Search: “kuwait”

The largest marina in Kuwait is opening on April 16th at Sabah Al-Ahmad Sea City. The marina can hold 410 boats and the video above is a cheese commercial for it. The last scene where the group on the yacht cheer with water bottles is priceless. [YouTube]

“Choose the one you want,” says one agent with a smile. “I will give you a hundred days’ guarantee. If you don’t like her you can send her back.”

The Guardian published an article two days ago on the treatment of domestic workers in Kuwait, specifically ones from Sierra Leone. They compared it to slavery with every right to do so. One interesting fact the article highlighted is that nearly 90% of Kuwaiti households employ at least one foreign maid. That’s just an insane figure. Check out the full article on The Guardian [Here]

Also Fajer the Lawyer previously posted on Domestic Workers Rights [Here] in case you missed it.

Thanks Laila

Another busy weekend but my personal picks are The Spring Bazaar for tonight followed by The Spring Comedy Show if it isn’t sold out. Tomorrow I’d pass by Open Mic at Bayt Lothan and finally on Saturday I would pass by the last Qout Market of the season which is going to be held in the evening this time around. Check out the full list of events below:

Thursday
Exhibition: A Wonderful World Under Construction
Kuwait Dino Park
The Spring Bazaar
The IBAK-PROSPORTS Badminton Challenge Cup
The Cube Market
Rooftop Movie: Forks Over Knives
The Spring Comedy Show
MILSIM Failaka

Friday
Kuwait Dino Park
The IBAK-PROSPORTS Badminton Challenge Cup
The Cube Market
Book Club Meeting
Open Mic
Play: The Glass Menagerie
Culinary Event: Pasta Pronto

Saturday
Kuwait Dino Park
The Cube Market
Qout Market
Play: Love Letters
Rooftop Movie: Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]

No idea who Raising Cane’s are honestly but I just read that Alshaya decided to bring them to the Middle East. I’m guessing Alshaya probably wanted to bring a chicken franchise to the region and Chick-fil-A would have been too controversial so they ended up with Raising Cane’s. According to the article, Raising Cane’s will open their first location in Avenues this July (probably at the recently closed Olive Garden or Red Lobster locations. [Link]

Thanks James

This past weekend Harley Davidson sent me to Lebanon for a bike ride as part of a media trip. They took care of my airline ticket and I hadn’t noticed until the very last minute that they had booked Kuwait Airways for me. If I had noticed earlier I would have obviously requested to change my flight to MEA but it was too late to change the ticket and I was stuck flying Kuwait Airways.

While checking in at the airport I asked if I was flying a new plane and turns out I was. I still wasn’t too thrilled about flying on the new planes because based on the photos Kuwait Airways had published in their instagram account (here and here), the new planes looked outdated, ugly and gloomy. Not sure why Kuwait Airways posted those horrible pictures but turns out they’re misleading and not an accurate representation of how the planes actually look like.

When I got onboard the new plane I was completely taken a back by how nice and bright the interior was. In the photos on the Kuwait Airways instagram account, the chairs looked dark and the walls and ceiling had a dull grey tone but in reality, the blues were vibrant and the walls and ceiling were bright and light colored. I sat down in my seat and noticed I had really good legroom as well, so far I was really impressed. I started flipping through the media center checking it out while the passenger next to me plugged in a USB stick with movies and started watching something. This is a completely new Kuwait Airways and I was liking it.

I flew both ways with the new Kuwait Airways plane and honestly I think the planes are better than the MEA ones which I normally fly with to Lebanon. There was even internet onboard the Kuwait Airways plane which I tried out on the way back ($10 for 30mins, $20 for 1 hour and $40 for 3 hours). Even the food wasn’t too bad at all and because no one flies Kuwait Airways, the plane wasn’t very packed making the experience even more enjoyable.

[YouTube]

I did have an issue though and it was with the flight attendants. When I headed to the bathroom at the back of the plane while we were flying, I noticed one of the flight attendants was sitting in a passenger seat with the headphones on watching a movie. I thought that was pretty unprofessional. Another incident which also showed a lack of professionalism, when we landed and the plane was still on the runway heading towards our parking spot, a passenger got up from his seat and started getting his bag from the overhead compartment. Instead of the Kuwait Airways flight attendant telling the man to sit back down she got up and walked over to him and helped him carry his bag down from the overhead compartment. Then other people started getting up to get their overhead bags while the plane was still moving. Total chaos and I though it was ridiculous that the flight attendants weren’t telling the passengers to stay seated until the plane stopped. But then again this was Kuwait Airways. Although everything does look new, modern and up to date, end of the day this is still the same airline and the flight attendants are a reminder of that.

Putting aside my issue with the flight attendants I actually had a great experience with Kuwait Airways. In fact I would choose Kuwait Airways over MEA in a heart beat if the Kuwait Airways flight wasn’t an hour longer (they don’t fly over Syria, Jordan or Israel so they take a big detour). I thought the in-flight entertainment system had more than enough entertainment for the 3 hour flight, I found the seats comfortable, the legroom was great and my overall experience was very positive. The only thing I would say though is that they can update all their planes as much as they want, they can get the new A380s even and have onboard showers but that’s not going to be enough to move the airline forward unless the employees get retrained and their professionalism reestablished. And I’m not talking about just the onboard flight attendants but every employee you interact with from the minute you checkin to the last Kuwait Airways employee you see should reflect this new and improved Kuwait Airways. Other than that they’re off to a pretty good start.

A reader posted the following story in the community forum and I figured I would share it here as is:

It was a routine day with a regular issue “I didn’t receive my registered mail”. I bought an item and that was shipping via registered mail from Singapore; status is showing that it has reached Kuwait on 10th of March and today was 24-March-2015.

During this gap from 10 to 24, I’ve been to Kaifan Central Post Office, Abu Halifa post office, KOC post office Ahmadi and Ahmadi Post office 3 Times.

Long story short either I was told to go to my area post office which is Ahmadi or simply “Maa Fi” and waived away. During my 3 visits to Ahmadi post office; I heard it a lot “Maa Fi” and few times that it didn’t came.

Luckily one day I was surfing net for any possible help or solution, I came to Ministry of Communication “Postal Sector” Site; on that page is a picture of Asst. Undersecretary and link to the site which is in Arabic and contains some basic info.

Site: https://moc.kw/English/post.html

Randomly I sent a text to Asst. undersecretary Engineer Meiagib Nasser Al-Dossary, and after 45 minutes I got a mobile call from Airport Post office, that guy asked my tracking number and found it in less than two minutes saying that “We received it back from your area Post Office” and you will receive it after 2 days from your own area.

I didn’t almost believed that, kind of shock that a mail I’m searching can be found so easily. I got a call from another guy and asked me same details and asked about problems I faced at area Post Office. I told him that they have found it at airport “returned”.

I believe all thanks to Mr. Meiagib Nasser Al-Dossary (Asst. Undersecretary). After those two calls, I got a call from him “sorry for delay and in future if I need any postal help I can contact him”; that felt very nice.

To check that further, I spread the word out of this help and asked my friends (who are also waiting for their registered mail) to contact him and results was again the same. He was helpful and guided them to write person.

I believe Mr. Meiagib is kind enough to let anyone contact him for help and solve the issues.

It surely can be one of the good things in Kuwait. I hope anyone get help from this incident.

I have a package that I need to pick up this week from the post office, should be routine but we’ll see how it goes.

Photo by Mathai

The weather is great at the moment and there are a lot of outdoor events taking place this weekend. Cinemagics has two great outdoor movies they’re showing this week, Boyhood and Looper. I’ve watched both and they were really entertaining with Boyhood also being epic. There are also two markets taking place this weekend, Discovery Mall has one called Future Entrepreneurs while 360 Mall has one called The Hits. Putting their weird names aside, both markets should prove to be entertaining. Lots more stuff taking place as well, check out the full list below:

Thursday
Exhibition: Al-Seef
Exhibition: A Wonderful World Under Construction
Kuwait Dino Park
Solar Impulse – Photo Exhibition
Rooftop Movie: Boyhood

Friday
Kuwait Dino Park
Solar Impulse – Photo Exhibition
Future Entrepreneurs Market
The Hits Market
X 1.0 Entertainment Show

Saturday
Kuwait Dino Park
Solar Impulse – Photo Exhibition
Future Entrepreneurs Market
The Hits Market
Operation Hope Yard Sale
#INeedMySpace
K’S PATH Treasure Hunt Event
Earth Hour
Rooftop Movie: Looper
The Sound Social

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]

The popular website Vice have featured Kuwait again, this time in a negative light since they highlight the illegal wild animals people in Kuwait are keeping as pets. The video is nearly half an hour long and features interviews with some of the owners and traders of exotic pets. Hopefully now that this video is out authorities will take action and confiscate the animals but I highly doubt anything will come of it. Truly embarrassing. [YouTube]

Thanks Habib

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo… [YouTube]

Every weekend seems to be busier than the weekend before. Lots of cool things this week, my personal picks are the musical Nunsense (if tickets are still available), the Kuwait Bike Show, and the Street Fest market. Check out the full list of weekend events below:

Thursday
Exhibition: Al-Seef
Exhibition: A Wonderful World Under Construction
Kuwait Dino Park
Theatrical Performance “Min Hawa Al Andalus”
Musical: Nunsense
Kuwait Bike Show 2015
Rooftop Movie: Macbeth

Friday
Kuwait Dino Park
Theatrical Performance “Min Hawa Al Andalus”
Musical: Nunsense
Kuwait Bike Show 2015
The Second International Volleyball Tournament
Street Fest
Book Club Meeting

Saturday
Kuwait Dino Park
Theatrical Performance “Min Hawa Al Andalus”
Street Fest
Dhow Sunset Dinner Cruise
Acting Workshop With Colette Dalal Tchantcho
Rooftop Movie: A Prophet
Let’s Go Forward Mishref Run
Kuwait Motocross Championship

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]

Some of you might have read about the world’s first penile transplant that took place a few days ago. What you might not know is that one of the doctors who assisted in the surgery was a Kuwaiti (Dr Tallal AlQaoud). At first I was going to post about this myself but then realized it would make a lot more sense to have one of my friends who is an extremely talented surgeon himself and who has worked with Dr Tallal write the post instead. This is what he had to say about the surgery:

Kuwaiti Doctor Assists in World’s First Penile Transplant
As you may have read on reddit and pretty much everywhere else, surgeons in South Africa’s Stellenbosch University and Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town have performed the first successful penile transplant recorded in history. It was performed by Professor André Van der Merwe and a team of urological surgeons.

This may not seem very significant unless you live in country where 500 men die every year from ritual circumcisions gone wrong but this is in fact a major breakthrough.

For urological surgeons restoring erectile function, urinary function and blood flow after a patient has had a penile amputation (due to trauma or cancer) is not difficult, it’s pretty much a pipe dream. To illustrate the point, the team based their methods on lessons learned from facial transplants and with the same level of complexity.

What you may not know is the story of the guy on the right bottom corner of the photo. That young surgeon is Dr Tallal AlQaoud; a Kuwaiti resident at McGill University.

While many people in our field first fall in love it for the competition, prestige or financial prospects, it’s a rare thing to see someone who is actually willing to train himself in surgery like an athlete would for the olympics.

Dr AlQaoud jumped into medicine after graduating from NES (Yes, the New English School). He went on to do his undergraduate degree in the UK and eventually returned to do his internship in Kuwait. After finishing his internship in Kuwait he felt the need to learn how to do research and build a solid knowledge of his field so he did a masters in the UK sacrificing a whole year of operating. He then went on to do a surgical residency at Mcgill and took time off to join Professor Van der Merwe’s team in South Africa.

It’s very rare that you get to meet a person like Tallal, when he could be learning the basics of his specialty he chose to concentrate on the academic aspect of his field and published industry leading journals, when he could have specialized in Kuwait or in England. Instead he chose to go further afield and train in North America where he was exposed everything from surgical robotics to transplantation. When he could have been enjoying ski season in Quebec, he chose to operate voluntarily in Cape Town. Then there was that time he had a Friday night off and decided to join me in an emergency surgery taking out a guys colon at midnight; but that’s a story for another day.

He is truly a person who has chosen a road less travelled and one of the rare occasions where Kuwait has made it’s mark on the history of medicine.

As much as I’d like to have interviewed him for this story or tried to promote him on it, he never had an instagram account, a blog and I’m pretty sure he’s forgotten his Facebook password. His response to me on whatsapp are in this post. I am indeed honoured to say I scrubbed in with a Kuwaiti who made it to the history books.

– Post by Saud, a Kuwaiti doctor living and working/training in Montreal. Twitter: @saudnz

I passed by the Kuwait Airways Building in Kuwait City last night and noticed it was getting demolished. The new building that will replace it is pictured above (right) and looks like your typical lets build the ugliest and cheapest looking skyscraper we can. Kuwait City would look so much more prettier if all the buildings looked like KIPCO Tower or even the smaller Mazaya and KPT Towers.

The website Open Signal has posted interesting numbers regarding the state of LTE around the world. Kuwait for example turns out has the third highest time spent on LTE networks but also has the second slowest LTE internet connection compared to everybody else. Check out the full report [Here]

Thanks Haneyl

Here’s the list of events taking place this weekend. The two I’m looking forward to are The Secret Garden Brunch and the Bark in the Park Carnival. Check out the full list below:

Thursday
Exhibition: Al-Seef
Exhibition: A Wonderful World Under Construction
Kuwait Dino Park
The Poppies Of Palestine Film Festival
Mothers’ Day Exhibition

Friday
Kuwait Dino Park
Mothers’ Day Exhibition
Go Wacko Youth Camp 1
The New Spring Bazaar

Saturday
Kuwait Dino Park
The Poppies Of Palestine Film Festival
Mothers’ Day Exhibition
Global Art Forum in Kuwait
Opera at the Radisson Blu
Guided Tour: Ajmal Stud Farm
The Secret Garden Brunch
Bark in the Park Carnival
Migrant Writes

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]

Some spectacular footage of Kuwait in this video with my favorites being the first wide shot of Hamra Tower (pictured below) as well as the marshes. Doesn’t look like Kuwait. [Vimeo]