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hunalkuwait

Friday, July 28, 2006

cataclysm

الله بالخير

للتفكير
27/07/2006


لأهمية ما ورد في مقال ابن الأخ نجيب.. أترك له العمود ليحل ضيفا.. والله من وراء القصد.
محمد مساعد الصالح

العم العزيز بو طلال

قرأت
مقالك المنشور في جريدة 'القبس' بعنوان 'للتفكير'، يوم الثلاثاء 2006/7/25 لذلك فكرت.. والله يستر.
قرار الحرب أو قرار السلم، لا أعلم أيهما أسهل.. فقد فشل العالم العربي في تحقيق الاثنين.

حين وصفت المملكة العربية السعودية التحريض للأحداث في لبنان وغزة عن طريق خطف جنود اسرائيليين ب'المغامرة' التي ينقصها الدعم المشترك والتنسيق، كان ذلك في نظري بمنزلة تفسير جيد لوصف الحالة التي يعيشها العالم العربي اليوم - نتيجة لمغامرات مشابهة على مدى العشرين او الثلاثين سنة الماضية - في كلمة واحدة.

خلال الهجوم الاسرائيلي الأخير على لبنان، استمعنا من خلال الفضائيات الى نتائج استطلاعات الرأي العديدة التي تجريها وسائل الإعلام المختلفة حول رأي الشعب الاسرائيلي في ما تفعله حكومته في لبنان، وعلى ما يبدو فإن هناك تأييدا شاملا من الشعب الاسرائيلي للإجراءات التي تتخذها حكومته لعلاج المشاكل الناتجة من المغامرات في جنوب لبنان وغزة. في اعتقادي ان هذا التأييد الشعبي هو بالفعل القوة الحقيقية للجيش الاسرائيلي، وانه لولا هذا التأييد لما نفعت الاسلحة الاميركية مهما كانت قوتها وحداثتها. والتاريخ مليء بأمثلة لانتصارات عديدة دون استخدام الاسلحة. اذا لا بد من الحصول على تأييد شعبي لقضايانا 'على مستوى العالم العربي' قبل الخوض في أي حروب في المستقبل، والا فإن النتيجة ستكون الفشل.

نحن تنقصنا القدرة على الصبر لنتمكن من تجربة القوة التي يمكننا ان نجنيها خلال فترات السلم، والى حين اقتناعنا بقدرتنا ونعيد لشعوبنا الأمان والاستقرار والثقة بالنفس قبل الخوض في حروب نتائجها السلبية معروفة مسبقا.

منذ الهجوم الياباني على الولايات المتحدة الاميركية في بيرل هاربر بواسطة طيارين انتحاريين 'كاماكازي' وحتى هذا اليوم لم يتحقق اي انتصار في حرب جنودها افراد يفضلون الموت على الحياة.

علمنا التاريخ انه ليتحقق النصر لا بد ان يقتنع المقاتل بأنه يقاتل ليس من اجل ان يموت شهيدا بل من اجل حياة افضل له ولوطنه.

ان المواطن العربي الإنسان هو العنصر الاهم والأساسي في أي معادلة يتم التوصل اليها سواء في حالة السلم او الحرب، وما قيمة الارض اذا كان الانسان المقيم عليها ذليلا منهارا لا يمكنه تصحيح وضعه الا بالانتحار.

وبعد التفكير ايضا قررت ان النصر يمكنه ان يتحقق عن طريق الحرب كما يمكنه ان يتحقق عن طريق السلم، اذا كان النصر يعني الحياة الآمنة المستقرة النامية.

العم بو طلال

كما
ذكرت في مقالك 'للتفكير' فإننا ضعاف من الناحية العسكرية، ولا يمكننا الانتصار على اي عدو في وضعنا الحالي عن طريق الحروب العسكرية. هناك خلاف حول من هو العدو الحقيقي، وخلاف حول من هو الصديق الحقيقي، وخلاف حول الأسلوب الأمثل للمعركة، وخلاف حول الهدف، ومعنى النصر، 'حيث ان ما قد يعتبره حزب الله نصرا ربما يعتبره لبناني آخر غير ذلك'.

لذلك وبعد المزيد من التفكير ربما علينا محاولة الانتصار على العدو من خلال السلم وتنمية الإنسان اولا. لا شك في ان ذلك قد يتطلب بعض الوقت، لكن النتائج ربما تكون اكثر ايجابية مما جنيناه عبر العقود الماضية.

الشعوب العربية في حاجة الى فترة لا تقل عن عشرين سنة من السلم والأمان، للتنمية والتعليم ولاتاحة الفرصة لاجيال جديدة تتمتع بثقافة عالية وثقة بالنفس باستطاعتها اختيار نوعية الحروب التي ترغب في خوضها ونوعية السلاح والتوقيت المناسب لها. اجيال تفضل الحياة على الموت، تحارب للحصول على حياة افضل بدل الاستشهاد، جيل تنجب فيه العائلة ابناء يساهمون في التنمية ويكافحون لحياة افضل، يستمتعون بنعم الله في الأرض مثل باقي البشر.

أعتقد بعد التفكير ان الوقت قد حان.


نجيب حمد مساعد الصالح


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Saturday, July 22, 2006

unhappy kuwait

kuwait ranks 159 out of around 180 nations surveyed for the happy planet index (www.happyplanetindex.org). its quite telling - in an index that ranks based on life satisfaction, life expectancy and environmental impact - that kuwait is close to the bottom of the list below countries such as saudi arabia, tunisia, morocco, lebanon, colombia and most of the rest of the world. the only few countries below kuwait are mainly impoverished african nations.

these results were highlighted in the local press and provide a telling insight into the fact that money seldom buys happiness. even if it did, could you really feel happy if everyone around you was unhappy?

smiley

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Thursday, July 20, 2006

kuwaiti diaspora

how big is the worldwide kuwaiti diaspora? the question occurs to me whenever i see kuwaitis living abroad permanently. i know there must be at least a skeleton diaspora given that i know or have seen quite a few kuwaitis (and former kuwaitis) make their homes in different parts of the globe.

i predict a decent migration to occur in the next kuwaiti recession. the rationale for this expectation is that now that the country has notched up its unproductive consumption to no end (causing inflationary pressures), there will be a very hard landing for many of the educated young professionals that are able to find better opportunities elsewhere.

if the depression turns out to be more severe than even i expect (including diminishing oil reserves and no visible alternatives), then the next tier of the population (less educated but still ambitious) will contemplate living elsewhere and possibly causing a snowball effect for the rest of the country.

eventually, this could lead to a gradual decline in population and a disappearance of the migrant worker class. i know this is probably an armageddon scenario for most kuwaitis but its something that should be considered and prepared for.

nauru

Murgab Skyline


Murgab Skyline, originally uploaded by darkroom.

brilliant shot of a kuwaiti sunset. kudos to the photographer!

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Is it always us against them? does there always have to be a them?

Iran Against the Arabs

by Michael Rubin
Wall Street Journal

July 19, 2006


Most Arabs perceive Israel as small. Egypt -- home to one of every three Arabs -- has enjoyed a cold peace with Israel for more than a quarter-century. Gulf states, on the whole, would rather make money than directly fight Israel. While they do not like Israel's existence, Jerusalem presents no threat. Not so Tehran. A giant with 70 million people, Iran is no status quo power. Its ideological commitment to export revolution is real. Across Lebanon and the region, Arab leaders see Hezbollah for what it is: An arm of Iranian influence waging a sectarian battle in the heart of the Middle East.

An old Arab proverb goes, "Me against my brother; me and my brother against our cousin; and me, my brother and my cousin against the stranger." Forced to make a choice, Sunni Arabs are deciding: The Jews are cousins; the Shiites, strangers. U.S. diplomats may applaud the new pragmatism, but the reason behind it is nothing to celebrate.


Mr. Rubin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, is editor of the Middle East Quarterly.

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The is a short excerpt. The rest can be found on the ME Forum site.


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Tuesday, July 18, 2006

internet problems kuwait-wide


it seems that the internet has been spotty all over the country since yesterday. when i say spotty, i mean that you have no service for 30 seconds followed by spurts for 20 seconds or so.



further investigation indicates that this internet problem is through kuwait's fragile internet gateway (shamefully dependant upon one or two other gulf states exclusively). this chronic breakdown would not go unnoticed in more developed places (among other things). down with monopolies!

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Kuwait city skyline.


Kuwait city skyline., originally uploaded by durran_amsterdam.

nice picture/interesting effect.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Israel strikes Beirut airport, blocks ports

its quite hard to comprehend the callousness of isreal in attacking people's home in palestine and now in the lebanon. when does this country respect human rights and start accepting a responsible role commensurate with its standing in the world?

i know there are many moderate jews that object to the expansionist ambitions of israel and share the same principles as other rational people. i just hope their voice can be heard among the rancor.

finally, i hope all the people in lebanon (including all the kuwaits spending their holidays there - many i know) make it out of this safely and continue to resist attacks on their rock-solid foundations.

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Tuesday, July 11, 2006

parking and corruption

In a great paper for the National Bureau for Economic Research, two researchers have found that the number of parking tickets that legally-immune foreign diplomats acummulate in NYC and refuse to pay is a great measure of how corrupt their home countries are.

Corruption rank Country Violations per diplomat

1 Kuwait 246.2
2 Egypt 139.6
3 Chad 124.3
4 Sudan 119.1
5 Bulgaria 117.5
6 Mozambique 110.7
7 Albania 84.5
8 Angola 81.7
9 Senegal 79.2
10 Pakistan 69.4

The paper ranks country corruption according to the number of parking violations per country diplomat, and finds that the results match up remarkably well with findings from rough survey-based estimates on the topic. Who are the worst violators? Kuwait blew away the competition with a whopping average of 246 unpaid parking tickets per diplomat over a 5 year period. Diplomats from countries famed for their good political behavior like Canada, Sweden, and Norway didn't have any unpaid tickets. And countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America - regions widely accused of corruption - all had countries at both the top and bottom of the ranking. Some of the surprises? Colombian and Ugandan diplomats paid up almost all their tickets, while the Italians are overdue on about 15 unpaid tickets per diplomat.

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Sunday, July 02, 2006

Analysis: Kuwait`s elections and reforms

AMMAN, Jordan (UPI) -- The democratic exercise in Kuwait`s early parliamentary elections may have given the oil-rich emirate something to boast about, but the polls seem to have backfired against the regime with the opposition`s sweeping victory.

The new emir of the oil-rich Gulf state, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, dissolved parliament on May 21 and ordered early elections in an effort to end a political crisis between the government and legislature over electoral reforms.

But the results of the June 29 elections, which brought to parliament an even bigger opposition of liberal and Islamist members, constitutes a setback for the al-Sabah regime as the new parliament is expected to push harder for democratic reforms and fighting corruption.

The opposition swept two-thirds of the 50-seat parliament as a coalition of 33 liberal and Islamic candidates won, up from 29 members in the dissolved legislature, with several independents who can sway in favor of reforms.

Although these were the first polls to include women in this small oil-rich state, none of the 28 women candidates managed to grab a parliamentary seat.

While al-Sabah congratulated the candidates on their victory as Kuwait set a democratic example for the rest of the Gulf and Arab region, analysts say the emir, who assumed power in January, has more to worry about now as he takes the next two weeks to form a new government, in which fifteen cabinet members are entitled to vote in parliament.

The reformers in the dissolved parliament, most of whom were re-elected, had threatened to stop cooperating with the government if it did not reduce the number of voting constituencies from 25 to five in an effort to stop vote-buying and other irregularities. The opposition had rejected a government offer to reduce the districts to ten and the dispute gave birth to a so-called 'orange revolution' of active, yet tame, youth taking to the streets calling for reforms to fight what they say is state-sponsored corruption.

The straw that broke the camel`s back and prompted the emir`s dissolution of parliament was a threat by reformer parliament members to grill the prime minister, Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Sabah, a nephew of the emir.

Analysts say with a larger opposition in the new parliament that ran on a platform of reforming the electoral bill and fighting corruption, the ruler of Kuwait will now need to shape a new government that excludes key ministers the opposition accuses of corruption and inefficiency, such as outgoing energy and information ministers, Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah and Mohammad al-Sanousi respectively.

While the Kuwaiti parliament has no constitutional powers to vote out cabinet or prime ministers, it can declare its refusal to cooperate with the government, leaving the next step to the emir, who would either dismiss the prime minister and appoint a new cabinet, or dissolve parliament and call for new elections.

Analysts say the fact that reformers gained yet more ground under the disputed 25-constituency system should give more weight to the pro-government forces seeking to maintain so many districts. The pro-government forces could argue these polls prove that the number of districts has no effect on the voting exercise and does not necessarily favor one trend over another in a country where political parties are banned, but groups of different political trends are free to work.

However, the opposition victory -- even under the disputed system -- has given more strength to the reformers in their demands to change the elections bill and has put the emir in a tight position that may lead him to finally yield to diluting the voting districts to five.

Kuwaiti analysts say if the emir wants to avoid plunging the country into another political crisis between the establishment and the reformers, who are gaining more grassroots support, he would need to name a new government with clear instructions to agree on the sought-after elections bill. After that, he may resort to dissolving parliament again and order fresh polls according to a five-constituency system. Otherwise, the emir would allow parliament to live out its four-year term and hold the next elections in 2010 under the new system.

Either way, the opposition would have achieved a peaceful victory unseen in the conservative Arab Gulf region where free elections are practically non-existent. Such a victory could also set a precedent that may unleash more demands for deep-rooted reforms deemed taboo and revolutionary, threatening the status quo of ruling families.

The campaigns during Kuwait`s elections saw unprecedented sharp criticism of the government, and by de facto the ruling al-Sabah family, questioning its role in the running of the state`s affairs where the emir has the final say in all matters.

Some Islamist candidates, having won 21 seats in parliament, are even seeking to turn the emirate, which sits on 10 percent of the world`s oil reserves, into a constitutional monarchy where the prime minister and cabinet members are not appointed by the emir and his relatives.

However, once the issues that united the forces from the far-left to the far-right under the umbrella of the opposition have been resolved, the coalition of the reformers may easily collapse and restore strength to the regime.

The new reformer parliament members extend from Islamists seeking an Islamic state system and opposing women participation in the elections, to secular liberals aspiring for a more westernized Kuwait.

Analysts expect the government to capitalize on the disharmony between the two sides to weaken the opposition and move on with its agenda that would maintain the status quo as much as possible.

In the next few months, Arab eyes will undoubtedly remain fixed on this tiny state in anticipation of the kind of change the people hope, and ruling families dread, would infect the rest of the region.

Copyright 2006 by United Press International

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