Good News in Kuwait
BIG WOOOOOO HOOOOOO Kuwait!
This is from yesterday’s Kuwait Times, and I don’ t know why I didn’t blog it except maybe I ran out of time:
Crooked Cops Beware
KUWAIT: After publishing several violations committed by police officers, the ministry of Interior has started a campaign to catch corrupt police officers and clean up the name of Kuwaiti law enforcement. The ministry pointed out that it plans to form inspection teams which will supervise patrols and police officers daily.
The police officers on the inspection teams will be undercover, wearing civilian clothes, and will also comprise of male and female members.
The Interior Ministry will also be adopting stricter penalties against police officers who violate the laws. The ministry further noted that complaint reports filed by citizens against policemen and high ranking officials will all be looked into immediately. It also plans to develop the military colleges and police academy’s teaching curriculum and will also give more women an opportunity to be a part of the police force.
In every country in the world, the police force and military forces often attract people who want power, but some few don’t handle it responsibly. It takes a very courageous and determined Ministry of Interior to start a clean-up campaign. I am so impressed. BIG wooo hoooo to the Ministry of Kuwait, and I propose dancing in the streets of Kuwait.
Oh! Wait! Women can dance on the Corniche, and men in front of the Liberation tower. No mixed dancing in Kuwait in public, please. 😉
Traffic Update
From today’s Arab Times:
Over 200 citations issued: During a crackdown on traffic law violators on the King Fahd Expressway police patrols have issued 202 citations to reckless motorists. The citations also include motorists caught talking on cell phones without using the ‘hands free’ set and not wearing seat belts, reports Arrouiah daily quoting security sources. The same sources said two motorists have been referred to the Traffic Court and their vehicles have been impounded. They were caught speeding.
Comment . . . only two motorists speeding? 😉
Kuwait Driving Laws Enforced in Hawali
AdventureMan and I have a running disagreement. I say more people are pulling over to make calls, or using headsets. He says he sees people using mobile phones all the time. (He would not agree to a spot survey of the cars around us, but we also noticed fewer children in the front seats, very cool.)
I think traffic is improving in Kuwait. I see more people using seatbelts, fewer people weaving around while trying to talk on cell phones, and more people using turn signals. I see less endangering behaviors.
Am I being too optimistic here?
From the Arab Times:
250 citations issued: Hawalli police launched an intensive campaign and issued 250 citations to motorists for not wearing seatbelts and another 50 for using mobile phones while driving, reports Arrouiah daily.
Female Ministers Must Wear Hijab?
This is from yesterday’s Arab Times. I have two questions – first, I have no objection to hijab, and I thought it was every individual’s choice to wear or not to wear. Is it the law to wear hijab?
second, I’ve been told that in Kuwait, women did not wear hijab – it is neither cultural nor traditional. Where is this insistence on hijab coming from?
Don’t allow female ministers in Parliament without ‘hijab’: MP
KUWAIT CITY : The government and Parliament should strictly adhere to the Islamic teachings in granting women their political rights, says MP Mohammad Hayef Al-Mutairi to Al-Watan Arabic daily.
Urging both authorities to enforce the Elections Law based on the Islamic teachings, Al-Mutairi said the government should ensure the two female ministers – Education and Higher Education Nuriya Al-Subaih and State Minister for Housing Affairs and Administrative Development Mudhi Al-Humoud – will abide by the Islamic teachings in carrying out their duties in their respective ministries.
According to Article 17/2005 of the law and as stated in the Holy Quran, Al-Mutairi stressed women should always wear ‘hijab’ (veil). He also asked the government to be objective in implementing the law, which should be enforced among its members first to serve as an example to the people. Al-Mutairi added the executive and legislative authorities should not allow Al-Subaih and Al-Humoud to enter the Parliament without ‘hijab.’
Heavy Heart: Police Dog Auction
In today’s Kuwait Times is an ad from the Ministry of Interior offering “28 Trained Police Dogs” for Auction on June 3rd.
Everyone knows there are clandestine dog fights here, where animals are goaded to fight until deeply injured and killed. This is not a dog-friendly culture. Dogs starve here all the time, are hit, beaten, abandoned, stoned, maimed, tortured by children and adults.
The thought of who might buy these dogs and the purposes they might be put to makes my heart heavy. Worse. It makes my stomach heave.
Working dogs do what they are trained to do. The work hard. They served Kuwait! They deserve a good retirement.
Saved by a Scream
This woman had a close call. I am re-assured that the family was taking her to Saudi Arabia to kill her; it implies that the climate in Kuwait does not support honor killings. Another tidbit from the Arab Times:
Screams help officers thwart bid to kill girl for soiling family name
KUWAIT CITY : The Saudi immigration officers manning the Al-Riqei border post are said to have reportedly foiled an attempt by an unidentified GCC family to kill their daughter to save their honor, reports Al-Watan Arabic daily.
According to a security source the parents with the daughter and another sibling traveled to Salmi post and to prevent the ‘victim’ from screaming for help the family’s relative who allegedly works at the post hurried through the process of stamping the passports to help the family cross into Saudi Arabia as the family waited in their car.
When the girl reached the Saudi border post she screamed for help and told the immigration officers that her father planned to kill her.
The family was temporarily detained at the post until the Saudi authorities contacted the authorities in Kuwait. After the family was returned to Kuwait under guard, the relative who helped them at the Salmi post was arrested and detained for interrogation.
The daily said it is a case of ‘honor killing’. The girl was reportedly involved in an affair with an unidentified youth inside an apartment in Salmiya and she became pregnant.
Meanwhile, the Al-Anba daily added, when the girl was in police custody the brother grabbed his younger sister and threatened to shoot her in front of the building of the Criminal Investigations Department.
He was demanding the release of his other sister who was caught having fun with the youth inside an apartment after a missing person report was filed against her.
A police sniper shot the man in the arm and rescued the younger sibling.
I can’t imagine her life will be easy, if she is pregnant, unmarried, and has a family who wants her dead. I can’t imagine that Kuwait has social services that can help her negotiate a path. Life will be difficult, but it sure beats what was about to happen to her in Saudi Arabia.
Jeep Mercy
I guess the guy felt sorry for me and was giving me a special treat. I always get just a small car, as long as it has four doors. Sometimes they give me something sporty, sometimes something clunky. Sometimes I take them back and say “this car doesn’t drive very well, I want something else” and they give me something else.
When he told me where the car was, I asked “what did you give me.” He grinned and said “You’ll like it; it’s a silver Jeep. I was thinking Jeep like a BIG YUKON kind of thing, but when I saw it, it is Jeep like the size of a Toyota Rav 4, and I really love silver.
On the other hand, I truly hate travelling for 24 hours straight and then getting into a strange car and driving for about an hour on Seattle’s congested freeways at going home time.
I think he felt sorry for me because when he entered my driver’s license it was DECLINED! It had expired! Thank God I had another one, a lifetime license from another country, but I have to run down to tomorrow and get a new Washington State one. I was SO embarrassed.
(Seattle is heartwrenchingly beautiful at this time of the year; blue skies, huge showy rhodedendrons in bloom, it is just gorgeous)
Here is what I saw: congestion congestion congestion – Seattle has outgrown the highways built many years ago. Potholes, bad spots in the pavement, accidents waiting to happen. Oh wait! These are the same things I complain about in Kuwait!
One thing you will NEVER hear me complain about in Kuwait – People in Seattle just drive SO slow. Penalties for speeding and penalties for accidents you cause are so huge, so severe, and people are stultifyingly SLOW!
How We See Things in Kuwait
AdventureMan and I have an ongoing discussion over the cell phone ban while driving in Kuwait. I see people pulled over to the side of the road, at traffic circles, along the major north/south routes, pulled over in complicated neighborhoods. I love to see them – many are using their hands to help understand the directions, waving left, then straight, then left again – it warms my heart.
AdventureMan, on the other hand, he who loves the efficiency of being able to do two things at the same time, drive and do business or talk to me, says he sees people all the time using their cell phones while they are driving.
So I think we are seeing what we want to see.
He kids me, as I track diwaniyyas, where they used to be, those still being dismantled. Friends are telling me that they can now see around dangerous corners where someone had built an illegal little cabin for their driver to sleep in, trees and foliage have been cut back, neighborhoods have a new look. I find it exciting – obeying the law can be tough, it can be inconvenient, and the temptation in all of us is to say “it’s a great law for them, but it doesn’t apply to me.”
AdventureMan scowls when he has to obey a law that he doesn’t think should apply to him. I say scowling is OK, as long as you do it. There are times I am tempted to skirt the law, but this blog keeps me honest – how does it look if I’m always talking about law and order, and then I choose to break the law, too? Having a child keeps you honest – when you face temptation, you know those little eyes are watching you, and it gives you that little extra boost to make the right choice.
Pearls mentioned she thinks people are sticking closer to the speed limits with the new fines in force, and that the roads are much more enjoyable these days. I agree, with one exception, and that is when traffic slows on the major north/south roads, there are still those idiots who use the emergency lanes to get to the front of the line. We need some BIG fines for those guys.
Last but not least, my Co-op seems to be enforcing the no parking in the handicapped section once again, thanks be to God. The poor manager, I keep going in and telling him that “big strong men” should not be using those spots. He keeps thinking I want the spot and I laugh and say no, I am a strong woman and I can walk, but what about the heavily pregnant woman with her five children, or the old man with his walker or cane, or the one with emphysema.
Finally, I suggested that he have grocery packers assigned to watch, and to run out and insist on assisting anyone who parks there, a special service for the handicapped. Sometimes you can accomplish with kindness what you can’t hope to accomplish with signs and harsh words. Whatever he has chosen to do, it appears to be working, people are not parking in the handicapped spots. 🙂
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