Categories
Kuwait

Help find a girls birth father

I got an email a few days ago from an adopted American girl who recently found out her birth father was a Kuwaiti. She asked me if I could help her try and find him but she doesn’t have much information other than the below:

My birth mother was American and my birth father was Kuwaiti. My birth mother was in Kuwait for about 7 months in 1979, and she had a relationship with a Kuwaiti man and became pregnant. She came back to the US, gave birth and gave me up for adoption.

I have just recently learned that he was from Kuwait. I had met my birth mother about 13 years ago, but she lied to me about the father, so I never knew the truth until now.

I’m looking for some advice on how to locate or figure out who he was.

My mum is now deceased, so I have no way to find out more info from her. And I know nothing about him. All I know is she stayed at the Sheraton Kuwait, had an affair with a man, and came home pregnant.

I’ve learned that if an American got pregnant by a Kuwaiti man, they would have to marry if he wasn’t married. But I think he was married already. In that case, wouldn’t it be true that if anyone found out they’d both be jailed? The story is that she came back from Kuwait abruptly. I’m assuming its because she found out she was pregnant. I don’t even know if the man knew. One story is that he did know, but she told him it wasn’t his. I’ve also been told that he was here at some point. One person said that he is the one who brought her back. She also told the attorney that handled the adoption that the man was in the hotel business.

I don’t think there is much to go by, but I figured I would see if anyone here might have an idea of where to start.




Categories
Strange

Happy Ramadan

This video is just weird. [YouTube]




Categories
Geek

Kuwait’s Internet speed compared to the rest of the world

We’ve moved up from 104th place last year to 72nd. Hong Kong has the fasted download speed average in the world with 49.10 Mbps. [Link]

via BlogBaladi




Categories
Automotive

Kuwaiti girl in yellow Ferrari gets egged in London

She’s lucky it didn’t smash inside car. [YouTube]

Thanks FYI




Categories
Music

My Workout Playlist

In no particular order, perfect for the gym and running.

Enter Sandman – Metallica
Everlong – Foo Fighters
The Pretender – Foo Fighters (video above, one of the best songs ever)
My Hero – Foo Fighters
Take Me Out – Franz Ferdinand
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana
Personal Jesus – Depeche Mode
Breed – Nirvana
Bulls on Parade – Rage Against the Machine
Toxicity – System of a Down
The Beautiful People – Marilyn Manson
Holiday/Boulevard of Broken Dreams – Green Day
The Hand That Feeds – Nine Inch Nails
Come Back Haunted – Nine Inch Nails
No One Knows – Queens of the Stoneage
Guerrilla Radio – Rage Against the Machine
Bullet with Butterfly Wings – Smashing Pumpkins
Celebrity Skin – Hole
Jennifer’s Body – Hole
Paint it Black – The Rolling Stones

If you have any recommendations I could add to the list let me know.




Categories
Information Law

Kuwait Law: Ramadan

Ramadan Mubarak everyone. Since Ramadan is starting I wanted to write a post just informing you on Ramadan legal issues:

Working Hours

I am sure you have all noticed the fact that working hours decrease in Ramadan. That’s not just your boss being nice but working hours have to decrease during Ramadan because it’s the law. According to article 64 of Kuwait Labor Law (for the private sector only):

“It is forbidden to allow workers to work for more than 48 hours per week or 8 hours a day, except in such events as are specified in this Law. Working hours during the month of Ramadan shall be equal to 36 hours per week”

A maximum 36 hours a week in Ramdan for a 6 day working week is 6 hours a day (basically a 2 hour discount).

Eating in Public

There is a legislation dedicated for just eating/drinking in public in daytime during Ramadan. The legislation is the smallest I have ever seen and is under law No. 44/1968 if anyone wants to look it up.

Punishment up to KD100 and/or jail for 1 month:
i) for anyone that eats/drinks in public in daytime during Ramadan
ii) for anyone that helps or forces anyone to eat/drink in daytime during Ramadan

Also, a business that is caught serving food/beverages to the public in daytime during Ramadan will be punished by having their place shutdown for 2 months.

Again Ramadan Mubarak to everyone.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected]

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’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.




Categories
Shopping

An empty Grand Avenues

Taken at 4:30AM by a friend of mine shows the beautiful Grand Avenues at night completely empty. A rare sight.




Categories
Design Events

Event: Class of Chairs 2013

Date: Wednesday 24th to Friday 26th July 2013
Time: 9:30PM to 11:30PM
Location: Contemporary Art Platform

Update: Here is some more info from their Facebook page

The Class of Chairs is a satirical commentary on the stereotypical characters found within school life. The school culture in Kuwait is relatable to Hollywood’s pop-cultural representation of the high school hierarchy and social groups found in playgrounds and classrooms.

The collection of chairs is a literal adaptation of the different student typecasts found in international and public schools in Kuwait. Each chair represents an individual high school persona, where the character’s attributes are translated in the design aspect of its material and functional use.

The template of each chair was based on the classical 1950’s European school chair in which different manufacturing processes were used to materialistically translate the different student characteristics. The Class of Chairs attempts to evoke nostalgic scenes of past high school memories to create a relatable experience for the viewer.

Collaboration between :
Aseel AlYaqoub, Jassim AlSaddah, Yousef Al-Mehdari




Categories
Shopping Sneakers

You can ship NeverWet to Kuwait

Many of you have probably seen the video above of the product NeverWet, a ridiculously cool spray-on coating that repels water. When I saw the video I was like I need to have it since it would be perfect to coat my sneakers with. I recently found out that Aramex have eased up on the no liquids shipping rule and decided to test them out by ordering a pack of NeverWet spray from eBay. Aramex didn’t reject the package and have shipped it to me Kuwait at a cost of KD8.75 (weight 2.26 lb). So if you were interested in the product you won’t have a problem getting one to Kuwait. [YouTube]




Categories
Blog Info Personal

Live: Ask Me Anything Right Now

I’m holding an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session right now up till 11AM. You can ask me anything you want in the comments below and I’ll try my best to reply to you right on the spot. If you’ve ever been curious about anything or just want to know more about me then this is your chance to get your answers. I will be answering all your questions truthfully and if there is one I won’t answer I will say so.

Update: I am extending this session past 11AM since there are too many questions and I am still trying to go through them all.

Update2: I’m closing this at 11:30AM

Update3: And I’m done! That was exhausting. All questions have been answered and no questions were deleted or ignored. Hope that was informative for everyone. Might hold another session in the evening one day (no date set) for those of you who couldn’t take part in this morning session because of work or other issues.




Categories
Interesting Photography

Kuwait is the most popular country on Instagram

According to Kuwaitiful, #kuwait is the most popular country hashtag on Instagram with around 8.2 million photos while #usa has around 7.7 million photos. The population of the United States is around 300 million while Kuwait is around 3 million. Nuff said. Check out Kuwaitiful’s post [Here]




Categories
Blog Info Personal

Ask Me Anything Tomorrow

I’m going to hold an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session tomorrow morning similar to the ones that take place on Reddit. You’ll basically be able to ask me anything you want in the comments and I’ll try my best to reply to you right on the spot. I was originally thinking of holding two sessions, one in the morning and one in the evening but I figured we’ll see how the morning one goes first before setting up a second session.

If you’ve ever been curious about anything or just want to know more about me then this is your chance to get your answers. Just check this blog tomorrow at 10AM and I’ll have the “Live” Ask Me Anything post up for you to ask me questions under. The AMA session will take place from 10AM to 11AM tomorrow July 8th. I don’t think I will set any rules or have any subjects that are out of bounds, we’ll just have to see how it goes.




Categories
Movies

Watch Wonderland Online

Wonderland ” A True Story”, Wonderland from danaalmojil on Vimeo.

Wonderland, the short film by local director Dana Al Mojil is now available to watch online. Wonderland was the Zero Film Festival Grand Jury Winner back in 2011 and I’ve been wanting to see it ever since I watched the trailer last year.

Wonderland is an adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass” that is set in Kuwait. it highlights the similarities between The social and political situation in modern Kuwait and Wonderland. The film starts when Alice doesn’t understand why does the Ace in playing cards equals 11 when it says one. And that becomes her mission that drives her through all the hierarchy of changing in Kuwait. On her way, for better or worse, she meets the Cheshire cat, the Mad hatter, Mosa’ed and Mes’ed “tweddlee Dee and tweddlee Dum”, the Caterpillar, the Joker and the Queen, which will shape the outcome of her mission.

You can watch the full film on top or check out the trailer below.

Wonderland from Zero Film Festival on Vimeo.

via Confashions from Kuwait




Categories
Information Interesting Kuwait Travel

Best Airports in the Middle East

1 – Abu Dhabi International Airport
2 – Dubai International Airport
3 – Bahrain International Airport
4 – Doha International Airport
5 – Muscat International Airport
6 – Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport
7 – Kuwait International Airport
8 – Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport
9 – Riyadh King Khalid International Airport
10 – Jeddah King Abdulaziz International Airport

I love Qatar Airways but their Doha airport is just depressingly cramped and crowded all the time. I’d even go as far as saying I prefer Kuwaits Airport. For the list of best airports around the world click [Here]

Note: Image above is of the Kuwait Airport when first constructed. More pictures can be seen [Here] For pictures of the new Kuwait Airport that will hopefully be built one day click [Here]




Categories
Information Interesting Travel

Kuwait Airways not even a Top 100 airline

According to the Skytrax 2013 World Airline Awards, Kuwait Airways is so bad it didn’t even make it into the Top 100 Airlines list. The #1 best airline in the world according to Skytrax is Emirates while the Royal Jordanian Airlines was ranked #100. Below are the Top 10 Airlines in the Middle East for 2013:

1 – Emirates
2 – Qatar Airways
3 – Etihad Airways
4 – Oman Air
5 – Gulf Air
6 – Royal Jordanian Airlines
7 – Saudi Arabia Airlines
8 – Middle East Airlines
9 – Air Arabia
10 – flyDubai

For the list of Top 100 Airlines in the world click [Here]

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