Search: “sti”

re:kuwait have a good idea which I hope someone reads and decides to implement. A lot of people have phones with built in cameras which can also geo-tag photos. That means you can take a picture and the exact location of where that picture was taken would be stored in the picture. What re:kuwait are suggesting is this:

What if some government entity creates a website where people can upload photos they take of things they feel are broken or wrong, such as graffiti, broken lamps, potholes, whatever. These photos are uploaded to the website by a few people wanting to do good for their community.

The government can then prioritize what needs to be fixed for example and find the location of the problem with the geo-tag. I think that would be an amazing idea. Here is a link to their [Post]

It was very strange walking into this store since it was mostly made up of cassette tapes with few CDs laid out in the middle. It reminded me of the early 90s when the market was just starting to get introduced to CDs and so I suddenly felt the urge to pick up a Vanilla Ice cassette.

What helped with this early 90s flashback was the fact that the majority of the tapes were from that era, Color Me Bad, Culture Beat, Dr Alban, you name it and they were all “Thomsun Original” branded tapes similar to the one’s Bells and Swan Lake used to sell for those who still remember. At KD1 for 3 tapes that’s a lot cheaper than the KD1.750 we used to pay for a single tape. Ah, the good old days of The Video Club…

The store is located on the first floor of the parking lot building behind Johnny Rockets Salhiya.

The Ministry of Interior have redesigned their website (for the worse in my opinion) and with it have removed an English version. You can’t view an English version of the site which means expats will have a much more difficult time trying to check and see if they have any speeding fines and other online services. Luckily they still haven’t deleted the old English site yet and it can still be accessed by manually replacing the word arabic in the url with the word english.

Arabic site: https://moi.gov.kw/portal/varabic/
English site: https://moi.gov.kw/portal/venglish/

Thanks Avay

Awhile ago I found out the Lexus IS F is now officially available at the dealer here in Kuwait. Previously the only way to get an ISF was to import one usually from the US where it launched back in 2008. Sadly the local dealer is selling it for KD25,000 which is nearly KD10,000 more expensive than in the US so it’s still cheaper to import one.

After posting the videos of the Kuwaiti rappers earlier in the month one of my readers contacted me to tell me about his cousin. He told me his cousin was an extremely talented piano player… and was blind. I thought that would be great to share on the blog so he recorded a short video of his cousin playing the piano which you can watch above. Naser was born blind and has been playing the piano since he was 4. [YouTube]

I spotted new speed cameras on the First Ring Road. I think they measure your average speed because there are two cameras located at the start of the First Ring Road and two more located at the end. The first pair is located right after the highway 50 bridge if you’re heading from the Sheraton roundabout towards the Gulf Road. The road is only two lanes at that point and there is a camera pointing at each lane. The second pair is located right after the Istiqlal Highway bridge (road 30) when the multi-lane road becomes two lanes again.

The way these speed cameras work is they take a picture of your license plate at the first camera and then take a picture of your license plate after the second camera. It calculates the time it took from Camera A to Camera B and then calculates your average speed, if it’s higher than the maximum speed limit then you’re fined.

I know being 40 isn’t like being #1 or in the top 10 or top 20 but it’s still an accomplishment since Kuwait according to Newsweek is the best Arab country in the world. The results were based on Education, Health, Quality of Life, Economic Dynamism and Political Environment. Kuwait came in 24th place for Quality of Life while it loss mostly in the Education category coming in 76th place. That’s not good news. Lebanon on the other hand didn’t even make the list! Now that’s embarrassing. [Link]

Thanks Ahmed

Some of my long time readers might remember I had a huge issue with the BMW dealership a few years ago. Well even though I had the big fight with them I still ended up getting another Beemer after selling my old one (yup typical Lebanese). Anyway today while getting an oil change at the dealership I spotted a sign that said “Video Games”. I thought that was weird but figured they setup a kids area or something. As I got closer I spotted another sign that said “Internet” and noticed a bunch of laptops set up for people to use. I then noticed two large LCD screens connected to two PS3’s with a bunch of games laid out on the table. There was also a cozy waiting area with a huge LCD screen and a coffee machine for complimentary drinks. I should have checked if there was wifi but totally forgot to do that.

I haven’t dealt with a lot of dealerships just Jeep and Toyota but I think the BMW service area is definitely better than those two.

A reader emailed me to tell me that Kuwait was featured in the most recent issue of National Geographic Traveler magazine (Oct 2010). A cool thing of course if it wasn’t for the fact that the article was very superficial and spoke mostly about shopping at The Avenues. I’m serious.

Outside The Avenues, the 125°(F) desert air is rising in waves from a sea of luxury cars in the mall parking lot—Land Rovers, Mercedes-Benzes, and Hummers, with a Ferrari or two thrown in. Inside, I’m swept along the marbled concourse by a tide of men in dark sunglasses and ankle-length white robes. Nearby are wives, sisters, and daughters, some in headscarves and designer jeans, others cloaked head-to-toe in flowing black garments, or abayas, and some walled behind face masks . Housemaids and nannies trail behind—domestic servants imported from the Philippines, China, and elsewhere—lugging the day’s boxes and bags.

Understanding the Kuwaiti passion for retail requires a brief civics lesson. Kuwaiti citizens—who make up only one-third of the country’s expat-heavy population of three million—benefit from a lavish package of petro benefits, including plush government jobs. “People get paid for doing relatively little, or nothing at all, and they get paid extremely well,” says Mary Ann Tetreault, a professor and specialist in Gulf affairs. “Shopping is really the only way to distinguish oneself from one’s peers.”

You can check out the full article on the readers blog located at [read-my-blog.com]

Episode 1 of a series that explores Kuwait and Kuwait City in a whole new way. Episode 1 titled “India Town” explores one of the districts of Kuwait city which is Mirqab.

Although the video sounded interesting I found it extremely boring and uneventful until around the 7:15 minute mark where I could swear the driver says he’s going to play some Israeli music? I thought that was pretty strange. [YouTube]

Update: Video has been removed by the uploader

A forum member brought up an interesting topic which I hadn’t been aware of before.

It seems the one dinar note has a picture of Shuwaikh port on one side. The picture is supposed to be of the first ship which docked at Shuwaikh. It happened to be a Swiss ship, so it had a cross on the chimney, like the one that appears on the Swiss flag. For obvious reasons the cross was colored out. I of course didn’t believe the story, but then I happened to come across one such note.

The picture above is the KD1 note he came across that has the Swiss flag. I quickly opened my wallet and checked the KD1 notes I had and noticed the chimney on mine didn’t contain the flag (check image below).

I thought this was very interesting specially since I hadn’t heard of this before. It reminded me of the Saudi airlines logo which used to have a hidden cross in it as well (not deliberately of course). Below is a scan I made from the design book Pentagram: The Compendium regarding the Saudia logo and also a brief mention of the Swiss flag and the Middle East.

Thanks lloyd_911

I spotted this new air conditioned bus stop today in Kuwait City. It’s pretty spacious on the inside with one split unit providing the cold air and a long bench for seating. What’s interesting is the no smoking or you will be fined KD15 warning plastered inside. I wish they would apply that to malls and restaurants and not just bus stops.

Just found out about this site called the Dawood Treasury which contains vintage articles from old newspapers. They have a section for Kuwait (where I got the ad above from) and also sections for other neighboring countries. I think the site is still getting updated so it should be interesting once they add a lot more stuff. [Link]

Thanks e7mood

Before I started 248AM I had another blog called Miskan. Before Miskan I had a photo blog (that sadly doesn’t exist anymore) called Moblogging in Kuwait. Before Moblogging in Kuwait I started off blogging at qHate.com back when the only bloggers around were just me, Nibaq and Zaydoun from Kuwait Unplugged. Thing is I’ve posted about so much stuff in the past 7 years that I’ve completely lost track of what I’ve posted about and what I haven’t. For example it recently came into my attention that I haven’t posted about Q8Books or the original Kuwait Bookshop although I could swear I’ve posted about them before. Turns out I discovered both those places back during my Moblogging from Kuwait project in 2004 but only mentioned it briefly on Miskan and with a picture on Moblogging from Kuwait (actually called Nat my girl friend in that post back then!) yet I thought I had done a proper post about it here on 248AM. Anyway since I haven’t I figured I would do so now.

Q8 Books
Q8 Books is the only used books shop I am aware of in Kuwait. There actually aren’t that many places that sell used anything here in Kuwait which makes Q8 Books even more special. The place is filled to the brim with a ton of used books ranging from novels, kids books to cooking books and more. The owner of the place is a great guy who opened the place and runs it out of passion. They even have a website that contains all the books they have in the shop, how cool is that? The store is located on the mezzanine floor of the shopping center behind Johnny Rockets Salhiya. For store opening hours and to check out their collection of books you can visit their website www.q8books.com

The Kuwait Bookshop
Everyone knows the large Kuwait Bookshop located in the basement of Muthana Complex in Kuwait City but very few people know about their first and original store located a few hundred meters away. The original Kuwait Bookshop location was the first English bookshop to open up in Kuwait (so I was told) and the location is still open and active. Although the Muthana branch is pretty cozy the original branch is even cozier. The store is two stories with the top floor being my favorite since it feels like it contains hidden treasures. I’ve been there a few times and never seen anyone in the shop but the employees tell me they do get a lot of customers. The original Kuwait Bookshop is located near Restaurant 99 on the Sheraton Roundabout.

Note: Off topic but I think Moblogging from Kuwait was my best blog so far. Sadly it was hosted on textamerica.com which shutdown and took my blog with it. Luckily most of it is still archived on web.archive.org although 99% of the pictures aren’t. It’s still fun to flip through and read my old posts there. I used to post from my Sony Clie UX-40. To read my old posts, follow [this link] click on the first image and then keep clicking next.

I passed by the old photographer this weekend. In our previous meeting I had asked him if there was anything that can be done to help him out and he had told me he needed a few days to think about it and a few days had passed and I was curious to what can be done. I was already brainstorming a few ideas in my head trying to think about what can be done to help him get back to his feet but I really couldn’t come up with anything long term. So I passed by again and we had another long chat.

He’s 80 years old and not in the best of condition. He has an employee he doesn’t trust, a store that only does photocopies, and he makes just enough income to feed himself and put a shelter on top of his head. He told me that he thought about restructuring his shop, to get into digital photography or at least upgrade his machine in the store. But he told me it would take to long for him to start making profit and he’s 80 years old and doesn’t have that much left to live. He then told me he thought about going back to his village in Lebanon but what would he do there? He doesn’t have anyone. His family all passed away, he has a half brother who he hasn’t spoken to in years but he’s also very old. He doesn’t have anything to go back to. He then moved onto the subject of death and how his family all passed away without every going on a hajj. He told me he doesn’t want to die without ever going to hajj.

I don’t know much about the hajj or how much it costs or if he actually can go being so old (I’m sure there are some kind of groups where young people help the elderly or something). If anyone would like to help me send the old man to hajj or at least if someone can post details on what the trip involves and who I could contact for information that would also be helpful.

In case you missed the previous posts here are the links:
In Kuwait since 1959
Update on the old photographer