Search: “mis”

The Kuwait Mooseheads Ice Hockey Team are looking for new members. If you can ice skate and play hockey then this is for you:

Looking for something fun, active and social? Miss those days at the rink? Well you’re in luck, the Kuwait Mooseheads hockey club is looking for new members to join us for our weekly scrimmages. We play twice a week at the ice rink next to Discovery Mall. The club also takes part in international tournaments throughout the year. Full equipment is required, and some experience is necessary. Check us out on Facebook or contact Graham via email at [email protected]

The better the weather the more events that take place and this weekend is a prime example. A few cool things taking place this weekend with my personal favorites being the Holiday Bazaar at Pink Moon, the Ahmadi Music Group Concert the Unbirthday Picnic and the KBSC Yard Sale. KBSC is the new name for the Kuwait Little Leagues and I passed by the same event last year and loved it. You get to watch some baseball games, eat a hot dog and then check out the yard sale, a very not Kuwait like experience so I’m definitely passing by again this year. Check out the full list below:

Thursday
Exhibition: Behind the Crisis
Exhibition: People vs Architecture
Holiday Bazaar at Pink Moon
Pulse: Health and Fitness Expo

Friday
Exhibition: People vs Architecture
Holiday Bazaar at Pink Moon
Pulse: Health and Fitness Expo
Theatre: Around The World In 80 Days
The High Street
Ahmadi Music Group: Family Seasonal Concert
KBSC Yard Sale
Chill-Out Fridays

Saturday
Pulse: Health and Fitness Expo
Theatre: Around The World In 80 Days
The High Street
Ahmadi Music Group: Family Seasonal Concert
Qout Market
Madeenah Tour: Mubarak Al-Kabeer Street
Camel Races
The Secret Garden Project
Protein Sheikhas: Bootcamp
Unbirthday Picnic

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

Note: Sometimes events get canceled, postponed or have details changed but the organizers don’t inform me of the changes. I also always try to make sure all the information is accurate but mistakes can happen.

Star Wars is one of the most recognizable entertainment brands with a huge cult following 38 years after the first film was released. The gaming studio DICE is also a great studio with a reputation for making fantastic large-scale multiplayer shooters. So you’d think putting these two together you’d get a home-run of a game but for some odd reason, Star Wars Battlefront isn’t the game it should be. Instead, it’s an online-only bare bones multiplayer shooter.

DICE for the uninitiated, are the studio behind the critically acclaimed Battlefield series, a game known for its online multiplayer. It features large scale maps, destructible environments, vehicles, and objective based modes that encourage team work. Battlefield also features a character class system: assault, engineer, support and recon classes. Each class has unique abilities, for instance engineers can repair vehicles while support units can revive fallen soldiers. The Battlefield games also feature an unlock system that encourages you to play more to gain more weapons and more customization features, like skins for your guns, new camo for your soldier or new attachments for your weapons. Battlefield has been my favorite multiplayer shooter because of all these things. All in all, if any studio was going to make a new fantastic Star Wars game, DICE would be it.

But DICE played it too safe. Star Wars Battlefront feels like an introduction to online shooters for the casual gaming audience which in itself, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There are nine multiplayer modes with some of these multiplayer modes having up to 40 player battles (so 20 v 20). Each mode has up to four or five different maps based on the Star Wars worlds Tattoine, Hoth, Endor, Sullust and Jakku. You can choose to either be a Rebel soldier or a Stormtrooper and as you level up you unlock new weapons, gear and abilities. When you’re fighting you’ll also come across various items you can pick up on the battlefield which includes things like shields, turrets or the ability to control certain vehicles. Once in a while though, you’ll come across an item that will let you take control of a hero or villain like Han Solo or Darth Vader, depending on which side you’re fighting for.

The Shakshooka Market in the video above took place a couple of weeks back. For those of you who haven’t been to any of the Secret Garden events, this should give you an idea of what you’re missing. [YouTube]

What can be said about the Call of Duty franchise that hasn’t been said before? For better or for worse, the games don’t really evolve much. I enjoyed last year’s Advanced Warfare, I thought the campaign mode was fun and I enjoyed maneuvering with the EXO suits. It gave the game a sense of verticality that it was missing. Going into a Call of Duty game you already know what you’re going to get. So I expected a short, but fun, adrenaline filled campaign mode, great multiplayer and a decent zombie mode. Sadly, what I got out of the game was something much less. It’s disappointing how far the campaign mode strayed from what they created in Black Ops II which had had branching paths and multiple endings, and had a narrative that was captivating and intense. There’s a lot of content in Black Ops III, but it’s a case of quantity over quality.

I primarily enjoy playing single player games. So the first thing I did going into this new Call of Duty was just that. You start off by creating a character, choosing the gender and then a face. The problem is the majority of the faces all look the same. Not sure why they didn’t include a simple feature that allows you to pick a face and then a hairstyle or something along those lines. Being able to choose to play as a badass woman was cool though. But then I got referred to as “him” within the first few minutes of the game and that should give you an idea of how much attention went into campaign mode. It’s pretty lazy all around. The Call of Duty games aren’t known for their writing, but they have a reputation for being enjoyable. The campaign in Black Ops III was paced weirdly, the tutorial levels were too long and when major things happened, the game didn’t really do a good job at building any suspense or any sort of climax. Things just sort of happen. On top of that the narrative seems to be pieced together by borrowing basic themes and ideas from other games, like Deus Ex Human Revolution. Your character has a set of special abilities, some of them are cool like being able to control enemy robots or making enemies explode, but some of them are lame, like sending a swarm of cybernetic flies to distract human enemies. If you’ve played Bioshock, these should feel familiar, because they work kind of like Plasmids. When you finish a mission you’re sent back to your base where you’ll be able to walk around and interact with computers to upgrade your abilities, customize your character, look at the collectibles you’ve found or read more about the narrative, which is cool but I didn’t really care enough for the story to really spend my time there.

So what are some things that I liked in campaign mode? There were some fun firefights, some of the abilities you get are cool to use and the game ran incredibly smoothly. One other thing I really appreciated was the fact that you can play campaign mode in split-screen with a friend. It’s nice to see developers still include this especially when you have 343 Industries removing split screen from Halo 5, which I personally thought was a really dumb move since split-screen was such an important part of the Halo games. But I digress, that’s a different post for a different time. Finally, it was cool seeing Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica) in the game, I hope she does more work related to this industry.

So it’s pretty known fact that most players will spend most of their time in multiplayer. Unlike the campaign mode, I enjoyed my time playing against other people. Multiplayer mode in Black Ops III is slightly different than its predecessors. The biggest change in multiplayer is that you now have to choose from a set of characters called “Specialists”. You start off with four to choose from and you unlock more as you level up (there’s 9 in total). Each Specialist has their own personality, look, their own set of abilities and a unique special weapon. It’s a shame that you can’t customize them much. You unlock different kinds of cosmetic equipment as you play with them, but it just takes too long to unlock anything. There also isn’t a large variety of armor either. Another slight change in multiplayer is that the game doesn’t automatically unlock weapons for you as you level up. Instead “unlock tokens” make a comeback. You gain experience and level up, and you’re awarded with unlock tokens that you can use to unlock new weapons. You still get rewarded for using a weapon consistently with attachments, like scopes or paint jobs. There’s also a good variety of maps (12 to be exact) and most importantly most of them are fun. Like I mentioned earlier, I enjoyed Advanced Warfare and I enjoyed the way you were able to move through the maps. I think they’ve improved on that in Black Ops III, but instead of Exo suits you’ll be using thrusters, which is a momentum based system, allowing you to jump more than once, wall run and slide across the ground. All in all, multiplayer is pretty solid.

Zombie mode is now fully fleshed out and has its own campaign mode called Shadows of Evil. You take control of one of four characters who are voiced by Hollywood celebrities like Jeff Goldblum and Ron Perlman. You’ll be navigating through the fictional Morg City slaughtering zombies while you try to stay alive. This mode is only cool if you’re playing it with other people, it’s not worth investing your time in if you don’t have friends to experience it with. You can go online and play with random players but it’s not as fun, especially if you can’t properly communicate with them.

At the end of the day it’s unlikely Black Ops III will win over any new fans. On the other hand, if you’re a fan of the franchise then chances are you’re going to enjoy this and you’re going to welcome the new (albeit slight) changes to multiplayer. The question remains if the game has the longevity that the previous games had, especially since customization is extremely limited. Specialists are a cool addition, but I don’t believe they really change multiplayer enough. There’s a ton of content here, but there’s no real reason to go back to the campaign mode once it’s over and the zombie mode can be frustrating if you have no one to play with. I’m personally sticking with Destiny for my first-person needs because that game just has more things I enjoy. It’ll be curious to see what direction Call of Duty goes from here now that they’re futuristic. How far will they go? Or will they go back in time and bring back their World War II games? Or maybe they’ll play around with a time travel mechanic and develop a game that features World War II and futuristic stuff? Time will tell.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III was supplied by X-Cite. The game is available on PS3 (online only), Xbox 360 (online only), PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Score: ★★★★★

Post by Patrick

This is just insane, a guy called Wilfred scrawled the message “Claudia I ♡ You” across Kuwait using GPS. It took him 11 days to get it done and by the end of it he had ridden, driven and kayaked over 2,000km. The message itself is 615km long. He also took a ton of photos and videos of the whole journey and even has an animation showing the whole trip. I can’t even figure out the logistics behind this, it’s crazy. Here is some more info:

Software Used: Osmand, Google Earth, QGIS, ArcMap, Google Earth, CartoDB, Basecamp
Hardware Used: Samsung Note 2, Garmin GPSMAP 64s
Highlights: the struggle to fit the ♡ between the oil fields, an epic dust storm south of the I, getting beaten into submission by the elements when kayaking the U and seeing V-22 Osprey night practice flights west of the O. Two portions involved offroading at night – the NE shoulder of the O and the first part of the bottom of the Y. Click video points in these locations for more detail.

So check out the animation first [Here]
Then once you’re done check out all the videos [Here] (randomly flip through them)

Oh and yeah, Claudia obviously liked this.

The Cinemagics rooftop movies are back starting from this weekend. If you’ve never been to one you should and this month they’ve got some great films showing. I’ll be adding them all to the Events page but for now below is the full list of films taking place this month.

Thursday, November 5th 2015 at 7:30PM
WHIPLASH
Winner of 78 awards and nominated for over 110 worldwide, Whiplash was the little movie that caught the world by storm last year. Featuring a towering performance by J.K. Simmons (for which he won the oscar), the real star here is newcomer Damien Chazelle’s incredible pacing and fascinating editing style. It tells the story of a promising young drummer who enrolls at a cutthroat music conservatory where his dreams of greatness are challenged by an instructor who will stop at nothing to bring out the best, even if it may go to far. If you haven’t seen this yet, this is your chance to witness the experience.

Saturday, November 7th 2015 at 7:30PM
JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI
A delicate documentary about Jiro Ono, am 85 year old sushi master who runs a 3 michelin star restaurant in a toile subway station. Carrying a certified fresh rating of 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, the site’s consensus reads “Beautiful, thoughtful, and engrossing”. A film that is generally adores by all who’ve seen it.

Thursday, November 12th 2015 at 7:30PM
MY DINNER WITH ANDRE
A film that is universally adored by critics and audiences alike, My Dinner with Andre is the first in the trilogy of the Andre Gregory & Wallace Shawn experimental films. The film depicts a theatrical conversation between the two stars as they discuss experimental theater, the nature of life, and spiritual experiences. The Boston Society of Critics names it the Best American Film, and master critic Roger Ebert once said “If i could name a movie that was entirely devoid of cliches, it would be My Dinner with Andre”

Saturday, November 14th at 7:30PM
WILD TALES
One of the most refreshingly original films in recent history, Wild Tales is an Argentinian masterpiece covering 6 short stories, all of which share the themes of violence and revenge. The film has won over 40 awards worldwide, considered by many to be one of the best of the year. Holding a 96% rating, Rotten Tomatoes called the film “Wickedly hilarious and delightfully deranged”. The film received a 10 minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival. A rare combination of a crowd pleaser that also captures the attention of cinephiles. Unmissable.

Thursday, November 19th at 7:30PM
THE THIN BLUE LINE
One of the most provocative documentaries of all time, and a film many considered to be the shift in the way documentaries were being made, The Thin Blue Line was eventually considered to be one of the best 5 documentaries of all time. It depicts the story of Randall Dale Adams, a man convicted and sentences to life in prison for a murder he did not commit. The film is one of the only films to ever affect a judicial verdict, as the trial was reviewed after the release of the film. Errol Morris went on to become one of the most respected documentarians around.

Saturday, November 21st at 7:30PM
ANNIE HALL
Every year at Cinemagic, we pick one highlight one master director and create a series around him/her where we show an important film of their’s each month. This year, our director of choice is the cinematic gem, Woody Allen. We begin big with what Roger ebert called “just about everyone’s favorite Woody Allen movie”, Annie Hall. A film responsible for inventing the modern comedic film, Annie Hall won the oscars for Best Film, Director, and Screenplay, and solidified Woody Allen as one of the great American filmmakers of his generation. One of the most beloved comedies of all time, there’s nobody that doesn’t love Annie Hall.

Thursday, November 26th at 7:30PM
TIMBUKTU
Nominated for best foreign film at the Academy Awards, and winner of another 19 awards worldwide, Timbuktu tells the story of a cattle herder and his family who reside in the dunes of Timbuktu when they find their lives of peace disturbed by the political arena int he surrounding cities. Variety wrote of the director “In the hands of a master, indignation and tragedy can be rendered with clarity yetsubtelty, setting hysteria aside for deeper, more richly shaded tones. Abderrahmane Sissako is just such a master.”

Saturday, November 28th at 7:30PM
WATER
Beautifully shot and elegantly told, Deepa Mehta’s Water was a beloved film worldwide upon release. The film examines the plight of a group of widows forced into poverty, focussing on a relationship between one of the widows and a man who is from the highest caste and is is a follower or Mahatma Ghandhi. Of the film, The Los Angeles Times wrote “Mehta is able to inject considerable humor in her stunningly perceptive and beautifully structured narrative…Water emerges as a film of extraordinary richness and complexity”. Winner of 23 awards.

Cinemagics 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 film-making. Cinemagics movies are screened in the old Salmiya, on the rooftop of Xcite and LG [Map]. There is no entrance fee. Here is a link to their Facebook group [Link]

For those of you who don’t know, I was in charge of posting video game related posts in the now defunct Entertainment section of the blog. Since Mark merged that section with the rest of the blog, I’ll now be writing about video games in the B-Sides section while posting reviews of major game releases here on the main page. Last week Mark was able to hook me up with his contact at X-Cite who will now be sending me games to review on the blog every now and then, first up is Guitar Hero Live.

Guitar Hero became a massive phenomenon when it was first introduced back in 2005. Six games were released, 12 if you include the specialized versions of the series like Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and Guitar Hero Smash Hits. All those games were released within the span of seven years between 2005 to 2011. That’s nearly two games a year, which is a crazy number for such a short period of time. So when Activision announced Guitar Hero Live, it wasn’t a surprise that most people felt skeptical about it.

My only real experience with Guitar Hero prior to this was Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock at a friends house. And all I remember of that game was playing Muse’s Knights of Cydonia over and over again, trying to get a perfect score. It was a lot of fun and I could see why people obsessed over it and why Activision milked it for all its worth.

Guitar Hero Live is meant to be a fresh new take on the whole franchise. A reinvention. There are two main aspects to the game. Guitar Hero Live and Guitar Hero TV. Guitar Hero Live is the single player “campaign” mode where you play as a guitarist for different bands that Activision created for this mode. Each band plays a specific genre of rock, so the folk-indie band for example plays songs from real bands like The Lumineers and Of Monsters and Men.

Like the name suggests, you’ll be playing live shows with these bands. Activision filmed a lot of footage to flesh out this part of the game. If you’re doing well in the song crowds will cheer, bop their heads to the song and your bandmates will be rocking out. If you start screwing up, crowds will start booing and yelling things at you while your band mates look on at you in disappointment or just insult you in some way.

I enjoyed this mode, it’s fun, it’s silly. The presentation is great, it feels fantastic when you’re playing a really challenging part of a song and the crowd erupts in joyful glee when you nail it. I just wish there were more songs and that it lasted longer. I’m also confused to why Rihanna and Skrillex would be in this guitar focused game, but they are.

After you’re done with Guitar Hero Live, you’ll be spending a chunk of your time in Guitar Hero TV. Guitar Hero TV is an online only mode and is equivalent to old school MTV. You’ll find two channels that play music videos non-stop throughout the day. Each channel has their own set of programs. So there’s a program that just plays heavy metal songs while another just plays indie hits. These channels play music videos all day and you can jump in and play whenever you feel like it. Since this mode is online you’ll be competing simultaneously with other players who are playing that same song. At the end of each song you gain experience points and coins. Every time you level up you unlock various things like special abilities and player card designs. You’ll be able to spend coins in various ways, for example you can spend coins to increase specific stats like how often your special ability recharges. You can also spend coins to buy more play tokens (which I’ll discuss in a little bit).

Guitar Hero TV also includes the song catalogue which includes over 100 tracks. To play any of these songs you need to use a play token. The biggest point of focus in this mode are the play tokens. Every time you play a song, you use a play token. They’re limited. There are three ways to get play tokens. Every time you level up, the game gives you a bunch of tokens. If you save up enough coins you can buy them. Or you can use real money and buy tokens. The game also offers 24 hour unlimited play for the entire song catalogue for $6. One word to describe play tokens would be “controversial”. Some people hate it, some people get it. I’m in the latter. The reasoning behind Activisions micro-transactions in Guitar Hero Live is that they want to avoid what they did in the last generation. They don’t want to keep releasing Guitar Hero games or release a ton of paid DLC like Rock Band. Instead they want to build Guitar Hero Live as a platform. New songs that will be added to the game will be added for free. This direction doesn’t seem so bad compared to Rock Band where each song costs $2. We’ll see how it works out in the long-term but so far I’m optimistic.

Putting all that aside, the game is fun. If you weren’t a fan before, I doubt this will change your opinion of it. But if you did enjoy the previous games, this game feels like a step up and a step in the right direction. I had a blast playing on my own and I also had fun playing the game in a group (Mark really sucks at it btw). If you attach a mic to the console, lyrics will pop up on screen and the game will keep score on vocals. You don’t actually have to own a proper mic either. A Playstation Camera or headphones/earphones (like the iPhone ones) with mics work. There’s also an official Guitar Hero Live iPhone app you can download on your phone that will connect to the game and turn your phone into a mic. You can also get a second guitar to add a second player and compete against one another. The game also does well for people who don’t normally play video games. I had guests over on the weekend and one of my guests doesn’t normally play any video games, but they were hooked on Guitar Hero the moment they grabbed the guitar.

My biggest concern isn’t with the actual game but with the plastic guitar. The guitar itself looks good and it feels good to hold. But after playing the game over the weekend, one of the buttons was already giving me problems. Thankfully it was an easy fix. I had to open up the fret board (11 screws) and I found that there was some dirt on the inside of the button. Once I put it back together, the guitar was working like new.

Overall the game is a ton of fun and it’s something I’ll be playing for quite some time, especially when I have guests over. Hopefully they’ll add some Queens of the Stone Age or Foo Fighters, because this game could definitely use more of that. There’s a bit of an imbalance when it comes to the song selection in the game, there are too many recent hits and not enough grunge and alternative songs.

You can find Guitar Hero Live at X-Cite for KD31.9 which is a pretty great deal since it’s being sold for $99 in the U.S. My review copy of Guitar Hero Live was also provided by X-Cite.

Score: ★★★★★

Post by Patrick

Back in 2011 I posted a list of places that are open 24/7 in Kuwait. Figured its about time I update the list with your help. If you know of a place that is open 24 hours and isn’t on this list, let me know in the comments:

Places open 24/7 in Kuwait:

Restaurants
• Burger King – Bneidar Gas Station 1, Bneidar Gas Station 2, Fintas, Hawalli, Messilah and Plajat.
• Caribou Coffee – King Fahad Road (towards Chalets)
• Coffee Republic – King Fahad Road (towards Kuwait City)
• Costa – Dar Al Shifa Hospital, Hawalli
• Dunkin Donuts – Amman Street (Salmiya) and Fintas
• Finger Sushi – Kuwait City
• Geant Easy – Salmiya
• Gloria Cafe – Salmiya
• Hardees – Bida’a and Salmiya (opposite Fanar)
• Johnny Rockets – Salmiya
• KFC – Kuwait City, Salmiya (opposite Fanar)
• McDonalds – Airport, Al-Qosour, Al-Rai, Bayan, Bnaider, Fintas, Jabriya, Surra and Yarmouk
• Pizza Hut – Faiha, Fintas, Hawalli, Mishref and Salmiya City Center
• Pizzetta – Seef
• Prime & Toast – Seef
• Shawerma Shuwaikh – Bneid Al Gar
• Starbucks – Dasman, Hadi Hospital and Salmiya opposite Fanar
• Subway – Khaldiya, Mangaf
• The Grove – Opposite Kuwait Stock Exchange

Supermarkets
• City Centre – Dajeej
• Co-op – Al Adan, Al-Faiha, Al Qousor, Al Qurain, Dasma, Jabriya, Mishref, Qurtoba, Rumaithiya, Salmiya, Salwa and Yarmouk
• Saveco Supermarket
• Sultan Center – Dajeej, Fahaheel, Hawalli, Jabriya, Mangaf, Al Rai, Salmiya, Salwa, Shaab and Souk Sharq
• Trolley Market – Alfa Gas Station Hateen

Other
• Burgan Bank – Airport
• Debenhams – Airport
• Edge Fitness – Crown Plaza Hotel Farwaniya
• Gold’s Gym Salmiya
• Oula Car Wash – Jawazat Roundabout, Salmiya
• NBK – Airport
• Pharmacy 24 – Baghdad Street Salmiya
• Platinum Gym – Salmiya and Kifan
• Viva – Airport
• Wataniya – Airport
• X-Cite Electronics – Al Rai, Fahaheel and Hawalli
• Zain – Airport

Note: The list above might not be accurate, please call locations before heading there

Early last month I posted an article about Abdulai Shani, a former teacher back home in Ghana who got an opportunity to come to Kuwait to work as a security guard and earn good money. On arrival it turned out all the promises were empty ones and he was taken instead into the middle of the desert to live in a tent surrounded by a barren landscape to take care of sheep. If you haven’t read that post then check it out [Here]

After posting that article I asked if anybody would be able to help Abdulai get a better job. I received a lot of responses (thank you everybody!) and after filtering through them I ended up connecting Abdulai with a reader named Abdulrahman. Abdulrahman visited Abdulai in the desert and after meeting him decided to contact his sponsor. To quickly summarize things, he managed to convince his sponsor to let Abdulai go, at first the sponsor agreed and then on the day Abdulai was supposed to leave, the sponsor backtracked and asked for money. Abdulrahman ended up paying the sponsor off and once he collected Abdulai’s passport and civil ID, he handed them to Abdulai and then they drove off towards the city and back to civilization.

Abdulai is now living in Mahboula in an apartment he is sharing with a couple of other guys from Ghana. His new sponsor Abdulrahman is a great guy, they called me last weekend from the Avenues where they were out having lunch. Abdulai’s paperwork is currently being finalized and he’ll be starting his new job soon. He’s clearly in a much better place and he’s thankful to everyone.

A redditor started a list of online shopping websites in Kuwait and I decided to add a few more and share the list here. I’m sure there are a bunch of places I’m missing so let me know about them in the comments. To qualify on the list below they need to be locally based websites.

Gaming
Games Q8
Digumz
Game Center Kuwait

Electronics
X-Cite
Blink
Best
AAB World
Eureka
Yeeeba

Computers
Q8 Quadra
Smartek
Cameo Computer Services
Want it Buy it
Personal Computer Center

Food Products
Taw9eel
SaveCo
Natureland
Lulu
FAME
Gourmet Shelf
Gourmet ME
One Stop
Prime Cuts
Kuwait Fresh Fish
On Cost
Sultan Center

Ready Made Food
6alabat
Alshaya Delivery
I Eat Online
Nespresso
Maachla
Tadco
Bilbayt

Variety of Products
uBuy
Quick
Mr Babu
Fen’Teg

Fashion
Yacob Behbehani Sons Co.
The Yard
Pink Moon
Thouqi
Grain
Shop #4
Soccer Scene
Nables

Other
Sheeel (Daily Deel)
Beidoun Online (Perfumes + Cosmetics)
Timeless Baby (Baby Stuff)
K7L (Cosmetics)
Pet Zone (Pets)
Pet Pal (Pets)
Pet House (Pets)
Oleana Boutique (Baby Stuff)
Boutiqaat (Cosmetics)
Dowa (Pharmacy)
Craft and Company (Lifestyle)
Bleems (Flowers, Chocolates, Gifts)
NHE Group (Satellite Receivers)
ProSports (Sporting Equipment)
Pharmatee(Pharmacy)
Page Turner (Books)
Cavaraty (Phones)
Mobile 2000 (Phones)
KWT Cover (Phones)
Digits (Apple Products)

Update: I’ve reorganized and updated this list under a new post [Here]

Late last month I posted about how some schools are banning the book Harry Potter. Well I now have the full list of books banned which I’ve shared below. This list was created by the Ministry and the Foreign Schools Committee. The list below is for 2014-2015, if there are any spelling mistakes I’m sorry but I had to type the list below manually since I only received a print version not a digital one. In brackets I’ve also mentioned who was behind the ban and you’ll notice the schools have banned more books than the Ministry but that could be because they’re following the Ministry’s guidelines. One thing to note is that schools are recommended to follow this list and not obliged to follow it except for the books banned by the Ministry. Check out the full list below:

I missed my flight to Kuwait a few hours ago because my connecting flight was delayed. I took the picture above as I was stepping off the plane, my flight to Kuwait had just backed away from the gate and was getting ready to taxi to the runway. I missed my flight and was pretty upset. I was supposed to be back in Kuwait later today because tomorrow I was supposed to fly out to Abu Dhabi for a CTS V test drive event at Yas Marina but thats not happening now. The next available direct flight back to Kuwait is October 3rd since the flights for the next two days are all fully booked. So I’m stuck in Washington now for 3 days.

Then it hit me. I’m stuck in Washington for 3 days, that’s not a bad thing. I hear its really humid in Kuwait now so don’t think I’m missing much.

The Global Innovation Index (GII) for 2015 was released last week and Kuwait surprisingly (at least to me) ranked last compared to neighboring GCC states. The GII ranked the innovative performance of 141 countries and economies around the world, based on 79 indicators and Kuwait ended up coming in 77th place in the rankings.

43 – Saudi Arabia
47 – United Arab Emirates
50 – Qatar
59 – Bahrain
69 – Oman
77 – Kuwait

I downloaded the full report to better understand why Kuwait came last in the GCC and so low worldwide and found a few positives and negatives which I’ve highlighted below.

Positives:
Electricity output, kWh/cap (Rank 1)
Pupil-teacher ratio, secondary (Rank 8)
Ease of paying taxes (Rank 11)

Negatives:
Business sophistication (Rank 132)
Knowledge absorption (Rank 130)
Cost of redundancy dismissal, salary week (Rank 124)
Ease of starting a business (Rank 120)

Check out the full report on the GII website [Here]

Thanks Musaed

Yesterday I posted about how Harry Pottery is now banned in Kuwait and awhile ago a reader emailed me the Ministry of Education’s guidelines for books to be excluded from schools. Check out the list below:

—————————————

Ministry of Private Education Guidelines

In accordance with the Ministry of Education’s guidelines, please find below a detailed list of the types of books and/or materials to be excluded from the School’s teaching materials and subjects.

This includes but is not limited to classroom libraries, Library collection, textbooks & Scholastic orders.

I. Books with a Religious Domain that:
1. Personify God, messengers, prophets, angles and companions of the messengers
2. Distort the messengers, their families, disciples, and traditions
3. Allege religious mistreatment between Jews, Muslims and Christians
4. Assert religion as an instigator of aggression, terrorism, activism or invasion
5. Show places of worship in an inappropriate way
6. Claim Mohammed as the “founder” of Islam
7. Describe the immigration to Mecca as, “flight” or “escape”
8. Claim Mohammed was the author of the Quran, or calling the Quran the “teachings of Mohammed”
9. Claim that Islam and other religions were spread by force
10. Offend Islamic and other religions’ traditions, the companions, scholars, and laws and legislators
11. Adopt missionary connotations when talking about religions
12. Teach Darwin’s theory of evolution or the “Origins of Species”
13. Exaggerate the differences between religious sects in Islam and other religions
14. Spread information about witchcraft, reincarnation and the transmigration of souls
15. Rephrase the Quran or other religious books by adding verses and/or chapters to it

II. Books with a Political Domain:
1. View the Arab Israeli conflict with bias and/or sympathy towards Israel
2. Focus on Jewish persecution, during the holocaust, excluding the oppression of other races’ by Hitler
3. Falsify and misinterpret the history of Arab countries
4. Denounce the policy of the State of Kuwait and its sovereignty and attack the GCC and Arab states
5. Rename the Arabian Gulf, the Persian Gulf
6. Claim the islands in the Arabian Gulf as Iranian territory
7. Claim Iran has sovereignty over the Kingdom of Bahrain
8. Distort Arab and Muslim history
9. Claim that the Crusades were caused by religious persecution of Muslims and/or Christians
10. Misinterpret Kuwait’s relation with Arab and other countries

III. Books with a Cultural Domain:
1. Show naked or immoral pictures or photos
2. Contradict Islamic law
3. View marriage as solely a sexual relationship instead of a holy union
4. Condone the eating of pigs
5. Condone the consumption of liquor, alcohol, and drugs
6. Divide or split the social unity of society