‘Dems need miracle to succeed’

Capitalists firm against ‘socialist’ Sanders

“WITH the approaching of the US presidential elections, many names have emerged, particularly from the Democratic Party which is the rival of the Republican Party. However, the incumbent President Donald Trump is expected to contest the elections as the Republican candidate,” columnist and attorney Riyadh AlSanea’a wrote for Annahar daily.

“As a matter of fact, the nomination looks to be tough given the results of the primaries. In this context, we have observed that the most prominent Democratic party candidate appears to be senator Bernie Sanders the first candidate from the Democratic party who tilts towards socialist ideas and in his own way has called on the US workers to unify their ranks and this call shockingly revives the of the ideas of Vladimir Lenin (the leader of the Communist Revolution of the Soviet Union in October 1917).

“Meanwhile, he explained to the Americans that it is unreasonable to leave half the wealth in the hands of a tiny minority which represents only one percent of the American community. He added, the impact of the funds on decision-makers must be stopped.

“Moreover, Sanders opened his website for prospective donors during his campaign and most donors ending up chipping in between 5,000 and 10,000 dollars each.

“However, thousands of the donors are enough to finance his campaign without the need of funds from the corrupt class which protect the donated money in some or the other way at the expense of the people and as such the campaigners for Sanders on Sept 19, 2019 declared that it had shortlisted one million individual donors and hence it was the speediest presidential campaign to collecting millions of dollars in history.

“Through his platform, Sanders promoted the health insurance program and called for free university education. He also called for fighting climatic changes and suggested the Scandinavian constitute an example to be followed by the United States in this connection.

“He also said the redistribution of wealth remains the sole solution calling it unreasonable to see the States spending billions of dollars on wars which are fought in remote areas of our planet and will eventually affect the citizens when it comes to covering health insurance of US citizens.

“Meanwhile, we would like to point out here that the US ballot system is based on two phases, the first is the election of a candidate from the two major parties (the Democratic and the Republican) through primaries which are held in every state which is a process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party’s candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming poll with the goal of narrowing the field of candidates.

“While the second phase of elections is the general election during which the Americans vote for their favored representative and the latter in turn vote in favor of one candidate.

“However, based on this system it will be very difficult for Sanders to promote his ideas, particularly since he supports the right of the workers and minimizes the might of the rich. Moreover, he calls for providing health care and higher education free of charge.

“Anyway, although the above slogans look like resounding, the question here is, will these be applicable in the stronghold of the global capitalism? I think the application of the same, will need a miracle to succeed because the capitalists will never allow these thoughts to seep into the American society, particularly since we know that these capitalists have fought such ideals for years when the Soviet Union, was leading the socialist camp.

“But the important aspect in this connection shows these thoughts have been propounded in a new and genius manner and the next few days will reveal the extent they will succeed or their ability to penetrate the Capitalist fort which is dominated by the Americans for many years.”

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Al-Sanea’a

“We hope the new Iraqi government will hasten to solve the humanitarian issue related to Kuwaitis missing in Iraq,” columnist Mishref Eqab wrote for AlShahed daily.

“In this connection, we refer to what one Iraqi official source once revealed that the remains of Kuwaiti martyrs were located in one of the Iraqi areas, but although many years have passed since the Iraqi invasion of the State of Kuwait, none of the consecutive Iraqi governments have shown any cooperation to solve the issue of Kuwaiti missing martyrs.

“I think the ignorance is illogical and unreasonable when it comes to dealing with the issue of those who sacrificed their lives for the sake of their homeland. In this connection, we want to say many Kuwaiti women and men sacrificed their lives for the sake of their homeland during the Iraqi invasion.

“Although many years have passed since the formation of a committee to name some of the streets and schools after Kuwaiti martyrs and missing, we have seen nothing in this regard. Do the martyrs not deserve the honor more than all of us?

“In other words, the government just talks but does nothing. In other words, we have not heard of any street or school being named after any martyrs, be they men or women.

“Anyway, we shall not forget our Prisoners of War (POWs), and Kuwaitis will not forget the invasion, because it was a treason committed by one neighbor against another.

“Such being the case, we suggest the government must hasten to include the invasion and occupation crimes into the curricula of Kuwaiti schools so that the future generations learn the lesson.

“As a matter of fact, the Kuwaitis still suffer and many still hold the Iraqi people and leadership accountable for the Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait, particularly when it comes to the details and outcomes which claimed the lives of a lot of innocent people.

“But our problem in Kuwait rests in the fact that the government during a previous phase changed the name of the invasion into ‘the Kuwaiti-Iraqi case’.

“Not just that, we found how some educational curricula talk about the Iraqi Saddamist invasion, which has been curtailed as if the year of invasion has been effaced from the history and as such it would like to see us forget the same.

“Take for example Israel which since its establishment in 1948, the first thing which it did was build a ‘monument’ for the alleged holocaust of the Jews in Europe. Not only that, Israel still reminds the entire world on a daily basis of the same although the German-Israeli relations at the moment are deemed as the best of its kind.

“However, history is one of the properties of the peoples and it should not be effaced. In other words, when the German Nazi regime occupied Europe, it did not request the Europeans to forget what occurred during the Nazi invasion.

“The same is applicable to the Eastern Asian states and their problems with Japan since these states did not request their people to forget what Japan did.

“In conclusion, we would like to suggest that the least which our government can do to reward the martyrs - we pray to Almighty Allah to bestow his mercy upon them - is naming the streets and schools in the country after them, because a martyr represents an example and is a top priority for sake of the homeland.

“A martyr fosters the spirit of sacrifice for the sake of the homeland among the youth and a martyr represents a minaret for good, sincerity and sacrifice, particularly since we know that the Kuwaitis represented by all its sects had shown sincerity, cooperation and love for the homeland during the invasion.”

“When Kuwait occupies the last rank in the actual days of learning within the Gulf in a study carried out by the International Monetary Fund, we must reconsider the entire educational system as it is not reasonable to be in this rank after a century of formal education,” Fahad Daud Al-Sabah wrote for Annahar daily.

“After a long experience, Kuwait should have joined the ranks of educationally developed countries, especially since the huge spending on this sector suggests that we are in parallel with the United States, Canada, Britain or Norway in terms of actual days of education. Here, we are not talking about other dilemma in the educational process like the curricula, as the education sector still lives in a real decision crisis in terms of approving the advanced curricula.

“Pupils and students spend 144 days in actual education annually, while the global average rate is 170 days. In basic education when there are many vacations, interruption becomes a reason for ignorance as they are not vacations with actual returns. The alarm ringing in this regard is no longer a luxury or a criticism for the sake of criticism. Rather, it is an attempt to raise the level of education and revitalize it to serve the national interest.

“For years, we have been hearing about changes in educational curricula, but they all go towards backwardness and ignorance. Therefore, when we talk about the need for national competencies at work, we must first look at the reality of the outputs. Are they equivalent to the requirements of the market or are they just numbers added to disguised unemployment through cramming into government jobs, poor productivity, and increasing dependence on expatriates, thus, depleting national wealth in laziness and lack of quality in education outcomes?

“Without a doubt, the fundamental transformations in the Kuwaiti society in the past decades and the conviction which prevailed among a large segment of Kuwaitis is that everything has a price. You do not need fatigue as long as you have someone who believes in what you need with money.

“Everything in Kuwait began to change and the percentage of corruption rose in various fields. Dependence on the other has become a basic feature, which means all improvised remedies for imbalance in the demographics, high crime rate, deficits in the public budget and others, were the sources of laziness in society. The basis of this laziness is backward education in which we are facing a new crisis.

“That is, the leave days are about 200 per year, while in some developed countries, the number of actual education days reaches 220. The outputs occupy the highest ranks globally in terms of quality or market requirements, so those who are accustomed to spending all these days in education will undoubtedly work with the same quality of education they have received.

“Annually, pupils and students in government education lose the equivalent of six lessons per day due to days of interruption. This loss is not compensated, coupled with the deplorable educational situation, absence of effective supervision of teachers and the resort to adopting private lessons. The whole educational sector turns into an economic and civil disaster.

“It is necessary to work towards ending this crime against generations, because it will not achieve the development goals set in the long-term plans of the State. The educational and intellectual foundations are lacking in the implementation of these plans. Therefore, Kuwait’s transformation into a global financial and commercial center becomes out of reach, as well as the attempt to be like some Gulf states which began their renaissance decades after Kuwait, but went ahead of the latter. How can anybody give what he doesn’t have?

“Perhaps, the recent study of the International Monetary Fund is a real chance to stop this phenomenon that is destroying society and making education a source of ignorance.”

“About 120 nationalities live in the State of Kuwait, 27 percent of whom are from Arab countries, 40 percent are Asians and the rest are Europeans, Americans and Africans, while the locals constitute the lowest percentage – only 13 percent,” columnist Mudhaffar Abdullah wrote for Al-Jarida daily.

“In any society and country, expatriates adopt the behavior of locals, as they observe the extent the locals abide by the laws of their country. Through their experience in establishing personal relationships, expatriates could determine which behavior to adopt and which to avoid in their daily interactions.

“Here in Kuwait, and perhaps in most Arab countries, we tend to be surprised whenever an expatriate violates the rules and laws of the country. On the other hand, we tend to overlook or turn a blind eye if similar violations are committed by the locals.

“For instance in terms of traffic violations, we often hear: ‘Even the expatriate is violating the law’, or ‘Can you believe that I saw an expatriate beating the red signal?’ while the same violation is somehow considered normal when a local commits it.

“The disgraceful behaviors of some expatriates in the country come from the womb of our legal, social, administrative and cultural environments. We have heard a lot about forgery and its networks that include expatriates and Kuwaitis. In addition, we are the first ones to violate laws, such as traffic rules, giving the expatriates the audacity to violate rules by driving the same way some of us drive.

“With the prevalence of ‘wasta’ in overlooking violations or cancellation of penalties, the expatriate adopts the behaviors of the locals. Sometimes, we grumble about the prevalence of tampering with medicines in health centers or foodstuff supply in ration centers, but the ones behind such violations are the citizens.

“I do not want my message to be understood as if am exonerating any expatriate who violates the law of this land. My objective is to prove that the behavior of those who come to a country is influenced by the characters of its people.

“This could also be confirmed by how we carry ourselves when we are in other countries because we know that ‘wasta’ in such countries does not exist for violators. Therefore, the expatriate who crosses the red traffic light would have witnessed a reckless citizen doing so without fear of the law.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb