Search: “sti”

AVICII, the extremely popular Swedish DJ posted the following cryptic message on his Facebook page which kinda sounds like he is coming to Kuwait:

Hey KUWAIT! What do YOU think about the new album songs? I would love to hear YOUR thoughts specifically!

Hope to see you soon!

Interesting to say the least. [Link]

Update: Below is a screenshot of the message I am seeing. Some Facebook users are saying they’re seeing a different country other than Kuwait mentioned. I logged in with a New York based VPN and it still showed me Kuwait so my guess is it’s probably showing the location based on where you’ve told Facebook you live and not IP related. In any case looks like it’s a false alarm.

“Amoot Alaik” is the latest single by Kuwaiti musician Aziz AlNasrallah. I posted his previous single before called Tara Aadi which was created by 8-bit sounds generated from a GameBoy. This song is a completely different style and is from his upcoming album “Adawir Nafsi”. Here’s some interesting trivia related to “Amoot Alaik”:

– The idea of the song was conceived in a cafe in Frankfurt International Airport by Aziz and Mishari Hamad after discussing the schizo nature of love/hate relationships.

– During the Emirates Air flight from Frankfurt to Dubai Aziz started jotting down some lyrics and Mishari realized all his equipment was on board and started laying down initial tracks and arranging the lyrics to the music which is why they nicknamed it the “mile high” song.

– Mishari was torn between watching “Prometheus” or working on the song during the flight.

– Amoot Alaik’s arrangement includes a traditional Afro-Kuwaiti beat (Tanboora) which includes goat hooves.

– To compliment the ethnic feel of the beat, a Swiss tuned percussion instrument invented in the year 2000 called a Hang Drum was used.

You can check out the song by hitting play below or you can check out his other songs on [SoundCloud]

Mohammed Taher is a Kuwaiti music director, producer, and writer. Like Pinot, Mohammed also recently got some online acclaim when a couple of days ago the popular gaming blog Joystiq wrote about his upcoming album. The album titled “World 1-2” is a chiptune album featuring 21 videogame composers including the likes of Mega Man’s Manami Matsumae. Everything is officially licensed by the way from Nintendo and other developers in case you’re wondering. The album comes out May 2nd but you can listen to 5 songs as well as pre-order the album from [Here]

Also, here’s a link to his music label Koopa [Link]

Booking is now open for Kuwait Little Theatre’s upcoming show Grease. The show takes place end of May but tickets usually run out really quickly so if you’re interested you need to book now.

KLT regulars including Gregory Dunlop (Danny), Jemma Standen (Marty), Karen Siemers (Rizzo) and KLT returnee Tamara Quaddoumi (Sandy) are involved in this fantastically fun production.

Choreographed by Emma Gray (of Hairspray fame), musically directed by Mike Ricketts (of Hairpray and ALW fame) and directed by Kirsty AlBahlooli (director of 2010′s Mamma Mia and 2011′s Hairspray) Grease is a show not to be missed!

Dates: May 21 to 24 & 28 to 31
Price: KD5

To book tickets click [Here]

A Kuwaiti tourist who wanted to show his children snow for the first time slipped up when he drove his luxury hire car straight onto a ski piste in Bavaria, southern Germany.

Oddly, the biggest surprise for me was that people are still skiing in Germany while it’s beach season here already. [Link]

Thanks Ozair

Around a month ago I picked up the Breville 800 Juicer and since then I have been using it on practically a daily basis. I love it, like really love it.

I was wandering the Xcite aisles in Avenues killing time waiting for a friend when I stopped by the juicers section. I was checking out some of the Philips juicers which I thought looked pretty cool when a salesman came up and started telling me about a deal they had on the Breville juicer. I hadn’t heard of the brand before and was kinda bothered he was showing the Breville to me when I told him I had my eye on the Philips. I decided to check and see what the reviews on Amazon had to say about the Breville juicer and to my surprise there were over 900 reviews giving the juicer an average rating of 4.5 out of 5. I was intrigued.

My friend had come by then and we left the store but I still had the juicer stuck in my mind. Over 900 reviews and a 4.5? How good is this freakin’ juicer? I started researching it a bit on my phone and from what I read it was basically the best home juicer you could by so once I was done with dinner I headed back to the store and picked one up.

The Breville 800 is heavy since the whole unit is made of stainless steel. Everything about it screams heavy duty including the old school button and switch. The one on Amazon is listed as 1000watts but the one I picked up is a whopping 1,500. No idea if the Americans measure watts differently or if the US machines are electronically detuned so they’re more eco friendly but the fact that the 1,000w version got such high ratings made me wonder how much of a rating the exact same machine with 50% more power would get.

Using this juicer like every other juicer is fairly simple, you throw the fruits in from one end and juice flows out from the other. But while some juicers might struggle with some hard fruits I couldn’t find anything that would give the Breville 800 difficulty. I’ve actually been making juice from random vegetables and fruits I have lying around in the fridge from apples and carrots to asparagus and zuccini. I don’t cut or peel anything not even the apples. I just throw everything in and the juicer juices without any issues.

My only complaint about the machine isn’t really a complaint but more of a fantasy request which is someone needs to invent a juicer that will clean itself. Although the Breville is pretty easy to clean and take apart it’s still a chore. Other than that flaw I really really love this juicer. I don’t remember the exact price I paid for the juicer, I think it was originally priced at around 126 and they had a special offer and selling it for KD66. But, I just checked the Xcite website and it’s showing the retail price at KD99 and after discount the price is now KD54. My guess is they dropped the price even further to sell all their stock because the website is now showing the juicer is out of stock. So sucks for anyone who wants one cuz looks like you can’t get one anymore. [Link]

Note: All photos except for the first one on top are stock photos.

Update: Looks like juicer is now back in stock

Update2: Ok it’s back out of stock again…

[YouTube]

Yesterday I passed by the Fish Market as part of the tour I’ve been giving a friend who’s visiting. We went to the Souq Sharq Fish Market which I had been to countless of times before except yesterday when we got there it turned out there were various fish auctions taking place which I hadn’t experienced before.

The market was super loud and pretty interesting to watch. It was pretty interactive in a way as well since we would be standing there like typical tourists taking photos and then someone comes with one fish and drops it onto the floor right next to us and starts an auction. Out of no where he’d suddenly have like 5 or 6 people standing around that one little fish bidding on it.

If you do take a visitor there you need to keep in mind you will end up leaving smelling like fish. Also the auctions were taking place around 4 in the afternoon and not before dawn like I would have expected them to.

I have a friend visiting Kuwait for a few days and last night around midnight I took him to my favorite touristic hotspot in Kuwait, the water towers in Adailiya. I love that place and in the middle of the night when it’s vacant it’s a very chilled and beautiful place.

The Adailiya water towers got cleaned up and painted around a year ago so they look really pretty during the day and night. They’re located inside a park that’s open 24/7 which means you can pass by them at anytime. You can also walk up extremely close to them since the fence surrounding the towers is very very close. I also think you can get a lot more nicer shots (selfies) at the water towers when compared to the Kuwait Towers since the water towers are not as tall and since there are a few of them all huddled very closely, they easily show in all your shots.

So if you ever have visitors and are looking for a cool place to take them to, I would highly recommend the Adailiya water towers any time after midnight. Here is their location on [Google Maps]

With the last update to Google Maps on the iPhone they added a new feature for traffic conditions. I originally thought these were based on estimates or general traffic conditions in that area but I now believe the traffic conditions on Google Maps is actually live.

I was on the Fahaheel Expressway heading south earlier today using Google Maps for navigation and there was traffic just before the 6th Ring Road bridge. Turns out there had been an accident and debris was spread out all over the highway causing congestion. To my surprise the traffic was showing on Google Maps. No idea how they’re getting the traffic data but I’m going to be using Google Maps a lot more now when trying to figure out which road has less traffic.

So I got a parking sticker yesterday for parking illegally, let’s talk about this from a legal perspective and a legal perspective only:

1) The constitution says no crime or punishment only by law. Can you please show me where in the law it says the punishment for parking in a no parking zone is to stick a sticker on the violating car?

2) Punishments are to be carried out by police officers. Mall and campus security are not police officers.

3) Do you know that it’s illegal to stick stickers on cars? Even your own car.

I take full legal responsibility for my actions and call for the law to be executed upon me. I know what I did was wrong and a no parking ticket would have been worse than a sticker, it would have cost me more anyways. But I just get bothered when someone does something illegal in the name of the law, don’t do something illegal to let me know that I was illegal! Two wrongs don’t make a right.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected]

The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.

The Kuwait Writing Club in collaboration with the Cultural Club at GUST will be hosting a literary night next Thursday. Members of the Riyadh Writing Club, Shurooq Amin, Sons of Yusuf and Nada Faris will also be attending as guest performers.

Date: Thursday, April 18, 2013
Time: 6PM to 8PM
Location: Gulf University for Science and Technology, Hall W6-200

For more information visit the event Facebook page [Here]

THE QUESTION
Hey Fajer, I work for a private company in Kuwait and the company has my passport (and other employees) and refuses to keep it with us because they’re afraid we might leave the country. Do they have a right to keep our passports? I was told they don’t but I’m afraid if I make a big issue out of this then I might get fired.

THE RESPONSE
So this question/answer is only for private company employees

Do employers have the right to keep an employees passport?

No, No and NOOOOO!

This is a very common question, at work and now from my readers on the blog.

Why is it illegal?

The Ministry resolution number 143/A/2010 says in (Article 1) “It is prohibited for private sector employers and oil sector employers to hold traveling documents of their employees”

Then (Article 2) mentions a punishment from the labor law for employers in the private sector who do not follow (Article 1). The punishment mentioned in (Article 141) from the labor law is as follows:

“In the event where the violator does not remedy the violation within the specified period, he shall be subject to a fine of not less than KD100 and not more than KD200 for each of the workers who are involved in the violation. In the event of recurrence within three years from the date of the final judgment, the punishment shall be doubled.” This means that your employer will get fined KD100-200 for keeping your passport.

Can you get fired?

No, No and NOOOOO!

You can not get fired except for reasons stated in the law which I won’t get into now but basically non of them is for telling your boss to be legal.

I want everyone to know the following for any labor law violations by your employers in the future:

– There is a hotline you can call (no one picked up when I called) 128

– There is a site where you can file a complaint (no one replied to me yet) https://www.mosal.gov.kw/

– There is also an NGO organized by Bibi Nasser called Social Work Society of Kuwait located in mishref www.q8sws.com Tel: 25375031 they might be able to help you with issues, even though most of their work is for domestic and construction workers

– According to the labor law, if you have a complaint against your employer, the Minstry of Labor and Social affairs will look into it before it gets to court and will try to resolve it

– If it does go to court, the court has exempted laborers from any court fees

– I sat with officials 2 weeks ago from the Minstry of Labor and Social Affairs for a research paper by John Hopkins about domestic workers in Kuwait and their rights. The officials I met with told me that an employee who’s passport is held by their employer can come in if he or she really needs to travel and get a paper from them that will allow the employee to travel

Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
Have a Kuwait law related question? Email me at [email protected]

The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.

AGi architects – General Department of Information System, Kuwait from AGi architects on Vimeo.

I honestly have no idea what the General Department of Information System are in charge of but this is the design that got approved for their new offices and I think it looks really beautiful.

The project is based on three principles: representativeness, security and functionality, turning the complex with a total gross area of 135,482 sqm into a strong civil icon representing Kuwait’s Ministry of Interior Affairs.

Building design aims for the clear transmission of a conceptual duality it derives from: technology, innovation and transparency on the one hand versus strength, stability and security, which are inherent to the Ministry of Interior Affairs that will occupying the building, on the other.

This concept is driven in the building by two contrasting layers that are superimposed onto one another. From afar the building is perceived as a light volume elevated from the ground floor, becoming a landmark in the urban landscape for the citizens, while a closer approach will show the massiveness of the stone plinth, a lower part of the building that is opened to the public the main gates and lifts from ground to hold the upper levels lighter glass structures that house the offices of the various departments.

You can also check out some 3D renderings of the building on the AGi Architects website [Here]

A new Brazilian restaurant called “Rio” is opening tomorrow in Kuwait City right next to Ubon (in Aljawhara Tower). I haven’t tried it yet but a friend of mine who went to a tasting did and told me the food wasn’t bad and the interior made him feel like he was dining in Manhattan. They’re soft launching the restaurant tomorrow (Monday) and they’ll be opening from 7PM to 11PM.

Thanks Ali
Photo above by @humaidhi

According to TMZ, the popular celebrity gossip and news website, Michael Jacksons 16-year-old son Prince is allegedly dating a Kuwaiti princess who attends his same school. It’s a gossip website so don’t take this too seriously but if true would be interesting considering Janet Jackson recently married a Qatari billionaire. [Link]

Thanks Laila