Draft Law: No Car Talk
From August 4th Kuwait Times (yep, they are back online)
Note: Before arriving in Seattle, my oldest friend warned me that in Seattle you now get TWO tickets if you are seen talking on a mobile phone while driving, one for talking on a phone, and one for reckless endangerment. Each ticket is $101. Ouch! I don’t see anyone here talking while they are driving anymore.
Drive, don’t talk…Big Brother is ‘watching’
Published Date: August 04, 2007
By Nancy Oteifa, Staff writer
KUWAIT: A draft law criminalizing motorists for using mobile phones while driving that was announced recently, has suddenly become a cause for concern among several residents in Kuwait. Officials at the Traffic General Department are said to be taking the issue into serious consideration and seem adamant in penalizing all those who use their mobile phones while driving, claiming that it’s one of the major causes of accidents in Kuwait. The draft law of course has not been finalized yet, and officials claim that it has also not been ascertained whether there would be traffic fines to be paid or jail sentences or even both.
Although it is also not confirmed if this law would be enforced or not many people seem to be against its enforcement, while some others were in agreement – with the hope that this might reduce the increasing number of accidents occurring in the country every day. This Kuwait Times reporter spoke to people on the issue where they expressed different opinions and comments.
You can read the rest of the article HERE.
Against the Law?
From today’s Arab Times of course, because the Kuwait Times can’t find a way to get themselves back on line (!)
Woman in fireman’s outfit: Police are looking for an unidentified young woman who was reportedly seen dressed in a fireman’s outfit and driving a vehicle similar to the one used by firemen, reports Al-Watan daily. An unidentified person informed the police when he saw the woman parking her vehicle outside the Al-Sabah Maternity Hospital and walking inside the hospital. Police waited for the woman to return to the car but she did not show up. It has been reported this is not the first time the woman was seen riding the vehicle and wearing a fireman’s uniform.
I suppose it might be suspicious to be wearing fireman clothes and driving a vehicle that might appear to be an official fire vehicle . . . but a crime? I’m sorry, I can’t help it, I love stories like this and wish I knew the rest of the story!
Cannabis WORSE than Tobacco
From BBC Health News:
Cannabis harm worse than tobacco
The impact of cannabis is worsened by how joints are smoked.
A single cannabis joint could damage the lungs as much as smoking up to five tobacco cigarettes one after another, scientists in New Zealand have said.
The research, published in the journal Thorax, found cannabis damaged the large airways in the lungs causing symptoms such as coughing and wheezing.
Read the rest of the story HERE.
And don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t addictive as well as damaging to your health.
Burke and Tin Roof Blowdown
“So what are you reading?”
Sparkle’s question didn’t surprise me. It’s one of the things we share, a love of reading, anything really but especially mystery books.
“I just started James Lee Burke’s new book, The Tin Roof Blowdown,” I responded.
Her eyes brightened and she threw back her head and laughed! “I knew it! I saw he had a new book out and I hoped you had already bought it!”
What she’s not saying is “bought it, read it and will pass it along to me!”
It’s what we do. I am in the middle of a series she recommended and loaned to my son, he is 3/4 way through (the Hyperion series) and has passed along the first two volumes to me, which, when finished, I will return to my sis.
James Lee Burke’s newest book, The Tin Roof Blowdown, is Burke at his best. His last book ended with the ominous storm rolling in that has changed the face of New Orleans and this book starts with Hurricane Katrina. The stories are heartbreaking, and all the more so because they are true. New Orleans is one of the most corrupt cities in the United States, about one third of the police force LEFT the city they were hired to protect in the evacuation, and the poorest of the poor were left behind, to suffer, to struggle to live, or to die. Many did all three.
Detective Dave Robicheaux is called into the “Big Sleazy” with the rest of the New Iberia police force to help with rescue operations, and to try to bring some order into the chaos. He gets involved with a missing priest, two looters being shot, a robbery that includes cocaine, counterfeit cash and blood diamonds, and the usual cast of psycopaths and organized crime goombahs.
The book builds inexorably to a nail-biting climax.
This author can WRITE. He is head and shoulders above the average churn-em-out detective writer. Here is one of his less poetic, but more insightful entries:
” . . . the honest to God truth is that law enforcement is not even law “enforcement.” We deal with problems after the fact. We catch criminals by chance and accident, either during the commission of the crimes or through snitches. Because of forensic and evidentiary problems, most of the crimes recidivists commit are not even prosecutable. Most inmates currently in the slams spend lifetimes figuring out ways to come to the attention of the system. Ultimately, jail is the only place they feel safe from their own failures.
Unfortunately, the last people on our minds are the victims of crime. They become an addendum to both the investigation and the prosecution of the case, adverbs instead of nouns. Ask rape victims, or people who have been beaten with gun butts or metal pipes or tied to chairs and tortured how they felt toward the system after they learned that their assailants were released on bond without the victims being notified.
I don’t believe in capital punishment, but I don’t argue with the prosecutors who support it. The mouths of the people they represent are stopped with dust. What kind of advocate would not try to give them voice?
Libya Frees Medics
This has got to be one of history’s most bizarre news stories. For years, these Bulgarian (and one Palestinian) medics have been accused of deliberately infecting Libyan children with the AIDS virus at medical facilities.
Do you believe they did it? Most medical people are in the profession because they want to help. They have consistently denied their guilt, except under torture, and we all know that under torture people will say anything to make the pain stop.
I am betting the procedures in Libya were so primitive, the sterilization minimal to none, and the disease was transmitted by accident. Of course it would be too embarrassing for a nation to admit 1) that any Libyan had AIDS and 2) that poor hospital procedures and equipment caused the infection of children, so let’s accuse the guest workers from a poor country.
Here is a case where patient, persistent diplomacy prevailed. Although convicted in the Libyan courts, and although the guilty verdict was upheld by their courts, they were released to Bulgaria where they received an immediate pardon. Pardon my cynicism, but I don’t believe even the Libyans believed they were guilty. It became an embarassment all the way around.
HIV medics released to Bulgaria
The medics were greeted by tearful relatives and well-wishers
Six Bulgarian medics who were serving life sentences in Libya have arrived in Bulgaria following their release, ending their eight-year incarceration.
They were immediately pardoned by Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov.
The five nurses and a Palestinian-born doctor were convicted of deliberately infecting Libyan children with HIV – charges they have always denied.
You can read the full story at BBC News.
News from Florida
In Kuwait, the free press is still very cautious. They might hint at a story, they might give a few details, but they are still cautious about crimes which in other countries would be a matter of public record.
Here is a very sad story from the Florida news scene today:
State Representative Arrested for Prostitution Charge
State Representative Bob Allen was arrested Wednesday after offering to perform oral sex for $20 on an undercover male police officer, authorities said.
Veteran’s Memorial Park was under surveillance when Allen, Republican – Merritt Island, was seen coming in and out of a restroom three times. . . Allen, 48, then approached an undercover officer and was arrested.
He has been charged with solicition for prostitution, which has a maximum penalty of one year in jail. Brevard County officials said Allen posted a $500 bond.
For my Kuwait readers, a state representative is an elected official who helps make the laws. The Republican party is considers itself the guardian of public morals. So there is some irony in this story, as well as infinite sadness.
Burner Phone
As soon as I arrived, I turned on my “burner” phone, which I bought the last time I travelled in the US. This phone is also called a “throw-down” phone; people in illegal trades use them all the time. They cost like $14.95 and you buy minutes for them.
Unlike the expensive phone I have been buying a new chip for almost every time I come to the US, this phone powers right up after almost three months of never being used, has full power, still has the same number, which I discover is good until NOVEMBER, and even though I dropped it into the cat’s fresh water the first day I bought it, it works. It works.
How can something so cheap be so sturdy and so functional? It doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of my more expensive phones, but it does everything I need it to do – I can make and receive calls, I can make my own phone book, I can speed dial . . .
and it makes me laugh to think I have a drug dealer phone. Hee heee heee, too funny.
Resolution: Detained Teacher
This is what is now appearing as “new statement” on the Bayan Bilingual School public announcement board on their website at the BBS website:
Due to the efforts of BBS management and the broader BBS community, in conjunction with expert Kuwaiti legal counsel, the situation regarding our Deputy Middle School Principal has been resolved.
We would like to thank every member of the Kuwait community and parents of the BBS students who have supported BBS throughout this process, and special thanks to the Kuwait Human Rights Society for their extraordinary support and empathy during this situation.
Thanks to blog commenter “Sailor” for keeping us up to date on this resolution. 🙂
Update: Teacher Detained
My niece, Little Diamond reports that the following story has been pickd up nationally by Reuters and has gone world-wide:
KUWAIT (Reuters) – The United States is trying to help an American
teacher to leave Kuwait after the Gulf Arab state imposed a travel
ban on her, the U.S. embassy said on Saturday.
The case of Katherine Phillips has made headlines in the local press
after the teacher posted on the Internet a letter, asking for help
after she fell out with the family of a student she had suspended
after a fight.
Philipps, a former vice-principal of a private school in Kuwait,
said that the authorities had slapped a travel ban on her at the
request of the son’s family who had been angered by her decision,
according to the letter posted on the Web and quoted by the Arab
Times daily.
The U.S. embassy confirmed in a statement a travel ban had been
imposed on her, adding its consular section was in contact with the
authorities to help Phillips leave Kuwait as soon as possible.
Kuwait, a staunch U.S. ally, was the launch pad for the U.S.-led
invasion of Iraq in 2003 and is home to several thousands of U.S.
troops.
Reuters My niece speculates that this was the official version of the US Embassy, as it is very much positive on their “actions.”
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