Search: “kuwait”

Bonchon Chicken, the popular Korean fried chicken and wings restaurant has now opened in Kuwait. According to their instagram account they’re still in a soft launch phase and are open from 3PM to 10PM. They’re located in Dhai Complex in Bida’a and you can get the exact location as well as more details from their instagram page @bonchonkwt

Thanks Jen

Gulf Business released the 2017 list of top salaries in Kuwait and the top jobs according to their research are the following:

1) Chief executive officer/managing director – multinational: $34,271
2) Chief executive officer/managing director – local company: $22,178
3) Banking – treasury manager: $13,224
4) Information technology – manager: $12,097
5) Construction – project manager: $11,853
6) Legal – lawyer marketer/manager: $10,355
7) Banking – retail/personal banking manager: $9,625
8) Real estate – manager: $9,610
9) Banking – branch manager: $9,577
10) Healthcare – general practitioner/ manager: $9,416

I was comparing it to the list from 2012 and the biggest difference I noticed is that everything related to print media like advertising, PR and publishing, is now no longer on the list. No surprise there since that field has basically crashed due to the shift to digital. Check out the 2017 list [Here]

Photo by Mohammed AlSultan

Lots of events taking place this weekend, check out the full list below:

Thursday
Exhibition: Third Identity
The AUK Biennial Literary Festival
Workshop: Tea + Meditation
Neymar Jr’s Five Tournament
Workshop: Middle Eastern Cooking
Q8 Readers Book Club: Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond – Part Two
Spring Festival: Soul & Heart

Friday
Tai Chi in the Park
Hatha Yoga in the Park
Workshop: Jivamukti Yoga Kuwait Collective presents ELEVATE
Salwa’ Walk and Socialize Meetup
My Room – Music & Art

Saturday
Craft Fayre & Car Boot Sale
Yoga with the 3
My Room – Music & Art
Workshop: Directing for Cinema
Workshop: Spinal Flow
Ink + Paint
Co-Exist Concert
Global Peace Concert
Y Walk

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double check with the organizers.

The movies below are now showing at either Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and Sky Cinemas:

New This Week:
Aftermath (7.4)
Eat Local (8.3)
Going in Style (6.9)

Other Movies Showing:
Collide (5.7) ♦
Daylight’s End (5.3)
Get Out (8.2) ♦ ★
Kong: Skull Island (7.6) ★
Life (7.8) ★
Logan (9.0) ♦ ★
Max Steel (4.6)
Power Rangers (7.1)
Sleepless (5.5)
Smurfs: The Lost Village (5.9)

The movies below are now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
Flying Monsters 3D with David Attenborough (7.6)
Humpback Whales 3D (7.2)
Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Secret Ocean 3D (N/A)
Journey to Space 3D (6.5)
Kenya 3D: Animal Kingdom (6.0)
Mysteries of the Unseen World 3D (7.5)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in. ♦ implies movie might contain censorship.

Post by Dr. H – A family medicine resident working in a polyclinic in Kuwait

Its been a while since I’ve posted due to the fact I’ve been on holiday. Now its back to reality and I was thinking about what my next blog post would be, when I saw this patient and realized that it should be on the least discussed ‘taboo’ topic in kuwait – depression.

I see so many patients who are truly suffering with this disease, however with the lack of supportive services in Kuwait, they continue to suffer in silence, told by their families to ‘become more spiritual’ or ‘just snap out of it’.

So first off.. what is depression? Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness, and a loss of interest. There are many other associated symptoms, such as trouble sleeping and loss/gain of appetite. There are many theories on the etiology (cause) of depression, one is biological – So it basically says that there are certain ‘chemicals’ in the brain, and when you have depression, these chemicals are a bit off, so you get symptoms. Its multifactorial, theres a lot of other theories, it’s still poorly understood what causes it.. but the bottom line is that it’s a disease. Yes a disease. Just like asthma is a disease.. ever asked someone to ‘snap’ out of asthma?

So.. back to my patient.. I saw a 30 something year old lady, who has been suffering with lack of sleep, low mood, anhedonia (loss of interest), and has been this way for the past 3 months. She was miserable. It was taking a toll on her work, her marriage, and her kids. She did every medical test out there, most importantly her thyroid (gland that produces hormones, when dysfunctional can mimic depression), all her tests came back normal. So I started discussing depression with her, and the treatment options available. I was met with ‘shno depression? lesh tgolin 3ani maynona’ ‘what depression? why are you calling me crazy?’. She refused to discuss treatment or medication and stormed out. This just highlights a huge issue in Kuwaiti society, the taboo of mental illness.

Depression can be very successfully managed with medications and lifestyle modifications, but mention an antidepressant and 90% of patients will refuse.

You must be thinking.. what about psychiatrists? doesn’t Kuwait have a new mental health centre? A centre dedicated to mental illness? Why not refer patients there? What is their role in improving mental health and increasing awareness?

Here’s a fun little fact.. people who get treated at the Kuwait mental health center wouldn’t be considered for jobs in sensitive positions, such as parliament, certain ministry of interior jobs, army, etc. that does a lot to defeat the taboo right? What a good way to move forward Kuwait! Its one step forward two steps back. On the one hand the ministry of health is improving mental health care, on the other they’re saying if you have a file in the mental health center or problems with your mental health then you’re banned from certain jobs. What kind of image does that project?

I was thinking of ways that mental health can be improved, and ways to increase awareness, and I remembered when I was in med school abroad, we had a student hotline and a suicide hotline. These were 24 hour hotlines that you call, free of charge when you feel suicidal, sad, overwhelmed, or unwell. You would call and there would be someone to hear you on the other end of the line to offer supportive services. I think implementing something like this in Kuwait would be a huge step forward, and easier to set up than changing the politics behind being banned from jobs for following up with a psychiatrist.

We’re a long way away from defeating the taboo of mental health in Kuwait, but I think small changes and an increase in awareness would go a long way. So if you’re reading this, and you notice that you or a friend or relative has been suffering with low mood, loss of interest, change in appetite, trouble sleeping, or anything similar, please go to your polyclinic and discuss it with your family medicine doctor. There are a lot of resources out there, antidepressants can be prescribed by your family physician in the polyclinic, and you can be referred to a more specialized clinic if need be. Please do, thats what we’re here for!

(If anyone has any questions, or is suffering with anything similar please do not hesitate to contact me, I’m more than happy to help)

Post by Dr. H – A family medicine resident working in a polyclinic in Kuwait

The Origami House is a project by AGi Architects whom I’ve posted about a number of times before. This home is currently featured in this month’s issue of the popular Wallpaper* magazine and is currently the top story on their main page. It’s a house located in Abdulla Al-Salem designed by AGi for a discreet couple who wanted complete privacy but also wanted to distinguish their house within the neighborhood. Wallpaper* have a full writeup on this project as well as some photos so check it out [Here]

Thanks Sulaiman

Not a lot of things happening this weekend even though the weather looks like its going to be great. Check out the full list of events below:

Thursday
Exhibition: Third Identity
Exhibition: Road to Black
Play: IKARA
Open Mic
Workshop: Japanese Calligraphy
Concert: Harget Kart

Friday
Tai Chi in the Park
Hatha Yoga with Rosy
Play: IKARA
Good Game: Magic – The Gathering
Salwa’ Walk and Socialize Meetup

Saturday
K’S PATH – Season’s Last Beach Clean-up
Madeenah Tour: Fahaheel Coastline
My Book My Friend
Rock Painting at The Secret Garden
International Autism Day
Inspired Edibles Doughnut Pop-up

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double check with the organizers.

The movies below are now showing at either Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and Sky Cinemas:

New This Week:
Daylight’s End (5.3)
Get Out (8.2) ♦ ★
Max Steel (4.6)
Smurfs: The Lost Village (5.9)
The Windmill Massacre (4.8)

Other Movies Showing:
Collide (5.7) ♦
Don’t Knock Twice (5.3)
Kong: Skull Island (7.6) ★
Life (7.8) ★
Logan (9.0) ♦ ★
Power Rangers (7.1)
Sleepless (5.5)

The movies below are now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
Flying Monsters 3D with David Attenborough (7.6)
Humpback Whales 3D (7.2)
Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Secret Ocean 3D (N/A)
Journey to Space 3D (6.5)
Kenya 3D: Animal Kingdom (6.0)
Mysteries of the Unseen World 3D (7.5)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in. ♦ implies movie might contain censorship.

Yesterday someone asked me if there was a laser tag place in Kuwait and figured other people might be interested to know that there is. The place is called Desert Sniper and they’re located right next to The Avenues. You need to be at least 4 people to play laser tag but a friend who tried it out told me having 10 people is a lot more fun.

If you don’t know what laser tag is, it’s kinda like paint ball except using lasers. When you get hit you light up and a vest vibrates letting you know you’ve been hit. It’s a lot less painful than getting hit by a paintball. The cost per round is KD6 and each round is 10 minutes long. The second round is also KD6 but after the second round the price goes down to KD3 per round. You also need to call them and book your session in advance.

So if you’re interested in laser tagging, you can check out the Desert Sniper [Website] for more details or call them up on 97828080

Yusuf Al-Jaddah, a sowt singer I encountered during a performance in a private suite at the Jumeirah five-star hotel in Kuwait City in May 2014, pointed out the huge changes that have occurred in the background, even as the tradition of communal performance has persisted:

“Years back I used to sing exactly at this spot with musicians from Bahrain. We were sitting in the sand and this hotel was not even built.”

Kuwait was musically quite a revelation to me. Despite rapid modernizations across the Gulf, which sees traditional performances occurring nowadays in hotels as well as diwānīyahs, traditional music is still performed, at least in private gatherings, on a weekly basis. Although at first the apparent absence of any older buildings in the city centre would imply complete modernisation of the culture, it is clear that musical culture is still very vibrant.

A friend sent me a link to an article from the Qatar Digital Library on traditional music in Kuwait. Honestly, only reason I’m sharing it is because I loved the first song on the playlist called “كاسين ويسكي” or two glasses of whisky in English. The song was written before the alcohol ban in Kuwait and was composed and sang by Kuwaiti musician Abdullah Al-Fadala in Bahrain in the 1950s. You can check out the article [Here] and listen to the whisky song as well as other songs they’ve selected below.

By the way, the Qatar Digital Archive is kinda similar to something I was proposing back in January that we need in Kuwait like urgently. I mean Qatar have digitized and archived Kuwaiti history while we haven’t even done that for ourselves yet alone for our neighboring countries.

Lots of events this weekend but due to the weather, some of the outdoor ones might get canceled, so double check with the organizer before heading out to make sure they’re still on. Below is this weekends list of events:

Thursday
Exhibition: Third Identity
Exhibition: Road to Black
Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, and the Requiem Mass
Amir’s Cup Show Jumping Championship
Tefaseel Design Exhibition
Organic hydroponics and sustainability: Truth or Fiction?

Friday
Tefaseel Design Exhibition
Amir’s Cup Show Jumping Championship
PantryBee Presents Farm to Table Sunset Dinner
Tai Chi in the Park
Hatha Yoga with Rosie
Macro Photography in the Park
Good Game: Magic – The Gathering
Salwa’ Walk and Socialize Meetup
Voices & Verses
Reborn Carnival

Saturday
Amir’s Cup Show Jumping Championship
Yoga with the 3
Karate Kenshinkan & Kung-Fu Sanda
Bait Al Arab: Kuwait State Stud
Annual Worldwide InstaMeet
Family Day at Amricani
Murouj Market
Footwork Workshop with Cheerito (Russia)
JAM JAM – Open Acoustic Jam Session
Gardening at The Secret Garden
Reborn Carnival
Volleyball Tournament

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double check with the organizers.

The movies below are now showing at either Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and Sky Cinemas:

New This Week:
Barbie Video Game Hero (5.0)
Collide (5.7) ♦
Life (7.8) ★
Power Rangers (7.1)

Other Movies Showing:
Don’t Knock Twice (5.3)
Kong: Skull Island (7.6) ★
Logan (9.0) ♦ ★
Sleepless (5.5)
The LEGO Batman Movie (8.1)
Vengeance: A Love Story (N/A)

The movies below are now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
Flying Monsters 3D with David Attenborough (7.6)
Humpback Whales 3D (7.2)
Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Secret Ocean 3D (N/A)
Journey to Space 3D (6.5)
Kenya 3D: Animal Kingdom (6.0)
Mysteries of the Unseen World 3D (7.5)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in. ♦ implies movie might contain censorship.

You’ve probably heard about this in the news but in case you haven’t, the U.S. issued a temporary ban on electronics in cabins on some Middle Eastern flights to the U.S. It’s a temporary 96 hour ban at the moment but it still sucks if you were planning on traveling to the U.S. in the next few days and like me, take all your on inflight entertainment with you. Oddly though, according to AP, the ban includes Kuwait.

A U.S. official told The Associated Press the ban will apply to nonstop flights to the U.S. from 10 international airports serving the cities of Cairo in Egypt; Amman in Jordan; Kuwait City in Kuwait; Casablanca in Morocco; Doha in Qatar; Riyadh and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia; Istanbul in Turkey; and Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The ban was indefinite, said the official.

I wasn’t aware of any direct flights to the U.S. from Kuwait. United Airlines stopped flying out from Kuwait and Kuwait Airways now stops in Ireland for security reasons on the way to New York. Is there a flight that is direct to the U.S. from Kuwait that I am not aware of?

Update: It might be a temporary ban, it might not be, everyone seems to be confused

Update2: Kuwait Airways will begin flying non-stop to New York starting from Sunday, March 26.

The 2017 edition of the World Happiness Report was released yesterday and Kuwait moved up two spots from 41 to 39. The highest Kuwait has ever been was 31 and that was back in 2012. Since then, Kuwait has slowly been dropping down the list until last year it hit its lowest ranking at 41, so 39 this year is technically an improvement.

Below is a list comparing Kuwait’s ranking to some other countries in the region including the highest ranked and lowest.

1. Norway
21. United Arab Emirates
35. Qatar
37. Saudi Arabia
39. Kuwait
41. Bahrain
155. Central African Republic

The scoring is based on a number of factors including answers submitted by people who were asked to assess their satisfaction with their current lives on a scale of 0 to 10. For a more detailed explanation as well as the full list of rankings, you can download the World Happiness Report from [Here]

Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and Sky Cinemas will no longer be showing Disney’s Beauty and the Beast movie in Kuwait. Local censors wanted to cut a scene from the film, most likely the gay related one and Disney decided it would rather pull the movie than censor it. It did the same thing in Malaysia last week when it pulled the movie from theaters over there after Malaysian censors wanted to remove the gay scene as well.

I actually like the idea of Disney pulling the film, I think more movie studios need to do that.

Update: According to Grand Cinemas, they are currently working with the studio on the additional cuts that the MOI requested and will be releasing the film when ready. This means Disney did NOT pull the movie but the movie theaters did due to additional cuts that were requested by the MOI.

Update2: According to Cinescape, they pulled the movie themselves.

Dear Valued Customers,
We would like to inform you that Kuwait National Cinema Company decided to

Stop showing Beauty and the Beast in line with our values as responsibility toward our young viewers [Source]