‘Iran fails to review follies’
‘Iraqis up in arms against Tehran regime’
“IT SEEMS that the Iranian regime does not want to benefit from its experiences and to review its mistakes,” columnist Dr Abdulmohsen Hamada wrote for Al-Qabas daily.
“Rather this regime always believes that those who oppose it are wrong and even goes to the extent of describing them as the opponents of the regime and agents of America and Israel. Not just that, this regime considers itself and the militias which it has created as infallible and are not involved in any wrong-doing and promises divine victory will be theirs without any doubt. This wrong perception will lead them to make more mistakes until they meet their inevitable fate.
“Certainly, the revolution of the people of Basra was, in its larger and clearer sense, a fight against foreign influence, including Iran. Even if it carries with it signs that its causes are protests against the low level of public services and the high level of unemployment.
“Undoubtedly, the decline in public services and the high level of unemployment are mainly due to the low performance of the government and administration that ruled the country after the fall of Saddam’s regime.
“Iraq was ruled over the past 15 years by governments loyal to Iran. Iraq’s income during that period from only oil was estimated at two billion dollars. Where did these funds go, why did not they spend for the benefit of Iraq and the Iraqis?
“Iraq, after overthrowing Saddam’s oppressive regime, has not been able to turn into a stable country whose citizens enjoy huge wealth, as in the neighboring oil-rich Gulf states. Especially that the Iraqi people may have the advantage of neighboring Gulf states that it has a high level of competence and experience.
“Many of them have studied and worked in Europe and the United States. With their expertise and skills, they could have rebuilt their state on very fine bases and steps, but Ira- qis quickly discovered that the post-Saddam era was much worse than Saddam’s simply because the new phase that followed the downfall of the despot was marked with violence, terrorism, the sectarian civil war and the financial and administrative corruption.
“In other words, instead of employing Iraq’s money to serve the state and the citizen, most of them went to the pockets of corrupt people who spared no efforts to loot this money and transfer the funds out of the country and transfer the funds abroad for the purpose of money-laundering.
“As a matter of fact, all apparent types of violence, terrorism, the sectarian wars and corruption witnessed by Iraq during the era in question, happened under the auspices and support of foreign parties.
“In this context, we say it is the Iranian regime which was ruling Iraq during this period, particularly since we know that America offered Baghdad to Tehran on a silver platter and as such the destiny of Iraq during this period was in the hands of sectarian militias and religious parties which are loyal to Iran most of them without any experience or efficiency to manage a country like Iraq which had just come out of wars and was suffering from political chaos and was knee-deep in economic and social problems.
“That being the fact of the case, it is Iraq which was on the verge of being transformed into a failed state suffering from rampant corruption, poor public services and spread of unemployment.
“Consequently, the Iraqis revolted against the Iranian influence and the militias and the parties which are loyal to foreign influence. Given the above, and as a symbol of this the crowd set fire to the Iranian consulate and the headquarters of the pro-Tehran parties.
“In spite of the above, the Iranian media are trying, superficially and naively, to convince the masses that those who burned their consulate in Basra are agents of American intelligence, ignoring the fact that the Iraqis still harbor grudge against the Iranian regime.”
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“Yemen still suffers and the Houthis are still involved in destroying and shelling the country and spilling the blood of innocent people in a country which was once called the oasis of Arabism, poetry and art,” columnist and attorney Riyadh Al-Sane’a wrote for Annahar daily.
“Everybody knows that the problems of the Yemenis prior to the fabricated Houthi crisis, during which this country suffered from a crisis which lasted longer until it spread poverty got bogged down in struggles due to bad rule, the absence of the law and violations of the human rights.
“In this context, we say in the wake of the popular intifadas (uprisings) which covered the Arab world, the Yemenis in turn protested against the regime of the then president Ali Abdullah Saleh who was reluctant to give up his chair and was subsequently killed on Dec 4, 2017.
“But the situation did not stabilize during the reign of the new president there were street protests and the protestors got all support from Iran.
“In other words, at the time when the Yemeni popular revolt managed to achieve its demands, the Yemeni street got bogged down in sectarian protests and the latter exploited its coalition with the deposed president (Ali Abdullah Saleh) as well as a group of tribes whose men were loyal to him in addition to the bases of his party for agitate a war which till date continues to rage.
“It is needless to say this war has achieved nothing except for the creation of a state of turmoil in addition to curbing of the role of the state and its institutions. In other words, the war in Yemen is full of usual fluctuations of coalitions and this shall make the prediction towards what will happen in this country in future very difficult.
“As a matter of fact, Yemen is divided between the areas which are currently subjected to the control of government troops and those who are subjected to other armed factions. This division is governed by tribal and religious bonds, but the latter don’t necessarily keep in line with the frontlines and this shall make the points of interests too complicated.
“In other words, as long as there is a will to still remain close to the international powers which are involved national and local affairs, it will be extremely difficult to harvest a good outcome and this is applicable to the agreements that might be dictated by certain circumstances as well as those which may be concluded on a daily basis.”
“Unfortunately, some decision makers think that health is the responsibility of the Ministry of Health alone. This vision is narrow and does not conform to the universally recognized definition of health since the establishment of the World Health Organization in 1948. It states that health does not only mean free of diseases and disabilities, it also means hospitals, clinics, medicines and medical devices are part of health,” columnist Hind Al-Shoumar wrote for Al-Anba daily.
“Health care must go beyond that because most health problems are due factors unrelated to doctors and not the focus of attention such as air pollution, climate change, violence, stress, traffic congestion, accidents, injuries and fractures.
“Many diseases and health problems are due to lack of policies on health or nutrition, failure to keep pace with health policies in the world and global developments such as world trends and the practice of some developed countries which adopted effective policies to stop fat-hydrogenated industrial production known as converted fat because they lead to heart disease.
“Previously, Kuwait had the Health Supreme Council which laid down policies. The council was not only interested in hospitals, medicines, equipment and treatment abroad as the practice nowadays. The World Health Organization launched the Health Integrity Initiative in all policies because health responsibility is greater than the capacity and potential of any ministry of health. I think we are witnessing the rising rate of risk factors leading to heart and chronic diseases due to issues beyond the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health.
“Therefore, we need the Supreme Council of Health chaired by His Highness the Prime Minister and consisting of ministers related to health like the ministers of education, planning, social affairs and labor, as well as members of relevant civil society and public benefit organizations. The council should be independent and it should monitor the implementation of the ‘health for all’ policy.”
“The Interior Ministry has announced that the assistant undersecretary for Borders Security Affairs issued a directive to closely monitor Kuwaiti islands and beaches in a bid to prevent untoward incidents,” columnist Waleed Abdullah Al-Ghanim wrote for Al-Jarida daily.
“We would like to thank the Interior Ministry for the action taken in this regard. We do not know what role the Borders Security Department has played over the past years. We do not know if this department needs instructions to carry out its tasks according to the State’s laws.
“Kuwaiti islands are the favorite destinations of youths and families to spend their leisure time any day throughout the year, yet some visitors exhibit unpleasant behaviors as they do not care about the legal, lawful or even ethical aspects. This is the reality known by anyone who visits the islands. Sometimes, we witness some visitors engaging in repulsive acts that are unlawful.
“Unfortunately, the concerned bodies do not monitor these places to ensure strict application of laws in order to protect the people from those exhibiting abhorrent behaviors.
“Therefore, I want to propose that the Interior Ministry should coordinate with the Environment Public Authority (EPA) and volunteers to implement protection and welfare programs, as well as monitor Kuwaiti islands and beaches.”
“Patience and self-control are the traits of a highly moral person. However, these traits are absent in some, but they must be revived again in the soul. Tolerance and forgiveness are qualities of a good person, and are attributes of the people of Paradise,”
Abdulrahman Al-Awwad wrote for Al-Sabah daily. “Allah says, ‘Those who spend [in the cause of Allah] during ease and hardship and who restrain anger and who forgive people – Allah loves the doers of good.’
“Self-control is a voluntary control of emotions in the face of abuse from others with the aim of pleasing God. It is not weakness as some people think, but is most powerful as also stated by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).”
“The Minister of Education is responsible for not less than a quarter of the population. This responsibility extends to moral aspects in the sense that the minister is responsible for every letter printed and reaches the teacher or the student,” columnist
Mubarak Mazeed Al-Maosharji wrote for Al-Rai daily.
“The Education Ministry’s docket has been held by 21 ministers since independence – two are women and 15 have doctorate certificates. The first Education Minister was the late Sheikh Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, followed by the late Khaled AlMasoud and then Saleh Abdul-Malik Saleh. During their tenure, education made significant development strides.
“Al-Masoud and Saleh gradually rose through the ranks in the ministry. It is thought that whenever a minister comes from the education quarters, the educational process experiences less hiccups and shortcomings. This is because such officials possess vast experience in the educational sector, which means the rate of success increases.
“The responsibility of the education minister extends to answering to the political leadership, MPs and the entire society for any mistake committed. Therefore, I wish an advisory council is formed consisting of veteran teachers and those who have worked in the educational sector for an extensive period. This council should come from within the sector and its duty is to give advice to the minister and undersecretaries.”