‘Power games in region continue’

‘Iran hotbed of political scenario’

“THE former US president Barack Obama had defined his policy in the Middle East as ‘Leading the Way from Behind’,” columnist and professor at Kuwait University’s Political Science Department Dr Haila Hamad Al-Mekaimi wrote for Annahar daily.

“His successor, the incumbent Donald Trump has defined his policy in the Middle East as ‘Leading the Way from the Front’.

“But anyone who is familiar with these two policies will find the policy of Trump was fruitful in the sense it has given Russians the ‘superiority’. In this context, we elucidate that Obama’s policy in Syria was based on leading from behind had actually opened the door for Russia to impose its domination on Syria.

“While the policy of Trump in the Gulf on leading the way from the front and fighting Iran has actually led to the Russian military presence in Syria.

“As a matter of fact, the former American administration (the administration of Obama) was mostly hesitant in terms of early intervention in the Syrian crisis, particularly when this crisis developed into the use of forbidden weapons against civilians.

“In the wake of this development, the administration of Obama preferred to call on the Russians to ‘rule the roost’ in Syria, while Obama took the backseat and put the (Russian President Vladimir) Putin in the driving seat to lead the Syrian scene under the slogan ‘Leave the steering in our hands enjoy the trip’.

“However, while Obama was in the backseat, he was convinced about the possibility of signing the ‘Iranian Secret Nuclear Deal’, in the belief that by this step he will lead the world to peace.

“Meanwhile, many reports referred that the secret behind Obama’s decision to give room for the Russians to lead the Syrian scene was attributed to the fact that the Russians had detected the US plan to use card of ‘Abu Omar Al-Shishani’ to support the Islamic State or the so-called ‘DAESH’ in Syria, particularly since we know that Al-Shishani was one of those who were wanted by Russia for his significant role during the Georgian war against the Russians.

“But it is needless to say the policies of Obama of leading the way from behind, the creation of DAESH, unilateral nuclear deal with Iran without the participation of the Gulf states, had actually led to many events which resulted in the Democrats getting out of the ‘car’ and let Trump take the driving seat, but it looks like the direction taken by Trump favors the Russians.

“However, although Russia is currently passing through one of its most difficult times because of the nuclear ‘blast’ in the city of Severodvinsk, the blast that comes to the mind of the people of Chernobyl where the people of Chernobyl and neighboring areas suffered because of the danger of radiation.

“For its part, Iran sees the ideal solution lies in the establishment of Russian military bases in the region to avoid any type of wars or the American-Iranian military confrontation. This happened following the US rejection of the nuclear deal with Iran and Washington’s demand to conclude a new deal that shall guarantee that Iran will not possess nuclear weapons and this can be deemed as a defect in the security system of the Gulf region.

“Such being the case, it is Iran which has tried to obtain consent for granting the two ports of Bushehr and Chabahar for use by Russia for its ships, war ships and nuclear submarines.

“Given the above, America is afraid this will contribute to the Russian submarines having access to the Gulf waters.

“As a matter of fact, America is not afraid of Iranian nuclear weapons, it is rather afraid of some other initiatives including those which are likely to be taken by the Gulf states to discuss the possibility of obtaining the nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

“But this shall once again push us forward to confirm the Kuwaiti initiative which wants to declare the Middle East region free from nuclear weapons and establishing a peaceful dialogue among all of the concerned parties without exception in addition to a regional dialogue to protect this part of the world from the madness of the confrontations, weapons hoarding, extremism and terrorism and renew the offer for a roundtable talk involving all parties.”

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Dr Al-Mekaimi

“Today, we will talk about the most dangerous nuclear disasters in the 21st Century which occurred recently in Russia this month (August) in 2019,” columnist Dr Abdurrahman Al-Issa wrote for Al-Anba daily.

“This event, however, is not properly covered by the media and this may be attributed to the fact that the details thereof have been concealed may be because the Middle East is currently witness to a handful of disasters and tragedies which still grip the minds of both the Arab and Western medias.

“The nuclear disaster occurred in the military arena of North Russia near the Arctic Circle at a Russian installation that has been designed for manufacturing both the nuclear missiles and warheads.

“However, according to some press reports, the explosion was caused by a mistake during the manufacturing of one of the Russian ‘Vanguard’ missiles which the Russian President Vladimir Putin had once talked about during a show that was to be inducted into the Russian military arsenal among other things the Supersonic missiles, a horrible nuclear submarine and new type of Cruise missiles with unlimited range.

“Anyway, there are no more details about the disaster in question, because the Russian government refrains from discussing it further, but the government has evicted all Russian citizens from the surrounding areas and suburbs and even some remote areas to protect them from the effects of radiation particularly since we know the radiation can seriously affect the health of the humans.

“In this context, we say this event is bigger than that of Chernobyl and that of ‘Courseck submarine’ and that of the Japanese ‘Fukuyama’.

“As a matter of fact, Russia has yet to mention details about the preventive measures that have been taken – if any – except that the people have been evicted, given the fact this event will have its negative outcomes on our Arab world and this means we must know that some Arab countries still strive to obtain nuclear energy, some from Russians, and as such we expect these countries to have other thoughts post this event in question.”

“With the approach of the beginning of every school year in recent years, the country’s schools in all stages of education in various areas are experiencing major operational crises due to the negligence of the Ministry of Education and the lack of real monitoring or the supervision and maintenance of schools and their equipment and facilities worth billions,” columnist Zayed Al-Zaid wrote for Annahar daily.

“The videos are posted in the social media every year about the neglect surrounding these schools, some of which are even inaccessible to enter or pass through, and often strikes by cleaning workers because of their problems with their companies which have contracts with the ministry add insult to injury and ‘someone’ has to work as cleaners and maintenance workers at the beginning of the school year, which we have seen repeatedly over the past years.

“We fail to track the problems that have occurred during the past years, related to the maintenance of buildings, some of which are likely to ‘collapse’, despite the budget of billions of dinars allocated to the Ministry of Education each year in addition to the problems of air conditioning and water coolers and furniture and the distribution of textbooks due to the shortage.

“However, this year seems to be a different story, according to the statements I have read in some newspapers, which said the senior officials in the Ministry of Education are ready to receive the students after completion of maintenance, air conditioning and furniture, which are the main problems which the schools are plagued with each year.

“The ministry said that it has checked the mechanisms of textbooks distribution and organized this process and has also set up a hotline to receive all complaints by teachers and principals who are helpless because of the previous failure of the Ministry of Education in this file.

“In general, the statements of the leaders of the Ministry of Education and their assurances to the Kuwaiti people seem beautiful and come in the context of avoiding the mistakes of the past, but our experience with the government administration in general and its repeated promises concerning all files are well-known. We can only say time will tell.”

“The government has finally admitted corruption, waste and bureaucracy existing in some state organs and ministries, according to a report published in parts by the local press,” columnist Zayed Al-Zaid wrote for Annahar daily.

“The details of the government report tell about the suffering of state organs – suffering because of bureaucracy and waste of funds and poor financial performance of some government agencies in addition to the existence of significant deficiencies and weaknesses in the area of financial control

“The report issued by the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers to the Ministry of Finance is in recognition of the great role played by the Audit Bureau in detecting corruption and the protection of public money and in addressing corruption and the corrupt people in some government departments especially those who think public money is a kind of booty which must be seized.

“The government recognition of this explicit form represents a dangerous precedent indicating the amount of corruption which has been exposed in some agencies was leaked to the social media and the newspapers and became the talk ‘of the town’ particularly among some officials.

“The government recognition has come to confirm that corruption in Kuwait is not accidental or random, but rather well organized, and committed by thieves who are well experienced in stealing the state coffers are adept at sabotaging government institutions and making citizens lose confidence in them.

“There is no doubt that the Audit Bureau has closed the gap and protected the state institutions and the state itself from the risk of corruption and the corrupt, by issuing periodic reports on corruption in a ministry or an institution or administration to protect the public funds and preserve the nation’s capabilities from being wasted and putting the ball in the government court to take these necessary action based on these repeated reports submitted to it about its departments and institutions.

“The role of the Audit Bureau today is not only to expose the corrupt and to prosecute them but extends to trying to lay the foundations of the management of the country in accordance with the standards of governance and organization of administrative and accounting work in government organs and ministry.”

“Our Islamic world, especially the Arab world, is full of conflicts, killings and bloodshed, while the advanced world is full of developments, researches and scientific discoveries that are beneficial to them in particular, and the entire humanity in general,” columnist Dr Moudhi AlHumoud wrote for Al-Qabas daily.

“Some of these discoveries were presented in a beautiful exhibition at a European country, particularly the great development in the world of robots. I stood stunned in front of this beautiful robot wife doing all the work and speaking tactfully.

“I followed such development in a special report published by BBC on its website specialized in Science. It highlighted the new obsession with this development, its manifestations and people. It compared our Arab youths, the extremism of some and their quest for destruction and murder with the extremism of some young people in the developed world, their quest for virtual worlds and the relationship between the people of this world and humans.

“Akihiko Kondo wakes up every day to the sound of his wife’s voice. The wife (Miku) calls him from across the room in her high-pitched, girlish, sing-song voice. She dances and swirls around, urging him to get out of bed. He holds her soft hand and watches her hologram dancing clad in her beautiful dress with colored hair. He then prepares to have breakfast, talking to her and bidding her farewell as he goes to work.

“Some, like Akihiko, take their obsession to what some may consider an extreme level, turning away from reallife relationships. It appears that their number is increasing.

“A strange world and frightening extremism – both extremes are annoying, the extremism of our youth and their youth, and moderation is the best. A call from the heart and we still ask with sadness: Why an Arab country is slaughtered and dismembered every day, and people lose their lives without a savior? Why does the situation in Yemen worsen every day? Why this conflict between North and South Yemen? It is an absurd war.”

“Every civilized country strives to provide food security for its people, keen to achieve self-sufficiency, and this concern is not only on quantity but also on quality,” columnist Adel Nayef Al-Mezel wrote for Al-Anba daily.

“The civilized countries of the world adopt a package of procedures complete with tests and strict control to ensure that the edible foodstuff reaches its citizens free from all types of microbes so they are examined to make sure that the proportion of radiation is within the limit.

“These countries also exercise strict control on food at all stages of production from the field to the time it goes to the consumer or from the sea to the consumer’s refrigerator.

“But unfortunately we are made to feel the bite we swallow and delay to eat the food you crave because we are filled with the corrupt people in our country everywhere.

“We read the news every day about the seizure of hundreds of tons of rotten food of every type and stores filled with inedible foodstuffs and in so many instances we find the expiry date has been tampered with and this foodstuff we feed our children not knowing what will be the consequences if we continue to eat the expired goods.

“It is no secret to anyone that there is complicity and concealment of this corruption without regard to the diseases it spreads in Kuwait and the high rates of infectious and bacterial diseases due to the rotten food that comes from everywhere.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb