I just recieved an SMS which states that National Industries, Kuwait’s largest portfolio company, have finally announced a net loss of 281.9 million KD for the year ended in 2008.

This loss is more than TWICE their capital! As expected, they shamefully announced that they will not distribute any dividends for this year.

The company’s general assembly will be chaotic to say the least!

May God help the investors

According to a study released by Bayt, Kuwait had the biggest drop in consumer confidence in the MENA region for the month of February. Our Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) dropped by 16.7 points, and the UAE suffered a 15 point drop.

According to Bayt:

“The Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) is a measure of consumer expectations and satisfaction of various elements of the economy including inflation, job opportunities and the cost of living.”

It is not all doom and gloom since almost a third of job-seekers surveyed believe that Kuwait’s economic conditions will improve within a year.

Now let me get this straight: Those surveyed are saying that conditions are currently worsening at a faster rate than anywhere else in the region, yet a third of them say, “It will be over by Christmas! Now where have I heard this before?

According to the study, 18% claim that their personal financial position is better than last year. Is that because of the increase in wages we had? The most logical explanation is that inflated prices called for a wage increase back then but now prices went back down.

I just hope that this optimism is well founded for the sake of everyone, job seekers and employers alike.

Source: Bayt

Thanks Mona!

I remember last summer picking up the newspaper and saw the above picture of the newly elected MPs emblazoned in the front page. The first thought that came to my mind was, “Wow! that is a LOT of bearded MPS!” It was obvious that the Kuwaiti people wanted to have the conservatives/Islamists fully control the parliament.

It was also obvious that Islamists came to the frontlines in the early 80s and have been there ever since. The last election results proved that Kuwaitis entrusted the Islamists with the majority control they craved for so long. With the rise of Islamists we also condemned the the liberals to minority status.

When the Islamists gained the majority in the Parliament we thought that the idealogical power struggles would calm down and MPs would then concentrate on making Kuwait a better place. Sadly, that was not the case. What we saw was that the Islamists suffered from in-fighting within their ranks and ignored the demands of the minority.

Former MP Abdullatif Al Ameery had an infamous quote in the early days of the last parliament when he likened the liberals to ’soldiers of Satan’ That quote really disturbed me because I thought for a second that this quote came from an Afghani militant and not from a Kuwaiti lawmaker. Are liberals really that bad? When liberals influenced decision making in the 1960s and 1970s didn’t it coincide with Kuwait’s glory years?

Islamists got the control they wanted and the end result was the dissolution of the Parliament in record time. In-fighting within the Islamists threatened to create a political fiasco (this fighting continues to this day within the Salafi movement.) Liberals are looking at all of this with passionate optimism, especially when the Kuwaiti public previously trusted the Islamists and are now bitterly disappointed.

Kuwait’s fall from grace suspiciously coincided with the gain of the Kuwaiti Islamist movement and most Kuwaitis today have reached the boiling point and cannot afford to suffer even more. In the eyes of the liberals, this sentiment is their chance to make their voices heard and offer a beacon of hope for the future of Kuwait.

I hope now is the time for liberals to gain the confidence of the public and if successful, do a swift and serious Kuwaiti damage control.

Is the time right for change in Kuwait? Probably… Can there be a better time? Probably not

Can we initiate this change? YES WE CAN!

PS. Apologies and credit go to the family of John Lennon for inspiration of the title

This is actually a double post me and O.K. Posted about the weather at the same time so we decided to make it into one post the picture in the top is mine which is much better than the picture that O.K. posted which is in the bottom. so you decide who’s picture is better

Abdulrahman’s Post

عيسى رمضان: الأمطار ستبدأ بعد العصر وتشتد مساء وتكون رعديه و غزيره وقد تكون خطير وبغزارة أمطار 97 فيرجى أخذ الحيطه والحذر

Rain will start in the evening and there will be extreme shower’s like the shower’s we witnessed in 97 so please take extreme caution

O.K.’s Post

This is a current picture that i just snapped from my office, looks to me that we are going to get some nice rain tonight i really hope this can continue for the whole week…..we need some nice flooding in the desert area to pack that sand down…. yaalaah etzeeda oo ter7am 3abeeda .

Update: The Rain has Started

Update2: There are some hail storm in some part of Kuwait

Recent events have inspired me to write this post….

a wise man once said:

“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”

Now first off I just wish we could start things by agreeing on the right to disagree, and from there I would like to say that it is not wrong to change your opinion or to have different views about a certain issue however one must LISTEN first before jumping into conclusions and when one LISTENS to what the other is saying only then can he/she make a solid and honest judgment, because when someone LISTENS it is not a sign of weakness or fright it in fact is a sign of intelligence and respect, in the end we all must adhere to the fact that conversations and debates are not wars or battles but in fact are just vehicles to get opinions across that can benefit others and whether we accept these opinions and allow them to influence our actions is something completely up to us…even though sometimes it may seem like others are trying to shove their thoughts and words in your head its just because they love you so smile and take it easy…LISTENING is not about shutting up when one speaks LISTENING is about understanding what the others are saying while you are sitting there silently observing

I for one should listen more and accept that unfortunately and how much I hate writing this that waleed sometimes and very rarely does say things that have a little common sense, and I should listen more to abdulmohsen’s long university like lectures about the economy cause at times he seems to know what he’s  talking about, ANO a.k.a “7emo” I think should listen more because for some reason he always thinks that he’s right… MS-Sport should on the contrary do a little less talking and more listening because mashallah he never seems to stop…… but im only saying this because i love you guys :P

Anyway it seems that I have gone off topic, so to wrap up since we are all starting to get parliament election fever I think one should keep the theory of “listening” in mind and understand why one reaches a certain conclusion…. but of course this is just my humble opinion…..

Best Regards,

P.S. :  a shout out to one of our 4thring readers Manaf W. i promised i would put you in somewhere. :)

After the popularity (apparently) of Bo Kharshad, Flash TV decided to add a new member to their cast of comics.

This guy’s program is about telling jokes on air and laughing at his own jokes. He also shows supposedly funny video clips as well. The problem is that most of his clips and jokes are old and lame! We tried watching his program last night but decided to switch channels 10 minutes later. I’m not sure but I think his program shows daily at 9 pm.

I just hope that he is a slow starter and will get better with time because he sure looks like he has potential!

Its raining .. 7imdillah finally and quite heavily mashallah ..

الدعاء عند سماع الرعد

كان عبدالله بن الير رضي الله عنهما إذا سمع الرعد ترك الحديث وقال : “ سبحان الذي يُسبح الرعد بحمده والملائكة من خيفته “. إسناد صحيح

الدعاء عند وبعد نزول المطر
“اللهم صيباً نافعاً ”
” مُطرنا بفضل الله ورحمته ” . متفق عليه

دعاء اذا كثر المطر وخيف منه الضرر
“اللهم حوالينا ولاعلينا ، اللهم على الآكامِ والظرابِ وبُطون الأودية ، ومنابت الشجر “. ( متفق عليه )

Last weekend I got the chance to experience driving a Caterham. Myself and three of my friends went to the Bahrain International Circuit and had an absolute blast!!!! I’ve been meaning to go for a long time and at last I finally got the chance. When we first arrived there we were greeted by the driving track personnel and they gave us a quick brief about the rules & regulations.

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According to Alaan news, former MP Abdullah Al Naibary decided to run for elections in the first constituency. In the past, he used to run from Dhahiya Abdulla Al Salem (represented in the second constituency) and now decided to change venues. His intentions might be tactical in nature but I’m not sure if he can pull it off.

Some questions arise:

Will he be able to compete in a hotly contested constituency?

Is this the time where liberals turn the tide over conservatives?

By June we will have the answer.

All of these lights doing the animations are from Honda Hybrid Insights turning the headlights on and off displaying what looks like a Giant LED display !!!

I was in Living color’s where i saw this beautiful machine he had it parked right in front of living color’s with a for sale sign don’t ask me how much because i didn’t call him. the only problem with this car is that it came with an automatic transmition . this car looks better in real life then in the picture’s the interior is great and much better then the previous version.

I was very excited when I first heard about the movie in Buzberry a few months back. The cast looks great, starring Tom Hanks and Ewan McGregor and is also directed by the brilliant Ron Howard. 

Dan Brown, the writer of the Da Vinci Code, also wrote this book with Tom Hanks back as Robert Langdon in a new adventure.

This movie will be released in the US on May 15th and according to the official website, it will premiere here on May 14th! I agree with FAH when he said that Angels & Demons is better than the Da Vinci Code where I think the storyline is much more action packed.

I really enjoyed the novel and I’m sure the movie will be the same.

Check out the movie’s official website