The Panic Button

You know…I like to talk. I'm a conversationalist by nature. It's in the genes really. We (my family and I) talk about anything and everything ranging from local politics to videogames, from pre-Islamic poetry to why Brittany is sporting the neo-Nazi look these days.

You know who else likes to talk (can you see where this is going)? Our Parliament sure love to talk, don't they? In the past few months alone, we heard our MPs call for a new grilling (istijwab), an increase of 50KD on top of the 120KD we will be getting next month, separation of men and women on all levels of education (and variations of that), oh…and let us not forget the two superstars Lari and Abdulsammad's outspoken support for their fallen comrade. (Note: You ever notice that people always say Lari and Abdulsammad as opposed to Abdulsammad and Lari…even though Abdulsammad seems to be callin the shots…hmmm) Yeah, we Kuwaitis have to put up with a lot of talking. You could say it comes with the territory.

Conversely, on the flip side of the coin we have our Government. They can best be represented by that infamous scene in ever cowboy western, where everything gets really quite and all you see is this tumbleweed roll across the screen. Oh you can wait for Roy Rogers, Charlton Heston or Clint Eastwood to show up. I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you. Instead of standing its ground, backing the policies its put forth, or even taking the time to explain to the people why they believe the things they believe the government has opted for silence. What's even worse is that instead of being silent (and hence useless), they are backing down on issues they pushed forth in the first place.

The latest news shows that the government plans on reconsidering their policy with the destruction of Diwaween that are illegally placed on Kuwait's land. Yes, Kuwait's land…not Government Land, not your land, not my land but Kuwait's. Lets complete the picture, shall we? They proceeded with the destruction of Diwaween a few months back, costing a lot of Joe Shmoes a great deal of money…and now they want to reconsider. Does that mean we plan on reimbursing Joe Shmoe now? He isn't going to shut up…would you?

To recap, fellow Kuwaiti…in one felt swoop, resulting from silence on behalf of the Government and an overly chatty Parliament…we lost land (for Shmoe's Diwaniya), and money going (for unlucky Shmoe's broken Diwaniya), and most importantly…we lost time.

If the government can't talk, and the Parliamentarians are busy talking over each other, maybe what they need is one big Panic Button. A button that's main purpose would be to cry out for help. If ever there was a time to push that button, it would be now.

NOTE: This post was in fact written before the events that transpired today, i.e. the imminent dissolution of the Cabinet. I will post a little later when events have time to unfold.