Forces of Dark Comedy?

Who knew the Forces of Darkness in this country could also be genuinely (unintentionally) funny? Read this interview with Islamist TV scourge Dr. Mohamed Al-Awadi and share his views on Star Academy and other imported evils from the degenerate West.

For the full audio-visual effect, click on the little speaker icon near the title(Windows Media Player required).

Posting in Arabic

As you can see below, the typeface is awful and the alignment is all wrong. So until I learn how to fix it, I will continue to post in English.

Any tips would be very welcome!

ندوة الصانع

هذه أول تجربة لنشر تعليقاتي باللغة العربية، فرجاءً "طولوا بالكم"..

لم أجد أي تغطية لندوة النائب د. ناصر الصانع التي أقيمت مساء أمس في صحف اليوم (ولا حتى في جريدة الوطن!) سوى هذا الخبر القصير في القبس. لعل التفاصيل آتية غداً؟

Rally Against Liberties

Far be it for the forces of darkness to let those heathen immoral liberals have the last word, tonight Dr. Nasser Al-Sane' (my MP, I'm embarrassed to add) hosts a seminar to counter last week's liberal slug-fest.

Aside from the usual diatribes against the decline in morals, it should be interesting to hear what editor-in-chief of Al-Watan, Mohammed Abdul-Qader Al-Jassem will have to say in his speech tonight. After all, this is the man who had the guts to tell Sheikh Khaled Al-Mathkoor - a widely respected religious authority - to his face, on live TV, that Kuwait was never a religious country, and that even in the old days there were those who frequented mosques and those who were regulars at the bars and whorehouses that flourished back then, when true Kuwaitis believed in "live and let live".

Everyone knows this to be true, of course.. but it's just never talked about as part of Kuwait's rather colorful "unofficial" history. So you can imagine the sheikh's face going white on live TV!

Secular Illusions

I don't know if I should be consoled that it's not just us here in Kuwait suffocating under "religious correctness".. If the world's sole superpower can't keep it's own Christian fundamentalists in check then there's no hope for anyone who believes that religion and politics make a deadly mix, and should be kept as far apart as possible. This article in Slate addresses the American version of our own dilemma, and a review of the book shown above.

There goes the neighborhood..

This rather disturbing article reminds all Kuwaitis that the euphoria following the end of the war in Iraq and the capture of Saddam Hussein does not mean we will have peace and stability just yet. There is a real danger of all the trouble and violence in Iraq spilling over to Kuwait.

So I propose the following: Tie Kuwait to huge chains linked to massive ships and pull Kuwait away from this rotten neighborhood and settle it somewhere peaceful in the middle of the ocean. We've had nothing but grief from our neighbors and it's time we found new ones ;-)

The Day After Tomorrow - WORLD PREMIERE!!

How cool is it that environmental disaster flick The Day After Tomorrow opens here in Kuwait on Wednesday May 26 , before the rest of the world?!

Are we going to be a major movie market soon, with Hollywood stars flying into Kuwait for a red carpet premiere? Not if "El Gringo Tabtabaeio" has anything to say about it. And besides, a movie premiere at a shopping mall multiplex just doesn't quite work ;-P

IT'S THE CONSTITUTION, STUPID!!

I didn't have time to post this yesterday, but Abdul-Latif Al-Duaij kicked some "wimpy liberal" ass in his column, by demanding to know why the speakers at last week's rally at the Graduate Society insisted on explaining to the forces of darkness, and almost pleading with them that they were just as conservative and traditional as anyone, and that the thousands who attended the recent Star Academy show were all good people out to have a simple innocent night out.

Al-Duaij says that our liberals just don't get it... IT'S NOBODY'S BUSINESS IF YOU WANT TO GO TO A CONCERT!! The right to free expression and enjoyment of the arts is guaranteed and protected by Kuwait's constitution.

That's how the liberals should respond to the Islamist assault on personal liberties... by telling them to take their stupid laws and shove them where the sun don't shine!

Say Goodbye to your Liberties!

Ali Al-Baghli in today's Al-Qabas takes the government to task for passing outrageously offensive assaults on our personal liberties in the form of ridiculous laws that will be with us forever, all in the name of protecting some of its ministers who aren't going to be around for long. When the ministers' terms are up or if they pass away, these laws that were passed to protect them will still be in effect.

Does anyone care? Probably not... I swear it's like talking to a brick wall sometimes!

Tabtabaei's Latest Salvo

THE MAN IS A DELUDED IDIOT!! And what the hell was he doing in Cancun anyway? Read his latest outrage!

Great Weekend

Wasn't it just perfect this last weekend? Calm seas, cool breeze at night... If Kuwait maintained this temperature all summer, it would be heaven!

Mobile Blogging

So that's what Moblogging means. Silly me. Click on the link at the bottom of my Cool Blogs list Moblogging from Kuwait for an example.

By the way, it isn't my site but will someone please tell its owner that his fascination with junk food is very disturbing. I recommend reading "Fast Food Nation" and I swear you'll never set foot in a fast food joint again!

Must read..

While I'm still trying to figure out how to post in Arabic and get all the paragraphs properly aligned to the right, please read this article (in Arabic) from Dr. Ahmed Al-Rubei, who gave a fiery speech last night at the rally.

It's more or less the same points he spoke about last night.

More on the Rally..

Now that I've slept on the issue and had time to replay the newsreel in my head overnight, here are a few more observations from last night's rally:

1. Every one of the speakers mentioned the segregation of Kuwait University as a landmark in the path to inevitable destruction that the Islamists are leading this country. To them I say: Where the $%&@ were you when that law was passed?! How could you possibly roll over and let them walk all over you?! And where the hell were the students themselves? Shouldn't they have been demonstrating against this grave assault on their livelihoods?! I keep having romantic visions of the student revolts of Paris 1968, and wishing something like that could happen here... sigh.

2. I'm a huge fan of the writer and poet Dr. Khalifa Al-Wegayan, and the poem that he wrote in 1984 and read out to us was so prescient of today's crisis situation. The second poem that he read should be scanned, photocopied, faxed, emailed and slipped under the doors of every Islamist around the world!

3. Many of the speakers very rightly criticized the supposedly liberal MPs - THAT'S YOU IN THE FRONT ROW, MOHAMMED AL-SAGER!! - for their inexcusable silence and lack of any counter intitiative against the relentless assaults on personal liberties.

4. All the speakers insisted that this wasn't just about the right to attend musical concerts (to all you readers outside Kuwait, I'm embarrassed just typing this!), and yet you can't help think that this was the straw that broke the camel's back.

5. As a founding - and sadly inactive - member of the National Democratic Movement, I pledge now in front of God and all of you to take a more active role in future.

6. Where the hell was MadM2000? Did anyone see him? I'm waiting for his take on the rally

The Rally for Freedom

Well it was more of a collection of speeches and a call to arms at the Graduate Society. It got off to a creaky start with the barely audible society's president, followed by a rousing and funny speech by Khaled Al-Mutairi, president of the National Democratic Alliance - of which I'm a proud charter member - followed by several speakers, some emotional and powerful, others less so.

The issue at stake is the relentless assault on our personal liberties by the fundamentalist Islamist nutjobs in collusion with our cowardly government that's been appeasing them for decades. And yet, I couldn't help wishing it was held in some other venue. One the main problems plaguing Kuwait's progressive liberals - and one they're not willing to confront - is that the great masses of the general public still view them as an elitist crowd that does not speak for them. This huge untapped silent majority may not like what the Islamists are doing to this country but they also don't feel that the Kuwaiti liberals speak for them either.

Today's rally was, in effect, "preaching to the converted" and was very cathartic for all of us. But what happens next? The Islamists are so organized, and they use fear tactics to gain followers (support us or burn in hell!), I fear people like me just don't stand a chance. But I refuse to give up. This is a fight worth fighting and I plan to make life hell for as many of them as I possibly can.

By the way, I didn't see MadM2000 there, mainly because I still don't know what he looks like

Kuwaiti women get their full political rights!

Yeah yeah.. whatever.. I can't believe anyone would be stupid enough to fall for that government scam!

Kuwait's shameful exclusion of women from the political process has been an international embarrassment for so long, that it's almost ceased to matter. And yet our esteemed government suddenly saw fit to revive the issue even though it has no serious intention to support it.

And what a coincidence that it put forward this controversial issue right at the time when conscious free-thinking Kuwaitis are starting to agitate against the increasing influence of the predatory Islamist lunatics, the govermnent's pets. It's so obvious even to the casual observer that there's a nasty "quid pro quo" going here, where Islamists agree to drop their questioning of the Minister of Information in exchange for accepting women's political rights. Right.. OVER THEIR DEAD BODIES!

And for anyone living in a cave for the past few weeks (and those of you who live outside Kuwait), what do you think the Minister of Dis-Information is being questioned for? Why, the Star Academy concert of course!

This is too much embarrassment for one day.. I have to go lie down.

SEE YOU AT THE RALLY AT 7 PM

New Look

How do you like the new look? Nice, no? One of the reasons I've been so slow in updating the blog is that many of the features (behind the scenes!) were a pain in the ass to manage. Now Blogger have completely updated their management tools and its now so much easier - and faster - to post stuff.

So no more excuses from now on, I promise!

The Genius of MadM2000

By now most of you are familiar with underground cartoonist MadM2000 and his outrageous, totally subversive work. I first became familiar with him through his parodies of Kuwait's popular hangouts Nino and TGIF, he then moved on to skewering Villa Moda and its customers and after that nobody was safe from his scathing cartoons and caricatures. As his cartoons become increasingly political, he has taken on a voice of hysterically funny indignation at some of the more absurd events on the Kuwaiti political landscape, especially the weekly outrages imposed on us by fundamentalist Islamist lunatics/criminals.

But all throughout his career, his identity has been known only to his immediate circle. Maybe I'm a bit behind but I still don't know who he is, and I don't really care as long as he keeps us laughing.

I've recently joined his mailing list, and now I regularly receive his hysterical cartoons as soon as he puts them out, including this one here. I urge you all to do the same by signing up to any of the following groups:

http://groups.msn.com/madm2000
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/madm2000

He says he'll be at the rally tomorrow at 6 pm. I hope I can spot him because I want to collaborate with him on a project.. a guidebook for anyone wanting to start a small business in Kuwait. I have just TODAY obtained a commercial license that I applied for in August 2003, after suffering untold humiliations and outrageous demands by government bureacrats. I've decided to catalogue these abuses in an illustrated guidebook and I think MadM2000 is the best man for the job.

What do you think? Post your comments below.

Film deal for 'Baghdad Blogger'

Congratulations are in order for Salam Pax, also known as the Baghdad Blogger who just signed a film deal based on his online diary. "He's like a Nick Hornby in the middle of a war," Scott Kroopf, chairman of the Intermedia's film division, told film industry website ScreenDaily.com.

As a huge Nick Hornby fan myself, I can say that this is indeed a great compliment, and the movie itself could be quite entertaining.

THIS TIME IT'S WAR!

And no I'm not talking about the situation in Iraq, but our own cultural war with the forces of darkness, the evil fundamemtalist lunatics who have hijacked Islam and distorted it beyond recognition to serve their own corrupt agenda, and held Kuwait hostage for the past 30 years while our esteemed leaders looked on approvingly.

"What the hell were they thinking?!" I hear you cry.. As far as our leaders were concerned, any liberal progressive movement was regarded a threat to their existence and so support was directed to the Islamist movements who have, in turn, slowly suffocated this country and are directly responsible for the state of decline that we're in now. Little did our short-sighted leaders realize that all the liberal progressives ever wanted was to adhere to Kuwait's constitution. Apparently, our leaders have always felt that the constitution was a thorn in their side and wished it never existed - as evidenced by the continuous assaults on the constitution both by the leaders and from their Islamist allies.

Well our leaders seem to have finally woken up - way too late if you ask me - to the fact that it is precisely their Islamist friends that want to overthrow them and assume the rulership of Kuwait. It is the Islamists that pose the greater threat to their existence, more than the liberals ever did.

There will be a rally at the Graduates Society on Tuesday May 18 at 7 pm to demonstrate against the latest assaults on our freedoms from the Islamists who now want to regulate all musical events in Kuwait with a long list of demands too ridiculous to mention here, but can be found in most Kuwaiti papers.

It's kind of sad that it took something as trivial as music concerts to finally wake everyone up to the homegrown menace that has been eating away at the constitution and at our civil liberties for years. Where was this outrage when Kuwait University was ordered to segregate its classes for boys and girls?

Still, better late than never I suppose... I urge you all to attend this rally and put your feet down and make your voice heard in defense of Kuwait!