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The 2014 World Press Freedom Index is out and it’s not good news. Even though Kuwait still leads the region in press freedom, Kuwait dropped down from 77th place all the way to 91. The reason? The arrest of two citizen journalists. Here is how Kuwait compares to our neighbors:

91 – Kuwait
96 – Israel
106 – Lebanon
113 – Qatar
118 – UAE
141 – Jordan
153 – Iraq
163 – Bahrain
164 – Saudi
173 – Iran

Check out the full list [Here]

Thanks yousefq8

I was recently approached by Entrepreneur Middle East to contribute to their monthly magazine and I got the beautiful letter below today from the editor in chief which I thought I would share:

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A Vested Interest: Mark Makhoul is the Goto Reference on All Things Kuwait

As the Editor in Chief of a magazine like Entrepreneur Middle East, I find it a necessity to bring forward the best and brightest across the MENA region when it comes to contributors. This is where Mark Makhoul, Founder of 248am comes in to the picture.

After faithfully reading the current 248am posts for the past year (and the well-stocked 248am archives of endless content), I see Kuwait as a happening and interesting place in the GCC, albeit a lot less publicized. Mark really has managed to capture both the coolest hidden factors of Kuwait, and the most relevant goings-on in everything from business to hospitality. Through 248am, Mark has actually convinced me that Kuwait might even be my next weekend destination in the GCC for an interesting getaway.

Since Mark acts as a de facto brand ambassador for the Gulf nation of Kuwait and its capital city, I asked him to be our authority on the new, the now, and the relevant as of March 2014.

I hope you’ll enjoy reading his work in Entrepreneur ME as much as I will.

My Best,

Fida Chaaban
Editor in Chief

There are new gyms opening all the time in Kuwait and most of them don’t usually interest me but, when Abdulmohsen Al-Babtain (of Sidekick Academy) emailed me about a new gym he was opening called SPARK, I knew there was going to be something different about it. Actually I really shouldn’t be calling it a gym because it’s more than a gym which is why they prefer to use the term athletic center.

When you first walk into SPARK there’s a small fitness store on the ground floor with stairs on the side leading you up to the main floor of the gym. I met Abdulmohsen on the lower level and followed him up the stairs to the main floor. I was expecting it to be a small specialized gym similar to the two gyms I’m currently enrolled in, Core Fitness and Circuit+ but when I got to the main floor I was shocked. The place was huge, 2,400m2 huge. I got introduced to the head coach right away who took me on a tour of the space. The majority of the space looks very similar to your everyday gym, they had a TRX station right at the start and tons of cardio machines on the far right. Then from one end of the gym to the other they had top of the line Hoist and Bilt fitness equipment followed by a small room at the very end for spinning classes.

But, where things get more interesting was a space in the back corner that occupied around 25% of the gym floor. The space is surrounded by a high black metal fence with a large sign outside saying no one can enter without a coach. Behind the black fence is over 400 square meters of professional indoor turf, the only indoor training ramp of its kind in the world, two 50-meter sprint lanes, a sand pit for simulating training on the beach and a corner with four Woodway super treadmills, one of which can hit can hit 40 km/h.

Finally theres a small room also at the back which they call the SPARK LAB. The lab contains a bunch of scientific equipment that can perform functional screening tests, body composition tests, wingate anaerobic capacity tests and full metabolic testing. One of the equipment is called Bod Pod and is used to calculate your body composition. It’s one of the most accurate ways of measuring your body fat percentage, around 8% more accurate than skinfold calipers. I got to try it out during my full physical assessment and after sitting in the pod for a few minutes the machine printed out numbers that included my body fat percentage, my Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) and Total Energy Expenditure (TEE). Turns out if I sit on my computer all day I can burn 2,246 calories or up to 3,649 with very high activity. Pretty cool.

Now the reason I found the gym interesting is because instead of just focusing on muscle gain or weight loss, they’re focusing on athletic performance. They’ve brought in coaches from around the world (one was a Florida Gator coach) and they want to help improve athletes in Kuwait from runners and basketball players to wannabe Olympians. For example I could go to them and tell them I want to improve my sprinting speed or I want to be able to jump higher and they’ll help me achieve my goal.

The gym is already open and their prices start at KD70 a month which is very reasonable. They also have personal training but that would cost an additional KD20 per session or as low as KD15 depending on how many sessions you would be taking. It’s a mens only gym but they are opening a women’s gym in the coming month or two and it’s going to be even larger at 3,600m2, have more facilities and will be located in KIPCO Tower in Kuwait City.

SPARK is located in Shuwaikh right on top of where Shuwaikh Market is [Map] and for more information you can call them on 22282058.

Thursday night I passed by the Souk Al-Mubarakiya Festival for the second time to meet up with a friend and while taking a shortcut to avoid the crowds I ended up passing by a very unique pen store. It didn’t look like much from the outside but something caught my eye and I ended up walking in.

The store, not very big maybe 3×4 meters was just covered wall to wall with displays filled with pens and just two brands, Parker and Shaeffer. I was in awe, the displays were filled with a lot of intricate items, like they’ve been gathering up over the years and I had so many questions but the shop keeper was with a customer so I waited overhearing the conversation. The shop keeper was telling the customer how the Parker pen he was buying was made in the USA and was from the last series that was produced in the States back in 1984.

Once the customer left I started talking to the shop keeper who was called Gomes. According to Gomes the store originally opened back in the 50s but he had been working at the store since he came to Kuwait in 1977. It used to be located in a different part of the souk but that building had gotten demolished and they had moved into the current store in 1988. The store still contained a lot of old stock or in other words, vintage pens. Gomes had taken it upon himself to display some of the most vintage pens in the display cases with little hand written notes (in a beautiful handwriting I must say) about the pens. Over the years he’s also collected trinkets from here and there and he kept adding them to the display cases and now they’re all full of random objects that add so much character to the store.

I told him how much I loved the store and how I had been coming to the souk since I was a kid but how I never m
noticed the store even though it was on the main road. I didn’t buy anything since I was on my way to meet up with my friend but I did promise him I would come back. If anyone is interested in visiting the store it’s located across from the Green Land vegetarian restaurant in Souk Al-Mubarakiya. They’re open from 8AM to 1PM and then again from 4PM to 9PM and the store is called Al-Muneefi. Here is the approximate location on [Google Maps]

The manager of the Brazilian football team has joked that if Brazil doesn’t win the World Cup this summer he’s going to move to Kuwait and seek political asylum. I think that would be a fantastic idea and while he’s here maybe he could help out the Kuwait football team. [Article]

The Sochi Winter Olympics starts later tonight and if you live in the Middle East then you have two ways of watching it.

OSN
If you’re an OSN subscriber you’ll be glad to know that OSN signed a last minute deal to get the rights to broadcast the games. They’ll be broadcasting them over 4 channels – OSN Sports 1 HD, OSN Sports 2 HD, OSN Sports 3 and OSN Sports 4. They will be in HD and have Dolby Digital sound. [Source]

Arab States Broadcasting Union (ASBU)
If you don’t have an OSN subscription you should still be able to watch the Winter Olympics although not as conveniently (OSN have a TV Guide). The ASBU also acquired the rights to broadcast the 2014 Winter Olympics. According to the ASBU website, Kuwait Television is part of the ASBU group of channels so although I don’t have the KTV schedule I’m guessing they’ll be broadcasting some of the games on the sports channel. If not there are a host of other countries from the Middle East that are part of the ASBU and they all don’t require any subscription. Get the full list [Here]

I’m personally going to mostly be watching curling and luge but the whole schedule of games is available on the Sochi [Website]

Update: According to a reader you can also watch the games on Abu Dhabi Sports.

Shakshooka Nomadic Farmers Market
Kuwait Yacht Show 2014
Painting Smiles 2
Startup Weekend Kuwait
Q8CON Convention
Guided Tour: Grand Mosque
Graffiti in The Garden: Arabic Graffiti with Yousef
Seollal Event (Korean lunar new year’s day)
Souk Al-Mubarakiya Festival
Cinemagic: Goodnight and Good Luck
Cinemagic: Vicki Cristina Barcelona
Art Exhibit: Scattered, Gathered
Art Exhibit: Stages of Ascent
Remal Sand Sculpting Festival
Proud 2 be Kuwaiti 2014

Good Game is a small boardgames and card games store that belongs to a friend of mine. I posted about them last year just when they were about to open and since then they’ve been pretty busy building a small gaming community which I thought would be interesting to talk about on the blog.

The store carries games like Warhammer 40,000, Magic: The Gathering, Game of Thrones, Settlers of Catan and Lord of the Rings the Living Card Game amongst others. Through out the week they setup various get-togethers were fans of various games can come in and play against other gamers. I passed by last week twice, the first time they were practicing X-Wing Miniatures while the second time they were just setting up for a Warhammer 40K game.

I asked my friend how newcomers could take part in this and he told me you just simply need to show up. Once you pass by them they will get you connected to whatever game you are interested in trying out.

So if you want to be part of this they have a calendar up on their website with the upcoming activities. Mondays are role playing nights, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are different board game nights and every Thursday they do Magic the Gathering drafts. Saturday is open night. Check them out [Here]

Below is this months schedule for Cinemagics rooftop movie nights. If you’ve never been to them before, they’re held twice a week, every Thursday and Saturday on top of the building that has Xcite in old Salmiya. I’ll also be listing the movies individually in the Events section to make it easier to track on a weekly basis. Here are this months movies:

Saturday, February 1st 2014 at 7:30PM
FACES
The second in our Cassavetes series, where we’ll be showing a film every month by acclaimed legendary independent filmmaker John Cassavetes, who is known as the father of independent American cinema. Faces confronts modern alienation and the battle of the sexes with a brutal honesty and compassion rarely matched in cinema. Nominated for 2 Academy awards for its performances, as well as being a strong influence on Woody Allen and Robert Altman, Faces is a film that explores the dynamics of relationships, divorce, emotional and spiritual fulfillment as it depicts the final stages of the disintegrating marriage of a middle aged couple.

Thursday, February 6th 2014 at 7:30PM
GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK
Winner of over 42 international awards, and nominated for 6 Academy Awards, Good Night and Good Luck takes place during the early 1950’s under the threat of Communism most famously exploited by Senator Joseph McCarthy. CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow and his producer Fred W. Friendly decide to take a stand and expose McCarthy for the fear monger he was, playing a huge role in bringing down one of the most controversial figures in American history.

Saturday, February 8th 2014 at 7:30PM
VICKI CRISTINA BARCELONA
Considered one of the best films of 2008 by numerous critics and winner of multiple awards mostly focussing on the incredible screenplay by Woody Allen and the extraordinary performances (with emphasis on Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz). Two girlfriends on a summer holiday in Spain become enamored with the same painter, unaware that his ex-wife, with whom he has a tempestuous relationship, is about to re-enter the picture.

Thursday, February 13th 2014 at 7:30PM
SURPRISE MOVIE OF THE MONTH
Every month we’ll be playing a surprise film, where you won’t know what you’re watching until just a minute before the film begins. One thing is for sure, every month the surprise film will be either my favourite film of the list, or the most unique in one way or the other. This month’s film was won and was nominated for over 30 awards worldwide including the Oscars, Golden Globes, Independent Spirit Awards, and the Baftas. A unique, hilarious, bizarre, and poetic little film.

Saturday, February 15th 2014 at 7:30PM
DRY SUMMER (Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project)
Every month, we’ll be playing a film from the World Cinema Project. Established by Martin Scorsese in 2007, the World Cinema Project expands the horizons of moviegoers everywhere. The mission of the WCP is to preserve and present marginalized and infrequently screened films from regions generally ill equipped to preserve their own cinema history. This month’s film is Dry Summer. Metin Erksan’s wallop of a melodrama follows the machinations of an unrepentantly selfish tobacco farmer who builds a dam to prevent water from flowing downhill to his neighbors’ crops. The film went not to win the Golden Bear (Best Film) at the Berlin Film Festival.

Thursday, February 20th 2014 at 7:30PM
UPSTREAM COLOR
One of the most unique films of all time, adored by critics from all corners, a film that had audiences and critics discussing it to no end after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. Shane Carruth, the man behind Primer which we screened last year, Directed, Produced, Wrote, Scored, Shot, Edited, and Starred in this utterly mad film. I won’t even try to explain the plot as it cannot be explained in words, but I assure you you have never seen anything like this before and you will likely be thinking about this film for weeks after watching it.

Saturday, February 22nd 2014 at 7:30PM
THE ACT OF KILLING
One of the rawest and most intriguing films of the year, winning over 32 awards,and nominated for Best Documentary at this year’s Oscars, The Act of Killing is a terrifying but unmissable film. A documentary that challenges former Indonesian death squad leaders to reenact their real-life mass-killings in whichever cinematic genres they wish, including classic Hollywood crime scenarios and lavish musical numbers.

Thursday, February 28th 2014 at 7:30PM
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD
Winner of the Camera d’Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, along with 65 other worldwide awards, Beasts of the Southern Wild covers the tragedy of a Louisiana bayou cut off from the world by a levee as seen through the eyes of 6-year-old Hushpuppy. Her life is about to change as she is faced with both her hot tempered father and the melting ice-caps that flood her community, unleashing the ancient aurochs that may represent something larger for the child.

Cinemagic 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. Cinemagic 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]

The new QX series cameras from Sony are part of their new range of mobile phone cameras.Sony realized that camera phones in general are pretty limited with the majority for example lacking any kind of optical zoom. Phone cameras also have really tiny sensors so the photos aren’t very sharp or detailed neither do they do so well in dimly lit situations. Thats why Sony came up with the idea to create a new line of cameras that would clip onto your current phone giving it a big boost. I picked up both the Sony QX10 and the slightly larger QX100 from the Sony dealer for this review.

Both the QX10 and QX100 follow the same principle, they both don’t have any screens and other than the power, shoot and zoom buttons, both cameras don’t have any other controls. The Sony QX10 is the smaller and cheaper of the two, it has a sensor delivering 18MP and it has a 10x optical zoom. The QX100 on the other hand has a large size sensor that delivers 20MP as well as an added bonus of having a bright F/1.8 lens. On the downside, the QX100 has only 3.6x optical zoom, it’s double the size of the QX10 and it’s also a lot more expensive.

Lets get something out of the way. Both these cameras perform much better than your mobile phone cameras. Between the two cameras the QX100 was obviously and clearly the better of the two because of the larger sensor and better lens optics. Because of the fact both these cameras easily out perform camera phones I decided this post wouldn’t focus on the quality of the photos but instead I’m going to focus on the practicality of the cameras.

Because these two cameras lack a screen you need to connect them to your phone. That’s a fairly easy process, you turn on the cameras and then you connect your phone to the cameras wifi. You then need to download the Sony app “PlayMemories” which will allow you to control the camera and take photos. Every time you want to use the camera, you launch the PlayMemories app and turn the camera on and wait for the two to connect. This is where I start having issues.

When it comes to capturing a quick moment both cameras fail miserably. If the camera isn’t already on and connected to your phone then you’ll most likely miss your shot because turning it on and then connecting it to your phone is a process that can easily take over 10 seconds. By then whatever moment you were trying to capture is long gone.

My biggest issue is that fact the cameras really aren’t that compact.Between the two the QX10 fits into my pocket but it’s still thick enough to create a bulge, a similar bulge to one I would have if I had a slim full featured point and shoot camera in my pocket. Actually the Sony DSC-TX30 is even slimmer so I would have less of a bulge with that. The QX100 on the other hand won’t even fit into my jeans pocket.

Now both these cameras do have one very cool feature that no regular point and shoot can compete with. The QX series cameras don’t have to be attached to your phone to work. If you’re at a concert you can hold the camera in your hand way above your head and while checking and taking photos from your phone at your eye level like a periscope. You can also set up the camera on a table in front of you and then use the phones screen to setup your selfie. You could even setup the camera in one room while taking photos from another and the reason you can do all this because the cameras work over WiFi. This I think is the coolest thing about these two cameras.

Which brings me to a question, who would prefer these two cameras over Sony’s other cameras? I honestly don’t know, I guess it’s for people who would take advantage of the fact you don’t have to have the camera connected to your phone. Price wise, both cost nearly the same price as Amazon with the QX10 costing KD69.9 and the the QX100 KD147.9 at the Sony dealer. If I was to choose between the two I would go with the QX10, its cheaper, its smaller and it has the added benefit of a 10X optical zoom.

The picture above was taken by @pip41 on instagram and shows how green Kubbar island is right now because of the all the rain recently. Real greenery not plastic.

Art Exhibit: Scattered, Gathered
Art Exhibit: Stages of Ascent
InfoConnect 2014
Remal Sand Sculpting Festival
Proud 2 be Kuwaiti 2014
Cinemagic Rooftop Movie: Touki Bouki
Cinemagic Rooftop Movie: Faces
Music: The MIXTAPE Hip Hop Event
Music: A Night In at Bayt Lothan
Shakshooka Nomadic Farmers Market
Qout Market
Xcite: All good things happen on Friday
Open House at Ali Al Salem Air Base

Update: There is supposedly an air show at the Ali Al Salem Air Force base on Saturday but I can’t find any information on this online

Update2: Just added information on the Ali Al Salem Air Base event to the list above.

The P2BK 2014 event launches this coming Thursday January 30th at the Kuwait International Fairgrounds [Map] and will last up untill February 25th. This year the set up is going to be similar to last years with an outdoor old souk that was built specifically to host this event. There will be a ton of Kuwaiti businesses participating including already established ones as well as new ones plus you have the Remal sand sculpting festival taking place alongside it as well. P2BK will be open daily from 10AM to 10PM and for more information you can check out their Instagram account [Here]

On a side note, companies seem to be neglecting their websites and are starting to rely solely on Instragram. I tried to google information on P2BK and all I ended up with was my blog since their website had no information on this years event. And, none of the information was made available in English. Events like this should be advertised to the expat community as well to make sure everyone else is included to share the experience.

[YouTube]

The footage above was shot while the village was still being constructed but it still gives you an idea of how large the Remal sand sculpting festival will be. If you want to check out a timelapse on how one of these sculptures was made, check out this video also from Remal. [Link]

The Remal International Festival opens on January 30th, for more information, click [Here]

The 32nd InfoConnect exhibition starts tomorrow and will be running till February 2nd at the Kuwait International Fairgrounds. You can usually get some great deals on phones and internet subscriptions at the exhibit and theres already a thread in the Community listing some of the offers.

For more details including the exhibition timings click [Here]

Note: Their website says January 26th to February 1st but their flyer says January 27th to February 2nd.