Search: “kuwait”

Back in April, I posted about the difficult to find book “Aftermath: Kuwait, 1991“. Well here is a pretty bizarre thing that happened to me. As I mentioned in that post, when the book was published back in 1992 there were two editions, the French edition called “FAIT” and the English edition called “AFTERMATH”. I posted about the French version since that was the copy I was able to get a hold of, but before getting the French version, I tried to get the English one.

Because the books were printed in limited quantity, they’re incredibly difficult to find and the prices can range from 100-200KD depending on the condition of the book. But, back in October, I found a used bookstore in Turkey selling the English edition of the book for just 2.5KD. It didn’t make any sense and it sounded too good to be true but because it was only 2.5KD, I decided to buy it to see what I’d get. Even the “Books on Books” edition of the book cost at least 10KD, so worst case I would get that.

I bought the book from Turkey and had the seller mail it to my PostaPlus MyBox UK account. He gave me a tracking number and it showed that it was delivered a week later, but it never showed up in my account. I waited and waited and nothing. So I figured the seller must not have put my mailbox number on the package, it’s happened before so I got in touch with PostaPlus after waiting two months and was like hey, I have a package missing, I’m guessing the seller didn’t put the mailbox number, here is the tracking number can you see if you ever received it? They replied saying they hadn’t received a package with that tracking number. I was upset obviously because I had found this incredibly absurd deal on a rare book and now that book is lost.

I eventually forgot about the whole thing and a few months later found a reasonably priced French edition of the book and got that instead.

Then, a couple of weeks ago, out of nowhere, a package shows up in my mailbox marked as a DVD. Right away I realize it could be the book since it’s around the same size as a DVD case. Sure enough, nearly 8 months after buying the book it finally got delivered to me last week!

I somehow managed to get AFTERMATH for just 2.5KD which is incredible, and now I have both language editions of this hard to find book. So here is life pro tip, ALWAYS make sure you and the seller put your forwarding mailbox number in the address.

After this past weekends press conference with the announcement of the 5-stage plan to recovery, there were many things left unclear, and some things that were just plain confusing. A lot of you had questions which is understandable.

Language Barrier
This is something I’ve already mentioned before. The majority of the messages shared right now are only shared in Arabic. The biggest issue with this is other than the fact a large part of society isn’t getting the messages, it results in a lot of fake news being shared with no way to verify if it’s true or not. It’s not that difficult to get stuff translated and information shouldn’t just be translated to English either since a lot of the low-income workers read neither English nor Arabic.

Too Many Channels
Another issue I think is how the information is being shared across multiple channels. There isn’t one official source where you can check to get all the Covid-19 related announcements, laws, and whatever. Right now there are around 6 different official Instagram accounts but they also share different information across their different channels. So you might find something on the Twitter account that’s not on their Instagram account, or you might find something on their Facebook page which is neither on the Twitter or Instagram pages. So not only do you need to follow all the Instagram accounts but also all their other social media channels as well just to make sure you’re getting everything. And that’s if you speak Arabic, if you don’t then you have to rely on random Instagram accounts or google translate newspapers.

My Blog
Which brings me to my main subject, the blog. Anybody who knows me personally knows that I love knowledge. I want to and need to know everything and I’m always curious which is why I’ve had no trouble finding content to post daily for the past 15+ years. I also love sharing and during this crisis, I realized there was a demand for information in English so I naturally started helping people by posting all the information in English so everyone knows whats going on. It’s a role I took on because nobody else was doing it right. But then the questions started rolling in. People had questions and they were coming to me because nobody else was answering it for them. The official accounts seem to ignore questions and so people had nowhere to go except blogs like mine or places like Reddit to try and get answers.

But this past weekend people had A LOT of questions after the press conference especially those who were either in locked-down areas or areas that were going to be locked down. I didn’t have any answers and the questions kept coming in and in. Add to that the angry and frustrated comments people were leaving and the Kuwait vs Expats arguments that were taking place and I just couldn’t take it anymore. I ended up closing down a number of posts for comments but then people started emailing me questions or direct messaging me on Instagram and Twitter. With everything that’s going on right now, I don’t need this anxiety.

It’s not my job to translate news to English or answer questions about area lockdowns or know if you’ll still be able to take your wife to the hospital. I’m sorry, but I don’t have any of these answers. I wish I did but to answer your questions I have to sift through various information all in a language I can barely read to try and make sense of things that don’t make sense.

So I’m no longer gonna do this. I’m going back to posting about things I find interesting no matter how superficial it might feel reading about a burger review with everything going on in the world. But that’s what my blog has always been about, just random shit I think is interesting to share. Happy Stuff.

This post is also closed for comments.

The local band Galaxy Juice just released a new track and it’s their first one in Arabic. The track is called “Subiya” (الصبية) which is the name of a desert in Kuwait located by the sea. The song is from their upcoming album, “Galaxy Juice and the Forty Thieves”.

For more music by local artists click here.

Today is the first day of Stage 1 and this means partial curfew for most of Kuwait. If you’re in one of the areas still in lockdown, I’m sorry about that, it must really suck. Salmiya blocks 10, 11 and 12 seem not to be in lockdown this morning even though it was originally announced they would be.

I was up early around 7 this morning and headed straight to the nearest Arabica to pick up coffee. The streets were pretty busy, the falafel near my place was packed and Trolley in Salmiya which is always empty had a queue outside. When I got to Arabica there were 6 cars waiting which wasn’t too bad compared to the Jabriya Starbucks line you can see in the video above. The Gulf Road was pretty busy and a lot of parking lots had the entrance barriers moved aside by people and cars were going in to park in the lots.

Everyone is obviously relieved the lockdown is over, I just hope everyone takes wearing a mask seriously and respects social distance. I’m hoping Avenues opening up in Stage 2 is enough incentive for people to follow the rules over the next 3 weeks. Stay safe everyone.

Yesterday as part of the new partial curfew announcement they also announced the areas that will remain in total lockdown and that list included Maidan Hawally Block 10, 11, and 12. This one line caused such a massive amount of confusion and I have no idea why they announced it this way.

There technically isn’t an area called Maidan Hawally and so Maidan Hawally Block 10, 11, and 12 don’t exist.

Salmiya Block 11 where the American International School is located is the area generally referred to as Maidan Hawally. It’s adjacent to the main Hawally but it’s on the other side of the highway in Salmiya. On the Kuwait Finder app, on Google Maps and on Civil ID cards, it’s called Salmiya Block 11. Maidan Hawally is not the official name but there is a police station there called Maidan Hawally Police Station and this is what people know the area as so it can pass. But what is Maidan Hawally Block 10 and 12? Supposedly Salmiya Block 10 and 12.

I’ve tried to visually illustrate the above. The areas in yellow, blue and green are Salmiya. The area in yellow is what is usually referred to as Maidan Hawally. Everyone living in these three colored areas live in Salmiya according to their Civil ID and Kuwait Finder. The English School (TES) and the Millennium Hotel both have their addresses listed as Salmiya Block 12, not Maidan Hawally Block 12 (source 1 and 2). The Abdullah Salem Cultural Center have their address listed as Salmiya Block 11, but describe the area as Maidan Hawally (Source). The Coop in Block 10 is called the Salmiya Coop Society Supermarket (source).

So if the area is called Salmiya, if on people’s Civil ID cards you’re referring to it as Salmiya. If government supermarkets in the area are referring to it as Salmiya, why announce a total lockdown of Maidan Hawally Block 10, 11 and 12? Wouldn’t it be a lot clearer if you called it by what it is, Salmiya Block 10, 11, and 12?

If THAT wasn’t confusing enough, above is the graphic posted by @CGCKuwait that mentions the areas of lockdown. They don’t even mention which blocks of Maidan Hawally just that Maidan Hawally is in lockdown. So everyone would assume its block 11 of Salmiya.

But, Watan News have the actual video of the announcement up and they’ve transcribed the video which mentions Block 10, 11, and 12. So Watan is actually being accurate while the official source isn’t.

This is so frustrating and we haven’t even gotten to the specifics of what a total lockdown of those areas means since it also wasn’t clarified. Will people in Salmiya Block 10 still be able to book an appointment at Lulu in Block 9? No clue.

Update: Map has been updated to correctly show all of Block 11

Update2: There is supposedly another conference tonight to clear up all the confusions

Around 30 minutes ago there was a conference where they announced the next steps to opening up after the lockdown. For those of you who can’t read Arabic, I’ve tried my best to summarize things until the official English text is published. There might be mistakes below, nbut it should be helpful until the official English comes out.

Basically what the government has done is gamified things, which I like. Imagine the lockdown we just completed as Level 0, we did it for 3 weeks and we passed. Now we move to Level 1 where we get more privileges and a partial curfew. In three weeks we will be evaluated, if we do well we move to Level 2, if we do bad we go back to Level 0 and start all over again. The better we do the more stuff we get. Here is how they’ve divided things to the best of my ability to translate:

Level 0 – Full Lockdown
What we just completed.

Level 1 – Free from 6AM to 6PM
We get mosques, restaurants (delivery and drive-thru), courier and delivery services, laundromats, fuel stations, private clinics, garages, car washes and car dealerships.

Level 2 – Free from 6AM to 9PM
We get banks, malls (10AM to 6PM), 30% of government and private sector, retail stores, restaurants takeaway, parks.

Level 3 – No curfew
We get 50% of the government and private sector back to work, hotels and resorts, Taxis with 1 passenger, Friday prayer at mosques.

Level 4 – No curfew
We get more than 50% of the government and private sector back to work, dine in at restaurants with social distancing, public transportation with social distancing.

Level 5 – No curfew
We get diwaniyas, social gatherings, weddings, events, gyms, conferences, hairdressers, spas, sports and cinemas.

In addition, I read that Farwaniya, Hawalli, and Khaitan will remain in lockdown. But, there is a bit of lack in clarity because I’ve heard it’s just some blocks that will be locked down, and I’ve heard that whole areas will be locked down.

Once an official English version of the above comes out I’ll update the post. If you read Arabic here is the PDF they presented during the conference.

Update: According to Kuna, Level 1 starts on Saturday

Update2: Arabic Kuna seems to contradict English Kuna. Arabic Kuna says Level 1 starts Sunday (31), English says Saturday (30). Great…

Update3: Ignore the KUNA links, according to @CGCKuwait, it’s starting on May 31st. Here is their official graphic in English with more details on what’s included under Level 1. Link

Update4: I updated the post to make it clear the hours I’ve listed are when we’re are free to go out and not the hours we have to be stuck at home.

Last year I heard a rumor that Arabella was going to get demolished and turned into a hotel and now there are renderings out showing what it’s going to look like. Based on the renderings it seems like they’re going to be demolishing the left side of Arabella (the side with Texas Roadhouse and Cheesecake Factory and build the hotel there.

The area isn’t that big so I’m very curious to see how they’re going to make it work especially the parking situation which is a total mess right now.

There is no mention yet on what hotel will be opening there or when but for more renderings including some interior ones, click here.

Thanks ChaoticTranquility

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cobra Club (@cobraclubmusic) on May 20, 2020 at 12:19pm PDT

Cobra Club – Ghost @cobraclubmusic
Tareq Almulaifi is a Kuwaiti singer/songwriter who officially launched his new band Cobra Club earlier this month with the 80s inspired track “Razor“. They’re back again with a new single called “Ghost” which sadly doesn’t have a music video. The new track also has the same retro vibes to it and you can listen to it on Spotify.

Fabrice – Leave us alone @fabriceroots
Fabrice is a French musician with a unique Caribbean voice that’s living in Kuwait. Earlier this month he released a new single titled “Leave us alone” which is available to stream and download on his Bandcamp account. So check it out here or just click play below.

Back in 2003 I bought the very original Roomba. They had just come out a few months earlier and the idea of a robot vacuum cleaner fascinated me. It was around the same time I was fascinated with Sony’s robot dog, the AIBO, but unlike the AIBO, I could actually afford the Roomba back then.

I was still living with my parents when I got the Roomba so it really only had to clean one room, my room. It was fun using it at first, but I eventually got bored and sold it since I stopped using it. Looking in the comments of that for sale post I found a comment of mine where I explain to a reader why I sold it. I was basically too lazy to use the Roomba since it had to be started manually. This meant I had to be in my room to use it or I had to remember to do it before I left the house for work. It also meant that it would keep going until the battery died and then I had to plug it in and charge it again. It was a chore that defeated the whole purpose of getting a robot in the first place. In that same comment, I mention that if they ever came out with “a version that cleans every day at a certain time without me interfering” then I’d get it another one which brings me to the Eufy Robovac.

One of the first things I did once the pandemic started was to tell my housemaid to stop coming over. This meant I had to clean my place myself which gave me a reason to get a new robot vacuum cleaner. I looked at what was available locally and found the Eufy RoboVac 30C at Blink. I hadn’t heard of Eufy before, but on Amazon it had a 4.5-star rating and over 4,500 reviews. Blink was selling it for 92KD which was around 5KD more than Amazon not including tax or shipping so a pretty good price and so ordered it.

I’ve been using the RoboVac on a daily basis and even though the first few days were a bit rough, it’s now been a few weeks and I’m loving it. The RoboVac 30C has a few cool options, it has Wifi, a 100+ minutes battery life, it can find its way back to its home station and recharge the battery when it’s low, you can schedule it and it also works with Alexa and Google Home. Thee 30C is considered to be a dumb robot in the RoboVac world. There are some RoboVacs that are a lot smarter and can draw and map out the whole room digitally and even recognize different objects on the floor (like actually be able to tell if its a shoe or a basketball). But those RoboVacs are a lot more expensive with some of the more expensive ones costing an upwards of 300KD. The way dumb RoboVacs work is a lot simpler, they clean the room by moving around it randomly with no specific pattern. They’re less efficient in that sense but at the end of the day they still get the work done.

I have my RoboVac clean my lower level of my apartment every night at 8PM. I’m in my TV room upstairs at 8PM so having the RoboVac work at that time doesn’t bother me. I don’t even hear it except for the beep when it wakes up to start cleaning, and another beep 90 minutes later when it calls it a night and comes back to its charging station. I mentioned earlier the first few days were rough and that turned out to be for a variety of reasons. The biggest issue I had was that the RoboVac dust storage was filling up very quickly and the rolling brushes underneath were getting clogged up with carpet hair. If that wasn’t an issue by itself, the RoboVac when low on battery shuts of the suction and heads home. But because my RoboVac storage was full it would cause it to leave a trail of dirt and dust balls on the way back to the charging station. I was having to clean after the RoboVac which was super annoying and was making me regret buying it. BUT, it turned out this wasn’t the RoboVacs fault. The reason it was filling up so quickly is because of the amount of dust and virgin carpet hair it was sucking up from under my large couch. My normal vacuum cleaner can’t reach under the couch but the RoboVac is low enough to get under there and clean properly. After a few days the dust container stopped overfilling and the RoboVac is working perfectly now. Every morning as part of my routine I now just empty the dust container which is usually around half full. The other issue I had when I first got it was making my place RoboVac friendly. It didn’t need a lot of work, I just had a few cables I needed to tuck away nicely so the RoboVac wouldn’t get stuck on it and I had to move one side table slightly away from the couch so that the RoboVac would have easier access. The RoboVac comes with strips you can stick on the floor if for example you don’t want it to wander into the kitchen or you want to keep it away from a certain area.

During this 24/7 lockdown my RoboVac has been my companion of a sort, kinda like how Tom Hanks had Wilson the Volleyball on Castaway. I now yell at my RoboVac and call it an idiot like I used to yell at my dog when it used to do something wrong. My RoboVac has a habit of knocking down my skateboard which I’ve got leaned up against the wall and then starts pushing it around like it’s playing with it. It’s kinda cute when it wants to play but noisy. I’ve only had my RoboVac get stuck once so far and when that happened my phone App notified me. It has no issues climbing carpets and even low objects. A lot of times it might get stuck on something and then it starts trying to push over it but after a while it gives up and goes backward freeing itself. I’m very impressed with it and I don’t regret getting it at all. I don’t even regret getting a smarter RoboVac since the 30C is doing a really great job. My black tiles tend to show dust easily but now they’re shiny all the time I love it.

If you’re interested in getting one, I got mine from Blink but it’s showing as sold out but A Store who are the Eufy dealers still has them in stock also for 92KD.

Kuwait is currently performing around 4,000 COVID-19 tests a day, but how does that compare with the rest of the world? Is it a lot? Too little?

According to Worldometer, a website that is trusted by the UK Government, the New York Times, BBC and many others, Kuwait ranks 20th worldwide when it comes to tests per 1 million of the population. The highest tested country in this list is the Faeroe Islands, while UAE ranks third. Below are some highlights but for the full list here is the link.

1- Faeroe Islands
2- Iceland
3- UAE
5- Bahrain
13- Denmark
16- Spain
20- Kuwait
21- Qatar
24- Italy
28- Russia
36- UK
39- USA
66- Saudi Arabia
74- Jordan
91- Lebanon
139- India
147- Egypt

Yesterday evening the first drive-thru COVID-19 testing center opened up to the public. Because there is currently a lockdown and because of the fact we only have one testing facility at the moment, you will need to be invited by the Ministry of Health to be tested.

According to the MOH they will randomly pick people for the large scale COVID-19 testing. People will be notified that they’ve been selected by SMS and an appointment date and time will be shared with them. You are then meant to apply for a curfew pass and head to the Jazeera Airways Park & Fly facility which has been converted to a testing center.

If you receive the message from the Ministry, you head there on the day scheduled and a swab test is performed on you. Your results are usually out within 48 hours. Once done from your test, your car is disinfected by the Fire Department on the way out.

The announcement was made on the MOH Instagram and twitter accounts last night only in Arabic. I was told the reason it was published only in Arabic is that it was only for Kuwaitis, but I’ve also heard this is for expats so not sure who is right.

Then there are two other issues, the first is what if you are picked but you don’t have a car? How do you get to the testing center? The other issue is if this is a mandatory test or not? Going by the comments on twitter there are a lot of people who believe they can’t be forced to be tested, so what happens to people who don’t show up to their appointments?

There is one question that is being asked over and over on the blog and I don’t seem to have a good answer for. How can you get food from the supermarket if you don’t have a Civil ID card? To book an appointment on the moci.shop website you need to have a Civil ID number but that means anyone in Kuwait on a tourist visa, or anyone that moved to Kuwait just before the government shut down and didn’t get their Civil ID yet won’t be able to book an appointment.

There was a blog post that got published yesterday about an American couple in Kuwait on tourist visas complaining about this. Although the article has some inaccurate information in it (there is no 30 item limit when shopping at the supermarket for example), it does highlight this issue further.

So how do you get food if you don’t have a Civil ID? The best options I’ve been able to come up with are the following:

– Order food from the bakala on your street since they are allowed to open during the lockdown.

– Order from the Coop with Whatsapp. Every area coop has a delivery service by Whatsapp and some even have websites. Visit your Coop Instagram account for more information.

Previously I’ve suggested ordering from Oncost since they were delivering during the lockdown but they’ve stopped that now. If you have another option other than the two I’ve listed, let us know in the comments.

Update: A few moments ago @mociq8 posted the graphic below. If you’re in Kuwait on a tourist or family visa you can now book an appointment!

Here is a bit of good news for expats stuck outside of Kuwait, according to the Arab Times, Kuwait will start allowing some expats to come into Kuwait but only under humanitarian basis such as children who have been separated from their families due to the crisis or parents who are stuck abroad. Source

The past few weeks they’ve allowed some expats to fly back in but they were either expats married to Kuwaitis, or domestic workers who flew back in with their Kuwaiti sponsors.

To register to come back you need to visit the Ministry of Foreign affairs website. I’m assuming its the same registration form as the one Kuwaitis used but the Arab Times article doesn’t say. Here is a link to the registration page which was previously used, it’s currently only in Arabic so they’d have to add an English version soon. Link

Update: According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Arab Times article is NOT true and they aren’t planning to set up a website for expats to register on. Only Kuwaitis and first degree relatives of Kuwaitis are currently allowed to come back. Source

I didn’t go out for a walk yesterday but watched the large crowd from my balcony. I live inside the old Salmiya souk and my neighbor told me it was PACKED yesterday so might check it out today just to take some photos. In any case, I noticed a lot of people weren’t wearing masks nor social distancing even though they should.

Personally, as I tweeted yesterday, I think these 2 hours should be canceled. But I also live in a large apartment and I have a rower for exercising so it’s easier for me to say that. I don’t understand why people don’t get the concept of social distancing. Are they just not taking the virus seriously? Or are they just not aware of how dangerous it is? It’s been the case ever since the pandemic started.

I haven’t posted a rant in years I think, but I’m really pissed off about two things, one that’s too late to be fixed, but the other one can still be.

The first thing I want to complain about is the way the lockdown was announced where it basically gave the whole population just a day to try and buy enough food for 3 weeks. That didn’t make any sense. The scenes I saw on Saturday were heartbreaking. It was survival, people tossed aside social distancing not because they wanted to, but because they were forced to. Supermarkets across the country were PACKED with large crowds, super long lines, and no social distancing. I shot the video below on Friday, BEFORE the lockdown announcement. It was a line for a mini-market down the street from my place so just imagine how long the lines were at major supermarkets across Kuwait on Saturday after the lockdown was announced. We don’t have a shortage of food in Kuwait nor a shortage of supermarkets, but the way this lockdown was announced late at night without having the proper infrastructure in place (like private supermarkets on moci.shop) or enough time for people to go out and stock up caused this chaos.

The second thing I’m really pissed off but is something that can easily be fixed is about how the information is being shared. 90% of the information is being shared only in Arabic. Why? I know Kuwait is an Arabic country so what? I’m Lebanese and I can barely read Arabic and I’ve lived all my life in Kuwait. What about the expats who aren’t Arab? What about the low-income workers who barely can communicate in their native tongue let alone read multiple languages? Kuwait is the home of many nationalities and in a crisis like this where it is important that every message gets across to everyone, you can’t have information being shared only in Arabic. You want everyone to use the moci.shop website to book appointments? Have it in multiple languages then. Right now if you visit the site its all in Arabic, even the option to change the language to English is in Arabic. At least have a tiny UK or American flag icon that people can click to translate.

You can’t disagree with me on this either, so don’t bother leaving a comment saying if you’re in an Arabic country you need to learn the language or gtfo. This pandemic isn’t the time for this. Right now the question should simply be HOW CAN WE GET THIS IMPORTANT INFORMATION OUT TO THE MOST NUMBER OF PEOPLE? And the answer is everything, needs to be published in multiple languages.

Instagram allows you to share multiple slides per post. Have the first slide in Arabic and then the next few slides in other languages. Hire people to do the translations, don’t have the money then ask for volunteers! And don’t just post on official channels. The MOH, MOI and other government agencies should coordinate with popular expat accounts like @kuwaitup2date and have important information published there. Go to where the people are and not just expect people to come to you.

Also, have all the information across all your media channels. I’m finding stuff for example on twitter.com/cgckuwait that isn’t on instagram.com/cgckuwait. Why? Why do I need to check all your social media channels to get all the info? Publish everything everywhere, it’s not hard to do.

Then you have other strange decisions. The visual I shared a while ago highlighting the different facilities that are available during the lockdown. The Arabic version was published as a permanent post in the @cgckuwait Instagram account while the English one was posted as a temporary story. Why? Why can’t both be stories and permanent posts? What if I missed your story today? So much stuff doesn’t make sense.

Just to be clear my issue isn’t just with the @cgckuwait account. All the issues I’ve mentioned above apply to all the official sources.

Anyway, I’m done complaining. Happy lockdown everyone.