2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

I spotted new speed cameras on the First Ring Road. I think they measure your average speed because there are two cameras located at the start of the First Ring Road and two more located at the end. The first pair is located right after the highway 50 bridge if you’re heading from the Sheraton roundabout towards the Gulf Road. The road is only two lanes at that point and there is a camera pointing at each lane. The second pair is located right after the Istiqlal Highway bridge (road 30) when the multi-lane road becomes two lanes again.

The way these speed cameras work is they take a picture of your license plate at the first camera and then take a picture of your license plate after the second camera. It calculates the time it took from Camera A to Camera B and then calculates your average speed, if it’s higher than the maximum speed limit then you’re fined.

PechaKucha Night #6 will be held on Wednesday, September 29th.
20 images x 20 seconds to be presented by:

Rania Abulhasan
Ayesha Al Humaidhi
Aziz Al Mudhaf
Bedour Al Saleh
Dalal Al Hashash, Fatma Al Obaid & Khawla Al Hussaini
Dalal Al Sayer
Fatemah Al Mosawi
Ghalia Al Othman & Raweya Al Sedairawi
Sahar Shawa

Date: Wednesday, September 29th 2010
Time: 7:30 pm
Place: Infiniti Showroom at Al Rai
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://www.pecha-kucha.org/cities/kuwait-city
Facebook group: Pecha Kucha Kuwait

I know being 40 isn’t like being #1 or in the top 10 or top 20 but it’s still an accomplishment since Kuwait according to Newsweek is the best Arab country in the world. The results were based on Education, Health, Quality of Life, Economic Dynamism and Political Environment. Kuwait came in 24th place for Quality of Life while it loss mostly in the Education category coming in 76th place. That’s not good news. Lebanon on the other hand didn’t even make the list! Now that’s embarrassing. [Link]

Thanks Ahmed

NYC artist Sally Davies took a Happy Meal, put it on her living room table and decided to take a picture of it over a period of time. The shot above is the Happy Meal after leaving it out for 137 days. [Link]

A reader spotted the above at the Mall of Emirates map/categories. According to my contact at Alshaya, the opening of Shake Shack in Kuwait has been pushed till Q1 of next year so they better not open up in Dubai before Kuwait.

Thanks xeonali

Some of my long time readers might remember I had a huge issue with the BMW dealership a few years ago. Well even though I had the big fight with them I still ended up getting another Beemer after selling my old one (yup typical Lebanese). Anyway today while getting an oil change at the dealership I spotted a sign that said “Video Games”. I thought that was weird but figured they setup a kids area or something. As I got closer I spotted another sign that said “Internet” and noticed a bunch of laptops set up for people to use. I then noticed two large LCD screens connected to two PS3’s with a bunch of games laid out on the table. There was also a cozy waiting area with a huge LCD screen and a coffee machine for complimentary drinks. I should have checked if there was wifi but totally forgot to do that.

I haven’t dealt with a lot of dealerships just Jeep and Toyota but I think the BMW service area is definitely better than those two.

Most of you probably already know what a Dreambox is, if you don’t then simply put, it’s a satellite receiver that allows you to watch all the encrypted channels like OSN, HBO, ART, Canal+, Nova etc.. for a flat fee of around KD15 every 6 months. It’s illegal of course since a regular subscription to OSN alone costs around KD20 a month. Well recently OSN have started swapping out receivers and one of the reasons is that they’re changing their encryption from Irdeto to Betacrypt. Once they move over from Irdeto to Betacrypt the Dreambox will no longer be able to decrypt their signal anymore and so you won’t be able to watch OSN. Personally think this is just temporary since everything is crackable but for now looks like the only way you’ll be able to watch OSN is by subscribing through them.

Qaiss from io81 has a great post on a small start up juice company here in Kuwait. The post talks about the basic structure of the company, how it works and how much it makes. He also highlights an important point at the end:

There is a market out there and huge potential for many business idea’s other than cupcakes

He is absolutely right. There are a lot of people that bake and cook food and then set up a Facebook page and start selling their goods. Other than the fact that its probably illegal to sell food from your home (since there is no way to guarantee the cleanliness) why don’t people actually setup a proper business? Why not open up a little bakery or a small delivery restaurant. What about ideas beyond food? Check out his post [Here]

A reader emailed me to tell me that Kuwait was featured in the most recent issue of National Geographic Traveler magazine (Oct 2010). A cool thing of course if it wasn’t for the fact that the article was very superficial and spoke mostly about shopping at The Avenues. I’m serious.

Outside The Avenues, the 125°(F) desert air is rising in waves from a sea of luxury cars in the mall parking lot—Land Rovers, Mercedes-Benzes, and Hummers, with a Ferrari or two thrown in. Inside, I’m swept along the marbled concourse by a tide of men in dark sunglasses and ankle-length white robes. Nearby are wives, sisters, and daughters, some in headscarves and designer jeans, others cloaked head-to-toe in flowing black garments, or abayas, and some walled behind face masks . Housemaids and nannies trail behind—domestic servants imported from the Philippines, China, and elsewhere—lugging the day’s boxes and bags.

Understanding the Kuwaiti passion for retail requires a brief civics lesson. Kuwaiti citizens—who make up only one-third of the country’s expat-heavy population of three million—benefit from a lavish package of petro benefits, including plush government jobs. “People get paid for doing relatively little, or nothing at all, and they get paid extremely well,” says Mary Ann Tetreault, a professor and specialist in Gulf affairs. “Shopping is really the only way to distinguish oneself from one’s peers.”

You can check out the full article on the readers blog located at [read-my-blog.com]

Episode 1 of a series that explores Kuwait and Kuwait City in a whole new way. Episode 1 titled “India Town” explores one of the districts of Kuwait city which is Mirqab.

Although the video sounded interesting I found it extremely boring and uneventful until around the 7:15 minute mark where I could swear the driver says he’s going to play some Israeli music? I thought that was pretty strange. [YouTube]

Update: Video has been removed by the uploader

This really doesn’t make much sense to me. [Link]

Thanks instant cravings

I’ve been meaning to post an update regarding the photographer for a few days now but haven’t had the chance. After my last post a very kind reader contacted me and told me she would be willing to finance the whole trip to the Hajj for the old man. She ended up passing by and meeting the old photographer and was able to get all his paper work and pass it on to a hamla who are currently processing them. Hopefully there aren’t going to be any issues and everything works out. Thank you to everyone who offered to help and a huge thank you to the reader who is making this old mans last wish come true.

I found this video on YouTube which is supposedly of Kuwaiti policemen beating up some Iranian drug traffickers at the Doha port. The video is very low quality so it’s very difficult to confirm that these are actually Kuwaiti policemen and that this actually happened at the Doha port. The policemen in the video above though are wearing flak jackets that are very similar to the local police. I also have no idea if this video is recent or not. [YouTube]

Update: replaced the video with a slightly better quality one

A forum member brought up an interesting topic which I hadn’t been aware of before.

It seems the one dinar note has a picture of Shuwaikh port on one side. The picture is supposed to be of the first ship which docked at Shuwaikh. It happened to be a Swiss ship, so it had a cross on the chimney, like the one that appears on the Swiss flag. For obvious reasons the cross was colored out. I of course didn’t believe the story, but then I happened to come across one such note.

The picture above is the KD1 note he came across that has the Swiss flag. I quickly opened my wallet and checked the KD1 notes I had and noticed the chimney on mine didn’t contain the flag (check image below).

I thought this was very interesting specially since I hadn’t heard of this before. It reminded me of the Saudi airlines logo which used to have a hidden cross in it as well (not deliberately of course). Below is a scan I made from the design book Pentagram: The Compendium regarding the Saudia logo and also a brief mention of the Swiss flag and the Middle East.

Thanks lloyd_911

A short video featuring Hasan Bomejdad, a player in the Kuwaiti national table tennis team on the hardships disabled people go through in Kuwait. The video focuses specifically on the lack of proper parking facilities or the fact that people don’t respect the disabled parking spots. [YouTube]