‘Kuwait cares for citizens, expats’

‘Fight against corona well-handled’

“AT THE moment humanity is in the midst of an unprecedented ordeal,” columnist and Editor-in- Chief of

wrote for the daily. “As a matter of fact, it had never occurred to anyone throughout history that humanity will one day without exception would be ‘invaded’ by a virus like corona which has caused death, devastation and destruction.

“However, to deal with this ordeal various nations adopted different methods to fight this virus and its repercussions to minimize its impact and damage.

“The government of Kuwait since the beginning of the outbreak of this fatal virus has taken all precautions to protect its people and the expatriates residing on this land in line with the sublime instructions given by His Highness the Amir to work seriously to encounter this virus who has issued orders to recruit all the country’s potentials and resources to protect the health and the life of citizens and every resident living in the State of Kuwait.

“Based on these sublime instructions, we have seen how the Council of Ministers takes all the necessary precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus and provide all requirements to the citizens and the residents in addition to increasing the assurance among them.

“In this connection, we refer to what has been said by the World Health Organization (WHO) emphasizing that the State of Kuwait is at the top of the states in terms of taking distinguished pre-emptive measures to encounter the virus which deserves appreciation at all levels. These measures have played a significant role in controlling the virus and significantly slow down the infection rates compared to other states of the world.

“In this context Kuwait is known as a state that is open to all countries of the world, this is evident through the number departures and arrivals, this is in addition to the country hosting millions of expatriates of 140 nationalities, but the corona virus cases are still under control to such an extent no death has yet been recorded by virtue of Almighty God.

“It is observed that Kuwait has preceded most states in the region in controlling the spread of the virus and was the first state to close its land, marine and air borders to protect the country from the coronavirus.

“Not only that, after just a few days Kuwait completely closed its airspace for passenger travel but kept it open to receive food, medicines and medical supplies. Kuwait also shut down its cinema halls, theatres, wedding halls and cafés in addition to other gathering places.

“Apart from the above, the Kuwaiti preachers proved they are at the top, instilling awareness in terms of dealing with the sound jurisprudence in addition to their realization to the reality which currently prevails in the country and hastened to issue fatwa (edict) allowing the closure of mosques in addition to suspending Friday prayers and congregations.

“Furthermore, the government issued ‘stay home’ orders for public and private sector employees and imposed a partial curfew to prevent the spread of the virus.

“For the time being we are looking forward to see awareness from the public – citizens and expatriates – rising to the challenge level because all measures will not succeed if there is no significant awareness to deal with the events for the unique efforts exerted by the state to succeed and contain the virus.

“In this context, we say Kuwait, had managed the crisis by the virtue of the unity of its citizens and their adamant will and awareness and the wisdom of its leaders the heathenish invasion of the country and liberated its pure lands, by the virtue of Almighty God we will also overcome the ordeal of this epidemic which currently threatens the entire humanity and give another lesson of a great people and wise and brave leadership.

“In conclusion, we pray to Almighty God to protect the State of Kuwait, the leadership and people from all devilish actions.”

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Dr Al-Hudaiban

“The topic of menial manpower and visa traders actually dominated much part of the Cabinet session and this was evident through the decision which gave the minister of interior the power to form a work team to provide all details and information in addition giving him all assistance to take legal actions that shall guarantee to punish those for bringing in the country menial workers and leaving them astray in addition to fighting visa traders and taking necessary action and preventive measures required for preventing the violations,” columnist wrote for daily.

“There is no doubt that this issue is not a matter of the hour and ‘purely’ the calls of many of the people of this dear homeland to put an end to the bad exploitation of commercial, industrial and agricultural licenses, and of all other types, which have been used to bring labor in exchange for large sums of money paid by the expatriate, and this is what we saw from the meetings held with many expats.

“So we conclude that the issue is specific and linked to the Kuwaiti sponsor, who is the first and last person responsible for the problems faced by the expatriate workers. It is no secret from this that the esteemed Cabinet members know about the lax sponsorship system of the government agencies which is the reason for the exacerbation number of the menial manpower in the country.

“To demonstrate this, we take a quick look at the farms and estimate the need for large numbers of unproductive farms as well as handling institutions, and this is evident from the large numbers of workers in each cooperative society, as well as cleaning companies in government institutions that exploit the workers and eventually get him bear more responsibility than his potential.

“A few days ago, I read the novel “The Plague” authored by the great existential French philosopher and writer Albert Camus, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957,”

wrote for daily. “The wonder of this man’s depth and creativity is not only in depicting suffering, but also in his holistic view of the dimensions of the epidemic and its relationship to the individualism that dominated Western civilization, as well as his assertion that the survival of humanity lies in communication and social solidarity, not in selfishness and greed.

“Camus talks in the novel about the Algerian city of Oran, which is a symbol of European cities, as will be seen from the course of the novel. “There is an easy way to get to know a city, which is to know how its inhabitants work, how they love and how they die,” he says.

“He then describes Oran - which inevitably means all the western cities - that her people work a lot for the sake of wealth, and direct their care to pleasures. Here, he criticizes individualism in this civilization, which is based on greed, selfishness and indifference to others, then the danger of all this appears after the city is afflicted by plague, and how strange the novel appears in its events as if it talks about our situation today with the spread of the Corona epidemic!

“Camus recounts how the authority initially acted carelessly from the appearance of a rat here and the death of a number of rats there, and then continues to criticize individualism through characters of the doctor “Bernard Rio” and the stranger “Jean Taro”, who made great efforts to urge people to volunteer to protect the city from the killer epidemic .. However, the plague had spread and began to claim lives indiscriminately, children and elderly, men and women, until men perished like flies and corpses were thrown into crematoria in piles!

“Albert Camus in the novel “The Plague” raises many important issues, including the possibility of visualizing suffering as a common human experience rather than a private individual burden. This is what we observe today with the new Corona epidemic where suffering has become general and common, and terror has become global and one, so everyone feels today that his life is in danger and the lives of others are equally in danger. One of us goes out to buy a bag of bread and he does not know whether he will return to carry the virus and death or not!

“Camus also discusses an important ethical issue of human responsibility for the rest of humanity and the strange interdependence between individual happiness and moral commitment to others. Camus illustrates how those who contribute to alleviating suffering from others are the most happy and comfortable people, while the bad guys are selfish people who do not look at a pandemic as a common risk.

“One of the deep ideas that Camus puts forward in the “plague” is an idea related to the social system and how disasters make it turned upside down, so thinking and focusing on the current moment becomes (only here and now), as the fact that death attends and approaches it on a large scale forces us to focus each one’s attention from us on the requirements of his daily life and survival, which becomes the most important goal. Here the splendor and depth of Albert Camus is evident when he links all of this to the value and importance of social solidarity. Surviving depends on cooperation, joint action and assistance to each other.

“Perhaps, we do not need special intelligence to realize that panic or breakdown of today’s advanced and rich countries is as a result of “individualism” rather than steadfastness of small countries and the modest capability of social solidarity”.

“What is known as the “jihad” of terrorists has become a goal in life. Anyone who disturbs his mind will resort to raising his law as an individual under the cover of the Islamic religion and jihad, which confirms the world is not safe from those who kill in the name of religion, even if it calms down from time to time, terrorism and fear among people is a goal for those who have no goal in life!”

wrote for daily. “There are many events in the world that confirm that the scene or mindsets of many individuals of different nationalities are not without extremism, as they embrace the method of killing and terror to cause panic not in public places but also in prisons! The incident, whose details were revealed in the British tabloid, The Times, about a criminal convicted of murder and living behind bars in a prison in South London, reaffirms an incubating environment for terrorism. The criminal has turned into a “jihadist” against the prison guard teams.

“After the incident of attempting to attack and kill the jailer, it became clear that there is also a group of criminals and terrorists who live behind bars with the aim of “imposing their law” .. They bear the title of “prison leaders” and focus on attracting other prisoners to the “law of terrorism” to the point of forming a court for them inside the prison to punish those who disobey orders or the instructions of prison leaders and refuse to obey directives, so they face intimidation!

“Despite the tight security in western prisons and monitoring of the behavior of prisoners, new forms of terrorism have emerged behind bars among the prisoners and a similar phenomena may emerge from the security and prison teams in the prison against each other or against prisoners of other religions under the pretext of “Islamic Jihadist” .

“Therefore, some countries have resorted to the same method used by Australia to place those convicted of terrorism and those who claim “jihad” in detention even after the prison sentence has expired, as long as the competent authorities are convinced that those who are released still pose a threat to the security of the state, which is the best procedure in addressing terrorism, extremist ideology, and hyperbole.

“Unlike some Arab countries, notably Kuwait, some officials in the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs have stimulated the assertion that “the local scene is free of terrorism and exaggeration, and there are no indications of that due to “the absence of reports from families about the deviant behavior of family members. What communication can come from a family of one or more extremists who are mainly religious and embrace excesses in their minds?

“There is no doubt that negligence in declaring this method pushes the terrorist cells to prepare for an attack different from previous ones, while carrying new tools and methods to shed the blood of innocent people, in addition to spreading extremism and hard thinking in society- especially among young age groups. They constitute a fertile ground for spreading the cancer of religious militancy and intellectual extremism.

“It is necessary to understand the transformation of religious extremism from an exceptional temporary stage into a sophisticated non-temporary state, methodically and intellectually. The “jihadist” goal and the proliferation of jihadists in countries of the world have exceeded behind bars”.

“It seems the coronavirus situation will continue for a while, and the restrictions, quarantine and curfew will be extended for longer than we expect”,

wrote for daily. “After the initial anticipation of observing Ramadan under our natural conditions and performing the Taraweeh prayers in our mosques, there are indications that the coronavirus will continue to be our guest until the end of summer, and the attendant economic effects will remain until the end of the year!

“Therefore, it is necessary to think differently about how to bring back our children from their educational institutions in the USA, Britain, Ireland, Egypt and others before the summer, especially since these countries have exceeded the general situation, and the local authorities there are no longer able to control the reins. We have seen how sick people are lying on the floor, and how people are falling in the streets. All this is happening in advanced countries with excellent health services and latest technology sciences!

“Whenever we talk about this issue, the local authorities tell us the services available in Kuwait are not able to accommodate the total number of overseas students. However, they know that those countries cannot accommodate the students if anything untoward happens to any of them, God forbid!

“Recently, I met with an influential economic expert who told me that he had visited one of the big hotels in Kuwait and found it almost empty. He visited a large private hospital and also found it in the same condition. He called a public transportation company that owns hundreds of buses but they are not working. He then said, “In Bahrain, there are 1,400 Kuwaiti students who came from Britain. Why do they keep them in Bahrain? Bring them in the buses, which will take only five hours, put them in my hotel, and treat the patients among them in the hospital! It is less costly than staying in Bahraini hotels and hospitals!

“I replied to him that the student homes are safer for them than their apartment complexes and the apartments in other countries! And their families will monitor their health by themselves! Those who are suspected to have coronavirus should be hospitalized, and the rest go to their homes! Return the people of Kuwait, because the situation in the countries where they are present is terrifying, and every day the situation is getting more dangerous.

“So far, after weeks of the pandemic, the students have not complained of any of the symptoms of the disease, thanks to God. So return them today before it is too late!”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb