Oh man, I've really let this blog fall to pieces in Kuwait. I'm really ashamed of myself. I managed to update it while I was in Palestine and Iraq, but somehow it's too big a chore while I'm in Kuwait... I give up on myself.

Anyway, I'm still in Kuwait (unfortunately). Kuwait is kind of like living in the suburbs in America. There's really nothing all that exciting to do. A few restaurants, some cafes, a lot of shopping malls, but no real "culture." I feel pretty comfortable saying that this is the worst country I've ever visited on quite a few different levels.

1) It's alarmingly dull. Imagine just picking up and moving to a new suburb completely on your own (some of you have probably done that). You don't have any friends or family there. Just a job that you mildly dislike in a fairly asocial office. It's difficult to meet new people, it's not exactly clear what kind of recreational outlets are available, or even what you should be doing with yourself when you're home alone.

2) Kuwaitis, they are, they are the.... motherfuckers. That's what my Iraqi friend told me before I came here, and I feel more or less comfortable saying that I've confirmed his assertion. They really are a bunch of self centered, vile motherfuckers. For example, this is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but they to make sure that they'd have servants they imported a lower class from all over Southeast Asia. Now Kuwaitis make up less than a third of the population here but they have most of the money and work the least demanding jobs. I watched this movie about ancient Rome once and I remember a scene where a servant accidentally bumped into his Roman master. Like any good master, he didn't even break sentence as he back handed her servant and continued talking to his friend. That's exactly how the Kuwaitis are. They treat everyone who's not Kuwaiti like they're part of an inferior race that exists to provide services to make Kuwaitis lives comfortable. Most Arabs are generally pretty inviting, almost to the point where it's overwhelming and irritating, Kuwaitis are closed off. I once tried to talk with a Kuwaiti in a coffee shop, a very normal thing to do in the Arab world. And this Kuwait told me that he "didn't talk to outsiders." Right now I don't consider myself in the Arab world so much as I do the Gulf. There's a huge difference.

3) Their oil money is completely squandered. In Iraq they have petrol AND agricultural resources, but they're completely lost because of the war and corruption. In Kuwait all of their oil money is wasted on building large malls, buying people nice cars, and taking trips to Europe. They only thing anyone bothers to develop here is the consumer economy, which is of course dependent on a large group of people with disposable income. Whether it's in 20 years or 100 years, eventually the oil money is going to dry up, people won't have disposable income and the entire economy will crash.

I could go on for days listing the specific reasons why Kuwait is a shithole, but I'll stop there for now. I will say that it's not a bad place to be once you develop a group of friends and find yourself a somewhat well paying job. The salaries are pretty good out there and if you know what you're doing the cost of living is pretty cheap. So, it's easy to save up a large sum of money in a relatively short period of time. In addition to working at the Kuwait Times, I'm in the process of trying to pick up a second job teaching English. If I do that I'll easily save up several thousand dollars in a couple months, which is pretty rare in the Arab world.

Anyway, hopefully I'll start updating this thing more regularly, but in the meantime here are some of the articles I've written for the Kuwait Times. Nothing I'm terribly excited about, but if you're curious about what I'm doing out here these ought to give you a pretty good idea. I posted them as pdf files, so you can actually see what they looked like in the newspaper. (I have to use British English, which is why some of the spellings will look a little off.)

http://www.geocities.com/tomapeter/P5.pdf

http://www.geocities.com/tomapeter/p3L.pdf

http://www.geocities.com/tomapeter/p5-local.pdf

http://www.geocities.com/tomapeter/p4.pdf

Also, here are a few photos from around Kuwait:

"Souq Sharq," one of Kuwait's most popular malls. Many malls in Kuwait have small marinas like this one. They ensure that Kuwaitis can purchase the most up-to-date fashions or grab a Big Mac before they leave on a pleasure cruise.
Inside Souq Sharq it's like a little piece of America. You've got McDonald's, Burger King and Pizza Hut just in this picture. I took it standing in front of a Hardee's. The mall also offers a Chili's, Cinnabon, Starbucks, Haagen-Dazs, and all of the outlet stores are American chains with the occasional European store. I only saw one Kuwaiti store in the whole place.
Another shot of Souq Sharq. Notice the big fountain. It's still running even though there are many places in Kuwait without water right now, due to a water shortage (Kuwait desalinizes sea water to get drinking water and several of the plants broke down due to improper maintenance).
"Pure? Natural innocent complete absolute untainted genuine clean...but so damn filthy," reads a shirt in Souq Sharq. Every woman in this shope was wearing traditional Muslim clothing (burqa and veil)...
A normal street in Kuwait City. You can see that they selectively beautify areas of Kuwait. Not many Kuwaitis come to this part of town, so consequently it's a bit run down.