A female representative of a powerful 2nd District candidate showed up at someone’s house in the affluent Dahyiat Abdulla Al-Salem area. A male resident answered the door.
“Hello there, I am Mr. ____’s envoy, is there anything I can help you with? Anything we might be of service to you or your family?” enquired the lady.
The astonished gentleman shot back, “Lady, this is Dahyiat Abdulla Al-Salem. Does it look like we need your help?”
What’s with Al-Watan TV’s continued coverage (interviews, advertisements etc) featuring HADAS (Islamic Constitutional Movement) candidates? Al-Watan TV started off its election coverage on a seemingly impartial note with interviews with Ahmed Diyan and others; however, they seemed to have switched political gears: it seems like almost every night night either Dr. Nasser Al-Sane, Mohammed Al-Busairi or others from their party are on.
Ali Al-Tarrah Interviewing Mohamed Abdulqader Jassim
With the exception of the classy, intellectual Ali Al-Tarrah – whose one-on-one interview technique is charmingly assertive – Al-Watan TV’s election coverage has been the weakest of all the prime time Kuwaiti stations including Scope TV, Flash and Al-Rai, among others.
A veteran of a local civic legislative entity (currently running for Parliament) passed by a 3rd District diwaniya at the behest of the owners – who wanted some real quality time with the candidate in order to formulate their choices for the upcoming elections.
The candidate walks in at 12:15 am, salutes the diwaniya, immediately embarking on his standard ten minute speech, climaxing with “I’m ready for any questions.” The owner swiftly asks, “What do you think of local and Islamic blocs who haven’t really achieved anything for Kuwait the last decade? Moreover, why has Kuwait developed into such a mess, lagging behind Gulf States, where nobody even respects the law – what do you think is the appropriate solution to this dilemma?”
The candidate stands up, shoots back “The solution is vote for me,” promptly making his way out of the diwaniya.
The two guys planning to vote for him swiftly changed their minds; the rest of the diwaniya astounded at the candidate’s lack of political decorum.
The next couple of days I am going to be highlighting a few candidates that I believe would be an asset to the National Assembly. These opinions are solely my own and do not represent any entity, corporate or otherwise. Stay tuned.
I am thoroughly enjoying the run up to the Elections, the myriad of satellite shows on Scope TV, AlRai, Nabeeha Tahaluf and others, the campaign headquarter visits, the newspaper and blog articles fueled by scandals and analysis… The media is indeed helping to shape the results of the next election.
But what is the feeling out there on the streets of Kuwait? Anger, cynicism, disappointment?
The ‘mad prophet of the airwaves’ Howard Beale (Peter Finch) howled in the classic 70s drama NETWORK, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”
Is the Kuwaiti electorate angry enough to make a real difference on May 17th?
Following months of grueling campaigns, set amidst a tense, competitive backdrop, featuring both ‘The Economic Family Bloc’ and ‘The Chamber Bloc’, as well as Independent Candidates, elections for the Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry ended today with a resounding victory for the ‘Economic Family Bloc.’ The polls closed at 8pm and unlike previous elections, the ballot counting was manual, not electronic (due to requests by members of the ‘Chamber Bloc’); this in turn led to over 12 hours of ballot-counting by the Election Committees.
Decisive results were known at around 8am this morning: incumbent KCCI Chairman Ali Al-Ghanim and the ‘Economic Family Bloc’ won a landslide victory – a wide margin over their competitors – all twelve of their members re-elected.
Results are indicative of the private sector’s desire to maintain stability, equilibrium and continuity in the Chamber of Commerce And Industry; moreover, results telegraph a strong message to any external elements that might have wanted to politicize or exploit the Kuwaiti business community for the sake of demagogic cheap thrills.
(Check Kuwait Times Article for reference).
KCCI Headquarters
An Interview Featuring KCCI Member Mr. Dharar Al-Ghanim
The ‘Chamber Group’ Headquarters
The ‘Economic Family Group’ Headquarters
Re-elected KCCI Chairman Mr. Ali Al-Ghanim
KCCI Election Committees Burning The Midnight Oil
I really admire the vision and determination of the UAE rulers in raising the benchmark on everything.
BBC News Online is reporting that Abu Dhabi is building a carbon neutral city, as well as investing $15 billion in clean/sustainable energy R&D (LINK).
From BBC News Online
An excerpt:
“Masdar City will cost $22bn (£11.3bn), take eight years to build and be home to 50,000 people and 1,500 businesses. The city will be mostly powered by solar energy and residents will move in travel pods running on magnetic tracks. The city will make use of traditional Gulf architecture to create low-energy buildings, with natural air conditioning from wind towers. Water will be provided through a solar-powered desalination plant, Masdar says. The city will need a quarter of the power required for a similar sized community, while its water needs will be 60% lower. The city forms part of an ambitious plan to develop clean energy technologies“
Jaber Al-Ahmed City. Sabah Al-Ahmed City. Ahmed Al-Fahad City. Silk City. ETC – eat your heart out.
Salmiya, Sunday, 6.1.08, 6:45pm
What a day.
An environment consisting of bitter cold, fierce wind and dust is sweeping Kuwait.
It’s like being trapped in an hourglass, under the brunt of falling sand.
Stay home.
…This…
