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Wataniya Ooredoo are bringing the music group ‘The Wanted’ to perform live this coming Saturday at an invite only event that’s going to be held at their Red Dome near 360 Mall.

I’m not a fan of ‘The Wanted’ but I’m curious to why they can bring big bands to Kuwait and no one else can? A couple of years back they brought the musician ‘Ne-Yo’ and now this.

A few months back I posted a collection of old Kuwaiti postcards which I had found by mistake on eBay while searching for something else. This time around I found a larger collection of old Kuwaiti postcards but I was deliberately looking for them.

What I find fascinating about these old postcards is the fact they highlight important locations and buildings of that era, ones that are forgotten about or don’t even exist today. That’s why for this post I’ve highlighted these two specific postcards, one of the Carlton Hotel and the other of the Phoenicia Hotel. According to this old scan from a 1966 magazine, Phoenicia was the a beautiful place where you could experience the most beautiful days of your life. Good times, check out all the postcards below.

To purchase any of these postcards visit this [Link]

Yarmouk became the first healthy city in Kuwait this month by fulfilling the requirements of the World Health Organization (WHO). Some of the requirements they fulfilled included:

– Fighting against obesity
– Having a walk marathon
– Beautification and cleaning of the city
– Setting up a well-equipped walking track
– Planted trees
– Saved power and water
– Washed streets with water and soap
– Organized exhibitions for young entrepreneurs a
– Established an environment-friendly park
– Organized cultural, social, educational and health symposiums and lectures
– Urged people to donate blood
– Combatted smoking
– Fighting swine flu

I think thats really great now if only the same formula could be applied to my area or other areas around Kuwait. Checkout the article on KUNA [Here]

Photo by Samira

As part of the blogs expansion I’ve added a bunch of new sections to the blog and because I know it can be annoying to keep clicking every section to see if there is anything new, I decided to solve that issue by updating the middle column. After playing around with it for awhile now I’m finally comfortable with the way it looks and the function it provides.

If you take a look to the right side of this post you’ll find “More from 248AM”. These are posts that aren’t on the main blog page but instead posts that have been published in one of the other sections. So if you’re looking for more content to read, keep your eye out for articles that pop up over there.

I’ve gone through a whole bunch of sports mixers over the last few years and really wasn’t happy with any of them. The majority would either start falling apart after awhile, not mix my drink properly or worst of all, start leaking. Sports mixers are used to mix protein shakes, energy drinks or nutrition supplements and are pretty common with gym goers. Recently I noticed one of the protein stores I frequent (Health Planet) started carrying the Blender Bottle brand. I purchased a small bottle and I’m in love with it, by far the best sports mixer I’ve ever used. It’s really well made, looks great, does a great job of mixing because of the wire ball wisk inside and most importantly, it hasn’t leaked on me yet. There are two sizes of the sports mixer, 20oz and 28oz. The one I got which is pictured above is 20oz which is the perfect size for me. The price for both sizes are similar coming in at KD6.750 and KD6.950. So if you want to pick one they’re available at Health Planet.

Hello everyone, although I haven’t posted here in a while, I have been reading your questions and emails. Over and over there is one question that is constantly being asked so I have decided to post the answer here, so you can all benefit.

“How can I get a release from my company?”

This question is not as simple as it seems, the answer depends on a few things (I am assuming you work in the private sector and Kuwait Labor Law 6/2010 applies to you):
1) If you have passed the 100 day probation period or not
2) The type of contract you have (specified or not specified)
3) Whether your employer was providing you with your rights as per Kuwait Labor Law

So therefore I tried to simplify the answer in a flow chart below:

I really don’t like how some employers are keeping foreigners here against their will by using a specified contract, putting travel bans against them and doing other manipulative things. This isn’t a perception I have but stories I keep hearing EVERY SINGLE DAY! So my advice to you is, if you want to leave and they won’t let you go, email your boss with all the things they are doing that are against the law or your contract, for example withholding your passport, not paying you on time, not paying you over time, working more than 8 hours a day and so on (Read your rights here)

Also I would like to take some cases pro-bono with a help of lawyer friends, so please email you if you feel your employer is not being rightful!

As for company’s please read this link that has employee rights, you have no excuse to treat foreigners this way.

If you have any further questions please write them below, I will try to answer you here.

Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
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.

K’S PATH, the local non-profit animal welfare and environmental protection organization needs your help:

You can make a difference to the lives of 232 shelter animals this summer by supporting our Summer Fundraising Campaign! Help us raise six months worth of food – which totals KD10,000 – by 31st May 2014 for our dogs, cats, horses, donkeys, goats, sheep, ducks, tortoises, turtles, rabbits, ferret and baboons. Your generosity will enable us to continue providing our animals the nutrition they need to be happy and healthy. Please do spread the word and give us a call at 67001622 or email [email protected] to make a donation. Thank you!

Out of the KD10,000 they need, as of this post they’ve raised around KD9,500 which means only KD500 is left. So contact them if you can help them reach their goal.

I have no idea whats going on with the emergency lane situation in Kuwait but there seriously seems to be some major confusion. The other day an article in the Arab Times said the following:

Jail, 3-Mth Vehicle Seizure For Emergency Lane Violators
Director of Public Relations and Moral Guidance Department and Acting Director of Security Media Department, Brigadier Adel Al-Hashash has announced the activation of a traffic law which punishes motorists who use the emergency lanes, reports Al-Shahed daily.

Al-Hashash explained those who drive in the emergency lanes will be detained at police stations for between 24 and 48 hours and the Al-Anba daily added their vehicles will be impounded for three months. He denied motorists were allowed to use the emergency lanes because of traffic congestion. He added, the Interior Ministry’s media department had earlier issued a statement in this regard. He said the law was activated on May 19 and the security authorities will implement this law in its strict sense.[Source]

First of all it seems no one gives a crap about that new law because over the weekend during heavy traffic on the Fahaheel Expressway not only were people using both the left and right emergency lanes, they were using it even when there was a police car in front of them (pictured above). No one was afraid of getting stopped, fined or punished. But then again, I’ve seen people run red lights in front of cops with no reaction from the cops so don’t know why I was surprised by this.

If that wasn’t bad enough, today there is another article in the Arab Times but this one contradicts the statement I highlighted in bold and italics in the article above. I’ve copy pasted this new article below:

Move To Reduce Congestion
Ministry of Interior has permitted the use of safety lanes on certain roads at specific times to reduce congestion.

In a statement, the ministry indicated roads specified for this purpose include King Faisal Expressway from the Sixth Ring Road, King Abdul-Aziz Road from the Sixth Ring Road to First Ring Road, and Al- Maghrib Highway from King Fahad Road to the First Ring Road.

The permitted timings are 6:00am-9:00am and 12:30pm-3:30pm, noting the times specified are the busiest in the country because Kuwaiti and non-Kuwaiti employees and students leave and return from the schools, institutes and universities during the period.

The statement added the decision was based on directives from the Interior Minister and Acting Minister of Awqaf Sheikh Mohammad Al-Khaled Al-Sabah and the Undersecretary Lieutenant General Suleiman Fahad Al-Fahad.

The road users can only use the safety lanes during the specific period and at specified locations to follow regulations, reiterating the lane is originally for ambulances, fire engines, police cars and civil defense but other vehicles can use it now, as instructed, and the speed limit is 45 km/h. [Source]

So a few days after one person issues a statement saying that no one is allowed to use the emergency lane not even during rush hour, another person releases another statement contradicting the the first person. Talk about lack of communication and confusion on this subject.

Kuwait is tied in 11th place in the latest report from Gallup on the happiest countries in the world. I guess the Happy Kuwait video did Kuwait a lot of good.

Survey Methods
Results are based on telephone and face-to-face interviews with approximately 1,000 adults in each country, aged 15 and older, conducted in 2013 in 138 countries and areas. For results based on the total global sample, the margin of sampling error is less than ±1 percentage point at the 95% confidence level. For results based on country-level samples, the margin of error ranges from a low of ±2.1 to a high of ±5.3. The margin of error reflects the influence of data weighting. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

Check out the full report [Here]

Thanks BeeJay

Sarah is a 17-year-old girl who’s currently a senior at The American School of Kuwait. Her graphic design teacher enrolled her into the Adobe Youth Voices Awards and out of all the entries submitted, Sarah’s poster (pictured above) was chosen to be one of the 20 finalists which is an incredible achievement. There are a bunch of prize categories and one of them is an Audience Award where the student with the most votes wins a prize. If Sarah wins the Audience Award she will get $500 to donate to her favorite charity as well as a one year membership to Adobe’s Creative Cloud. So if you want to help Sarah win, visit this [Link]

Note: No signup is necessary to vote

I spotted the flying boat yesterday down in Bnaider but had no idea they were planning on skydiving with it. Jumping out of a flying boat at 3,500 feet sounds absurd but they did it. Watch the video below.

[YouTube]

via Frankom

Thursday
Qibliya Yard Sale
Kuwait Scapes
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: Surprise Movie of the Month
Exhibition: 50 Years of Printmaking
Exhibition: Once Removed – Kevork Mourad
Exhibition: The Tour – Barry Iverson

Friday
Kuwait Scapes

Saturday
Cinemagics Rooftop Movie: Rock the Casbah

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]

Photo above by Allan Santiago

Someone in Kuwait purchased the new BMW i8 based on the video below which was shot at the Kuwait Airport. By far one of the most exciting looking BMWs in a very long time.

[YouTube]

One my readers has a strange dilemma which I thought would be interesting to share:

My neighbor in Jabriya has a lioness in his yard and it isn’t chained up or anything. The wall between our houses isn’t high enough and I have a young child who likes to play outside in out yard. We called the police and they didn’t know what to do and told us to go to the police station, so we went to the police station and no one there knew what to do either! We were told to come back in the moring to see someone with a higher rank who “might” know what the law says about this! What a joke!! So they will only do something when this lion attacks someone? Why wait untill someone is hurt or killed to do their job?!?! My question is, is there someone or some place I can contact about this wild animal next door ?!

Somebody recommended he contact K’S PATH but I’m not sure they can do anything about it. Anyone have any other ideas?

I got the image above via whatsapp yesterday but I dismissed it as a fake, something someone might have created to go viral but according to Arab Times its actually true. People who use the emergency lanes during traffic will now be detained at the police station for up to 48 hours and also have their cars impounded for three months. I really hope this law actually gets enforced. [Link]

Thanks Fahad