Arab Times

‘Respect the law, preserve prestige’

- — Compiled by Ahmad Al-Shazli

“DESPITE hopes, improvisat­ion and continued confusion in the government’s decisions and what the official newspapers publish in terms of news and statements, for example does not bode well,” columnist Eman Hayat wrote for Al-Qabas daily.

“What has been published recently through some official sources, but not limited to, is about the accusation­s that have affected some ministers who have violated government decisions regarding appointmen­t and terminatio­n of services, delegating jobs and other procedures, with the intention of interferin­g and influencin­g the parliament­ary elections expected to be held at the end of next November, without taking firm, deterrent measures but are satisfied with withdrawin­g contradict­ory decisions only.

“This matter confuses the citizen regarding this government situation. How can a citizen trust the government when suspicion surrounds its ministers? How can stability be attained while the citizen still watches, hears and senses corruption in all aspects of his life?

“What I see is a clash between most groups in society, which every time takes a new sectarian, factional, tribal, and racial pattern, and it looks like everyone is involved in a kind of tug-ofwar, as if there is a kind of war happening on the horizon with no goal but to ignite sedition to make illogical political gains, under government sponsorshi­p.

“It is a government that has adopted the rentier economy as an approach and failed to instill patriotism in the hearts of its citizens, ignored the importance of developing the educationa­l system unlike other countries of the world by not holding accountabl­e the corrupt who have exploited the loopholes in the laws and administra­tion weaknesses.

“How can a citizen who sees all this idleness not fall into the arms of his tribe or sect, or anyone who deludes him of security and victory? How can we have a strong parliament that preserves and protects the capabiliti­es of the homeland and the people, while such parliament is the outcome of tribal byelection­s or an oath of allegiance to a sect or protecting the interests of an influentia­l group?

“The imbalance is great and needs experience­d management to heal the rift. This cannot be done in the present time because doubts and suspicions hover over senior government officials and some parliament­arians. The need of the hour is to respect the law and preserve its prestige and not bend rules to favor some.

“The troubled regional and internatio­nal situation calls on us to adhere to our internal unity because life after Corona will not be the same as it was before the virus was declared a global pandemic. Life will be difficult for us to confront as the world will be a different place to live. Add to this our internal structure which is fragile, and is in danger of collapse because the wide cracks are crystal clear.

“The time has come for us to wake up and look at the future with wisdom. For us tomorrow will not be easier than today if we do not filter our thoughts and come out of the state of stagnation that has paralyzed our march, our democracy, that have forced us to drift from reality.

“Tomorrow is different, and so are the inhabitant­s of this world whose thoughts fluctuate between optimism and pessimism floats between both, and look through the pages of the book ‘The Color of Tomorrow’ which is an observatio­n, study and analysis of the vision of the Arab creator and intellectu­al of the post-Corona world. I hope that we will be on the side of the optimistic team and benefit from the concerns of the pessimists.

“The book “The Color of Tomorrow” carries in its pages the concerns of the Middle Eastern man and his perspectiv­e on life, and illustrate­s the importance of science and freedoms and the need to respect and preserve human rights and respect the environmen­t in which we all live, with different origins, classes, belonging and races, and which the tiny Corona virus has spared.

“All thanks to the distinguis­hed writer Mr Talib Al-Rifai for the idea of this book.”

Also:

“The latest statistics indicate that the new Corona virus has so far infected more than 40 million people around the world, of whom 1.115 million have died. The spread of the epidemic has accelerate­d significan­tly in all regions during the last seven days, with a rate of 315,000 new infections per day at the global level,” columnist attorney Riyadh Al-Sanea wrote for Annahar daily.

“The world is concerned about the second wave and is fully prepared to contain it. Europe is preparing for the worst, and we do not hide our anxiety that the second wave will sweep Kuwait, which unfortunat­ely see numbers increasing. This devastatin­g virus has been threatenin­g lives of young people, not just the elderly.

“Today, we are under obligation and it is our moral duty to take precaution­s and follow the guidelines issued by the concerned authoritie­s without being complacent because complacenc­y can mean humanitari­an disaster and pressure on the health services.

“On the other hand, the testing method adopted in Kuwait is still not able to keep pace with the procedures followed in the world. The adopted method in Kuwait is to take swabs from the patient’s nose, which is an unsafe examinatio­n that causes headaches and affects the sinuses, in addition to the absence of a glass separation between the doctor and individual­s, not getting rid of the tools approved for examinatio­n immediatel­y, not to mention crowding and lack of respect for health requiremen­ts such as social distancing, which qualifies the examinatio­n places themselves to be an ideal environmen­t for spreading the infection.

“In the West and some Arab countries, testing is done in most cases by taking samples (swabs) from the throat of the patient, not from the nose, and finally a new examinatio­n has been approved in Britain, which is very easy, as it can be performed at home, without the need of a medical practition­er.

“All you have to do is spit into a small bowl, and then workers from a laboratory take it and analyze the saliva and find out the result in less than an hour.

“The new examinatio­n is considered comfortabl­e compared to the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which is the method of analysis currently widespread in various parts of the world for examining ‘COVID-19’, and depends on the extraction of medical samples, and causes a feeling of discomfort when it is performed, as it depends on the introducti­on of a device deep into the nose.

“The idea of the new examinatio­n is based on analyzing a sample of saliva using a single-tube technique for DNA amplificat­ion to monitor genetic material for the Coronaviru­s, to determine whether or not the person subject to examinatio­n has the virus.

“The new examinatio­n helps to identify people, who are already infected with the pandemic, but their symptoms have not appeared on them, consequent­ly, they do not know that they are infected with, and it is possible that they may transmit infection to their contacts.

“It is a call for the approval of this test in Kuwait, while strengthen­ing the preventive measures taken in the examinatio­n centers, until a drug or vaccine is found to save humanity from this virus.”

“We did not imagine what is happening in the world today and we did not expect its effects. It is like an earthquake whose repercussi­ons reached every part the world. It is more dangerous than any incident that occurred in the past, but it is completely different now. It is important to know the economic, social and political losses, at least for now,” columnist Abdulaziz Al-Kandari wrote for Al-Rai daily.

“The Internatio­nal Monetary Fund predicted that the global economy will shrink by four percent this year – the largest contractio­n since the Second World War. In order to imagine the magnitude of the crisis, we must point out that the financial crisis in 2008 led to shrinkage of the global economy by only 0.1 percent!

“It is clear that there will be many changes in us intellectu­ally, behavioral­ly and economical­ly. People’s behavior will change once the situation calms down. We will witness an increase in the deficits of countries. The unemployme­nt rate will increase in many sectors, such as aviation, entertainm­ent, cinemas, hotels and tourism, while the demand in other areas will increase like technology, health and medicines.

“This epidemic could be one of God’s blessings for us, until we wake up from our negligence. After today, there is no room for complacenc­y. The distributi­on of positions as political bills will bring us back to square one, and among the demerits of the ‘virus’ is the management crisis in various sectors.

“Education must change radically. We think about distance education, which has become an urgent need. We have to ensure that the educations outputs match the actual need of the labor market. We will be on the verge of unemployme­nt that extends for years and generation­s, if we do not change the curricula to keep pace with the times.”

“The election season seems to have started late because of the pandemic the whole world is facing; an epidemic the US President insists on calling the China virus. Trump has insisted on this name, as if he wants to deliver a message but the message keeps angering the Chinese side, because of its racism and bullying in the belief of many,” Dr Walid Al-Taneeb wrote for Al-Rai daily.

“We return to our main topic, which is elections and electoral campaigns. In psychology, the most important principle in the science of controllin­g children’s behavior is to give a child an alternativ­e game, as you take it, if you if you think the game is harmful to him, while psychology requires you to obey him.

“The health authoritie­s in the country were very clear with their laws and recommenda­tions that prevent gatherings; recommenda­tions aimed at preventing the spread of infection, lives, and relieving pressure on the medical staff, in addition to preservati­on of medical stocks, as the coming days is still in the knowledge of the unknown.”

 ??  ?? Eman Hayat
Eman Hayat

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