مدونه جديده

مدونة جديده كويتيه باللغه الإنجليزيه تختص بالقضايا الدوليه والمحليه ، أرجوا زيارتها

www.mjali.com

شكرا

Constitutional Ignorance

Proofread by Dr. Glenn Hutchinson.

Kuwait was one of the very first countries in the Middle East, and the Arabian Gulf specifically, that adopted a constitution as its ruling/political system. Ever since 1962, people were progressing with the new way of democracy, making them learn more and more how to cope with the constitutional law.


To begin with, the lawmakers and politicians put together the constitution, which consists of 183 articles divided into five chapters. They stated clearly that it would need modifications to allow it to adopt further laws and freedom. But with every new change comes more difficulties, and this is exactly what happened.


Some members of the ruling family, along side with a large number of well known business-class families hated the fact that now they're being watched closely by the people, and by those who represent people in the parliament.


Nowadays, after holding its place unchanged since its establishment, more and more people who are in power are trying their best to abandon this constitution. They have jailed many of the anti government writers and politicians, all under the name of law and against the Freedom of speech that is backed up by the constitution. 

On Wednesday, December the 8th, the unexpected happened. Police and other special forces agents attacked one of the biggest anti-government speeches around the country, which was held at Jemaan Al-Harbash's house. 

The Attack and the violence used were never seen before, especially since the persons who were attacked were innocent people, parliament members and a very famous academician, Dr. Obaid Al-Wasmi. Dr. Obaid is a law teacher in Kuwait's university, a very well respected constitutional expert and a member of a respected family. He was dragged and kicked from inside the house of the MP where the campaign was held for no clear reasons except his anti-government speech and how he mentioned that the prime minister of Kuwait is trying hard to abandon and violate the constitution, and therefore drown the country.


This act has created chaos amongst the parliament members and the people in general. The constitution of Kuwait states clearly in its articles 6, 7, 29, 31, 34 and 44 that citizens have the right to attend or organize public speeches and speak out their minds freely and openly without the need of any pre-approval from anyone.


After this huge controversy and shock, the government is trying harder and harder to act as if nothing happened by controlling its media and the local agencies to mention nothing about this unlawful act and show no signs of it. This was followed by closing the only news agency, "Aljazeera" that aired footage and some analysis on what exactly happened.


A big movement was established and is continued to grow daily under the name of "Not the Constitution". This movement condemns this dictatorship style of acts and are working hard to force the government to quit. The question is left to you, the viewer, whether this act will ever be justified or not, especially when our ranking in the freedom of speech is plummeting downwards every month.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Video of the attack on Dr. Obaid Al-Wasmi

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------


Kuwait's Constitution (Click Here)

Corruption? or is it just us being Arabs?

A few days ago, on the 30th of June 2010, the ruling of the misdemeanor court in Kuwait sentenced a young Kuwaiti citizen, Khaled Sanad Alfadala, who is the secretary general of the National Democratic Alliance, with three months of imprisonment and a fine of 150 KWD. The sentence they issued was a shock to the nation, being the first of its kind given to a citizen for speaking out his mind.


The story started months ago, when a group of Kuwaiti citizens came to the public and showed the frustration and the huge concerns of many towards the prime minister of Kuwait. The group, which was called "Leave, Kuwait deserves better" stood up in public and spoke their minds about the shocking reports showing huge amounts of money being spent by the prime minister's office, without labels or categories in which the payments were done, which sparked a huge controversy among both the political fields and the general population.

At that time, Khaled S. Alfadala took his own turn to speak. When he climbed on that stage and took the microphone, he couldn't help it but speak his mind, claiming that he thinks that these payments may have been related to money laundering, which might be true up until someone claims the opposite. The reports that were released mentioned amounts up to two and sometimes over four million KWD being spent over gifts and other means of "perfumes," which sparked a huge controversy and a lot of whispering between all the citizens wither he, Khaled, had the right to do so or not, "talking about a member of the ruling family."

Today, we're talking about the FIRST, yes the first Kuwaiti citizen to be jailed by the prime minister's defense team, claiming that Khaled cursed and disrespected the prime minister in public, while all he did is speak his mind out loud. A few days ago, the nation celebrated the release of a public figure and writer Mohammad Abdulqader Aljasem, who was jailed by the homeland security for what they said was a "disrespect of the ruler of Kuwait and giving the world a bad image of the country." But that celebration didn't last long.

Khaled S. Alfadala, is now in jail paying for a crime he never committed, paying for the price of speaking his mind in an Arabic nation, where corruption sometimes is a must. The youth and all the political parties made their claims that these charges, being the first of its kind with an imprisonment sentence, might be a start of a new era in Kuwait, the era of dictatorship and the collapse of democracy.

The Kuwaiti constitution states clearly that freedom of speech, research and thought is guaranteed to the citizens especially in its 36th article, along with the huge list of charges in the past concerning curses or bad use of words in public speeches or articles being no more than a fine of 5001 more or less KWD. This time it's different because it involves the prime minister, who is a member of the ruling family of Kuwait, which many think influenced the sentence.

"Article 36 [Freedom of Opinion and Expression]
Freedom of opinion and of scientific research is guaranteed. Every person has the right to express and propagate his opinion verbally, in writing, or otherwise, in accordance with the conditions and procedures specified by law." (Kuwait's Constitution).

When will he be released? And when can we speak our minds freely and without the fear of being jailed for doing so? Did the prime minister have an influence on the ruling judge? If so, can we ever trust the judgment system in Kuwait? Should we even question the judgment system and think its being corrupted or influenced?

All of the above questions stood up in my mind once I read the shocking news. And they will continue to stand up until it's all sorted out and the image is clarified.

Our good media

I woke up few days ago, with everything being as normal as it is everyday, with nothing in my mind other than how the hell I might survive this long painful day of continuous lectures, and how may I "squeeze" some time out for relaxing and enjoying a beautiful moment exercising a very "deep" thinking session. On that day, everything was typical , up untill the time when I decided, mistakenly, to take a fast "sneak peak" on the latest news on our greatest "free" media publications.

I started reading the newspapers as I usualy do, or like to do, starting from the local news heading up to the global "mean" world. It all began with a bunch of fairly shocking headlines, mostly focused on Dr. Ibtihal's latest interview, which at that point I haven't looked at yet, and all those hideous words being used against a "liberal" thinker, or a writer if I may, and how she promotes sex-education and same sex marriage, as they wrote. I was hit in the face just reading those and how I used to anxiously hear and follow Dr. Ibtihal's moves and publications, so I forced myself to leave whatever I had planned for and just focus on this "interview" everyone is talking about, to see what's going on with her, or with them!

Few minutes after watching the "controversial" interview, I realised that I didn't hear anything new that I never have heard of, or that Dr. Ibtihal didn't mention before, as far as religion and those "radical" religious movements, that try to get involved basically with every single thing that happens in our country, or even the kind of water droplet that should go deep down our throats, which they must approve before we go ahead and drink.

The first thing I noticed, is how they changed what she believed to be "freedom of choice" and made it sound like "being involved in" whatever she agreed with, for example when she mentioned how she's not against in any way when someone says his beliefs "religiously" out loud, and they claimed that she's just ok with "atheists" saying it in public. The 2nd thing is when she talked about how she's not against the principal behind countries which have civil rights that won't stand against same-sex marriage, and how they changed it "again" to what they say "promoting" same-sex marriage, which to me, gives a very clear image of our greatest of all times "free" media that claims to be "respectful".

Throughout the years, we've noticed how our countries, or the third world as they call it, became more open to new ideas and new thoughts, and the fact that we got exposed more to various types of movements, or systems if i may say, like Liberalism and Secularism, and how that affected us and our public media and "refined" its image after it being completely under the control of exclusive parties and thoughts. We were happy about that for sure, because change and development, even in thinking, is needed those days, but once we saw our third world changing to a better "refined" place to be in and it sounded too good to be true, everything started to go back to point "zero" all of the sudden, as if we defined the future to be "going back to the past" instead of moving on to new horizons and stages.

Our media needs some serious changes nowadays more than anytime before, not just our media of course, even our minds, that got locked and drained down the sewer, which by the way only follows what a long-bearded man or a turban-head says. What Dr. Ibtihal said and keep saying by the minute, is what we will discover somewhere around 100 years from now, if we were lucky! we seriously have to re-define the name of being a Liberial and having a constitution that saves our "civil" rights and also take a non-biased look at our sunnah books which holds many wrongful statements that even those islamists deny, and that should be excluded from being an atheist, or an infidel.

Good luck Dr. Ibtihal, and you must know that there're many people that still think wisely, and reads minds/words before judging the looks/names, and that what you said in that latest interview of yours is EXACTLY what we need to start working on and implenet so that we, if we were lucky, or our children will have a safe place to live in, and a place where minds are highly rewarded!

Last but not least, I can't deny that I missed a great chance of talking to you Dr. Ibtihal on the conference that was held in Los Angeles California, but I totally understand that on that night you were tired and you needed rest before your flight back, so this time, I will excuse you for not accepting my invitation to hold a "small/tiny" interview with such a great mind of yours, after listening to you on the Nebrs workshop. Thanks again!

إنه لعالم صغير

في اواخر الأربعينيات وتحديدا في عام 1949 ، حدثت ضجه كبيره بسبب إستشعار البعض بأن الحاسب الآلي بدأ يحل محل العقل في امور كثيره ولدرجة تفوق الخيال ، مما أدى إلى محاولة العديد من الشركات المختصه في هذا المجال كمثل شركة آي بي إم وشركات معالجات أخرى القيام بإنتاج أو تطوير الحاسب الآلي حتى يصبح ملائما إلى حد ما لأخذ مساحة صغيره نسبيا في ذلك الوقت والتي تعد بمعدل حجم غرفة النوم في يومنا الحالي.

وقبل أن أدخل في موضوع الشبكة العنكبوتيه وإتكالنا عليها كليا في هذه الأيام ، أود أن استذكر مقولة شهيرة جدا قيلت في نفس العام "1949" من قبل بوبيولار ميكانيكس

"Computers in the Future may weight no more than 1.5 tons." Popular Mechanics, 1949

وتعني بأن الحواسب الآلية ستزن كحد أقصى واحد ونصف طن في المستقبل. وهذا دليل كبير على سرعة تطور الحاسبات الآليه فيما اذا قارناها مع الإكتشافات الاخرى ، فالفتره مابين 1949 إلى تاريخ كتابة هذا المقال تعتبر فتره قصيرة نسبيا لتصورات العلماء والمخترعين في ذاك العام لما سيكون عليه الحاسب الآلي في "المستقبل" إن صح التعبير

فاليوم ، أصبح الحاسب الآلي أمر لابد منه ، حتى لمن لا يتقن إستخدامه ، بحيث يتطلب علينا كموارد بشرية إستخدام التقنيه الحاليه في الحصول على المعلومات المطلوبه بشكل فعال وسريع بدون إهدار دقيقة واحده من المشروع او العمل المراد تقديمه او الحصول عليه. ولكن ما هو أكثر سبب لإقتناء وإستخدام الحاسوب هذه الأيام؟

الشبكة العنكبوتيه تعتبر من أهم وأفضل الأسباب التي تجعل المجتمعات بحجمها وبمكانها تقتني اجهزة الحاسوب ، وذلك يأتي لسبب بسيط جدا ، وهو سهولة إدخال المعلومات من وإلى هذه الشبكه ، وأيضا سهولة الإتصال مع الأقارب والاهل مهما طالت المسافات ، وهنا سنقيس مثلا على شبكة الفيس بوك العالميه ، والتي أصبحت اليوم منتشرة بكثره بحيث أنه أصبح من المستحيل ان تدخل على هذه الشبكه ولا تجد احد أقرباؤك أو أصدقاؤك او حتى زملاء العمل

لقد جعل هذا الموقع الدنيا تبدو بحجم إبرة الخياطه ، فأنت خلف الحاسب الشخصي في الكويت ، وتتحدث بمطلق الحريه والرفاهيه وأنت مستلقي على فراشك مع أشخاص في الطرف الآخر من الكرة الأرضيه ، وكأنهم خلف باب غرفتك ، والبحار والمحيطات هما المسافة بين فراشك وبين الباب!

الشبكة العنكبوتية أيضا لم يكن لأحد  أن يتصور بأنها ستنتشر كما هي عليه اليوم ، فهناك الكثير من العلماء الكبار جدا والذين يحمل إسمهم وزنا كبيرا في عالم الفيزياء والطاقه ، قالوا بأن تقنية الراديو عموما ، وهي تشمل أجهزة التلفزه والراديو والإنترنت ، لا تحمل مستقبلا أبدا ، بل أنها ستنقرض مع حلول المستقبل "وقتنا الحالي" على حسب تصورهم. وهنا أستذكر مقولة شهيرة جدا للعالم الكبير لورد كيلفن ، والذي سمي مقيال كلفن للحرارة نسبة لإسمه

"Radio has no future." Lord Kelvin, 1897

مع العلم بان في ذاك القرن بدأ إستخدام الراديو ينتشر بكثره ، فأصبح كل شخص يمتلك جهاز إتصال وإستقبال يعمل بتقنيات ضعيفه للإتصال بالجار في أسفل الطريق.

خلاصة الموضوع اليوم هو بأن البشر هذه الأيام أصبحوا إتكاليين بدرجة كبيره على أي جهاز أو تقنية تسهل الحياة عليهم ، حتى أصبحنا لا نريد تشغيل عقلنا لإستخراج أبسط الامور ، فبدل من وجع الرأس هذا ، نذهب للموقع الشهير جدا "غوغل" لإستخراج هذه المعلومه بكبسة زر ، فيا ترى ماهو قول العلماء في يومنا هذا عن الراديو والحاسب الآلي في المستقبل القريب؟ هل سيكون القول كما قاله السابقون من علماء وفيزيائيين؟

حماس وترقب

ما هي إلا فترة قصيره جدا ، حتى يأتي هذا اليوم الذي ينتظره طلبة الكويت في الولايات المتحده الأمريكيه ، وهو المؤتمر السنوي لإتحاد طلبة الكويت ، والذي يقام في عطلة عيد الشكر في الفتره مابين 25 إلى 28 نوفمبر من كل عام.

في الحقيقة ، هذا اليوم المنتظر من قبل الطلبة ، ينقسم فيه الإهتمام إلى قسمين أساسيين ، قسم يهتم بالأمور النقابيه والقوائم الطلابيه ، فتجده يعمل بكل جهد قبل حلول هذا التاريخ حتى يحصد أكبر عدد من المهتمين لقائمته ، وقسم آخر لا يهتم البته لتلك الأمور ، فهي بحسب تعبيرهم "تفاهه" لا معنى لها ، فتجد هذه الفئة متحمسه جدا للقاء الأحبه والأصدقاء ، أو لمجرد سماع همسات كويتية في أنحاء الفندق ، فيشعر بالسعاده المصاحبه لذلك الشعور بالوطن ولو كان مؤقتا

طبعا هذا العام كان الإتحاد - فرع أمريكا خاملا جدا ، ولم نرَ منه أية إنجازات تذكر ، سوى عدة ملتقيات وأنشطه تخللها سوء تنظيم و إستفزاز غيرت عقول الطلبة من عقول ممتدحه إلى عقول إنتقاديه بحته بدل "التلميع" والإطراء الأعمى كما كان يحصل في الماضي 

فأنا شخصيا أترقب هذا اليوم ، ولكنني لا أنتمي لأحد القسمين المذكورين أعلاه ، بل أعتبر حماسي هذا خليط مابين الأثنين ، فأنا أنتظر بشغف الجمعة الكويتيه الجميله والحديث اللامنتهي مع الأصدقاء الذين أبعدتنا المسافات عنهم ، وأيضا أترقب وأنتظر نتائج الإنتخابات الطلابيه والتي تعكس مدى تفكير الشباب الكويتي ، فمهما أختلفت مع قائمة معينه ، سأكون ممتن جدا لمن صوت لها لأنها قامت بعمل ممتاز ، والعكس تماما مع من يصوت لأجل "الفزعه" ، فيا ترى ماذا سيحصل؟ هل سيتكرر نفس السيناريو السابق المعهود؟ أم ستخرج لنا قائمة فعلا منافسه تريد فرض نفسها على الناخبين ، أم ستكون قائمة مستمرة بسبب رؤوس عمياء تلقي بالورق من أجل إرضاء توابعها؟

سأنتظر بكل حماس وترقب...

الانتخابات والطلبه

تم وبحمد الله تدشين موقع متكامل لتغطية انتخابات مجلس الامه لعام ٢٠٠٩

وهي بادره يشكر عليها الاتحاد الوطني لطلبة الكويت فرع الولايات المتحده الامريكيه

وهذا يدل على حرص الطلبه والطالبات لمتابعه كل ما يحدث بديرتنا الحبيبه

لمشاهدة الموقع اضغط عالصوره ادناه