Who wants to be a millionaire?

At a young entrepreneur meeting earlier today, several men talked about wanting to be millionaires; one of the attendees even mentioned wanting to have 6 billion dinars (1 Kuwaiti dinar = 3.4 US dollars).

It threw me off, I've never thought of wanting money. Financial freedom, absolutely, and I've learned to quantify it too. Enough to travel, buy gifts for loved ones and afford the best health-care if anyone around me ever needs it.

Money's nice don't get me wrong, you'll never hear me complaining of "excess money", but to want to work towards a number is a foreign concept.

So, who wants to be a millionaire?

The politics of car washing

With the insanely dusty weather Kuwait's experienced in recent weeks our neighbor's car-washing habits have intrigued me.

Their car has never left their driveway dirty. Ever. So, let's say there's a drizzle of rain (aka particles of orange mud falling from the sky) around noon, once it stops the driver is out in the driveway with a pail and hose cleaning the car.

Then, say it rains around dusk and he's out again washing the car soon after it stops. Of course all this in addition to the obligatory daily morning carwash ritual.

Over the past two weeks, their cars have been washed over 50 times. (Of course he lets the hose run while he's washing, doing it in the most wasteful way possible, but I don't blame him after all it is somewhat easier. Limited resources, be damned!)


During college, my crippling fear of car washes coupled with a lack of covered parking kept my car's paint job protected by a layer of filth and grime. When I moved back home, I brought with me the belief that clean cars are a frivolous luxury. I was also appalled by the ungodly hour my family's driver woke up at every morning to clean all the cars before he got on with his day; so I asked him not to wash my car every morning unless it's dirty. He happily obliged.

Until one day a coworker asked if I was married. I was single of course and living with my family and wondered why she was asking. She said my car was always dirty (which was not true) and it made her curious to my living situation.

Wanting to share a laugh at lunch, I mentioned this little conversation to my mother. She was offended, "Why isn't he washing your car?" Even though I explained the situation to her, she insisted that my car be clean enough to pose any questions.

A few weeks ago, I pulled into my friend's house to pick her up. She took one look at my car's dust-ridden exterior and shook her head. "We're taking my car," she said as she tilted her head towards her glistening black SUV.

What is it about dirty cars that's so off putting? Is the clean car obsession just another symptom of the rampant materialism, "I have the newest, biggest, baddest, shiniest of all toys?"


Photo source

66 years from now...

Two days ago, I was showing an American visitor around Kuwait and we ended up at the National Museum of Kuwait. If you haven't been there, definitely make a point to go it's a lot of fun.

In the museum's heritage building, where you walk around "old Kuwait" (1940's pre-oil) with the different stores, then you enter a home, then the hall turns into an exhibition display of items, clothing and other things.

I've always been interested in history but have found ours less than exciting, walking through the museum, Kuwait's relative youth really sunk in. I mean, there are people alive who remember this pretty well. My parents, both born in the late 50's, came only 10 years after oil was discovered!

This realization struck a chord in me. I mean, I've known all along that we're young and don't really have a wealth of political experience/tradition either but, we're really really really young!

Things that piqued my interested at the museum:

Shoes:
At the Kharraz (the Cobbler)'s shop, where a mannequin of a cobbler was making shoes with his tools around him, we noticed that the men's footwear was made of comfortable leather like the ones seen here. The womens' shoes on the other hand, the gubgab, were made of wood. A wooden bottom, and a tiny leather strap on top.

If ever we need evidence that shoes are a tool of the patriarchy all around the world. Whether it's foot binding or having to wear extremely uncomfortable shoes, it's all meant to keep women barefoot and pregnant.

As we walked along to the photography exhibition that had pictures from 1942, I noticed that all the women in the pictures were barefoot. Some of the men wore shoes but none of the ladies did. (Of course, in my mind, they all refused to wear these ridiculous shoes as an act of protest not because they were too poor to buy them.)

Documents/documentation:
On display where several official handwritten documents of pearl divers, licenses and such, with photos and fingerprints on them. It's amazing how juvenile they seem today.


One of the placards by a display of old cameras mentioned that there weren't any cameras around so Kuwaitis would have to go get their official pictures taken at the British Consulate. Unfortunately, not all placards had Arabic and English explanations on them and often the Arabic explanation was more informative, which was an inconvenience to my non-Arabic speaking guest.


On corporal punishment:
In the kitab, the Qura'an school where young boys learned basic Arabic through Qura'an and arithmetic, there was a boy standing in a corner with his hands raised above his head as punishment for doing something wrong. I loved that they added that in there!


Trade routes/wealth:
Looking at a trade route map on the wall, from India and Eastern Africa to Kuwait and back, I couldn't help but contemplate the relationship between wealth, slavery (economic or literal), and sophistication.



To think that less than 70 years ago, women my age would've been illiterate, barefoot, and probably had several children was quite breathtaking. To think that from my grandmother's time we've gone from basic literacy to PhD's and being fluent in not one but two languages. From having slaves at home, to well....

We've come a loooooooong way.
Or have we?

I wonder what the next 66 years will bring.

Spell Rich.

Inspired by both this and this post:


1) What does being rich mean to you? "How do you define richness?"



2) What motivates you in life?

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

Since I asked it's only fair that I answer first,

1) Money to me means more options. So rich is having a solid house and car, i.e. not falling apart, having enough to travel or be pampered--not necessarily extravagantly) every once in a while. (If I have children it would include not worrying about children's schools/tuition.)

Rich is not a new car every two years, a new purse every week and expensive restaurants everyday. It's just not in me. (If I was a billionaire, I'd probably ride an old boat to my private island.)


I guess even without a full-time job right now I'd consider myself rich.


2) I'm not sure yet. But I know that money is not a strong motivator for me. As long as I have my needs met* and can meet a few wants every now and then, I'm fine. I think serving some sort of purpose is a stronger motivator, but I can't say that with certainty because I haven't really found a "purpose" to serve.






* There seems to be some confusion about my job situation. At one point I said I'm a reporter, at another place I said I met with a client...I've been getting hate-mail calling me a liar (someone needs to get a life rather than trying to find holes in my frivolous blog.)

I'm freelancing right now but I worked as a reporter for awhile. I'm thinking about going back to news writing part-time. We'll see. But I do meet with clients every once in as part of my freelance stuff. I am looking for a full-time job though...Hope I cleared up the confusion?!! I hope this doesn't come up if I ever decide to run for office...yeeesh people. get a life.

Grown up already

I'm getting ready to act all grown up and join the "workforce" once again in a couple of weeks.

I generally haven't hated the interview processes as much as I thought I would but salary negotiation is a different issue.

"What are you expecting to make?" "What did you use to make at your old job?" "How much is your minimum package?"

Money baffles me. Sure, making a lot of money is fantastic...but I'm more concerned with the nature of the job and work environment (and that I'm fairly compensated) rather than a number. And employers get frustrated because they can't really answer my questions and I can't really answer their questions.


A thoughtful post about the meaning of it all from The Simple Dollar.

10 things I vow never to do

How did all these things become acceptable to us? (By us I mean 5aleeji's in general not just Kuwaitis...although some are more Kuwait-specific than others).
10 things I vow never to do*:

1) Wear a denim jacket in the summer. (This is a few years too late as that was ‘in’ a couple of years ago but be sure...if that trend comes around I will not be joining the masses.)

2) Have a stupid post-delivery baby reception at the hospital a.k.a. Isti8bal (Istihbal). Spending hundreds of dinars to impress people you barely know immediately after you’ve had a baby..? Oh how fun!

3) Buy a car that costs three times what I make in a year to drive around Kuwait’s streets. Can you spell S-U-C-K-E-R?

4) Pick a woman out of a line-up to live with my family, and then leave my children alone with her for a specified amount of time each day. That’s what daycare’s for, cheapskate.

5) Marry someone for their money, their last name, or their mother.

6) Go to the same restaurant every week. (Maki, anyone?)

7) Grow a second head in my hijab. (Gives new meaning to Fergie’s “My humps”)

8) Paint a face that doesn’t resemble my face on my face. Oh I should add this one here, shave off all or part of my eyebrows and color them in. (“Chinese” eyebrows anyone?)

9) Scam the government to get undeserved money ‘cause I’m poor (related to #3).

10) Get one of those “ba6ala mu8ana3a” jobs, where you punch a time card sit around, eat, gossip, and leave (see #9, #3).



* subject to change at any moment.

“You don’t have enough clothes,” a relative told me a few days ago, (her actual words were, “Wain? Ma inshoofich talbiseen?” when I told her that I didn’t want to go shopping even though the stores I frequent have “sales” because I have way too many clothes).


But I do. My closet, although not as packed as her closet*, is pretty full of clothes. Casual clothes, a decent outfits, grungy stuff …. I mean I’m covered! (quite literally).

Why is that so hard to understand?!


I have no idea why, but her words really got to me. Although my closet is bursting at the hinges (?!), her words replayed in my head today as I sat there staring at my closet. I really felt like I didn’t have anything “good enough” to wear to a family get-together.

I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m never going to be one of those people who always have something new on and never repeat their outfits. It’s just not my nature: 1) I don’t always enjoy shopping 2) I’m extremely selective when I do shop (which makes shopping less enjoyable) 3) I hate clutter and always end up donating clothes I don’t wear “all the time”.

Anyway, I felt really bad because I wore something I was planning to give-away just to prove to her that I do have "more than enough" clothes (how lame is that?! And what does that really mean--ugh! I'm such a push-over!).

I guess "they misunderestimated me,"** because I'm still giving that skirt away and I still refuse to go shopping for more clothes.


This whole ‘episode’ reminded me of something I’d come across awhile back…a Seattle artist who makes a brown dress and wears it for a whole year. (I’d love to do that just for my mother’s reaction…priceless!) She called her project "little brown dress"

Check out a short interview with her here.



Today’s lesson: "I'm rubber and you're glue, and anything you say bounces off me and sticks to you." (I'm more of a rubber wannabe at this point...)


*a big reason for this difference is due to the different schools of thought we belong. I will buy a few expensive things that last me several years; she buys lots of cheaper clothes/shoes and changes them frequently.

** Another inspirational quote by George W. Bush. (I'm gonna miss him when he leaves *sigh*)

Konscious Kuwaiti Konsumption

I've become much more interested in conscious consumption over the past few years. I found this Get Rich Slowly post very interesting. I think the writer would probably have a heart attack if he were to visit Kuwait.

Which brings me to this scene:

[Family gathered at female relative's (Mrs. T's) apartment for meal, male relative (Hondaizer) telling family about new cheap rug store he found in Farwaniya]

Mrs. T: ...which reminds me I really need to get my area rugs professionally cleaned.

Hondaizer: how much would cleaning them cost?

GE&B: I can't really remember but maybe around KD 20 a piece or so...

[Mrs. T looks down at her stained carpet while trying to balance a cup full of red fruit juice, a baby, and a tray full of half-empty teacups and candy wrappers in her arms.]

Hondaizer: It's not worth spending that much money when you can get a new one for KD 50.


**GE&B thinking ( voice-over): 7aram! wallah, your rugs aren't even eight years old and besides its not like they are the cheap "disposable" kind.

The conversation ends abruptly as a little glass dish is shattered, luckily not on the concerned rug.

I've been wondering what Mrs. T's gonna end up doing with her rugs since that day, yesterday, but I really hope she decides to clean them.


I wonder where stained, abandoned rugs go to die? eeh, probably Friday market.

Yesterday's lesson: Speak your mind before the glass shatters or forever hold your peace.

If you're wondering about the title, I've been really hungry for some Krispy Kreme. (I'm heading the Avenues Mall to get some right now :D)