New Year’s Eve Destinations

Well at least there is some rain forecast for Kuwait before the end of 2010. We’ve had a pretty long dry spell. Mind you, the weather has been fantastic compared to anywhere else in the world and I’m pretty content to stay put and enjoy it. With all the blizzards and storms hitting many destinations, the cool air and sunshine is our best bet here.

Still, there will be a mass exodus this long holiday weekend. People planning on ringing in the New Year will be on their way to a variety of nearby destinations where celebrations are ongoing.

In Kuwait, celebration of the New Year is prohibited. The latest warning is specific: the criminal investigation and drug control departments in the ministry of Interior have been instructed to set out a security plan for New Year’s Eve.
There will be specialized teams in charge of the camping areas, stables (like in Kabd) , villas and chalets as well as other areas where prohibited activities may take place.

In a country where local businesses and hotels are prohibited from holding New Year celebrations, where there is no official fireworks display, what are people expected to do?  The rest of the world is celebrating one country after the other, ringing in the New Year with a series of bangs, and here the police and private detectives are on patrol to prevent you from celebrating even in the privacy of your own home. [Link to the Arab Times article for more info]

It’s a long weekend. It’s the start of a new year. And there is nothing to do with your family and friends to celebrate except to go to the mall and shop or to go to a restaurant and eat. Do you really want to go to the cinema and watch a censored film on New Year’s Eve? There is such a large gap in provision of entertainment it is no wonder that people resort to erecting desert nightclubs and the like to entertain themselves. If you don’t provide people with positive options, they are going to go for whatever is offered and that may be something  illicit.

Offer people positive alternatives so they can make good choices.

Wife Misbehaving

Another episode in “The Culture of Violence”: Arab Times asks what would you have done?

A woman, whose identity has not been disclosed, has filed a complaint with the police accusing her husband of deliberately damaging her car and beating her, reports Al-Rai daily.
A police source said this happened when the husband caught a glimpse of the woman driving along the Arabian Gulf Street.  She had put on the radio and some youths following her were dancing to the tune of the music inside their vehicles and the wife was looking at them and giggling.
The husband called her on her cell phone but she neglected him and continued driving so he chased her and crashed into her car when she reached the home of her parents in Bayan.
The husband got down from his car and beat her until passersby came to the rescue of the wife and separated the couple.
The couple has been referred to the Rumaithiya Police Station.

 

 

Evil Eye

Sometimes when a series of  seemingly inexplicable negative things happen to us, we blame the Evil Eye.  It is so ingrained in our culture that most people at some point in their lives blame the Evil Eye for some mishap in their lives. It is easy to blame some intangible force when many times if we analyse clearly, the negative event is a result of decisions we have taken or events that we have no control over.

“Evil eye victim?:

An angry Kuwaiti man walked into the Jahra Police Station and, what is believed to the first incident of its kind in Kuwait, narrated a very strange incident also the first of its kind, and threatened to kill his neighbor saying the man has an ‘evil’ eye and has caused him many unsustainable problems, reports Al-Shahed daily.
He also sought police help to prevent him committing the crime.
The man added he renovated his house and it caught fire. He went on to say he bought a new car for his son and the engine gave way and then his wife gave birth to twins and they died.
Police could do nothing but still they summoned the neighbor and narrated the story. He denied the charge and said all that he can do now is every time he sees the neighbor he will say ‘Allah bless you’.
The problem was solved amicably.”

Like, Hats Off

There's a lot of this going on these days in parliament and political gatherings

link

Karate Chops Woman

[From the news LINK ]

Here is another episode in the series I call “The Culture of Violence”

An Arab couple (later I learned they were Syrian) driving along the Gulf Road in Kuwait were taken aback when the Asian driver of another car spat on them and accused them of holding up traffic along the road. The Asian man (no nationality specified) was with his family in the other car.

The Arab man said that the Asian man started to shout and would not listen to his explanations, going as far as verbally abusing the Arab man’s wife.

The Syrian woman who has a black belt in karate was so offended she decided to take matters into her own hands. She beat the Asian man black and blue.

However, instead of going for back up which would have resulted in more violence, he obtained a medical report and lodged a complaint at the police station against the Arab  owner of the car and his female companion.

 

 

Should dolls be anatomically correct?

Is Ken (or any male doll for that matter) anatomically correct?

Something to ponder: BARBIE in Compromising Positions

Kama Balloons

 

Amusing balloon animation with an adult theme by Anton Lobachev here: Link

Video series amusing as well.

 

When sleep brings me no peace

Half of me here. Parts of me roaming.

In dreams, my right ear has some dark soil.

And I struggle to remove it.

I am all here. Back in my body. And I awaken.

Looking at the ceiling, I realize it is my bed.

And I think about being buried deep in the sand.

The sand that will fill my ears.

And I feel as alone as I do when I am dead.

So when you are lying beside me, I find comfort in the warmth of your company, and your body, which reassures me that I still live.

We have only one onion and then I remembered

Onions.

We sat cross-legged on the floor, knees touching, eating hamburgers out of brown paper bags. You were worried. You were too serious, thinking of what was to come.

The glow of the single lamp is warm and yellow.

And I smell the onions on our fingers, and our breathe.

Reaching out to intertwine in moments before the end.

Mummified Jinglejangles

Pat Down

The Daily Pat Down

Blog described as : Your daily dose of security theater.

Frightening. Invasive.

What if the people performing the pat downs get a thrill out of touching people’s private parts?

Do they change their gloves? Or touch every person with the same gloves they have used to pat down people’s crotches, bums, and armpits?

Shudder to think of it.

And the people being patted down look so docile too.

 

 

Super Autobiographical Memory

Some things I would love to remember, moment by moment.

Other things I would prefer to cast away into the dregs of forgetfulness.

Imagine having an “Endless Memory” where you would remember every day of your life down to the last detail?

It is an extraordinary gift.

the big brass bed

nevermind

that you were sitting next to that woman yesterday instead of being with me I’ll just push that to the back of that shelf, that over-loaded, over burdened shelf in my brain-heart-soul or whatever it is that holds the strings and the commitment to making this relationship work.

nevermind

that every thing I like, you find it competing with my love for you, my attention to you.

I am of a different time.

I appeared out of a time warp. Heaven only knows by mistake.

you’re making me live in that time zone from within that faded photograph. No. you can’t see.

Between us is something more tangible than love, than responsibility, than commitment. It’s the burden I bear, the project I must see through till the end, and angels don’t protest against God do they?

There is a big brass bed on the roof of our house.

It is free-standing. Alone.

White linen. Stark.

pristine. Untouched.

Invite me to spend the night on our rooftop on the big brass bed.

and leave the sheets rumpled in the morning.

remnants of

a midnight tsunami.

El Kuwaytah

synopsis:

Kuwaiti ministry of interior employs Egyptian expatriate drivers to drive cars with cameras around Kuwait to record traffic violations (speeding, use of emergency lanes etc..)

The video clip shows brief interviews with some Egyptians employees of the Kuwaiti ministry of interior who have been attacked physically and beaten by Kuwaitis (or as they call us El Kuwaytah) They have also had their equipment and cars damaged by Kuwaitis objecting to being photographed and caught on camera while speeding or breaking the law.

Me wondering

1. Whose MAD idea was this in the first place? It’s a stupid system bound to create tension.

2.  How many millions of dinars were wrongly invested in this system?

3.  Was a pilot study performed to test the viability of this system? (especially who recommended that these kinds of people would be recruited – obviously not even Egyptian raised in Kuwait)

4.   What happened to Kuwaitisation?

5.  Why invest in a failed system like this to catch people who break the law when all they have to do is ask their favourite member of parliament to intervene in a wasta connection to get them out of the mire or to ask a relative or a friend to change the charges in the official files? Expensive equipment has been damaged by the attackers.

There is a culture of disregard that is growing ominously like a cancer and the politics of violence is feeding it.

Instil love of your country by investment in the right places:

not by investing in surveillance cameras to be placed in cars (adding to the congestions) and driven by members of the ever-expanding Egyptian community in Kuwait.  Everything about this reeks of “mal” (malinvestment indeed).

Auric Clearing

The puppetmaster

raises his tumbler to

his purple lips

and tosses his head back

swigging the contents of the glass

down the festering abyss.

——–

Hark, hark

there is a mob heading our way

and the motion

becomes commotion

and anger is red

——-

Newspaper headlines flash

Violently humourous photos

splash

across the front page

and I toss my head back

and laugh

at the violence in men

like two rams

but here they are scores of rams

headlocked

and I laugh

again

——

I am no puppet master

but in my head

are two eyes

that spell out the vision

of impending chaos

and there is a nagging

muted cry:

Hark, hark

Rams & ewes

clear your auras

before you run

headlong into

concrete walls

that crumble

when a butterfly comes

to rest

—-

this is going on YouTube

A voice says: This .. is going on YouTube. Mobile phone cameras are bobbing in and out of the picture as onlookers record the woman in white shouting hysterically about being flashed by a Hispanic looking man opposite her. One onlooker taunts him, Let me see your penis.

 

Castrated

When a 47-year-old German man learned that his 17-year-old daughter was in a relationship with a 57-year-old man, he sought the assistance of the police who told him they couldn’t do anything so he took matters into his own hands. With some accomplices, he went to the man’s house and castrated him and took the severed penis away with him. Although weak and bleeding, the castrated man called the police and his life was saved. However he will remain a eunuch for the rest of his life. (News Link)

This reminds me of the story of Heloise and Abelard. Heloise was the young student of Abelard. Although she was entrusted to Abelard by her uncle, she soon was involved in an illicit affair with her tutor and bore him a son. They decided to get married in secret to appease Heloise’s uncle. However, the story goes that Uncle  Fulbert had Abelard castrated and being a eunuch, became a monk.

 

 

 

Gulf’s First Sex Shop

After a successful online business venture with  Khadija Mall, Khadija Ahmad opened her shop in Bahrain called Khadija Fashion House where she sells lingerie and sex toys as well as products designed to enhance the sex life of married couples. (Link to some photos of the shop in Bahrain)

More here on Khadija Ahmad’s adult shop, the first of its kind in the Gulf area.

Although she has been taken to court for the products she sells in her shop, she says that there is nothing in the law about sexy products and the people at customs give her a hard time simply to undermine her business.

 

Putin croons: Blueberry Hill

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin sings Blueberry Hill (Fats Domino) at a charity event to help children with cancer.

Politicians should sing more often

Enthuse me

Somewhere

poetry hides

as quiet as a mouse

as shy as a chaste maiden

and I

the peaceful huntress

the tranquil fisherwoman

indulge her

coquetry

and wait

for

Her Bounty to appear