Are we moving to Middle Ages in Kuwait?
From what I have read in the news this week, I think we might as well be living in Middle Ages. First its being planned for power cuts in various suburbs,institutions, government buildings to save on electricity. Come on KISR, you guys know Kuwait is blessed with dual power sources of Oil and natural Sunlight.You guys can recommend usage of Solar powered installations for various locations to conserve electricity.For example solar powered street lighting.
Then there is news of not allowing women to work during night hours between 8pm till 7am. What is going on over here? Is this Femalophobia running down the spines? The reason given is that if women who are not working in essential services like hospitals are basically engaged in immoral activities or are engaged in undue hard labour conditions. My question is can these lawmakers please pass this law so it also applies to Maids working in homes. I believe they are exposed to both hard labour and unnatural working hours.
Come to think of it if these laws were passed all the ladies can say goodbye to parlors or beauticians after 8pm. And the eateries like McDonalds, Burger King etc would have to seriously implement new HR policies when it comes to hiring women and their compensation. Simply put there would be more discrimination in hiring women, because they wont be hired where work involves shifts.
Then lets talk about rent laws, its being proposed that as per new laws, landlords would have new powers [as if they lacked any!] to increase the rents for both commercial and residential units at the expiry of the contract. The new law states that the contract for residential will be 1 year and commercial 10 years. Welcome to the age of 5-10% increase in rents every year! Who will get the worst kicks on their backside? Expatriates. Already the rents are astronomical in Kuwait, with people shelling out as much as 30-40% of their paychecks in rents. How are we going to survive with more rent increase. And the worst part the salaries remain stagnant in Kuwait. And the prices of day to day commodities are sky rocketing. Where is the consumer protection law here?
If this continues, the day is not far away when Kuwait will turn into a disaster we all call Dubai ‘a glowing hollow pit‘ where things look glamorous from outside but deep inside the society is crumbling under the economic pressure getting sucked within its confines. Where people earn to spend and spend to earn, but at the end save zero.
Read Article on New Laws in Kuwait [LINK]
Read Article on Dubai Trap [LINK]
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I totally agree with you on the rent thing! I’m paying what amounts to a starting salary for some new job market entrants just to stay close to the family home, thanks to our excellent transportation system!
It’s ridiculous to release women’s protection laws when even basics like consumer protection isn’t even in the radar screen of any MP! Apparently, they don’t consider their family to be deserving of this right, nor anyone else for that matter!
Well these rules look reasonable to me… if the expatriates are unhappy about these then…they should just – PACK up and LEAVE.
@Aq8y : Who will do your work if expats leave this country?
hehehe…I guess we can will have home-delivery service for beauticians too now. These laws suck
So, what happens to people who are ill during the summer? People who have to plug in asthma machines or dialysis or whatever and there’s no electricity – what happens to them? What happens to the infant with a high fever during a power cut? Place them in a tub with cold water and fan them off until the AC comes back on? Oh wait, aren’t there going to be water shortages too? What will happen, I’m sure, is that people are going to crank their AC’s to even lower temperatures than what they are usually set at, in order to keep their homes/apartments cool enough to get them through the scheduled outages. Makes no sense.
Aq8y – Many Kuwaitis don’t agree with these things either. What do you suggest for them? Leave? How about fixing problems rather than running away from them?
this unbelievable, everything is going crazy in Kuwait. Kuwait is now is the most expensive country in ME.
the what is going on, women just got the right to live normally.
The the power issue I heard about it week ago on TV, seriously what….Kuwait have more reliable sources of power, solar power, wind, and sea, its not just oil.
Kuwait is going down it lost every thing since the Iraqi invasion in 1990 and is going to lose more by this stupid new lows.
I totally agree with what you wrote. About a year ago, I actually wrote a similar article about the rent problem, but it wasn’t nearly half as well-written as yours. I’d also like to point out that families are already sharing apartments, rooms even, with others, just to make ends meet. I think it’d be quite cruel to raise the rent even more.
The other day I was listening to Marina FM when a caller called in saying that he’d passed by after midnight, and noticed that the lights were still on. He asked them why weren’t the lights turned off since the country was going through this whole “crisis”. The guy who answered him was like “because we’ve got the workers sweepin up the place because they can’t be cleaning up when there are people around. Also, because new shipments are being unloaded.” That, to me, sounds like a load of bull crap. I don’t think it takes 6 hours to clean up the place (I mean it’s not like people walk around and throw stuff) and it certainly doesn’t take that long to unload stuff. It’s not like new shipments come in every single day. It’s prolly a weekly thing or summat. Point is, they’re not doing their part. If everyone chipped in we might actually make it work, but that’s just me. I mean as long as nobody is looking into the alternatives, what choice do we have, right?
As for the female’s curfew law… I try to make it a point, to view things from every angle, but in this case, there just isn’t other angle. It’s just plain wrong. It’s going to cause problems just like the ones you mentioned and many more.
My question is can these lawmakers please pass this law so it also applies to Maids working in homes. I believe they are exposed to both hard labour and unnatural working hours.
Agreed. At least this way, the helpers get something out of it. Granted, it’s not much, but it’s something. I think it’s just wishful thinking, though. Who is actually going to go around houses, knocking on doors, and checking up on the helpers? After hours, mind you. The helpers would undoubtedly be too scared to actually complain even if they were being worked over-worked so yeah… wishful thinking.
I think we might as well be living in Middle Ages
Sad but true.
Thanks guys/gals fr your nice comments esp @DnG
I have a apartment issue…..We live in flat in salmiya & we pay 3 months rent in advance cos we get discount that way. Now we want to vacate the flat but the landlord says we have to give 3 months advance notice to vacate. Now, there is nothing in the contract which states that we need to give 3 months notice other than stating that if we leave before the year is out, we have to pay the balance rent. The contract is now over. Can the landlord ask to give 3 months notice & can he force us to sign a new contract??
[...] about inflation, are the people who are increasing rents, charging more for goods and services etc. An interesting article by DA is here [...]
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