Good morning dear and honorable readers and I wish all a happy Hijri year full of happiness and joy. In this article I would like to pinpoint on some true and yet funny stories I was told about many of my trustworthy friends, hoping everyone learns a lesson from them.

A friend of mine traveled to Egypt last year and encountered a dispute between a Kuwaiti woman and a shop owner in downtown Cairo. As he was a shopper, he preferred to stay longer to know what was going on. Both sides were very angry and yelling at each other and all of a sudden the Kuwaiti woman shouted at the Egyptian, telling him: Will you behave otherwise I will deport you back to your country and ban you from entering Kuwait! The poor lady had forgotten that she was in Egypt and those words may have been repeatedly uttered by her long tongue back in Kuwait. The coincidence is that the shop worker used to work in Kuwait and was telling police that he used to hear that threat a lot when he was in Kuwait and now it is time others hear it while he is in his own country. What I mean by this true story is to say that no matter what you do to others, it will come around eventually back to you. The poor lady ended up being deported as that worker had connections or wasta in his own homeland.

The other issue I would like to highlight and hope it would be settled for good is the dilemma of taxi drivers and the oppression imposed on them by some of the Interior Ministry authorities. I will mention as well some of their negative points. Many of the policemen roam the roads searching for prey and they find it easy enough to fine taxi drivers even ones adhering to the traffic laws and regulations. The ministry officers want taxi drivers to pick up their customers while flying so that they do not cause traffic jams on the roads. Perhaps they think passengers can fly like bees who can quickly board the taxi while the car is moving to keep the smooth pace of traffic. Many taxi drivers stop at designated parking spots to pick up their passengers but yet get fined for no reason. Where for God’s sake do you want them to stop? We all know that our roads are not as nice as those in Dubai where taxis can stop easily for passengers whereas here the roads remain unchanged since the Sixties.

The negative aspect about the majority of taxi cars are the nasty smells inside the vehicle and sometimes the smell comes from the driver himself. You board the car and tend to close your nose till you reach your destination and poor you when the destination is Jahra.

The last point I would like to touch upon is the visit or family dependence visa for our Pakistani brothers and sisters. It has been suspended for a long time. I have heard so many divorce cases taking place from wives of Pakistani brothers working in Kuwait as this matter constitutes a dilemma to them. Imagine you work abroad and are not able to see your loved ones or eat and be united with them, how would that feel? For the sake of Allah and for the sake of humanity please open up the visa for our Pakistani brothers and sisters. Pakistan is among the first countries which supported Kuwait during the Invasion and it is offering assistance to the Saudi-led coalition against Daesh. Let’s wait and see.

Until the next article Insha’Allah.

By Talal Al-Ghannam

[email protected]