Has anyone else noticed a significant increase recently in the number of men begging or walking the inner streets of residential areas and stopping to check each garbage bin?

These same men, mostly Indians or from that region I think, are usually standing at traffic lights looking at the people in cars hoping someone would give them some spare change!

Almost all these people wear a red chmaaq and have a black garbage bag in hand! If u havent noticed it, try looking for them, u will definitely see them! Today while thinking about this in my car, I saw one guy near a traffic light, and two in Qurtoba!

The increase in the numbers of these people is really disturbing!! Where is the government from this issue?! Im sure if the government acts and brings these people in, they will see another proof of how bad the situation of تجار الاقامات has become! I don’t really understand the system very well, but I do know that these people are basically making money from giving these people residency in Kuwait and they get paid for issuing visas and then totally abandon them and don’t care about what happens next!

Also, it could be the result of what we have been reading about in recent months about private companies not paying their employees, and even hospitals recently not paying these employees! They end up in the streets begging for money and searching through other people’s garbage to live! Their situation might get so desperate in the future that they might start committing crimes and become a major security issue!

What can be done to fix this? They dont have any sort of support from anywhere, and there is noone protecting them against companies or individuals that dont pay them!

This is a serious issue that could escalate to become alot bigger than in it is! I feel really bad for them but at the same time I worry about the kids playing in the street from them! Something has to be done!

Everybody has bad and annoying habits, I have many of those, but there are two that really annoy me and affect me negatively!

1. I can’t sleep! I always considered myself as a night person, I’m the kind of person who wouldn’t mind working till 12am if u let me start after 12pm! My mind is alot more active and alert at night and I feel like working much more than in the mornings! I always have problems sleeping early, I never sleep before 2 or 3 am on weekdays! That by itself isn’t the annoying part, the annoying part is the reason I cant sleep.When I lay down trying to sleep, I cant, I keep thinking…..about nothing in particular, and about everything! About major things like work and finance, and about tiny useless details such as when is the construction in our area ending, or about an Arsenal goal two seasons ago, and so on…..non stop annoying mind numbing thinking!!!!! This leads me to trying to distract myself as much as possible, through TV, internet, books, games, magazines, sudoku, whatever it is to keep myself distracted until I cant keep my eyes open and so exhausted that I sleep the second my head hits the pillow, the only problem is that by then its usually past 4 am!!
2. I have to finish whatever food I have in front of me….even when I’m already full halfway through the meal! There is also a reason for this, and that is that I always leave my favorite thing to the end (I dont know why)! That means that I have to eat everything else first to get to it! If I stop eating when Im full, I will miss out on my favorite part of the meal whatever it is, so I keep eating!This also comes from what our parents used to tell us when we were kids about eating whatever is in our plate bcz we cant throw food away when there are people starving (when I was a kid I never understood that, I thought that their chances of finding the food is better when its dumped somewhere than in my stomach)!

hmmm….ok thats it! I try to make this blog more about Kuwait and social issues and less personal, but I just had to get this off my chest, some sort of therapy I guess! Any help in fixing these problems would be very much appreciated!

Guess what?? Like their campaign says …. u guys are lovin’ it! McDonald’s is the king of fast food!

Shawarma comes 2nd, with Hardeez and Subway following…..

The major surprise here to me is KFC with ZERO votes!! This is the restaurant that spends more on advertising in Kuwait than any of the others mentioned! Supposedly it is also one of the best performing restaurants here, but I guess the bloggers disagree …..

What is your favorite fast food restaurant in Kuwait?

Selection   Votes McDonalds 31% 33 Burger King 5% 5 Pizza Hut 1% 1 Domino’s 5% 5 Little Caesar’s 2% 2 KFC 0% 0 Any Shawarma place 22% 24 Subway 12% 13 Hardeez 14% 15 Other fast food restaurant 8% 9 107 votes total Poll results are subject to error. Pollhost.com does not pre-screen the content of polls created by Pollhost customers.

This poll is inspired from the last post regarding subway…

* I forgot Hardeez from the list, so it now replaces Popeyes, the results for popeye’s in the graph are actually for Hardeez!

On the first day of my first marketing class back in college, the professor asked us a simple question …. “what are the 3 most important factors in a success of a business?”

Everyone came up with answers, and everything we picked was wrong! Finally someone said “location?”, and the professor said “that’s right, what r the other two?” It took us another 10 mins or so then someone else said “ummm….location?”

“Correct!! Location, location, location!!”

So…..basically location is pretty important ;P

This brings me back to my subject….Subway!

Subway has to be one of my favorite restaurants! Its good healthy food thats fast and cheap! I used to like it in the US, but the Kuwaiti Subway restaurants are so much cleaner and fresher than the US ones!

Anyway, I remember when subway first opened in Kuwait many years ago, around 1996 I think, it opened in old salmiya, near the current Hardeez on the corner. I used to be a fan and went there alot, although being all the way in Salmiya was a bit of a hassle for a quick sandwich! I actually saw my wife there for the first time and fell in love at first sight ;P

Not much after it opened, it closed. Subway didnt last much and not many people knew it at the time! It simply failed! A few years later, it opened again in Salmiya, but I think it was owned by Sultan Center or something (im not quite sure). It also didnt last much!

Then came the new person who brought it over to Kuwait. They re-opened the Salmiya branch and then in Hawalli and then in Khaldiya I think. The Khaldiya branch is open 24 hours, and after a slow start, its always busy now! Try going at around 2 or 3 am, its always full!! I guess they realized that this works! Its open in a residential area and its a tiny place that doesnt cost as much as salmiya or hawalli and is always more busy! Since then they have opened in many more residential areas! I know I have seen it Tha7yat 3abdalla AlSalem, in 3dailiya, Khaldiya, and Shamiya so far!

I just came back from the 3dailya Subway, and it was BUSY! I had to wait for around 10 mins for my turn and had at least 8 or 9 people waiting behind me when I got there! There were 4 people working on the sandwiches so it wasn’t really slow, it was just packed!

What a difference in the restaurant and its popularity now compared to back then! Everybody knows it now and people go there alot! Residential areas meant closer to the people, and being in a jam3iya means the name is always there, and in less than 2 years, its has become extremely popular! My college professor was right, location, location, location!

P.S.- why do people fill their sandwiched with 12039373 kinds of sauce?!?!

أخيرا اكتشفنا السر!!

شوفوا هالإعلان و تفهمون قصدي

الاعلانات اللي كنا نشوفها 283928 مرة باليوم و كلنا حفظناها و تطنزنا عليها طلعت من انتاج نفس شركة الإعلان ….. شركة كافيار!

بعض إعلاناتهم اللي اشتهرت -

* بو راشد - كامكو
* القبقب - اتصالات
* يبيله - الوطني
* نقوشي - كميفك
* شغل عدل - الأهلي
* صانع القارب - كامكو ؟؟
* مقشرة - كامكو
* ماي ستايل - سالمية مول

بكل صراحة ما قصروا على شغلهم و جهودهم و بالذات ان الدعايات حتى و لو كانت بعضهم سخيفة شوي، إلا إنها اضافت بصمة كويتية كانت مفقودة بإعلاناتنا في الكويت!

بس أتمنى ما يمصخونها على المصطلحات الشعبية! مشت وياهم الى الآن … بس لا تكون هذي شغلتهم الوحيدة لكل اعلانات المستقبل!

برأيي ان بعض الدعايات كانت ممتازة مثل بوراشد و يبيله، بس بالمقابل كان في دعايات جدا سخيفة مثل شغل عدل و مقشرة!

على الأقل انحل لغز الدعايات الكويتية مع هذا التصريح الصحفي

و على ستايل كافيار ……………. هذي القمندة!!

هاها

Sorry for the delay on the results and on posts, thuroof shakhsiya these last couple of days.

In the papers they said that the voting results picked option 3

The blogging world begs to differ….

Which of the three options should be taken by Kuwait Sports Club?

Selection   Votes Play against Brazil without their stars 14% 19 Sue the Brazilian football federation and cancel the game 47% 63 Agree with the Brazilian Federation’s request of postponing the game to 2006 39% 52 134 votes total Poll results are subject to error. Pollhost.com does not pre-screen the content of polls created by Pollhost customers.

الصفحة الأولى من جريدة السياسة

الصفحة الأولى من جريدة القبس

الزراعة يرأسها فهد سالم العلي
الصحة جزء من حكومة صباح الأحمد

والله عيب!!

موضوع مهم و حساس و يمس حياة المواطنين كلهم و صحتهم … قلبوها معركة مصالح شخصية و سياسة!!

فلان و جماعته ضد فلان و جماعته و اللي ياكلها و ضايع بالطوشة هو الشعب

Kuwait University is hosting a film festival that starts today, November 12th, and continues until Wednesday, November 16th.

The films start at 7 pm everyday, and each day will be dedicated to films from a different country.

For people who love foreign films (me) and for people who don’t like going to the cinema in Kuwait (also me), this is the perfect opportunity for some much needed quality film time!

For a full schedule and a better idea of what films are showing when, please click on the picture.

If you have any interest in stuff like this, please try to attend! Things like this really need to be encouraged as much as possible, and we need more!

See you there!