FREE Established 1961 Friday ISSUE NO: 17547 RAMADAN 16, 1439 AH FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 2018 Memories of a mariner Pompeo, DPRK official plan 4 and his time in Kuwait 18 summit as Lavrov meets Kim IMSAK 03:05 FAJR 03:15 DHUHR 11:46 ASR 15:20 MAGHRIB 18:43 ISHA 20:14 Zidane drops bombshell by quitting as Real coach See Page 47 2 Friday Local Friday, June 1, 2018 PHOTO OF THE DAY Hunger strike Local Spotlight By Muna Al-Fuzai [email protected] he department of public relations and security infor- mation at the interior ministry reported that 600 Temployees of a cleaning company in Abbasiya gath- ered in protest because they did not receive their salaries. The ministry and concerned authorities dealt with the crowd without any incident, but I do not think the issue is over for those poor people who are not demanding the impossible. They only want their right as agreed according to the con- tracts. If they receive their money, they won’t strike. Luckily, the issue ended peacefully and hopefully by now, they have been paid. The strike is nothing new. We regularly see workers rally- ing to demand what is rightfully theirs and what is being wrongly and unjustly held: their salaries. These salaries are in accordance with the contracts they agreed upon before coming to Kuwait. What angers me is the recurrence of such gatherings by poor workers who have no other option, no other recourse and no one to help them. The owners of companies who deny the salaries of their workers must be punished. I think the problem here is that the issue is not about a worker who needs and demands his salary and the greedy Sunset at a local park in Salmiya, Kuwait. —Photo by Tareq Alhakim / KUNA owner who does not want to pay up, but the administrative corruption and the spread of wasta that have encouraged some owners of companies to persist with injustice and denying people’s rights. Who among us would accept not being paid fairly and in a timely manner? These people work long hours and they earned that money. It is theirs by right and by law. When disbelief trumps belief It is really hard for these poor workers who suffer from homesickness, being away from their families as well as the scriptures can teach us something about ascension. All of pressure of long working hours in a very hot climate to find IN MY VIEW that when it’s the end of the month, they can’t even access us have something to contribute, and this is what can help their meager wages. By Nejoud Al-Yagout us unlearn all that we have learned, and approach life with Some are forced to begging, others paid so low they can- awe and love for one another. It is about befriending the not survive without begging. When you see cleaners in the so-called other to realize we are the other. Most people street, they never ask you openly for money, but they may think that racism is whites against non-whites, but whites face discrimination too. In many countries, the whites are give you a hint like by greeting you, and I personally don’t [email protected] see any harm in giving them some money to make them hap- blamed for all the world’s disasters. People tend to forget py. This quarter or half dinar may not mean a thing to you, the violent leaders in the Eastern Hemisphere who were hen we speak of racist or prejudiced people, we but for them it can buy food. I think that humanitarian aid for anything but white! This is another example of condition- forget that we are talking about our ancestors, them, either by old clothes or a small amount or food, will ing. Violence has nothing to do with creed or race as histo- our parents - in some cases, a sister, a brother, a not hurt anyone. W ry and the modern day teaches us. Recently, a local newspaper published an investigation cousin. And most importantly: Ourselves. There is nothing So the next time we judge a person or ourselves for into suicide in Kuwait, and I know that this issue is sensitive wrong with harboring such thoughts. We all have them, divisive inclinations or thoughts, let us remember, regard- and undesirable to speak about openly. But the truth of the swimming in our veins, dancing in our brains. They have less of the hue of our own skin, we are merely believers in matter is that suicide rates in Kuwait are rising compared to been taught to us, conditioned within us, and this is nothing our mind chatter, and shift our focus to universal recovery. previous years - 78 people ended their lives over the past to be ashamed of if we ignore these thoughts and disbe- If a part of our body has cancer, we are considered a can- year. The report mentioned that the previous year recorded lieve in them. cer patient; so if any one of us acts upon racism, it is some- 73 cases of suicide, while 2015 saw 75 suicides, and 2014 People are always talking about the beauty of being a thing that is a part of our collective psyche, not just one about 61 suicides. believer, but how majestic is it to be a disbeliever in our faction, one sect, one individual. We have to work together We are a very small society and the population is not thoughts - a so-called infidel of the neurons that try to instead of condemning one another. We are all in this large. These figures are huge. We must look into the reasons shape our perception, an apostate of the mental matrices of together, and we need to take care of each other and see that led those people to commit suicide. I see that as a soci- our psyche? So that if a homophobic thought arises, we beyond skin color, race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, sex- ety, we are also responsible for expatriates who are living in smile and embrace our brothers and sisters; if a religiously- ual inclination, gender, social standing or financial status. our country and the problems they may face such as not inspired phobic thought arises, we smile and embrace our The hardest thing to do would be to recognize preju- receiving salaries, abuse and injustice, and we should not see brothers and sisters; if a gender-biased thought arises, we dices in our ideologies, our education systems, our inter- the matter as a personal or private one. smile and embrace our brothers and sisters. That’s what we actions with others, and our own conditioning. This is diffi- Most expat workers come from poor countries and often came here for: To transcend divisiveness and remember our cult, because guess what? Our very structures will crum- borrow money to find a way to be here, all hoping to earn inter-connectedness. ble as we navigate unknown terrain. But, sometimes we some money for their families. I think it is important for the What a boring planet it would be if we could not need to destroy our foundation to build a new one: More health and social affairs ministries to follow up such issues. embrace diversity. All shades on the palette of conscious- powerful, more sturdy, more inclusive. Sometimes we have The cleaning workers are one of the most poorly paid, so ness are divine. All colors of the rainbow are stunning, to be willing to be an empty phoenix rising from the ashes they should be cared for and protected. shimmering strokes of genius on the canvas of love. All of thoughts. 4 Friday Local Friday, June 1, 2018 Kit Villiers (right) and Kathy Chetwynd (left) the son and daughter of 'Sind- bad' Villiers. River Cherwell Front cover of Villiers' book, Sons of Sinbad By C. Shalgosky Captain Najdi navigated with no modern instruments, using the stars, winds and ocean currents as his guide. ome years ago in a charity fundraiser I won a In dangerously shallow waters, a line weighted with a raffle prize: a book entitled ‘Sons of Sindbad’. block of camel fat was dropped from the bow periodically Written by Australian journalist and master to check depths. If the fat picked up sand the captain mariner Alan Villiers, the book vividly recounts knew to change course. a voyage from 1938 to 1939 on Al Bayan, an old Villiers’ respect for the Kuwaiti crew was evident, no SKuwaiti sailing ship, known locally as a boom. more so when an infant falls overboard and he tells how With the blessing of the Al-Hamad brothers, the the captain deftly maneuvers the huge vessel around in Kuwaiti merchant family who owned Al Bayan, the 35 time to save it from the shark-infested seas. year-old Villiers set sail from Aden spending the next months travelling to ports in East Africa, Oman and fi- nally, Kuwait. Villiers was an intrepid mariner determined to docu- ment the last days of sail, shooting both stills and cine film of his journey, recording the hardships and the hero- ism of the Kuwaiti crew and the infinite skills of the cap- tain, Ali bin Nasr Al-Najdi. His humor and humanity filled the book. On land too, he captured daily life in Kuwait in Alan Villiers' study where he the last decades before independence. wrote his books. Photo taken on the Villiers family’s return trip to Villiers brought back cotton The boathouse by the river.