film such acts.
In conclusion, although the act of sexual intercourse outside marriage performed in public is completely illegal, the couple can not be punished under article 194 unless they admit to it. So, it will be interesting to see what the court decides and I wonder from a legal perspective if the sexual act itself is not punishable, can the video still be used as evidence for public nudity?
*plays “It wasn’t me” by Shaggy
Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected] check out @simplelaw.kw for free and affordable legal information
The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.
Hamleys, the UK toy store has finally opened up in Kuwait at The Gate Mall. I say finally because they were originally meant to open back in 2012 but for some reason never did. It’s also kinda odd that they opened their first store in The Gate Mall, might have to head there this weekend and see if anything else interesting is open there. Check out Hamleys on Instagram @hamleyskuwait
A couple of days ago the MOI announced a ban on riding electric scooters on roads. That makes total sense if it wasn’t for the fact that the reason people are riding their electric scooters on roads, is for the same reason you see people walking or riding bicycles on roads, we don’t have sidewalks.
I live in Salmiya where I’ve noticed a lot of people have started using scooters to commute around. I’m 100% sure they don’t want to be riding their scooters on the roads but are forced to due to the lack of sidewalks. Driving around any area of residential Salmiya and you’ll also notice people walking on the sides of the roads as well because there are no sidewalks. And this doesn’t just apply to Salmiya, if you head to other densely populated areas like Jabriya, Salwa, Hawalli, etc. you’ll also see the exact same situation there.
A lot of these people don’t earn a lot of money and with the pandemic right now most would prefer not to use cabs or busses. Add to the fact these same people who are being banned from using scooters to commute can’t even get driving licenses because of the laws in place that prevent them. Scooters are a great alternative for public transportation and it’s really unfair that due to poor urban planning, these low-income workers are now not allowed to use them to commute. It’s as if we keep looking for ways to make life even harder for them here.
• Pioneer and leader in hybrid electric technology, Toyota has crossed the symbolic milestone of 15 million hybrid vehicles sold since the 1997 launch of the iconic Prius, the first full hybrid mass-produced car
• Toyota’s hybrid electric technology has reduced CO2 emissions by more than 120 million tonnes worldwide
In January 2020, Toyota passed the milestone of more than 15 million hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) sales worldwide since the Prius was first launched in 1997.
Toyota’s decision to develop hybrid electric vehicles started over 25 years ago when Takeshi Uchiyamada led a team to develop a car for the 21st century, one which would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful pollutants. The first-generation Prius was launched in 1997 around the time of the Kyoto Protocol signing, which gave new momentum to the environmental movement.
Today, 15 million hybrid sales later, Toyota has made a significant contribution to the environment as its hybrid electric technology has reduced CO2 emissions by more than 120 million tonnes worldwide to date compared to sales of equivalent petrol vehicles. The company’s original vision has allowed Toyota to be the leader in meeting increasingly stringent emissions regulations around the world.
Across this period, Toyota has seen demand for its hybrid electric vehicles soar as the company has combined this innovative technology with emotional design enabled by the roll-out of its TNGA global platforms. Beyond the current 4th generation hybrid system, Toyota is continuing to refine its hybrid technology to achieve even lower emissions and ever-better fuel efficiency. Today, hybrid electric vehicles are affordable, accessible and convenient for customers in the Middle East.
Hybrid naturally leads to BEV and FCEV
While Toyota believes that HEVs are an essential part of the future overall mix of electrified vehicles, two decades of electrification experience also feed into the company’s multi-powertrain strategy. The company provides and will continue to provide various types of electrified vehicles to reduce emissions based on regulations, market infrastructure and ultimately customer demand. Toyota does not see a one ‘winner takes all’ scenario but a future where the different electrified technologies, including hybrids and plug-ins (PHEV), fuel cell (FCEV) and battery electric (BEV) vehicles, all play a part.
As a result of its long hybrid electric vehicle experience, the company has deep transferable expertise in the core electrification technologies which are common across all form of electrified powertrains, putting them in pole position for an electrified future. Over two decades of continuous development of electric motors, batteries and power control units has taught Toyota how to manage and reuse energy efficiently, providing a range of electrified options for customers through HEVs, PHEVs, BEVs and FCEVs.
In Kuwait since launching the Prius HEV model in February 2016, Mohamed Naser Al Sayer & Sons has launched 6 popular Toyota HEV models including the recently launched Toyota C-HR Cross-over and Highlander SUV.
Mark Lowey, or AbuJack as he is known on Twitter has been fairly active recently scanning old photos of his from life back in Kuwait and Saudi during the 70s and 80s when he used to live here. Recently he published one of his journal entries from a spur of the moment trip he made to Kuwait with his friend Stephen back in 1979. Along with his journal entry, he has old pictures of Kuwait attached so it’s a really interesting piece to read (basically a blog post from 1979).
Check out his journal entry on his weekend excursion to Kuwait here and then make sure you follow him on twitter @molowey
Tareq Almulaifi is a Kuwaiti singer/songwriter who officially launched his new band Cobra Club this past summer with the 80s inspired track “Razor“. They had also previously released the single called Ghost and this past weekend they finally launched the music video for it. You can check out the video above or listen to the track on Spotify. Some really good stuff.
I don’t remember how I first found out about the Ahmadi Desert Motoring Club (ADMC), or how I came about a picture of their car badge, but when I first saw it I knew I needed to have one. It’s such a great looking badge with the cute desert mouse and beautiful colors, I ended up spending over a year looking for one to purchase and wasn’t able to find a single one for sale, anywhere and for any price! I got in touch with random people whose parents might have been part of the club, I checked small private sllers, large auction sites, I checked with car badge collectors, and nobody either had one or wanted to sell one. Finally, back in September, one went on sale on eBay, and not just any, but one that was in pristine, 10/10 condition. It looked like it had never been installed on a car before and all the enamel was still intact and vibrant. I put a ridiculous maximum bid number since I knew I’d most likely not come across another one ever that was so clean, eventually, I ended up winning the bid for a lot less than I expected, around KD75.
Now that I had the badge I found it very frustrating that I couldn’t dig up any info on the club, there wasn’t anything online except for a single photo from an ADMC Alitalia Darts event dating back to 1964 and that was it. So I got in touch with a friend at KOC and asked him if he could check their archives for any photos or articles on the club and he struck gold.
Turns out KOC had some photos related to the motoring club but they were still negatives which hadn’t been scanned. So they dug them out of their archive and scanned them so I could share them on the blog. These images haven’t been seen by anyone for over 65 years! They also shared some articles relating to the club from the old KOC newsletter called “The Kuwaiti”. The Kuwaiti was a weekly newsletter and he flipped through the 1954 and 1955 archive of the newsletter and sent me some photos of ones relating to the club and motoring in general. Some really interesting stuff.
I’ve decided to share everything in two ways. Firstly I uploaded all the photos and articles to a Flickr album. If you prefer viewing things that way click here.
I’ve also created a PDF file of all the articles and if you prefer viewing the articles that way then click here to download the PDF
For the scanned images I have all of them embedded in high resolution below. The blog will resize them automatically to fit the width of my page, but if you save the images, you can view them in higher resolution on your phone or computer. Check those out by clicking more below.
Finally, I’d like to thank Kuwait Oil Company for digging these photos out and scanning them for me. Now people looking for info on the club will be able to find some kind of information online.
The all-new Corvette was meant to launch in Kuwait back in May, but due to the pandemic and slow down in production, that didn’t happen. But, they’re now finally here.
The first shipment of Corvettes arrived to the dealership a couple of days ago and they’ve all been pre-sold already. If you want to check them out in person though they currently have them parked in the basement of their Al-Rai dealership until they’re picked up by their new owners. The new Corvette starts at KD22,000.
The General Dept of Traffic instagram account @traffic_kw should really be turned into a series of some sort like the show COPS. They’re very active and constantly posting videos of cars usually racing or drifting and then pictures of the cars impounded. In some of their videos, they’ve even had footage from inside the cop cars chasing people and it’s all pretty entertaining to watch.
If there is one government Instagram account to follow this would be it. So if you haven’t checked it out click here.
Note: They’ve got similar videos on their YouTube channel as well but their Instagram videos seem higher resolution. Link
The video above has been circulating WhatsApp showing the observation tower at Entertainment City crashing down as part of the Entertainment City demolition process. I was thinking about the park yesterday on how they could have refurbished it instead of rebuilding a new one from scratch. It wasn’t the best amusement park in the world but at least it had a history and character. Not everything needs to be completely demolished for a new version. Disney Land has been around since 1955 and is still very current, Coney Island amusement park has been around even longer since the late 1800s and has gone through various stages of refurbishment and revival.
I’ve previously gotten my PCR test done at Wara Hospital since they had a drive-thru service which is really convenient. But, they also take anywhere from 24 to 48 hours to send you your test results which is fairly slow. Yesterday I decided to get a PCR test at International Clinic because I had heard they were pretty quick with the results, and they were.
I got my PCR test done at around 9:30AM and then got the result at 6:30PM. That’s 9 hours later!
I’m not sure if there is any other place that does it quicker (if there is let me know), but from now on I’ll probably be getting all my tests done at IC. There wasn’t anyone else there getting a test so only had to wait for the doctor to be free and that was maybe 10 minutes. The price of the test is KD35 which isn’t the cheapest but really reasonable for the speed you get the results in. If you want to get a PCR test done at IC, you don’t need to book, you just show up and let them know at the reception area. Here is their location on Google Maps.