I have bought a newspaper today – Kuwait Times – it costs 150 fils.
There is news from over the world. At the first page, the biggest title is about Yemen. There is also about labor law – fines for hiring employees without visas were doubled, now it is from KD 2 000-10 000. The labor issues are very important in Kuwait as the 2/3 of the people living here are from abroad. There is also news about Philippine presidential election – there is lots of Philippinos here and about Cairo, also a lot of people from Egypt. So the first page reflects the national structure of people living in Kuwait. We just have missed Hindus. Maybe in tomorrow newspaper, there be some news from India on a first page.
Another thing that caught my attention is lots of photography – there is like at least 4 images on every page, at least 2 columns size.
What else is interesting here? Fuel prices will be increased, but the Minister wants to do this smooth, so the rise would not affect the commodities price. In other words, the price of gasoline will be raised, not a diesel.
This is interesting, the expatriate labor shelter received almost 5000 workers during the last year. 4,5 half thousand left the shelter after being rehabilitating socially and psychologically also material and moral damages caused by employers were resolved.
Another interesting issue is about passports for Bedoons – stateless. Kuwait considers the Bedoon illegal immigrants. Who are they? The Kuwaiti government believes the Bedoon are foreign nationals from neighboring countries.
Let’s have a closer look – there are 3 types of Bedoons:
1. The first group consists of stateless tribesmen whose ancestors failed to apply or lacked necessary documentation at the time of Kuwait’s independence.
The famous or rather infamous Arab bureaucracy.
2. The second group consists of former citizens of Iraq, Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries who abandoned their original nationality to join Kuwaiti armed forces and police in the 1960s and 1970s.
That is a nice payoff for fighters.
3. The third group is composed of children of Kuwaiti women married to Bedoon men.
So we talk about kids born on a territory of Kuwait, but there are not considered to be citizens, more they are considered to be illegal immigrants – what’s the hell?
So you can be born in Kuwait and not be a citizen of this country. And in today newspaper, there is an article abut new mechanism of giving passports to those people. If somebody has a real need for study, treatment, business etc. then s/he can granted a passport. If he or she just wants to travel the passports will not be given.
Now the international section – news about Brasil, Austria, North Korea, Lebanon, Iraq, Israel, the US of course, India, oh, there is even a Puerto Rico. Senegal, Spain, German’s refugees, he, he,… Pakistan, France, Indonesia, China, Australia – nice.
What’s next? Sports section – oh, an article about hockey – well, it has to be so interesting for the people living in a natural dry sauna. What else? Tennis, Golf, 2 pages about football – European type of football, to be clear. And at the last page the big photo of Paul Millsap (basketball). nothing special.
Now the business part. Inflation in Kuwait, consumer prices – 3.1%, core (excluding food) – 2.8%, food inflation 4.1%.
Then a little bit of culture, oh! and kids’ section – cool!
Celebrity section – how we could miss that? Prince Harry, Kim Kardashian, Mick Jagger and Beyonce.
THE END
p.s. And now my husband wants to kill me because I am reading a newspaper instead of looking for a job.