Pecking Order
There is so much labor here in Kuwait, and often, they do so little. I cannot imagine what it would be like to have a job, for example, sweeping the parking lot at the Avenues Mall, but I think, being who I am, I would push hard to get all the garbage and trash picked up, and the lot swept. It’s a job. It’s what I am paid to do. I would find hanging around, pretending to push a broom just too boring.
I can only guess that so many do so little because they are paid so little. It’s a kind of passive-aggressive way of getting back at your employer, who may have you bunking with 10 other men in one room, sharing one bathroom, trying to cook food on one hot plate. Men end up killing each other in these situations, as you might imagine.
What astounds me most, in Kuwait, is how some sort of pecking order develops, and you will have one person supervising one person. Or, as in this case, two people supervising one person.
One person fixing the bricks, one person watching him do it. That does not seem like a smart use of human resources to me.
Flat Owners to be Prohibited from Sponsorship of Maids
Flat owners to be banned from sponsoring maids
From today’s Al Watan
Staff Writer
KUWAIT: As the number of maids employed in the country has alarmingly reached 560,000 the authorities have issued new instructions to regulate the presence of domestic laborers in the country.
According to sources at the Ministry of Interior, the ministry will not grant visas or residency permits to any nonـKuwaitis or expatriates seeking to hire domestic laborers as long as they live in apartments.
The only exception for expatriates seeking to hire maids, according to the sources, will be for those who have a compound surrounding their houses and in that case they will be required to provide a document authenticating that claim.
It has been gathered that the authorities have taken these measures in order to stem the visa trafficking trade in the country which usually results in the laborers ending up on the streets. The sources further disclosed that a special committee has been set up within the ministry to discuss issues pertaining to the issuance of visas and passports as well as issues concerning expatriate workers. They explained that the committee seeks to eliminate bureaucracy, centralization and to ensure justice and equality among companies and individuals.
Meanwhile, MPs Ahmed AlـSaadoun, Marzouq AlـHubaini, Ali AlـDeqbasi, Musallam AlـBarrak and Hassan AlـJohar submitted additional amendments to the Labor Law, calling for licensing a certain number of recruitment firms that specialize in hiring professional workers from abroad to join the local private sector. In the proposed amendments, the five MPs suggested that such recruitment firms would not be permitted to levy any recruitment charges on business owners or collect any fees from the recruited employees.
The proposal also forbids business owners from employing nonـKuwaitis without obtaining prior permission from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor.
Last updated on Monday 9/2/2009
Transition Sunrise
I was shocked when I looked at the five day forecast and saw that the high temperature for tomorrow is 80°F / 27°C. Holy smokes. Winter is over. 80° is about as hot as I can handle without A/C – around 80° in Florida, fleas eggs start hatching, and it is time to flea-proof the house. We don’t have the same problem with fleas here, probably due to the air conditioning, on most months of the year.
This morning’s sunrise is barely less murky than yesterday’s. The weather reporter says “light haze” but sometimes it says that in the middle of a heavy dust storm, so I don’t put a lot of credibility in what it says.
The days are getting perceptibly longer. In our neighborhood, when the meuzzin “chants” for the dawn prayers, it is not so hard to get up. We are blessed to have a tenor muezzin, who loves the morning call to prayer, and does it with great melodiousness and passion. It is a wonderful way to wake up.
Have a great day, Kuwait.
Murky Morning
It is one of those transitional weather days, not raining, not clear, somewhere in between and it could go either way:
I was sleeping soundly and happily this morning when I heard a very very loud “AAACCCCKKKKKKK” and I jumped out of bed, adrenaline pumping, thinking “Is someone strange in the house?” I listened, didn’t hear anything else, so went to the living room where the Qatteri Cat was lying on the floor. Maybe a blade of grass tickled his throat (I make bowls of grass for him to help digestion; long haired cats get clogs sometimes) or maybe he sneezed, or jumped down from his high perch by the window, I don’t know. I patted him and he followed me back to bed where we both snoozed a little until time to get up.
Welcome Rain in Kuwait
AdventureMan is snuggling up against me, shivering in the cold, Qatteri Cat is snuggled up close on the other side, and I can hear the wind howling at our bedroom window. It sounds like an Arctic blizzard; the wind is relentless. It feels so good to be in bed, to be able to go back to sleep, so warm and cozy, and then AdventureMan whispers “It’s raining outside.”
Three minutes later, I am up and out of bed, going to the closet for old towels.
Kuwait isn’t built for rain. Our beautiful big windows were sealed . . . once. I think the heat has destroyed the seals. When we get a serious rain, I get some serious leakage. It dribbles onto the windowsills and then slithers across the floor. I have to get the towels in place immediately, or I have a real mess.
And, (sigh) once I am up, I am up. I brew the coffee, run some water to wash up some dishes and watch the day lighten incrementally – no sunrise today, but I love the sound of the raindrops falling, falling, falling.
We need more. The rain is an occasion for joy, here, not like in Seattle, where we get so much rain that we take it for granted.
Rain on the Gulf:
Rain on the windows:
When AdventureMan Retires
“When we retire,” AdventureMan begins as we are driving down the street, “I want a tree like that in our front yard.”
This isn’t the first time he has said such a thing.
You know, where you live there are rules, and sometimes those rules aren’t written down. If you violate the rules, people say mean things like “they must not be from around here.”
Like in my neighborhood, most of the houses have some grey in their color. It’s the Pacific Northwest. The sky is grey. Sometimes the sea is grey. People get used to grey, and they paint their houses grey, like blue-grey or brown-grey or green-grey, but always some kind of grey in the color. It’s just the way things are done.
Here, sometimes a house is painted very brightly, like egg yolk yellow, not a hint of grey. Bright bright orange, not a hint of grey. At first, it is shocking to the eye, but in six months, the color mellows with the bright sunlight, and fades to a soothing sand-yellow, or sand-orange.
This is what AdventureMan thinks would look great in our front yard:
Or maybe he is just yanking on my chain? 😉
Mubarakiyya Souk Magic
These are not part of The Great Kuwait Market Magic Challenge. (If you haven’t voted, please go there and vote for your favorite.) These are photos I take to document what places “used to look like.” In Germany, I took photos, but twenty years later I could take the same exact photo. Most of the buildings built a couple hundred years ago are still standing – even some built three or four hundred years ago still have the same foundations (and problems with seepage, etc. )
Not so in places like Kuwait and Doha. You look away for a second and something is gone. Can anyone tell me where the Tarek Rajab Museum store has gone? Do they have a new location? It used to be in Salmiyya; the last time I took people there – it was gone. Just gone! And entire block of stores has disappeared.
So here, for posterity, are some photos I have taken of Mubarakiyya Market, because I love the quirkiness of the place and because there is some really interesting public art there. Also, because so many of my readers are in schools across the US and Europe, and they are hungry to see what different places look like.
Delicious olives, every one different!
I am totally addicted to these dried pomegranate seeds, which are also called anardana:
These portraits of two different butchers show such individuality. These are not some stylized ideographs; these portraits give the impression of being real butchers. I wonder if I could find the originals and stand them next to their portraits?
Look at these painted carpets! They lift the entire mood of this utilitarian area. Look how bright and clean this area is, easily washed down, entirely of tiles and washable surfaces:
Look how this artist extended his painting to include the store on the right:
Where does anyone else sell slingshots these days? I fear for the poor market cats, when young men get their hands on these.
Sunrise 5 Feb 2009
Good morning, Kuwait!
It is another gorgeous day, with more to come. Have you noticed the temperatures have taken a jump? No more shivering under heaps of covers at night, no more Qatteri Cat desperate to cuddle with me every time I sit down – and the forecast is for more of the same:
It is a beautiful sunrise this morning, harbinger of a beautiful day to come – have a great day, Kuwait!
“Ban Valentine’s Day Celebrations”
(Yawn)
I hate it when I can’t find the entry all typed up for me in one of the local online versions of the newspaper; it means I have to type the whole thing in by myself. I guess all the newspapers felt this was to ho-hum to put on the online edition.
Live from the Kuwait Times:
Ban Valentine’s Day Celebrations
KUWAIT: MPs have spung to action earlier than usual. They have urged the government to ban any form of Valentine’s Day celebrations on February 14. Lawmakers have asked the MInister of Commerce and Industry to see it that Kuwaiti traditions and values are fully observed, reported Al Watan. Speaking in this regard, MP Mohammed Hayef al-Mutairi urged the Commerce minister, Ahmed Baqer to ban the import of merchandise related to celebrating the “heathen occasion” (allusion to Valentine’s Day). He also warned local companies against displaying any of these goods for sale.
“This is against Islam and misleads our youth” he said. MP Abdullatif Al Omairi said that celebrating this day was a ‘blind imitation of the West.’ It is something that does not belong to us, something that is completely alien to our society, morals and traditions,” he warned. He urged the government to interfere and preserve Muslim values. “There are only two Eids in Islam. We should not celebrate Christians’ festivities because they do not celebrate ours,” he said.
As if celebrating Valentine’s Day could be stopped! As if a loving husband doesn’t invite his wife to dinner, or as if a loving wife doesn’t fix something special for her husband just because, just because. As if you won’t buy chocolates for your sweetheart, or flowers, whether or not there is a Valentine’s Day (February 14th) advertisement in a window. As if you can forbid the joyful celebration of a relationship. It’s not about a Christian holiday; this stopped being a religious holiday long ago, if it ever was, this holiday is purely about the joy of living. Not unlike Liberation Day, or a national day, neither of which are Islamic, and both of which are joyfully celebrated.
When will these lawmakers (and I include the lawmakers in all nations) learn that when you forbid something, you only make it more attractive?
In my country, we have some very serious national issues to tackle. I prefer that my lawmakers focus on national issues and not issues-of-choice to private individuals. (AdventureMan already knows where he is taking me on Valentine’s Day. 🙂 See you there!)
Spoiling Dinner – Malcolm Thompson
An add-on for the Market Magic Challenge, unfortunately not in time for the poll, but a wonderful addition. Thank you, Malcolm Thompson, for helping us see Kuwait through your private lens:
He adds that this was taken in a recent visit to the Al Kout/Manshar Mall Market area. Welcome, Malcolm!
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