2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

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]

As I mentioned in my previous post the bear enclosures at the Zoo were the only decent ones. They had 3 enclosures next to each other for 3 different types of bears. I filmed a short video of one of the bears he seemed to be enjoying himself in the water. [YouTube]

Ibrahim Al-Mazeedi is a Kuwaiti country musician whom I posted about early in the year. He just released another song which you can listen to above. This is what Ibrahim had to say about this song:

I have released a new single – a very touching and personal one. It can be related to anyone in the Arab region. But I wrote it about Kuwait. Tell me what you think… listen to the words carefully.

[YouTube]

I get a lot of emails from people who want to setup their own blog under their own domain name and want to know where they can get a domain name from and hosting as well. Although I am sure I’ve posted this information before I figured I would do a quick refresh post about this.

Domain Names
I’ve tried a few domain name providers including DIrectNic and GoDaddy but my favorite is NameCheap. Their prices are decent and their admin interface is great and easy to use. Unlike GoDaddy (which I couldn’t stand) they don’t try and sell you services you don’t need every time you want to do something. www.namecheap.com

Web Hosting
My blog is currently hosted on Rackspace which you really don’t need if you’re just starting out. I originally started using Dreamhost and still use them to host some of my other sites. The biggest advantage to Dreamhost is the fact you can install WordPress (the software that runs this blog) with just a click of a button. Makes it perfect for a beginner to start blogging and they also have a free trial so you could try them out first before you sign up. I also think they give you a domain name for free when you first start or at least they used to when I joined up. www.dreamhost.com

I’ve got the following 5 Dreamhost codes that give $15 off a 1 year sign up and $100 off a 2 year sign up. These codes only work once and I only have 5 so if you try one code and it says it’s used try the second one. If all 5 don’t work it means they’ve been used up already sorry…

794847165544
910624757385
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Use the 12-digit code in the “promo code” field.

Please note the options above are not your only options. There are tons of domain name providers and even more hosting providers but the ones above are the ones I use and trust. If you have any questions just post it in the comments below and I will try to answer it.

Update: You can also use the code FIVEZEROOFF when checking out for a $50 discount.

After reading an article in Arab Times about the Zoo management accepting criticism I figured with that the Kuwait Zoo had turned a new leaf and has changed for the better. Well I was there today and nothing has changed.

To be fair, the 3 new bear enclosures are a huge improvement over everything else at the zoo. They’ve also fixed the Bony sign by covering up the bottom right part of the B so that it now looks like a P. And that’s it. Thats the only two things that have improved.

The worst part about the whole zoo has to be the security guards. People were feeding the animals, throwing bottles of water at the animals, throwing garbage and jumping over the protective barriers while the security guards did nothing. I went up to one security guard and asked him if it was allowed to feed the animals, he told me no it wasn’t. I then asked him why he was letting people feed the animals or kids throw bottles at the bears. He pretended to be dumb and asked me who was doing that, I just pointed to the crowd standing next to him and told him they all are. He just looked at me confused and wondered off. A few minutes later we were near the monkey cages and I noticed two little kids over the fence feeding the animals with their parents proudly standing and watching. What was even more terrible was the fact there was a security guard sitting on a chair also just watching. I went up to him as well and asked him why he wasn’t doing anything about the kids over the barrier. I asked him what if one of the monkeys bit one of the kids? He just smiled back at me, he didn’t care.

As you can see in the picture above the two kids are over the barrier. In the second picture below you can see the security guard in the chair watching the kids in the background over the barrier.

Everywhere I looked there were people just throwing stuff at the animals and no one was doing anything about it. But the thing is, it’s not their fault. People aren’t expected to know they can’t feed the animals and I only saw one “Don’t feed the animals” sign in the whole zoo. It’s the job of the zoo to educate people, they should put up signs in multiple languages telling people not to feed or throw stuff at the animals and they should be located outside all the cages and enclosures. It’s then the job of the security guards to enforce the rules when they are broken. In both cases the zoo has failed miserably.