Search: “kuwait”

From what I know it’s illegal to make/get permanent tattoos in Kuwait but I found a local tattoo artist based in Salmiya advertising his services with a banner on Facebook. Dude, tip #1: If you’re doing something illegal you shouldn’t be advertising it. [Link]

One of the rooms inside the House of Mirrors was a private library filled with old books dating back to the early 60s. Amongst the vintage Tell Me Why’s, one book grabbed my attention called The Kuwait Urbanization. It’s an old book published back in 1964 and it was filled with old sketches and photos of Kuwait. Near the end of the book I even spotted artists sketches from the competition to design the Kuwait waterfront (Gulf Road).

I checked online to see if I could buy the book but I couldn’t find it anywhere but luckily a follower of mine on Instagram had a PDF version which she was nice enough to email me. I’ve also decided it’s worth sharing this book with everyone so if you’re also interested in old Kuwait you can download the 166MB PDF file from [Here]

Twitter updated their 2012 user information request page and it turns out Kuwait did not request any data about any local users from Twitter last year. Actually the only Arab country to request user information was surprisingly Qatar. Check out the full list [Here]

via @Nibaq

Nearly as awkward as the Holiday Inn flash mob. [YouTube]

Last week I posted about how a tall metal fence was being constructed around Kuwait’s Constitution Monument. Well a reader who I presume is somehow connected to the project left a comment explaining why the decision to erect a fence was made:

Initially the monument and the garden hosting it were supposed to be opened to the public, as the garden was designed to tell a story, the story of the state of Kuwait before and after the constitution. The side of the garden as you enter it from the Tijaria tower represents the past, you`ll see only desert plants arranged in randomly and in groups, planted in sand, representing the tribes scattered over the deserted area of the country. Once you pass trough the monument, which represents the Kuwait Constitution (and which is actually built from titanium plates electroplated with bronze and the bronze blocks you see on the monument are representing the articles of the constitution, one block for each article) you enter the garden representing the present, on the right, and the future on the left. The fountain to the right has few vertical sprinklers representing the oil-wells. The flowers are representing the people of Kuwait (diversity of flowers for diversity of people) and a stream of water that goes to the roots of the monument is the symbol of the will of the people feeding/changing the constitution according to the modern needs. The left side has a mirror fountain, still water, beautiful flowers; is the future of Kuwait.

This is how the park was designed/imagined by the architect.

All those olive trees were brought from Italy and carefully selected to look almost the same in shape and height. Flowers have been brought from outside most of them. The marble used for pathways is also from Italy.

A lot of work/expensive materials/money have been invested in this project. It was supposed to be a place for leisure/ relaxation.

Few days after it was inaugurated flowers/plants were uprooted, stones and plants thrown in the water olive trees with broken branches and the disaster continued. Two times the plants/flowers were replanted with the same effect on people (uneducated / unsupervised kids mostly).

As so.. the decision to place a fence around this area has been taken very easy. This fence will be in place until the second phase of the project (rehabilitation of the entire park) will start/finish.
In conclusion, THAT fence is there because of the people (not drawing a conclusion that all people are the same so don`t jump with lame comments, who wants to understand what i mean will understand; see Mark`s article related to the Zoo) not because someone wanted to stop access of the people to the park. Hopefully one day will be open for everyone to see and admire.

With all the gun control talk that’s currently taking place in the States right now I thought this little bit of information was interesting. According to gunpolicy.org, the rate of private gun ownership in Kuwait is 24.82 firearms per 100 people. When I first heard that figure it sounded like a lot until I realized the rate in the US in comparison is 88.8 firearms per 100 people. But, confusingly, the rate of private gun ownership in Lebanon is just 21 per 100 people.

You can get a lot more information on gun numbers in Kuwait along with more facts and figures by checking the following [Link]

Creepstreams is a website that streams footage from certain models of Trendnet home security cameras from around the world that are known to have a security vulnerability. I just checked the website and noticed there is one camera in Kuwait that is currently streaming footage online without the owners knowledge. Sadly for us peeping toms the camera is located in what looks to be a paint shop. You can check it out [Here]

via The Verge

Update: Google has disabled the website

[YouTube]

The company Parente Fireworks who were part of the Kuwait Fireworks Guinness World Record have uploaded two “making of” videos onto YouTube. The first video on top contains some behind the scene shots including ones from the control room during the event. The video below on the other hand summarizes that actual fireworks event down to around 5 minutes.

[YouTube]

I just found out that Alghanim Automotive got a hold of the Honda brand in Kuwait. This should become official by the end of the month but the most exciting part of the news is the fact they’ll finally be bringing the Acura brand to Kuwait which means once the NSX (pictured above) gets released we should have it here as well.

If you’re into video games the video above is a bunch of interviews with some professional video game players on gamers in Kuwait. Not too exciting to watch unless you’re really into this. [YouTube]

The photo above taken by Mohammed Alsultan of the tire fire near the scrapyards made it on 500px’s Best of 2012: Journalism list. It’s a pretty fantastic photo. [Link]

Thanks Guru

Michel Hayek is an extremely popular fortune teller in Lebanon who comes on TV at the end of the year to share his predictions for the coming year. Embarrassingly, he’s so popular that according to him, 35% of the Lebanese politicians see him in private and most have started basing their decisions on his predictions.

Anyway, Michel Hayek has made a number of predictions about Kuwait I’ve listed below. Please don’t take these seriously:

– Kuwait’s Emir will be subjected to a few attacks and health problems
– A political crisis could lead to a siege around a highly symbolic and important building
– The earths crust displacement will result in cracks to a few buildings
– Kuwait’s mediation in a regional affair proves to be successful

So there you have it, Michel Hayek’s predictions for Kuwait. You can watch him read the predictions in Arabic on TV by following this [Link]

Thanks Najib

Gallup measured positive emotions in 148 countries and areas using the following five questions:

– Did you feel well-rested yesterday?
– Where you treated with respect all day yesterday?
– Did you smile or laugh a lot yesterday?
– Did you lear or do something interesting yesterday?
– Did you experience the following feelings during a lot of the day yesterday? How about enjoyment?

The percentage in Kuwait who answered yes to all the questions above was 79% placing Kuwait in 17th place. Impressive. [Link]

Thanks Othman

Qabaq shot the video above at the Kuwait Car Hydraulics Battle. The cars look great, too bad the video is really short. [Link]

According to Arabian Business, Apple will officially be launching the iPhone 5 in Kuwait and the GCC on December 14th. So if you were planning to purchase an iPhone 5, put it on hold until it’s officially out. My guess is the 16GB version will end up costing around KD220 when it’ officially launched here. [Link]