Check out the video above (taken in 2008 by RTL); It features a European Parliament member whose monthly salary is 14,000 Euros (KD 5,580) sign in for work then dash out with their luggage.
Even moralistic Green Party MEP Hiltrud Breyer, one of the founding members of its party signs in, dashes, out banging her head on the elevator entrance. Maybe she was going to save a beached whale somewhere or harass a super tanker with an inflatable dinghy.
I always thought not coming to work, or signing in and dashing out was a Kuwaiti tradition perfected by Kuwaiti Government employees. Whenever you venture to a Kuwait Government establishment, you rarely see any Kuwaitis, only the Indian tea boy, the Bangladeshi cleaning boy, and the Egyptian clerk.
It seems even Europeans are not immune to laziness and cheating on the job.

I have been tweeting more than I have been blogging. I apologize, but tweeting on Twitter is so much easier especially from a mobile device, both in reading other peoples tweets and writing your own. I write random things that I see, thoughts that I have, respond to my tweet friends and update them on where I am in this world – all in 140 letters or less.

Recently celebrities have had the media focus on twitter, first Ashton Kutcher was on a head to head race with CNN by being the first to amass the millionth follower. Ashton won if you did not know. A few days later, Oprah joined twitter and tweeted her first tweet from her show, she quickly got told off by Shaquille O’Neal telling her that her caps where on, which is considered similar to shouting and bad Internet etiquette.

A lot of people joined and tweeted on twitter after that.

Today, I got informed by twitter that Aseel09 is following me on twitter.

Knowing that it is the Candidate Aseel Al Awadhi, I followed her back. Unfortunately, Aseel’s tweets were more like announcements of her media and campaigning activities. They don’t even look like she is the one posting her tweets. I have some advice for Aseel or any celeb whether, local or international, big or small, on how to behave on twitter:

1) If you join Twitter, first be sure that your mobile device supports it and tweet constantly from there. It is more convenient in real time for all your followers.

2) Tweet yourself, don’t let anyone tweet for you. The whole beauty of twitter is that it’s personalized, and not a tedious announcement of some event.

3) Be human, tell us your activities, spur of the momen thoughts and comments – don’t misuse it as a Public Relations form of spin.

4) Be funny, show us your humor.

5) Be interesting, tell us the story about what is happening to you, with one tweet after other.

6) Comment and reply to your followers or anyone else you may have an opinion about.

7) Using Twitter as a platform for announcements is the wrong way to tweet.

If you want to see an interesting and captivating twitterer you can check out my own tweets. (Apologies for the self promotion).

I hope Aseel listens to my advice, and if she does, she will win my vote and others.

President Obama won mostly through his strong presence on the Internet – will it work for Aseel Al-Awadhi?

Links:

الدكتورة أسيل العوضي

يوتيوب” ترشح د. أسيل يظهر في نشرة أخبار قناة الراي

Official Webpage

Four men were bragging about how smart their cats were.

The first man was an Engineer.
The second man was an Accountant.
The third man was a Chemist.
The fourth man was a Government Employee.

To show off, the Engineer called his cat, ‘T-square, do your stuff.’ T-square pranced over to the desk, took out some paper and pen and promptly drew a circle, a square, and a triangle.

Everyone agreed that was pretty smart.

But the Accountant said his cat could do better. He ordered his cat,‘Spreadsheet, do your stuff.’ Spreadsheet went out to the kitchen and returned with a dozen cookies. He divided them into 4 equal piles of 3 cookies.

Everyone agreed that was good.

But the Chemist said his cat could do better. He called his cat and said, ‘Measure, do your stuff.’ Measure got up, walked to the fridge, took out a quart of milk, got a 10 ounce glass from the cupboard and poured exactly 8 ounces into the glass without spilling a drop.

Everyone agreed that was pretty good.

Then the three men turned to the Government Employee and said, ‘What can your cat do?’

The Government Employee called his cat and said, ‘Coffee Break, do your stuff.’

Coffee Break jumped to his feet….Ate the cookies…Drank the milk…Defecated on the paper…Screwed the other three cats…Claimed he injured his back while doing so…Filed a grievance report for unsafe working conditions…Put in for Workers Compensation…and took the day off using ‘sick leave’…

And that my friends is why everyone wants to work for the government!

Borrowed from here.

I have travelled all over, and seen different places. I have been to museums, churches and even historical Roman sites. It was nice, in a tedious sort of way. When you travel to a place that has some history, it is almost a prerequisite to go there.

What I really enjoy during my travels is witnessing the strange behavior of people as they globetrot. I have seen Kuwaiti families load crates of frozen fish, sacs of rice and tomato paste while on their way to London.

I realize we are in a banking crisis right now, but I don’t recall reading anywhere that there was a famine in London.

Anyway, I digress. What I saw recently really made me laugh, someone loaded a ….just have a look.