Search: “kuwait”

I know it has been a while since I posted my answers publicly, but I am still reading your questions and responding to your emails. I really do enjoy interacting with you and I feel so grateful that I am able to help people by making law simple and more accessible. So thank you.

I recently had a question by a reader which and I thought I would answer here. I rewrote the question to make it easier for everyone to understand but the gist of it is the same.

Question: So I had an argument with my manager, and now he is saying that business isn’t that great so I am going to be fired. So I ask him for a 3 month notice period as its my right and he refuses, says he will discuss it with his lawyer.

1) Do I get my 3 month salary for the notice period on a monthly basis or all in one payment after transferring my residency to another company?

Usually when you are terminated because of “restructuring” then they either ask you to stay three months and work, and if so you get paid each month separately. Or they pay you three months in bulk although the law didn’t specify when you should be paid, there are things to be careful about.

First be very careful about signing any documents, although illegal, it is common practice in Kuwait for companies to refuse to transfer your papers unless you sign a document stating that you no longer have any monetary rights with their employer i.e. they have received all the money owed to them. This prevents employees from filing lawsuits in the future asking for their notice period, termination indemnity, etc

Second if your boss asks you not to come in to work for the next three months but will continue to pay you, ASK FOR IT IN WRITING. Some employers will verbally ask their employees not to come in and then file an absconding case against them.

Always ask your employer to hand you a resignation letter in writing which includes the reason of termination.

2) If I leave after 3 months I’d have completed 21 months in the company, do I get my indemnity or leave balance?

Yes you are entitled to termination indemnity. If the employer terminated the employee or the contract ended, the employee is entitled to his full termination indemnity which is calculated as 15 days per year (adducing you are in the private sector and you receive a monthly payment). How do you calculate the 15 days?

You divide your salary by 26 days, and then times the number by 15 days for the first year. Then times that number by 1.75 because you worked 3 quarters of a year for the additional 9 months that you worked. I know calculating termination indemnity can be difficult so I will write a separate post for that next week.

Feel free to email me [email protected] with any legal questions. I do not have the capacity to answer everyone for free (but I try), and I am happy to announce that I am currently working with a great team and therefore we are able to reply back to all emails with a reasonable time frame.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
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.

Kuwait Rising is an alternative music festival which is going to be held in Kuwait this coming weekend (Friday, 28th October) and feature artists from around the world including:

El Rass (Lebanon)
Lebanese rapper El Rass, or Mazen El Sayed’s talent is represented in switching naturally from classical Arabic language, to the spoken Lebanese dialect, tackling a wide range of sensitive subjects and realms. An emphatic on-stage performer, El Rass draws material from the ancient and the modern, the spiritual and the worldly.

Al Nather (Palestine)
Al Nather (Mohammad Masrujah), is a flautist, percussionist, vocalist and producer based in Ramallah. As a producer, Al Nather’s focus is sampling while occassionally developing original works of art. He constitutes a part of a hip-hop crew based also in Ramallah called [ – 1]. He’s produced music for numerous artists including Edd Abbas (Lebanon), El Rass (Lebanon), Abyusif (Egypt) and Bu Kulthoum (Syria). His influences range from classical Arabic music to extremely experimental works.

Muqata’a (Palestine)
Muqata’a (Boikutt) is a musician and MC based in Ramallah, Palestine. Creating sounds using sampled material, field recordings, and electronic devices, the results range between hip-hop, downtempo, glitch, ambient and experimental. He has composed and produced music for artists such as Kronos Quartet, Bukue One, Spiritchild, Tamer Abu-Ghazaleh and others, and has appeared as an MC on albums for artists such as Heliodrome, Slovo, Bonnot, and Lethal Skillz to name a few.

Nada El Shazly (Egypt)
Nada El Shazly is an Egyptian singer, composer and music producer who works and lives in Cairo. Nada is currently preparing for her first album, which is an extension of the first show she presented a few years ago in Cairo, Alexandria, Beirut and Montreal. Nada composes and produces her own music using her voice alongside various electronic technique besides playing sax and piano. Her journey is filled with transformations that give her music a profound identity and mirrors her experience in music from various places and different times.

Sulk Station (Nepal / India)
One of India’s distinctive talents, Sulk Station are creating their own brand of lush, moody and hypnotic music set in a heavenly ambience. Tanvi Rao’s sultry vocals layered over Rahul Giri’s minimalist production creates an innovative template of sounds, which allows the two to play out extremely compelling tunes. Their songs are a mix of contemporary electronic genres (trip-hop/ambient) with traces of Indian classical music, rendered by Tanvi, and unlike anything coming out of India.

The event is hosted by Zahed Sultan and will take place at DAI in Yarmouk with limited tickets costing KD15 each. For more information on the event including a link to buy tickets, click [Here]

248AM has teamed up with Zahed Sultan and Red Bull to giveaway two festival tickets to one lucky winner. All you need to do to enter the draw is leave a comment below mentioning the brand of the energy drink in the flyer above.

I will stop accepting entries in the comments section by tomorrow 9AM and then randomly choose one winner and notify them via email.

Rules: Only one entry per person and please make sure you use a working email since the winner will be contacted by email. If winner doesn’t respond, another winner will be randomly chosen.

Update: I closed the post for comments at 9AM and using random.org chose a winner which was number 42, Aziz. Winner has been contacted by email. Thank you for participating!

Surprisingly the answer is not food related. This map was on the front page of Reddit yesterday and although Kuwait is not on the map it is listed in the data. According to Information is Beautiful, Kuwait is good at tweeting with the most tweets per capita in the world.

Check out the full world map [Here]

A few hours ago Kuwait Airways launched a new identity that included a face lifted logo, updated crew uniforms, a brand new aircraft livery, updated website and new flight routes.

Kuwait Airways were at Boeing in Seattle to collect their first 777-300ER aircraft in which these changes are making their debut on. The event was broadcasted live on their twitter account and you could rewatch the event on Periscope by clicking [Here] The new plane is expected to have it’s first flight on November 7th, 2016.

I’m going to hold back my detailed opinion on the new identity until it is properly launched and I’ve seen all their material, but right now I’ll just say that the new identity feels dated already.

The weather is getting better so as expected a lot more events are going to start popping up. This weekend there is a ton of things to do, check out the full list below:

Thursday
Exhibition: Attraction
The IMPROVengers Comedy Night
Khaleejesque Music Nights
Movie & Dinner: Upstream Color

Friday
Tai Chi in the Park
Hatha Yoga with Rosie
Beyond Limits Energy Healing Workshop
Good Game: Magic – The Gathering
Kuwait Bibliophiles: Book Club Meeting
Salwa’ Walk and Socialize Meetup
Fit 4 Life Expo

Saturday
Al Khayamiya Exhibition at Sadu House
Fun Run
Yoga with the 3
Blend of Balance Gathering
Architectural Photowalk: Fahad Al-Salem St.
Hope on the Move
Fight Like A Girl… Round 2
Literary Nights: Fouz Al-Sabah
The 9th Korea-Arab Frienship Caravan
Cross Cultural Diwaniya: Censorship in the Age of Technology
Fit 4 Life Expo
Gardening at The Secret Garden

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 Cinescape and Grand Cinemas:

New This Week:
Desierto (5.7)
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (7.4) ★
Keeping Up with the Joneses (5.4)
Middle School: The Worst Years of My Life (5.8)
Precious Cargo (4.6)
Sacrifice (4.2)
The Duel (5.7)
The Mermaid Princess (N/A)

Other Movies Showing:
Deepwater Horizon (7.2)
Don’t Breathe (8.3) ♦
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (7.7) 4DX Release
Inferno (7.1) ♦
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (7.2)
Snowden (6.2) ♦
Sully (7.9)
USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage (5.1)

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

Cereal Killer Cafe is a British franchise that serves over a 100 different kinds of cereals. It’s one of those places people tell you to visit after posting a picture on instagram showing that you’re in London and now they’re opening up in Kuwait. The cafe is going to be located in the same building as Arabica coffee in Kuwait City, just at the other end of the building. According to their instagram account @cerealkillercafekw, they will be opening before the end of this year so pretty soon.

Friday night a friend of mine sent me a video (watch it below) of a coffee shop which I assumed was in Dubai because of how big and pretty it looked. I was watching the video and in my head I was trying to figure out why he would send me a video of a coffee shop in Dubai. But, when I got to the end of the video, it turned out the coffee shop was called Majnoon Qahwa, was in Kuwait and had just opened up. So yesterday morning I headed with a friend of mine to check it out.

Majnoon Qahwa is actually a Jordanian brand and they’re located at The Spot, a new food complex opposite Messilah Beach. The place is pretty big, two floors and an outdoor terrace, the top floor has a bit of a sea view, lots of seating and even a small study area. The ground floor has a smaller seating area but a cozier one with two large coffee roasters at one end giving the space a slightly industrial feel.

We didn’t end up having any of their food, I just had a latte and a pain au chocolat. The latte was ok but the pain au chocolat was terrible, super dense and tasted more like a cake. Not sure how they got that wrong (Al Nata, you guys should hook them up with your stuff). But I really did love the space, the couch we were on was super comfy, the whole interior was beautifully lit up with daylight that came through golden Mashrabiyas and I loved the super high ceiling. Would I go back? Probably not since its out of my way but if I lived in the area then yeah for sure, I’d just skip the pain au chocolat next time.

Now if anyone wants to get the best teapots ever, for some odd reason they sell FORLIFE teapots at the place. They’re reasonably priced as well, around KD10 which is KD2 more expensive than Amazon. They’re really the best teapots, I love them and I personally have 4 different colored ones myself.

If you’re interested in checking the place out, here is their location on [Google Maps] and their instagram account is @majnoon_qahwakw

A bunch of things taking place this weekend. The only one I’ll probably be going to is the Revive.Nine Popup thats taking place at the new Elevation Burger in AlSeif since I’m curious to see their new outdoor events space. Check out all of this weekends events below and if I missed anything let me know:

Thursday
Exhibition: Attraction
Play: Part of a Whole
Revive.Nine One Day Pop Up
The Divan’s Movie Night: Memento

Friday
Tai Chi in the Park
Breast Cancer Awareness Workshop
Good Game: Magic The Gathering
Quiz Night

Saturday
Yoga with the 3
Discussion: How Literature Shapes the World
Pink Saturday Carnival

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 Cinescape and Grand Cinemas:

New This Week:
Inferno (7.1) ♦
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (7.7) 4DX Release

Other Movies Showing:
Deepwater Horizon (7.2)
Don’t Breathe (8.3) ♦
Lights Out (6.7)
Mechanic: Resurrection (6.5)
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (7.2)
Snowden (6.2) ♦
Storks (7.2)
Sully (7.9)
Tank 432 (3.6)
The Disappointments Room (4.3) ♦
The Magnificent Seven (7.0) ★
USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage (5.1)

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

Between East & West: A Gulf

Kuwait is participating at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale which is the largest architecture show in the world. The Kuwait Pavilion is called ‘Between East & West: A Gulf’.

I had seen photos of the Kuwait Pavilion exhibit over the summer but didn’t post about it since I had difficulty understanding the exhibit myself and so would have trouble writing about it. But one of the architects involved in the project recently sent me the video above which made things a lot clearer so I decided to share it on my blog. If you can’t hear the audio in the video because you’re at work, here is the project description from their website:

Hundreds of islands dot the waters between the Arabian and Persian shores. An afterthought in the political maneuverings of their respective coasts, these islands tell an alternative narrative to the one which drives conceptions of the region. They represent a possibility greater than spaces of political contestation and hesitant demarcation. These islands are the sites of identity in formation, places of experimentation and architectural invention. Their historical roles were as varied as places of leisure, spirituality, planning, war, exile, and health. The island is an entity both isolated but also crucially connected through the waters of the Gulf, and thus not an exception to the national but the rule which defines it.

This year’s Kuwaiti pavilion looks beyond the shores of the country and argues in favor of a masterplan for a united Gulf. By presenting the untold history of the region and proposing an alternate future, the pavilion casts the hydrography as a singular entity of neither East nor West, but as an untapped archipelago which defined the region and offers the greatest possibility for its reconciliation.

What is unique about this exhibit is that it was conceived and executed by a fairly small and young team of architecture students and recent graduates. Here is a list of everyone that was involved and you can find their full bio on the pavilion website:

Commissioners: Zahra Ali Baba – National Council for Culture Arts and Letters / Kuwait (NCCAL)
Curators: Hamed Bukhamseen, Ali Karimi
Art Director / Graphic Designer: Fahad Alhunaif
Publication Coordinator / Editor: Muneerah Alrabe
Project Designers and Research Architects: Saphiya Abu Almaati, Shahab Albahar, Mai Albusairi, Nada Alqallaf, Rawan Alsaffar, Yousef Awaad Hussein
Financial Team: Mohammed Al Ajmi, Mohammed Al Jameel
Administrative Team: Abdullah Albeeshi (Head of team), Noora Al Musallam, Jaber Al Qallaf, Jassim Al Shamali.

The 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale opened up this past May and is running until November 27th. For more information and photos on the project, check out the Kuwait Pavilion website [Here]

So, last week we talked about the different venues around town where you’ll likely find music-centric events beginning to pop up as the season gets back into gear. The week before that we talked about birds a lot, but mostly only to highlight the local music releases which took place over the summer when said birds take time off from live performances to work on creating, producing and ultimately releasing new material. That’s also where I did the “it’s not ‘me’, it’s ‘you’” speech and asked you to go out and be part of the local music industry, and the fact that if a music industry were to not only exist in Kuwait, but thrive, it is only if the fans were to reciprocate. That brings us to this week.

This week I’d like to expand on that idea, to provide a more realistic approach to how you, the fans, can help start archiving this reality. Enter, #KuwaitMusicScene. What I would like to see happen with this hashtag is for people to start using it to tag any of their pictures/posts on social media that have to do with music in Kuwait, or musicians in Kuwait. That way, whether a fan or a musician new to the scene, all they’d have to do is look through the hashtag results and can get a pretty good idea of what our music scene has got going on. Although there have been other hashtags floating around in support of the local music scene, #SupportLocalMusic is a good example, #SupportLocalArtists is another, the problem these hashtags pose is that they’re too broad a spectrum. Yes, you’ll find artists from Kuwait, but you’ll also find artists from all over the world – everyone is ‘Local’ to someone. What using the word ‘Kuwait’ does is filter through all the ‘locals’ to bring you those local to Kuwait. It also means it increases our chances of, let’s say, someone looking up #KuwaitCars, to stumble upon #KuwaitMusicScene. It’s easy to get lost in the crowd, so this is our way of making sure we stick out. Now, lest we find ourselves with videos of exchange students documenting their homesickness and new-found love of Kuwaiti music, let’s lay some hashtag ground rules.

Rule no.1 – Only use #KuwaitMusicScene if an artist is performing in Kuwait; so not a musician from Kuwait, but rather in Kuwait. To put it simply, it is not your nationality that matters, but where your GPS locator says you are. This will help us create a musical archive of what’s going on here, in this time, in this space. Now, there’s actually a lot of space in this hashtag for inclusion. For starters, DJ’s – I do believe DJ’s should be included. I also believe local radio show hosts talking about music should be included because both of those still represent music action in Kuwait. The aim is to make this archive as big and as comprehensive as possible, and to show that there are big enough numbers to create a sustainable industry.

Rule no. 2 – #KuwaitMusicScene applies to more than just events open to the public. A lot goes on behind the scenes in the music industry; from rehearsals and jam sessions, to that one time the artist found the perfect spot in the hallway with killer acoustics and thought it necessary to document it on YouTube – hashtag it all. But, just like rule no. 1, let’s keep this within the borders of Kuwait. This is not a “You can’t sit with us” stance, but an attempt at keeping this archive consistent, and therefore relevant. So, I’m trusting you musicians with this responsibility.

So, if you’re an artist, take a moment and go back to your Instagram and Facebook posts and edit them to include the #KuwaitMusicScene hashtag. If you’re a fan, and maybe remember catching a live performance in the middle of the desert one time, look it up, hashtag it, and help us build this industry. Now here’s the part that’s even better, this doesn’t only go to serve “us”, the musicians and the fans, but event-organizers and event-promoters can benefit from this hashtag when it comes time to market shows which feature some aspect of local music. That way, by the time you get to your weekend, and are looking to see what music is out there, or which musicians are performing, all you’d have to do is look up #KuwaitMusicScene and that would hopefully generate a pretty good, up-to-date response for you to sift through.

Here is a good example of A Lebanese musician that performs and records his blues music in Kuwait.

Instagram: @Bluesman81

Now that I’ve laid out my hypothesis, it’s time to experiment. The end of this month, October 28th to be precise, brings us one of the coolest music events of the season – brought to us by Kuwait Rising, hosted by Zahed Sultan with the support of Red Bull, it will feature incredible artists for all over the Middle East. So, if you attend this event, which I absolutely think you should, please take the opportunity to use the #KuwaitMusicScene hashtag along with, what I’m sure is already an existing hashtag, #KuwaitRising.

Here is the link to the [Event]

And, finally, just in case you missed it, Dar Al-athar has already started their music season, and just last week hosted an Arabic-style Flaminco event. If you were there, and have some pictures or videos you plan to share, or have already shared, I ask that you take the time to hashtag them, as well.

Also they have an open call for musicians check their instagram @dai_kuwait and the following [Link]

If anyone out there has a better idea or a more constructive perspective on hashtags in the social media world, please comment below and share your thoughts.

Peace, Love and Music

Post by Amin FARI
Are you a musician looking to perform? On the flipside, are you a host looking for musicians to book? Or maybe you’ve just got an awesome idea you’d like to share? Get in touch [email protected] / Instagram: @xxmrfarixx

I was only made aware of this recently by a friend. We were talking about coffee machines and he suggested I order one from Amazon UK and have them ship it directly to Kuwait without using a forwarding mailbox (Amazon ships some items abroad). I told him shipping would be too expensive and wouldn’t be worth it. He then told me that when you ship stuff directly to Kuwait with Amazon UK, they remove the 20% VAT during check out. So I added a few items to my cart and tried to check out and he was right.

Once Amazon removes the 20% VAT and add the international shipping cost to Kuwait, the price basically evens out and you end up paying no shipping or next to nothing for shipping when compared to the original listed price. So you could buy stuff from the UK and get it delivered to you in Kuwait for a cost less than if you lived in the UK and bought it yourself over there. Here are some examples to make this clearer:

Sage Dual Boiler Coffee Machine
Listed Price: KD 382
Price shipped to Kuwait: KD 368

Sage Smart Grinder Pro
Listed Price: KD 70
Price shipped to Kuwait: KD 77

Xbox One S FIFA 17 Bundle (500GB)
Listed Price: KD 94
Price shipped to Kuwait: KD 93

Vitamix Standard Blender (Certified Refurbished)
Listed Price: KD 123
Price shipped to Kuwait: KD 127

So as you can see from above this works better when the item is expensive since the 20% VAT would be worth more than the cost of shipping the item to Kuwait. The items would be shipped using AmazonGlobal Priority which uses one of Amazon’s shipping partners like DHL or UPS. The items would be delivered to your door in Kuwait in around a weeks time. The voltage in the UK is also similar to Kuwait so you won’t need power transformers or anything of the sort. So if you’re looking for an item that you can’t find in Kuwait or you’ve found it but is too expensive, try finding it on Amazon UK, it might come out to be a pretty good deal.

Update: One thing to add, the “Price shipped to Kuwait” includes an “Import Fees Deposit”. Basically the customs fee for importing the item into Kuwait. Once your package gets delivered, Amazon will refund you either the full deposit or partial amount from the deposit. So the actual price you pay is even cheaper than what I have listed above

I stopped using Netflix awhile back since the US version stopped working with my DNS Proxy provider and the Kuwait version lacked all the real estate reality shows I enjoy watching (like Beachfront Bargain Hunt). But recently, my DNS provider Smart DNS Proxy fixed the issue and Netflix US has started working again in Kuwait. According to their support page dating September 30th:

We have restored Netflix for many of our users and are working on getting everyone back ASAP. If you see a “United States 01-10” region here, give it a try! Browsers should work without any other changes, devices may need static routes setup.

So there you have it, if you want to use the US version of Netflix in Kuwait you can now do so again. It’s $4.99 a month for the proxy account and you can get it [Link]

Update: There seems to be a bit of confusion regarding Netflix US vs Netflix Kuwait. If you aren’t using a proxy, then you’re accessing Netflix Kuwait. It doesn’t matter if you have a Netflix US account with a US credit card, if you’re in Kuwait you’ll automatically access Netflix Kuwait. Netflix Kuwait and Netflix US look exactly the same, but the Netflix Kuwait library is a lot smaller. Here is a simple test to tell which Netflix you have. Search for the show “Lakefront Bargain Hunt”. If you have Netflix US it will show up, if you have Netflix Kuwait it will tell you not found.