Remember when i have posted earlier about how Kuwait is toping the charts in every way; We are the fifth country in the world in obesity, then we got the bronze:p in Human Slavery, and now for the silver…brace your selves we got to be the second country in the world with the most CO2 emissions per capita!! thats so wonderful isn’t it:) so now we are targeting the gold for becoming the most ignorant nation in the world, and honestly it does not look that far off… anyways i just wanted to point out that the air we inhale every second is the same air some one in the states or Japan inhales too, we are all in it together, we are all living in the same atmosphere and we should respect its existence and believe me even switching off your bedroom light eveyday makes a difference, lets try our best in helping out. What made me type this post is when my older brother called me and said that Kuwait is on the top list after the United States in Co2 emissions, and that statement was on an electrical board in a science museum in Canada. The same piece of information came from the Daily Star too.

If you watch any international news or ads surly you have noticed how everything is going green, hybrid cars are more accessible, Shell advertises green technology and research (which is all bull shit), all over the world entrepreneurs are finding ways to solve the increasing CO2 problem, Richard Branson is paying a 25 million dollar prize for the best invention to reduce CO2 emissions, Al gore won the noble prize for his contribution of Global Warming Awareness, the Los angles area now has small elecrtic stations for cars that run on batteries. So as you can see that this problem is world wide and not only regionally, surly the poor victims of Oman hurricane Gonu have had a first hand experience. Well the only thing i can say is try your best to lower CO2 emission, i know it sounds lame because we cant use a bike to cycle our way to a friends house or maybe we can winter is coming:P, but we surly can stop littering our streets, using less disposable plastic and more glasses, no need to cruise the gulf road 24/7. If you have any interest in such a subject please watch “Planet in Peril” on CNN today at 13:00 and 19:00 GMT, around 3pm and 9pm Kuwait local time.

Hassan ( a med student) and a fellow reader has been very helpful to research about breast cancer in Kuwait and how to find out about regular breast examination checks, please read the following to have a better understanding of mammograms, please take such information serious. Lets stop loosing family members and friends from ignorance when we can prevent such illnesses by knowledge.

Hasan.B says:
June 30th, 2007 at 2:14 am e

Ok, so i tried to get some information regarding checking for cancer, breast and ovarian in particular. What i was told by a very good and known doctor in kuwait is that breast cancer is becoming increasingly common, and that was the reason behind the CAN campaign, which is an educational campaign to increase awareness in the country and not a screening test. A screening test is defined as: “a public health service in which members of a defined population, who do not necessarily perceive they are at risk of, or are already affected by a disease or its complications, are asked a question or offered a test, to identify those individuals who are more likely to be helped than harmed by further tests or treatment to reduce the risk of a disease or its complications.”
The doctor told me that a screening program is crucially needed in kuwait, and one of the goals of starting this campiagn is to pressure the government to establish one very soon. Now, any patient that wants to check for cancer can do so at most hospitals in kuwait and for free!(Ofcourse they are not free in private hospitals, i think each test coasts about 98KD) However cancer treatment is limited to some hospitals, or maybe even one(hussain maki jumah)! Although as i mentioned earlier, tests (ie. mammograms) are free, they coast the government a vast amount of money, i am not sure how much exactly. That is ONE of the reasons why only women 40 years or older are advised to check for breast cancer regularly, women with high risk such as family history are advised to check at a younger age. In regards to younger women, they are all advised to perform self-testing after each menstrual cycle, to check for any mass or lumps, which can be provided in leaflets given out by CAN, or by a simple research on the internet. For more information regarding screening tests for cancer: http://www.cancerscreening.nhs.uk/breastscreen/index.html

I hope what i wrote was of some use, i know i did not answer your questions exactly, but i tried my best.

I saw this clip and thought of sharing it. Its a comparison of Italy and the European Union States, however are’nt we just similar in Kuwait? enjoy….

http://www.infonegocio.com/xeron/bruno/italy.html

So we all are amazed how come a country like Kuwait with millions pouring in from oil can have blackouts due to electricity shortages, The time magazines even wrote an article how Kuwait is going to be in the dark this summer. I really do not know why we have an electricity shortage or who exactly is stealing the country:p (sounds like the Kuwaiti version of the Enron story) but would like to comment on how stupid this”controlled blackout”is, lets say the ministry of idiots, sorry meant electricity made a certain program to monitor the consumption of residential homes in Kuwait, and separated into each area, then they start promoting there lame advertising about conserving electricity. So monitoring starts on all houses around each area, and a list is created with the best homes that are conserving electricity. This list goes to the newspaper with the family name that is best conserving electricity and as a benefit no electicity is cut through out the summer time for that house hold, and offcource the most house using electricity has to be posted too as the highest waster of them all (sure its a guy from the Kuwait Municipality), so when the owner of the house (the guy from the Municipality) goes to the co-op to by something, everybody there will give him a mean electrifying look:P So instead of this Tarsheed lame advertising, they should promote such programmes that rewards a house hold owner to keep the electricity consumption down, init! so what do you folks think, would a program like this work around here.

Again Kuwait has reached the charts of International Human Traffickng Report, again an again nothing is being done about Human Trafficking in Kuwait and we have been listed in the reports as a tier 3 country, how proud can we be as Kuwaitis!!! Spiral down is the only place we are headed too. Please visit cnn.com for the report, its 240 pages long, but you can skip to page 132 for the information about Kuwait. If interested read more on how Kuwaiti business men are making money from Human Trafficking. Link or search “Human Traficking” in the blog search.

If you have been noticing obesity news is all over Kuwait, in Al Qabas news paper 3 days ago had some statistics on obesity projections within the Kuwaiti population, 65% of Kuwaiti will have serious health problems within the coming years. In Kuwait we all know how the private sector in Kuwait is much smarter, effective and beneficial compared to the government sector. Kuwaiti private companies are making millions of dinars all year round, some like KFH (Kuwait Finance House) made more than 200 million KD last year. So why dont these companies show some social benefit within the Kuwaiti society, or is the bottom line the only mover?! Some like NBK have social responsibility within their mission statements, why cant they tackle such subjects like obesity in Kuwait, why do we have to wait for forbes.com to knock us on the head and start fixing such problems, or these banks are waiting to give us surgery loans! health problems in the future will become a burden on the Ministry of Health and the government budget (which most probably has a leak some where else if you know what i mean:P) Why cant local companies in Kuwait make an example like giving consumers a 1000kd Dana Account Gift if one of its customers that is defined as obese and lost a certain amount of kilo’s with a supervised health official working with a local bank(Hint Gulf Bank!!) Then this person can be the new advertsiment figure to encourage Kuwaitis to loose weight, he even may be the new Jared “the subway dude who lost significant kilos” How hard is it for some marketing department with such large budget to pay attention and for once tap into the Kuwaiti social paradigm and tackle issues like that, the sheer satisfaction from such successful campaign of real people loosing weight and changing there lives totally would be breath taking!! About an average of 7 million KD (NBK report 2006) is spent yearly in advertising localy, cant 250,000kd be used for such an effective and inspiring campaigns! Why i ask the private sector because we are the generators of profit in Kuwait from Kuwaitis and non Kuwaitis alike, so they have an obligation towards society to reinvest. Thats Jared, who lost weight by using the subway diet. (below)

if you have been watching the news lately or more precise the weather news, you must have noticed Hurricane Gonu, it began 3 days ago on the Indian ocean and is moving closer by the day upwards to the Persian gulf, touched parts of Indian by Sunday and now its growing in full force into Oman, for more detail on Oman, switch to Omans main news station. The theory behind these Hurricanes that they grow stronger on warm water, which we have plenty off but some may reach higher categories and some lower, the one on the coast of Oman is a Hurricane 4 categories and wind speed are reaching up to 320km/h. These are really serious winds and this Hurricane may pick up more speed passing through UAE and heading to Kuwait, but it may go to a lower category and become a tropical storm and die out over land. In case it picks up more speed, we should start taking precautions or atleast plan for something, will keep you updated. Do you think i should start a Tornado/Hurricane Chaser Program:P more info:Link

We all know that we do not have any taxes in Kuwait, but our government plays it in a smart way called euphemisim, it sometimes calls it: fees,revenue or stamps. But this is not the matter, back in i guess 1999 when the price of cigarettes increased. Smokers will most probably have noticed, the Marlboro Lights pack use to be 0.400 fils back then, but now its 0.450, yes it looks like a small number but multiply this number by the large number of Kuwaiti smokers and surly becomes significantly different. The rise in cigaretts packs was not due to inflation but was due to the Kuwaiti government taxing the business owners like ALBabtain, the agents of Marlboro in Kuwait. Such a move from the government is good, but where is the money going? why cant they release the numbers of  cigarettes sold in Kuwait, and how much taxes are coming in from cigaretts, why not use that same amount from the extra 50fils to create anit-smoking campaigns, and awareness too, and Stop putting cigarrets ads in the KNCC cinemas. Back then when the rumor was floating around that the government will tax cigarettes, the cigaretts agents hid most of theirstocks in the storage, and started ordering more stocks and keeping them before the government starts taxing. Some might remember when you go to a bakala, asking for cigaretts at the end you find your self at sultan center buying 20 packs just so this wont happen again. Below is a picture of health warning label on cigaretts packs in Canada, this should be done in Kuwait too!

By default we all figure that the meat we all get in Kuwait is halal, right? not really! i have personally researched and asked great number of restaurants in Kuwait that canot prove to me that there meat is halal. I have to tell you why, okay Brazil is known for exporting meat all over the world yes, but with halal meat its the most expensive to make, why? you see our cows to be slaughtered has to be done in a certain way, facing the cow to Mecca, then saying the appropriate words, keeping the knife away from the cow’s eyes then, cutting the throat in a certain way, after all that..you got to wait for the bad blood to be realised (i honsetly cant imagine the Brazilian CEO watching this and seeing his production line that slow). What i have just said is impossible in our world of fast business. Even with the most advanced mechanized ways of killing cows the demand is still high, and try to see the huge number of companies around the world exporting such meat, by 2004 Brazil exported 1.939 million tons of meat to the world (source brazzilmag.com) now again can you really think that with this huge number, our beef were getting in Kuwaiti restaurants is halal? The processed meats found in most coops is in the safe side (halal), like Americana and Khazan, because of the non specialized meat parts, but other local restaurants in Kuwait do not use Americana nor Khazan for there burgers and steaks. I wont say names, but will keep this part for your to ask. But one other thing i got to say: Kobe beef, most of you know what is Kobe beef, and for those who do not know its beef that comes from a cow that is given massages, beer and listen to music. I’m not kidding too they only listen to timberlake j/k  the music is not important the beer part is, so this cow gets fed with beer, which creates a better tasting meat. Now after we knew this, did you know its being served in Kuwait; Hashimi, Showgun and Burger Boutique serve such meat. sometimes even called wagyu beef. So the real questions is if non halal meat is all over Kuwait, why cant restaurants just say that, this is halal and this is not. I’m personally not that religious but other are and would like to know what kind of meat thay are having?