May 17th 2008. Election day.

Vote for Freedom
Vote for Equality
Vote for Human rights
Vote for Civil Liberty
God Bless Kuwait.

Protest for not getting paid and you'll be deported

Interior Ministry warns expatriates against illegal rally, crowd
Military and Security 5/3/2008 5:34:00 PM

KUWAIT, May 3 (KUNA) -- Interior Ministry on Saturday called on all Arab and foreign communities to abide by the state's law in regard to staging illegal rallies or crowd, confirming that it will deal firmly with any breach of security and law in this regard.The ministry said in a statement that it recently noted some Arab and foreign communities resorting to assembly or congregation for various reasons, a matter which is considered a breach of security and law.The ministry warned that it "will take the necessary action to apprehend the participants in such gatherings and deport anyone who instigate others to carry out an illegal rally. (end) yms.tg KUNA 031734 May 08NNNN

http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1904970&Language=en&searchtext=illegal



وزارة الداخلية تهيب بالجاليات العربية والاجنبية الالتزام بالقانون
الدفاع والأمن 03/05/2008 05:04:00 م

الكويت - 3 - 5 (كونا) -- أهابت وزارة الداخلية هنا اليوم بجميع الجاليات العربية والاجنبية الالتزام بالقانون مؤكدة انها ستتعامل بحزم مع أي عمل يعد خروجا عن القانون ويخل بالامن.وقالت الوزارة في بيان انها "لاحظت في الاونة الاخيرة قيام بعض الجاليات العربية والاجنبية باللجوء الى التجمع او التجمهر لاسباب مختلفة ما يعد خروجا عن القانون واخلالا بالامن".وحذرت الوزارة من انها "ستقوم باتخاذ الاجراءات اللازمة من القبض على المشاركين في مثل هذه التجمعات ومساءلتهم قانونيا وابعاد كل من يثبت تحريضه للآخرين على القيام بها".(النهاية) ي م س كونا031704 جمت ماي 08

http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=1904962&Language=ar


«العمل الاجتماعي»: الوافدون يحق لهم اللجوء إلى القضاء


• بيبي الناصر06/05/2008 استغربت رئيسة جمعية العمل الاجتماعي الكويتية الشيخة بيبي الناصر تحذير وزارة الداخلية بأنها ستبعد اي وافد يثبت تحريضه على التجمهر لأي سبب، قاطعة الطريق بذلك على العديد من العمالة التي سلبت حقوقها من قبل كفلائها ولا تملك المال لاقامة الدعاوى القضائية ولا يوجد امامها سوى التجمهر السلمي امام سفاراتها او الشركات الذي تعمل لديها مطالبة بحقوقها وفقا للنظم المعمول بها في البلاد.واضافت الناصر ان الدستور الكويتي والقوانين الجزائية وقانون العمل كفلت معاملة الناس سواسية في الحقوق والواجبات، فلا تمييز بين شخص وآخر من الذين يقيمون على ارض الكويت، وان للعمالة الوافدة حق اللجوء الى القضاء واقامة الدعاوى للمطالبة بحقوقها الامر الذي ينسجم مع دعوة الدين الإسلامي الحنيف للعدل والمساواة لجميع افراد المجتمع، علما ان الكويت من الدول السباقة في الانضمام للعديد من الاتفاقات الدولية.

http://www.alqabas.com.kw/Final/NewspaperWebsite/NewspaperPublic/ArticlePage.aspx?ArticleID=390486

طاخ طيخ: في بلادي

Worth reading .. Thank you Ma6goog

طاخ طيخ: في بلادي

Flavour of the month

A lot of the social and political issues in Kuwait seem to be important for a month but never pull through for more than that, it sometimes extends to two months but that's about it. Even with gossip, "give it a month and people will stop talking" is the common phrase here.

Examples of issues that arose in the past for only a month:-

1. Energy preservation (tarsheed. All the ministries and roads have the lights on 24/7, it doesn't make sense)
2. Environmental awareness (going green, where do the green bags from the co-ops go after they're thrown and I don't see the commercial with the island turtles anymore as lousy as that was)
3. labour abuse (al-awqaf- their campaign was amusing, they handed out gifts like a fake pink croco bag for the family to give to their house maid to show her she's part of the family.. how about paying her monthly salary instead and preferably above minimum wage)
4. Diabetes (a bunch of doctors speaking gibberish)
5. Anti-segregation ( 4 politicians from the national democratic alliance a.k.a al ta7aluf al wa6any are still showing their enthusiasm but let's wait till after the elections)
6. Constitutional Protection (ila al destoor - came hand in hand with Nabeeha 5 then died, now the 5 is not cool .. uhhh constitution?)
7. Water Preservation (this new thing I don't know much about other than the silly number that's meant to indicate the amount of water spent per day in kuwait)

How can we forget or neglect and just let go so easily?

IT SUCKS TO BE THE FLAVOUR OF THE MONTH! ... then left to wither.


Let's hope our new parliament and government has members that will be able to pull through and not only sensationalize issues for political and economic gain.

Elections '08

What is expected or hoped for from our future parliamentarians in regards to human rights issues:

1. Transfer sponsorship of foreign nationals and especially labour expats from Kuwaiti sponsor to government sponsorship.

2. Domestic labour (the ones that work in homes) should no longer be under the ministry of Interior and should be under ministry of labour and social affairs which would include them in the labour law and they don't have laws to protect them if under the ministry of interior.

3. Future MP must pressure all banks to allow mandatory bank accounts for domestic labour, they are not allowed bank accounts and therefore there is no way to know whether they get paid or not.

4. Women women and more women, equal rights with men in all issues especially housing for divorced woman and spinsters within the community and stop outcasting them by housing them in secluded projects.


more later...

From Kuwait City to the Failaka Island

comic relief



THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
THIS LAND IS MY LAND
FROM KUWAIT CITY
TO FAILAKA ISLAND

Al Watan TV - Murdered by the house maid

Al Watan TV has a show hosted by Khaled Al-Abduljaleel, a Kuwaiti lawyer, who tackles many social issues such as divorce, rape, child abuse and so on. Last week he had two Kuwaiti families on his show that have family members murdered by their maid. A girl in her 20's and a 7 year old boy not of the same family. It was heartbreaking to see these families suffer the loss of their loved ones through a brutal murder carried by their house maid. I got a lot of calls after the program aired, the context of the calls were mostly angry people asking me to stop being so sympathetic with house maids.

I wonder sometimes, what leads a woman to murder her employers? Could she have come to Kuwait with mental problems? Or was the employer so cruel and heartless to the point where the maid retaliates by killing the most precious person in her employer's life?

I thought Mr. Al-Abduljaleel was very bias in his report, he didn't give us the other side of the story, in this case it's the maid's view (however unfathomable it is). I've seen many cases where maids do not get paid for months and when they do, they are waaay underpaid, they don't get weekly day offs, they work overtime, they have to deal with physical and emotional and verbal abuse. Most of the time, there is no way out of their situation which leads to suicide, run-aways and in some very unfortunate cases .. murder.


My heart goes out to both families.