Search: “kuwait”

Cinemagic is having a weekly screening event called “Short & Sweet”. The events will take place at the Cinemagic Courtyard in Bait Lothan, Salmiya, and will run every Wednesday between 7:00 – 9:00PM. The screenings bring together a collection of short films from all over the world including Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Poland, Brazil, Jordan, Lebanon and Kuwait. Each week they will screen a different selection of films of varying genre, nationality, and style.

For its part, Cinemagic Kuwait, is organizing these events as part of its efforts to contribute to the development of an internationally competitive Kuwaiti audio-visual production industry, partly by bringing the filmmakers and audiences together and by increasing the public’s interest in and appreciation for the art of filmmaking.

This week, they will screen “Promises” a 2001 Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning documentary film that looks at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the perspectives of seven children living in the Palestinian communities in the West Bank and Israeli neighborhoods of Jerusalem.

The film follows the journey of Israeli-American filmmaker B.Z. Goldberg as he meets with seven Palestinian and Israeli children between the ages of nine and thirteen, seeing the Middle East conflict through their eyes. Rather than focus on specific political events, the film gives voice to these children, who, although they live only 20 minutes apart, live in completely separate worlds.

Attendance is always free of charge, but seating is limited, so make sure you arrive early. Snacks and refreshments will be served.

From all the cool strange touristic places in Kuwait like the Zoo, Entertainment City, Ice Skating Rink, Green Island etc.. my favorite is definitely The Scientific Center. Its such a beautiful and relaxing place. I passed by there today, it was only my second (or third) time so the large shark aquariums still mesmerizes me when I see it. I sat on one of the benches watching the sharks and fish swim and awhile later four scuba divers appeared and started cleaning the tank. It was fun to watch and the aquarium is really gigantic. If you haven’t been there yet you need to. The entrance fee is KD3 but its not only for the aquarium, there is another section you pass through first which has like bats, lizards, snakes, crocodiles etc.. When you visit the place you won’t believe you are in Kuwait.

Website: www.tsck.org.kw

update: by request here is a picture of one of the scuba divers in the tank [Picture]

I was checking out some pictures on Flickr of Kuwait when I spotted this one. It was taken by Ra-1.

[Flickr]

Found this old Abenderado commercial while flipping through YouTube. Anyone who watched any TV in Kuwait pre-1990 will surely remember this. If anyone can find me the old Hungry Bunny or Pizza Italia commercials I would be very grateful!

[YouTube]

I posted about this song before, here is the actual video clip:

[YouTube]

Emily Sharpe, a reader of the blog sent in a link to the following video which was shot by her during the swearing in of new Kuwaiti Minister of Education, Nouriya Al-Subeeh during the Parliamentary session. The session was disrupted by Islamist MPs who objected to the fact that she refused to wear the hijab (headscarf), which she does not normally wear.

[YouTube]

Here is a site with links to all the local newspapers in Kuwait (Arabic and English) and also some magazines. [Link]

The Daily Star is not listed there probably because their site just recently came online.

I don’t think newspapers should participate in April Fools. It’s just lame. Newspapers are supposed to be a source of truth not hoaxes. If you don’t know what I am talking about check the main page of the Kuwait Times. They have an article saying that alcohol is now legal in Kuwait. Its very easy for newspapers to pass a hoax as truth because people trust newspapers. They are taking advantage of this trust, I didn’t fall for it but how many people out there today will? [Link]

Picture taken from ads2blog

I just found out from a user in the Forum that there is a company in Kuwait which allows you to pay for a pro flickr account using Knet. They charge KD5 over the Flickr membership fee but thats still better then nothing. [Link]

I got a message from k.thekuwaiti today telling me to check the Friday Times today since he gave me a shout out in it. I didn’t know what he was talking about so I went and picked up an issue (its free) and started flipping through it. Turns out there is an article on blogging in Kuwait and K got interviewed for it. The article is still not available on their website but it might be there tomorrow. For now you can just pick up an issue and check it out.

Yesterday I posted about how Al-Qabas are stealing pictures from local flickr users. Turns out the university magazine, Cruise Campus stole not 1 picture but 14 pictures for one of their covers!! Someone should tell them that combining 14 pictures into 1 doesn’t make a new copyright free image. Whats funny is when one of the photographers called them to complain, they told him they got the pictures from a CD which they got off Al-Watan newspaper. [Link]

Thanks to Moayad for pointing out the above.

If you turn to page 48 of todays issue of Al-Qabas newspaper (March 27), you will see a lanscape picture of Kuwait taken by Cajie, an extremely talented amateur photographer. The problem is, Al-Qabas used his picture without his consent. They didn’t email him or try to contact him to seek permission to use his picture. Instead of trying to support a local amateur photographer by at least crediting him, they instead resorted to stealing his picture and not giving him proper credit. Here is the original picture [Link]

Also turns out this is not the first time Al-Qabas have stolen a picture from a flickr user, here is another example. [Link]

And thats not all! Here is even another example! [Link]

If any reader knows someone at Al-Qabas please bring it to their attention that what they are doing is wrong.

Picture above taken by Q8e.

I just want to introduce my new sponsor to replace Mercedes called Q8Flowers. You might remember them because I posted about them back in November. I had ordered flowers for Nataly from them since they were the only flower shop in Kuwait where I could place an order and pay for it online. If you haven’t checked them out you can do so by visiting their website located at www.q8flowers.com

I had such a terrible experience with cab drivers today. In the morning I dropped my car at a garage in Shuwaikh then from there I decided to take a cab back to work.

I stop one of those beige and white taxis, I get in, I look and notice the driver had started the counter and we drive off. Five minutes later we are under my office building, I look at the counter it says 500fils so I give the driver 500fils. He then tells me he wants KD1.5 not half a dinar. I was like what? why? The counter says 500fils. He was like ok KD1. I was like why should I give you KD1 when the counter says 500fils. I get out of the cab with the driver yelling at me angrily.

Later during lunch I decide to take a cab back to my house. I stop another cab driver, I get in and I tell him turn the counter on. He says its not working, I was like fine thank you and I open the door to exit when he stops me and tells me its working but I can’t get a receipt. I was like fine I don’t need a receipt. He drops me under my house, the counter said 850fils and I give him KD1 and tell him to keep the change.

An hour later I have to get back to work, so I stop another cab under my house and I tell him to start the counter. He was like why, I will charge you KD1 to get to Kuwait City, you want it to be less then that? I figured KD1 is the same price I paid to get to my house so whatever. He drives off and gets onto the Gulf Road, once we are near McDonalds he spots an American tourist on the side of the road and decides to pick him up. I was thinking “O…K… lets see where this is going” The tourist gets in and wants to go to Souk Sharq. We drive off and a few minutes later we reach Souk Sharq. The tourist asks how much, the driver says KD1.5 and the tourist pays. The ride should have cost the tourist MAX half a dinar and here the driver was charging him triple the price and the tourist was fine with that.

So he drops the tourist off and we start to drive off when I tell the cab driver he should give me a discount now. He was like why? I was like because you wanted KD1 from me to Kuwait City and you just made KD1.5 from this tourist. He was like so? I was like its illegal to pick up another passenger plus you wasted my time now by driving through Souk Sharq. He was like what is this some kind of new law? I told him its not a new law and its not my first time riding cabs so don’t try to fuck around with me. He stops the car and tells me I can get out here and he doesn’t want anything from me. I was like fine whatever.

So I am now waiting in the shade at Souk Sharq for another cab to pass by and one does. I get in and tell him to start the counter. He tells me its not working, I was like thank you and I open the door. He then tells me wait how much do you want to pay? I was like I want to pay whatever the counter tells me and I get out. I could have told the guy half a dinar or whatever but I wanted to be stubborn because I wanted to see how messed things can get.

I wait five minutes till the next cab shows up. I get in and I tell him to start the counter. He politely says ok. We get to my destination and the total was 400fils. I give the driver KD1 and tell him to keep the change. Finally a decent driver.

I can’t believe how bad the taxi service is in Kuwait, and all this in just one day!

Picture by Mink

I was at the Ducati dealer yesterday, TriStar and they had a limited edition Bimota bike on display. There are only 23 of them in the world and they were made as a tribute to the Italian soccer team for winning the World Cup.

I was kidding around with my friend who works there telling him how easy it would be to make this bike look like a tribute to the Kuwaiti soccer team by editing the Italian flag to make it look like a Kuwaiti one. When he heard that he took me to the rear of the bike where it turns out there was something that already looked like a Kuwaiti flag! I found that pretty funny.

Here is another better picture of the bike [Picture]