Search: “kuwait”

Me and a friend have been talking about the Concorde over the past few weeks so I was pretty surprised yesterday to find out that the plane actually came to Kuwait back in 1979.

On Monday 19 February 1979 the Queen flew on Concorde from Heathrow to the sunshine of Kuwait in just under four hours, at the start of a three-week Middle East tour that would include Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. The Queen’s Private Secretary later wrote to Ross Stainton, BA’s Chief Executive to say the Queen was especially glad to make her visit to Saudi Arabia by Concorde. Apart from making the first day of the tour very much easier for Her Majesty, this wonderful aircraft created a great impression, and there could have been no better way of commencing a most important tour covering seven countries. source

Sadly, I only found a handful of photos of this event and none show the plane fully. The Queen ended up leaving Kuwait aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia as part of the tour of the Gulf while the Concorde flew to Bahrain.

Thanks Nick

I won an eBay bid on some 35mm slides of Kuwait taken back in 1978 and thought I would share them. Most of the slides are of a motorcade but I’m not sure who was visiting.

There are UK flags up on the roads but it couldn’t be the Queen since she visited in 1979. I thought maybe the British Prime Minister back then, James Callaghan, but I also couldn’t find any info about him visiting Kuwait. So if anyone has any idea who this might be, let me know because I’m curious.

I’ve uploaded all the scans to Flickr and you can check them out here.

The 2020 Formula 1 season finally kicked off last week after being delayed due to the Corona pandemic. The second race of the season is taking place later today but like last year, you’re pretty limited to how you can watch it here in Kuwait. The only network in our region that broadcasts the races is MBC Action but it’s in Arabic and I couldn’t find a way to stream it online. The other (and better) option is watching it directly on F1 TV.

I’ve posted about F1 TV before but I mentioned you needed a U.S. credit card to sign up since live broadcasts aren’t available for Kuwait. But, my U.S. credit card expired and I still haven’t gotten my replacement card so I was worried I wouldn’t be able to subscribe again this season. Turns out you don’t need a U.S. credit card!

If you’re on an Apple device and have a US Apple Store account, then you can subscribe to F1 TV from inside the app and pay for the subscription using your Apple Store account. It’s a neat loophole that should make Formula 1 broadcasts easily accessible to more people.

So if you’re an F1 fan and want to watch the races, download the F1 TV app.

The new Land Rover Defender is finally in Kuwait, around a month late from it’s original scheduled arrival. The Defender has been completely redesigned and although I wasn’t sure about the design in the photos, in person it does look really great.

From my understanding, the first shipment is all sold out but the dealer has one model on display and I think they have another white one for test drives.

It’s definitely a car I’m considering swapping out my FJ for. Prices start at around KD16,000 but can nearly double in price depending on the specs. The one in the photo is priced at 25,000 but you can also build your own and price it out yourself on the local Land Rover website.

The 1992 IMAX documentary ‘Fires of Kuwait‘ is now available on Hulu to watch. The film is a testimony to the remarkable resourcefulness and heroism of the men and women who extinguished and controlled over 600 burning and gushing oil wells sabotaged by retreating Iraqi troops in the aftermath of the Gulf War. The movie was frequently showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater but I never got the chance to watch it. But, Hulu recently partnered up with IMAX to exclusively carry 16 of their movies one of which is Fires of Kuwait so I’m finally gonna get around to watching it.

If you have Hulu and haven’t had the chance to watch the film, here is the link. If you don’t have Hulu but want to know how to get it to work in Kuwait then click here.

Thanks Eddy

If you’ve been following the 1MDB scandal you’re probably aware of Kuwait’s involvement. Tonight, the Kuwait Association for Protecting Public Funds (KAPPF) in cooperation with the Bar Association will be holding a virtual panel discussion on this subject via ZOOM. The discussion will be in English. Here are the details:

Date: Tuesday 23-06-2020
Time: 5:00 pm (Kuwait time)

Participants:
Tony Pua – Member of the Parliament of Malaysia
Adel Al-Damkhi – Member of Kuwait Parliament
Sheryan Al-Sheryan – Chairman of the Kuwait Bar Association
Clare Rewcastle – Founder of Sarawak website
Xavier Justo – The “Whistleblower” of 1MDB and the former CEO of PetroSaudi
Prof. Amit Seru – Professor of Finance at Sanford University
Prof. Mohammed Altamimi – Professor of Criminal Law, Kuwait University
Adnan Abul – Deputy Chairman of the Kuwait Association for Protecting Public Funds and Secretary of the Bar Association

Moderator: Sara N. Al-Ateeqi

ZOOM Link: https://zoom.us/j/94228505551
Webinar ID: 94228505551

Update: You can now watch it on YouTube

Arby’s, one of my favorite fast-food restaurants has closed all their locations in Kuwait. I first heard about this from a reader a couple of days ago but didn’t believe it until I called them up myself to confirm. The employee on the phone said this was permanent but I’m still hoping this is just a temporary thing until the pandemic is over.

If you call them up right now you’ll get Johnny Rockets instead so maybe because of the lack of staff or resources, they’re putting all their focus on their big money maker. I hope that is the case.

Kuwait had one of the first Karting tracks in the region and was a pretty popular sport before the 1990 invasion. Back in the 80s the Gulf Championship, the Middle East Championship and the World Championship were all held in Kuwait at the karting track in Ahmadi. One of the former racers Graham Hobson sent me the video above featuring his team back then called GH Karting. Graham used to work for KOC between 1983 and 1986 but now lives in Australia.

The video is an hour-long so you can skim through it if you want. He’s got one more video he’ll be sending me and I’ll upload that as well once I get it.

Update: Just uploaded a better version of the video with better sound
Update2: Below is the second video of the Middle East Karting Cup that was held in Kuwait back in 1986.

Global research company OMDIA released a 5G Market Progress Assessment report which shows Kuwait ranked 2nd worldwide. The report was based on five different assessment criteria that included spectrum availability, service launches, network coverage, 5G adoption and the development of a supporting ecosystem. You can check out the full report here.

One of the best things I did was get 5G, it’s been incredibly fast and even during the lockdown when every internet connection slowed down, I was still getting over 400Mbps. On average though, my connection both at home (Salmiya) and in the office (Kuwait City) hovers at around 550-650Mbps.

Abu Othman, like thousands of Kuwaiti men, has struggled to split his time between two wives living in separate homes amid the Gulf state’s strict lockdown to combat the coronavirus.

“My life has become so complicated,” the 45-year-old, who has 10 children between the two women, told AFP.

..

But in response to appeals by scores of polygamists like Abu Othman to ease their restrictions on movement, the Kuwaiti authorities on Sunday introduced electronic permits to men married to more than one woman for one-hour visits twice a week. Source

Seems like a good problem to have. Here is a link to the “Family Care” curfew pass page.

via Reddit

A short video recorded back in 1988 showing various parts of Kuwait including the now-demolished Al Salam Building, Souk Mubarakiya, the stock exchange and Sultan Center (which looked a lot better than it does today). If you want to check out other videos recorded back in 1988 including one of ASK, click here.

via Reddit

I recently found out the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait has a COVID-19 information page that contains answers to a lot of common questions that aren’t answered anywhere else. For example, a friend of mine was asking me about curfew passes to the airport, how does that work? If you have a flight to catch can you just show them your ticket or do you need a special pass? What if you don’t have a car, can a friend drop you off? According to the U.S. Embassy website:

How can I drive to the airport during the curfew?
It is our understanding that passengers traveling directly to the airport to depart Kuwait will be permitted to travel with their passport and a copy of their booking and/or ticket showing departure. They should allow additional time for possible stops by relevant authorities and should be wearing face masks while outside their homes.

Can a family member or friend drive me to the airport?
It is our understanding that one person can take passenger(s) directly to the airport as long as they have a copy of the ticket of the traveler. The driver should allow additional time for possible stops by relevant authorities and should be wearing a face mask while outside the home.

The page looks like it’s being updated whenever there is anything new so worth bookmarking since there is very little information out there in English and some of the info isn’t even listed anywhere else to my knowledge. So check it out here.

CoronaMaps Kuwait is a community-driven platform that is built by collaborating with multiple government and non-government organizations.

The platform is operated by volunteers with the goal of creating an information center for sharing community-related information during the Corona crisis in Kuwait. The site visualizes data collected from publicly available resources and will be mapping primary services like health care, home delivery of groceries, community responses and more.

The site launched yesterday night and is still in Beta phase but you can check it out by visiting coronamapskw.com

These two videos embedded here document the Kuwait International Rally back in the 70s. One of the videos was shot in 1976 while the other 1978. Both feature a lot of great 70s style racing footage as well as snippets of Kuwait like the old Hilton Hotel and the Kuwait Towers.

These aren’t homemade videos but properly shot videos with groovy music and a 70s style British voiceover. It’s actually really entertaining to watch even if you aren’t into cars so please check both videos out.

Although the saying goes “tough times call for tough measures”, I think tough times should call for more compassionate measures! We are dealing with so much right now and I know a lot of you are getting terminated (make sure you get your rights because no one has the right to terminate you because of Covid-19 in Kuwait), or are stuck in other countries, or can’t see your families, and this is why it is important for all of us to be compassionate to everyone we meet.

As a lawyer, I am getting so many emails because of Covid-19 with serious concerns, one of the biggest concerns is not being able to pay rent and eviction. Let me make something clear, a lot of people can not pay rent right now, not just you. And yes, the law allows the landlord to evict you (we wrote about this way back), but we are also going through unprecedented times so here is my advice:

– Write a formal letter in Arabic letting the landlord know that because of the unprecedented circumstances you are not able to pay the rent currently. I will make a letter template available to you in a few days for free, just email me on [email protected]. Also, feel free to communicate with them verbally and openly, I have had clients that have done that and then gotten a discount or a few months free, don’t be afraid to ask, but no matter what the verbal conversation is, I highly suggest that you still send them a document in Arabic (a notice) stating that you can not pay.

– Do not leave the apartment, if you can not pay the rent, stay there anyways. No one has the right to kick you out by force and this is something I doubt is a priority for authorities at this current time. Still, send a letter though.

– Do not feel shy about reaching out to charities, so many people in Kuwait, Kuwaitis and non-Kuwaitis alike have donated to various funds to help out those in need, so reach out to charities, please.

– Be patient and stay positive. I have hope that the Kuwaiti government will draft new legislation to deal with issues such as eviction from properties very soon and in favor of the weaker party, the tenants. I applaud the Kuwaiti government for all they have done so far and I have so much faith in them.

Best of luck everyone and I hope you and your families are safe and sound at this time. Feel free to follow me on instagram @flattland where I will be posting about my experience and the law (among other things) or to ask me and my team for any advice during this time. We have provided a few spots for legal consultations for free every week so check ftl-legal.com for a quick call with one of our lawyers.

Take care and sending everyone lots of love.

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.