Corruption at the Morgue
Where is the Kuwaiti detective novel? I follow Guido Brunetti in Donna Leon’s series on Venice, Dave Robicheaux, the James Lee Burke detective in a small town just outside New Orleans, and now, Investigator Chen, who is a chief investigator in China, but where, oh where is the Kuwait detective / mystery? It is just waiting to be written.
In yesterday’s Kuwait Times is an article I would love to link you to, but it isn’t there, not even when I search “female coroner” from the headline on page 3. Did you know Kuwait had a female coroner, a la Kathy Reich’s Temperance Brennan and Patricia Cornwell’s Kay Scarpatta? As you read the article, it makes sense, as the bodies are kept semi-segregated in the morgue, and women work on women (some of the time) and men on men.
I’m impressed. Any time a woman takes on a traditionally men’s job, it takes a whole lot of courage. I imagine the requirements to be a coroner here are similar to other countries – you have to have a medical degree (be a doctor) and then have advanced training in forensics. So when Nawal Boshehri speaks out, I listen. She’s got my attention.
Nawal Boshehri says conditions in the morgue are awful. From a personal point of view, she has been sexually molested by her superior and frozen in her position over false accusations that she has not been going to work or signing in or out. She has asked the minister of interior to look into her complaints.
As an institution, she reports serious issues – labs that lack necessary equipment, to do tests, such as those that measure drugs and alcohol in the bloodstream, outdated machinery, rusty machinery, lack of ventilation (in a morgue! horrors!) and she states they are constantly in fear of getting infections.
She claims that reports have sometimes been manipulated and twisted to give prosecutors the wrong technical information that would sometimes end up setting a guilty person free, and that one time they certified a murder had been insane without him ever having been examined by any mental health professionals. She was once asked to provide a report that made one citizen swap places with the assaulted expatriate, so that the assaulted expatriate would appear to be the guilty party.
She adds that she fears for her life. She says “a senior coroner at the department falsified reports, namely those related to detainees, who underwent police brutality during interrogations. He usually did this as favors to his colleagues to help them get promoted instead of being punished for their brutality.” She added that because she has reported these things, she fears for her own life.
Every nation has corruption. Corruption is chaotic, and when you get serious about rule of law, you still have corruption, but you do your best to root it out. You report it when it happens. I think that Nawal Boshehri has enough confidence in Kuwait’s institutions to go public with her allegations. While it may appear dirty laundry, that she CAN go public is a very positive sign. I can imagine she fears for her life, and yet, she seems to be fighting to retain her job. That’s very brave.
That the Kuwait Times will publish the article on page three, in three columns, that is also very brave, and speaks well of the increasing confidence in a free press.
Wouldn’t this make a great detective novel?
Sabille Shop
I love sabilles. Sabilles are localized charity, “in a dry and thirsty land” they are provided by generous souls that the thirsty might have cool, fresh water to refresh thenselves in the heat of the day. You will see them at mosques, along city streets, in every neighboorhood. They come in fanciful shapes; if you type “sabille” into the HT&E search window, you will see more. I love the Kuwait Liberation Tower ones, and also the water-tower wannabes, but I also like the ones that look like old castles or old doors or jugs. I love it that people go to the trouble to make something utilitarian interesting, even artistic.
Recently, I found a shop in the Wafa Mall that sells sabilles:
The shop is called Fine Things, and also has some fancy presentation boxes and this, which looks like a mail box to me, but might be for collecting charitable donations, or . . . ? I might be totally wrong. Your guess is as good as mine:
I like this tiny little mall because it has commercial kitchen supply shops with all kinds of display cases and things you don’t find very often. There is also a mattress shop; I always laugh when there is a family shopping there for mattresses because the parents don’t say “NO!” to their kids, so the kids are JUMPING ON THE MATTRESSES! The salesmen seem unable to ask the parents to make them stop.
Kuwait Tradition?
Last night, out along Gulf road, we got to see first hand all the celebrations for Kuwait National Day and Kuwait Liberation Day. I’m like a kid; I love to see the bright lights! Sorry if these are a little fuzzy, but there is no place to stop when you are dragging along Gulf Road. There are some fabulous lights in downtown Kuwait, sparkling and BRIGHT but impossible to photograph while you are driving along, and – well, you know what it is like to try to find a parking spot, right? Ho ho hohohohho!
I love to see people out having a good time, I love all the cars covered with Kuwaiti flags – even motorcycles with flags. It’s like one continuous long parade. I love all the decorated buildings, I love the atmosphere of celebration and gaiety. . .
And I found myself wondering how this one particular “traditon” started? How does it get to be something you expect? Those skinny little adolescent boys with their cans of spray foam? People driving with their children hanging out the windows? People in convertibles with their kids sitting on the back seats, goofing off? Where are their parents???
Where traffic is jammed up I can understand that the kids aren’t really in any danger, but once traffic gets going, parents, please, pull your children into the seats where they belong!
Also, I have never seen such a huge police presence. While everyone else is having a five-day holiday, these guys must all be on duty! There were police everywhere, trying to make sure the jubilation didn’t get out of hand. They were polite, they were kind to the youngsters, and they kept a highly visible presence which, I am convinced, is probably necessary. I think they are doing a great job. I like it a lot when protection is gently provided. 🙂
Corrupt Officials Beware
I don’t usually type out the whole article from the Kuwait Times, but because this one is so small, and buried way down on the page, I am making an exception and typing in the whole thing:
Responding to recent stories published by Al-Rai concerning alleged violations and corruption cases committed by ministers and MPs, HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Nassar Al-Mohammed noted that HH the Amir had instructed them to enforce the law to everybody. “And you can start with enforcing it on me,” the prime minister added.
Sheikh Nassar pointed out that the law would be enforced on everybody, be them (sic) (they) senior or minor officials. He added that he had instructed all concerned law-enforcement authorities to treat everyone equally with no exceptions at all.
Comment: WOOOO HOOOOOOOOO, HH Prime Minister Sheikh Nassar Al-Mohammed and BIG WOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO to HH the Emir! If I knew how to make red letters, this would be a big RED letter day! WOOOOO HOOOOO law enforcement!
Not So Fast!
The other day, I was taking breakfast to a friend. For me, I love Gulf breakfasts, I love fried Haloumi, I love felafel, I love hummous and even beans. I love hot fragrant flat bread, fresh out of the oven.
But I knew my friend needed some protein, so I went to a nearby MickyD’s.
It was not fast food. It was very very very very slow food. And even worse – when I got to my friends house, and gave her the BIG value breakfast, she opened the box and – it was pancakes. They were not just slow, they also gave me the WRONG order!
I have to tell you, I was astonished to see so many people there. People like me, women, families, sitting and visiting and eating at McDonalds as they would at a much nicer place, Pain Quotidien or Paul’s or some coffee place. And the McDonalds actually looked nicer than the run-of-the-mill McDonalds, it was clean and even had some relatively nice furniture. But it was NOT fast food!
Kuwait Weirdness
This is such a small thing, but just TOO WEIRD! In the tiny little weather forecast in today’s Kuwait Times, it says that today’s weather will reach a high of 48°C and tonight will reach a low of 32°C. Like Weather Underground says 24°C/14° – that’s very different. It was hot today, but much more like 24° than a summery 48°C (118.4°F.)
More weirdness – isn’t there any warning when a major road is going to close, you know, like GULF ROAD??? I was caught in the quagmire today, trying to get home and not able to get on Gulf Road and seeing all the north-south major roads in total gridlock. What is this??? I never saw a word, not in Arab Times, not in Kuwait Times, not in the blogs – did anyone know this was coming?
StatCounter
A week or so ago, fellow blogger Macaholiq8 mentioned StatCounter in his entry, and how much fun he was having with it. I had a couple minutes, so I took a look, and signed up to give it a try.
Oh, what fun.
It doesn’t work on all WordPress functions – or maybe it would if I knew how to tell it to, but the things it doesn’t do for me – analyze key words, most viewed pages, etc – WordPress does just fine.
UPDATE: THANKS TO YOUSEF at Some Contrast who rescued me with the key key command to take a photo of my visitor map:
What StatCounter does is something else. My very favorite part is looking at where the viewers are coming from, they divide it up, give you percentages. I can see that a lot of schools in the United States follow the blog, but also, people in Australia, China, Iran – oh, it is so much fun to see all the drops show up on the map.
You can get an idea what StatCounter can do for you at their website demo:
And it’s free. You can buy upgraded service that gives you more, but for me, and for right now, the free service is just fine, fascinating, really.
Thanks, Mac, for a great recommendation.
Scattered Clouds
At seven this morning, it was already 50°F/10°C – BIG change from last week. At seven in Kuwait, it is 8 PM in Seattle, where the temperature is 49°F/9°C – almost exactly the same, just a little warmer in Kuwait as the day gets started.
Weather Underground Kuwait tells us today we will see scattered clouds, and that right now we have “mist.” I am seeing a while lot of mist. I am a little shocked, because my balcony was all misted this morning; that doesn’t happen often. But “scattered” clouds? Right now, there is a thick cloud cover, but it may dissipate as the day warms up.
This is what the scattered clouds did to the sunrise this morning:
You might wonder why I do this every morning. It all started because I really love sunrises, and every sunrise has something that makes it special from the others. (Well, not every single one; you will see some mornings I miss sunrise or skip it.) Also, my friends and family like being able to see through my eyes, to see a little of the world I live in. As an additional bonus, there are Kuwaitis all over the world who miss home, and who like to see a glimpse of what today looks like in Kuwait. I get e-mails in the background from expats who lived here as children, and are shocked by the changes.
Now you know all the reasons for the morning report.
The clouds are for my blogging buddy Fonzy who photographs clouds the way I photograph sunrises.
Wooo Hoooo WordPress!
From the very beginning of my blogging time, I have been asking WordPress to give us a way to summarize our all time entries – like tell us what our top ten entries have been over the life of the blog. They just gave us that – and more! You can even summarize by quarters, as well as the life of the blog. Woooo Hooooo, WordPress!
Title Views
Christmas Divinity Candy 4,614
On the Worst Day 2,818
Levantine/Gulf/Persian Warrior Women? 2,669
Christmas Punch – Rum and Rumless 2,434
St. Nicklaus Day 1,598
Easy Kraft Christmas Fudge 1,553
One Year Today 1,301
Mayonnaise, Aioli and Rouille 1,281
Tudo’s Vietnamese Restaurant in Pensacol 1,279
Christmas Cookies: Russian Tea Cakes 1,274
Mom’s Fruit Cake Recipe 1,128
About Intlxpatr 1,033
Wheezing
I could feel the weather change as I woke in bed last night with a slight wheeze – and sure enough, this morning when I looked out, there was this thick haze. I don’t know if this is a sandstorm . . . the particles are so fine. Maybe it is a dust storm.
The weather is significantly warmer this week, even though the weather forecast for all of February is unseasonably cold. Yesterday it got up to about 70°F/50°C, and it was delightful. Just warm enough for a lot of people to go picnicking.
I had a yen for Chinese food, and while we normally go to Tang Chow, which I love, this time we headed for Gulf Royal, at the City Center. I knew just how to get there; we took 30 to 5th ring and then headed toward City Center, but I made a mistake and told AdventureMan to exit at Amman Street, and then we got all messed up. Ah well, it was Friday and the streets were still quiet.
AdventureMan said “I know how to get there” so we got out on Gulf Road intending to turn right off the old Bida’a circle – only to find it was totally blocked. We wound our way through Rumaithia until we could find a way to get across 5th ring – quite an adventure.
At the Gulf Royal, we discovered they have a whole section of “cabinets,” the private little dining rooms. We had been there several times before and I never knew they were there! I just didn’t want to be around people who were smoking, and so they showed us to the back, with all the families. I love quiet, private little dining rooms! This is something we only see in the Gulf, something we will miss back in Seattle.
The food was good, City Centre was packed.
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