Value of homeland
Many people found it strange that people rejected the idea of inviting Iraqi artistes like Kazim Al-Saher and others to perform in Kuwait, due to their stance towards Kuwait and siding with the tyrant Saddam when he occupied our country and wreaked havoc in our dear homeland. It is possible to understand both positions, as one side says that we should forget and rise above our wounds after 27 years, while others say why should we forget as the wound is still bleeding. Fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters of martyrs who were killed by Saddam and his cronies are still alive and aware of events, so how will they feel when they see the person who supported their enemy, killed their children and displaced them around the world dancing over their wounds onstage.
Each side has his own reasons, and I am not here to support one view over another, but I will try to take a certain stand with the following words: There is nothing more important in life than the human being’s belonging to a country that protects him and safeguards his dignity, treats him if he gets sick and gives him a happy life, provides him with job opportunities, helps him start a family, be productive and finally be buried in this land.
We do not realize the value of health until after we lose it. Similarly, we do not know what a homeland means or its importance until after it is lost, and this is what happened with us when we lost our country. We lost our dignity, security and safety, apart from money, material and psychological losses. This is not unlike the tens of millions of refugees spread over hundreds of camps around the world who know what the loss of country means - that horrible feeling of not existing and being separated from a dear body that used to cradle all in security. So a person becomes within hours like being hung in a room devoid of air, with a feeling of not existing, while at the same time being worried for himself and his children!
My colleague Iqbal Al-Ahmad wrote an article in which she demanded that anyone who loves other countries more than ours and prefers to live somewhere else should leave our country. Some people wrote back saying that they actually do not belong to this country and do not prefer to live in it for one reason or another, but as they told me in their letters, they are unable to do anything, as they do not have money and no country within their reach, and no guarantee that they will succeed or will be happier outside Kuwait in the country of their choice.
My answer was simple - that I, along with a few businessmen, will establish a fund to help them and anyone who wants to leave Kuwait quickly by paying for a one-way air ticket to any place they want to go, and they will be given a sum of money to help them with their new life until they get a job, provided that the country approves and they give up their Kuwaiti nationality! Here, they changed their tone and became hesitant and started creating excuses, as their smartness informed them there is no homeland like Kuwait.