for almost forty years, everyone, without exception, has been complaining about the situation in the jleeb al-shuyoukh area. no government authority wants to enter this suburb and that includes health, security, municipality and even the religious authority. within hours, the decision was made, and the security forces entered the area and broke the taboo.
this was preceded by the government taking a series of important decisions, the files of which we have long awaited to be moved, most notably the manipulation of national identity, and the presence of all this huge number of nationality forgers and several other culprits sheltering in this ‘ghetto’ like suburb.
it was also nice to deal firmly with tens of thousands of government employees, who frequented coffee shops, and who never cared about being at their workplaces, so the third fingerprint was applied to them, so they started to show up before others.
it was also important to cancel the government coverage for the treatment of retirees, which the health ministers competed to inflate with various additions, so it became a burden and a source of corruption and spoilage for the citizen, the doctor, the clinics and the hospitals.
there is really not enough space to list the achievements made by the government in the past few months, and its attempts to create a reliable business environment, such as its keenness to conclude 18 road repair tenders, covering all the country’s streets, in an unprecedented phenomenon globally, and moving forward with the huge expansion of the mubarak port project and al-zour port, despite all the environmental warnings and reservations expressed by several parties, or the inability to create new job opportunities for kuwaitis, and the fear of not increasing the percentage of non-oil revenues from such huge projects in their cost and management, or in their ability to attract large foreign investments.
what some people do not want to realize is that all these projects and dozens of others cannot be sustainable as long as the educational system remains as backward as it is today, and all this attention is given to theoretical and religious subjects, while there is clear neglect not only of scientific subjects, but even of subjects that improve artistic taste, develop taste, and create people of a different kind!
one of my employees, a filipino national, had a medical emergency, so i took him to mubarak al-kabir hospital for treatment. it turned out that he had a stomach hernia and needed an urgent, delicate surgery, with uncertain results!
the driver stayed in the hospital for a week, and after suffering and pain, he left in the best condition.
i paid his medical bill, and found that the cost included the nuclear scan, blood tests and discharge, ct scan, and 4-star accommodation with three special meals, all for 203 dinars, which would have cost him ten times that anywhere else, inside or outside kuwait!
i used to visit him daily, and on my way i would check on the conditions of the wing he was in, the work system, and the rest of the hospital facilities.
i was really pleased with what i saw, and i visited the hospital director, dr. moudhi almutairi. she was not in her office. i informed her assistant of my impressions and observations, and then i spoke to her on the phone, and she was very responsive.
it also became clear to me that the afia project is not needed if the government increases its interest in its hospitals, continues to improve the service, raise the level of treatment, and attracts qualified doctors and administrators.