Kuwait 2000 - Email One
Kuwait City, Kuwait
September 2000
Kayfaylic from Kuwait!
It is amazing to see the pictures of Kuwait just after the Iraqi occupation and now. The Iraqis had a scorched-earth policy upon their retreat that left everything looking like a baron wasteland. Now that nature has had time to reclaim and recover, everything looks like a baron wasteland. (Hey, it’s a desert – what did you expect?) Nearly every building standing ten years ago has pictures and displays of either the Iraqis arriving or the condition of the buildings after they left.
The driving here scares even me. In most countries and cities, the number one alternative to driving is mass transit. Here, the number one alternative to driving is mass suicide; just like mass transit in other locations, it is much quicker and less painful than driving yourself. We had one guy weave in front in a speeding frenzy tonight so close that we had to swerve into the next lane to avoid a collision. About 5 minutes later we saw him piled up into another car a few miles ahead. Kuwait is an oxymoron with regard to women’s rights for an Arabic country. They granted drivers licenses to the women (Saudi still does not allow this), but the husbands continued to require them to have their heads completely covered by black scarfs. Someone finally woke up to the fact that these women couldn’t see to drive. The government now allows women to drive, but only if their face is fully uncovered. Hopefully there will not be a surge in lust with all these uncovered women’s faces lurking behind the deep tinted windows of the Mercedes.
I have been gone for a week, but spent the first non-traveling days in the shopping mecca of Dubai. No wonder the pronunciation is “do-buy”. If Western customs are measured on a scale of 1-10, with 10 being more Western and 1 being the least Western and most traditional, Saudi is a 1, Dubai is a 10 and Kuwait is a 4. I was detained in customs in Dubai for nearly one hour. It seems the agent I paid about $75 to prepare my visa in advance, spelled my name as “Leith”, listed me as a Canadian, and lost the original copy. Some nice officials were willing to take me to their governmental version of a bed and breakfast, but fortunately, my visa eventually showed up. Unfortunately, the young man that forgot he still had it could not bring it in, calling from his car outside requiring my paid passport facilitator to go and get it. It was a shame, since I really wanted to thank him in person!
In Kuwait, I got waived from Passport Control to Immigration (In about 15 trips outside the US, I have never be stopped once until this trip!). Fortunately, they just wanted to give me a five minute demonstration in how important-looking 16 year old kids in uniforms can talk on a phone for five minutes completely ignoring you until they glance at your passport, write down five numbers and send you on your way. If these guys ever want to immigrate to the US, they have a bright future in the license plate line at the county tax-assessor/collectors office.
I haven’t had much opportunity to get out other than the 30 minute drive to work that is ranked more dangerous than professional land-mine detector. I think this weekend, which consists only of the Islamic Holy Day of Friday, we will drive into town. Hopefully we will see some more sand, because obviously I haven’t seen enough!
Take care, and don’t invade any oil-rich micro-countries you can’t defend from a super-power.
Motzalama,
-Keith