Search: “kuwait”

A friend of mine read my post from yesterday and sent me the link below this morning that is basically a list of all the Kuwait traffic laws in English. I went through the list to see if there was anything mentioning car lifts but didn’t find anything about it. But, there are a lot of laws that are too generic and could mean anything and I’m willing to bet because of that, everyone here is breaking at least one law from this list. If you want to view or download the PDF, click [Here]

Thanks Musaed

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

New This Week:
Blair Witch (6.0)
Snowden (6.2) ♦

Other Movies Showing:
Antboy 3 (5.5)
Ben-Hur (5.6)
Blood Father (7.0)
Don’t Breathe (8.3) ♦
Kickboxer: Vengeance (5.2) ★ ♦
Kill Zone 2 (6.7)
Lights Out (6.7)
Mechanic: Resurrection (6.5)
Pete’s Dragon (7.3)
Sully (7.9)
The Secret Life of Pets (6.8)

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

Over the weekend, Kuwaiti athlete Ahmad Al-Mutairi came first in the men’s 100m athletics race at the Rio 2016 Paralympics. Not only did he come first but he also broke the Paralympics record while doing so. This means Ahmad Al-Mutairi currently holds both the Paralympics and world record for the Men’s 100m – T33 event.

Ahmed broke the world record last year in Doha during the IPC Athletics World Championships and at the age of 22, is currently the youngest Kuwaiti athlete taking part in the Rio 2016 Paralympics.

In total there are currently 6 Kuwaitis taking part in the Rio 2016 Paralympics:

Abdullah Al Saif (Athletics)
Ahmad Al Mutairi (Athletics)
Atef Aldousari (Shooting)
Hamad Aladwani (Athletics)
Mohammad Nasser (Athletics)
Naser Saleh (Athletics)

You can get more details as well as their full event schedule from the Rio Paralympics website [Here]

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

New This Week:
Antboy 3 (5.5)
Ben-Hur (5.6)
Hands of Stone (6.6) ★ ♦
Kickboxer: Vengeance (5.2) ★ ♦
Kill Zone 2 (6.7)
Pete’s Dragon (7.3)
Sully (7.9)

Other Movies Showing:
Blood Father (7.0)
Don’t Breathe (8.3) ♦
Kubo and the Two Strings (8.4)
Mechanic: Resurrection (6.5)
Morgan (6.5)
Skiptrace (6.5)
The Secret Life of Pets (6.8)
War Dogs (7.3) ★ ♦

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

The hockey season is going to start soon and the Kuwait Mooseheads Ice Hockey Team are looking for new members. If you can ice skate and play hockey then this is for you:

“Looking for something fun, active and social? Miss those days at the rink? Well you’re in luck, the Kuwait Mooseheads hockey club is looking for new members to join us for our weekly scrimmages. We play twice a week at the ice rink next to Discovery Mall. The club also takes part in international tournaments throughout the year. Full equipment is required, and experience is necessary. Please contact Graham at [email protected]

Last week I posted about the Expat Insider survey that revealed Kuwait as the “Worst Country for Expats“. A lot of people agreed with the findings but a lot of people were also up in arms about it. But, I don’t think many people actually took the time to go through the survey and understand how Kuwait ended up at the bottom of the list. So what I’ve done is create a cheat sheet of a sort. I went through the 188 pages of the survey and picked out all the areas were Kuwait performed the worst in and I’ve listed them below. Once you see the breakdown the whole thing starts to make a lot more sense.

A year ago today, I posted about my trip into the middle of the desert so I could meet Abdulai Shani, a teacher from Ghana who came to Kuwait with the promise of being a security guard, only to find out once he arrived that he would be a shepherd and earn a 1/3 of what he was told he would get. It was a sad story but one that ended on a happy note since thanks to one of my readers, Abdulai got a much better job working and living in the city far away from the desert and his shabby tent.

Since it’s been a year I figured I’d post a quick follow up on Abdulai’s current status. We still chat every few months and when we last spoke a couple of weeks ago he was still working the same job but instead of living in Mahboula he nows lives in Salmiya. He’s happy and continues to check the blog often and even leaves comments every now and then.

If you’ve missed the previous two posts on Abdulai, here are the links:
From Ghana to Kuwait, One Man’s Story
From Ghana to Kuwait, to Mahboula

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

New This Week:
Blood Father (7.0)
Hell or High Water (8.3) ♦
Kubo and the Two Strings (8.4)
Morgan (6.5)
Nine Lives (4.2)

Other Movies Showing:
Don’t Breathe (8.3) ♦
Genius (6.8) ♦
Free State of Jones (6.7) ★ ♦
Mechanic: Resurrection (6.5)
Skiptrace (6.5)
Suicide Squad (8.2) ♦
The BFG (6.8)
The Legend Of Tarzan (6.7) ♦
The Secret Life of Pets (6.8)
War Dogs (7.3) ★ ♦

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

A new study has revealed that Taiwan is the best country in the world for expats, while Kuwait is the worst. The results come from a report by the online expat community InterNations, which looks at everything from quality of life and personal finance, to job satisfaction and ease of settling indices. [Source]

Things should improve once Chick-fil-A opens up.

Update: This is the source of the DailyMail article [Link]

According to an email I received, last week Al Sayer signed a deal to bring the fast food franchise Chick-fil-A to Kuwait (and I’m guessing the region). Al Sayer recently brought Five Guys to Kuwait so I wouldn’t be too surprised if this information turned out to be true. A chicken franchise seems to go hand in hand with a burger one, Americana have Hardees and KFC, Alshaya have Shake Shack and Cane’s Chicken, and Al Sayer will end up with Five Guys and Chick-fil-A. I’ve gotten in touch with my contact at Al Sayer to confirm this information but haven’t heard back from him yet.

Back in 2012 there were rumors Alshaya were in talks to bring Chick-fil-A to the region but the deal fell through. Supposedly one of the terms they couldn’t agree on was the fact that Chick-fil-A wanted to close on Sundays (they’re a very Christian company). Alshaya was trying to convince them to change that rule for the region but Chick-fil-A wasn’t backing down and the deal fell apart.

If Al Sayer do manage to bring Chick-fil-A to the region that would be a pretty amazing accomplishment. Not only does Chick-fil-A only exist in the US at the moment but the way they run their franchises is different from others. For example Chick-fil-A franchise owners generally aren’t allowed to own more than one or two branches in the States so that they can give it all their attention. So handing the reigns to another company to open up as many branches as they wish would be an unusualstep for them. I hope they are coming though since I love their food and I’ve had great experiences at their restaurants which were all super clean and had great service.

Update: Just got a pretty aggressive call a few moments ago from Al Sayer Franchising relating to this post. According to the person I spoke to at Al Sayer Franchising, this is the first they hear about a deal with Chick-fil-A. I’ll not go into too much details relating to the phone call, but I will say it wasn’t the kind of professionalism I was expecting from them.

Now just a bit of perspective on this situation. If by any chance the deal with Chick-fil-A was signed last week with Al Sayer, that information would take time before trickling down the chain of command. So it could still very well be true that Al Sayer acquired the franchise or signed some sort of preliminary agreement but have yet to let everyone internally know. In any case, they are denying this information to be true.

Staged in Kuwait are getting ready to start their 5th season, continuing the long legacy of community theatre in Kuwait that started in 1948 out in Ahmadi at The Kuwait Little Theatre. New season means new tryouts and Staged in Kuwait are holding ones for their choir and comedy teams as well as auditions for this years pantomime. If you’re interested to be part of this talented team, follow the links below:

Sing with Kuwait’s Contemporary Show Choir
Come Try Out for the SIK Comedy Team
Panto Auditions

Every now and then I try to invite new writers to the blog to write about stuff which I myself wouldn’t be able to do. Al Busal is going to be a new series of posts by a really creative and funny friend of mine who will go by the anonymous nickname Holla. I met Holla years ago through my blog, he used to leave the most ridiculous comments and I just had to meet him in person. We ended up becoming friends and even worked together for a short while.

Since the moment I met him I’ve been trying to figure out how to put his talent into use and then over dinner last week I figured it out. We were poking fun out of some local stories from the English papers and how some of the stuff sounds so ridiculous they might as well be in The Onion, and thats when I realized, Holla would be the perfect guy to create local satirical posts in style of The Onion. The name Al Busal is the Arabic translation of The Onion and just like The Onion, these posts in no way should be taken seriously. His first post is already up, check it out [Below]

The vlogger highlighting our local cosplay scene is Tali xoxo, a popular Canadian cosplayer who was in Kuwait for the last gaming expo. [YouTube]

Thanks alniniofanclub

The Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) retracted its plan to build a nuclear power plant, as Kuwait had planned earlier to obtain a license from the UN in this regard. MEW said its decision to scrap the project was because studies proved it was unfeasible and of high cost, in addition to having alternative projects that are better in production and cost such as solar energy and wind. An official said Kuwait needs water desalination stations, but as for power stations, plans provide for several stations. Some of them will be built soon, and some between 2020 and 2030. [Source]

Back in 2010 the Ministry of Electricity had stated Kuwait was going to build four nuclear reactors and they would be up and running by 2022. But then in 2012 after the Fukushima disaster those plans got scrapped. So no idea why they’ve just announced it again that they’re scrapping their nuclear plans, unless somewhere between 2012 and 2016 they had reinstated the plan.

In any case, solar should have been the priority in the first place and our neighbors UAE are already ahead of the game in the region with their Shams Solar Power Station (pictured above and video below) which is one of the largest solar power plants in the world.

Update: Just a few figures to help you understand why Kuwait looked at nuclear power plants to begin with.

– Kuwait consumes around 13,000MW of electricity
– The new Shamal Al Zour Al Oula gas power station in the north of Kuwait that is under construction will produce 1,500MW when complete
– The Shams Solar Power Station in the UAE produces 100MW
– The Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in the USA is the largest solar station in the world and it produces 392MW
– The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Japan is the largest in the world and produces 7,965 MW

So one nuclear power plant could supply more than 60% of Kuwait’s power needs while the largest solar station would supply just 3%.

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

New This Week:
Don’t Breathe (8.3) ♦
Genius (6.8) ♦
Hunt for the Wilderpeople (8.4)
Life on the Line (5.1)
Mechanic: Resurrection (6.5)
Monkey King: Hero Is Back (7.3)
War Dogs (7.3) ★ ♦

Other Movies Showing:
Free State of Jones (6.7) ★ ♦
Jason Bourne (8.3)
Rabid Dogs (5.6)
Riot (5.2)
Skiptrace (6.5)
Suicide Squad (8.2) ♦
The BFG (6.8)
The Conjuring 2 (7.8)
The Legend Of Tarzan (6.7) ♦
The Secret Life of Pets (6.8)

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