· August, 2008

Stories about Kuwait from August, 2008

Saudi Arabia: Where are the women sport heroes?

  26 August 2008

Saudi girls deserve sport heroes too, says Jillian, at a post on women in the Olympics at Kabobfest. “Little girls in Saudi Arabia (which I will use as an example from now on, given that Qatar's population equals that of Boston) deserve to have strong heroes too,” she notes.

Kuwait: Why People Neglect Each Other?

  20 August 2008

Fajr Al Layaly from Kuwait wonders why people neglect each other. “It is an amazing thing what neglect does to people..You know when you see those couples or in families you see people being nasty to one another. I always used to wonder why?” she writes.

Saudi Arabia: Slavery in the Gulf

  12 August 2008

Two weeks ago there were strikes and violent demonstrations by Bangladeshi workers in Kuwait, protesting low pay and poor working conditions. Following the demonstrations, more than two hundred workers were deported. In this post, two Saudi bloggers tell us what they think of modern-day ‘slavery’ in Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf.

Kuwait: Release Hussein Al Fudalah Now

  10 August 2008

On July 7, Kuwaiti Hussein Al Fudalah left his home to go fishing and was never seen again. A few days later his family got the news that he was detained in neighbouring Iran. And while Kuwait's newspapers are turning a blind eye to Hussein's plight, one Kuwaiti blogger thinks that enough is enough and is running an online campaign to draw more attention to the captured fisherman.

MENA: Visas of Fulbright scholars revoked

  9 August 2008

Earlier this week three Palestinians, recipients of prestigious Fulbright scholarships to study in the United States, had their visas revoked by the US, preventing them from taking up the scholarships. A fourth, a high-school student on a separate programme, was also stopped. Yet two and a half months ago, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had personally intervened to make sure that the grant winners would be able to go. Why the last-minute change of heart? Bloggers from around the Middle East have a number of theories.

Arabeyes: Mauritanian President Ousted in Military Coup d'état

  6 August 2008

Army commanders ousted Mauritania's first freely elected president in two decades, President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, in a military coup d'état Wednesday after political feuding over the firing of the country's four top generals. Jillian York sums up the reactions of bloggers in neighbouring Arab countries.