Search: “kuwait”

Screenshot from 21 Bridges

The movies below are now showing at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and VOX:

New This Weekend:
10 Minutes Gone (3.5)
21 Bridges (5.7)
Behind the Trees (N/A)
Last Christmas (6.6)
The Shed (4.1)

Other Movies Showing Now:
Abigail (5.0)
Abominable (7.3)
Charlie’s Angels (3.7)
Countdown (5.3)
Doctor Sleep (7.5)
Frozen II (7.1)
Haunt (6.3)
Joker (9.4)
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (7.0)
Midway (4.9)
One Piece: Stampede (8.3)
Playing with Fire (5.1)
Terminator: Dark Fate (6.5)
The Addams Family (5.8)
The Good Liar (6.5)

The movies below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

IMAX Movies Showing Now:
Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Backyard Wilderness 3D (8.4)
Turtle Odyssey (7.7)
Volcanoes 3D (6.6)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.

The Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI) has a section on their website filled with statistics. Below, for example, is their list of the top 10 jobs in Kuwait:

Kuwaitis
1- Inspector of Government Department
2- Other authors (no idea what this is)
3- Military Army
4- Correspondent and passport representative
5- Secretary (Clerk)
6- Accounts Clerk – General
7- Other education specialists
8- Data Entry Device Operator
9- Public Writer
10- His own trade business

Expats
1- Servant
2- Private car driver
3- Ordinary laborer
4- Seller on the market
5- Cleaning worker for buildings and residential buildings
6- Manual cultivation worker
7- Electric worker on high voltage networks
8- Nurse
9- Light transport vehicle driver
10- Correspondents, baggage carriers and other parcels

I don’t think there is anything surprising in the list, I’m just surprised we actually have these lists. The PACI page also has other stats like the oldest ages. The oldest male in Kuwait is 115 years old (Kuwaiti) while the oldest female is 119 years old (also Kuwaiti). The oldest male expat is 113 while the oldest female expat is 118.

The most populous nationalities in Kuwait? They are:
1- India
2- Egypt
3- Bangladesh
4- Philipines
5- Syria
6- Saudi
7- Pakistan
8- Seri Lanka
9- Nepal
10- Jordan

Percentage of workers in the private sector?
4% Kuwaiti – 96% Expats

You can check out other interesting stats on the PACI website here.

GulfRun is an annual motorsport event that started back in 2005 as a weekend getaway for a group of friends passionate about racing. Because Kuwait didn’t have a racetrack, GulfRun used to take place in Bahrain and all the cars would get sent there for the weekend event and then brought back once it was over.

But, now that Kuwait has it’s own racetrack, GulfRun will be taking place in Kuwait for the very first time!

GulfRun will be taking place this coming Friday and Saturday at Kuwait Motor Town. As part of the GulfRun event, there will be a market taking place at the track, various car dealership experiences and my favorite thing, Caffeine & Wheels.

If you’re looking for something to do this weekend or if you’ve been waiting for a specific event to visit and check out the racetrack, then this is the one. I’ll personally be there on Saturday for the Caffeine & Wheels event and I’ll be bringing my Alfa to take part in it so if you see me come by and say hello.

For more information on the event, click [Here]

Not one of the busiest weekends but there are still quite a few things going on. Check out the full list below:

Thursday
Exhibition: Halal Nights by Mohammad Al-Hemd
Fareed Abdal – A Solo Exhibition
Talk: Types & Sizes of Dinosaurs
French Institute of Kuwait Cinema club – “Les Grands Esprits”

Friday
Talk: Types & Sizes of Dinosaurs
Lecture & Workshop: Tree of Life – Birds
The British Ladies Society Winter Bazaar
Doga – Yoga with your Dog

Saturday
Gulf Bank 642 Marathon
Lecture & Workshop: Tree of Life – Birds
Come Play with Us!

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double-check with the organizers.

Screenshot from Charlie’s Angels

The movies below are now showing at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and VOX:

New This Weekend:
Charlie’s Angels (3.7)
Frozen II (7.1)
Haunt (6.3)
One Piece: Stampede (8.3)
Shakira in Concert: El Dorado World Tour (8.3)
The Good Liar (6.5)

Other Movies Showing Now:
Abigail (5.0)
Abominable (7.3)
Born a King (8.8)
Countdown (5.3)
Doctor Sleep (7.5)
Gemini Man (5.2)
Joker (9.4)
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (7.0)
Midway (4.9)
Motherless Brooklyn (7.4)
Playing with Fire (5.1)
Terminator: Dark Fate (6.5)
The Addams Family (5.8)

The movies below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

New This Weekend:
Turtle Odyssey (7.7)

Other IMAX Movies Showing Now:
Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Backyard Wilderness 3D (8.4)
Volcanoes 3D (6.6)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.

Kuwait’s first official Rimowa store opened a couple of weeks ago at the Avenues and I was curious to check out their prices. I bought a Rimowa bag from the Dubai store a couple of months back and so was curious to know the price difference between the two stores. Surprisingly, Kuwait is cheaper!

The Kuwait store is 5% cheaper than the Dubai store and the reason for that is the new 5% taxes you pay on items in Dubai. So a Rimowa Original Cabin size bag in silver aluminum costs KD325 in Dubai after-tax, but KD310 in Kuwait. Not that much of a difference but still a saving. So if you were trying to figure out if you should buy a Rimowa bag locally or abroad, you now know.

Back in September I posted that the popular UK based Italian bakery Princi was coming to Kuwait but didn’t know where they were opening. Well, they’re opening in Avenues Phase 4 since the store hoarding went up recently in the Grand Avenues. Princi was created by the restaurateur Alan Yau who is behind other popular brands like Wagamama and Hakkasan.

Baroue the kids store recently opened a snow park inside their Avenues store called Frostland. I passed by it over the weekend to check it out and was actually impressed. Mostly because I was not expecting their snow park to be so big but also because I didn’t think they would have actual snow.

Frostland is fairly huge considering its located inside a store but the Baroue store was always huge to begin with. The whole top floor of Baroue has now been converted to Frostland with different snow and ice related activities like ice slides, ice cars and the snow dome. Kids and parents are given winter gear to wear because its actually winter in Frostland and you’ll need to be properly dressed to play in the snow.

The ticket price for Frostland is 11KD for 2 hours and 6KD for guardians. If you want to check out some videos and more pictures of their snow park check out Frostland on instagram @baroue_frostland

The Improv Comedy Show by Staged in Kuwait is back again this weekend. If you’ve never been to one of their shows before then you should and there are still some tickets available if you haven’t already booked. Check out the full list of this weekends events below:

Thursday
Exhibition: Halal Nights by Mohammad Al-Hemd
13th World Bowling Tour – Kuwait International Open 2019
Happy Hour Live at Oktoberfest 2019
Improv Comedy Show

Friday
Discover America Run/Walk 2019
Happy Hour Live at Oktoberfest 2019
Hot Rod Car Show

Saturday
Exhibition: Halal Nights by Mohammad Al-Hemd
KTAA Fall Bazaar
Come Play with Us!
Sustainability Event

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double-check with the organizers.

Screenshot from Doctor Sleep

The movies below are now showing at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and VOX:

New This Weekend:
Abigail (5.0)
Doctor Sleep (7.5)
Playing with Fire (5.1)

Other Movies Showing Now:
Abominable (7.3)
Born a King (8.8)
Countdown (5.3)
Dark Encounter (4.4)
Dora and the Lost City of Gold (5.9)
Gemini Man (5.2)
Joker (9.4)
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (7.0)
Midway (4.9)
Motherless Brooklyn (7.4)
Terminator: Dark Fate (6.5)
The Addams Family (5.8)

The movies below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

Movies Showing Now:
Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Backyard Wilderness 3D (8.4)
Oceans: Our Blue Planet (7.4)
Volcanoes 3D (6.6)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.

Last year I posted about how much I hated the housekeeper’s category on the Q8 4Sale website since people were listing their housekeepers for sale. After my post, the 4Sale website started removing those posts and set new rules for the category but I still wished they had closed it down instead. Well it took a thorough BBC investigation and reporting for that to happen.

Over the weekend, BBC published its investigative video below exposing the trade by interviewing a number of people who were selling their housekeepers including a police officer and a woman who was selling her 16-year-old housekeeper!

Posing as a couple newly arrived in Kuwait, the BBC Arabic undercover team spoke to 57 app users and visited more than a dozen people who were trying to sell them their domestic worker via a popular commodity app called 4Sale.

The sellers almost all advocated confiscating the women’s passports, confining them to the house, denying them any time off and giving them little or no access to a phone.

The 4Sale app allowed you to filter by race, with different price brackets clearly on offer, according to category. Source

After the video and article went viral, Kuwait announced that it was cracking down on slave traders and I checked the 4sale website and it looks like they finally completely removed the housekeeper’s category. Hopefully, this will cause the government to consider reforming the kafala (sponsorship) system which in it’s current state is flawed and being abused. Check out the BBC articles on this subject below:

Slave markets found on Instagram and other apps (Oct 31)
Kuwait moves on Instagram slave traders after BBC investigation (Nov 1)

Some fun things happening this weekend including a different musical event taking place every night this weekend. Check out the full list of events below:

Thursday
Exhibition: Halal Nights by Mohammad Al-Hemd
13th World Bowling Tour – Kuwait International Open 2019
Luna & Boo! Halloween Party
Manifesting Rhythm with Sid & Turk

Friday
Open Track at Kuwait Motor Town
13th World Bowling Tour – Kuwait International Open 2019
Kuwait Rising Music Festival
Saracen Race 2019

Saturday
Exhibition: Halal Nights by Mohammad Al-Hemd
13th World Bowling Tour – Kuwait International Open 2019
Japanese Society’s Beach Cleaning-up Campaign “Operation Turtles”
Come Play with Us!
Marketspace
The Peace Festival: Salute Yal Bannot

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double-check with the organizers.

Screenshot from Terminator: Dark Fate

The movies below are now showing at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and VOX:

New This Weekend:
Midway (4.9)
Motherless Brooklyn (7.4)
Terminator: Dark Fate (6.5)
The Addams Family (5.8)

Other Movies Showing Now:
Abominable (7.3)
Angel Has Fallen (7.0)
Born a King (8.8)
Countdown (5.3)
Dark Encounter (4.4)
Dora and the Lost City of Gold (5.9)
Gemini Man (5.2)
Joker (9.4)
Killerman (5.2)
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (7.0)
Mary (4.4)
Zombieland: Double Tap (7.3)

The movies below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

Movies Showing Now:
Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Backyard Wilderness 3D (8.4)
Journey to Space 3D (6.4)
Oceans: Our Blue Planet (7.4)
Volcanoes 3D (6.6)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.

If you’re itching to buy an interesting book about Kuwait, this is one that came out in 2008 but copies of are still available online. The book deals with the construction of the Kuwait National Assembly building that was designed by Jørn Utzon who was also behind the design of the Sydney Opera House.

Completed in 1982, the Kuwait National Assembly remains one of the outstanding modern buildings completed in the Middle East by a European architect. A tour de force of precast concrete construction, Jørn Utzon’s design also represents the culmination of themes that had preoccupied him throughout his work, notably ways of combining ideas derived from traditional cultures with the ‘additive’ principles of cellular growth found in nature. This beautifully produced book, the latest addition to Edition Bløndal’s acclaimed ‘Utzon Logbook’ series, was developed in close collaboration with Utzon and presents an exceptionally comprehensive account of the Kuwait project through photographs, original drawings and the recollections of key contributors – Utzon’s staff, consulting engineers and contractor, and an extended interview with Utzon himself.

If you check out the publisher’s website they have two videos taken during construction which I had never seen before. You can check those out here.

If you want to buy the book I got my copy from Amazon for $69.

Last night was the cultural event for the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Korea and Kuwait. As part of the cultural filled evening, a variety of Korean traditional and modern music performances were meant to take place including a performance by the K-pop group D-Crunch. But just before they were meant to perform, the Ministry of Information ordered a halt to the event.

Meanwhile in Riyad the popular K-pop group BTS performed 2 weeks ago in a packed stadium…

Not only that but the hashtag #dcrunch_come_to_saudiarabia has also been trending with Saudis apologizing to D-Crunch for what happened to them in Kuwait. This is just too weird, how did Saudi Arabia become more liberal than Kuwait overnight?