‘Time now to tighten belts’
many people misunderstood me when i called for serious consideration to reduce the exchange rate of the dinar in the best interest of the state budget, and before that to change the behavior of the citizen since the government is unable to curb the increasing expenditure and is reluctant to adjust the salary structure and subsidies on some commodities and services. before responding to those who criticized the idea, let me describe what i experienced during the occupation of my homeland by saddam hussein’s army. i left kuwait ten days after the invasion because i felt my life was in danger due to positions i had adopted earlier. after the invasion saddam’s forces had emptied the pharmacies of medicines needed for the very survival of my sons. i went with my family to riyadh, staying in a hotel suite of a relative of my wife. in the beginning, i had to pay for the food. days later our stay at the hotel was free, and that included food. i did not tell my family about it because they were used to ordering what they needed. even my father used to go to the grocery store near the hotel to buy bottles of water, the cheapest, to ease the hotel bill on me. i did not tell my father or my sons until today that the refreshments they rarely asked with food, and if they did, they shared the drinks although they were free. i did so although i knew they felt they were a bit deprived of the way of living they were so used to. however, the aim was to rationalize, most importantly i wanted my family to get accustomed to unjustified spending especially since our future as refugees was not reassuring. our generation and the generation of our sons have lived the golden period in kuwait’s history, years that will never return, and therefore we are all required to rationalize our spending, although an individual can act rationally. the government, which is managed by individuals, can also do so. the governments in developed countries know how to act in times of crises, and adapt the conditions of their people to what is better. in conclusion, i want to say we are not experiencing a financial crisis, but intellectual and moral crisis. therefore, our proposal to reduce the dinar exchange rate is not intended to call on the government to tighten restrictions on people of limited income, but to rationalize our actions, which will automatically change when we feel that the government is serious in its austerity plans and serious in creating a climate of rational spending and action. let us adjust the dinar exchange rate, even by a few fils, and we will see within days that those who, for example, travel five or 10 times a year will unconsciously decide to stay in the country. those who travel first class will change to business class, and the latter to economy. we will find a majority becoming more rational with consumption of water and electricity, even food, and so on. taxation is also another effective tool for adjusting people’s behavior and driving them to spend their money in the best manner to satisfy their needs, after prioritizing their needs. time has come to stop irrational spending which has lasted for a long time.
