‘A stitch in time saves nine’

Raising thieves

ABy Ahmad Al Sarraf

friend, whom I trust and respect, told me that in 1975 an educationalist met a senior official and gave him a list of names of senior officials in the country who were holding education certificates that had not been accredited, so as not to say ‘forged’ and terminate their services ‘quietly’ to protect their dignity. The friend says, the senior official went through the list very minutely and returned it to him saying ‘forget about the list’ and think you have seen nothing.

The friend Mohammad AlSanousi -- in an interview with the Al-Majlis Satellite Channel -- said a similar incident happened between him and former minister Hassan Al-Ibrahim and a senior official.

This silence encouraged others to follow the same path and even to go farther after they discovered how easy it was to obtain high degrees from lenient universities, or from shops and certificates ‘factories’ around the world which helped them received benefits from the material or social point of view.

They also saw how the title of doctor gave them respect and appreciation, often fake from half of the educated people who represent a majority of our people, let alone our nation.

So the notion ‘pull wool over your eyes when you discover something’ has made our situation miserable, sad and destructive as we see almost everyone around us holds the title of ‘Doctor’.

Al-Sarraf

The source also stressed the need to hold to account those who exploit their children for commercial purposes such as fame for material gains or fail to send them to school. As for the prevalence of videos documenting torture of children by their parents, the source said doctors at all centers and specialists must report any abuse, verbal or physical or any negligence to the Child Protection Team on Telephone No.147 which operates around-the-clock.

The competent authority in the Interior Ministry shall be notified by the team to take necessary measures in accordance with the Child Protection Act, which was approved in 2015, adding that the task of the protection team is to monitor and follow-up cases of abuse and neglect that are reported.

The source confirmed the process of reporting is conducted with strict confidentiality without causing any harm to the person who reported the incident, and the competent authorities shall investigate to verify the truth of the incident and take necessary action.

The source pointed out that the Interior Ministry has received more than 4,000 cases, and dealt with nearly 400, mostly related to negligence, and sexual and physical assault.

Most notable incident was of a negligent mother who did not care for her children, while the father was serving a jail term at the Central Prison. The incident was reported by neighbors. The mother was summoned and the children were referred to the Juvenile Home Care until a shelter was provided for them and sent to their grandmother. Turning a blind eye on a few certificates in 1975 put us in our current situation. This is exactly what happened with the oppressed bedoun category. They were few in number at the beginning of the 1960s and the problem could have been solved in a timely manner.

These people (bedoun) are found in almost every corner of the world, but the hesitation and delay in the solution and leaving it for the time to ‘heal the wound’ is the cause of the tragic situation in which we find ourselves.

We cannot naturalize them all, and we are unable to ignore the rights of many of them to obtain the nationality, especially the grandchildren, and we cannot return them to their former homeland.

I have personally experienced ‘lay to rest what you discover’ when I submitted statements containing the names of tens of thousands of citizens who did not hesitate to rob the country while they groaned under the Iraqi occupation, who deceived everyone by submitting forged documents to the Kuwaiti Committee in Riyadh for assistance and accommodation for Kuwaiti people and received ten times what they were supposed to from the Committee.

I then submitted the list of names of these people to our ambassador in the Saudi Capital in Riyadh, and he told me the State is lost and people are lost and everyone is desperate and there is no way to hold them accountable, and asked me to ‘put to rest what I had come across’ but I did not, and told everyone what I knew then.

Had the government held accountable these small thieves in a timely manner, we would have not had all this number of big thieves and robbing public money in broad daylight.

e-mail: habibi.enta1@gmail.com

Ban on ‘retirement’ parties:An

educational source said the Ministry of Finance has cancelled the honoring parties held by government institutions on the occasion of the retirement of their employees, reports Al-Rai daily.

Sources said, this is to rationalize spending and reduce the government expenses.

However, the source affirmed the Ministry of Finance said the Ministry of Education in all educational zones will not be able to hold these parties that were held annually according to a ministerial resolution that has been issued in this regard.

Pharmacists warned:Health

sources have warned the pharmacies which are operating inside the cooperative societies against violating the Pharmacy Act of 2016, reports Al-Rai daily.

The daily said the license of violating pharmacies will be withdrawn if they don’t fall in line with the law after the expiration of the deadline given to them.

According to sources the Ministry of Health had given these pharmacies one-year to adjust their situation to abide by Law No. 30 of 2016 concerning the amendments to some provisions of Law No. 28 of 1996 regarding the organization of the pharmacy profession and the distribution of medicines.

The sources explained the decision to give a new deadline which ends in May 2019 came after the nod was given by the concerned committee and the approval of the Minister of Health whereby the pharmacies are urged to fully comply with the law.

Law No. 30 of 2016 stipulates that the license to open pharmacies for Kuwaiti pharmacists and private hospitals is subject to a minimum number of 50 beds provided the license is issued in the name of a Kuwaiti pharmacist.

The law also stipulates that the pharmacist should not be employed in the public sector, and that no more than one license be given to the pharmacist or cooperative society.