Expats or Slaves, Oh Government !!

With the passage of years, both the government and ministries whose major concern is
roads and transportation issues have failed in solving the problem of traffic congestions, busy
streets as well as the fragile transportation system in Kuwait. Several scientific as well as
practical recommendations were proposed especially to solve this problem by developing the
road network and establishing a subway grid. However, the government failed to do so. Rather
than finding and applying practical solution to the problem of traffic indigestion, the government
of Kuwait adopts strange, humiliating and insulting decisions against all expats who participate
in building Kuwait and who provide excellent and outstanding services, particularly with
reference to their driving licenses that are deemed as very essential priority for all whether
citizens o expats.
Those decisions have no parallel in terms of their oppression, tyranny as well as fascism.
Those new decisions stipulate that all expats who alter their profession shall have their Kuwaiti
driving license withdrawn. This is not fair to withdraw a driving license from a breadwinner who
is used to drive his children to school by his car or go to his work or drive his family to hospital
for the simple reason that he chooses or is obliged to change his career. This means that the
whole family would have to run and chase taxis day and night !
Those new decisions shall have enormous impacts on the procedures of issuing driving
licenses as they state that license holders shall pass through certain renewal procedures every two
years. This means hundreds of thousands of transactions as well as paperwork that shall keep
traffic departments full and busy at all times all through the year.
Moreover, all expats wonder how could they use public transport in Kuwait which is not
organized and doesn't respect their humanity. Taxi drivers don't use meters and buses use the

same routes and stops. The government has a duty to consider and organize those sectors before
pushing expats and their families out to the streets on their way to do jobs that are of great
importance to their lives.
This topic has great relevance to sociology since it deals with race and ethnicity or racial
discrimination. Expats are working side by side with citizens. They are participating in
establishing Kuwait. However, the government puts all the blame of traffic digestion on them
and therefore adopts severe and discriminating decisions against them. However, this is not a
practical solution for the problem of traffic indigestion. However, it creates a great load and
pressure on expats and their families and exposes traffic departments to much pressures.
Sociologists might help understand what has happened by means of analyzing the root
causes of the social problem of racial discrimination or ethnicity. They analyze the problem, its
root causes and try to find out practical solutions to it.
Calls for change are made experts by means of establishing a subway grid to minimize
traffic indigestion. Some calls and proposals are also made by experts to establish a subway and
improve public transportation as this shall encourage most expats to use public transportation
that respects their humanity.
The policies that should be made or adopted are associated with organizing public
transportation to be advanced one like that in major cities like Doha or Dubai or London.
Moreover, a subway metro is highly recommended. In addition, special lanes for buses should be
made to allow them to drop people quickly and minimize traffic indigestion. Apart from that, all
severe decisions against expats in this regard should be reconsidered.

The original article

http://news.kuwaittimes.net/expats-slaves-oh-government/
Expats or Slaves, Oh Government!

For years, both the government and ministries specialized in roads and
transportation issues have been flopping and going round and round in endless circles concerning
solving the problem of traffic congestions, crowded streets and the weak transport systems in
Kuwait City and the suburbs.
In addition, years have gone by since scientific and practical recommendations were made on
solving the problem by developing the roads network and building a subway grid, and the
government failed to do either at a time when most GCC capitals have celebrated, or will soon,
celebrate launching them.
Here in Kuwait, the bigger the problem gets and the more the government fails to solve them, the
more strange, insulting and inhumane decisions the government makes against expatriates living
amongst us, taking part in building our nation and providing us with very significant services,
especially with regards to their driving licenses, which are a necessary priority for families
regardless of their nationalities, such as the ones recently made by the interior ministry.
Such decisions are unrivalled worldwide in terms of the amount of oppression, tyranny and
fascism in them. The new decisions state that an expatriate who changes his/her profession will
have his/her Kuwaiti driving license withdrawn. Wow! This means that if a family breadwinner
has a license and has already arranged his/her familys daily life errands and childrens schooling
on grounds that the family owns a car, and if, for some reason he/she wishes to change careers or
is even laid off, the whole family loses the car and would have to run on streets chasing buses

and taxis day and night! The new decisions will also have huge impacts on the procedures
followed on issuing driving licenses as they stipulate that license holders will have to go through
renewal procedures every two years, which means hundreds of thousands of transactions and
paperwork that will keep traffic departments full at all times throughout the year, needless to
mention the administrative and technical costs this will entail.
Unfortunately, they are repeating the same old mistakes that they thought would help solve
traffic problems, which proved to be complete failure, tried several times over the past fifteen
years with the last of which were the campaigns launched by Maj Gen Abdul Fattah Al-Ali
during which he impounded humongous numbers of expatriates vehicles, which was welldeserved in many cases because severe traffic violations are being major reasons to cancel visas
in many countries around the world.
Those decisions were meant to save lives and property rather than solve the traffic congestion
problem that requires organizational decisions and mega projects more than withdrawing expats
drivers licenses.
Naturally enough, millions of expatriates who will be forced to use public transport have every
right to wonder if Kuwait really has an organized means of transport that respects their humanity.
Is it not a fact that taxi drivers do not use meters without being held accountable for it? Is it not a
fact that Kuwait lacks a proper taxi company like those found in Dubai and Doha that observes
its vehicles quality and do not get registrations issued by favoritism and corruption like what
happens here? Talking about public buses, they are very worn out and use the same routes and
stops.
They do not have special lanes on our streets to ensure swift and high quality services like in
advanced cities around the world. Should not the government start with organizing these sectors

before pushing expats and their families out to the streets on their way to do jobs that are of great
significance to our own lives? How on earth will we respect ourselves if thousands of expat
families suffer in getting their kids to schools and tend to daily needs in Kuwaits harsh climate,
and then ask them to do their jobs in serving our nation properly? Because I am sure that none of
the media channels will ever adopt expats concerns in this regard nor will they use huge
headlines criticizing this oppression, I do urge all Kuwaiti NGOs, especially those concerned
with human rights, to adopt petitions to be made to the Cabinet to cancel these decisions.