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A few hours ago the Public Authority Of Manpower announced that starting July, expats need an exit permit to leave Kuwait. The permits can’t be applied for through the Sahel App.

Although it’s all over the news this can’t be true. Somewhere along the lines something must have been lost in translation because requiring all expats get a permit just to travel can’t be realistic.

Here is the Public Authority’s statement translated to English:

In an organizational move aimed at strengthening control over the movement of expatriate workers and ensuring a balance between workers’ and employers’ rights, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Fahd Yousef Saud Al-Sabah issued a ministerial circular obliging expatriate workers in the private sector to obtain a “departure permit” from registered employers before leaving the country.

The General Authority for Manpower announced in implementation of the ministerial circular issued by the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, the expatriate worker must submit a request for a departure permit to the employer, including his personal data and the specific travel date, using the official form approved by the Authority. These applications will be submitted electronically through the dedicated platform to ensure speed and accuracy in processing.

The Authority stressed that this measure aims to regulate the departure of expatriate workers, ensure their compliance with legal regulations, protect the rights of workers and employers, and reduce violations associated with leaving the country without prior notice. The Commission also called on employers and expatriate workers to fully comply with this procedure, and this circular comes as part of the government’s efforts to develop the work environment. This circular will begin on July 1, 2025. Source

Alghanim Industries has announced that they’re now the official distributor of Starlink’s satellite internet in Kuwait and across the Middle East, North Africa, India, Turkey, Pakistan, and more. For those not in the loop, Starlink offers high-speed, low-latency internet that works through satellites, making it perfect for places where regular internet can be spotty or completely unavailable.

This is pretty big news. Although our internet is pretty fast here, our latency is terrible. Latency is the time it takes for data to travel from your device to a server and back. Basically, it’s the delay you feel when you’re trying to load a webpage, play a game online, or join a video call. Lower latency means less delay and faster responses.

According to the Sama X website, there will be four packages to choose from:

Sama X Personal 500GB
Sama X Personal 1TB
Sama X Personal 2TB
Sama X Personal 5TB

All four packages promise speeds up to 350/40 Mbps (download/upload), and 20-40ms latency. The difference between the four packages will be the bandwidth.

The rollout has already started across the region. According to the Starlink website, the service is currently available in Bahrain, Oman and Qatar. Saudi Arabia and the UAE are pending regulatory approval, while Kuwait will be available this year. Exciting!

Sama X don’t seem to have an Instagram account, but their website is samax.com

Yesterday, I came across a tweet by Sharifa Alshalfan, a member of the Kuwait Municipal Council, sharing a proposal that I think is a great idea for solving the current congestion in suburban areas. Sharifa tweeted that she had submitted an amendment to the residential building regulations, aimed at addressing the increasing number of cars in residential neighborhoods and their negative impact on the quality of life.

Currently, the regulations only allow the ground floor of a residential building to extend to the property line, while upper floors must be set back. Sharifa’s proposal seeks to modify the regulations to change this rule. The amendment would allow parking spaces to be added on the ground floor and make up for the lost space by letting the first and second floors extend out to the property line.

Key features of the proposal include:

Optional parking spaces within the plot: Giving property owners the choice to add parking without compromising living space above.

Automatic shading: The new design would provide shading for parking spaces through the upper floors’ extension, eliminating the need for separate canopies.

Improved pedestrian safety and greenery: The changes aim to create a more pedestrian-friendly environment and enhance the greenery in residential areas.

I had an architect help me create the image above to help visualize how this proposal would work. I’m actually surprised this wasn’t suggested before since it makes so much sense. According to Sharifa, the average 400m plot house can easily fit 6 cars.

Sharifa’s proposal is part of a bigger effort to update building rules to better fit our changing cities and make life better for people living there. According to her, it could take 2 months or longer to find out if this proposal is approved or rejected.

Sharifa is the co-author of “THE MULTIPLEX TYPOLOGY: Living in Kuwait’s hybrid homes”, a book on housing in Kuwait co-authored with Joaquín Pérez-Goicoechea and Sarah AlFraih. If you’re interested, the book is available to purchase at That Al Salasil in The Avenues.

Thanks Zaydoun!

This week I started watching a bunch of shows:

Bad Thoughts
Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace
Toast of London
Zero Day

Darkplace and Toast of London both star Matt Berry. Darkplace is hilarious, the whole thing is shot and acted like a cheap old tv show and I love it. Bad Thoughts was fine, most of the funny stuff I had already watched as TikTok clips. Zero Day I’m two episodes in and don’t really like it but trying to stick to it.

I also started rewatching Transparent again, used to really love the series and it still holds up really well. Super easy to binge watch as well.

Have you watched anything interesting lately? Let us know in the comments.

Movies at the Cinemas
The English movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Week:
Lilo & Stitch (7.3)
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (7.6)

Other Movies Showing:
A Few Good Men (Classic) (7.7)
A Minecraft Movie (6.0)
A Working Man (6.8)
Heart Eyes (6.1)
Home Sweet Home: Rebirth (4.7)
Hurry Up Tomorrow (5.9)
Final Destination: Bloodlines (7.1)
Pet Investigators (6.1)
Sinners (8.0)
The Accountant 2 (7.2)
Thunderbolts* (7.8)
Valiant One (5.2)
Until Dawn (6.0)

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

This is the last batch of photos from Ian Caldwell’s family collection.

If you missed the previous two posts, Ian was born in Ahmadi in 1955 and lived in Kuwait until 1975. He’s scanned over 300 Kuwait-related photos from his family’s archive, which he’s kindly given me permission to share.

This final batch of photos isn’t categorized, other than being random scenes from around Kuwait taken in the 70s.

I really like the shot of the phone booth in the middle of the nowhere, it’s really weird, which is why I had Ian send me the original scan so I could print it out and frame it. Another favorite is the main image I used of the baqala, which looks like a scene straight out of a Western movie.

You’ll also find a couple of photos of the Kuwait Towers and Gulf Road while they were still under construction, and one of Seif Palace with the original telecommunications building going up in the background.

There are also some really odd ones I’ll let you discover for yourself. Link

The whole block in Salmiya behind Al Salam Mall is currently in the process of being demolished. The block contains 5 really old buildings that haven’t been maintained in decades, but also contains really old Kuwaiti houses in the back. Google Maps

Back in 2012 I took photos of those Kuwaiti houses since they had put up a fence around them because I assumed they were going to demolish them back then. Then they never got demolished so I figured the white fence was there to help preserve them. Well they’ve now been demolished.

You can check out all the photos below or view them directly on Flickr. (Hover over the image below, album is embedded)

I actually posted about the 5 buildings a few years ago since I had found old photos from like the 70s that showed the buildings in them and they weren’t in that great condition back then either. You can check out that post here.

I really hate it when people take my images and use them without permission, so anytime I find someone doing so, I report the post for copyright infringement. The three main platforms I run into these issues is Instagram, Twitter (X), and TikTok but a few days ago someone posted my photos on Reddit so had to file a report there.

The most bizarre thing about all this, somehow, Twitter is the fastest to respond to copyright claims. It’s really weird because I’m not a premium member and don’t have a blue tick, and also because of all the talk about Elon Musk firing so many people and reducing the size of the teams. You’d think they’d be the slowest or even not care about copyright infringements.

The worst are Instagram and TikTok. Maybe TikTok more because they have yet to act on any claim I’ve made. But Instagram is horrible as well since they’re extremely extremely slow and it has a bigger effect on me since I generate my income from my Instagram content.

Here is an approximate timeline

TikTok
Reported on April 25
No response yet
Time: 16 days and counting

Instagram
Reported on April 27
Infringing content removed May 9
Time: 12 Days

Reddit
Reported on May 11
Infringing content removed May 12
Time: 1 Day

Twitter
Reported on May 12
Infringing content removed same day
Time: 7 hours

So if you’ve ever been curious to how long it takes for social media platforms to respond to copyright claims, now you know.

Also just an FYI I always reach out to the people to let them know they’re using my content and to remove it. I only report them when they refuse to. One guy last week told me he didn’t get the images from me but got them from Google so wasn’t going to remove them. So I filed a complaint and had them removed so he blocked me 🤷🏻‍♂️

Last night I found out that Smashing Pumpkins are going to be performing in Bahrain in October. For those of you who’ve been following my blog from the start you might already know they’re my favorite band. My first blog template even included “Breathing under water and living under glass” in the heading which is from their song Thru the Eyes of Ruby.

Presale tickets went on sale this morning, there were only two kinds available, General Admission and something called Premium Package which what I understood is the same but includes free beverages and canopies. No idea if beverages includes alcohol or just soft drinks so I got the General Admission tickets.

But, I really really need to find a way to get backstage access, so if anyone can help me out I’ll owe you one!

The last time I saw them live was 10 years ago when I was in LA as part of the The End of Times tour with Marlyn Manson. I shot the video above at that concert.

This is the second batch of photos from Ian Caldwell’s collection, and there is one more batch I’ll be sharing after this post.

Ian was born in Magwa Hospital in Ahmadi in 1955 and lived in Kuwait until 1975. He’s scanned over 300 Kuwait-related photos from his family’s collection, which he’s kindly given me permission to share. Last month I posted photos of Souk Mubarakiya and Fahaheel Market from his archive, this time, I’m sharing photos taken over various weekends and holidays between the late 60s and early 70s.

The photos were taken by Ian, his father Arthur, and his younger brother Tom.

I could only share 20 photos on my Instagram account, but since you guys check the blog you get to see all the photos which amount to 121. To check them out, click here.

I’ve posted about re:food before, but in case you missed it, re:food is a local humanitarian non-profit initiative. Their goal is simple, salvage excess and near-expiry food from the local food and beverage industry, then redistribute it for free to people in need around Kuwait. Usually, these food items would either be classified as waste and head straight to the garbage or sold cheaply in secondary markets.

If you’re a fan of Pret, you probably know that in the UK, any unsold food is always donated. In Kuwait, it’s the same, which is why Pret partnered with re:food when they launched. Every day, any unsold food is donated to them. According to Pret’s press release, since launching in October 2022, they’ve donated nearly 110,000 food items to re:food, who then distribute them to the families registered with them.

And that’s just Pret’s donations. If more restaurants did the same, think of how much more food could go to people who need it. It really is a win-win.

If you want to find out more about re:food, you can head to their Instagram account @refoodkw or visit their website refoodkuwait.org

A few days ago I got back from a 5-day trip to Milan. I was there for Kruder & Dorfmeister’s world tour, and Milan was one of the most convenient spots to watch them since Kuwait Airways flies direct. There was so much I wanted to do but five days just wasn’t enough. Still, here’s a list of lesser-known spots you can add to your Milan itinerary next time you’re there:

Eat
Breakfast was mostly at NOWHERE since they were a short walk from my hotel and had great coffee. For pizza head to Denis, get there early or book a table. I did seafood at Pescherie Riunite twice because it was no frills and so good. The Mogo Hi-Fi bar opened while I was there so I did their bento box lunch. The menu is by Michelin-star chef Yoji Tokuyoshi but it wasn’t expensive. Missed connection: June Collective, I ran out of time so didn’t pass by, but they’re still on my to do list.

Drink
My two favorite coffee spots were NOWHERE and Orsonero. Both served excellent coffee and delicious pastries, but Nowhere is larger, making it easier to find a table. I also made coffee stops at Il Cafetero and Cafezal, as they had convenient locations around the city.

See
Check out Time & Style for beautiful Japanese objects, and 10 Corso Como and End for fashion. If the weather’s nice, visit the Brera Botanical Garden and the Monumental Cemetery of Milan. Trust me on the cemetery, it was one of the most jaw dropping and beautiful experiences on the trip, plus Chinatown is just next door. For hand-painted ceramic plates, stop by Laboratorio Paravicini. Lastly, for art, head to Fondazione Prada, though exploring the different spaces on the property was actually more interesting than the art itself.

Sleep
I stayed at Case Brivio and loved it. Great, quiet location yet close to everything, and reasonably priced for the size of the room (Junior Suite). My plan B was Crossing Manzoni, but I chose Brivio mainly because of its location.

For my previous travel guides, click here.

Ian Caldwell was born in Magwa Hospital in Ahmadi in 1955 and lived in Kuwait until 1975. A couple of years ago, he pulled out boxes from his father’s loft filled with about 1,500 old slides, including many from Kuwait. He started scanning the ones related to Kuwait, ending up with about 300 photos that had never been seen before.

The photos were taken by Ian, his father Arthur, and his younger brother Tom. I’ll be sharing as much as I can from their collection, and I’ve started organizing them into groups based on different topics.

The first ones I’m sharing are photos taken of Souk Mubarakiya and the Souk in Fahaheel sometime in the early 70s.

To check out the photos, click here.

If you’ve driven by the Kuwait Towers over the past couple of months, you might have noticed a huge funnel-like structure towering over Bay Zero. Yesterday, I got early access to check it out before the grand opening this weekend.

The large funnel is a new water slide that’s part of Bay Zero’s new Thrill Zone. The Thrill Zone features around eight different water slides, including this funnel, which the manufacturer calls “The Abyss.” It’s the largest funnel slide in the industry and looks super iconic, especially with its vibrant colors. The entire zone is very colorful, and all the slides look epic. Oh, and I have to mention, even though the slides look big from the main road, it’s only when you get up close that you realize just how gigantic they actually are. They’re seriously HUGE!

If I’m not mistaken, the new Thrill Zone was created by White Water, since the water slides at Bay Zero look very similar to their previous projects. White Water is the world’s largest designer and manufacturer of water parks, and they’re also behind Qatar’s Meryal Waterpark, which broke the record for the tallest water slide in the world.

When I visited, workers were still busy finishing up the landscaping around the new rides, but everything will be ready and open to the public from this Thursday, April 24. On April 25, there will also be a special event featuring a concert by @sonsofyusuf.

The new Thrill Zone doesn’t require a separate ticket, the standard park entry gives you access to all the new slides. If you want to stay updated on the opening, or need info like opening hours and ticket prices, just head over to their account @bayzerokw.

Lots to do this weekend, check them out below. Always double check the event details by visiting the organizers account, I make mistakes sometimes!

Thursday, April 10
TTD by Jaune Pizza Popup
The Improv Show
GR Yaris Cup – Kuwait vs Qatar
Palestinian Poetry Night

Friday, April 11
TTD by Jaune Pizza Popup
GR Yaris Cup – Kuwait vs Qatar
Starlight Jazz and Buffet
Chadirji’s Hawally Workshop
Full Moon Women’s Circle
Kuwait Jiu-Jitsu Championship

Saturday, April 12
TTD by Jaune Pizza Popup
Chadirji’s Hawally Workshop
DAI Story Time
DAI Chess Fest
NORAEBANG – K-POP Together

The compound in Dasman that housed the original Kuwait Television studios, and later Villa Moda and Mais Alghanim, has been demolished. It’s located across the street from The Cheesecake Factory on the Gulf Road, near the Kuwait Towers (Google Maps).

I’m not sure how many people who drove past those old warehouse-like buildings knew how historically significant they were. The compound had been abandoned for over 20 years, but I always hoped it would be refurbished and redeveloped either into a creative hub like Qatar’s Fire Station, or a trendy retail space similar to Alserkal Avenue in Dubai.

Besides housing KTV, the first TV station in the Gulf, the buildings later became home to two other iconic Kuwaiti brands.

In 1987, “Mess Alghanim” which started off as a staff cafeteria for the employees of Yusuf Ahmed Alghanim & Sons Co, moved into one of the old Kuwait Television building and transformed into a warm family restaurant. It was also that year the name of the restaurant was changed to “Mais Alghanim”.

In 1992, Sheikh Majed al-Sabah opened the first Villa Moda there in one of the other buildings. He was the first to bring Western designers like Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, and Ralph Lauren to the region. Until today when I think of that store I can’t believe how ahead of its time it was.

As a tribute to the compound’s history, I’ve put together an album on Flickr that includes:
– Black and white images shared by @badshaiji from 1975
– Photos Mais Alghanim when it was still open there
– Villa Moda store after it had shut down and been abandoned
– Photos of the compound taken in 2021 and 2024
– Photos of the compound now being demolished

Check out all the photos here.