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The wife of a former British ambassador to Kuwait suffered third-degree burns after having boiling water thrown on her in a restaurant by a suspected Islamist activist, The (London) Times reported Wednesday.

Dianne Wilton, whose husband Christopher Wilton served as British ambassador in Kuwait between 2002 and 2005, was dining with a member of the Gulf state’s royal family and other friends when a woman entered the restaurant and grabbed a pot of scalding water.

The woman proceeded to hurl the pot at Wilton’s table.

The boiling water hit Wilton on the neck, shoulder and back — causing her to be hospitalized for treatment. She was released from a Kuwaiti hospital Tuesday night and will fly back to the UK for more treatment Thursday, the Times reported.

“She was extremely shaken up,” said her husband, the former ambassador.

“She’s all right but traumatized that this could happen at all. The assumption is [the attacker] singled out a table where Arab men were dining with obviously Western women.”

The attacker managed to run from the restaurant without being apprehended. [Source]

Haven’t read about this anywhere else yet so not sure how accurate the story is. But out of curiosity what kind of restaurant has “a pot of scalding water” lying around?

Thanks Najib

According to the Environmental Performance Index done by Yale University, Kuwait was one of the weakest performers and came in 126 out of 132 countries. What’s confusing is that Lebanon came in 94th place but the pollution there is so bad that we recently had an incident where one river turned red while another turned white!

So other than the recent tire issue, the desert pollution and the Mishrif sewage problem, what else is really so bad that we rank this low? I’m not surprised we rank low just surprised it’s at the very bottom of the list. [Link]

Thanks Erik

If you have a Kindle you can now subscribe to 248AM and read it on the go. Any new posts will be downloaded and updated on your Kindle automatically and of course you can then read the blog without having to be connected to the internet. I check out the majority of the blogs on my Mac or iPad but I have a few I prefer to read on the Kindle so I figured I’d make this option available to whoever wants it. Since most of my posts don’t have any videos you really won’t be missing out on anything. This option sadly isn’t free since Amazon has set the subscription price to 99cents a month and I don’t have any say in that.

To subscribe to the blog on your kindle you can either visit the Kindle Store from your Kindle and search for 248AM or you can subscribe from your browser by following this [Link]

Two weeks back I briefly posted the photo above and spoke about a Kuwaiti resistance fighter who had survived an Iraqi execution during the 1990 invasion and was hidden in that home. Well I got to meet the guy today and I heard the full story which I thought was extremely interesting to share. He wants to remain anonymous so I will be calling him Hamad in the story.

During the 1990 invasion Hamad and his friends became part of the Kuwaiti resistance. Once night one of the friends went missing while transporting some ammunition. No one knew what happened to him but 12 days later Iraqi soldiers came looking for Hamad and his friends. Their friend turned out had been captured and tortured. The soldiers captured Hamad and his friends and took them to a detention center in Jahra. For the first three days they were left blind folded sitting on the floor of a corridor with their hands tied behind their backs. Soldiers walking by would kick them and they were left without food. They were then moved to cells and they were tortured for two weeks straight.

After two weeks they were told that orders were issued to set them free and they would all be going home. Hamad and his friends along with a few other prisoners were shoved into a small van blindfolded with their hands tied behind their backs. One of the prisoners blindfold was loose so he could see where they were going and kept updating the rest of the guys sitting in the back of the van. Finally they arrived to Dasman palace and the doors of the van were opened. The Iraqis told them they would be splitting them into groups and dropping them off based on location. First location was the city and Hamad and his two other friends told the soldier they lived there. So three of them still blind folded and chained where put into a rear seat of a car and driven to the city. On the way the Iraqi soldier driving was asking them questions like what was the first thing they would do when freed and how they were feeling now that they were being freed etc..

Finally they get to the address of one of the guys and they all get taken out of the car. The Iraqi soldiers then force them down to their knees. Hamad hears one of the soldiers loading a weapon so he realized what was about to happen. He starts praying loudly when the soldier fires a bullet into the head of his friend. Hamad realizing he was about to die next decides he wants to die quickly and so lowers his chin so that the bullet goes through the back of his head. As he does that the soldier fires the gun and the bullet hits Hamad’s head and he falls down face first onto the floor. The third bullet gets fired and his friend goes down. Hamad heard that shot and realized he was still alive. The bullet had grazed him. Then to make sure all three were dead the Iraqi soldier fired a second bullet into Hamad’s friend on his left. The soldier then fired a second bullet into Hamad’s head but the bullet again miraculously grazed him again. Finally the soldier fired a bullet into the second friend and then unchained the three of them and left them dead.

At first Hamad thought they must have used fake blood and bullets just to scare them. He whispered to his two friends to stay down and not to move until they were sure the Iraqis had left. A few moments later he got up and was still out of it. He hadn’t really absorbed what had happened. He put his hands in the blood and realized it was warm. He smelled it and then felt his head and realized it was all real. He had survived an execution.

Hamad’s two friends passed away that day but Hamad managed to find help from a Kuwaiti family in one of the houses nearby who stitched him up and then hid him in an abandoned house who’s door is pictured on top of this post. It’s a very chilling story but one I thought had to be shared.

If you haven’t already done so please make sure you check out the evidence.org.kw where you can find photos of the destruction of Kuwait by Iraqi forces during the 1990 invasion. The photo above is from there and taken by Dr Adel Al-Yousifi.

Alghunaim Photo contacted me last week asking me if I’d be interested in reviewing the Spyder4Pro monitor color calibration tool. Since I’ve always wanted to try one of those tools I passed by and picked it up and then spent the weekend playing around with it.

Every monitor displays colors differently and my 27″ iMac never really felt very accurate when compared to other screens around the house. Even though there is an option built into the Mac system to calibrate the color, it involves a lot of eye squinting and results in a final calibration that I don’t trust. The Spyder takes away all the decision making from me, kinda like a little robot with a focus on keeping the colors on my screen calibrated.

First thing you need to do is install the Spyder software and connect the Sypder to a free USB port on your computer. When you run the software the first test it performs is to measure the ambient light in your room using the light sensor on the Spyder. Once it’s done measuring the light the software then asks you to hang the Spyder on top of the illustrated Spyder on the screen. The Spyder software then proceeds to perform a bunch of tests displaying various colors on the screen while the Spyder measures the results. After a few minutes the test is completed and you’re given an option to either save the new settings or go back to your previous one. You can also compare the new settings with the old one and they even provide you with a variety of pictures to use for comparison.

The best way to perform the before and after comparison is turn away from the screen while changing from one setting to the other. By flipping between the before and after I realized that before the Syder calibration my iMac screen colors were a very cool tone (cool = more towards the blue). After the calibration the colors are more balanced and even the screen brightness which was absurdly bright before is in a much more natural state after the calibration.

All is not good though since I do have a few quibbles here and there but they’re mostly the fault of Datacolor the company and not the Spyder product. My biggest issue is with the documentation or should I say lack of it. The manual doesn’t really tell you about any of the features of the Spyer and it’s also out dated. According to the manual the way to hang the Spyder onto the screen during the tests is with the help of the supplied rubber bands. But the model I got didn’t have any rubber bands and used a simpler newer method using a movable counter weight on the cable. Because of the lack of documentation there’s one feature that’s still confusing me. When connected to your computer the Spyder continuously measures the ambient room light and informs you with a a red icon if the light is different from when calibrated. What’s confusing me is what to do when the ambient light doesn’t match the one the test was performed with? Do I calibrate the display with different ambient light? Do I perform a test during the day and a test during the night? Do I switch between the different color settings myself? I have no idea what to do and the Datacolor website doesn’t even have the latest manuals uploaded yet alone answers to my questions. If you actually do end up purchasing the Spyder I would actually recommend you visit the product page on Amazon where one reviewer has a step by step guide on how to set everything up. That’s how poor the product’s documentation is.

But, even with the poor documentation I’ve still decided I’m going to purchase the Spyder4pro. The thing is it works and it works really well. Within just a few minutes after setting up to your computer you’ll start seeing results and the difference in some cases can be dramatic. It’s really something every serious photographer should have and also anyone doing any sort of design work. I highly recommend it.

Usually at the end of a review I’d proceed to place links to Amazon but in this case Alghunaim actually sells the Syper for prices slightly less than Amazon. He has three models in the store priced as following:

Spyder4expree KD38
Spyder4pro KD45
Spyder4elite KD65

The three Spyders are similar but each offers additional features than the other model. To see which one is suitable for you check out the chart [Here]

I’m going with the Spyder4Pro because it has the ambient light sensor which is missing from the Spyder4express and I also don’t really need any of the extra features from the Spyder4elite.

Alghunaim Photo is located in Baitak Tower in Kuwait City. Here my my previous post about them [Link]

A reader took the picture above in Dubai. For non-Arabic speaking readers, the mistake in the advert is the price. Instead of writing Emirati Dirhams they wrote Kuwaiti Dinars so the price of the C-Class starts at KD159,000.

Thanks Samer

Frankom posted a video of what looks like a sporting event that took place in Kuwait recently and the girl who came in first was from Kazakhstan. Instead of playing the official Kazakhstan national anthem during the flag raising they mistakenly played Borat’s version of the anthem which I found hilarious.

The look on the girls face is priceless, she’s either thinking “wtf are they playing?” OR “damn it not again!”. [Video]

Update: The original video was removed from YouTube so I’ve uploaded it again and updated the links.

Hawally Municipality Manager Fahad Al-Fahad urged citizens and expatriates to maintain cleanliness at public facilities along the seafront by refraining from littering and leaving barbeque remains, ash and charcoal.

Speaking during a three-day campaign, his teams along with the Touristic Enterprises Company (TEC), Al-Zayyani Company, Bayan and Mishref Co-opeartive Societies launched a campaign to prevent the practice of holding barbeque events in these areas. Al-Fahad stressed that such violations can be observed during weekends.

He stressed the need to create more active awareness campaigns and strict law enforcement. He also noted that special signs would be placed in such areas to enlighten visitors with by-laws and the penalties. Abdul Aziz Al-Yahia, Cleaning Department Manager said that his inspectors issued 125 citations over the weekend, explaining that fines ranging between KD 100 and 300 would be levied. [Kuwait Times]

My biggest issue with seaside BBQ-ers other than the trash they leave behind is the BBQ smoke. On Saturdays when I ride my bicycle to the gym I have a hard time breathing because of all the smoke. By the time I get to the gym the trainers think I was pigging out on kebabs and kill me with exercises. Not very fun.

I received information this morning that the Customs Union could go on a general strike anytime between now and March 15th. If you remember last year, customs went on strike and it was chaos since no shipments were being cleared. After the government promised future reforms and concessions the Customs Union ended their strike but supposedly this time around the union is making it clear that only immediate action will end their strike.

Looks like they’ve timed their strike with the release of the iPad 3 which SUCKS! I really hope the strike doesn’t end up happening.

Kuwait has one of the best ambulance services in the region and today I was invited to pass by the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Control Center in Subhan for a tour of their operation and a behind the scenes look to how their system operates. Around three years ago Kuwait literally demolished and rebuilt the EMS Control Central from the ground up which how they became to have the most advanced state of the art system in the Gulf.

The EMS Control Center are responsible for dispatching ambulances during emergencies. When you place a call to the emergency hotline 112 and request an ambulance, 112 will forward your call to the EMS Control Center. Their goal is to have an ambulance reach your location in under 8 minutes. This is not a dream goal, this is something they have to do for every call no matter where you are in Kuwait. Even if you’re on Failaka and you request an ambulance you will get it in under 8 minutes. How do they do that? Well I was taken through the whole process and I’ll try my best to explain it below. In summary, it’s one hell of a system!

The EMS Control Center is made up of three groups that sit in the department in three rows. The first row are the Call Takers, the second row the Dispatchers and their are the Supervisors.

Call Taker
When you call the EMS or have your call forwarded to the EMS, the “Call Taker” is the person who will answer your call. Their job is to take all the information from a caller, pass it to the “Dispatcher” and then stay on the line with and pass the callers instructions on what they can do to help (CPR instructions, how to slow down the bleeding etc..). The Call Taker’s have three screens in front of them. One of the screens is basically the phone, it has a number pad, a list of important phone numbers and a call history. The middle screen is where the Call Taker fills in information like the type of event that occurred (accident, heart attack, fainting etc..), event address, and caller information. The third screen has a map of Kuwait which updates live zooming in based on the address being inputted in the previous screen.

This system is all automated and very efficient. Pinpointing your location is one of the most important things since it’s what allows them to get to you so quickly. They have a number of ways of finding out where you are even if you don’t know the exact address. For example they can find you using a landmark. Say you’re in Salmiya and the accident happened near Sultan Center. They can then type Sultan Center in their system and the area Salmiya and they’ll have the location displayed on their map. Say you’re on the highway on the way to Wafra and an accident occurred but there are no landmarks around just an empty desert. Then they will instruct you to find the nearest lamppost and read the numbers on the side of it. Each lamppost has a unique number which the EMS can use to pinpoint your exact location. Once they have your location the Call Taker will send it to the Dispatchers (more on them in a bit) and a new screen then pops up with step by step instructions the Call Taker can pass on to the caller. The step by step instructions depend on the over the phone diagnosis so in case a person is suffocating the following instruction would pop up:

a. (ECHO) I’m sending the paramedics (ambulance) to help you now. Stay on the line
e. (Suffocation) Remove anything covering the face or in the mouth, then tell me if she/he’s breathing
f. (Critical Caller Danger) (If it’s too dangerous to stay where you are, and you think you can leave safely) get away and call us from somewhere safe

The Call Taker ends the conversation after the ambulance arrives. Due to the fact that people who call are usually in a state of panic, only around 25% of them actually listen and follow the instructions.

Dispatcher
The Dispatchers work behind the scenes and don’t communicate with the callers. Once the Call Taker takes down the problem and address they instantly pass it on to the Dispatchers. While the Call Taker stays on the line with the caller and follows up on the situation, the Dispatcher’s work in the background trying to get ambulances to the callers location. They have a similar set up to the Call Taker’s but with added features. For example the Dispatcher can visually see where all the ambulances are located in Kuwait along with information on each ambulance like their availability or even the speed they’re traveling. When a Call Taker passes an event to the Dispatcher an annoying (an a bit freaky) siren goes off in the whole department alerting the Dispatchers. Once a Dispatcher accepts the event on their screen the siren shuts off. The Dispatcher then does two things, first he sends the event to all the ambulances in the area of the incident, and the second is he sends the event to the “Regional Ambulance Center”. Kuwait is divided into six parts and every part has their own Ambulance Center. All the ambulances are fitted with laptops and once they receive the event on their screens the first one to answer the event in that area takes the mission. If for some reason no ambulance answers the event within 2 minutes, the dispatcher is alerted who then contacts the Regional Ambulance Center to find out why there is a delay. The Dispatcher also has the ability to assign specific ambulances to the events. So say for example an ambulance is needed on the Gulf Road near the Kuwait towers and the Dispatcher notices on his map that there is Ambulance #171 that’s just 0.78km away he could assign the ambulance to the event directly.

This whole process is done practically instantly since to get an ambulance to a scene in under 8 minutes they can’t waste any time.

Supervisor
Supervisors are stationed on a third row behind the Call Takers and Dispatchers in the emergency control room. Their job is to monitor and overlook all the calls that take place. They make sure everyone is performing their duty to their best and they also make sure the diagnosis the Call Taker’s make over the phone are accurate.

This whole system is called Computer Aided Dispatch System (C.A.D) and was developed locally by CyberMAK (Intergraph Kuwait). The system is more advanced then any other in the region (including Dubai). The system is robust and I left extremely impressed. I had no idea how advanced our EMS was. What I wrote above is just the general flow but there are a lot of little things as well that are handled automatically. For example once an ambulance drops a patient off to a hospital they can then set their status as “Ready” or “Not Ready”. If they’re not ready then they have to list a reason (from available pre-sets) like they need to go get petrol or they are heading to the garage. There’s also the gory reason which is the ambulance contains blood and needs to be cleaned. The ambulances also get real time information updates so when a Call Taker gets new information from the caller the ambulances get to see the new information updated live on their screens. Another cool feature is once an ambulance picks up a person the paramedics have a form they fill digitally on the laptop where they list their diagnosis of their patient. That form gets sent to the hospital ahead of their arrival so they can be ready to receive the patient. Then there are other features to make things quicker, I mentioned earlier that the Dispatcher can assign a specific ambulance to an event, to do that all the Dispatcher needs to do is drag the specific ambulance icon on the screen to the event icon and the event gets dispatched to that ambulance. You also have training rooms at the center, another ambulance dispatch room for non emergency cases and even seminars and workshops that take place all the time. While I was there I passed by a seminar that was taking place. The seminar was being given by American doctors to paramedics and I think the subject had to do with radiation effects on pregnancy (I guess they’re expecting something?). Something I forgot to mention, the paramedics are from ALL nationalities not just Kuwaiti.

I always complain about how Kuwait used to be better and how Kuwait needs to fix things and I have to say that Kuwait’s EMS is an example everyone needs to look at. It’s one of the first government services I’ve experienced that has left me impressed.

I’d like to thank Mr Mohammed for inviting me on this tour.

1. Kuwait City, Kuwait
2. Ahwaz, Kuwait Iran
3. Jizan City, Saudia Arabia
4. Bangkok, Thailand
5. Aziziya, Libya
6. Illizi, Algeria
7. Mecca, Saudi Arabia
8. Marrakech, Morocco
9. Las Vegas, Nevada
10. Dallol, Ethiopia

The only one that looks a bit odd in this list is Bangkok. Check out the list with more details [Here]

Update: The list has Ahwaz in Kuwait while it’s actually in Iran. Looks like a mistype.

UPDATE: Never mind turned out it’s in Saudi Arabia! Don’t know how I missed that minor detail! Also turned out to be the King Khalid Military City. Pretty cool.

Does anyone know what this strange middle of nowhere octagon compound is? It’s located right in the middle of the Kuwaiti desert and it looks huge. The more you zoom in the more you realize how many buildings there and a ton of parking spaces. I’m thinking military but it seems too big to be just that.

You can check it out yourself on Google Maps [Here]
Don’t forget to zoom in!

Someone also made the video below.

[YouTube]

Around 2 weeks back I posted a video along with some pictures of dogs that were poisoned in the Free Trade Zone. I just found out that aldaronline.com have an article (in Arabic) on the poisoning as well as pictures of the poison being placed and of how it looks like. As you can see below, it looks like regular dog food.

Not sure if anyone other paper picked up on this story but here is a link to the article on aldaronline.com. [Link]

In case you missed my previous post on this subject click [Here]

via Froyo Nation

According to the latest Legatum Prosperity Index, Kuwait ranked 35th in the world. We came second only behind UAE in the MENA region although the list missed some important countries like Bahrain, Qatar and Oman due to lack of data. Lebanon ranked pretty low but what’s most surprising is Kuwait ranked better than Lebanon when it came to personal freedom.

You can check out the full list along with more details on the Legatum Index website [Here]

According to the Kuwait Time’s photo the guys sister is Britney Spears. I’ve noticed they’ve been using random pictures off the internet for their articles. Below are two more:

Funny. You can check some more out [Here]

Update: Looks like Kuwait Times read this post and have corrected their mistake. They’ve now removed the Britney Spears photo and instead replaced it with Natalie Portman’s…