Kia ora from Kuwait

Recruitment agency owners slam private sector labor law

2010-02-16T13:29:00.002+03:00

In today's Kuwait Times we read of the slave trader's holding a press conference lamenting their loss of business. What else would you expect. Tough!

Recruitment agency owners slam private sector labor law
Published Date: February 16, 2010
By Rawan Khalid, Staff Writer

KUWAIT: The owners of local employment and recruitment agencies held a press conference on Sunday at the Hyatt Hotel to protest at the problems they will face under the recently passed private sector labor law. Under the new legislation, a state-owned company will assume responsibility for recruiting foreign staff, replacing the existing private sector agencies. Our aim in holding this conference today is to publicize the suffering of the owners of domestic staff recruitment agencies," said Abdulaziz Al-Ali, the former head of the Union of Domestic Staff Recruitment Agencies. "The other issue to be discussed today is the establishment of a shareholding company that will assume the recruitment duties currently performed by private sector employment agencies.

Ali-Ali criticized the establishment of the state-owned recruitment body, saying, "The purpose for establishing this company is to remove the name of Kuwait from the blacklist and preserve the rights of domestic staff, including their rights to food, accommodation, health insurance and return tickets." The existence of this body will "compel private sector domestic staff recruitment agencies to increase the cost of recruiting maids by opening training centers for maids in their home countries to teach them about Kuwaiti society and traditions.

Six branches of the state-owned company will be opened, one in each of Kuwait's governorates, with the cost of insurance rising from KD 5,000 to KD 20,000 in order to break the monopoly of private sector recruitment agencies, obliging the agencies to offer apartments with full facilities, reduce sponsorship periods from six months to 100 days, coordinate with the embassies to eliminate the phenomenon of maids running away from their employers, and bring competition under control.

Al-Ali also complained about what he said was a smear campaign waged by the Ministry of Interior against private sector domestic staff recruitment agencies, which he said had helped to tarnish the country's reputation with human rights bodies. He further condemned the new regulation that maids must be provided with uniforms, saying that this is in itself a violation of their human rights and contrary to human rights organizations' guidelines.

Assad Al-Derbas, the owner of one local domestic staff recruitment agency, condemned the new legislation, saying, "The aim of today's gathering is to clarify the true picture on the issue of human rights violations which Kuwait was accused of. The solution to this problem is very simple in our opinion. We are not responsible for this issue, as the facts show; we are the owners of these offices and this is the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor's problem.

The establishment of the state-owned domestic staff recruitment agency will simply increase the magnitude of the problems in this area, Al-Debras insisted, since the new body will have a monopoly, leading to sponsorship cost increases for the employers of domestic staff, which could reach as high as KD 1,000 per maid.

Another domestic staff recruitment agency owner present at Sunday's press conference, Khalid Al-Qallaf, said that the problems surrounding the employment of maids are based in the lack of regulations covering these staff and the non-existence of any comprehensive legislation on employing domestic staff. Because of this, he claimed, some sponsors violate their maids' rights, with a number failing to pay their maids any salary at all before sending them back to their home countries. Al-Qallaf was also critical of the media, saying that it had focused on the negative aspects of domestic workers' employment in Kuwait, which had tarnished Kuwait's reputation abroad.

However, leaving aside the slave traders vested interests in maintaining the status quo, there are a host of issues which the Government will need to address, in order for this not to be one failed system, replaced by another bad system. Should we be optimistic that a Kuwaiti government-run organisation will provide a better service to uphold the human rights of domestic workers and treat them with dignity and respect?

Unfortunately, whilst this initiative may eliminate some abuses in the slave trading process, at the end of the day abuses will continue once the domestic workers are bought/hired by end-users. Perhaps there should be some vetting of who can hire a maid... if you have been convicted of maid-abuse in the past.... sorry, no chance of getting another one. Hmmm... that would mean actually convicting people of abusing maids. Sounds like a good place to start in my opinion, if you want to make it socially unacceptable to mistreat your staff.

Banning recruitment of Indonesian maids is not so good for business

2010-02-01T20:05:00.002+03:00

From today's Arab Times...

Indonesia urged to lift ban on domestic workers recruitment

KUWAIT CITY, Jan 22: The Chairperson of the Kuwait Union of Domestic Workers’ Office Owners Fadhel Ashkanani appealed to concerned authorities in Indonesia to lift the ban on the recruitment of domestic workers to Kuwait, reports Al-Watan Arabic daily.
Ashkanani wondered why the Indonesian government continues to place a ban on the recruitment of workers to Kuwait despite efforts by the government to break barriers confronting the workers. He said the government has been resolving issues concerning the Indonesian workers, especially those piling up at the Indonesian Embassy. He claimed that the government has been providing facilities to solve the problems of workers, while they cooperate with the embassy to ensure the safe return of those who are determined to go back home.

Ashkanani criticized the justification for the continued ban due to the intention of the Indonesian government to include a clause to the subsisting agreement in that regard. “The sudden ban on recruitment has adverse implications on both parties, and we can continue working based on the current agreement until we fashion a new one”, he suggested.

So the largest trader in Indonesian slaves wonders why Indonesian government is putting a ban on recruitment of domestic workers... maybe the Indonesian government is displaying some spine and is concerned about the lack of human rights in Kuwait, and the number of maids 'piling up' at the Embassy using Ashkanani's (reportedly) own words.

Lots to do on Human Rights in Kuwait

2010-01-21T12:57:00.002+03:00

In today's Arab Times...

Better, says HRW on Kuwait rights ... Lot still to do

KUWAIT CITY, Jan 20,
(Agencies): Human Rights Watch (HRW) has praised Kuwait for its improved record in some aspects of women’s human rights but says a lot still needs to be done. In its annual report released Wednesday, HRW enumerated various human rights aspects in which Kuwaiti women suffer broad discrimination like nationality, residency and family law, not to mention their economic rights, even if they gained the right to vote and run for office in 2005. HRW also criticized Kuwait for excluding the stateless persons (Bedouns) from full citizenship despite their long-term roots in Kuwaiti territory.

“Kuwait’s nationality law denies Kuwaiti women married to non-Kuwaitis right to pass their nationality on to their children and spouses — a right enjoyed by Kuwaiti men married to foreigners. The law also discriminates against women in residency rights, allowing the spouses of Kuwait men but not of Kuwaiti women to be in Kuwait without employment and to qualify for citizenship after 10 years of marriage,” the report said.

“The government grants low-interest housing loans only to Kuwaiti men; Kuwaiti women, whether single or married, are ineligible. Upon divorce, married women lose their claim to homes purchased through this program, even if they made payments on the loan. A single mother can claim rent subsidy only if she intends not to remarry,” added the report. “There exists no data on the prevalence of violence against women in Kuwait. Victims are often reluctant to file complaints with the police because redress for domestic abuse through the criminal justice system remains elusive. Perpetrators are rarely arrested even when women file with the police complaints that are supported by medico-legal evidence.

“Kuwait hosts approximately 120,000 stateless persons, known as the Bedoun. The state does not recognize the right of these long-time residents to Kuwaiti nationality or permanent residency. Children of the Bedoun are also stateless,” the report said.
“As a consequence of their statelessness, the Bedoun cannot freely leave and return to Kuwait; the government issues them one-time travel documents at its discretion. As non-Kuwaitis, they face restrictions in employment, healthcare, education, marriage, and founding a family.”
Talking about freedom of expression and media the report said: In separate cases in October 2009, courts fined two Kuwaiti members of Parliament KD 3,000 ($10,500) each for “slandering the government.” The first was fined for criticizing the Interior Ministry’s treatment of the Bedoun, and the second for making allegations of corruption in the Ministry of Health.
“Kuwaiti authorities in August 2009 banned the TV show Your Voice is Heard after it criticized officials. A 2006 reform of the press law replaced imprisonment as punishment for infractions of the law with high fines,” the report added.

On migrant worker rights, the report said, “More than one million foreign nationals reside in Kuwait, constituting an estimated 80 percent of the country’s workforce. Many of them experience exploitative labor conditions including private employers who confiscate their passports or who do not pay their wages, claiming they need to recoup their fees for hiring the worker. Migrant workers themselves often pay exorbitant recruitment fees to labor agents in their home countries, and must then work off their debt in Kuwait. Kuwaiti law limits wage deductions for debt, but these
limits are not enforced in practice.

Approximately 700,000 migrant women — chiefly from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines — are employed in Kuwait as full-time live-in domestic workers. Their exclusion under the current labor law deprives them of protections afforded other workers, such as a weekly rest day and limits on working hours. Many domestic workers complain of confinement in the house, long working hours without rest, months or years of unpaid wages, and sometimes verbal, physical, and sexual abuse. Domestic workers who fled abusive situations at their workplace have often become stranded at their embassies, at deportation centers, or at recruitment agencies. In October 2009 Indonesia banned further migration of domestic workers to Kuwait in response to having 600 workers trapped in its embassy.

“A major barrier to the redress of labor abuses is the sponsorship (kafala) system by which a migrant worker’s legal residence in Kuwait is tied to his or her employer, who serves as a ‘sponsor.’ Migrant workers can only transfer employment with their sponsor’s consent, although a reform in August 2009 frees them of this requirement if they have worked more than three years (migrant domestic workers do not benefit from this provision). Sponsorship traps workers in abusive situations, including in situations of forced labor, and blocks their access to means of redress. If an employer
withdraws sponsorship, workers who flee abusive workplaces can be arrested and deported for being out of status in the country. Kuwaiti law enforcement officials rarely bring to justice Kuwaitis who abuse their powers as sponsors,” the report concluded.

On this last point, actually, it appears that is even worse than this... the August 2009 reform allowing expatriate workers to transfer employment without consent after three years is still complicated as the Legal Clinic in the same newspaper highlights here. A lawyer responding to a letter to the Editor says if your old employer doesn't release you, you have to wait for a Shoun hearing and their permission to transfer.

Several years ago I faced a similar situation where I had resigned from one bank employer and started with another, only for the first bank to refuse to release me. Apparently, they are not used to employees resigning before they have decided to get rid of you. (I had been informed not long after starting in the bank, that no one ever leaves the bank of their own accord!). It took a personal letter to the CEO to get a 'release', so I am not sure to this day whether he was blocking my release, or it was his underlings.

So I saved myself an unnecessary flight out and back into Kuwait. Unfortunately, the new employer insisted as its 'HR policy' that I had to go through the standard introduction for new expatriates in Kuwait (and therefore totally unnecessary) finger-printing and medical screening checks again. And again, the second employer was rather disappointed when I left 18 months later. Unintentionally they had their revenge (unintentionally because of their incompetence, not malice) by making me fly back to Kuwait and waste 3 of my working days to get my residency visa cancelled.

Indonesian maids held captive by Employment Agency

2009-05-21T10:06:00.004+03:00

It may be hard to believe that this still happens in today's age, but this is the tip of the iceberg I'm afraid. This article was in today's Arab Times...

One dead as hiring office holds maids captive in flat

KUWAIT CITY : Attorney Dr Esmat Al-Kharbotli Wednesday filed 10 complaints with the Maidan Hawalli Police Station on behalf of 10 Indonesian housemaids who were ‘detained’ for eight months inside an apartment owned by the maids recruiting office. The maids were neither given work nor paid during this period.
In her complaints, attorney Kharbotli said the housemaids arrived in Kuwait in 2007. Some of them worked in Kuwaiti homes for some time and because they were not paid their salaries they escaped from their employers and took shelter in their country’s embassy.
This led to the closure of files for some time of some offices that recruited housemaids. To reopen their files, the offices dispatched some of their employees to receive the housemaids from the embassy on the pretext they wanted to complete paper work to send them to Indonesia.
However, it was revealed later that the housemaids were housed in an apartment and kept behind locked doors for eight months. During that period, one of them died and no one knows where her remains have been taken.
According to the housemaids who have been freed, they saw their colleague die but did not know how to help her. When she died, one of the housemaids went into hysteria due to shock. “She is still suffering from shock,” the housemaids told the Arab Times.

Has this recruiting agency been closed down? Who owns this recruiting agency? Will their name be published? Will they be prosecuted? I think we all know the answers to these questions...

For those unaware of how the recruiting agencies operate... when you want to employ a housemaid, you go along to one of these agencies and specify your requirements - nationality, religion, age, experience, etc. You can either import your maid, in which case you go through a catalogue and pick one out to be imported, or you can take home one that is already in stock. The models in stock are usually returns from dissatisfied buyers, and are kept cooped up in an agencies stockroom/prison until they are released to go home with a new employer. They are taken on a trial basis from the Agency and can be returned to the Agency if the customer is not satisfied.

In some cases, as would appear in the article above, the housemaids in stock may have runaway from their employers to seek shelter in their Embassy. Sometimes they will be coerced by their Embassy to return to their former Agency and seek work again. The Agency may 'discipline' the housemaid for having runaway from their employer instead of bearing the suffering of mental or physical abuse, lack of pay, etc, and beatings by the Agency staff are not uncommon. (In fact, the training provided by Agencies to their new imports includes gems like "What happens if madam beats you... work harder!). Agencies don't want dissatisfied customers returning their used goods! No doubt there is some incentive for Embassies to push out some of the 2-300 runaways they are sheltering also.... particularly when VIP visitors are in town. Some may be happy to go back to the Agency for the chance that they might get a good employer next time around; others are not given a choice, and are effectively transferred from the relative shelter of the Embassy to the Agency prison, rather than the deportation process which also includes a spell in prison. Bear in mind here, that in most cases, we are talking about the victims of abuse, exploitation, etc. being imprisoned, not the perpetuators of crime and exploitation.

So that's an overview of the process, and gives a little context to the news article above.

Anyone know more about the 1300 missing bangladeshi cleaners?

2009-04-02T15:33:00.002+03:00

This is a follow-up article Rev. Andy posted back on the 3rd Nov. 2007. I posted a couple of articles back then, here and here. I presume these guys were rounded up and deported without a bean, of if they did get anything, on the proviso that they keep their mouths shut and not complain any further. Anyone hear/see what actually happened?

Where have they gone?

By Rev Andy Thompson
St Paul’s Anglican Church, Ahmadi

BANGLADESHI labourers who were the focus on an Arab Times campaign over the summer have disappeared. Mr Stan Gustas, a friend of the labourers reports receiving several distressed phone calls from workers two nights ago. Another friend of the labourers also received a call and heard the sound of shouting and things being broken and smashed. Arab Times readers responded generously over the summer in providing food and water. They gave in response because the labourers had not been paid for ten months by an unscrupulous company who had brought them in under false pretences. Due to non-payment and appalling living circumstances, over a thousand men had no water and food. Arab Times readers provided two industrial size water coolers which were bolted to the wall and this was deeply appreciated by the workers.

Today those same water coolers had been ripped off the walls and have disappeared. The few meager possessions that were owned by the workers were thrown into the gutter and are piled high in the street preventing access into the building. All the windows have been smashed and what was once the abode to over two hundred men lies eerily silent. Neighbours report the violence two nights ago and allegedly police were involved.

Many of the Bangladeshi men were waiting to go home. Sheikha Bibi Al-Nasser Al-Sabah said she was appalled and is distressed that certain companies are still allowed to traffic in human labour. This is a human rights issue and she is deeply concerned that once again Kuwait’s honourable reputation is being sullied by a few corrupt men. She called for the company to be investigated. Sheikha Bibi was in the process of helping the labourers to return home with air tickets and compensation. Other organisations were also involved in seeking help to return the distressed workers. Mr Abdulmuhsin Taqi Muzaffar from the Kuwait Society for Human Rights expressed his deep concern about this turn of events. He and his society were working hard on behalf of the labourers and recently had meetings with the Ministry of Social and Labour Affairs and the Bangladeshi embassy. He also called for an investigation to find out why these workers have been so badly treated.

Friends are now seeking to locate the missing men. The Bangladeshi embassy employed a lawyer several months ago to seek the workers rights in court. It is not known however when the case will be completed. They are aware that a new company wanted to relocate the workers to a site in Mahboula, but admitted that several of the workers did not want to move or work for the new company. Many Arab Times readers were unstinting in their sympathy and support for the labourers. “We were very close to seeing a happy ending to their plight with the imminent opportunity for them to go home. I hope that whoever is holding these men will allow them to go home to their families soon,” they added.

andythompson1968@hotmail.com

Modern day slavemasters

2009-04-02T15:17:00.002+03:00

From Arab Times, 16 Aug. 2008. A bit old this opinion piece by Ali Al-Baghli, but the issues it raises are current...

A cook, a ‘slave’ … burnt hopes

By Ali Ahmad Al-Baghli
Former Oil Minister

THE following is a true story which happened in Kuwait some days ago. This is a good reply to those who defend Kuwait against accusations of inhuman treatment meted out to domestic maids and human trafficking. This happened in a society which we like to say is generous and has good faith. An Indian cook works for a Kuwaiti family, which is known for organizing Hajj caravans every year. The cook managed to bring his son, who looks like his father and has a nice smile on his face all the time, to work as a domestic helper for another Kuwaiti family. But within a few days the happy face of the son turned gloomy. He told his father that his master beats him regularly and gives instructions in Arabic, which he doesn’t understand. As he could not follow his master’s instructions correctly, the master thought the domestic helper was stubborn and making mistakes deliberately. This miscommunication happens all the time in the country.

As this inhuman treatment went on, the father advised his son to go to the recruiting office to find another sponsor. When he came to know of this the master became hysterical and went to the office to claim the “slave” he had bought. He took the helper to his home, tied him up, locked him in a room, and branded the poor boy with a heated iron, like shepherds brand their camels. Such incidents used to happen in ancient times when masters branded their slaves to prove their ownership. The poor boy managed to escape from this prison and went to his father and asked him to find a lawyer to file a case against the slavemaster of the 21st century. At this point the Kuwait Human Rights Society got into the act and filed a case against the sponsor. However, soon they found out that the sponsor had already filed a case against the domestic claiming he was absconding. Maybe the master was safe in the knowledge that the unfair laws of Kuwait implemented by the book by the Interior Ministry would stand on his side.

In this scenario we want to pose a direct question to Acting Minister of Interior Sheikh Mohammed Al-Khalid Al-Sabah, who is concerned with Kuwait’s poor track record on human rights: what do you expect this boy to do after being beaten and burned by his sponsor? How much more suffering and torture should he put up with to ensure no case is filed against him? Where are the shelter homes which you promised international organizations to build soon, for such cases? Such questions and information on similar cases are not grabbing the attention of any government departments or religious activists, who work day and night urging people to abide by high moral principles. Maybe this case doesn’t belong to their high ethics because according to their traditions and culture slaves are to be treated with a stick.

e-mail: albaghlilaw@hotmail.com

By Ali Ahmad Al-Baghli
Former Oil Minister

Too much scope for abuse from Employers

2009-04-02T12:57:00.002+03:00

Arab Time, 30 June 2008... and the Filipino's generally get it better than the Indonesians, Ethiopians, Nepalis...

Hands off

By Rev Andy Thompson
St Paul’s Anglican Church, Ahmadi

YOU see them everywhere! I cannot image life in the Gulf without them. Hardworking, robust, they are a blessing to Kuwaitis and expatriates alike. Constantly serving with a smile and tragically among the most exploited of the workers. They are the Overseas Filipino Workers. Some of the text messages I have received on my phone this week have included the following. “Pls help us I’m afraid this week all of us will be taken by the police . . . pls have pity on us, as we are asking for justice.”
“Our feelings of joy have vanished and been replaced by fear. We are told by Phil embsy that 8 of us have cases filed against us by our employers.”

These messages have been sent by detained domestic workers. Some 95 Filipina women have been detained lately mainly because their employers had no need for them and some of them face trumped up charges. I spent Friday evening at a police station listening to yet another story of the one of the prisoners there. He was seeking to transfer his job to another employer and his boss told him to come in and sign the release form that would allow him to start work with his new company. Unknown to him his boss had spitefully arranged for the police to come and arrest him on the charge of absconding.

Happily his story had a good ending and he was subsequently released.. What is going on here? Clearly the Philipines Embassy must be deluged for requests for help. The sheer numbers of OFWs in Kuwait must mean inevitably that some will get into trouble with the law, but so many of those whom I have met are victims of petty and arrogant employers. I want to say to these employers “Hands off these Filipinos - where is your mercy and compassion?”

I love the Filipinos sense of humour, their love for music and see at times an almost childlike zest for life. These qualities are seen by most of us in their work places. The Filipinos provide a substantial workforce not just of domestic help, but also nurses, medical technicians, engineers, construction workers and service and retail staff.

The Kuwaiti authorities are in a bind. They have good laws which uphold the rights of most workers, but quite simply there are not enough pro bono lawyers, workplace inspectors, and shelter for distressed workers. The automatic response is just to put workers in jail. Like anywhere else in the world, the legal system takes time to process individuals and this is tough on someone who has family depending on them for income. It is even worse when they are in jail because their employer has a personal gripe against them.

Individual employers have far too much scope for abuse. The only solution for this abuse is to take the power out of their hands. The sooner the private sponsorship system is replaced by a government scheme, the better. Hopefully it will mean less injustice being perpetrated. In the meantime, thank God for the OFWs they are a blessing to all of us in Kuwait.
andythompson1968@hotmail.com

Human trafficking in Kuwait... an example

2009-04-02T12:44:00.002+03:00

Arab Times, 28 Feb. 2009...

Salvation for ‘Lily’?

HUMAN trafficking was one of the issues looked at by a landmark conference organised recently by the IOM and the British Embassy. What made this conference special was the way in which IOM was able to get the Embassy Labour Attaches, Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs officials, and NGOs all in the same place to discuss the management of migrant labour. Intense workshops were organised throughout the week resulting in a list of recommendations at the end. This included a statement that the “Kuwait government has reconfirmed its constitutional commitment to the protection of all citizens, including temporary foreign workers. They are committed to protecting the rights of labourers and victims of human trafficking”. Important words but implementing these recommendations will be the real challenge.
This week sees Lily (not her real name), a Filipina who was rescued from a human trafficker by the police, start her second month in custody. The police issued a press statement at the time of her rescue explaining her predicament, and how they went in and got her out by sending an undercover agent to pretend to buy her from her pimp. What the press did not report is what happened to Lily after her salvation by the police.
Lily ran away from her employer after facing false allegations, only to end up being raped and forced into a prostitution ring. She was drugged in order to make her more compliant for customers. After contacting her family, she was “rescued” by the police. She tells of how she was held against her will in a room with many other women by the human traffickers. The police after arresting the pimps also held Lily in a police cell for two weeks. We successfully negotiated with her employer to drop her absconding charge only to be stunned to learn that the police had charged Lily with adultery and had now sent her to prison.
Visits to prison revealed that Lily had signed a document in Arabic at the request of the police which turned out to be a statement that she had slept with the pimp. Lily does not read Arabic and her spoken Arabic is limited. She is traumatised, utterly bewildered and suicidal. She only came to Kuwait in order to earn money to help her four children have a better life. We have been advised that her case will not be heard for at least three months and quite possibly up to a year before she comes before a judge. In the meantime she remains under lock and key, unable to provide for her family and devastated by the crimes visited on her body and mind.
The greater tragedy is that she is not alone. Many women charged with adultery or prostitution are in fact victims of crimes perpetrated by men and the law in this case seems to fail in drawing a distinction between the victim of a crime and the criminal. In seeking to help Lily we found contradictory reports in the court system and a complete fog as to when and who can help her. Pro bono lawyers are low key and her embassy is overstretched — she is one of many hundreds of Filipinos who have fallen into the cracks.
Even more frustrating is that there is little that can be done to help women like Lily. There are few women who can provide counselling for rape victims. The police handling (all male officers) of Lily was unprofessional, unsympathetic and compounded her trauma. The absence of a network and a process which addresses these issues is shocking. The IOM conference is at least a step in the right direction. For Lily though — it is too late.
The IOM and the British Embassy are to be deeply congratulated in their efforts to address the issues that workers face in Kuwait. The story of Lily highlights the horrific nature of human trafficking and provides one example of what an ordinary worker has endured in Kuwait. I hope the conference will provide a momentum in making Kuwait a fairer place to live in where justice and righteousness will flow like rivers.

By Rev Andy Thompson
St Paul’s Anglican Church, Ahmadi
andythompson1968@hotmail.com

Can you help?

2009-04-02T12:39:00.002+03:00

Rev Andy is doing his bit to raise awareness of the human rights abuses in Kuwait in his opinion column published in the Arab Times. Here is the one from 21 March 2009. I'll see how many others are still online and post these up for posterity also.

Can you help?

“CAN we help?” is a question a lot of people ask when they hear news of another unfortunate soul who has slipped between the cracks of society. Here is a story of what happened when some friends of mine did try to help. They reached out to a Nepali lady who was injured after jumping out of a third floor window in order to escape her abusive employers. This maid had surgery on her pelvis and spine, was five months pregnant and to add insult to injury was serving a sentence in deportation jail on an absconding charge. (Why don’t they arrest the abusive employers?)

The authorities finally agreed to let my friends buy an airline ticket to allow her to go home. But when it came to processing the paperwork, the officials claimed to have lost the Nepali girl’s passport (it was found in the same drawer where it was originally deposited). Finally on the day that the ticket would have expired, out of desperation, the friends turned up the jail ready to take her themselves to the airport. The deportation staff reluctantly escorted the Nepali maid to the airport, and made sure that their annoyance was expressed by denying the poor girl use of a wheel chair and insisted that she walked the whole way through the airport and immigration in order to punish her. The abuse of this girl continued right up to the moment she boarded the plane.

She was the lucky one! She got out. Others receiving help are still stuck at the deportation centre. Tickets have been bought to allow them to go home, but they have expired because someone, somewhere will not process their paperwork. Hundreds of dinars from those who wish to help have been wasted. Prisoners are losing their minds because they have been stranded in the deportation centre for months. The tragedy is that often their tickets have been bought and paid for by people who have shown acts of charity – but bureaucratic apathy has reduced these efforts of kindness to nought. The tickets expire and dreams of going home are reduced to despair.

Please note, we are not talking about convicted criminals here. We are talking about people who chose to leave their employers under dire circumstances and who want to go home. Can you help? Of course you can. But you need to be committed and determined to see it through. Helping people in Kuwait is not for the faint hearted, but there will be reward and God sees what we do. “The King will reply ‘Whatever you did for the least of these, you did for me”. (Matthew 25:40)
andythompson1968@hotmail.com

By Rev Andy Thompson
St Paul’s Anglican Church,
Ahmadi

Press Freedom and the 'Red Line'

2009-02-12T16:21:00.002+03:00

Couldn't agree more with Shamael's article in todays Kuwait Times...

Press Freedom and the 'Red Line'

Published Date: February 12, 2009
By Shamael Al-Sharikh, Staff columnist
The political arena in Kuwait is currently playing host to a heated debate between MPs and some local newspapers. The dispute is over a most revealing characteristic of Kuwaiti life; freedom of the press.

Some newspapers have given their writers and columnists carte blanche to criticize whoever they desire in the most verbally brutal way possible short of actual slander. The targets of these condemnations have mostly been members of Parliament, much to the parliamentarians' disdain. MPs are quite upset at this behavior and have started a political campaign against some newspapers and accused them of being either propaganda tools for wealthy business families or "paid for" from the government's coffers.

MPs have continuously used the term "red line" to illustrate their belief that their job performance should be immune from vicious criticism. They have declared that quality newspapers should not cross the "red line" and should maintain a sense of respect when speaking about elected officials.

The only issue is that there is no "red line" in the Kuwaiti Constitution regarding criticism of MPs. Freedom of speech in Kuwait is a right for both Kuwaitis and residents, and the only three entities that cannot be criticized in writing are God, Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) and His Highness the Amir. Everyone else is fair game.

Furthermore, recent amendments in press legislation have paved the way for a multitude of newspapers to come into existence. Kuwait now has more than fifteen Arabic daily newspapers in print. This means that competition in the Arabic newspaper market is quite tough. Newspapers have to compete with enticing content for a relatively small readership.

Some newspapers have resorted to heavy reliance on advertising sales to stay afloat and others have resorted to borderline yellow journalism pieces to keep the readers interested. There have been many shocking columns written recently, with topics ranging from editors-in-chief of other newspapers to a condemnation of Hamas' role in the recent Gaza massacre to MPs and their political affiliations.

None of the above is illegal. I have read almost all the columns that have caused a frenzy in the Arabic media, and to be completely honest, some of these pieces were cheap insults directed at MPs whom the columnist did not fancy while others were an embarrassing display of xenophobia and ignorance. In short, they were awful examples of writing, written by awful, mean-spirited writers. But they are not illegal.

In fact, they stand as perfect testament to the freedom of speech we have in Kuwait. Even men with substantial political clout are not immune to public criticism, and Kuwaiti newspapers continue to show that this country has the greatest freedom of speech of record in the Gulf region.

There is no "red line" regarding freedom of speech, and MPs, as ambassadors of our democracy, should be the last people in Kuwait to claim that there are individuals or institutions that cannot be criticized in public. Just as voters chose to vote for a certain MP, so too do they have the right to criticize the MP's performance and to do so in the manner that they choose, provided that they do not perpetrate slander. This is the price of leadership through public office, and MPs should have been well aware
of that before they chose to step into the political arena.

If we start to self-censor because politicians and elected officials should not be criticized, then we have given our ourselves limitations on how to communicate with our elected officials and we have taken away our own right to audit their job performance through Op-Eds (since the country has not implemented the concept of opinion polls just yet).

There are very few things going well in Kuwait at present, but our freedom of the press is one characteristic of Kuwaiti life that we, the people, are unwilling to surrender. MPs must learn to accept criticism and to respond to it with action. If they cannot do that, then they would be doing us all a favor by staying away from public offices and keeping their imaginary "red lines" to mark the borders of their diwaniyas!

Email: shamael@kuwaittimes.net

Very little to add, but 'if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen' does come to mind (even though that expression is often used for expats who say anything negative about Kuwait!). If MPs object to what's written about them, they can always write in and put across their side of the story... I'm sure none of the newspapers would mind that.

Worker's rights

2009-02-11T10:36:00.003+03:00

Couldn't agree more...

The rights of workers
Published Date: February 11, 2009
By Muna Al-Fuzai, Staff Columnist

The issue I am writing about today is a nightmare for the many expatriate workers in Kuwait who happen to work for companies that are not concerned with and have no respect for human rights and laws that are meant to protect workers. The absconding cases against helpless workers need to be handled seriously because it is getting out of control and manipulated not only by law enforcement, but by sponsors as well.

I receive complaints every day from friends and relatives of individuals who are worried about the safety and well-being of people who have absconding cases against them. What is really sad is the fact that many of these cases are faked and based on false information provided by the sponsors themselves or by those who represent the companies they work for.

How is the law handling this issue? The worst part is that the police take down all the information about a person who has left his job and consider him a fugitive. I do not believe this is fair because some abusive sponsors believe they can stop giving their workers their salaries, and when the worker becomes fed up and runs away, the sponsor then simply reports the matter to police who then consider the employee a fugitive! Nobody bothers to check if the sponsor's allegations are true or not. If a police officer stops an absconding worker on the street, he would be arrested like a criminal, even if he was walking to a new job that paid him! The falsely accused can find their ways to court and I do recall some cases where employees sued their abusive sponsors instead of absconding.

Some expatriates find themselves in situations where, after coming back to Kuwait after going back to their home country, they are arrested because their sponsors have filed cases against them. This is especially dangerous for them because it is their word against the sponsors. It is no surprise that in most cases the sponsors win, and even if the employee happens to prove his story, the law doesn't take them into consideration.

What worries me here is that the arrested people in such cases are treated like convicted rapists or murderers, which of course is not fair. The process between getting arrested and transferred to a shelter takes weeks, if not months. Some ill-minded sponsors even go so far as to accuse their workers of theft, and their rights are then totally deprived of them and they are treated like criminals even though they are totally innocent!

There is an urgent need to revise the authority given to sponsors over his or her workers' freedom and rights. I believe it is time to make sure that no sponsor issues false allegations against his or employees and it is absolutely necessary for police to make sure that they verify the validity of the complaints issued against them. Why does the law always side with the sponsors and believe they are telling the truth in all cases?

The new labor law is in the process of being passed, but unless we start to give a close look at the sponsorship system, the change will seem partial and ineffective.
muna@kuwaittimes.net

Further change such as scrapping the sponsorship system will be a next step in establishing a legal framework for worker's rights. However, changing peoples hearts and minds to remove blatant discrimination, is a more fundamental change, and until you have leaders in the community who oppose discrimination in all its forms, rather than promote it, this change will be much harder to achieve.

So CBK has done a deal with Dar?

2009-02-11T09:52:00.002+03:00

From today's Kuwait Times...

CBK not exposed to Dar, Global
Published Date: February 11, 2009

KUWAIT: Commercial Bank of Kuwait (CBK) said yesterday it was not exposed to troubled firms Investment Dar Co and Global Investment House, its chairman said yesterday. Global Investment House, the country's biggest investment bank, said last month it had defaulted on most of its debt, while Islamic rival Investment Dar said in December it needed up to $1 billion in loans.

Commercial Bank has no exposure to the two firms Investment Dar and Global ... Dar and Global have settled loans owed to CBK," CBK Chairman Abdul-Majeed Al-Shatti told Al Arabiya television. Global has appointed HSBC and CBK Capital, a unit of the country's third-largest lender by market value, to hold talks with creditors. Shatti said Dar had settled its debt after selling its 19.2 percent stake in Islamic lender Boubyan Bank to CBK.

In December, CBK said it had cancelled the deal it reached with Dar in November to buy the Boubyan Bank stake. But Shatti yesterday the deal had not been cancelled. "The deal was not cancelled, we have agreed with Dar to proceed with the deal cancellation," Shatti said, without giving further details. In Kuwait, stakes larger than 5 percent have to be offered to the public in an auction on the bourse. CBK owns the 19.2 percent stake in Boubyan Bank, according to bourse data posted on its website.

Hmmm. A good example of the sham that poses as a financial market in Kuwait. If Kuwait wants to be a financial centre it needs transparency, sensible regulations & rules with penalties for non-compliance, where all shareholders are treated equally and minority interests are protected, where public announcements regarding takeovers, mergers and acquisitions must adhere to quality information standards... instead of these backroom deals being done whereby the participants are presumably benefiting from dealing from insider information... A bit too much to ask?

I hope Mr Shatti has been misquoted... a deal has been done, but it wasn't cancelled, but we have agreed to proceed with deal cancellation... work that one out!

Stories from maids that escaped their abusive employers

2008-10-15T09:31:00.003+03:00

From today's Arab Times...

Large number of Filipino maids avail amnesty, leave the country

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 14: Eighty six mostly Filipina household workers left Kuwait Monday evening, part of the continuing exodus of foreign country nationals availing of the government’s amnesty program that ends Wednesday. The group was seen off at the Kuwait International Airport, by Philippine Embassy officials who helped arrange and facilitate their departure, particularly those whose passports were retained by their employers, by issuing them travel documents. According to Halim Langco of the Philippine Embassy’s Assistance to Nationals Unit or ANU, the group is part of some 800 plus Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) who registered with the embassy to avail of the Kuwaiti government’s amnesty program. “Actually, a lot more has already left on their own, like those who did not have pending court cases against them or other legal impediments save that for overstaying their visas,” added Langco. Many in the group told of sad experiences they said they never imagined would happen to them.

Grecilda Barolan, a 32 year old single mother from Maria Cristina, Iligan, in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao, said she came to Kuwait in search of a better opportunity for the sake of her 10-year old son. “I used to work in a factory at the Export Processing Zone in Iligan but the pay I was getting was barely enough to support both of us, that’s why when the chance came for a job in Kuwait, I grabbed it, thinking it could be the one chance I’ll have to provide for a better future for my son,” she said. On her arrival in Kuwait in February 2006, she was employed in the household of a Kuwaiti lady working as an engineering consultant and who also happened to be a single mother of three grownup children.

She recalled that everything went well until several months ago when their pay kept getting delayed and began to accummulate. When they ask for money to send back home, she said they are given only a month’s worth. But this was not the reason why she left, she said. The reason why she left, she said, was in sympathy for her ailing co-worker, also a Filipina and who is from Bicol. “She (referring to her co-worker) fell heavily on her back while we were cleaning the swimming pool one day and her condition deteriorated because she was not taken for treatment; unable to move well to perform her duty because of the intense pain she was feeling, she was constantly being berated by our employer,” she said in recounting her co-worker’s ordeal.

The last straw came, she said, when her co-worker, no longer able to bear the verbal abuse she was being subjected to by their employer, snapped back and engaged the latter in a shouting match. Then, to her shock and surprise, she said she saw their employer pushed her co-worker so hard which sent toppling her into a bedroom which was then locked by the employer from the inside and she repeatedly struck and pummeled the defenseless woman.

“After that, we decided to run away and sought shelter at our embassy,” said Grecilda who added she made the decision despite the fact her employer still owes her six months pay.

Anisa Hassan, 21, is from Zamboanga City and she said she left her employer because she was being overworked and not given a day off much less, allowed to go for vacation. “Not only that, I was also threatened with bodily harm if I insist on asking to go on leave although I had already completed my two years contract,” she said, adding she is still owed two months pay by her employer.

“I feared for my safety because of the lying and scheming of my employer’s children,” says 33 year old Jenelyn Dela Torre from Antique, Panay Island in west central Philippines.

Jenelyn said her employer’s children are unruly and destructive, wreaking havoc in the house and when she would try to control them like when they were playing with kitchen utensils including knives, they would make up stories to their parents on their return home from work, that she threatened to kill them with a knife.
As a result, she said she was mauled by the children’s mother leaving her black and blue. “That’s why I resolved to get out of there as quickly as I can and ran to our embassy,” she added. A much bigger group was scheduled to leave Tuesday with the rest exiting Kuwait on Wednesday, the last and final day of the 45-day amnesty period granted by the Kuwaiti government to give residence violators the chance to leave the country voluntarily without paying any fine for those without pending court cases; and for those who opt to stay, to formalize their status by going through the proper channels.

By Boie Conrad Dublin
Arab Times Staff

...and that's just the tip of the iceberg... ones that got away and had their stories published. And what kind of justice has prevailed in these situations? How many abusive employers are hauled before the courts? Zero, zip, الصفر, nol. Instead, the maids are treated as criminals, having to be processed through police stations and the deportation prison...

These are the risks the poor take in this part of the world. Thankfully, some find an honest and kind employer. Unfortunately, it is not many. Why does Kuwait not get its act together to resolve these problems? Ah, but that would mean a change in peoples' attitudes, a re-education process to eradicate racism and discrimination, a just and transparent legal system...

Kiss closes concert

2008-10-06T14:34:00.002+03:00

Kiss closes concert

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 5, (AP): A Kuwaiti official says authorities abruptly ended a music concert by Egyptian singer Tamer Hosni when a young female fan jumped on stage, hugged the male singer and gave him a kiss. Qanas Al-Adwani, who heads the government department that monitors public entertainment, says the girl’s behavior at Friday’s concert “defied the conservative traditions” of Kuwait. Al-Adwani also said Sunday that the fan’s behavior broke controls on public entertainment, which were imposed by influential Muslim fundamentalists after they failed in 1997 to ban concerts altogether. Concerts have to be licensed by the government, and monitors from the Information Ministry watch the crowd to make sure nobody stands up to dance.

It has been reported the concert was beamed live by the Al-Rai TV satellite channel and after 30 minutes the organizers received a call from the Ministry of Information to cancel the concert. The Egyptian singer had performed only three songs. MP Mohammad Hayef Al-Mutairi said the scene damaged the reputation of Kuwait. He added the ministers of Interior, Information and Commerce and Industry must take firm action and refer the violators of the rules and regulations to the Public Prosecution.

Yep, believe it or not... these kissing terrorists must be stopped by all means! So let's get the Ministers of Interior, (mis)Information, and Commerce & Industry involved to stop these acts of terror.

(And for those readers that obviously don't get my sense of humour, and before you hit the comments button - I am being sarcastic).

The honourable gentlemen Qanas Al-Adwani & MP Mohammad Hayef Al-Mutairi are probably oblivious to the fact that their words and actions are doing significantly more damage to the reputation of Kuwait than some Egyptian singer's fan... Where are the mullah's denouncing this distorted view of morality? Guys, you ain't going to get more brownie points and get ahead in the queue for heaven with these stupid & petty rules...

When it comes time to leave Kuwait

2008-09-13T21:00:00.004+03:00

From today's Arab Times, the joys of leaving Kuwait...

Boss refuses to hand over Colombian’s passport; Top officials help end expat’s ordeal

Imagine being in a place where your country has no diplomatic relations and unexpectedly find yourself in trouble with your employer... all because you refuse to hand over your passport. A Colombian national working for a car armoring company never had any inkling that he would one day get into trouble for refusing to hand his passport to his employer. Thirty year old Jimmy Alexander Cuellar Pineda, a native of Bogota, an armored car technician was among a group of seven Colombians hired in their country to work in Kuwait; arriving in the country in early 2006. “Everything went well at first. After one year, I asked and was allowed to go for three months leave to visit my family, especially my 10-year old daughter who I am very fond of,” says Jimmy in a recent interview with the Arab Times.

After almost a year and a half since he came back from vacation, business dwindled down and there was not much work to be done and according to Jimmy, he told his boss he would like to go on leave. But his employer reportedly told him he needs him around as he expects new orders coming in.
Co-workers “As there was no work to be done, our Filipino co-workers would spend most of their time playing basketball while the rest of us would try to find anything to do to keep from being bored,” says Jimmy. Weeks and months went by and still nothing happened so he approached his boss once more but this time, not to go on holiday but to leave for good. He said his employer tried to persuade him to stay as his services will be needed, again with the same excuse that new orders will be coming in shortly, but he said he has already made up his mind.

In early morning of Friday, August 1, he said his boss came to the house where he was staying in Qurtoba and asked for his passport. When he asked what for, he was told all employees’ passports must be deposited with the company but he refused, telling his boss, “I have to hold on to my passport as we have no embassy here. Besides, I had this with me ever since I arrived in this country and you did not require me then to hand it over, why only now,” he reportedly told his boss who immediately left.
Later that day, he said he got a call from a Filipino friend inviting him for lunch at a Filipino restaurant in downtown Kuwait City but when he was about to leave, found the doors locked. At this, he called an Indian national working in the house and asked why the doors were locked and to open it because he was going out.
The guy told him it was his employer’s order to lock the door. He then said he called up his boss to ask why he was being locked inside the house and his boss reportedly asked him where he was going and told him to wait as he would come by to take him there.
After about an hour, his boss arrived with the company “mandoob” or liaison officer and they drove him to the downtown restaurant where his Filipino friend was waiting but his boss reportedly told him he could be planning something with his friend and again asked for his passport-adamantly, this time but he still refused.
Then his boss told him to get back in the car and they drove to a nearby police station in Salhiya.
At the station, the mandoob got down and went inside while he and his boss waited in the car. The latter reportedly asked him if he was not afraid of the police to which he replied he was not because he has done nothing wrong.
After a while, the mandoob came back and they all went inside the station and while waiting for someone, his boss again asked that he hand over his passport but he still refused. Then, the mandoob returned and escorted them to an office where a police official waited.
The official, who he said spoke just a little English, reportedly asked him if he knows Arabic and he replied no.
Passport
Then, he said his boss and the police official talked to each other and saw the former take out a business card and handed it to the latter. Afterwards, the police official, in broken English asked to see his passport. He said he handed it to the official who, after some cursory look returned it to him. Apparently, the officer was aware that it was prohibited to take a foreign national’s passport from him.
Instead, the official persuaded him to give the passport to his employer telling him it was alright and that it was common practice for employers to hold these for safekeeping purposes. “Under pressure at the time, I reluctantly obliged,” Jimmy recounted.
After that, his employer let him go but instead of returning to his place, wary that he might be locked in again, he decided to go somewhere else and called a friend who got him in touch with people from the diplomatic community who readily extended their help upon learning of his travails; these good Samaritans also helped him get in touch with his country’s nearest diplomatic mission which was in Beirut, Lebanon.
“I also called my company in Colombia to apprise them of my problem and they said they will try to contact the nearest Colombian embassies in the region, in Cairo and in Beirut, to extend whatever assistance to me,” Jimmy said.
The Colombian Embassy in Beirut reportedly told him they could issue him a new passport and send it to him immediately. But, he said, without a residence stamped, a new passport would be useless and he still would not be able to leave Kuwait, leaving him in a quandary. His benefactors did not abandon him. They put him up in a safe place in comfortable quarters and took care of his personal needs as well.
Not only that, they brought his case to the attention of UN agencies which then contacted local officials to apprise them of his situation. Because of it, he received a call from his employer asking him to report to the company to talk things over amicably. Wary but with the assurance of his “new” friends, he went to see his employer.
On their meeting, his employer reportedly told him there was no need to take the issue up with authorities, and that he can leave anytime but must submit his resignation letter first as a pre-requisite to cancel his residence.
He then left to prepare the resignation letter and sent it by courier right after. But half an hour later, he got a call from his boss’ secretary informing him they have not received it.
He said he immediately called one of his one friends at the company, his supervisor and compatriot who advised him to email his resignation letter to him and he would be the one to take it to their boss.
Resignation
Two days went by before he received a call from the secretary that they already have his resignation letter but that he should come to affix his signature.
“I immediately went to our office and after signing the resignation letter, my boss told the secretary to give me money, about ten days worth of pay which I said, I do not really need but my passport,” says Jimmy.

His employer reportedly then told him to sign a document written in Arabic but he politely refused, saying he could not sign anything that he does not understand, and asked to be excuse for a while, taking the paper with him. He said he called up an Arab friend who came after about two hours and after reading the paper said it was alright to sign it, as it was only a requirement before his residence will be cancelled. He said his boss angrily asked him where he went and why it took him so long just to sign the paper. Afterwards, he was told that in three days time, the mandoob will accompany him to the shoun for the cancellation of his residence. That day came and this time, his residence was finally cancelled but still, his employer would not give him back his passport.

It was only after two weeks that he was finally able to get hold of his passport but not before pressure was exerted on his employer by a high ranking government official after calls from the Colombian government that it would lodge a protest with the Kuwaiti government over the treatment of one of their nationals, and from two UN agencies in Kuwait. “I could not remember of any problem whatsoever, that I may have had with my employer or my co-workers,” Jimmy said during the interview with the Arab Times at an undisclosed place a couple of weeks before his ordeal came to an end when he was finally able to leave the country through the help of good Samaritans. After thanking his benefactors and everyone who helped in his case, Jimmy Alexander Cuellar Pineda finally left Kuwait last Friday, Sept 5 taking with him unpleasant memories of his ordeal.

By Boie Conrad Dublin
Arab Times Staff

This is why I would advise, if you don't intend to come back to Kuwait, buy your own ticket if you can afford it and leave on a holiday, then submit your resignation... Of course, as I intended to visit Kuwait for business (and pleasure!?) in the future I went through the pain of returning to Kuwait and suffering at the hands of the bank's HR department and Kuwaiti bureaucracy for 3 days at my own expense so I could get my working permit and visa officially cancelled and get my final dues which had been withheld... and then missed my flight on the 3rd day as I waited for my passport to be returned. I was still fortunate. If I had been in dispute with my Employer it would no doubt have been worse.

Kuwait must implement anti-human trafficking measures

2008-05-13T11:14:00.002+03:00

And finally for today, it seems like Kuwait will drop back down to level 3 in the USA's State Department Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report.

Kuwait must intensify efforts to tackle human trafficking problem

KUWAIT CITY : Kuwait might again land in Tier 3 in the US Security Department’s Trafficking-in Persons (TIP) report for 2008, Charge d’ Affaires at the US Embassy in Kuwait Alan Misenheimer told Al-Qabas. In a letter forwarded to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, Misenheimer clarified Kuwait was included in Tier 3 in the 2007 TIP report but was later put in Tier 2 through a presidential decree issued in Oct, 2007. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TPVA) of 2000 lists three factors to be considered in determining whether a country should be in Tier 2 (or Tier 2 Watch List) or in Tier 3: the extent to which the country is a country of origin, transit or destination for severe forms of trafficking; the extent to which the government of the country does not comply with TVPA’s minimum standards, in particular, the extent of the government’s trafficking-related corruption; and the resources and capabilities of the government to address and eliminate severe forms of trafficking in persons. Governments that do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so are placed in Tier 3.

Concrete
Misenheimer explained Kuwait was placed in Tier 2 after its government took concrete steps to address the issue, which include the establishment of a shelter for runaway household helpers, enactment of the anti-trafficking law, and increased number of trials and verdicts on trafficking in persons cases. He added the government also offered training programs for law enforcement officers, lawyers and judges on ways to enhance their skills in investigating and prosecuting human traffickers and identifying the victims. However, Misenheimer pointed out these steps are not enough as Kuwait failed to make and remarkable progress and this might result in its being placed in Tier 3 again in the 2008 TIP report. He called on the Kuwaiti authorities to intensify their efforts to address the problem. He also proposed the issuance of an Amiri decree to combat human trafficking in the country and serve as an example to other countries. He said the US Embassy is willing to help Kuwait eradicate this negative phenomenon. On the other hand, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor assessed the existing laws in Kuwait vis-à-vis a proposed anti-trafficking bill and found a number of similarities.

Proven
Article 179 of Kuwait’s law stipulates a punishment of life imprisonment on anyone proven to have abducted a person below 21 years old which, the Ministry said, is also included in the proposed bill. Other similarities found include Article 184 on imposing a three-year jail term on those trafficking in domestic workers while Article 185 stipulates a maximum of five years imprisonment for those who ‘buy or sell’ a person as a slave.

Once again no doubt, we will see lots of denial, attempts to shift blame (it's all a jewish conspiracy, how dare the USA comment on our problems when they have their own problems such as Guantanamo, Abu-Graib, etc, blah, blah, blah...) and pleading to get back up to level 2 again. And, Bush will probably cave in again. I wonder if the next President will be as easily coerced.

Deport the alleged troublemakers

2008-05-13T11:06:00.002+03:00

On a roll today. The Arab Times this time.

Pinoys’ deportation delayed

KUWAIT CITY : The deportation of the seven Filipino truck drivers who were accused of allegedly leading a protest in one of the trucking companies in Kuwait last month was called off on Sunday due to the non-cancellation of their work visas on their passports, disclosed on Monday Philippine Labour Attache Leopoldo De Jesus to the Arab Times. He informed that the seven Filipino workers were already on their way to the airport on Sunday night when they were informed by authorities that they have to go back to the deportation centre since the company did not cancel their work permits at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour.

Fly
“Hopefully, they can fly anytime within this week as soon as the cancellation process has been done and the rebooking of their air tickets,” pointed out De Jesus. He added that five of the seven workers received all their termination benefits from their company while the two workers authorised the Philippine Overseas Labour Office to claim the benefits on their behalf. “We tried our best to help them so they can be freed and continue with their jobs but we have to abide by the law of Kuwait and respect the decision of Kuwaiti authorities,” stressed De Jesus. It may be recalled that these seven workers were arrested for allegedly instigating their co-workers to stage a sit-in protest that led to a commotion between the workers and the police that partly damaged one of the police cars.

Why are they deporting only the Filipinos? They were not the ones who damaged the car. They were inside the police car when the other workers swarmed into the vehicle and damaged its windows. Why put the blame only on the Filipinos? How about the other nationals” lamented one of the truck drivers who pities the seven Filipino workers.

About 400 workers mostly truck drivers of various nationalities namely Filipinos, Indians, Egyptians, Nepalese, Bangladeshi and Pakistanis participated in the mass action on April 16 to demand from the c ompany an increase in their basic salary from KD 100-110 to KD 250 per month and an increase in their per trip allowance due to the hike in the prices of basic commodities in Kuwait and the low foreign exchange rate. Most of the truck drivers who ply to Iraq demanded an increase in the per trip allowance from KD 10 to KD 40 while those who ply within Kuwait demanded an increase from KD 3 to KD 15 per trip. De Jesus earlier met with the management who vowed to look into the workers’ demands. Most of the truck drivers resume work as they wait for the decision of the company to act on their demands.

By Michelle Fe Santiago
Special to the Arab Times

How dare foreigners allegedly protest their conditions of slavery. Just deport the alleged troublemakers, if we can sort out their paperwork... and we all know that those pesky Pinoys are pretty bolshie when they get treated poorly. You couldn't make up this farce if you tried.

Good luck Mr Avery fighting the Kuwaiti (in)justice system

2008-05-13T11:01:00.002+03:00

Another interesting insight into Kuwait's (in)justice system...

An American in Kuwait fights for his name, rights

Published Date: May 13, 2008
By Nawara Fattahova, Staff writer

KUWAIT: It's hard when somebody is falsely accused of committing a crime. And the situation becomes more difficult if this person loses his job and his reputation is defamed. The case of Allan Avery, an American citizen, who was employed with a US military contracting company working in Kuwait is not decided yet. But Avery claims he was innocent and is fighting charges of drug trafficking and illegal possession in Kuwait in order to prove his claim and clear his name.

Avery's ordeal began late last year. On the night of Oct 27, he was arrested along with two other American contractors while sitting in a car in Sabah Al-Salem area. He was taken to jail and detained for 12 days without charge. Finally, he was sent to the Public Prosecution and charged with drug trafficking, abandonment, and illegal possession of drugs. All three tested negative for drugs, Avery says.

According to Avery when the police searched him and the car, they didn't find any illegal substances on him. The other two accused were found to be in possession of small amounts of marijuana. But police claimed that Avery threw "something" from the car when he saw the cop's car approaching.

The police let me take my clothes off, and they didn't find anything. I was imprisoned for nothing. I lost my job and now I'm living with my friend," Avery told the Kuwait Times yesterday during the third session of his trial at the Court of First Instance in Kuwait City at the Palace of Justice. Avery has already entered a plea of not guilty. His two companions from that night both fled Kuwait after being released from jail.

Avery has not only suffered legal problems. He was also fired from his job. After being released, his company terminated him on November 26, 2007 although his case is not yet finished and he hasn't been found guilty.

The company wanted to get rid of me so they took a blood sample of me at the office and stated it was positive. They thought I will leave, thus on the same day I went to a private clinic and made the blood test there, and the result was negative. The other two accused left the country after they were released, but I preferred to stay to prove my innocence," say the towering American. Abdulmajeed Khuraibit, Avery's lawyer presented a verbal defense attacking the procedure of the police. Two judges presided over the Avery's case, which will have a verdict by May 26.

A growing number of Americans, many of them connected to the military contracting business, have been associated with the illicit drug and alcohol trade in Kuwait in the last year or so. In April 2007, the US Embassy issued a warden's message reminding American citizens here that they are subject to the local laws including those prohibiting the use or trade of alcohol or narcotics.

Those arrested for possession or trade of those substances are dealt with harshly by Kuwaiti law enforcement," the notice explained. The Embassy notice also warned US citizens that the Embassy "cannot intervene to free Americans who have been arrested, nor can it represent Americans at trial, give legal advice or pay legal fees and/or fines with US Government funds.

The common practice for those arrested for such crimes is to flee the country rather than face a travel ban and try to navigate Kuwait's labyrinth legal system. But as Avery points out, he's stayed to fight to clear his name, even though he could have fled. As his lawyer points out, evidence against Avery is slim, as no drugs were actually found on him or in his blood or urine.

The police noted the place where Avery and the other two were caught was a suspect place, which is not true. They also smelled inside the car, while there should be a trained dog for this job. How can the police report register that he was caught in action, while no drugs were found with him?" Khuraibit asked. "My client doesn't even smoke!

Of course, he could be guilty as sin, and his innocence totally fabricated.

MEW's latest brainwave

2008-05-13T10:44:00.003+03:00

The latest brainfart from the Ministry of Electricity & Water (MEW) as commented on by Badrya Darwish in today's Kuwait Times...

No release, no travel!!!

Published Date: May 13, 2008

By Badrya Darwish

To improve human rights so we can rise to the minimum international standards, the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) has decided to ask all expatriates before exiting the country - whether on holiday or permanently - to obtain a certificate of clearance from the ministry. The certificate is only valid for one month. If the expat doesn't have it, he will be returning from the airport the same day with his family, his luggage, etc.

This is beautiful. Instead of advancing and updating our systems in the different ministries, especially as the government spent millions on computers and e-government programs and training and etc - we are going backwards. Why can't they update the way to check if people have paid their bills or not?

The MEW is also asking the Ministry of Interior to coordinate with it to implement the new regulation. Because the Interior is the ministry that controls the borders and exits and customs. MEW can't enforce it alone. May I remind the minister of water and electricity that it's not the expats who are failing to pay their bills. It's us, the Kuwaitis, because we feel safe and nobody can touch us and we are above the law. We're Kuwaitis. Can the Minister challenge me by producing the names of big families and big companies who have paid their electricity bills for years and years?

Or he only has the courage to attack expats? Why can't he organize his ministry like any other advanced country on earth. He has so many civil employees doing nothing. Sitting in their offices, drinking chai and chatting. Well, let them do something for a change. Open the stupid computer in front of them and start billing people. Do a proper billing system in Kuwait, for God's sake. If you don't know how to do it - and I'm sure you do - then ask experts from other countries. In modern systems, if people forget, they receive a reminder from the electric company. And then a second reminder and if you don't pay in the third warning, they'll cut your electricity. And arrange also for people to be able to pay. Have direct debit through their banks. Improve your billing system.

Then start screaming and put laws and regulations to ban people from travelling and putting them under the pain of queuing in front of the ministries to ask for this precious letter of clearance. What if people have to travel all of a sudden for business trips or emergency family leaves? How many more employees will you need to give letters of clearance? You have more than two million expats in Kuwait. How many offices will you have to open for all of them to obtain releases every time they travel? Especially in the summer period when it's time for everybody to travel. And may I ask you: What about Kuwaitis? What are you planning for us? Also we cannot travel? Is this your scheme for enhancing the power system and electricity in Kuwait? Is this your scheme for the coming summer?

Imagine the chaos if this were ever implemented, given that Kuwaiti landlords in probably 99% of cases are responsible for paying electricity and water bills for their tenants, under the terms of rental contracts stipulating electricity and water are included in the rent. Naturally, no bills are paid... not least because bills are never issued! And then every 18 months or so the Government wipes the accumulated debts anyway...

Next they'll be wanting access to everyone's bank accounts to deduct from their salaries like loan payments... oh, wait, they've already tried that only to be rebuffed by the banks!

Persecute the victims

2008-05-09T18:02:00.004+03:00

Today's Arab Times couldn't go past without comment...

Ban on transfer of 'Iqama' for domestics within year

KUWAIT CITY: The Immigration General Department at the Ministry of Interior has instructed domestic servant offices not to deal with those who escaped from their previous sponsors 'as such people will pose problems both to the offices and their employers by their continuous escapes,' reports Al-Watan Arabic daily. Sources say the department discussed problems of this sector of people with Undersecretary at the Interior Ministry Lt General Ahmad Al-Rajeeb and he approved the instructions. Sources indicated that Assistant Undersecretary for Citizenship and Passport Affairs Major General Ahmad Al-Nawaf followed up these problems.

According to sources, acting Director of the department Colonel Bader Saleh Al-Hammadi and the Domestic Servants Department will act on the instructions and not transfer the residence permit of domestic servants to other sponsors if they are not reliable. Furthermore, a decision has been issued banning the transfer of residence permits of domestic servants to other sponsors before the completion of one year of stamping the previous permit. Sources say the decision will come into effect from July 1, 2008 and will be applicable on domestics of all nationalities except those from Bangladesh and Nepal.

Can you believe what these guys are doing? Hmmm, I know, let's persecute the victims a little bit more... whilst the criminals (abusive sponsors) continue to get off the hook. What is the Ministry of Interior thinking of? Are maids not human beings also? So if a slave happens to escape from their abusive slave-owner within a year, not only are the labeled a criminal (because they've escaped from their slave-owner), but now the slave traders are being officially stopped from selling them onto a new owner who potentially may treat them as a human being... Incredible, yes. Unexpected, no. And what exactly are the unfortunate maids supposed to do... a) seek shelter in their embassies, exacerbating the problem of the huge numbers of maids already stuck in limbo, or, b) be forced to work illegally, increasing the likelihood of abuse. It's not like they can hop on a plane and go home. So the vicious cycle continues to get worse.

How they came up with the Beijing Olympics logo

2008-04-16T09:36:00.003+03:00

Research freedom?

2007-12-05T13:03:00.000+03:00

In today's Kuwait Times...

Controversial research paper
KUWAIT: Officials from the Ahmadi security directorate summoned two students who wrote a controversial research paper stating that Kuwait was a part of Iraq. The two students were asked to make a research paper about Kuwait and the students wrote a paper about how Kuwait was part of Iraq. Upon reading the paper, the teacher handed it to the Ministry of Education who in turn handed it to the Ahmadi security directorate. The students told security officials that they had paid a man to write the paper for them and that they had no idea what was stated in the paper. The man who wrote the paper is now being summoned by security officials and the investigation is ongoing.

... where I come from the controversial bit would be the fact that students got someone else to write their research paper for them! Not so, in this part of the world... almost a fact of life I'm afraid, and its reflected in the Kuwaiti workplace.

So are security officials going to come after me if I were to research the pros and cons of Kuwait being a part of Iraq? This kind of reminds me of the (over)reaction of certain people to cartoons, or the recent naming of a teddybear...

Briton loses his cool - that's illegal!

2007-09-21T21:14:00.000+03:00

Someone lost his cool recently when running into officialdom...

Briton vents fury on govt, Kuwaiti laws

KUWAIT CITY: A British citizen working for a local company allegedly abused and bad-mouthed a staff member of the Hawalli Pollution Testing Center after the latter told him that his car needed repairs.

Reportedly, the British man, accompanied by four semi-clad women, went to the Hawalli center to get his car checked. A staff member after checking the car told him that his car needed repairs and that he should come back after getting the repair job done.

This infuriated the British man and he started abusing the staffer, Kuwait and Kuwaiti laws loudly in public. Sources say the staffer warned that it was illegal to speak in such a manner but the accused did not heed him and drove off angrily.

The staffer noted the number plate of the car and reported the incident to his higher-ups. Securitymen found that the accused was working for a local company and sources say due legal action will be taken against him. 'Nobody is above the law and everybody should respect the laws of the country,' they added.

By Munaif Naif
Special to the Arab Times

Nobody is above the law... Yeah right. When the whole country runs on wasta it means that if you have the right wasta you are above the law. Period.

I don’t know any of the players in this incident, so this is just pure speculation, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there was nothing wrong with the car in question, and the Pollution tester was just being an ass and picking on someone to justify his existence. How many times in Kuwait do you see that? Maybe he was jealous of the four scantily clad ladies... what, they didn’t have abayas on? Maybe they were showing off some flabby white-skinned arms?

What exactly did the Britisher say that was illegal? That the jobsmith’s mother wore combat boots in bed? That corruption is so pervasive in Kuwait that you now have to bribe someone to pass a car pollution test? That Kuwait is a hell-hole, and that the Kuwaiti laws are an ass? Yeah, well there are probably lots of westerners that would agree with him on that. Not many would waste time on taking legal action... all it means is that the side with the biggest wasta wins. For the Britisher it means he better have a really good relationship with most senior Kuwaiti in his organisation if he wants to stay on in Kuwait. So either the Britisher will be fined/imprisoned/kicked out of the country, or it will be quietly swept under the carpet.

Round up all the expats and test 'em

2007-09-21T21:10:00.000+03:00

That's right, blame the expats for the nation's ills. This was reported in the Arab Times, 18th September...

Rise in disease seen; ‘Check expats for AIDS, hepatitis’
KUWAIT CITY: The Ministry of Health (MoH) has instructed all ministries to send all their expatriate employees to the General Medical Board to ensure that they are free of AIDS, Hepatitis B and C and Pulmonary Tuberculosis, say reliable sources in the ministry. Reportedly, this precautionary measure is being taken to protect citizens and expatriates from contagious diseases as ministry employees come in direct contact with thousands of people daily.
Statistics compiled by the ministry show that there has been a rise of expatriates suffering from the aforesaid ailments despite the fact that they undergo necessary medical check-ups in their respective countries. Sources suspect that many expatriates produce fake medical reports before entering Kuwait.
By Abdul Rahman Al-Shimmari - Special to the Arab Times

What is this brainfart by the Ministry of Health? All expats coming to Kuwait for work undergo these tests on arriving in Kuwait anyway, even after they’ve already done the same tests in their home countries. Furthermore, the same tests are often undertaken if the expat changes employer. So whether or not the medical reports in the home countries are faked or not is irrelevant.

Do Kuwaiti staff have to undertake these tests??

I don’t disagree that there may be a huge problem with these diseases in Kuwait, but you have to look at the underlying reasons why that is so. The fact is that Kuwait is addicted to importing cheap foreign labour to do all the menial work in the country. The vast majority of this forced labour live in unsanitary conditions in labour camps, more akin to concentration camps - not really conducive to keeping a clean bill of health. And then as they are unable to lead normal family lives as they scrimp and save to send their earnings home to their families, if they get paid, many single men (or married men without their wives) may get involved in spending their spare dinars on “professionals” when they can’t resist their sexual urges, which would certainly not help the cause of restricting HIV cases. (And there’s always a ready supply of runaway maids that are eager to better their lot, or are forced into it – but that’s another issue).

So let’s see how we can solve this problem. Providing high quality labour accommodation is a start. Allowing foreign workers to bring their families is another basic human right. In fact, improving human rights of all imported workers and stopping the unscrupulous companies and agencies in the human trafficking trade would be beneficial in many ways. It would reduce the need to resort to crime for a start. How many labourers are either left on the streets to fend for themselves, or are treated from their employers in such a demeaning manner, that they don’t feel too bad at getting their own back on the employers or the country/system that allows this to happen!

Modern day slavery

2007-08-21T15:46:00.000+03:00

Arab Times today has this wee gem reproduced below.

Expatriates bondsmen: ILO; End sponsorship system soon, GCC warned

KUWAIT CITY: The International Labor Organization (ILO) has criticized GCC countries for their sponsorship system and is planning to come up with an alternative procedure for the recruitment of expatriate workers, says Al-Rai. ILO described the sponsorship system as “an old model from the era of slavery,” saying “this allows sponsors to control their expatriate workers.” A reliable source said the existing sponsorship system has many negative points which make GCC countries a target of ILO’s criticisms, adding “although ILO has repeatedly asked GCC countries to change this system the latter have been remaining silent on this issue.” ILO has warned GCC states that the current system violates the rights of expatriate workers and leads to “Iqama trafficking” where expatriates are forced to buy residence permits to get jobs, he noted.

The source also said “ILO feels the sponsorship system is affecting the economy of GCC states by doubling the number of unwanted expatriate labourers who enter the job market by purchasing residence permits.” Claiming ILO has warned GCC countries that their membership in the organization will be suspended if they do not scrap the sponsorship system, the source said “the international organization has also cautioned GCC states that they will be placed in the list of countries which violate International Labor Law in the next ILO meeting scheduled to be held in Geneva in June 2008.”

Yes, the sponsorship system is "an old model from the era of slavery", but that's because slavery in everything but name still exists. Good to see that the ILO is getting a little closer to calling a 'spade' a spade.

Anyways, must toodle doo and buy me a maid...

Freedoms tested as journo jailed

2007-08-21T15:34:00.000+03:00

Well it seems like the proverbial is hitting the fan - see article below reproduced from Kuwait Times today, and the word is out in the blogosphere. Hopefully the message is getting through that the State (In)Security Police need to toe the line and uphold the laws of the State... For Bashar and Jassem's sakes I hope the publicity of their experiences produces reform. It is worth noting that this is only one of many unpublicised cases. Bravo guys for standing up and not being intimated.

Headline News
Freedoms tested as journo jailed
Published Date: August 21, 2007
By Nawara Fattahova, Staff writer

KUWAIT: A Kuwaiti journalist remained in detention yesterday after being transferred from State Security to the Public Prosecution. Bashar Al-Sayegh was arrested by state security officials Saturday evening over comments insulting to HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah which were posted on Sayegh's personal website www.alommah.org. Late Monday evening, more than a hundred protestors comprising journalists, human rights activists, MPs and others converged at the premises of the National Democratic Coalition in Rawda in a unanimous show of solidarity against the actions of the state security forces.

The comments on Sayegh's were posted anonymously and according to reports, deleted by Sayegh 15 minutes after going live. Sayegh, a senior editor with Al-Jarida, provided the IP address of the anonymous poster to state security, but is now being investigated by the public prosecution. Sayegh is also a member the National Democratic Coalition. Rumors suggested that he had gone on a hunger strike but this could not be confirmed. Al-Jarida is owned by liberal MP Mohammad Al-Saqer.

A second Al-Jarida journalist, Jassem Al-Qames, was also taken into custody Saturday in front of the newspaper's headquarters. According to Al-Jarida, Qames tried to stop the arrest of -Sayegh, not knowing that the men, who were in civilian clothing, were from State Security. He then took photographs of the arrest, triggering his own detention. "When I took pictures, six detectives rushed to me and detained me. Then they pushed me towards three cars of state security," said Qames. He asked for their credentials, but according to him, they refused.

Qames claimed in the paper that the detectives assaulted him in the car on the way to state security headquarters in South Surra. He said the detectives took his mobile phone, camera, and wallet and before they arrived, one of detectives forced him to take off his shirt, then twisted it around his eyes and face. At the headquarters, he was taken into a room and interrogated, slapped and insulted and shouted at. Al-Qames said he was forced to sign a document with his fingerprints, even though he was blindfolded. He was released yesterday.

The speakers attending the protest in Rawda expressed their anger and dissent against the policies and maltreatment of the journalists by state security detectives. All of them demanded the immediate release of Sayegh and also agreed to unmask the person responsible for posting the insulting comment online.

MP Ahmad Al-Saadoun expressed his fears on the treatment meted towards young men involved in crimes at the hands of state security detectives. "I call for eliminating the State Security Department. We must find out who was behind this arrest, and he must be punished. We will not accept a repetition of this crime in the future. We must fight corruption," he charged.

Qames, the journalist who was released yesterday, didn't describe the details of his arrest at the gathering. "They released me in the heat without my mobile and just said "go". I was kidnapped by professional bandits who brought me to the State Security Department with my eyes blindfolded. They beat me up and told me that they had also brought Bashar's personal effects there. They thought they could threaten me so I wouldn't talk. They were wrong. I can now say whatever I want, and all these people here will support me," he said.

Qames also mentioned the plight of bedoons and even Kuwaitis arrested by the State Security Department. "They don't have anybody to ask about them. They have no protection and most of them are treated in the most inhumane way. I also was arrested in an illegal way, for just taking a photograph of the illegal arrest. We hope Bashar will be released tomorrow, and he will tell us the details," he added.

MP Ahmad Al-Mulaifi, who had just arrived in Kuwait, was shocked by the terrifying news of the arrest of the two journalists. "I'm disappointed with our present situation. Kuwait has always been known for its democracy and freedom of the media. We could criticize the parliament, the government and even our sheikhs. All our neighbors in the GCC countries used to look up on us as the ideal model of freedom. Now they consider us as a bad example," he pointed out.

He also highlighted the importance of punishing those responsible. "I know the detectives were employees and doing their work, but they will still be held responsible in the way they executed their duties. The Minister of Interior is to be held responsible for this action, and he must be held accountable for insulting Jassem and Bashar. Today I want to direct a message to the minister: Take care, you crossed the red line. We must all fight in upholding the respect of the constitution," he warned.

Kuwait's blogosphere was alive with debate and commentary about the arrests. In both Arabic and English, bloggers voiced fears of a crackdown on their freedoms of speech and protested the detentions.

The Kuwait Society for Human Rights (KSHR) issued a statement condemning the assault and detention of the journalists. "We live in a state that is governed by laws and has a clear and straightforward constitution that bans such practices, according to Article 31," said the statement, adding that the article states that, "no subject is to be arrested, detained, inspected nor his liberty to live or move around, should be violated unless in accordance to law".

The statement stressed that KSHR does not call for leniency with those jeopardizing the state's security nor violating its laws; it rather emphasizes adhering to rules, laws and regulations mentioned in Kuwait's constitution. "Law enforcers should stick to the authorities invested in them," the statement said. (Hussain Al-Qatari contributed to this report)

Kuwait State (In)Security Police at it again

2007-08-20T11:20:00.000+03:00

Kuwait State Security Arrest, Assault Blogger And Journalist - Kuwait Constitution Violated... with highly intelligent people like these in the secret police, Kuwait is becoming a scarier place.

These links say it all really...
Hilaliya
She's still writing
Shaikha Bibi
K the Kuwaiti
Intlxpatr
248am

And the MoSA&L keeps their head firmly buried in the sand...

2007-08-16T15:59:00.000+03:00

Whilst it's left to philanthropists and the Reverend to help those who have been pushed off the cliff, those who pushed them off the cliff don’t even get their names dragged through the press, and in a mishmash of metaphors, the band plays on (in this case the Ministry that could do something and take some responsibility, continues to do nothing). The latest instalment from this ongoing saga in today's Arab Times...

Stranded workers run into problems with ‘new firm’; ‘We are being exploited’

KUWAIT CITY: Some of the stranded Bangladeshi workers who were provided jobs by a local company on Wednesday claimed that the company was exploiting them by making them work around the clock without any benefits. According to the workers, two representatives of the new company assaulted some of the workers after the latter refused to work for more than 12 hours for KD 20 salary. It may be recalled some 90 Bangladeshi workers were given jobs as cleaners at a Co-op by a company and had promised to provide jobs for the rest of the workers in the next few days. On Wednesday, out of the 90 workers, 70 did not report to work and will continue to do so unless the company pays them overtime with a short break after every 7 hours.

Utilized
Expressing happiness over the donation of two drinking water coolers by a philanthropist on Wednesday, the workers thanked the donor and said that the coolers in question are now being utilized by workers from other companies as well. Some 1,300 Bangladeshi cleaners employed with a local company have complained of unpaid wages and deplorable living conditions at their accommodation in Hassawi. Of the 1,300 workers, some 200 female cleaners were evicted by a court order from their apartments on Monday, and have now been provided accommodation in Mahboula. On the other hand, the male workers continue to defy the eviction order and have vowed not to vacate their apartments unless all their dues are settled by the company.

According to the workers, the new company did not allow them to return to their accommodation to freshen up despite numerous requests and in stead made them work for 48 hours at a stretch. The crestfallen workers observed that the company was not giving them overtime for the extra hours worked, adding: “We were told by the new company officials that we would be given overtime but when we started work, the company officials refused and assaulted our fellow workers when they demanded their rights.” Elaborating further, the workers noted that many of the workers are ready to return home provided their company shoulders the repatriation cost in addition to paying fines in relation to their expired residencies.

Punches
Noting that the new company had embarked on a programme of harassment, a cleaner told the Arab Times that a supervisor at the company threw several punches at him for refusing to work for more than 12 hours. Articulating disappointment at the turn of events, the workers noted that they thought their saga had ended after starting work for the new firm and blamed the company for going back on its commitments. “We request the new company to treat us in a humane manner. A majority of the workers are disappointed and just want to return home. We request Reverend Andy Thompson to help us return home. He has done a lot for us and continues to do so and we will never forget his noble deeds.” Some 30 cleaners are awaiting deportation after the company had them arrested allegedly for inciting their colleagues to go on strike. The company has refused to bear the repatriation cost.

By Francis A. Clifford Cardozo
Arab Times Staff

Shares off limits to Expats!

2007-08-16T15:32:00.000+03:00

According to today's Kuwait Times....

Shares off limits to expats

KUWAIT: The Ministry of Trade and Industry issued a legislation prohibiting expatriates from buying or selling shares listed at the Kuwait Stock Exchange. They said buying and selling shares listed on KSE could only be done by Kuwaiti citizens at the moment. A number of expatriates however expressed their regret over the decision as their interests and investments worth millions of dinars were frozen in the process. Officials meanwhile said that the decision had been taken a long time ago but was made effective just last Tuesday.

Well who's crazy enough to buy shares on the KSE anyway, unless you're participating in insider trading like everyone else! This country is a joke.

No comment

2007-07-31T17:03:00.000+03:00

The long running saga continues...

Kuwaiti legal firm offers to help Bangladeshi cleaners; ‘Integrity being sacrificed for profit’
KUWAIT CITY: The stranded Bangladeshi cleaners have a reason to smile after weeks of gloom, as a local firm has offered them free legal assistance in an effort to help them secure their rights, including unpaid wages for eight months. Hashem Majed, the Chairman of Al-Huqooq International Company, accompanied by a team of lawyers visited the workers’ accommodation on Sunday and gave a patient hearing to the grievances of the cleaners before donating them food supplies. Expressing shock and outrage over the despicable living conditions of the workers, Majed went on to explain that he would make all-out efforts to resolve the problems of the workers in a speedy manner and that he has instructed his lawyers to immediately initiate the legal proceedings. Some 1,300 Bangladeshis employed with a local cleaning company are on an indefinite strike to protest non-payment of wages, inhumane living conditions in addition to their expired residencies. According to the workers, they will not call off the strike unless all their demands are met.

Majed told the Arab Times that integrity is being sacrificed by some at the altar of profit and that the authorities should be held accountable for having let things come to such a pass. Berating the mistreatment of the workers, Majed noted: “I am deeply disturbed to see the horrible living conditions of the workers, and it is equally disturbing to see a few unscrupulous local companies tarnishing the image of the country. These workers are being treated as if they are cattle.” “While we often brag about the rapid progress Kuwait is making in various fields...here are people who have no access to clean drinking water and living in quarters that are not even fit for animal habitation. How can some people be so cold-hearted?” Majed asked. Majed observed that during his meeting with some of the workers on Sunday he asked them to list their priorities. “I was touched when the workers told me that their most pressing need was legal assistance. I asked them to explain to me the logic behind this idea, and they said that the legal assistance was a priority because they wanted to put an end to this long-standing dispute as soon as possible and wanted to return home.” Majed said he has no magic wand to solve the dispute and that he would coordinate efforts with various authorities to address the problems of the workers in the shortest time possible. Al-Huqooq has been at the forefront in safeguarding rights of workers and has provided legal and other assistance to many stranded workers of various nationalities.

Responded
It may be noted that the Arab Times readers have responded positively to the food pleas of the workers published in the newspaper, and have been providing them food aid since then. Reverend Andy Thompson on Saturday accompanied by some volunteers visited the accommodation of the workers and delivered second batch of food aid. When the Arab Times contacted Majed to seek pro bono legal help for the workers, he immediately agreed to the proposal. Majed went on to explain that the Ministry of Social Affairs should establish courts wherein labour disputes involving large group of workers can be resolved in a quick fashion. He added that when a case is filed at the Ministry of Social Affairs by workers it often takes as many as two months to get a hearing date. “During this period, if a worker is arrested at a checkpoint, then he faces deportation. In short, it is very essential that both the ministry of social affairs and the interior ministry coordinate on this issue in order to help people who may be victims,” he added. According to Majed, domestic workers in the country are better off as compared to those employed as cleaners in the private sector. “The domestic workers have a minimum wage of KD 40, in addition to free food and accommodation, not to mention free air passage every two years,” he added.

He said often many cleaning companies stipulate higher salary in the work contract in order to secure contracts from the government and that when the worker arrives in the country he is only paid between KD 20 and KD 25 instead of KD 50 or KD 60 stipulated in the contract. Majed observed that the ministry of social affairs should step up efforts in order to stop such malpractices and take strong action against errant firms to set a precedent. He also went on to explain that the ministry of social affairs and labour should regularly inspect accommodation of workers to ensure that it is habitable. Noting that low-income workers were often being blamed for surge in crimes by the authorities, he said that this segment of workers cannot be blamed because factors such as poor salaries, unpaid wages, among others were turning them into criminals.

“I, for one, blame the government for not addressing the problems faced by cleaning workers. If workers are paid decent salaries and in a timely manner, then the crime graph will obviously witness a decline. How can you expect someone to survive with a monthly income of as low as KD 20?. The government should take concrete measures to tackle this issue at the grass root level.” To a question as to how long it would take for the Labour Court to issue a verdict in this particular case, Hashem said he cannot give a timeframe but would make efforts to secure the rights of the workers as soon as possible and that he has full faith the Kuwaiti legal system. He said that the company must pay the workers all their dues and renew their residencies or repatriate them at its own cost.

By Francis A. Clifford Cardozo
Arab Times Staff

Here, here! Kuwait could do with a few more Hashem Majeds.

Welcome to Hell

2007-07-04T09:14:00.000+03:00

1300 unpaid Bangladeshi cleaners continue their stand for justice, as reported in today's Arab Times...

End strike or face ‘serious’ consequences, workers told; ‘Welcome to Hell’
KUWAIT CITY: The striking Bangladeshi cleaning workers have been asked by their company management to call off their strike forthwith failing which they would face serious consequences, workers informed the Arab Times on Tuesday. Some 1,300 workers employed with a leading cleaning company went on strike last
month to protest non-payment, their expired residencies, among other grievances.
The distressed workers observed that two officials of the company paid a visit to their living quarters in Hassawi a few days ago and asked them resume their duties immediately, thereby promising to pay them KD 10 each as temporary compensation. “We demanded to know from the officials whether the company would settle all our dues if we call off the strike, and they said the company would look into the matter and take a decision soon. The workers had earlier vowed that they would not go back to work unless all their demands were met. The workers said that the company officials also warned them that they would be thrown out of their accommodation if they do not end the strike in the next few days. Some 300 female Bangladeshi cleaners employed with a local company on Sunday complained of non-payment and ill-treatment by their company.
The workers, who have not received their salaries for over eight months are drawing a monthly salary of KD 25 each and came to Kuwait some three years ago. Another problem plaguing the workers is that their residencies have not been renewed by the company. “The company is trying to pull out all stops to compel us to go back to work. But we have informed the company about our demands and we reiterate that unless those demands are met in their entirety there is no chance of ending our strike,” the workers added. According to the workers, the embassy has been lackadaisical about their problem and was not doing enough to resolve the protracted and bitter dispute that has been plaguing the workers for the past few months. The embassy was quick to reiterate that it was doing everything in its capacity to resolve the problem of the workers in a swift manner. The First Secretary at the Bangladesh Embassy, Shariar Siddiky, told the Arab Times that the Assistant Undersecretary at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour has urged the Labour Court to expedite efforts to settle the case of the workers as soon as possible.
Help
The workers have called upon philanthropists and others to come forward and help them by donating food and other much needed items. “We do not seek monetary assistance but food items just to keep us going.
Some of us were eating only one meal a day and sometimes we go to sleep on empty stomachs.”Moved by the plight of the workers, a charitable organization had sent them rice, sugar, chicken etc but the supplies ran out last week. “Welcome to Hell,” That’s how some workers greeted this reporter when he visited their living quarters on Tuesday. Upon visiting some of the accommodation units, it was found that they were not equipped with air conditioners and most bathrooms were poorly maintained. One room was shared by 10 workers even as most rooms were infested with cockroaches. The staircases were filled with all sorts of filth while parts of the false ceiling of most rooms had fallen off. Some workers who were detained last month by police for allegedly inciting other workers to go on strike continue to languish in jails and the workers have expressed concern over their continued detention.

This ongoing saga is continuing with no end in sight. Surely, naming and shaming the businessman concerned, or at least threatening to name and shame, would have some impact here on seeing justice done. Or is he above the law, like Mr. Fawaz Khalid Al Marzouq, as the teacher, Katherine Phillips has discovered. Even if Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, First Deputy Premier, Minister of Interior and Minister of Defence says nobody is above the law, when he talks of allowing police to arrest a fellow royal... Or maybe the 7,981 residence law violators who corrected their status and the 28,428 people who left the country during the recent two month amnesty period were not enough to rid Kuwait of Bangladeshis.

Kuwait restricts visit visas to wives and kids

2007-05-30T10:36:00.000+03:00

Today's Kuwait Times...

Visit visas only for wives, kids

Published Date: May 30, 2007
KUWAIT: In a surprise decision, the Interior Ministry informed directors of Immigration Departments in the six governorates not issue visit visas to families of expatriates except for their wives and children, reported Al-Rai.
Informed sources said the new decision annuls all previous decisions that allowed an expat to invite his parents, siblings, children of siblings and in-laws on a visit visa for a month.
The sources said the verbal instructions also called for strict measures in
granting visit visas to the wives and children of residents of eight nationalities - Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Somalia, Pakistan and surprisingly, Egypt. Sources lamented the new decision is not in favor of economic revival.

Aaah, you see, the sources are making an assumption that economic revival is good. How many decisions in Kuwait are taken to bring about economic revival? Even the proposed change to a Friday/Saturday weekend is being opposed by the National Assembly because it's seen as imitating the Jews.

This press announcement is so typically rascist and sexist - what happen's if a female executive wants to bring her husband or children to Kuwait! (I guess that's viewed as haram - why would a women be allowed to travel or live elsewhere from her husband!)

So, sorry ma and pa, if you wanted to visit the tourist mecca of Kuwait! It is now official, Kuwait does not want tourists. And it was doing so well too... after abandoning the torturous process for obtaining tourist visas about 3 years ago and finally allowed some nationalities to be granted visas on arrival.

Is the Minister of Interior, Sheikh Jaber al Mubarak al Hamad al Sabah (also the First Deputy Prime Minister) aware what his underlings are doing to destroy what little credibility Kuwait has in the world?

Modern day slavery

2007-05-28T13:13:00.000+03:00

Modern day slavery
Published Date: May 28, 2007 By Fouad Al-Obaid
In an era where slavery is supposed to have long been forgone as an acceptable practice, I am shocked at the fact that today in Kuwait, despite humanitarian practices and international laws, we are still confronted with this issue (forced labor and a modern form of slavery).
What many people here consider as domestic servants; drivers, maids, cooks, as well as other employees of the sort, end up being subjects to harsh living conditions and a meager pay, certainly not enough for the work they put in.
The fact is there are no laws to set a minimum wage nor one to deal with minimum working standards: standards that would precise the working condition, the hours, the pay, the rests, the holidays and the obligations of the employer.
With the latter being quasi non-existent, I sometimes wonder why other people have a hard time understanding the causes that lead many domestics to commit various vices, most of the time they are not out of pleasure, rather they are merely the result of the living conditions and treatment that the domestics are subject to.
Stories of maids taking out their anger on their "masters" weakest link -- their children -- are not unheard of for the single reason that the "masters" treat them as slaves and expect them to say thank you!
What is troubling is that in most of these cases, the domestic are always believed to be mad or happen to be suffering from psychological disorders and only commit such crimes out of madness! Yet I for one beg to question, what is it that pushed such domestics to commit such crimes?
My personal hypothesis on the matter is that if such domestics are at the receiving end of perhaps daily insults, of degradations of all sorts, of deprivations, of punishments, and of long working days with little breaks, then perhaps if the latter happens to be the case I understand that the end result of such treatment can only be a rage of outburst on the part of the domestic that would want to avenge the feeling of injustice that such a person has underwent.
I guess that it is perfectly natural to lose reason if one ends up being put under stress for a prolonged period of time. I certainly know that I would not tolerate such treatment without up one day ending going mad myself!
What many deplorably fail to understand is that we are all human beings. Albeit our skin color, race, and ethnicities differ, we are all fundamentally the same. We all have hopes, dreams and ambitions. Do people seriously think that people actually enjoy cleaning up after someone else's mess? Are people naïve or are they simply racist and believe in race superiority, or perhaps that due to our current wealth, we are above the domestics?
Have we forgotten that not so long ago, we were so dependent of the Asia Sub-continent? Have we forgotten that we used the Indian rupee for currency? Worse, do many of my fellow citizens who claim to be pious and devout Muslims forget that in the Quran, God made it clear that there is no difference between races, no difference between blacks, whites, brown and other?
It really saddens me to know that such action is slowly but surely degrading our image abroad. In the past, such treatment by some foreign diplomats landed them in major trouble yet their immunity from prosecution enabled them to avoid being sent to prison.
With time, such an issue will certainly end up being picked up by mainstream global media and in the long run, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that fellow nationals would be reclaimed by foreign courts in connection with human trafficking, forced work and even slavery charges. After all, Slavery happens to be one of seven crimes common to all civilized nations.
I hope that in the very near future, our dear parliamentarians who claim to be devout Muslims and who want to make the Sharia the prime source of legislation to maybe look into the matter. For it doesn't sound too Islamic. It clearly goes against all human laws and certainly against the law of God.
The "kafeel system" (a system whereby a sponsor needs to be the guarantor of the foreign worker) along with the retention of their passport by the sponsor in question, who in some instances use their documents to bare them from free movement in clear violation of numerous international treaties and charters that Kuwait is a signatory to, are simply wrong.
In a nutshell, the current system ensures that foreigners in our beloved country remain exploited without any rights to do anything about it. They end up being caught in a system where they end up having no legal rights.
The few foreigners that dare go to a police station to complain end up being abused by the police officers. At times, they even in some cases end up being beaten by the same individuals (police officers) who are supposed to uphold the laws of the land and to cater to those that are victims of crimes. In no case are they to be brutal to them and to treat them as sub-humans.
Had I not myself been the witness of such disregard to mainly Asian foreigners by law enforcers I would have not believed it, however it saddens me to admit to such a thing in a country that I believe has laws and a constitution. Furthermore, I encourage all those that might think that I am exaggerating to take the time to go and see for themselves what goes on in police stations.
Ending with a final note, I for one believe in karma; what goes around comes around. Those that abuse people will themselves one day be the victims of their crimes, if not on earth, perhaps in the thereafter. Justice and equalities are two factors necessary for civilizations to develop, people lose hope in either or, we will end up with a chaotic society where people will take it upon themselves to restore perceived injustices.
I hope that law and justice prevails, and those that dare traffic in human beings end up receiving exemplary sentences from international human rights courts. It is a shame that we, in the 21st century, still end up being confronted with demons of the past. Slavery is under no circumstance an acceptable trade. I would like to finish with this remark, what if the person being tampered, enslaved, and abused was you? Would you not want people to speak out and help you? Email me at fouad@kuwaittimes.net

Lots of well-paying jobs available at MoSA&L!

2007-05-27T11:02:00.000+03:00

Today's chuckle courtesy of the Kuwait Times...

Excellent performance
Published Date: May 27, 2007
KUWAIT: A bolt of lightning struck a Kuwaiti man after he discovered recently that the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor had promoted him due to his excellent performances in executing his duties, reported Al-Qabas. He wondered how he had been promoted when he had already resigned from the ministry three years ago and now worked for a private company. He is now in doubt that his monthly salary might be paid to or collected by somebody else.

Audit Bureau accuses Labor
KUWAIT: The Audit Bureau accused the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor of squandering public funds by paying bonuses to staff for performing additional tasks in duties as well as paying allowances for attending certain sessions or meetings that take place after official duty hours, reported Al-Qabas. They also accused the ministry of permitting employees to work for other authorities and granting them leaves for various reasons such as sick leaves and paying bonuses to employees who didn't deserve them at all.

Nothing new then. And the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour want to now manage the payment of all private sector salaries in Kuwait through the CSC? Yeah, right.

10% of Kuwait population wanted for crimes

2007-05-26T10:49:00.000+03:00

Well, if today's Kuwait Times article is to be believed, around 10% of the population are wanted for crimes.

250,000 cases outstanding

Published Date: May 26, 2007

KUWAIT: The Ministry of Interior disclosed that the number of persons required to appear before the Ministry of Justice for financial cases has reached more than 100,000, reported Al-Watan. They said that this figure did not include persons wanted for criminal charges and if that would be taken into account, then the figures could reach almost 250,000.

Official sources said that there were 120,000 persons involved in financial cases, who have a travel ban against them out of which 90,000 persons were Kuwaitis and 30,000 Arabs and foreigners. Officials at the Ministry of Interior also said that they had 250,000 arrest warrants for people to be tried in the courts, adding that financial cases varied from as little as KD 50 to millions of Kuwaiti dinars.

Some of the wanted persons have evaded arrests for years after changing their places of residence several times and hence were never found at the addresses. Ministry of Interior officials said that they were exercising their best efforts to arrest the wanted persons. They also called upon all persons who had settled their outstanding debts to approach the courts to close their files and lift the travel bans issued against them.

This is a pretty amazing statistic, when you factor in that about 35% of the population is under 20 years of age and unlikely to have criminal charges registered against them, which then makes the proportion of wanted criminals about 15% of the population. And then if you account for the vast amount of unreported crime, the "wasta" affect and the dropping of criminal charges, well...

Or, how about the crimes of humanity and injustice that aren't even considered crimes here, such as the abuse and non-payment of salaries of maids or labourers.

One statistic I'd like to know is how many Kuwaitis have had criminal charges laid against them for the crime of rape? Sure, everyday there are cases reported in the newspapers, often in graphic details, but you never read of anyone being criminally charged for the crime. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. When you see or hear of the hundreds of cases of maids that have suffered this crime, and know for a fact that most of these cases go unreported...

When will the Kuwait policing and justice systems catch up with international standards?

Kuwait implicated in supplying arms to Sudanese regime

2007-05-09T10:39:00.000+03:00

Major news yesterday was how Russia and China were given a good wrist slapping by Amnesty International for continuing to supply the Sudanese regime with military equipment and weapons in violation of the UN Security Council's mandatory arms embargo. In the news report, Kuwait, Saudi and Belarus were also mentioned.

So what exactly does Amnesty have to say about Kuwait? Here's the relevant excerpt from the report...

Kuwait has reportedly discussed military cooperation with the government in Khartoum in November 2006(26) and a Kuwaiti small arms trader has run a sales agency in Khartoum.

Footnotes:
(26) On 24 November 2006, it was reported that the Kuwaiti Chief of Staff Air Marshall Fahd Al Amir led a delegation to Sudan to discuss military cooperation and as a guest of Sudan Chief of Staff General Hal Ahmad Al Jili visited Sudanese army bases; Middle East Newsline 28 November 2006

Kuwait Times then gets a quote from Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Muhammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah who, given the benefit of the doubt, probably didn't get to read Amnesty International's report, but gives a typical knee-jerk response...

Amnesty charges 'astonish' Kuwait
Published Date: May 09, 2007 By Ahmad Al-Khaled, Staff Writer

KUWAIT: Kuwait's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Muhammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah yesterday rejected allegations by a human rights organisation accusing Kuwait of supplying weapons to Sudan, which is using them in war-torn Darfur. "I'm greatly astonished," he said.

"This has no basis whatsoever to reality and I hope Amnesty International safeguards its reputation." The report released by Amnesty centered around Russia and China, both permanent members of the UN Security Council, and charged that they violated a 2005 UN embargo against selling arms to Sudan for use in its Darfur region, which has been embroiled in a civil war.

So a real storm in a teacup. But, given the standards of journalism (or the lack of not wishing to offend and be disrespectful to those in power who can easily have them jailed/deported/...) in this part of the world, you can't expect to much. Arab leaders can say whatever they like and it'll get reported verbatim, but no-one will challenge them to explain, or say that they're talking a load of nonsense.

To conclude:
1. Amnesty aren't making baseless accusations, and isn't even accusing Kuwait of supplying weapons to Sudan... only that it has discussed military cooperation. Which could just mean a junket for the Chief of Staff and some of his flunkies, or could be more serious; we don't know. Perhaps Sheikh Muhammad could elaborate on this?
2. A Kuwaiti small arms trader has been selling weapons in Khartoum. So who is this guy? Maybe Kuwaiti authorities could have a wee word to this guy for damaging it's countries reputation?

Deafult on your debt and enter the Lottery!

2007-05-02T11:13:00.000+03:00

Here's an article from Kuwait Times I read a while back and thought would be worth sharing with any readers outside Kuwait. I thought I'd seen/heard it all, but was quite astonished to read this...

Grants possible for Kuwaiti debtors
Published Date: April 16, 2007
KUWAIT: A Ministry of Justice committee is studying case by case applications of Kuwaiti citizens seeking to receive a Kuwaiti philanthropist's grants to cover their mounting personal debts, a ministry official said yesterday. In press statements, president of the department of Sentence Enforcement at the Ministry of Justice Ali Al-Dhebibi said those who would be eligible for grants to cover their debts would include prisoners who have been accorded Amiri amnesty and those who have been charged with non-payment of debts up until Dec 31, 2006.
He said eligible citizens have been divided up into four categories, the first are those with unpaid debts ranging from KD 1 to KD 5,000. Among this group are 2,680 who owe KD 3,565,936 to individuals. Up to 9,538 debtors in this group owe KD 8,888,517 to companies.
The second category are those with unpaid debts ranging from KD 5,001 to KD 10,000. Among this group are 355 who owe KD 2,406,308 to individuals. Up to 1, 740 debtors in this group owe KD 11,977,240 to companies.
The third category are those with unpaid debts ranging from KD 10,001 to KD 20,000. Among this group are 181 who owe KD 2,481,372 to individuals. Up to 602 debtors in this group owe KD 8,846,070 to companies.
The fourth category are those with unpaid debts exceeding KD 20,000. Among this group are 126 who owe KD 28,169,834 to individuals. Up to 414 debtors in this group owe KD 335,493,975 to companies.
Al-Dhabibi explained that eligible debtor applications are
accepted through an Internet website (www.salemgive.com) which is open round the clock but only till April 23.
Up to 5,370 applications have been received via the website, he said, 2,870 of which have been considered for processing.
Information received at the website does not mean that a citizen's debt will be
automatically paid off, he cautioned. Once an applicant enters his civil ID at the website, the screen will display all his debt offences in the way of court sentences and other legal injunctions against him and amounts of money he owes, he said.
The Justice ministry committee looking into debtors' cases will have the right to either accept or reject any application, he said as he applauded the benefactor behind paying off these debts, His Highness Sheikh Salem Al-Ali Al-Sabah, chief of the national guards.
Once an applicant's case is accepted and thoroughly vetted and endorsed he will be notified and his debt will be paid off directly to his creditor. Afterwards the debtor's name will be taken off all court records.
Though the process of paying off applicants' debts has just started, almost 1,000 have seen their debts paid off free and clear, he said. Their collective debts amounted to KD 2 million, he specified. -- Kuna

And an update...

KD10 million to Zakat
Published Date: April 29, 2007
KUWAIT: KD10 million from the donation of Sheikh Salem Al-Ali will be transferred to the Zakat (alms) house this week in which the sum will end loans and financial cases of 9139 citizens. The priority of paying loans would be given to companies and
institutions that offer large discounts for citizens in debt. The adviser of the donation project, Mohammad Al-Mekhazeem indicated that the Zakat house paid sums ranging from KD 400 to KD 1000 to more than 5000 needy families.

So, for all citizens, if you haven't already applied for free money... tough! 23rd April was the deadline.

Does any other country in the world allow its citizens to spend like there's no tomorrow, and then bail them out when their debt burden gets a bit onerous?

Can't be seen to drive to work in a Toyota Corolla? Why not make it a Hummer H3 with this easy to pay back instalment plan of KDx per month.

Sure, the laws in Kuwait are also an ass, and if you suffer financial loss and don't have wasta, it can be a bit difficult to repay your debts from inside a prison cell. That’s another issue. But come on, what message are you sending to the masses, o wise ones?

We shall never give the truth!

2007-05-02T10:37:00.000+03:00

Reported in today's Kuwait Times...

Kuwait will never disclose oil reserves
Published Date: May 02, 2007
KUWAIT: Kuwait will never disclose the size of its oil reserves for reasons of national security, Oil Minister Sheikh Ali Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah was quoted as saying after the state announced a new oil find. "Kuwait has not and will not disclose the size of its oil reserves," he told Al-Arabiya Television late on Monday. "The Kuwait people are not concerned with numbers. This is related to national security." Industry newsletter Petroleum Intelligence Weekly (PIW) said in January 2006 it had seen internal Kuwaiti records showing reserves were about 48 billion barrels - half the officially stated 99 billion, or some 10 percent of global oil reserves.
Kuwait's former oil minister, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahd Al-Sabah, has said that PIW's report only paints a partial picture while other oil officials said the report was inaccurate. PIW said official public figures do not distinguish between proven, probable and possible reserves. Sheikh Ali told Arabiya that just because some fields were not proven it did not mean there was no oil there but that they were not being used. "All Kuwaiti lands are reserves and every day there are new discoveries that are not announced but that doesn't mean Kuwait does not know the size of its reserves," the minister said.
"The one to announce the size of Kuwait's reserves are independent parties like OPEC," he said, adding that "private companies like BP make announcements because they are listed and so this information affects their stock price." Sheikh Ali said on Monday Kuwait had made an "important" light oil and gas find in the Al-Dhabi region in the north but did not give the size of the field. - Reuters

Does anyone else think this is a bit odd? Why is Kuwait unwilling to declare in a transparent manner what its oil reserves are? What do you have to hide Sheikh Ali? Is PIW getting a bit too close to the truth? Is this common practice for regimes propped up by oil revenues?

Eventually the oil will run out and what for Kuwait then? ...it's just a matter of time. Will it be 50 years, 100 years, or 200 years? On a spectrum of the early demise to a late demise of the State of Kuwait, I envisage a scenario nearer the early end of the spectrum, not necessarily because the oil will run out, but more as a result of the global awareness of climate change and the momentum for doing something about it and seeking alternative fuels / energy sources. Of course this is being very optimistic – maybe they’ll be enough demand from regimes who don’t give a damn about the environment, to continue to prop-up the fossil-fuel producers.

When the shift away from oil eventually comes, where is the money going to come from to sustain the Kuwait lifestyle? Look what happened to Nauru.

When the times are good, be proactive. This is the time to invest wisely for future generations and diversify the economy. Not build up a great slush fund to continue a cradle to grave welfare system.

Enough ranting for now. Back to the day job.

Friday/Saturday weekend next year

2007-04-20T16:26:00.000+03:00

Thursday's Arab Times...

Saturday off likely

KUWAIT CITY: Government is seriously considering the option of changing the weekend holidays from Thursday and Friday to Friday and Saturday “like other Gulf countries as it is affecting the economy,” reports Al-Anba daily. Sources say the government may approve the new weekend holidays but the change will come into effect from September when the schools start a new academic year. Also, the government may approve the suggestion of MPs to follow the ‘fall back’ and ‘spring forward’ timings, followed in many countries including England, France, Egypt and Lebanon.

MPs have suggested that Kuwait should put its clocks one hour ahead starting April till end of September every year. This way, residents can make most of the daylight and can save electricity.

Believe it when I see it.

Daylight saving time?

2007-03-17T14:25:00.000+03:00

Well, it looks like we're going to have daylight saving time in Kuwait. The following item was recently reported in the Arab Times, but I haven't seen anything else published.

Civil Service nod to daylight savings time
KUWAIT CITY: The Civil Service Commission (CSC) has approved a proposal forwarded by MP Ahmad Baqer on implementing the daylight saving time (DST) in Kuwait starting from April until the end of Sept this year, reports Al-Anba. The CSC pointed out the system was enforced successfully in several countries around the world including England, France, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.

Does anyone know if this is for real? Or will it be chaos again, like when the Government announced that banks were to collect medical insurance fees, but had neglected to clear it with the banks. Or, is it just talk, like the changing of working days...

What to do about Iraq

2007-01-15T07:34:00.000+03:00

President Bush says let me know a better proposal for Iraq, or shut up. Well, here's one from the International Crisis Group which seems rather sensible to me. The full report is here. The Executive Summary & Recommendations follow.

After Baker-Hamilton: What to Do in Iraq
Middle East Report N°60 19
December 2006

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Slowly, incrementally, the realisation that a new strategy is needed for Iraq finally is dawning on U.S. policy-makers. It was about time. By underscoring the U.S. intervention’s disastrous political, security, and economic balance sheet, and by highlighting the need for both a new regional and Iraqi strategy, the Baker-Hamilton report represents an important and refreshing moment in the country’s domestic debate. Many of its key – and controversial – recommendations should be wholly supported, including engaging Iran and Syria, revitalising the Arab-Israeli peace process, reintegrating Baathists, instituting a far-reaching amnesty, delaying the Kirkuk referendum, negotiating the withdrawal of U.S. forces with Iraqis and engaging all parties in Iraq.
But the change the report advocates is not nearly radical enough, and its prescriptions are no match for its diagnosis. What is needed today is a clean break both in the way the U.S. and other international actors deal with the Iraqi government, and in the way the U.S. deals with the region: in essence, a new multinational effort to achieve a new political compact between all relevant Iraqi constituents.
A new course of action must begin with an honest assessment of where things stand. Hollowed out and fatally weakened, the Iraqi state today is prey to armed militias, sectarian forces and a political class that, by putting short term personal benefit ahead of long term national interests, is complicit in Iraq’s tragic destruction. Not unlike the groups they combat, the forces that dominate the current government thrive on identity politics, communal polarisation, and a cycle of intensifying violence and counter-violence. Increasingly indifferent to the country’s interests, political
leaders gradually are becoming warlords. What Iraq desperately needs are national leaders.
As it approaches its fifth year, the conflict also has become both a magnet for deeper regional interference and a source of greater regional instability. Instead of working together toward an outcome they all could live with – a weak but united Iraq that does not present a threat to its neighbours – regional actors are taking measures in anticipation of the outcome they most fear: Iraq’s descent into all-out chaos and fragmentation. By increasing support for some Iraqi actors against others, their actions have all the wisdom of a self-fulfilling prophecy: steps that will accelerate the very process they claim to wish to avoid.
Two consequences follow. The first is that, contrary to the Baker-Hamilton report’s suggestion, the Iraqi government and security forces cannot be treated as privileged allies to be bolstered; they are simply one among many parties to the conflict. The report characterises the government as a “government of national unity” that is “broadly representative of the Iraqi people”: it is nothing of the sort. It also calls for expanding forces that are complicit in the current dirty war and for speeding up the
transfer of responsibility to a government that has done nothing to stop it. The only logical conclusion from the report’s own lucid analysis is that the government is not a partner in an effort to stem the violence, nor will strengthening it contribute to Iraq’s stability. This is not a military challenge in which one side needs to be strengthened and another defeated. It is a political challenge in which new consensual understandings need to be reached.
The solution is not to change the prime minister or cabinet composition, as some in Washington appear to be contemplating, but to address the entire power structure that was established since the 2003 invasion, and to alter the political environment that determines the cabinet’s actions.
The second is that it will take more than talking to Iraq’s neighbours to obtain their cooperation. It will take persuading them that their interests and those of the U.S. no longer are fundamentally at odds. All Iraqi actors who, in one way or another, are participating in the country’s internecine violence must be brought to the negotiating table and must be pressured to accept the necessary compromises. That cannot be done without a concerted effort by all Iraq’s neighbours, which in turn cannot be done if their interests are not reflected in the final outcome. For as long as the Bush administration’s paradigm remains fixated around regime change, forcibly emodelling the Middle East, or waging a strategic struggle against an alleged axis composed of Iran, Syria, Hizbollah and Hamas, neither Damascus nor Tehran will be willing to offer genuine assistance. Though they may indeed fear the consequences of a full-blown Iraqi civil war, both fear it less than they do U.S. regional ambitions. Under present circumstances, neither will be prepared to save Iraq if it also means rescuing the U.S.
In short, success in Iraq, if it still can be achieved at this late date, will require three ambitious and interrelated steps:
A new forceful multilateral approach that puts real pressure on all Iraqi parties: The
Baker-Hamilton report is right to advocate creation of a broad International Support Group; it should comprise the five permanent Security Council members and Iraq’s six neighbours. But its purpose cannot be to support the Iraqi government. It must support Iraq, which means pressing the government, along with all other Iraqi constituents, to make the necessary compromises. It also means agreeing on rules of conduct and red-lines regarding third party involvement in Iraq. This does not entail a one-off conference, but sustained multilateral diplomacy.
A conference of all Iraqi and international stakeholders to forge a new political compact: A new, more equitable and inclusive national compact needs to be agreed upon by all relevant actors, including militias and insurgent groups, on issues such as federalism, resource allocation, de-Baathification, the scope of the amnesty, and the timetable for a U.S. withdrawal. This can only be done if the International Support Group brings all of them to the negotiating table, and if its members steer their
deliberations, deploying a mixture of carrots and sticks to influence those on whom they have particular leverage.
A new U.S. regional strategy, including engagement with Syria and Iran, an end to efforts at regime change, revitalisation of the Arab-Israeli peace process, and altered strategic goals: Polite engagement of Iraq’s neighbours will not do; rather, a clear redefinition of Washington’s objectives in the region will be required to enlist regional, but especially Iranian and Syrian help. The goal is not to bargain with them, but to seek agreement on an end-state for Iraq and the region that is no one’s
first choice, but with which everyone can live.
There is no magical solution for Iraq. But nor can there be a muddle-through. The choice today could not be clearer. An approach that does not entail a clean break vis-à-vis both Iraq and the region at best will postpone what, increasingly, is looking like the most probable scenario: Iraq’s collapse into a failed and fragmented state, an intensifying and long-lasting civil war, as well as increased foreign meddling that risks metastasising into a broad proxy war. Such a situation could not be contained within Iraq’s borders. With involvement by a multiplicity of state and non-state actors and given that rising sectarianism in Iraq is both fuelled by and fuels sectarianism in the region, the more likely outcome would be a regional conflagration. There is abundant reason to question whether the Bush administration is capable of such a dramatic course change. But there is no reason to question why it ought to change direction, and what will happen if it does not.
RECOMMENDATIONS
STEPS TO INTERNATIONALISE CONFLICT-RESOLUTION
To the Five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council:
1. Establish an International Support Group, composed of the five permanent members of the Security Council, Iraq’s neighbours and the UN, represented by its Secretary General, with the objective of:
(a) agreeing on rules of the game for outside parties vis-à-vis Iraq;
(b) reaching agreement on broad goals and key compromises for Iraq;
(c) appointing an empowered UN special envoy to begin work with all Iraqi
constituents on a reconciliation process; and
(d) convening a conference of all of Iraq’s political stakeholders (including insurgent groups and other disenfranchised but politically significant elements of society).
STEPS TO ENSURE REGIONAL COOPERATION
To the U.S. Government:
2. Alter regional strategy, renouncing in particular ambitions to forcibly remodel the Middle East.
3. Refrain from referring to Iraq as a “model” for the region or the new “front” in the anti-terrorism war.
4. Engage in discussions with Iran and Syria in a direct and sustained manner that acknowledges they have legitimate interests in Iraq’s and the region’s future.
5. In the context of the Quartet, and together with Arab countries, revitalise the search for a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace.
To the Government of Syria:
6. Enhance control at the Iraqi border.
7. Facilitate achievement of a national Iraqi compact by:
(a) using its extensive intelligence on and lines of communication with insurgent groups to facilitate negotiations; and
(b) drawing on its wide-ranging tribal networks to reach out to Sunni Arabs in the context of such negotiations.
To the Government of Iran:
8. Enhance control at the Iraqi border.
9. Facilitate achievement of a national compact by using its leverage to control SCIRI and its channels in southern Iraq to influence the Sadrists.
To the Government of Saudi Arabia:
10. Facilitate achievement of a national compact by using its influence with
insurgent groups, in particular by cutting off funding from private Saudi sources to those that refuse to cooperate.
To the Government of Turkey:
11. Facilitate achievement of a national compact by using its influence with all Iraqi actors, including insurgent groups.
12. Continue to develop peaceful economic and political relations with Iraqi
Kurdistan.
STEPS TO ACHIEVE A NEW IRAQI POLITICAL COMPACT
To the Iraqi Government, Political Parties, and Insurgent and Militia Groups:
13. Work with the UN special envoy and attend the International Support Group’s
conference to reach agreement on a political compact focused on power and wealth
sharing, including:
(a) an asymmetric federal system providing a separate status for the Kurdish region, as currently defined and with powers broadly described in the constitution, and an Arab Iraq divided into fifteen decentralised governorates that reflect present boundaries;
(b) acceptance of Kirkuk governorate as a decentralised governorate with an interim power-sharing arrangement to last at least ten years; and a UN envoy appointed to facilitate this arrangement and help create a mechanism to determine the governorate’s final status;
(c) a process for equitable revenue sharing, under which income from oil, gas and other natural resources would accrue to a federal trust fund operated by an independent federal authority and would be distributed according to each region’s demographic share;
(d) a relaxation of de-Baathification measures, with the principal criterion for
exclusion being past proven crimes, not past party membership;
(e) passage of a broad amnesty covering individuals who agree to put down their arms and subscribe to the national compact;
(f) reintegration of officers of the former army unless proven to have committed human rights abuses or other crimes;
(g) negotiation with the U.S. of a relatively rapid timetable for the full withdrawal in stages of its forces;
(h) agreement on a status of foreign forces, with rules of engagement focusing on the need to protect populations and respond to immediate threats against troop security, while requiring prior Iraqi command authorisation for any manoeuvres, offensives, arrest campaigns or other military actions outside this framework; and
(i) agreement on a new electoral law providing for direct, constituency-based elections.
To Members of the Recommended International Support Group:
14. Guide Iraqi participants in a peace conference towards accepting a national compact along the lines described above.
15. Condition further and augmented economic support on quick agreement on and implementation of elements of the national compact.
To the Government of Iraq:
16. Organise, assuming agreement on a national compact is reached and reflected in a revised constitution, a referendum for its approval.
URGENT STEPS TO STEM THE VIOLENCE
To the Government of Iraq:
17. Seek to reduce sectarian and ethnic polarisation and violence by:
(a) stating publicly its commitment to work toward a new, more inclusive national compact, as described in this report;
(b) condemning and seeking to halt the killing of civilians and torture by security forces, investigating allegations of abuse and prosecuting offenders;
(c) suspending police units suspected of serious human rights abuses and
participation in sectarian violence;
(d) urging all government officials to desist from ethnic, sectarian or otherwise inflammatory statements, and pressing members of the council of representatives to do the same;
(e) making a deliberate and widely announced effort to provide health services, opening bank branches and fixing power supply in predominantly Sunni Arab towns and neighbourhoods; and
(f) making a commitment to a peaceful solution to the Kirkuk question, and postponing referendums to determine its and other disputed areas’ status.
To the U.S. Government:
18. Adopt a less aggressive military posture in Iraq by:
(a) redirecting resources to a program of embedding U.S. troops in Iraqi units; and
(b) moving away from fighting the insurgency to focusing on protecting the civilian population, and in particular halting blind sweeps that endanger civilians, antagonise the population and have had limited effect on the insurgency.
19. Redeploy troops along the frontlines of the unfolding civil war, notably by filling in the current security vacuum in Baghdad.
20. Focus on limiting the militias’ role to protecting civilians in places where government forces cannot, rather than seek to forcibly disband them, while taking strong action against political assassinations, sectarian attacks, or attempts to overrun government offices.
21. Avoid steps to engineer a cabinet reshuffle aimed at side-lining Muqtada al-Sadr, which would further inflame the situation.
22. Shelve plans to hurriedly expand the Iraqi security apparatus and focus instead on vetting, restructuring, and retraining existing units.
23. Free and compensate Iraqi prisoners detained by the U.S. without charge.
24. Compensate Iraqis who have suffered as a result of the U.S.-led counterinsurgency campaign.
25. Condition short-term financial support on the government reversing its policy of serving certain constituencies at the expense of others (most notably with regard to salary payment and basic service delivery).
26. Abandon the super-embassy project and move a reduced embassy to a more neutral location.
27. Publicly deny any intention of establishing long-term military bases or seeking to control Iraq’s oil.
Baghdad/Amman/Damascus/Brussels, 19 December 2006

It all seems like a lot of hard work and a real change management job. My feeling is that USA doesn't have the political mentality or resolve to make it work, and if they can't the other parties certainly won't! With Bush and Cheney calling the shots and relying on worn slogans in their speeches that only show they still don't 'get it,' call me a pessimist, but I feel that Iraq is drifting into another Rwanda/Bosnia, and it will get a lot worse before it gets better. I hope that I'm wrong and all parties can come to the party and negotiate along the lines of the recommendations promulgated above.

Sending another 20,000 troops ain't gonna solve a lot. Total troop numbers in previous years were higher in the past than they will be with the extra 20,000 from what I've read elsewhere.

Shining a light on the runaway maids issue

2006-11-27T17:26:00.000+03:00

A rather long comment answering Stinni's comment on my previous posting is worth sharing for all (Stinni's original remarks in italics).

I’ve taken some time to reply to some comments you have received as I think that whilst it is representative of the opinions and experiences of many people, it only tells half the story. Here’s the other half.
One of our maids ran away one day shy of her three-month trial period.
That’s a change from the oft -told story of the maid being returned one day short of her trial period – and not receiving a bean for the work she’d done. Then she gets another trial period elsewhere, same thing. Each time she was told that her wages were withheld against the cost of getting her.

That first phase when she has just arrived is a very difficult one for both housemaid and employer. There is a language barrier and a cultural barrier as well. Many housemaids are young and uneducated and find themselves overwhelmed when they arrive.

Now seems to me that sometimes a maid is truly incompetent and is returned, to her agency. This incompetence may be evident after a couple of employers, but, as is often the case, the expectations may be unrealistic. How many people should have to work 7 days a week in their job? How many people should have to work long hours, then fall into bed exhausted for a few hours sleep before being back to work?

I know that it is a risk to pay an agency for a housemaid and then find she doesn’t fit with the running of the household. Some people want independent housemaids who show initiative (at the risk of making a few mistakes) and some want toe-the–line housemaids who are not allowed to get one thing even a little bit wrong. It’s like any relationship in life, some work better than others. That trial period is essential, but it needs to be well managed, for both side’s sake.
It was a scam that she had going on with the owner/manager of the agency we dealt with.
If you know it was a scam then you should report it and get it dealt with. If you have reason to suspect that it is part of an ongoing racket then many more people are going to be subject to the same thing and that is not fair on anybody. Please bring some accountability before the agencies! Someone should be tracking how often this happens. Those agencies worry me. At the end of the day it’s all about the money, not the person.
They made KD400.
Who did? The agency and the maid. So that’s 400 KD split between them. Why is it worth the maid’s loss of income and her sponsorship for a cut in 400KD?
If she's ever caught though, we get to pay her ticket home. Makes NO SENSE.
You’re right it doesn’t make sense. However, if she has not worked the full two years for you then you do not have to pay her full fare home. This is exactly why so many maids stick it out in a bad job. They know that if they run away they will not get their airfare paid so they stay with their misery instead.

But hey, that’s the same in many jobs here. Even throughout the business world. A broken contract means paying your own way home, so the only reason people stick with an unsatisfying job is so that they can get their airfare and a letter of release.
Another maid working in my husband's family home ran away because she figured out she could make more money hooking down in Fintas.
Now, on a going wage for maids of 40-50KD month, from which clothing and toiletries are deducted, it’s not hard to see why the grass looks greener on the other side and women do run away looking for other opportunities. They think they will have the freedom to come and go as an independent human being instead of living life under lock-up.

The trouble is that having got to the “billiard halls” the grass is not always greener and many maids are trapped against their will. Some have to pay in advance in anticipation of their change of sponsorship to an “outside” i.e. shop worker, or similar, visa. The visa is bought on borrowed money which the maid has to work to pay off. She has therefore ended up with herself in slavery.

So who is paying her when she becomes a hooker? There would not be prostitutes if there were not randy men with problems! People need to look to the cause of these problems and do not punish those who are just one part of the problem. Men have a lot to answer for in this (and any!) society when they see women as sex objects only and don’t keep sex within marriage.

Here’s a curious observation about relationships:
When there are problems between the husband and wife they are often linked to finance. If the wife hasn’t got her needed/wanted money who does she borrow from? The housemaid. Silly maid, some would say, for lending it. But what is she to do? Not pay it? Get kicked out? Make her daily life miserable for not complying with her employer’s wishes? When the money is not paid back she can be added to the long list of those who have not been paid their wages.
When she got caught, my sister-in-law had to pay her ticket home. Again, not fair at all.
To have broken her contract meant that the maid was to pay for her own ticket home, or return to the sponsor to work out the rest of the two year contract. If the system is so transparent that the employer is paying for the ticket home then why are there so many maids waiting for their ticket home. “So many” = about 1,000 at my rough calculation (based on embassy and prison numbers. Someone please correct me if they can add more information.) A few questions for anyone who can help me:

What should a maid do when, at the end of her two year contract, her employer refuses to repatriate her? If, as this person is stating here, the sponsor is responsible for her airfare, who will enforce this and how can she make it happen?

She doesn’t have her passport.
Should she:
A) stay in the house and hope that some how, some day, her employer is “done” for having an overstayer
B) believe it when she’s told “ next week/month…”
C) run away

When her sponsor renews her visa, against her wishes, what should she do?

When her employer (who may or may not be her sponsor) kicks her out on to the street and says “You want to go home, right, here’s your bags off you go,” what should she do?

Every single worker coming here is fingerprinted and put in the system somewhere. Why can’t the sponsor who brought the maid here be contacted after 2 years and asked “ Where is worker -----. “ and have the file checked off as returned home or renewed. (after providing some evidence.)

A maid should be working for the person who sponsored her and not sold on to someone else – especially against her wishes.

Part of the problem here is the inconsistency with the 200KD cost for a foreigner to sponsor a housemaid while it costs a Kuwaiti only 20KD. This encourages a racket in slave trading whereby a maid is brought in by a Kuwaiti to work in the home of someone of another nationality, at some comfortable profit to himself.

I’m also concerned about how this system is used to place maids in the homes of repeated offenders who should be blacklisted as maid abusers but are managing to employ maids through other people’s sponsorship. When the maids run away from this situation, without their paperwork, their employer /sponsor is untraceable and not going to cough up for their airfare.

If you have a couple of stories to relate here of your bad experiences with housemaids then how many employed housemaids does this represent? Over a period of years and throughout the extended family there must have been a number of maids employed and I’m pleased that you do not have stories of theft or other problems to relate. You must be very appreciative of the work that your maids have put in.
Maids run away all the time
WHY???? I’ve never had a maid run away from me. Perhaps that’s because I don’t beat mine and I do pay them.
I've never come across one that ran because she was abused or not paid.
Where did you meet these runaways? The run away or want–to-run-away maids I’ve met at hospitals, people’s houses, embassies, the park, talked to outside their homes, etc., consistently say they have not been paid or they have been beaten.

I’ve seen many maids whose bruises were in no way self-inflicted (I don’t quite see how someone could run a hot iron over her own arm or completely bruise the back of her legs, buttocks and up her back.)

On a much more minor scale, I’d like to know what the local guidelines are for what constitutes abuse. A very common sight I see up and down the streets of our neighbourhood is the Clorox hands. Women whose skin is chafed and raw from doing the washing. When I ask about it I’m told that she’s not allowed to wear rubber gloves, she hasn’t been given any cream for dermatitis and if she wants any regular hand cream she has to pay for it herself. This is “talking at the rubbish bin” conversations which I’ve had with several women. They are rarely allowed out of the house and I haven’t been able to talk for long. The maid next door got slapped on the face for talking to my maid when she was outside. Many women have no life outside the boundaries of the house; many are not even allowed to take the rubbish out to the kerb but have to call the driver to collect it from the door.

I am a social person and the solitary confinement that some of the women describe would start to drive me crazy. Among all the raped, abused, unpaid housemaids I have met there is only the one who made me cry. She told me she was not allowed to talk to the housemaids of the other families when they came to visit. I know that many maids quickly make friends among the maids of the employer’s extended family. To hear about her having to spend the two years in solitary confinement, not allowed to talk to her children at home, nor to the people around her here, just broke my heart.
I've met plenty that claim they were abused, raped or not paid but end up telling me they lied to score a better salary.
And did it work? Did they manage to get a salary increase from 40 KD to 60 KD or something like that?
I know some of them are treated badly
Too right they are. What does that mean? The beatings they receive, the slap on the face, or just the complete lack of dignity with which they are treated? How about not even being allowed to have a walkman to listen to at night? How about not being allowed to send and receive letters from home? Or have a telephone by which they can SMS family at home. (I know that there are standard answers to most of these: We don’t want our housemaid to get a boyfriend and/or run away.)

Housemaids are people as well. It is up to the woman herself to take responsibility for her actions. Why can’t she have a day off a week and have a social life? Not all women will be only looking for a boyfriend! I once gave a woman a gift bag of soap, shampoo etc and then her employer had a, accusing her of having a boyfriend! The housemaid was a young, married Moslem woman who enjoyed some kindness from me in her life. What has her employer got against that?! This is the woman who is not even allowed to visit her own sister. These so-called “protections” do not help a person but drive them to defiance. Ask any parent of a teenager, they’ll tell you it’s the same thing with teenagers. Employing a housemaid means finding that balance between responsibility and independence.

What is treated badly? Sleeping on the kitchen floor with no personal space for privacy (surely in itself that is Haram?)? Having a Bible taken away by an agency and being told that it’s not allowed here?
but you would be surprised to find out how many of them are deceitful.
Not surprised. I know it. I’ve been stolen from and lied to. But that doesn’t give me a reason to state that house maids are trouble and take the attitude of “get them before they get me” which I’ve found among many employers. Just as in the current blogging re: Bangladeshis, it is racist to state that Bangladeshis are responsible for the crime here, so too is it not possible to state that all housemaids are thieves and should be kept in their place.

Many workers come here with the idea that they are to “serve their time” and go home with the money. I know of several cases where sisters or cousins have been here working in the same city for their 2 years, and never seen each other and rarely even been allowed to talk to each other on the phone. They’ve never even seen the Kuwait Towers. Compare that to the freedom of life that those who can read this now are currently experiencing. Housemaids bear the demeaning attitude of their employers and live a life of subservience because they know that at the end of it they will have money to support the family at home. Imagine then the insult when the money is not forthcoming.

Not that the lying is at all justified, but one has to ask what motivated it. Could it be that they were also lied to? I met a woman who was a qualified dentist at home and signed up with an agency in her home country thinking she was coming here to work in dentistry. It wasn’t until just before she left that she got the contract and read that she was coming to be a housemaid. Given that she had already paid money to her agency and that she was wanting independence from a marriage that had gone wrong she decided to go ahead with the job anyway. Not a good start to her time here, and it only got worse when she arrived to a job with just one day off a month and a complete disrespect for the fact that she was a mature woman who could think for herself and did not want to be treated as a slave.

People have come here at all levels of the work force thinking that the wages promised would be sufficient to live on and save some money. Over and over again, the lies have been perpetrated that an employee has to pay for their own visas, medicals, etc. and have had it deducted from their wages, leaving them well short of what they had anticipated.

In this area at least some progress has been made and thanks to FALCON (Fostering Awareness of Labour Conditions) there are now pamphlets in circulation informing workers of their rights.

The fact that we are having this “conversation” in English and using the cyber world to do so means that we are in a different world entirely from the experiences of many housemaids. It’s my turn to make a sweeping generalization – to which I hasten to add “NOT ALL” when I say that there are many Bedoon, who are lesser educated, who treat their housemaids like animals. They are fed little, work long hours, sleep little, get a slap for anything that is done wrong, and are generally very run down before they do run away. This is where some attention should be focused.

The newspapers here are publishing regularly the cases of abuse that have taken place. My goals are 1) to see a public recognition of this as a national problem and 2) see the perpetrators of these crimes brought to justice. Publicly, so that others may learn that it is not acceptable to treat a maid as a slave.

To those who feel the need to defend the employers, I again state, not all housemaids are angels, and there are thieves in any level of society but this does not, in itself justify the lock-up conditions under which many have to live. There are some caring benevolent employers here and they have an important role in society as role models to others for their kindness and humanity. These are the people to whom housemaids return after their two year visa expires in the knowledge that they are appreciated and valued.

Another handout to employers of runaways?

2006-11-20T13:36:00.000+03:00

Amazing.

Employers of runaways may be let off hook
By B Izzak, Staff Reporter
KUWAIT: The National Assembly's Interior and
Defence committee yesterday approved a proposal filed by MP Ali Al-Deqbasi
calling to exempt sponsors of runaway domestic maids from paying the airfare for
their repatriation back home. The proposal states that the fare should instead
be paid by those sheltering them or the government.

That's right... an employer who abuses and/or doesn't pay their maids, forcing them to runaway to find shelter in their embassy, is to get a further let off from having to pay for the maid's repatriation. And that's after the maid, as a registered criminal having runaway from her slavemaster/employer, is forced to spend several weeks in prison before being deported.

And the National Assembly's Interior and Defence committee approved this! With guardians like this, who needs enemies.

The employer often gets off paying repatriation anyway in a number of ways: registering a fictitious crime against the runaway, hiding the identity of who the real sponsor is, or where they live (given that a lot are effectively under house arrest), or simply not fronting up or using the "wasta" card when the embassy/police call.

Can't say that all maids/runaways are angels, but come on...

Judge for yourself

2006-11-20T13:16:00.000+03:00

I agree that news writers should file accurate reports, but how do we know whether the writer in question in this case (today's Kuwait Times) wrote an accurate report or not...

Kuwait sentences writer for offending judges

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait's criminal court has slapped a female writer working with Al-Watan with a three-month suspended jail term for writing an article deemed offensive to judges, the daily reported yesterday.
The court, which issued its ruling on Saturday, ordered the suspension of the jail term for three years but asked Aziza Al-Mufarrej to pay bail of KD 1,000 and pledge good conduct.
Mufarrej was convicted of writing an article in which she accused a judge of accepting a bribe to issue a verdict in favour of a businessman. Editor Sheikh Khalifa
Al-Sabah, a member of the ruling family, was also fined 520 dollars for allowing
publication of the article.
This is the first jail term ordered under Kuwait's new press law which was passed by parliament in March and was considered to be more liberal than the previous legislation. The verdict is not final as it must be confirmed by the appeals and supreme courts. The daily said its lawyer will appeal.
If Mufarrej is convicted of an offence during the three-year probation period, she would be required to serve the jail term immediately if the sentence was upheld by the higher courts. - AFP

The crime in this case as it's reported is of writing something negative about a judge. In a civilised society, if the alleged claim is baseless, then the reporter and newspaper would publicly apologise. If there is a crime, then the guilty party has been found out and the full weight of the law should swing into action. In this upside down world that is Kuwait, the investigative reporter is fined with the threat of imprisonment, and the alleged criminal doesn't get investigated (as far as we know).

Sad. We all know that corruption is pervasive in Kuwait, but whenever it is exposed it seems as though the law upholds the whistleblower as the criminal.

Bangladeshis leading crime rates... or are they?

2006-11-19T15:45:00.000+03:00

Talk about a misleading heading in today's Arab Times...

Bangladeshis top crime rate: Statistics issued by the Ministry of Interior
show until today, 3,143 crimes have been committed by Arabs during this year.
2,750 of these crimes are attributed to Kuwaitis, reports Al-Watan daily.
Statistics also show Egyptians topped the list of criminals with 549 crimes,
followed by bedouns, Bangladeshis, Indians, Syrians, Saudis, Iranians,
Pakistanis, the Sri Lankans, Jordanians, Palestinians, Filipinos, Iraqis and the
Lebanese. Bedouns are accounted for 508 crimes, Bangladeshis 541, Indians 251,
Syrians 218, Saudis 210, Iranians 209, Pakistanis 157, Sri Lankans 107,
Jordanians and Palestinians 85, Filipinos 65, Iraqis 55 and the Lebanese
51.

The numbers published show that Kuwaitis top the crime rates, not Bangladeshis!

...actually the figures don't add up. Lets see - 2,750 crimes committed by Kuwaitis, 549 by Egyptians, 508 by Bedouns, 218 by Syrians, 210 by Saudis, 85 by Jordanians and Palestinians, 51 by Lebanese... that equals 4,371 Arabs already, a bit more than the 3,143 reported. Maybe the difference is between the number of crimes committed versus number of criminals, but who is any the wiser.

Of course it would be sensible when quoting statistics to compare to actual proportions of the population, and then adjust for sex and age factors, i.e. strip out the elderly, children and % of women, ...but that may show an even worse picture than what has been released for publication in the press. And then, what about all the unreported crime... there's thousands of abused maids sheltering in embassies, and unpaid labourers living in squalid dumps denied their basic human rights. Rule of thumb here suggests 99% of this crime is unreported... or maybe it just ain't viewed as a crime!

Why bother publishing anything if you can't get the basic facts right. Is this just more fodder for the masses to justify the recent decision to deport Bangladeshis and stop any more entering the country? If we're going to have a blanket ban based on nationality, can we not stop the nationality leading the crime rate stats from entering the country instead!

Mirage

2006-11-19T15:41:00.000+03:00

One of the very few writers worth reading in the Kuwait Times is Dr. Sami. This article published today, I think, really hits the nail on the head.

The mirage of Kuwait's scientific research

By Dr. Sami Alrabaa, Staff Writer
Baheeja Behbehani writes in Al-Qabas, Nov 16, that she is thrilled by the
news that the Kuwaiti Cabinet is discussing a proposal to create a "higher
council for research." This council will be in charge of coordinating scientific
research in Kuwait. Research conducted by the Kuwait Institute for Scientific
Research (KISR), Kuwait University, and by the Public Authority for Applied
Education and Training (PAAET) will be coordinated by this proposed council.
Behbahani adds that coordinated research would help Kuwait resolve water,
electricity and environmental problems. What is Dr Behbehani talking about?
Research in Kuwait?! What is this? First of all, the question is, is there
any research in Kuwait and who is doing this research? Years back, in the 1980s
a colleague was honest enough and frank to publicly say in a speech at the
Kuwait University Club, Kuwait loves modern things and institutions that sound
modern. Kuwaitis are fond of coining or adopting big names like university,
research, etc. However, what remains at the end of the day is the name and
nothing else. In fact, by international standards, Kuwait University and the
newly-founded private universities qualitatively cannot be and maybe should not
be called as such. The name is too big for these organisations. They are rather
schools or community colleges, at best. "Our students leave these schools
unqualified, unfit, and incompetent," said Nasser Al-Khorafi, a Kuwaiti tycoon,
in an interview with the Deutsche Welle TV. If KISR did not have those Western
researchers, no research would be conducted. An American friend who works for
KISR told me, the locals are unqualified to do research and unwilling to learn.
They cash good salaries for doing nothing. The place is merely a money-mill. The
same applies to Kuwait University. As a former insider of Kuwait University, I
could fill volumes with "research" stories. Practically no serious
research has ever taken place at Kuwait University. For Assistant and Associate
Professors to be promoted to full Professors, the majority of local colleagues
concocts their own research data, plagiarise, and/or ask an expat colleagues to
write research papers for them. The Public Authority for
Applied Education and Training (PAAET), is the worst in terms of research and
promotion. No research has ever taken place in this institution. Research and
publication credentials are not required or bypassed pertaining to appointment
and promotion. A former colleague of mine who used to work for Kuwait University
as a language teacher moved to PAAET. There, she was appointed as Associate
professor, albeit she had never produced one single refereed publication. So,
where is the research Dr Behbehani is talking about? Hence the proposed "higher
council for research" will have to be added to all those modern facades of
Kuwait. If someone does not know Kuwait and had never been to Kuwait and reads
about the council, he/she might think, what a modern society Kuwait is! We
should be reminded that not everything that glitters must be gold. Mirage is
endemic to the Arabian Peninsula and its research desert. Things in this desert
sound and look modern, but they are not. It is all a mirage. Places in Kuwait
that call themselves universities and academic institutions are fancy buildings,
but they lack qualified human resources and do not deserve the title 'academic.'
Think of the latest shameful scandal at Kuwait University whereby one of the
best academic books has been banned. Unfortunately, oil revenues in
Arab Gulf countries have generated wealth - temporary wealth - but failed to
generate creative brains. History does not remember wealth. It remembers brains. drsami@kuwaittimes.net

UAE police: a bastion for human rights?

2006-11-15T13:43:00.000+03:00

Kuwait Times today had an article that made me laugh, and think that at least justice may be served in this one case...

UAE detains Kuwaiti woman as Filipina domestic claims
torture

KUWAIT CITY: A Kuwaiti woman has been detained by the United Arab Emirates
police for allegedly torturing her Filipino maid, reports Al-Watan daily. The
daily quoting a reliable source said a complaint filed by the Kuwaiti woman with
the UAE police accusing her maid of running away from her home after stealing
100,000 dirham landed the woman in jail. After the Kuwaiti woman returned to
Kuwait, the UAE police summoned her because the authorities wanted her in
connection with the complaint she had filed there. However, when she arrived in
the UAE, she was shocked to find the maid had sought the assistance of her
embassy and filed a complaint with the police accusing the woman of torturing
her. According to a reliable source, the UAE authorities are said to have
ignored the complaint filed by the woman. The case is expected to come up for
hearing soon.

How many cases have been registered in Kuwait against Kuwaiti employers for abuse of their maids? Now that would make interesting reading.

Unfortunately most abused maids aren't able to travel with their abusers to other countries, & then have an opportunity to runaway & seek help where "wasta" can't be brought into play.

Islam is a tolerant religion... Let's sever ties with Denmark

2006-11-09T15:26:00.000+03:00

In yesterday's Arab Times we read of how Kuwait's esteemed MPs vote to sever ties with Denmark...

MPs nod on ‘non-binder’ to cut ties with Denmark
KUWAIT CITY: Kuwaiti lawmakers on Tuesday passed a non-binding resolution with a 25-12 vote on severing diplomatic ties with Denmark while some of them wanted similar action against the Vatican for insulting the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). They also called for boycotting Danish products. The MPs earlier voted in favour of a two-hour session on Tuesday to discuss the insults to the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). The MPs also recommended the formation of a KD 15 million fund to defend the Prophet (PBUH)…
... Abdulsamad said Kuwait should make full time efforts to clear the image of Islam and suggested the Kuwaiti government and the National Assembly should join hands and launch a sustained campaign in the Western media. “It is essential to present a clear image of Islam and its tolerant teachings towards non-Muslims,” he added…
...MP Adel Sarawi said the special session reflects on Kuwait’s commitment to defend the image of Islam and added this session should be translated into English and broadcast internationally to express solidarity with Muslim countries…

So how exactly is severing ties with Denmark or the Vatican presenting a clear image of Islam and its tolerant teachings? Do Muslims have a completely different interpretation of the word "tolerance"? If I were to say I disagree with the teachings of Mohammad and think that he's a false prophet, whoa... look out. If I said the same about Jesus Christ, no one would bat an eyelid. Which religion is being tolerant of a person's opinions? And, that's without going into the scenario of Muslims converting to Christianity and being ostracised from their families, and threatened or actually killed for their faith!

These guys obviously don't get it - the more the try to defend the image of Islam, the deeper the hole they dig! I am sure a KD15m fund could be spent more wisely.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with anyone attacking my faith in God. I also like to think I have a sense of humour and am not easily offended. I can see the funny side of cartoons - even if they were to attack Christianity instead of Islam. In most cases I can think of, these so-called attacks on Christianity are skewed towards the Church and religiosity, and have nothing to do with the fundamentals of faith.

To summarise, Abdulsamad, Adel Sarawi, Jam’an Dhaher Al-Harbash, Daifallah Bouramiya, and the rest of you – get a life! How about debating some of the important issues facing the country, instead of patting yourselves on your own backs and attempting to look religious.

...time to go out and stock up on my KDD red grape juice!

Kuwait can become another Dubai

2006-11-02T14:48:00.000+03:00

As reported in Kuwait Times today...

‘Be serious, Kuwait can become another Dubai; Region stable:
Bonino

KUWAIT (KUNA): Kuwait can become another Dubai in
the area if Kuwaiti officials work seriously towards this objective, a senior
Italian official said here Wednesday. Visiting Italian Minister for
International Trade and European Affairs Emma Bonino told KUNA, in an interview,
it was not impossible for Kuwait to have similar advantages to Dubai if there is
a serious commitment, and that this “decision is up to the Kuwaitis.”

But does Kuwait want to be another Dubai? What's the attraction or advantages that are seen by Ms Bonino?

A place that is free to dream dreams, never mind about the practicalities
A haven for smugglers, crooks and vice
Masses of poorly paid expat labourers working on a huge number of construction projects
Having an even taller tower / larger shopping mall / bigger indoor ski dome...
Traffic jams
Glitzy shopping malls and conspicous consumption
Vast disparities between rich and the poor
The monopolistic behaviour and guardian of morals of its telecoms provider
Spiralling house rents

All that glitters is not gold.

Or, maybe, because it's a country that even with all its warts, still works... or at least provides a good place to visit for a break!

Another handout?

2006-11-02T14:38:00.000+03:00

If you're living in Kuwait this won't be news, but may be of surprise to outsiders.

…Finance Minister Mishari Al-Humaidhi said last month that the government has
given some $5.5 billion in cash handouts and salary hikes to Kuwaitis during the
past two years.Still, newly-elected MPs are demanding further pay rises and
handouts with a projected cost of billions of dollars for the public purse.
Several lawmakers are demanding a salary increase of $170 per month for Kuwaiti
employees which the government said would cost around $1.3 billion a year. On
Wednesday, 29 of parliament’s 50 MPs submitted a bill that would write off an
estimated eight billion dollars in loans owned by citizens to Kuwaiti banks.
Parliament is also considering another bill that would channel 25 percent of
annual profits from state assets into a fund that would distribute the income
equally to all Kuwaitis… (contd. - Arab Times 2/11/06)

That’s right, a bill to write off citizen’s debts. What message does that send out to citizens who try to live within their means? Are there any?? And as for non-citizens, bear the extra inflationary costs… or leave.

Let’s hope common sense prevails again, as the Kuwait Times also comments in todays newspaper…

A similar attempt in the previous term failed to get off the ground when the
government boycotted a parliamentary session held to debate the issue. (Kuwait
Times 2/11/06)

Mahmood.tv blocked by Bahrain's Ministry of (dis)Information

2006-11-02T09:22:00.000+03:00

Because Mahmood has the courage to write in his own name and call a 'spade a spade' the Bahraini authorities have blocked access to his blog, which of course is still available on mirror sites or via proxies within Bahrain. Check his site out if you haven't already -http://mahmood.tv/.

Wishing you all the best Mahmood in your fight with the dark side!

No visa transfers for Bangladeshis

2006-10-31T15:17:00.000+03:00

Kuwait Times front page today...

No visa transfers for Bangladeshis

By A Saleh
Staff Reporter KUWAIT: The Ministry of Interior yesterday issued a decision
banning all visa transfers of Bangladeshis residing and working in Kuwait to
other sponsors. The new resolution stipulates that unless a sponsor wishes to
renew the expired residency of a Bangladeshi worker, the latter would have to
leave the country immediately. This decision has been taken in light of the
alarming increase in crimes committed by or involving Bangladeshis recently. The
main aim is to drastically reduce the number of Bangladeshis residing in Kuwait
with a view to decrease the crime rate in the country. The ministry also plans
to swoop down and apprehend not just Bangladeshis, but all those found to be in
violation of residency laws, particularly those who work for companies than
their sponsor's.

Talk about another 'sledgehammer to crack a nut' - an overused phrase in this part of the world. Wouldn't surprise me at all if crime continues to rise, even amongst Bangladeshis, as now they've got even less chance of legally getting away from crooked employers, and will have even more of an incentive to take-up a life of crime.

... and let's continue to ignore the real problems.

Hmmm. Wonder if we'll see an announcement from the Bangladeshi Embassy.

So where's the next bunch of 'guest' workers to come from? Africans from Darfur, Congo or Zimbabwe wouldn't be too popular. Chinese probably have better prospects at home now and don't have the right religion. Hard-working Nepalese are extremely popular, but they're a more finite resource - and they still have the wrong religion. Indonesians - no, too many potential problems with all the Indonesian maids in the country already. I guess the next best source of cheap muslim labour will be the Central Asian states... so don't be surprised if we see an influx of Uzbeks next. Mind you, that still won't solve the crime problem - you'll just see an influx of more sophisticated criminals!*

Or, a radical solution I know - you could try and instil a work ethic in nationals and get them to work for a living... no, not very realistic is it.

*Which reminds me, why haven't we seen newspapers writing about the major ATM fraud going on in Kuwait at the moment - or haven't I been reading the papers closely enough!

Labour Ministry refuses to help Sulaibiya camp 'captives'

2006-10-12T13:36:00.000+03:00

No comment...

Labour Ministry refuses to help Sulaibiya camp 'captives'

By Nawara Fattahova
KUWAIT: A death in the desert. An unscrupulous employer. An unconcerned
Ministry of Labour. All this has translated into untold misery for about 1,300
labourers held captive in a squalid camp in Sulaibiya. A few weeks ago, Kuwait
Times reported that a well-known contracting company was holding the workers
captive in the camp. The men, hailing from Egypt, India and the Philippines,
complained of unhygienic living conditions, meagre food supplies and ill
treatment. They all had come to Kuwait to work at the Burgan oilfields and
though being accommodated in flats in Mahboula on arrival, had been transferred
to the camp against their will. After arriving at the camp, the workers found
such squalid conditions that they immediately complained and asked to be
relocated. According to an employee living in the camp, "There are no telephones
or transportation, we have to drink contaminated water and the stench is
terrible in addition to the place being infested with insects." The problem
wasn't resolved despite continued complaints and the news report. In fact,
matters now have worsened. Yesterday, one of the Indian workers, Bino Stephen,
died at the camp. Now the defiant residents are refusing to release his body to
the guards in retaliation against the appalling living conditions and allege
that Stephen's death was caused by the unhygienic conditions in the camp. "We
want to find a solution to our dreadful situation by having our living
conditions improved or have us repatriated back home," said Mohammed, one of the
workers. Four other inmates have been ill since last week. "We suspect malaria
to be in the air here, and with no doctor around and no one to help us, we are
in real danger," he pleaded. "The stubborn and adamant employer has refused to
employ a doctor, as well as sanitise the camp to improve hygiene, and having no
other option, we decided to complain to the 'Shuoon' (Ministry of Social Affairs
and Labour). But somebody snitched on us and informed the management of our
intentions, and since then we have been held here in captivity," Mohammed
added."The employer also used 'wasta' through a friend who is a police officer
to threaten and dissuade us from going outside, warning action from the police
or Shuoon," another worker named Ashraf said. According to him, the municipality
shut down the camp six months ago, but through connections, the company
succeeded in reopening it for them to stay to save on rents, he said.Kuwait
Times attempted to speak to officials at the Ministry of Social Affairs and
Labour to see what - if anything - was being done to help the residents. An
officer in the complaints section of the ministry, who refused to give his name,
when informed about the recent death in the camp said, "I wouldn't call the
death of one person a disaster, and then complaints have to be registered
personally, so if they can't come, we can't help." When asked if the ministry
intended to send an inspector to check the living conditions at the camp, the
official replied, "I'm sorry we can't send any inspector. We are concerned about
our officials' health, and can't risk letting them fall sick or getting
infected."

Kuwaitis encouraged to interact with the public?

2006-09-10T18:45:00.000+03:00

Here's another lovely brainfart...

CSC OKs ‘encouragement bonus’ for Kuwaitis in contact with public

KUWAIT CITY: The Civil Service Commission (CSC) has approved an “encouragement bonus” of 15 to 30 dinars for Kuwaiti employees who directly interact with the public in the course of their jobs, says Al-Rai Al-Aam. A reliable source said the decision will be implemented with effect from Sept 1, 2006, adding “salaries of Kuwaiti employees who have direct contact with public will be increased by 30 dinars. While citizens who have indirect contact with the public will get an increment of 20 dinars, secretaries and others who have similar jobs, will get a raise of 15 dinars per month.”

Love to see how they implement this one... they'll probably just give KD30 to everyone in the end. Good time to be a Kuwaiti with a KD50 rise in salary for all nationals being discussed, a KD200 "bonus" payment this week, etc. Meanwhile the poor get poorer, with mandatory insurance fees being hiked. And too bad if you can’t get to one of the few outlets to buy the insurance which is necessary for the bureaucratic residency process, or when you do, they decide to close their doors on you as happened this last Thursday...

Meanwhile, expatriates preparing their health guarantee transactions done so that they could carry on with residency renewal procedures, were disappointed Thursday when all health insurance offices refused doing any transactions for them, reported Al-Watan pointing out that applicants who wanted to avoid fines for delay in getting their residency renewed.
On their part, health insurance officials, said that the halt was a result of a ministerial decree banning the office work on Thursdays and asking to distribute Thursdays' working hours to other working days so that ministry employees would not have to work on weekends. They added that despite the ban, all employees were readily present at their offices in case another sudden decision was issued.
On the other hand, some applicants said that they wished the ministry would reconsider the decision as Thursdays were the only days they were able to do their transactions on as they had difficulty getting leaves during working hours....

The far reaching hand of the boys in blue (or brown, in this case)

2006-09-10T18:23:00.000+03:00

Arab Times last week again...

Brand new car stolen: A Lebanese woman has filed a complaint with the Khaitan
Police Station accusing an unidentified person of stealing her brand new car,
reports Al-Anba daily. The car was stolen in Lebanon. (my emphasis)

Yeah, well, obviously some people have more faith in Kuwaiti police than I have. Was she hoping for some sympathy, given the plight of the poor Lebanese who have had their homes demolished by the IDF lately? I can imagine the Kuwaiti police response...

Sticks and stones can break your bones...

2006-09-10T18:15:00.000+03:00

...but names can never hurt you. Or so I thought. Not so, according to the Arab Times last week.

Kuwaiti assaulted in Jordan: A Kuwaiti youth studying in Jordan, identified only
as M.N., was allegedly assaulted by a group of Jordanian youths of Palestinian
origin, while walking along a road with his wife, reports Al-Watan daily. The
assailants followed him up to his house and attacked him again. He says one of
the attackers hit on the hand with a brickbat (sic) causing him a fracture. The
student added surprisingly one of the assailants filed a complaint against him
at a police station and he was summoned for interrogation.

Kuwait Traffic Laws

2006-09-04T08:11:00.000+03:00

Since it would be interesting to know what I could potentially be thrown into jail for, having heard stories of other expats losing their licences over rather innocuous traffic incidents, I came across this list of traffic fines on the Q8cars website which makes interesting reading.

I suspect the heavy-handed laws will be applied on a discretionary basis... if you have 'wasta' you needn't be worried.

Ignoring the obvious mistakes and misuse of the English language, the offences and fines range from the sublime to the ridiculous...

Up to 3 months prison for trying to arrange to...

Repair an accident without written permit from the concerned destinations

... looks like I'll never get all those dents out of the car as a result of the wife's near misses with more serious accidents.

Other gems include:

Moving on the road edge
Animals guard negligence of leading and observation
Speeding below minimum and not sticking to right side of the road
Trespassing with unclear vision
Trespassing while vehicle in front of him is willing to trespass
Trespassing at heights
Driving motor vehicle dosnt enjoy power and security conditions
Not providing sun block on the front pane
Invalidity of vehicle's color
Not writing numbers on doors
Not providing height shaft
Not leaving adequate space
Causing annoyance of others
Turning on the radio loudly

Basically, if you get stopped by traffic police, you're screwed... unless you have wasta.

I've also tracked down the Ministry of Interior website which allows you to view outstanding fines, so you can check whether they've levied a travel ban on you I guess. Unfortunately, it's only in arabic.

Flickr blocked by Fastelco

2006-08-08T18:10:00.000+03:00

WTF! Fastelco have blocked Flickr! Amazing.
Looks like we'll all have to use proxies now, as they do in other gulf regimes that abuse human rights.

Don't know if Qualitynet have also pulled the plug.

So, let me understand this... the Ministry of (dis)Information want to block websites to save people from themselves, because they may be tainted by the big bad outside world... so they're then forcing people to learn how to bypass their silly blocking. And as a consequence, really open up pandora's box.

It doesn't really take too many brain cells to figure out that once people learn how to use a proxy server (which in the real world isn't really necessary), you then can roam the internet relatively freely, and now you're really exposing yourself to the big bad world out there... websites that have, shock, horror,... alcohol, pork, porn (not that I would know), free speech... ...oh dear.

And finally for today...

2006-08-02T15:44:00.000+03:00

Cafe attacked
KUWAIT: In response the Israeli attack on
Qana, which killed nearly 60 Lebanese civilians, a number of Rumaithiya
residents assaulted a local Starbucks, asking for the coffee shop to be shut
down. Hawally police arrived on scene and managed to disburse the crowd with
minimal incident. Security forces will increase their presence in areas with
large populations of foreigners.

A. If any cafe deserves to be attacked or shut down for serving a poor excuse for coffee, it would have to be the "McDonalds" of coffee. (A pet gripe of mine, though I did manage to get my local baristas to understand that a latte by definition starts with a double espresso, and is not supposed to be some insipid hot milk with added coffee flavour. And, fresh coffee means beans roasted within 2 weeks, not roasted 6 months ago and freighted to Kuwait.... I digress).

B. I thought that only local citizens frequent Starbucks anyway! Does Rumaithiya Starbucks have a totally different clientale than other Starbucks outlets?

And as for the Lebanon war, don't get me started on the media bias here. Sadly, my sympathy for the Lebanese plight is being overshadowed by the ridiculous behaviour of locals and the local media in providing moral support for Hezbollah, an organisation committed to acts of terrorism, and who least we forget, provoked Israel into launching this war! Of course, Arab leaders are not going to take any serious action against Israel and quietly live in hope that Hezbollah's power is severely curtailed. But when it comes to war, it is always the innocents on both sides, and the truth, that suffer.

Key Education posts should only be for the incompetent & inexperienced - Islamists warn

2006-08-02T15:38:00.000+03:00

Another snippet from today's Kuwait Times...

Attempts of political blackmail in ministry
KUWAIT: There has more heated
political exchanges regarding key leadership posts in the Education Ministry.
Islamist MP Jamal Al-Kandari, who is considered a member of the Islamic
Constitutional Movement (ICM), has warned the Education Minister Dr Adel
Al-Tabtabae that he would grill him in case he excludes
(sic) competent and experienced people from key education
posts. (contd.)

Yeah, I think the reporter has got this one about right! Islamists don't want competent people in positions where they may have some influence...

Any competent Company Chairmen (or Chairwomen) out there?

2006-08-02T15:22:00.000+03:00

In the Kuwait Times today was this odd little snippet...

State urged to take action
KUWAIT: The chairman of companies
whose share price has declined recently has explained that the losses incurred
by those companies are on the rise due to downward movement of the market. He
said: "It is a very worrying matter and disturbs the chairmen of many
companies." He pointed out that things are going to the worse unless government
takes action to stop decline in the market. He explained that share prices have
reached a very low point.

Duh! What a brainfart. Automatically, you have given proof that you are not fit to chair a company, along with your Chairman buddies... (please let me know who you are so I know not to invest in your company!... I hope it's not my employer!!).

Prices of company stocks in Kuwait, as in the rest of the Gulf were getting way out of kilter with fundamentals, as they are wont to do when easy money can be made and investors get greedy, ie. if I buy at 'x' price, it will continue going up so I can sell and make a nice handy profit, as there's always another sucker who will come in and buy when the price has gone up. As with all speculative stockmarket bubbles, eventually they pop! Stockmarket investing lesson 101.

How exactly is a reduced share price affecting your core business? Or is it that you've lost money investing in shares? And now you want the State to action... please. Next you'll want the head of the KSE! (Oh, that's already on the agenda!)

And you thought the American legal system was bad...

2006-08-02T14:59:00.000+03:00

So much crap printed in the local media, and so little time to comment...

You never know by the reporting whether justice is being done or not. Here's a couple of examples in today's papers...

Death sentence
KUWAIT: The Court of Appeal has approved
the execution of two persons for smuggling hashish and opium into the country
from Iran by the sea. The court did not listen to the suspects' lawyer who
claimed that they did not know there were drugs on the boat. They also claimed
that there were other sailors on the boat besides them.

Appeals acquits 3 securitymen in kidnap, rape of Asian
woman
KUWAIT CITY: The Court of Appeals Tuesday overturned the verdict of the
Criminal Court and acquitted three securitymen — M. Al-Ajmi, S. Al-Otaibi and H.
Al-Shimmari - who had been accused of kidnapping and raping an Asian woman,
identified only as D.Y. On June 25, 2005, the Criminal Court had found the men
guilty and sentenced them to 15 years in jail. According to case papers the
victim was stopped by a police patrol on Aug 11, 2004 in a suburb of Nugra and
taken to the Nugra Police Station and was left in the custody of the prime
suspect, Ajmi.
After checking her identification papers, Ajmi convinced the
victim that she was in legal trouble and accompanied her to a nearby chalet
where he raped her after promising to help her with her ‘troubles’. He took her
mobile phone number and let her go. She added four days later, Ajmi called her
and told her that he wanted to ‘mediate’ in her problem. He took her to a café
where he introduced her to the other two accused. The men allegedly hit her on
the head and neck and raped her inside their vehicle because she resisted their
attempts. The victim said Otaibi took her to a desert and the other two men
followed them in another vehicle where the trio raped her. Then, Otaibi returned
her to her home. The victim then filed a case with the Chief Prosecutor. The
police station officer testified his investigations revealed the three men had
committed the crime according to a case filed by the victim. He added the men
had verbally admitted to committing the crime.

In major crimes, if it is committed by a citizen their name will most likely be withheld, yet for a similar offense, not only is an expat's name published, but the convicted criminal's photo is published (in the case of smugglers, with all their confiscated contraband).

Here's another run-in with "Justice" that's just plain funny...

‘Angry’ judge detains bedoun: A bedoun youth holding Colombian citizen and
identified as M.S, was detained for 24 hours upon orders of the Traffic Court
judge, reports Al-Rai Al-Aam daily. The youth was attending a session on traffic
violations and when the judge remarked on his long hair, he retorted saying it
was his ‘personal freedom’. The angry judge ordered the youth’s detention for 24
hours. The youth who is studying at an unidentified institute begged the judge
to delay execution of the ‘verdict’ saying he had to appear for his examination
but the judge refused to budge.

So, I'd like to know if it's illegal to have long hair, or it's illegal to talk to the judge, or what?

Tribal democracy

2006-06-05T14:50:00.000+03:00

Two articles in the Kuwait Times, one after the other in the same column has left me a little confused...

Bail for 14 accused Kuwaitis

KUWAIT: Capital prosecution has started an investigation into 14 men accused of participating in by-elections. Sources revealed that the accused include 12 candidates and two other Kuwaiti men. The accused are from the Ajman and Mutari tribes in district 22, Hawajer tribe in district 24 and Enza tribe in Jahra. All were released by a bail of KD 1,000 each. One of the men is former MP, Ali Al-Hajri. The men all denied taking part in by-elections, insisting they were holding consultation meetings. Sources predict that the number of people involved could rise to 200 once criminal detectives establish the names of car owners who are known to have been at the by-election headquarters.

Otaibi favoured by Otban tribe

KUWAIT: Saadoun Hamad Al-Otaibi won 665 votes in a by-election of the Otban tribe in district 21 "Ahmadi". He is expected to represent the tribe, which could form an alliance with the Awazm tribe for the next parliamentary elections.

So is it illegal to have by-elections or not? Or does it depend on which tribe is holding them?

Maid Murderer?

2006-05-29T13:46:00.000+03:00

Today's Arab Times...

Hunt launched for Nepali maid in murder of Filipina colleague
KUWAIT CITY: A Nepali housemaid strangled her Filipina colleague to death in their sponsor’s house in Shamiya before escaping. The cousin of the house owner, who is currently out of Kuwait, called securitymen when he found the Filipina maid lying dead on the bed. When securitymen rushed to the scene they found that the bedroom, which was shared by the two maids, was a total mess and the Nepali maid was missing. Forensic officials examined the corpse and concluded the Filipina maid had died due to strangling. Securitymen are investigating the case and are looking for the Nepali maid.

Call me cynical, but I smell a rat. I wouldn't be surprised if Nepali maid is missing due to either a) also meeting a similar fate, b) not wanting to be accused of murder, even though innocent, and doesn't want to hang around to prove innocence whilst suffering at the hands of the police, or c) is absconding from the real murderer...

New Contracts for Domestics

2006-05-22T13:55:00.000+03:00

Here's some good news, in theory, for new maids arriving in Kuwait, as reported in today's Arab Times...

New contract gives domestic workers KD 40 salary, day off
KUWAIT : With the labour sector comprising an important component of economic and social affairs within any country, the Interior Ministry announced plans to intervene in the issuance of domestic labour contracts. Major General Thabet Al-Muhanna, the Interior Ministry’s undersecretary and Colonel Adel Hashash, head of Public Relations spoke of the Ministry’s plans to intervene in domestic labour contracts through a new law that will be enforceable as of July 01. Speaking at a press conference Sunday, Al-Muhanna said the contracts will be signed by three parties instead of the previous two.

“The contracts shall now be signed by the domestic labour office, the sponsor and the worker”, Al-Muhanna said. He added that the contract will be signed under terms and conditions which provide the domestic helper no less than a monthly salary of KD 40 and a day of rest each week within or outside the premises of the house. “All these are carried out to ensure safe and healthy conditions of the worker’s atmosphere and deliver an objective to Kuwaiti and non-Kuwaiti sponsors”, he said.

I'm not sure that it will make a difference. The Domestic Labour Office is only another level of bureacratic rubber-stamping. Everyone knows that salaries in contracts are falsified. What a maid is actually paid will continue to bear no relation to what it says on the contract, no matter how many people rubber-stamp it. Similarly, who's going to monitor whether a maid gets their day off? Are we going to see a change of heart by employers to let their maids take a day off? Will Kuwait's shopping malls and other public places be packed with maids on Fridays having their day off? Unless domestic workers'' rights are covered by labour legislation which is supported & upheld by a judicial system, then this is just another good intention, that in reality will be ignored by the hoi polloi.

Deport the Innocents; Ignore the Guilty

2006-05-22T13:05:00.000+03:00

Well, OK, maybe they're not exactly innocent, but desperate times call for desperate measures. In today's Arab Times, but this could be any day's...

30 female staff detained: During a four-hour campaign Friday 15 inspectors from
the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor in cooperation with 25 policemen raided
several billiard halls after dusk and arrested 30 female employees for violating
labor law which bars women from working in men’s halls after 7:00 pm, reports
Al-Watan daily. The violators have been referred to concerned authorities prior
to their deportation from the country.

What I'd be interested in knowing is a) do these women know that they're working illegally? and b) what's being done about their billiard hall employers? If they're just prostitutes (which is what the new law is trying to prevent), then the question still applies - what happens to the pimps / men paying for their services? ... you can guess the answer to that.

If you dig a bit deeper, you'll probably find that most of the female staff are illegals because they have runaway from abusive employers...

Free internet telephony... but you have to go to jail first

2006-04-30T17:11:00.000+03:00

In today's Kuwait Times...

Central Prison talk
KUWAIT: As from the beginning of May, the central jail will start providing inmates with the facilities to communicate with their relatives (voice and picture) through special computer programmes and the Internet. The move has the blessing of the First Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister, Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak.

And I thought it was illegal to use VOIP in Kuwait! (...to ensure that the Ministry of Communications keeps raking it in on international phone calls). Certainly the same newspaper gives us stories now and again of asian ex-pats being arrested for selling telephone calls over the internet to their buddies. Maybe the Central Jail has bribed the Ministry of Communications & Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak. Just a conspiracy theory (as another journalist would say).

But, this is excellent news for the inmates, many of whom are incarcerated for the "crime" of having run-away from their employer because they've been abused, raped or not paid their wages, and are waiting deportation to their home country.

And soon there will be no teachers

2006-04-26T17:08:00.000+03:00

Also in the Arab Times, 25th April...

Sack decided in home tuition

KUWAIT CITY: Dr Humoud Al- Sadoun, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education has come to a decision to terminate all the teachers who are known to privately tutor citizens and expatriates, reliable sources told Al Qabas. These sources further state the Ministry is also planning action against the students who take private tutoring. After an initial warning to stop indulging in private tutor sessions the Ministry will take further action if needed. The punishment consists of terminating these students from their educational institutions. A strict eye will be kept on the teachers and students who take part in private tutoring through observers and supervisors at schools.“The punishment for the teachers is as severe as that for students. Expatriate teachers will be deported and Kuwaiti teachers will be removed from their current jobs and will also be prevented from teaching in any of the Government schools. The Ministry of Education is believed to be currently setting up a team that will follow up on teachers who publish advertisements on private tutoring lessons in the newspaper.

This is just downright bad policy! What planet do MoE people live on.

Any teachers out there willing to comment on this brainfart!

Traffic congestion & the intellectual debate

2006-04-26T16:41:00.000+03:00

Arab Times 25th April...

Traffic congestion tied to no limit on car ownership; ‘3 million violations in 2005’

KUWAIT CITY: Assistant Under-secretary for Security Support Services Major General Thabit Al-Muhanna says among the major causes of traffic congestion is the lack of restrictions on the number of cars an individual should own because there is no law that sets the number of cars one can own. He also indicated that the traffic congestion has started shifting from the commercial areas and government departments to residential areas. Muhanna made this statement during a meeting organized by MP Adel Al-Sarawi with residents of Khaifan, adding that Kuwait finished its major street projects in 1985 when the number of cars were as low as 650,000 and the plans were made according to those figures. Now that cars in Kuwait have reached nearly 1.2 million, the roads can no longer handle the existing cars which cause congestions because the roads remain unchanged. He explained that it used to take him 10 minutes to reach his work but now takes thirty minutes or more. Even if a thousand policemen were to control the traffic congestion it would be to no avail unless the road users were to cooperate with them. He remarked that according to statistics given by the Ministry of Planning, by 2030 the population of Kuwait will reach 50 million, indicating that traffic issues are not only road related but also behavior related as reports in 2005 claim there were 3 million traffic violators — traffic violation being considered a crime in a state like Kuwait.

This is a funny article on many levels (and shows the deplorable level of journalism from the better of the 2 English language papers):
a) how is restricting the number of cars an owner can have going to solve the traffic problem. It isn't physically possible to drive more than one car at a time!
b) do you really want to try and implement a law to restrict the numbers of cars a person can own! I'm sure the Prime Minister will really be backing that one!
c) haven't you guys heard of long-term planning, or even medium term planning, when it comes to traffic? When it comes to socialist style 10 year economic plans, yep, we have a whole government ministry (the Ministry of (mis)Planning) to do that, but when it comes to something practical...
d) why don't the public cooperate with traffic police? Hmmm, I wonder why... would it be because if you have wasta it aint a problem being stopped, and if you don't have wasta then any excuse will do to give you a fine, arrest you for violating residency laws, etc, etc.
e) If by 2030 Kuwait has a population of 50 million I'll eat my hat! Another example of the 'pie in the sky' thinking of said Ministry of (mis)Planning. It's just a matter of time until the oil starts running out and then population growth will go in the opposite direction.
f) 3 million traffic violators... I think you mean violations - otherwise we have more violaters than the number of residents in Kuwait!
g) "traffic violation is considered a crime in a state like Kuwait" - classic! Human trafficking and denying of basic human rights for housemaids isn't a considered a crime though. Priorities, priorities.

Keep your mobile switched off if youre wanted by the police!

2006-04-22T09:24:00.000+03:00

Another story in today's Kuwait Times...

Man forces wife to drink his 'urine', beats her up
KUWAIT: A Kuwaiti woman reported to police that while she was leaving her home, her husband forced her into his car. The man then drove her to a distant place, assaulted her, took her handbag and gave her a bottle containing a yellow liquid. The man told her "this is my urine and you have to drink it." The woman resisted, but he hit her, forcing her to drink it. The man then dumped her home and escaped. Police could not contact the man as his mobile was switched off. Investigations are on.

So to frustrate a police manhunt just keep your mobile switched off, ok.

Road rage - Kuwait style

2006-04-22T09:19:00.000+03:00

Reading the local English papers is always good for a laugh. Today's Kuwait Times...

...a source revealed that a fight between a Kuwaiti man and Egyptian expatriate took place after a road accident in Salmiya. After they got down from their cars to assess the damage, they started shouting. The Egyptian then got a wooden stick to assault the Kuwaiti, who brought a sword from his car. The Egyptian man then ran away, with the citizen running after him. A man informed police that a Kuwaiti was chasing an Egyptian with a sword. Police rushed to the scene and arrested both of them. The men reconciled at police station, and did not file a case.

What a privilege it is to drive in Kuwait

2006-04-16T15:43:00.000+03:00

Kuwait Times yesterday:

Driving license
KUWAIT: A few months had passed since the new conditions for issuing driving licenses for expatriates were announced without any single exception, official sources stressed to Al-Watan pointing out that only 26 categories of expatriates were entitled to the license. Further, the sources explained that expatriates needed to be university graduates, getting KD 400+ salary and should be in Kuwait for at least two years before applying for the driver's license, all in attempt to solve many traffic problems and reducing the numbers of cars on roads. (sic)

The English in the article is a little difficult to understand, but the gist of this is that to reduce the number of cars on the road, an official brain-fart is to make it more difficult to have foreigners driving on the roads… Given that a large number of Kuwaiti families employ an Asian ex-pat driver, no doubt a lot of wasta will be called upon to get around this latest inconvenience.

Good news - my wife is finally a legal driver in Kuwait after several painful months of paper chasing from one bureaucratic office to another. Can't wait for her to write up her experience.

Royal Prince busted

2006-04-16T14:54:00.000+03:00

It's good to see that the long arm of the law occasionally reaches to those normally outside the law. Yesterday's Arab Times reported on a member of the royal family who has obviously been given a long leash in the past (and is probably from the 'other' side of the family). I wonder if we will read in the future about the Royal's name, a conviction, prison sentence, etc...

Interior orders arrest of royal in drug bust; Cocaine, hashish

KUWAIT CITY (Agencies): Kuwaiti police have arrested a member of the ruling
Al-Sabah family with a large drugs haul, including at least 10 kilogrammes (22 pounds) of cocaine, newspapers reported Friday. Al-Qabas newspaper quoted unnamed security sources as saying the prince, whose name was not revealed, also had 120 kilogrammes (264 pounds) of hashish. His arrest came at the orders of Interior and Defence Minister, Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak al-Sabah, who is a leading figure in the ruling family. The Al-Rai Al-Aam daily gave a different breakdown of the drugs seized, saying they consisted of 18 kilogrammes (40 pounds) of cocaine, five kilogrammes (11 pounds) of heroin and 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of hashish.
The drugs were found at the royal’s house, the paper added. The sources said “the arrest took place in tune with the orders of the First Deputy Premier, Minister of Interior and Minister of Defence Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah who indicated the same laws should be applicable for all with no exceptions.” “All people are protected under the umbrella of the law,” the minister is reported to have stated.

Rights group demands release of Saudi reporter

2006-04-13T18:53:00.000+03:00

If the fundies don't get you, the security forces will instead...

Rights group demands release of Saudi reporter
DUBAI:
Security forces have arrested a Saudi journalist who received death threats for his criticism of strict interpretations of Islam, and now he faces charges of doubting the Islamic creed and "harbouring destructive thoughts," a human rights group and Saudi officials said yesterday. Rabbah Al-Quwaii, 24, a reporter for Riyadh-based newspaper Al-Shams, was arrested April 3 after questioning Islamic doctrine in frequent writings on Internet discussion forums, the New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement demanding his release. Saudi government officials confirmed the arrest and said Al-Quwaii faced prosecution in court on unspecified anti-Islamic charges. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak on security matters.
Human Rights Watch said Al-Quwaii reported death threats last year after he
wrote articles alleging that the kingdom's strict interpretation of Islam was
contributing to the growth of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. "Saudi
security forces apparently believe they are there to abuse citizens like Rabbah Al-Quwaii rather than to protect them," said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa division of Human Rights Watch. Other liberal Saudi journalists also reported death threats to police without results, the rights group reported.
In November 2005, the group said, the governor of northern Hail Province ordered police to investigate the threats against Al-Quwaii after a newspaper reported that assailants had smashed the reporter's car and left a note saying "next time, its you." But instead, intelligence police arrested Al-Quwaii in the city of Hail, after luring him there by asking him to fill out paperwork related to the investigation of the death threats. Saudi officials provided similar details of the arrest to The Associated Press, and said Al-Quwaii had also received written warnings and threatening letters to halt his anti-Islamic writing. Human Rights Watch urged Saudi Arabia's minister for human rights, Turki al-Sudairy, to open a public inquiry into the role of the kingdom's security and intelligence services in al-Quwaii's arrest. State investigators have refused to allow Al-Quwaii to speak to his lawyer or fully
disclose charges against him, Human Rights Watch reported.---AP

Inter-sex friendships

2006-04-12T13:07:00.000+03:00

And even more from today's Kuwait Times:

Inter-sex friendships
KUWAIT: The head of the Academic Guidance Unit at the College of Arts in Kuwait University Sahau Al-Sahau confirmed his rejection of friendships between males and females as it contradicts the Muslim traditions practiced in Kuwait. He said if friendship exists between the males and females, it should not go beyond being colleagues at work. Al-Shahu expressed his comments during an interview with Al-Rai Al-Aam last Saturday. He expressed regret as his comments were misunderstood as encouraging friendships between men and women.

Well, I'm sorry, I have to disagree with Mr Sahau Al-Sahou, and please don't misunderstand me when I say I encourage all you guys and gals out there to build friendships. Maybe, just maybe, if there were platonic relationships between males and females in this place we wouldn't see the same level of social problems that are clearly evident from the imposition of a "traditional" muslim culture.

Who'd want to be a Teacher!

2006-04-12T12:56:00.000+03:00

In today's Kuwait Times:

Teachers interview

KUWAIT: The Ministry of Education have started interviewing a number of teachers in Syria, Egypt and Jordan to teach in Kuwait. The ministry specified that the salary of the new teachers would be KD 350 for male teachers including (sic) a housing allowance and KD 290 for female teachers. The Civil Service Commission rejected a call from the ministry to increase the salaries of expatriate teachers, reported Al Qabas.

I hope that it's a spelling mistake and a housing allowance is in addition to the pitiful salary. Even if the housing allowance is excluded, a fresh Kuwaiti graduates recieve more! And why the discrepancy by sex? A further indication, if it ain't obvious, of the lack of quality in education here. If you're going to pay for monkeys, you're going to get monkeys... I'm sure there's a good arabic proverb for this.

Mind you, it probably is good money for those that sign-up and come, and the job won't be very demanding.

Thank you (Dis)Information Ministry for wasting Court time

2006-04-12T12:41:00.000+03:00

In today's Arab Times:

Appeals also acquits Seyassah: The Court of Appeals recently upheld the verdict
of the lower court which had earlier acquitted Al-Seyassah daily in a case filed
by the Information Ministry accusing the daily of publishing an article which
damages the country’s relation with Syria and Lebanon, reports Al-Seyassah
daily. The said article states the presidents of these two countries are not
likely to remain in office by the end of October 2006.

Let's hope the folks in the (Dis)Information Ministry responsible for this waste of time in the courts don't remain in their office by the end of October 2006. On a positive note, it's good to see justice being done!

Doesn't the (Dis)Information Ministry realise that by pursuing a strict censorship regime, they're doing more to damage Kuwait's relations with other countries than an innocuous remark made by an individual who manages to get it published in a newspaper?

Fire, fire,...

2006-04-11T15:08:00.000+03:00

Yesterday's Arab Times had this snippet...

Fireman late, room destroyed: A room of a house in east Sulaibikhat was totally
gutted due to delay in the arrival of firefighters who lost their way, reports
Al-Watan daily. It is reported that names and numbers of this area have not
given yet and the fire service department has no information about the addresses
of the area.

This reminds me of the article Mark posted on his blog, when even after the firemen arrived at the site of the fire, it took them half an hour before they were in a position to do battle against the flames. Then he wrote about another fire 10 days later.

Just as well we didn’t have a house fire when we were living in Hutteen, South Surra. In fact, tough luck if you happen to live in South Surra full stop. Still no street numbers, and houses have been there for up to 7 years! Pizza or other fast food delivery places refused to call on us even though our house was easy to find. We were on a main road – the 206, you can’t miss the place… uh uh.

It was a nightmare getting furniture delivered. The problem is that the guys that do this kind of stuff, and it doesn’t seem to differ whether or not they have a working knowledge of English or Arabic, just have no clue when it comes to directions. Draw them a map – forget it, they can’t read maps. Mention main road numbers, 40, 50, 206… nope, they don’t use them. The best you can aim for is them finding a landmark in the suburb, in our case it was often the KFH, and then going to find them to bring them to our place. You could say take first left, first right then continue on this road ‘til you see red villa on the corner with palm trees outside, but they either still managed to get lost, or weren’t confident of not getting lost and wouldn’t budge until you found them. Only in Kuwait! So you can imagine what it would be like if there was a fire.

New Publication & Press Law is a farce

2006-03-08T14:09:00.000+03:00

I was going to write an article about the changes in Kuwait's new publication & press law, until a professional journalist beat me to it, and expressed my sentiments (in words much better than I could do). Thankfully, journalists in Kuwait still feel they are able to express their opinions. So, if you didn't read this in today's Kuwait Times already...

POLITICAL INSTINCTS
Unanimous betrayal
By Alrazi Al-Budaiwi

All attending 53 members of the parliament voted in favour of the new Publication and Press Law...Wow! This is impressive but at the same time fishy, just like the law itself. I mean, after four years of disagreement, not a single MP voted 'no' or at least abstained. Not a single MP thought that press freedoms should be guaranteed as opposed to shackled by laws. None of them thought that laws should protect journalists instead of placing them in a straightjacket?
We all heard MPs and government officials praising the law after it was passed, calling it a triumphant achievement that Kuwaiti people should celebrate. Well, if the people of this country unanimously celebrate such an achievement, I as a journalist will pass on it and abstain.
The most highlighted "achievement" of this law is that it would reopen licenses for new newspapers-to citizens. However, I'd like to note that the government, represented by the information minister, still has the right to refuse granting a publication license to any applicant. The new law only gives applicants the right to seek the court if their application for a license was denied by the information minister. Although this might be the only "advantage" of the new law, I do not see any festive achievement. In fact, I think the rest of the law, especially concerning punishments against press crimes, is disastrous.
You also probably heard advocates of the new law claiming that it would not allow jailing journalists. Well, just do not get too excited and swallow the bait. According to Article 26 of the new law, "if the publication contradicts the national interests, serves a foreign body or state or breaches the social and political system in Kuwait, then the fine would range between KD 3,000 and 10,000." Although the law does not mention jailing, neither does it say that journalists shall not be jailed. In fact, the law applies a heftier fine in addition to "the implementation of stricter punishments stipulated in another law," which could include jailing. In addition, even if journalists escape jailing, she or he would not escape the exaggerated fines, which will pressure editors-in-chief to practice stricter censorship.
Moreover, the violations mentioned in the law are too vague. I mean what does "contradicts the national interest" mean? If we unanimously agree on what's in favour of the national interest, why do we need democracy? Maybe we need it to deliberate for four years and then unanimously vote to deny journalists their right to express their thoughts about what is of interest for the country.
The same goes for the part about breaching "the social and political system". I mean who draws the lines? Like most journalists, I have a lot of criticisms on the social and political system. In fact, as a journalist I am supposed to be critical of these systems and this law deprives me from an essential freedom that I need to fulfil the obligations of my profession as it threatens me with jailing. Obviously, the law failed to consider the nature of journalism as a profession and thus failed to protect journalists.
Advocates of the law also claim that according to their law, no newspaper will be subjected to closure. Again, do not swallow the bait. They only changed the procedures. Actually, Article 27 of the new law permits the criminal court, instead of the Ministerial Council, to revoke the publication license or suspend the newspaper for a period that does not exceed one year.
Although the law obviously shackles the freedom of press instead of guaranteeing it, I was not outraged when it was unanimously passed. As I said in a previous article, I do not expect any positive change from this National Assembly, not to mention the newly formed Cabinet. However, I was gnashing my teeth when I read a statement issued by the only legitimate institution representing Kuwaiti journalists describing the law as "a significant addition to the country's public freedoms".
Nonetheless, I refuse to give up for anger; therefore, I looked at the bright side: At least now I know why the Kuwait Journalists Association has been the only NGO of its kind recognised by the government.

New hire at NBK

2006-03-02T14:02:00.000+03:00

Who said you don't have to be a criminal to work here, but it sure helps...

Court allows banker to work off debt in Kuwait

A SENIOR Brisbane banker facing a lengthy jail term for theft has been allowed to accept a lucrative overseas job to work off his debts before he is sentenced.
Jason Richard Huigens, 39, will soon travel to the Middle East to take up the $190,000 a year position with the National Bank of Kuwait so he can repay the $133,640 he stole from the St George Bank in 2005...

full article link.

Were you aware of Kuwait's marvellous health system?

2006-02-15T14:01:00.000+03:00

According to an article in the Kuwait Times on Feb. 1...

Kuwait has lowest death rate: Al-Ajeel
KUWAIT: Dr Abdullah Mohammed Al-Ajeel, director of the medical statistical analysis department at the Ministry of Health, said yesterday that Kuwait has the lowest death rate worldwide. Al-Ajeel said that the world statistics proved that Kuwait has a death rate of 1.9 per cent for every 1,000 people during the period between 2000 and 2005. He added this was proved by several international publications, such as the World Resources Institute, World in Figures for 2005 and the Top 10 Of Everything for 2006.
He indicated that this low percentage is due to the high standard of medical services provided in Kuwait and the presence of a qualified medical staff as well as the high-tech medical devices.
Al-Ajeel said he believed that also the high medical awareness among the citizens and residents, thanks to the campaigns of the Health Ministry, is another reason for the low death rates.
According to the lowest death rates agenda published in the World in Figures, the UAE ranked second with 2.4 per cent for every 1,000 persons, followed by Bahrain with 2.4 per cent, then Oman with 3.3 per cent and Qatar and Saudi-Arabia in sixth place with 3.7 per cent. - Kuna

This is typical of the rubbish provided by official spokespersons and published in media in this part of the world. We have the lowest death rate in the world… so the Ministry of Health to justify its existence has to announce that it must be because the country has the most advanced medical services in the world... This rather contradicts with experience on the ground. If you live in Kuwait you will know that medical services aren’t as good as they’re cracked up to be – why else would the royals always go abroad for medical treatment, or pay for treatment for citizens abroad? In fact according to a world ranking on health system performance, in 1997 Kuwait only ranked 45th in the world.

Let’s surmise the real reasons for a low death rate, (asuming this is in fact true)... Could it be that non-citizens are shipped back to their countries of origin when their useful working lives are over? With a quick bit of analysis on the web you will find that Kuwait ranks second in the world for the proportion of the population aged between 15-64. However, Kuwait is ranked 192 out of 193 countries, ie. 2nd last, for the proportion of the population aged 65 years and over. Mystery solved - if you don't have many old people, then it's no surprise that there's a low death rate!

Some other really interesting stats from the same website:
Kuwait is 3rd in the world for CO2 emissions per capita, which is no surprise, but is in last place for the number of prisoners per capita… that’s quite surprising given all those recalcitrant maids, drivers, labourers, et al. I suspect there’s some fudging of the numbers by the Ministry of the Interior. On a positive note, in the same day, the Kuwait Times reported the following:

Small motorcade
KUWAIT: Informed sources revealed that HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad has asked that only two cars accompany him when he moves about the country, rather than a large security motorcade. Sources said troops from the Amiri Guard went to his Salwa residence to accompany him to Bayan Palace which surprised the Amir, as no order had been given to that effect.

Good to see that the new Amir is a bit more ‘down to earth’. I hear he’s also canned the hordes of Amiri guards outside the palace and the horn blast to announce his arrival and departure which, as a staff member who I hope doesn't mind me quoting, said “…I felt like I was in an English castle in the middle ages!”

Today's lesson: Don't smack your wife while driving

2006-02-14T12:48:00.000+03:00

... wait 'till you get home! Just joking.

Back in action, after a wee sojourn from blogging. Almost left Kuwait altogether until my owner in a magnanimous gesture allowed my iqama to be transferred to my new employer!

Anyways, here's a pearl of wisdom offered by the Kuwait Times today...

Don't smack your wife while driving
JIZAN: A man died after he lost control of his car, Al-Watan daily reported. Angry with his wife and driving in typical fashion of Saudi Arabia - fast and with utter
disregard for traffic laws - the man smacked his woman in the face. In
retaliation, the wife grabbed the steering wheel, causing the husband to lose
control of the vehicle. Because he was driving like an angry Saudi, the car was
careening down the road at an unsafe speed. As a result of expressing anger by
driving really fast, the car flipped several times. The wife is recuperating in
the hospital; the husband is underground.

I have no further comment.

Thou shalt observe the law, no matter how crazy it is

2005-10-26T13:10:00.000+03:00

In Kuwait during Ramadan it is a criminal offence to eat or drink in public during the daylight hours. Every year scapegoats are found as per today's Arab Times...

Man violates law: Ahmadi patrol officers, in pursuing a car with the aim of
issuing its driver with a traffic violation ticket, were surprised to find
sweetmeats and cold drinks beside the car’s Asian driver. The man also appeared
to have also been smoking while driving and was, therefore, referred to Abu
Khalifa Police Station where he was charged with violating the law which bans
eating, drinking or smoking in public places during the daytime hours of
Ramadan, say security sources. In a continuing scenario of persons violating the
mentioned law, two Kuwaiti youth, who were caught eating in a public place at
10.00 am by personnel from the Capital patrols were referred to the Capital
police station, add the sources.

... just as well that I have an office door I can close.

Censorship

2005-10-25T17:08:00.000+03:00

Here’s an example to show what a fine upright country we’re living in.

The kids’ reading books at school all have to be submitted to the Ministry of Education before they are approved for use in school. Here’s an example of what a Year 4 reading book looks like:

"That’s the miller” said Marge. See he’s holding a jar of *** in his hand. We call it **** nowadays. The miller made *** with the malt from his mill. You can see that he loved his ***. But he did not love his wife."

The **** words were blacked out with marker pen.

Kuwait - fighting corruption, terrorism and human rights violations

2005-10-20T11:44:00.000+03:00

I've just discovered a new blog which expresses some of the same sentiments on this blog. As Ben says:

Kuwait, a culture of face, is more concerned about its reputation than anything
else. As a result, issues such as corruption, terrorism and human rights
violations are often denied or simply ignored. In most cases, the victims are
punished. Despite the fact most people are too afraid to denounce them, some
Kuwaiti and expat writers are exposing the violations committed against helpless
victims... some times at the risk of being accused of destroying Kuwait’s
reputation or even being arrested.

There's a particularly good article about the random killing of Canadian Luc Ethier and the wounding of his Filipina wife Mary Jean Bitos back in 2001, and the cover-up by the Kuwaiti authorities since. Keep up the good work Ben - the more publicity, the better.

Morals police on the job

2005-09-20T13:00:00.000+03:00

In today's Arab Times we get the following article with accompanying photo...

13 women held for dressing indecently

Hawally securitymen arrested 13 Asian women, all below 25-years of age, at
a billiards hall in Salmiya for being 'indecently dressed', say sources.
Investigations show most of the women already have cases registered against them
by their sponsors. Some of these individuals were found to be on expired visas.
Some adolescent boys were also arrested and during interrogation confessed to
frequenting the billiards hall late at night to "fool around with the girls in
exchange for money", confirm sources. All the arrested women will be referred to
the hospital where they will undergo medical examinations to confirm whether or
not they are free from infectious diseases explained the source in
conclusion.

How indecent! ...their arms are showing, no head coverings, and one of them looks distinctly masculine ...probably the undercover officer posing with his bevy of beauties.

And while on the subject of Dubai...

2005-07-23T15:00:00.000+03:00

Apparantly women in Dubai are now able to divorce their husbands in Sharia courts. But, did you know...

... One new rule mandates that the mentally ill, lepers and the impotent cannot get married. (my emphasis)

So how do they test whether someone is impotent or not before they can be married?! Do Sharia court judges do a test on budding fiances? Do they take them to one of the hotels renowned for women of the night? And why on earth have the stupid rule in the first place?

I bet there's a few Emirati wives who wish their husbands were impotent!

Does the Road to the Future End at Dubai?

2005-07-23T11:13:00.000+03:00

I came across an interesting article on Dubai when browsing blogs. Here are a few gems...

Although often compared to Las Vegas, Orlando, Hong Kong or Singapore, the sheikhdom is more like their collective summation: a pastiche of the big, the bad, and the ugly. It is not just a hybrid but a chimera: the offspring of the lascivious coupling of the cyclopean fantasies of Barnum, Eiffel, Disney, Spielberg, Jerde, Wynn, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill...

... Under his leadership (Maktoum's), the coastal desert has become a huge circuit board into which the elite of transnational engineering firms and retail developers are invited to plug in high-tech clusters, entertainment zones, artificial islands, "cities within cities" -- whatever is the latest fad in urban capitalism. The same phantasmagoric but generic Lego blocks, of course, can be found in dozens of aspiring cities these days, but Sheik Mo has a distinctive and inviolable criterion: Everything must be "world class," by which he means number one in The Guinness Book of Records. Thus Dubai is building the world's largest theme park, the biggest mall, the highest building, and the first sunken hotel among other firsts.

Sheikh Mo's architectural megalomania, although reminiscent of Albert Speer and his patron, is not irrational. Having "learned from Las Vegas," he understands that if Dubai wants to become the luxury-consumer paradise of the Middle East and South Asia (its officially defined "home market" of 1.6 billion), it must ceaselessly strive for excess.

From this standpoint, the city's monstrous caricature of futurism is simply shrewd marketing. Its owners love it when designers and urbanists anoint it as the cutting edge. Architect George Katodrytis wrote: "Dubai may be considered the emerging prototype for the 21st century: prosthetic and nomadic oases presented as isolated cities that extend out over the land and sea."

A good read, but unfortunately the author doesn't let facts get in the way of a good story. He goes a bit over the top when he talks about 'broad tolerance of booze, recreational drugs, halter tops, and other foreign vices formally proscribed by Islamic law' or 'unrestricted freehold ownership to foreigners' - as far as I'm aware you have to be a non-Muslim to then be able to obtain a licence to buy booze, for example, and there is no unrestricted freehold ownership for foreigners... it is only leasehold and legal property rights are still very murky.

Justice for women in Islam?

2005-07-19T08:32:00.000+03:00

How many men in Kuwait have been convicted for raping a housemaid? And yet, there are hundreds, thousands even, of maids over the years that have been raped or abused, and yet are punished by the system while nothing happens to the perpetrator. How many sponsors are stopped from sponsoring another housemaid once it is known that they have raped, abused, and/or not paid their previous housemaid?

Whilst it's easy to be critical of the justice system, or lack of it, in Kuwait and other Gulf countries, it's not only here that there is a problem. I came across the following article in The Times written by the renowned Salman Rushdie which highlights the strict Islamic code that condemns women in Pakistan and India, and have 'cut and paste' it in full...

Where is the honour in this vile code that condemns women to die in shame?

Salman Rushdie
IN HONOUR-AND-SHAME cultures such as those
of India and Pakistan, male honour resides in the sexual probity of women, and
the “shaming” of women dishonours all men. So it is that five men of Pakistan’s
powerful Mastoi tribe were disgracefully acquitted of raping a villager named
Mukhtar Mai three years ago. Theirs was an “honour rape”, intended to punish a
relative of Ms Mukhtar for having been seen with a Mastoi woman. The acquittals
have now been suspended by the Pakistan Supreme Court, and there is finally a
chance that this courageous woman may gain some measure of redress for her
violation. Pakistan, however, has little to be proud of. The Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan says that there were 320 reported rapes in the first nine
months of last year, and 350reported gang rapes in the same period. The number
of unreported rapes is believed to be much larger. The victim pressed charges in
only one third of the reported cases, and a mere39 arrests were made. The use of
rape in tribal disputes has become, one might say, normal. And the belief that a
raped woman’s best recourse is to kill herself remains widespread and deeply
ingrained. For every Mukhtar Mai there are dozens of such suicides. Nor is
courage any guarantee of getting justice, as the case of Shazia Khalid shows. Dr
Khalid was raped last year in the province of Baluchistan by security personnel
at the hospital where she worked. A Pakistani tribunal failed to convict anyone
of the crime. Dr Khalid says that she was subsequently “threatened so many
times” that she was forced to flee Pakistan. “I was hounded out,” she says,
expressing dissatisfaction that the Government neither brought her attackers to
justice nor protected her from the threats that followed. That is the same
Government, led by President Musharraf, that confiscated Mukhtar Mai’s passport
because it feared that she would go abroad and say things that would bring
Pakistan into disrepute; and it is the same Government that has allied itself
with the West in the war on terrorism, but seems quite prepared to allow a war
of sexual terror to be waged against its female citizens. Now comes even worse
news. Whatever Pakistan can do, India, it seems, can trump. The so-called Imrana
case, in which a Muslim woman from a village in northern India says that she was
raped by her father-in-law, has brought forth a ruling from the powerful
Islamist seminary Darul-Uloom ordering her to leave her husband because as a
result of the rape she has become haram (unclean) for him. “It does not matter,”
a cleric has stated, “if it was consensual or forced.” Darul-Uloom, in the
village of Deoband90 miles north of Delhi, is the birthplace of the
ultra-conservative Deobandi cult, in whose madrassas the Taleban were trained.
It teaches the most fundamentalist, narrow, puritan, rigid, oppressive version
of Islam that exists anywhere in the world today. In one fatwa it suggested that
Jews were responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Not only the Taleban but also the
assassins of The Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl were followers of
Deobandi teachings. Darul-Uloom’s rigid interpretations of Sharia law are
notorious, and immensely influential — so much so that the victim, Imrana, a
woman under unimaginable pressure, has said she will abide by the seminary’s
decision in spite of the widespread outcry in India against it. An innocent
woman, she will leave her husband because of his father’s crime. Why does a mere
seminary have the power to issue such judgments? The answer lies in the strange
anomaly that is the Muslim personal law system — a parallel legal system for
Indian Muslims, which leaves women such as Imrana at the mercy of the mullahs.
Such is the historical confusion on this vexed subject that anyone who suggests
that a democratic country should have a single, unified legal system is accused
of being anti- Muslim and in favour of the hard-line Hindu nationalists. In the
1980s a divorced woman named Shah Bano was granted “maintenance money” by the
Indian Supreme Court. But there is no alimony under Islamic law, so orthodox
Indian Islamists such as those at Darul-Uloom protested that this ruling
infringed the Muslim Personal Law, and they founded the All-India Muslim Law
Board to mount protests. The Government caved in, passing a Bill denying alimony
to divorced Muslim women. Ever since Shah Bano, Indian politicians have not
dared to challenge the power of Islamist clerical grandees. In the Imrana case,
the All-India Muslim Law Board has unsurprisingly backed the Darul-Uloom
decision, though many other Muslim and non-Muslim organisations and individuals
have denounced it. Shockingly, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Mulayam
Singh Yadav, has also backed the Darul-Uloom fatwa. “The decision of the Muslim
religious leaders in the Imrana case must have been taken after a lot of
thought,” he told reporters in Lucknow. “The religious leaders are all very
learned and they understand the Muslim community and its sentiments.” This is a
craven statement. The “culture” of rape that exists in India and Pakistan arises
from profound social anomalies, its origins lying in the unchanging harshness of
a moral code based on the concepts of honour and shame. Thanks to that code’s
ruthlessness, raped women will go on hanging themselves in the woods and walking
into rivers to drown themselves. It will take generations to change that.
Meanwhile, the law must do what it can. In Pakistan, the Supreme Court has taken
one small but significant step in the matter of Mukhtar Mai; now it is for the
police and politicians to start pursuing rapists instead of hounding their
victims. As for India, at the risk of being called a communalist, I must agree
that any country that claims to be a modern, secular democracy must secularise
and unify its legal system, and take power over women’s lives away, once and for
all, from medievalist institutions such as Darul-Uloom.

The Last Information Minister

2005-07-12T08:21:00.000+03:00

Some good news for Kuwait... I missed this one when I was out of the country. Anas Al-Rasheed is the new Kuwaiti Information Minister, and his stated goal in his new position is to CLOSE the Ministry of (Dis)Information!

And thou shalt not have thy hair cut in the same vicinity as the opposite sex

2005-07-12T08:07:00.000+03:00

Reading the local newspapers always provides some light entertainment for foreigners. Further, it actually provides an insight into the cultural norms and values. I know I can't get a female hairdresser to cut my hair in this place, but I'd never even thought about, yet again realised, that it's illegal to have a hairdressing salon where both members of the same sex can get their hair cut. This little titbit from a recent Arab Times article...

... the Labour Department of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour
recently spotted serious violations said to have been committed by hairdressing
salons, reports Al-Qabas daily. In one incident inspectors from the department
raided a men's salon and discovered a special room had been prepared to receive
women customers. The salon has since been closed for violating the law.
Inspectors have also closed two women's salons for entertaining men...

Fijians the latest to be exploited

2005-07-05T15:24:00.000+03:00

Looks like Fijians are the latest nationality to be exploited by a Kuwaiti employer. In yesterday's Arab Times...

Over 80 Fijian truckers complain about not-payment of salaries

KUWAIT CITY: Over 80 stranded Fijian truckers employed with a well-known
local logistics company and plying on the Kuwait-Iraq route complained Monday
about non-payment of their salaries for three months. Slamming the heavy-handed
attitude of the company, the truckers alleged that the company was flouting the
work contract signed in Fiji. ‘The company promised us that it would increase
our salaries after the completion of the probation period but its almost seven
months now and the company has neither hiked our wages nor it has provided us
work visas as promised,’ they lamented. According to the truckers, more than 400
Fijians were signed up as truckers by the local company and have been plying to
Iraq on regular basis. Taking umbrage at the low risk allowance to Iraq, a
trucker told the Arab Times that the company was providing the truckers a mere
KD 50 as risk allowance.‘

We have been plying in some of the most dangerous areas in Iraq including
Fallujah, Mosul and Baghdad but the company does not appreciate our efforts. All
of us feel very vulnerable while traveling to Iraq but we are helpless.’ ‘Some
of us tried to resolve the problem with the company in a congenial manner but to
no avail. The management threatens workers with deportation if they approach
them to seek their dues.’ Added a trucker ‘All of us have families back home.
Their day-to-day activities have been disrupted owing to non-payment of our
salaries. How are we supposed to feed our families,’ he demanded to know.

The truckers, who earn monthly salary of KD 175, said as per the new
contract the truckers were to be paid over KD 1,000 per month and that the
company has been turning a blind eye to their repeated requests. ‘All we are
demanding is good working conditions and our salary on time.’The truckers also
alleged that some of their colleagues were incapacitated and were in urgent need
of medical care. ‘Some 80 Fijians were recently either terminated or forced to
resign by the company. While some got their dues, others were repatriated
without paying their indemnity.’ Says a trucker ‘we are being treated like
slaves by the company. We are not provided rations by the company while
traveling to Iraq. All truckers have to take care of their own supplies. The
company does not provide us accommodation in Iraq and as a result we have to
sleep in our trucks. The truck is like our living room.’ (contd.)

Hmmm... a promised increase in salary from KD 175 to KD 1,000 per month. There are suckers born every minute.

Smelly in Salwa

2005-07-03T10:48:00.000+03:00

I noticed in yesterdays Arab Times that an Egptian worker was killed when he was investigating drains in Salwa. Apparantly he was down a manhole and took off his mask to talk to a colleague and was overcome by toxic fumes!! This isn't the first time this has happened. I recall a similar incident happened a year ago, in Jahra I think.

How come there's toxic fumes in drains? What kind of toxic fumes are we dealing with here? What is the source? How is the low level of toxicity that we're all receiving on a daily basis affecting our bodies? Why isn't there more of an outcry about the environmental situation in Kuwait? Does anyone in this country care? Am I a voice in the wilderness?

Lesson #1: How to build a culture reliant on state handouts

2005-07-02T10:39:00.000+03:00

What a farce whereby all Kuwaitis have their power and water bills reduced by KD 2,000. What kind of message does that give to honest bill payers? What about non-Kuwaitis?

That latest Governmental decision is on top of the KD 200 cash handout to all Kuwaitis and the salary increases to all public sector employees. Cost of these 3 decisions in total - a cool KD 460 million (over $1.5 billion), according to today’s Arab Times ‘Al-Shall report’. The rational for these payouts: appease the Kuwaiti politicians that would have otherwise blocked other ‘reforms’ like allowing women to vote…

Almost 2 years now in Kuwait and still no telephone line, because the Ministry haven’t built the infrastructure…

Why do the workers protest?

2005-07-02T10:20:00.000+03:00

Today's Arab Times...

Workers protest as govt boots out 'cleaning' firm; Salaries unpaid for several months

KUWAIT CITY: In an extraordinary situation in Kuwait, about 3,000 cleaning
company workers of an unidentified company demonstrated and refused to hand over
the keys and other items in their possession to the workers of the new
contracting company when their company's contract with the Al-Razi, Maternity,
Chest and Allergy Diseases hospitals was terminated. A reliable source told the
Arab Times the company had violated one of the terms and conditions of the
contract by not paying the workers for several months and forcing them to
demonstrate and refuse to work thus disrupting the cleaning services at several
hospitals. When the workers refused to leave the premises at these hospitals, a
police force led by Director of the Security Directorate of the Capital
Governorate Brigadier Dr Mustafa Al-Zuaabi rushed to the place and threatened to
take action if the workers don't abide by the laws of the country. It has also
been reported after the arrest of one of the workers believed to be the man
leading the demonstration, the disheartened workers quietly left the place.
Those present during the negotiations were the acting Undersecretary of the
Ministry of Health Dr Ali Al-Seif, Undersecretary of the Legal Affairs
Department Dr Abdulkareem Jaafar, Director of the Legal Affairs Department
Mahmoud Abdulhadi, Director of the Chest Diseases Hospital Dr Fahd Al-Khalifah
and Director of the Maternity Hospital Dr. Mansour Sarkhouh. Most cleaning
workers get very low salaries - around KD 20 - but in the recent past the number
of protests by them have increased as they say even this meagre amount is not
paid to them for months.

That’s right boot out the workers who complain because they haven’t been paid – so not only are they not paid, they don’t have a job any more and they’re deported. And a new lot of workers are hired and the cycle starts again. The winner out of this merry-round - the Kuwait company owners. Lose one contract, that's OK... very profitable while it lasted, as very little in outgoings... and tomorrow I'll have another contract somewhere else.

And why exactly are the company names never released? Powerful families that can pay off the press me thinks. Wouldn’t want the reputation tarnished with bad publicity after all would we. Might not go down too well in the diwaniya.

How dare these slaves be treated with dignity!

2005-06-27T08:31:00.000+03:00

Another good article in the Kuwait Times yesterday by Jamie Etheridge is reproduced in full. It's great that this stuff is able to be published in the media in Kuwait! It makes me optimistic that things can change for the better, but at the same time amazes me that such dinosaurs are elected as MPs! And, it's not often that the Ministry of Interior can be praised for using some common sense...

A setback for hope: MPs and labour laws

By Jamie Etheridge
KUWAIT: This week the Ministry of the Interior rejected a proposal by MPs
to place an additional restriction on expat labour in Kuwait. The proposal
recommended that any expatriate wishing to travel outside the country must first
obtain from his/her sponsor a 'certificate of non-objection.' Luckily the
Ministry refused the request on the grounds that it 1.) contravened the
government's policy of facilitating freedom of travel for non-criminals; 2.)
because there are plenty of systems in place already to catch criminals who try
to abscond; 3) most employers and sponsors already hold the passports of their
expat staff, even though this is against the law and 4.) it would be extremely
difficult to apply because foreigners who needed to leave on an emergency may
not be able to reach sponsors on vacation or unavailable.

We are thankful for the Ministry's detailed logic and decision to allow
foreign labour at least the dignity of freedom of travel. We can't help but
wonder which MPs thought placing such a harsh and burdensome restriction on more
than 1.2 million expatriates living and working in Kuwait was a good idea.
Imagine the nightmare of trying to get a 'certificate of non-objection' from a
sponsor who has physically abused you or failed to pay you or maybe just traded
you off to another sponsor. Imagine even trying to get a 'non-objection
certificate' from a great and generous sponsor who travels - like many Kuwaitis
- out of the country on a regular basis. What were these MPs thinking? What
could possibly prompt them to want to leash like dogs 1.2 million people to
their sponsors when the US State Department is openly and publicly ridiculing
Kuwait for its failure to protect to victims of 'human trafficking' and failure
to prosecute human traffickers.

Already the International Labour Organisation has recommended that Kuwait
abandon the trouble-laden sponsorship system and instead allow only the state to
act as an official sponsor for all imported labour. Many expatriates and labour
activists see this as the most reasonable solution, reducing the possibility for
abuses by sponsors and reducing the financial burden and risks sponsors take
when they hire and import expat labour.

The debate about human trafficking and troubled labour laws, however,
doesn't seem to be penetrating the national conscious - or rather, the National
Assembly's conscious. MPs who still think of expat labour as just a step above
slaves clearly aren't ready to enter a discussion about how to protect Asian
maids from their employers or how to stop child camel jockey trafficking in the
region.

Is the gap between Arabic and English discourse in Kuwait so wide that
Members of Parliament seriously have heard nothing about how expat labourers
here are fed up with being abused and exploited and how Kuwait is being
spotlighted for that exploitation? Or maybe they had just been working so hard
on the proposal to prevent expats from leaving the country without their
sponsors' permission that they haven't had time to read a newspaper.

Modern day slavery in Kuwait

2005-06-27T08:19:00.000+03:00

Last week's Kuwait Times had the following interesting article...

US State Department talks about modern day slavery in Kuwait

By Jamie Etheridge

KUWAIT: The US Embassy in Kuwait arranged yesterday a videoconference
discussion with Ambassador James Miller, Senior Advisor to the Secretary of
State and Director, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
Ambassador Miller spoke in-depth about trafficking in persons in Kuwait and the
US State Department's position on enforcement and protection for trafficking
victims. "Trafficking in persons "is a major human rights issue in the 21st
century" Miller argues, labelling it "modern day slavery."
In early June, the United States lowered the ranking for Kuwait - along
with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - to the third tier of
countries failing to protect victims of trafficking and prosecute traffickers.
Yesterday, Kuwait's Speaker of the House said in an interview with BBC that the
US reports about human rights on Kuwait should not be dealt with as
"undisputable or some form of a permit that limits our authority." Throwing a
stone at America's most prominent glass house, Khorafi noted that Washington has
violated human rights by "holding prisoners without trial or legal procedure" at
the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "In Kuwait, our best is always
done to resolve any negativity that takes place (at human rights level),"
Al-Khorafi said. Ambassador Miller acknowledged that slavery remains "a
scourge that extends throughout the world," including the United States. While
he didn't mention the accusations of human rights abuses levelled at the United
States over the Gitmo detentions, he did say that in America, hundreds of women
are trafficked into the country as sex slaves.
Speaking about Kuwait, Miller listed three types of trafficked persons:
domestic servants and housemaids, construction workers and child camel jockeys.
Miller argues that tools to combat slavery include public awareness through
education and media campaigns, labour laws and enforcement of laws to protect
victims and prosecute violators.When asked why Washington had chosen now to
lower Kuwait's rating to the third tier - where it could face sanctions from the
US government if no substantive progress has been made by September - Miller
said that "We don't believe the government of Kuwait is making significant
efforts to combat slavery. Deeds have yet to match words." For the Trafficking
in Humans report, the US State Department gathers information from a variety of
sources including US Embassies abroad, other governments and embassies, press
and media reports, academic papers and staff visits, says Miller. "We are hoping
that in the next several months Kuwait will articulate an approach to change
these laws to give some protection to those who find themselves in slave like
conditions," says Miller.
When challenged on why the US seems to love to rank and rate other
countries on human rights issues and terrorism, Miller admitted that the US
would rank at the "top of tier two" - one rank above Kuwait - when it comes to
trafficking in humans. The US government is now looking for "appreciable
programmes" that demonstrate a Kuwaiti government will to address the problem.
According to unofficial estimates, there are more than 300,000 Asian maids in
Kuwait - about one for every two Kuwaitis. Human Rights Watch, a
non-governmental organisation which monitors human rights abuses around the
globe - argues that Asian maids in Kuwait are routinely subject to physical
abuse, unlawful confinement, passport confiscation, withholding of wages, sexual
abuse, rape and assault.
Ambassador Miller says the US government hopes that by raising awareness,
the Kuwaiti government will focus greater efforts on providing education to
would-be sponsors and potential recruits, shelters for those who have been
abused, public awareness campaigns and improved labour laws...

The problem, which the USA quite rightly is highlighting, is that the Kuwaiti government is not doing anything to resolve the slavery issue. Sure, the USA is no angel in this matter and has its own people trafficking problems.

As I’ve commented in this blog previously, the Kuwaiti Labour Laws have still not been amended. And being a cynic, even if the laws are changed, everyone knows in Kuwait that the rule of law is applied differently depending on your nationality thanks to institutionalised racism, or is amenable to “wasta” (the use of relationships or a network for favours). The judicial system clearly doesn’t work in Kuwait as in other Gulf states. Even in Bahrain which is a little more progressive in these matters, not one national citizen has been prosecuted for abuse or rape of a housemaid.

Then you have the issue of the home countries of those that are exploited – the maids, labourers, prostitutes, et al - who themselves are quite happy to sweep things under the carpet, and not make too big a deal about the exploitation. As long as you have third world embassies whose main function is to pick up the pieces of individuals and arrange for them to get home, rather than confront the problem head on and withdraw their nationals from the market altogether (as some countries have done / are threatening to do), then the problem will continue. These supplier countries can do something, but often won’t as their economies do very well thank you from expat remittances. Then there’s the comfortable life a diplomatic post entails (particularly coming from a third world country)… why rock the boat (or ‘gravy train’ to use another metaphor)! And these countries aren’t immune to the greasing of palms… all unsubstantiated uncorroborated thinking on my part of course.

The USA State Department didn’t mention the fourth group of trafficked persons in Kuwait – prostitutes – so I will. If you read the constant stories in newspapers about prostitution dens being broken up by police in the country, you’ll get an inkling of how this is another huge area for exploitation (as it is everywhere in the world). Sadly, it appears that a number of the prostitutes are runaway maids hoping to earn a few bucks. Talk about jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire!

Might we see reform of Kuwait's Labour Laws sometime soon?

2005-06-07T07:56:00.000+03:00

From yesterdays Arab Times:

Changes eyed to expat labour law

KUWAIT CITY (AFP): Kuwait said Sunday it may change labour laws that have
come under fire for creating unfair conditions for Kuwait's 1.8 million foreign
workers. The US Department of State in its annual Trafficking in Persons
Report released Friday criticised Kuwait and three other Gulf states for not
doing enough to halt human trafficking and child labour." Yes, the labour
market has many problems, but we are actively working to safeguard the integrity
of foreign workers by issuing more regulations," said Adnan Al-Omar, a labour
ministry official.
Currently, foreigners working in Kuwait's private sector must have a
"sponsor," a regulation which restricts their movement and puts them at the
mercy of their employers. Omar said Kuwait has been cooperating with the
International Labour Organization for the past four years, and is considering
ILO suggestions for changing the sponsor requirement...

That’s right… 4 years cooperating, ie. talking, talking, talking... but not actually getting around to making any changes to the Labour Laws. According to another newspaper article, the Labour Laws haven’t been amended in 40 years! So no wonder the US State Department is getting on the case. Let's see some action! Meanwhile, don't be surprised if there are more violent demonstrations from abused workers.

This is another example of the length of time any reform or change takes in this part of the world.

Freedom to discuss Human Rights in Bahrain?

2005-06-01T07:49:00.000+03:00

And following up from yesterday's post - what to do with home-grown human rights NGOs. Shut them down of course. This from today's Gulf Daily News.

If you clamp down on one society, in this case the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights (BCHR), it will only pop up again in another guise...

GCC countries to issue own 'rights' reports

2005-05-31T07:41:00.000+03:00

What a brain fart reported in this morning's Gulf Daily News...

Gulf to issue rights reports

COUNTRIES in the GCC may start to issue their own annual reports on terrorism, human rights and human resources to offset those compiled by international organisations. GCC Secretary General Abdulrahman Al Attiyah proposed the move at the seventh GCC consultative meeting on Saturday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
He claimed there is a need to counter reports on the GCC by
international organisations because they "may be inaccurate".
"My proposal was well received by the leadership of GCC states at the meeting," he said following yesterday's Press conference at the Foreign Ministry, in Manama.
A new department is now expected to be formed at the GCC General Secretariat specifically to issue reports, which would be compiled in co-operation with relevant government and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in member states...

Indepedent observers keep writing bad things about GCC countries, so let's do something about it... Hmmm, I know, let's write our own reports about how glorious things are. Brilliant plan! That should encourage gullible investors & create a few more jobs.

As if the media isn't controlled enough already. Maybe the GCC will be seeking to counter this type of stuff from the International Crisis Group.