‘Help face budget deficit’

‘Love your country’

“WHEN you look at the next budget, which has announced its figures a few days ago, you will notice that the oil revenues still account for about 90 percent. This means that we are still relying on a source that is almost the sole source of income at a time when the price of this commodity is subjected to fluctuation,” former MP and former Minister of Justice

wrote for daily. “When you look at the budget you will find that the salary item has increased significantly, and reached 11.2 billion dinars mark, which means the failure of the State Development Plan which was aimed at transferring Kuwaitis to the private sector.

“Not just that, this also means failure of the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) because all these laws aim to increase the number of Kuwaitis in the private sector.

“When you go through the budget, you will find that the estimates of non-oil revenues have increased over all previous years by about 300 million dinars, due to the increase in gasoline prices and the increase of electricity and water tariff the cost of which is largely borne by the investment and commercial sectors.

“And when you go through the budget, you will detect that the equivalent price of the oil was estimated at $72 per barrel and if its price does not reach this level this year, this will mean we run into deficit for the fourth consecutive year.

“But and in spite of the above, we see the MPs still submitting ‘bills of attrition’ which will worsen the deficit. Not just that, we see some of these MPs focusing on withdrawing money from the Future Generations Fund to support the projects which they had promoted during election campaigning instead of the investment projects which can help boost national income and provide job opportunities.

“And when you go through the budget that was submitted recently by the government with an expected deficit of about KD 5 billion, you will observe that the current overheads in this budget constitute as much as 82 percent of the total overheads worth KD 20 billion.

“This happens although many of these overheads according to what has been posted in the social media, and made a mockery of it, do not believe because this deficit includes many unnecessary expenses because of extravagant spending, waste and grants and donations both at home and abroad and this means squandering of public funds.

“And when you go through this budge, you will conclude that the deficit in the budget of the Public Institute for Social Security is estimated at KD 10 billion and this money does not take into account the overheads.

“But if the overheads are added, then the deficit will be more many folds. And if the bill calls for reducing the retirement age then the deficit of Institute will increase by many billions of dinars.

“And if you look at the state budget, you will notice that the arms and ammunition is not included in the armament budget because this cost is covered by the State Public Reserve and if the same is disbursed from the State Public Budget the deficit will rise also.

“We call on every Kuwaiti who is keen to protect the homeland to look at the budget to enable us to achieve reform and not go in the wrong direction.”

Baqer

“The development of the Kuwaiti islands will certainly succeed economically and will undoubtedly contribute to the consolidation and diversification of national income,” columnist wrote for

daily. “It will also serve as a bridge for cooperation and understanding with the neighboring countries, all of which is clear and predictable. Ultimately, the project bears the seeds of its success.

“But this is not all that is desired of the project, but in fact this is not the contemplative and required implementation, and this urgency — at least on my part-- to accelerate it, is the main objective of the project is to change the nature and psychology of the Kuwaiti citizen and not just beautify the islands.

“Rather the project aims at using the energies and contributions, of the citizens and not only to obtain an income that deepens the society’s profitability and its negative effects on the Kuwaiti citizen.

“It will not be easy at all to persuade all Kuwaitis to ‘work’ in the shadow and shed the inferior view that we hold as a society for all the businesses and professions, especially the technical or service that the island’s development project will provide. The worker or historically ‘manufacturer’ is the lowest of people, and has no origin and no separation but the person who is actually not working but depending on how to loot the public funds and here it would not be important the volume of the looted sum not the level of embezzlement, because most of the Kuwaitis are involved in embezzling money from public funds in some or the other way and benefit from the efforts of others.

“Hence, it is required that the Kuwaitis should contribute to the work as well as to the technical industry and services as part of his/her contribution to the administrative works and office routine and get rid of veiled unemployment. In other words, the Kuwaitis must be groomed to change our vision of the technical and occupational jobs.

“The Kuwaiti citizens must be prepared as a community to deal with the technical and social requirements prior to setting their hands at developing the islands and the related success of the project otherwise it will result in an overwhelming failure, because in this case we shall transform the citizen dependent on oil revenues to one dependent on both the oil and the islands revenues.”

“Many people remain adamant in rejecting the undisputable fact about Islam to the point that the religion is restrained within the limit of a particular space on the surface in a tight corner called mosque,”

wrote

for

daily. “This is happening regardless of all available historical proofs and evidences that confirm the establishment of Islamic State showing that Islam, as a religion and state, came to rule the world with its ideology. Its essence is to strengthen justice while combating all forms and categories of despotism. This state existed for over thirteen centuries where Muslims were defending the religion and their territories and themselves with sword and pen.

“Without a doubt, subsidence of Islam in today’s world geographically and behaviorally is an action upon which some shortsighted people embark upon. We should not ignore the fact that some people are submissive to negative impressions of nonMuslims over their state and religion, while many others lack enough intelligence to understand religion and history.”

“The exceptional performance of the Egyptian footballer Mohammad Saleh is progressing towards registering new records that are unprecedented. He recorded his second distinguished goal in the match between Liverpool and Tottenham in the British League,”

wrote for daily. “I consider sports as an effective way for achieving social mergence besides being a source of entertainment and fun.

“I was part of an extended study that included a number of researchers from different cultures with the aim of developing out-of-the-box methods to alleviate the level of racism in the world. I consider sport as one of the most effective tools in this regard.

“Desmond Morris wrote a book titled “The soccer tribe” in which he tried to analyze fans’ psychology during times of excitement and enthusiasm.

“He wrote that fans, during the matches, turn into members of a tribe with the players representing heroes of that tribe who fight with another tribe but without using guns. Gradually, the player becomes a representative of the tribe even if the fans used to view his personal life from a racist perspective in the past. When that player becomes successful and displays creative abilities, he becomes the most loved player by all fans including the most racist among them.

“Unlike most of the players especially those from Latin America who draw a cross on their chest, shoulders and head after recording a goal, Mohammad Saleh genuflects or falls on his knees. Even though this is an Islamic gesture symbolizing gratitude to Allah, it is accepted by the nonMuslim fans. This depicts respect for varied cultures and represents a good example of coexistence among human beings despite their religion, ethnicity or race.

“There are 50 Muslim footballers from 18 different countries who play in the British League. Such thing was not accepted in the 1970s.

“Racist French football fans did not accept foreigners including Arabs until they won the World Cup in 1998 when most of the players of the French team were immigrants. Their pictures decorated the Arc of Victory in Paris and fans carried pictures of Zinedine Zidane while marching and celebrating.”

— Compiled By Zaki Taleb