The moon lacks nothing but when it is full
In the crosshairs
This proverb, which rises to the level of wisdom and recurs with us in every time and place, is clearly applicable to all areas of life here in Kuwait.
The idea for this article was born in me, and I followed with keen interest the recent World Cup matches, despite the inconvenience of their broadcast times and the absence of our national team from this gathering that our planet witnesses every four years.
Despite the 50 percent increase in participating teams, with the lion’s share of this increase going to Arab teams, we were left with nothing but to live on the ruins of the 1980s.
Facing this bewilderment and the intensifying compound of regret and pain that enveloped me, I turned my memory to many of the failures we experienced, which the country paid the price for. Most, if not all, of these failures were attributable to our democratic experience embodied in the National Assembly, when it lost its compass and deviated from the path laid out for it.
Despite our pride in our democratic system and our regular practice of elections, and despite our awareness of its slide from bad to worse, we reached a point where we congratulated each other upon hearing the Amir announce his historic decision to dissolve the Assembly unconstitutionally, in order to preserve what we could and save what could be saved, after the country had been lost or was on the verge of being lost.
If some are skeptical of what we say and wish to know the gains the country lost due to those erroneous practices, the foremost among them is the loss of the status the country had attained when it was known as the “Pearl of the Gulf” since the beginning of the second half of the last century. Today, without pride, we are at the back of the Gulf ranks, after the birds have flown away with our livelihoods.
If we began with failures in sports, let us now turn our pen to the country’s infrastructure, which was once an example for the entire world, notably the “Blue Bird,” which was the national airline for every Gulf resident.
Before the establishment of the Assembly, they would arrive at the airport in their cars, which provided them with parking spaces for long waits, for negligible fees.
Similarly, the country sacrificed its national shipping line, Kuwait National Shipping Lines, when it helped establish what was then called “United Arab Shipping Company,” as soon as it designated the country as its headquarters.
Despite the failure of this new company to endure, officials in the country did not move a finger to reestablish such a vital national project, despite the country’s and people’s need to revive it, in order to shield us from the monopoly of foreign carriers and restore the maritime leadership our country once enjoyed, which we had lost for the first time in its history, which dates back several centuries.
Officials remained inactive in reestablishing such a national shipping line, despite appeals to relevant authorities, particularly regarding the need for a national shipping line to serve the newly built Mega Port of Mishref. The absence of such a maritime project, as one of the country’s critical infrastructures, represents the absence of the most important institution in maritime sciences that once distinguished us from others.
We pray to God that our appeal finds receptive ears, so that we may restore the country’s lost essence.
A Kuwaiti writer
