20January 2013
by Tazmania
I read on paper today that Chamber of Commerce has banned shops/outlets/stores from using “Non-refundable Non-exchangeable” policy starting this month, this is great for consumers because there were so many times when I had to argue with stubborn salesmen when I just want to have a refund even though I haven’t actually used the item I bought in any way. The new law allows any customer to refund his money in case he/she didn’t want the item, but of course there shouldn’t be misuse, but I guess most shops will now try to convince customers to go for exchange .
Read more here [link]
9 people like this post.
17January 2013
by Tazmania
I’m facing a problem with water shortage in my house for a few days now, we had replaced our roof water tank with a new one and made maintenance for the whole pipes network and had all plumbing works done but the water tank isn’t filling with water so I thought there’s problem in one of the valves but turned out all are ok. I went down to the main water meter and checked it and I found that the water pressure is low, it was too low that it cannot push the water up to the roof to fill the new tank.
I called the MEW emergency hotline 152 to report the problem, they said there’s on-going problem with the main water pumps for several areas in Kuwait and this makes the water pressure low and that they are currently fixing the pumps yet they are not sure how long this will take, I asked if I could install a small pump for the main water valve but they said this is illegal, I know many houses who are currently doing this to increase water pressure.
Right now I’ve to go to the water filling station everyday to get a water tanker truck to manually fill the water tank. Did any of you face this problem lately?
4 people like this post.
15January 2013
by Tazmania
I stumbled upon this interesting article on the paper, it’s basically a local study that discusses how marriage and relationship/dating scene has drastically changed in Kuwait in recent years due to many factors. Let’s admit it, Kuwait is indeed one of the most flirtish countries in the world, a quick drive on 2nd Ring Road or Gulf Road can show you what I mean. However, the article focused on the seriousness of street flirting in comparison with other ways/places to start a serious relationship like work place, campus…etc. Apparently, relationship and social experts all agree that street flirting in Kuwait rarely end up in marriage or serious relationship rather than playful short term type of affair.
“Clearly many are now against the arranged marriage (the traditional way) lest that such way doesn’t give enough time or space for potential partners to get to know each other better, but getting to know someone on streets is even worse” states social experts. So I suppose the so called “Love Street” can be called “Bluff Street”, what do you say?
Read the full article [link] in Arabic.
4 people like this post.
12January 2013
by Tazmania
According to our blog friend, this is the newest ad poster for a Chinese restaurant in Kuwait called China Garden. I utterly agree with him when he first thought it’s a joke because I thought it’s a bad joke either but apparently it is true because they have posted it on their Instagram and Twitter accounts. I personally find this ad promoting racism whether it was made in-house or out-house, there are million of creative ideas to make a catchy ad. Do you think it’s racist or not?
Thanks [DarkWolf 80s]
6 people like this post.
06January 2013
by Tazmania
I observed this several times, when I go to public hospitals or polyclinics I see no one at the reception and only see empty application with a pen placed on the counter which means that patients should fill out the application themselves I suppose. Then the poor porter (sometimes janitor) come to pick the application and go to get the medical file and that’s totally not his concern hoping to get a trivial tip. I know we have issue with absenteeism and employees lacking to perform their jobs as required in Kuwait but it’s getting worse these days. The superiors should be more strict to enforce discipline but I guess the issue starts from the top.
4 people like this post.
04January 2013
by Tazmania
Every now and then I read or hear exciting news about about Kuwait Metro project that tickle my vivid imaginations, and just when I start feeling that things are really moving forward everything goes quiet again with no updates or news. Latest “exciting” piece of news is that 1st phase of Metro project which consists of 28 stations and extends for 50 kilometers across Kuwait City will begin this year and will complete in 40 months, I know this is too good to be true but they say it’s official this time. What’s really surprising though is that the Metro project was there since 1978 in Kuwait, I did a lot of digging yesterday and today to make a full history of Kuwait Metro saga.
It’s quite interesting how the project took over 30 years to finally start to get into execution (well not yet but hopefully in 2013), the latest update is that the Metro project will be operational by 2020 with duration of 7 years and total cost of 20 Billion Dollar (around 5.5 Billion Dinar) and will be consisting of 70 stations and extending for 160 KM (that’s 1.5 bigger than Dubai’s Metro) and 30% of the Metro network will be underground whereas the rest will be above the ground, also it will be connected to the proposed GCC Metro network. They say they want to use the metro trains that run on autopilot with speed of 90 KM/Hr, interesting. So now let’s travel back in-time and take a quick look on Kuwait Metro chronology, time machine’s ready so buckle up.
4 people like this post.
29December 2012
by Tazmania
I read about this recent report unveiled by Ministry of Education in Kuwait stating that over 6,500 degrees in engineering are fake or in other words “purchased” from abroad! I studied engineering and I can tell you that there’s an ultimate disaster coming, this means there are thousands of fake engineers in Kuwait working in sensitive and critical jobs yet they have zero background in engineering, scary. I’m so concerned that there are also fake degrees in medicine and pharmacy or even worse, fake Phd’s and professors.
Read more [link]
5 people like this post.
08December 2012
by Tazmania
I read a very interesting traffic field study made by AlQabas paper about the travel time for some popular road destinations in Kuwait, what they basically did is that they have measured the average travel (driving) time needed to reach a particular destination with and without congestion. They chose Shuwaikh as a reference point (because it’s the worst as long traffic jam is concerned), and they measured how long it takes a driver to reach Shuwaikh say when you are coming from Salmiya, Salwa, Bneid Gar…etc.
They found it takes around 11 minutes from Bneid Gar to Shuwaikh in case there’s no traffic congestion, but during rush hours it takes over 65 minutes to get to Shuwaikh! However, they did not consider whether someone is taking a shortcut to reach Shuwaikh. Nevertheless, I find such studies useful and can help greatly to develop solutions. Personally, I think the benefit of having traffic jams is that there will be less traffic accidents than if the road is free for crazy drivers to over speed and do insane maneuvers.
6 people like this post.
