Search: “kuwait”

Yesterday was the first day of Auto Moto 15 thats taking place at 360 Mall. I passed by awhile ago and although the selection of cars wasn’t that great, I did leave satisfied. For one thing they have the Alfa Romeo 4C on display, I hadn’t seen that car live before and damn it looks ridiculously cool in person. They also had the Volkswagen XL1 which I posted about last month on display plus the Porsche 918 Spyder.

For Toyota fans, there was a TRD display but all the cars on display just looked really really tacky. If that wasn’t bad enough, turns out all the cars only had TRD cosmetic kits with no engine performances available.

If you’re a car fan it’s worth passing by. For more information click [Here]

Kuwait now expects to post its first deficit in two decades by 2017, Finance Minister Anas Al Saleh has reportedly told the Kuwaiti Parliament.
Al Saleh said the recent decline in oil prices, which account for about 90 percent of export revenues, would see Kuwait fall into the red sooner than the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s 2017-18 prediction, according to Kuwait Times. [Source]

The price of oil is currently under $40 and Kuwait needs it to be at $78 to pay all its bills and stay in the black. So can an expert tell me what it would mean for us if Kuwait ends up in the red? Does everything continue as it is while the government digs into its savings until the oil price goes back again? Or would some of the amenities like free health care stop to help cut down costs? Will this cause inflation?

Kuwait Airways have posted pictures of the interior of the new A320 plane they received last month. Kinda looks gloomy but that’s probably because the shots were taken at night and with a mobile phone. [Link]

Another busy weekend this week. Only one market taking place this time around and it’s the Marina Market. I went to it last week and it was disappointing so I’m hoping its going to better this weekend. Anyway, here are my personal picks; Thursday I’d hit up the rooftop movie while on Friday I’d do the Two Chefs and a Waitress Brunch followed by the air show and then Marina Market. Saturday I would do the K’S PATH Shelter Open Day (it’s great if you have children) followed by the rooftop movie in the evening. There is supposedly an air show Check out the full list of events taking place this weekend below:

Thursday
Exhibition: Al-Seef
Exhibition: The Replacement by Mahmoud Obaidi
Torch Sport & Health Event
Marina Market
Rooftop Movie: Before Sunrise

Friday
Torch Sport & Health Event
Marina Market
Two Chefs and a Waitress Brunch
Hala February Air Show
Cozmo Cades: Fifa 15
K’S PATH Beach Cleanup

Saturday
Torch Sport & Health Event
Marina Market
The Secret Garden Project
K’S PATH Shelter Open Day
Rooftop Movie: Killing Them Softly
Madeenah Tour: Ahmed Aljaber St.

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

Update: Added the Madeenah Tour on Saturday

I was on my way to the gym earlier tonight when I noticed a dazzling new light show being tested out on one of the towers. It looks really cool especially as you’re driving by it on the Gulf Road. I was going to say it’s probably for Hala February thinking it starts next month but then I remembered Hala February is actually Hala January since it started last week. While we are on the subject of Hala January, why isn’t there an English version of the website? [YouTube]

The past couple of weekends were fairly quiet but this weekend the events have picked up once again. Lots of things to do this weekend but here are my personal picks: The GulfRun Car Show at 360 Mall for sure, if you pass by on Friday or Saturday the Snodrops Market will be taking place alongside it so you’ll hit two birds with one stone. I’m also curious to visit the Marina Market as well since it’s the first time they’re holding it. On Saturday I’d start off the day with the Secret Garden Brunch and follow it up with the Madeenah Tour. Oh and I’d also recommend the rooftop movie Man on Wire as well for Saturday. For the full list of events taking place this weekend check out the list below:

Thursday
GulfRun Car Show
Marina Market
Rooftop Movie: Rosemary’s Baby

Friday
GulfRun Car Show
Snodrops Market
Marina Market

Saturday
GulfRun Car Show
Snodrops Market
Marina Market
The Secret Garden Brunch
TICA Cat Show
Guided Tour: Grand Mosque
Character Design Workshop with Thuraya Lynn
Madeenah Tour: A Kuwaiti Haven – Reinvention of Bneid Al Gar
Rooftop Movie: Man on Wire

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

Earlier tonight while in Doha I took an Uber cab and as I usually do I opened up a conversation with the driver. I love Uber so I’m always being nosy and asking the drivers questions about the service like how much interest Uber takes, how many hours they work and other Uber driver related questions.

Anyway we were talking about Uber in different countries in the region and he asked me about Uber in Kuwait and I told him we didn’t have it yet. He found that odd and asked me if I was sure. After convincing him that I was he told me two months back he picked up a women who told him she worked for Uber in Kuwait. I thought that was interesting. It would make sense if they did come to Kuwait since they’re already in Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Jeddah, Riyad, Manama and Beirut. Even though I have a car there are occasions where I’ve needed a cab and I just hated the fact that I need to negotiate with the drivers for a price because they didn’t want to turn their meters on.

The Kuwait national football team had to be escorted out of the Robina Stadium in Australia’s Gold Coast by police on Saturday after refusing to play a friendly against the UAE. According to sources, Kuwait took exception to the fact the Asian Cup warm-up game couldn’t be filmed by their technical staff and so abandoned the friendly match in protest. They stayed on the field for an impromptu training session instead. [Source]

Did I read that correctly? Because the game wasn’t going to be filmed the Kuwaiti team decided they didn’t want to play anymore? Kinda reminds me of a story my friend told me about this guy who goes to his gym. The guy always comes in, starts lifting some weight while taking selfies and then once he is done taking selfies he leaves the gym.

I mean I might be able to understand how a pigeon can sell for KD45,000 but what I can’t understand is why the venue in such poor shape. If I was throwing that much money around I’d expect a 5-star venue and I’d also probably store the pigeon in something fancier than a cardboard box. [YouTube]

BitFils is a startup based out of Kuwait and comprised of three engineers who worked for over a year to make this project happen. BitFils is a website that allows people in Kuwait to instantly purchase Bitcoins by paying directly with their Knet cards. If you’re interested in getting Bitcoin I can’t imagine a more user-friendly way. Check out their website [Here]

A friend sent me the video above of a Volkswagen XL1 at the local dealers garage. The XL1 is a hybrid car that costs around KD40,000 and is limited to only 250 units worldwide.

Definitely an eye turner since it looks like a car from the future. [YouTube]

Thanks Manae

Back in October I wrote about Keith Wells, a British journalist who was living in Kuwait back in the 70s. Keith used to work for Arab Times and in his spare time he also used to write books about Kuwait, including a witty series on a character named Wizr who was Kuwait’s greatest driver. Between 1979 and 1984, Keith released three Wizr books which I’m lucky enough to own all three. A few days ago Keith got in touch with me and I asked him if he could tell me how it all started. This is what he shared with me:

I originally wrote the stories for the Arab Times which became very popular. Then I met Peter McMahon at a party, and he hadn’t read any of the stories and asked, “Who is this Wizr character?” “I said, he’s the young, trendy Kuwaiti guy with the scarlet Transam with the eagle decal on the bonnet.’ So Peter picked up a sheet of paper,scribbled away for a minute or two, then held it out and asked “Him?” It was perfect. Thereafter we became close friends. I’d write a story, take it to his flat every Friday, and he’d give me the cartoon from the week before’s story. He somehow drew exactly what I’d imagined. The combination became very popular indeed and after a month or two we were approached by Tony Jashanmal, who owned a department store on Fahed Salem St, and Bashir Khatib, who owned the Kuwait Bookshop to publish a book full of the stories. We had a 3 way partnership to print the book at The Arab Times and Launched it at the British Embassy Garden Fete in November 1979, a week or so before I married Suzi. We sold 428 copies in about two hours… amazing.

We carried on for just over a year, then Peter was murdered by Saddam Hussein’s goons, long sad, sad story… but the upshot was that I sort of lost the fun, we put out the second Wizr book with cartoons we hadn’t used in the first one. And the third book with odd scraps and recycled pics. By then it was getting a bit heavy with the Iran Iraq War getting very dangerous and I left the Arab Times and took a very low profile job teaching at the university of Kuwait. After 4 years there I went back to the paper and wrote more stories with an Indian cartoonist called Edgar, but they were never collected in book form. I left Kuwait in June ’87. We emigrated to Oz in Oct 1989, and the following March I had a massive heart attack in a small town in southern Queensland. After recovering, we spent the rest of our working lives doing PhDs in Communication Studies, and setting up Comm Depts in various universities and colleges in Macau, Singapore, Morocco, The Bahamas and Puerto Rico.

I’ve been a bit of a hermit since retiring in ’07, but am beginning to re-emerge and was very surprised and grateful for the interest in Wizr and Dozi and his pals. Someone told me a few years ago that the fabulous cartoon of Dozi with the two rubber stamps “PERHAPS” and “PERHAPS NOT” is to be found in many offices to this day. Peter would have loved that.

– Keith Wells

The Qatar Digital Library have published an article about a scandal in Kuwait in the 1930s when one restaurant was accused of using cat meat instead of mutton. It’s an interesting read and it also sounds like an incident that could take place today. Kuwait really hasn’t changed much. [Link]

This postcard picture is from the 1960s. Kids celebrating Christmas with Santa Claus near Al Jahra gate and Ministry of Finance in Fahad Alsalem Street. – via @abdullahalkhonaini

A few weeks back I got tagged in an Instagram account of a mother that was hand making Christmas ornaments. The post stated the following: “All Christmas related orders will not be accepted as my family and I are being threatened.” Turns out the mother was getting threats by an Islamic fundamentalist.

This reminded my of an incident I had to personally deal with when it came to q8books. Last year we publicized a “Spooky Book Night” writing competition during Halloween. The purpose of the competition was to get young adults to be creative and express themselves and although a good amount of school students took part and enjoyed it, I started getting threats by email, non-stop. They claimed that they will not support the bookstore anymore and that celebrating a western day is illegal according to commercial law. Funnily enough they didn’t know I was a commercial lawyer at the time and I had never heard of any such laws. So I respectively answered back asking them to highlight laws in question and also giving each one of them a free voucher for books (I honestly thought those people needed to be educated more).

Anyways what I am trying to say is that these people are intolerant and have no legal basis. Kuwait is a civil country and there is no commercial law that makes celebrating Christmas illegal. Also the Kuwaiti constitution clearly states that we all have freedom of belief so its such a shame that I have to write about such issues. I honestly do not understand how celebrating other religions is an offense to Islam. Just keep in mind people of different religions come to Kuwait and give back to our community, they leave their families and its not easy for them. They deserve to celebrate their believes. Be kind, be tolerant, respect others and don’t just repeat what other people are saying without taking a minute to think about it yourself. I sincerely apologize that I have been preaching of late, Merry Christmas to my Christian brothers and sisters and happy new year to all of you.

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 annanounce 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.

According to a tweet by Al Arabiya News Channel, expats in Kuwait can now own 100% share in a company without the need for a Kuwaiti partner. I am not sure how accurate this information is since I haven’t been able to find a second source but Al Arabiya is considered a reliable source. I’m not going to pop open the non alcoholic champagne bottle just yet though, not until it’s officially announced somewhere else. [Link]