Search: “kuwait”

The new Kuwait University building under construction caught fire again earlier today for the second time this month. Pretty weird.

Thanks Mohsin

A few days ago Jordan defeated Kuwait 21-0 in the Women’s Asian Cup qualifying. This comes after Kuwait lost to Uzbekistan 18-0 in the first qualifying round. You can watch all 21 goals in the “4 minute long” highlight reel above. [YouTube]

According to a source of mine, Dr. Oz is coming to Kuwait at the end of summer for a nutrition related event. For those of you who don’t know, Dr. Oz is a doctor who has a television talk show called The Dr. Oz Show in which he discusses medical and science related topics. The video above is an example taken from one of his episodes. [YouTube]

The 2012 Corruption Perceptions Index is out and Kuwait has dropped down a few places over the previous year. Kuwait is now ranked in 66 place when it was previously ranked in 54. Qatar and UAE are both tied in 27th place as the least corrupt countries in the GCC. You can check out the full list [Here]

Thanks Patrick

There’s a funny Reddit post called “If Kuwaiti companies had realistic slogans what would they be?” and some of the suggestions are pretty funny. The post only has 18 comments so far but here are some of my favorites:

Cinescape: more money less movie
QualityNet: Restart all your problems
Zain: Don’t ask, just pay
Souq Sharq: We used to be the avenues
Caesars Confectionary: More addictive than heroin-infused crack!

You can check out the post on Reddit [Here]
If you have a realistic slogan leave it in the comments below.

Update: Here are some more good ones

Xcite: 1080p prices for 720p resolution!
IHOP: I’m sorry, we’re all out of that meat today, please choose another
Camp Arifjan PX: We sell Bacon, nuff said
6alabat: Inshallah you get food
360 Mall: We’re kind of like the Avenues
Maki: Got Mayo?
Kuwait Immigration: GTFO
Benihana: Experience the Original, but our lawyer will be contacting you soon
VIVA: upto 42mbps when network available
The Avenues: Lucky to leave alive

The Economist have an article on smoking and how even with all the warnings on the packets and the increase in knowledge that smoking is bad for you, in some countries smoking is still on the rise. Kuwait happens to be one of those countries. We’re definitely not nearly as bad as Myanmar and Lebanon but still bad enough to warrant a position on their chart above. Check out the full article [Here]

Thanks Narain

A fire that caught a Kuwait University (KU) facility early on Saturday has been quenched, a university official said.

Firemen responded immediately to a call from Kuwait University warning that there was a fire at an under­ construction KU building, and managed to put the conflagration under control within a record time, Dr. Rana Al­ Fares, the chief of the construction program of the Sabah Al­Salem University City, said in news remarks.

The fire initially caught the 8­000­sqm College of Education for Girls and then moved to the 9,000­sqm nearby College of Arts for Girls due to winds, she said. [Source]

The fire looked huge I’m surprised they were able to put it out by evening time. [YouTube]

How much are your body parts worth in Kuwait? From a legal perspective and a legal perspective only, according to the Decree on the Regulation of the Table of Blood Money (DIYAH):

If someone hurts you by mistake with no criminal intent then they pay you the amounts listed below. If someone hurts you with criminal intent, then they pay the amounts listed below in addition to also getting punished for the crime.

Just a small note, the body parts add up. Death is actually cheaper than breaking an arm, a leg and losing an eye. Some animals cost more than KD10,000 so you would think a human life would be worth more.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected]

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.

I’m not really a musical fan, actually before tonight I don’t think I’ve ever been to a musical in my life. I’m still not a fan of musicals but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the performance tonight by the Kuwait Little Theatre. Right now they have Grease running and as of this post they still had one day left where tickets weren’t sold out.

If you’ve never been to a KLT show before you should, they have some really great performers and Grease was pretty fun to watch. If you want to book tickets visit their website [Here]

Note: You’ll probably wanna pass by Johnny Rockets when done.

Kuwait Airways plane, bound to Cairo, has returned after taking off from Kuwait International Airport due to technical error on Monday, the state-­run carrier said.

The captain of the airplane discovered a technical error after taking off and returned to the airport in line with international standards, Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) public relations and media director Khaled Al-­Khulaifi said.

The captain dumped some of the fuel to decrease the weight of the plane, a well-­known procedure in such cases, landed normally and all passengers left the plane, Al-­Khulaifi said in a statement to KUNA.

The passengers were well received by the ground staff until an alternative plane is provided, he added. [Source]

The video above was taken by one of the passengers showing the fuel dump. [YouTube]

The hacker group Anonymous released a video a few days back stating they were planning to attack a number of countries including Kuwait on June 20th. Why? Because oil is sold with the dollar and Saudi Arabia has betrayed Muslims with their cooperation. No idea what their strike would encompass but most likely they’ll be bringing down all the oil related websites. Check out the video they released above. [YouTube]

You can now order Abercrombie & Fitch gear directly from their official website. Previously they wouldn’t accept Kuwaiti credit cards but now they do and they also ship directly to Kuwait. I just got my first box filled with goodies today. I paid using my Kuwait based credit card but had the box shipped to my Aramex mailbox instead of directly to Kuwait just because I actually wanted my stuff to get here sometime before summer was over. Here is a link to their [Website]

Update: Just found out if you actually ship the stuff directly to Kuwait they ship it door to door using FedEx and for only $10. That’s ridiculously cheap and much more efficient than shipping it to Aramex (I paid KD15 for shipping).

(Reuters) – State-run Kuwait Airways will spend 850 million dinars ($2.98 billion) on 25 new Airbus jets and aims to lease a further 13 to upgrade its ageing fleet, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported on Sunday. [Source]

The planes will consist of 10 wide-bodied A350-900 jets and 15 of the slimmer A320neo. No A380’s so I guess the “Ya Kuwait Airways naby A380” campaign didn’t do so well.

Thanks Salem
Picture above is Kuwait Airways in the 70s

It’s a project by Google, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), NASA and TIME. If you click the link at the end of this post you’ll be taken to an animation showing how Kuwait has progressed from 1984 up until 2012. You’ll mostly notice how more and more buildings got built but the roads basically stayed the same which is why we have so much traffic problems. Here is the [Link]

It’s been a while since my last post and since then I’ve gotten a lot of questions and rent was one of the most popular topics. That’s why I decided to put together a small FAQ on rent which you can take a look at below.

(All questions were answered according to rent law 35 for year 1978)

I have been living in my apartment for 3 years; can my landlord increase my rent?

No your landlord cannot increase rent. A landlord can only increase rent in the following situations:
1) If the tenant agrees to the proposed increase
2) Its been 5 years and the contract has ended (rule is once every 5 years)
3) The rent is 50% less than the market price

My landlord says he wants to increase the rent because he wants to do maintenance work? Does he have the right to do that?

No since the landlord is responsible for any maintenance and not the tenants.

I have a rental contract for 1 year but I’ve been living in the apartment for 18 months and the contract was never renewed. Now the landlord wants to kick me out. I know I have overstayed but do I have to leave immediately?

No in this situation he cannot kick you out but he can inform you to leave while giving you a grace period.
By law, if your rent contract ends and you continue living there then it renews by default for the same time of rent pay. Huh? What? Lawyers and there confusing terms… Simply put, if you pay rent on a monthly basis (which is how the majority of people pay rent in Kuwait) then your contract will renew automatically for a month at a time. If you paid rent every three months, then it will renew for 3 months, if you paid rent every 6 months your rent will renew every 6 months and so on.

What is the grace period?

Grace periods are only for when contracts renew by default (as explained above) and they depend on how often you pay your rent.

When can you really get kicked out? (with no grace period)

Reasons a landlord can kick you out are (for residencies and not commercial contracts)
1) If tenant hasn’t paid rent
2) If the tenant rents out the residency to a third person without permission
3) If the residence is being used for illegal activities
4) If the building is no longer structurally safe
5) If the landlord wants to rebuild the building or reconstruct it. There are a lot of variables for this one which I won’t get into.

My American friends can rent an apartment without a marriage certificate but I can’t seem to do the same? Do different citizens get treated differently in Kuwait by law?

Nationalities are not mentioned in the law so the law doesn’t talk about one nationality being treated differently than another (unless its Kuwaiti but that’s not in the rent laws), and therefore it is very disappointing to see that this kind of discrimination is being implemented in Kuwait.

Marriage certificates are also not mentioned in the law and my guess and only guess is that they ask for marriage certificates because unmarried couples might possibly engage in illegal sexual activities. The law restricts apartments from being used for illegal activities and sexual activity between two unmarried couples is considered illegal by law.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected]

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.