I heard that the Cabinet resigned yesterday. Again. This is about the third time they have tendered their resignation since I arrived. The Cabinet are government officials appointed by the Amir. Each time they resign, things go on hold for a while until the Amir appoints a new Cabinet… who look remarkably similar to the last. The Cabinet has been resigning because of their difficulty in dealing with members of Parliament.

Parliament is made up of elected officials because – after all – Kuwait is a Democracy. And these elected officials perform the same function as elected officials everywhere: they protect their phony-baloney jobs by not doing anything that they can be blamed for. That is why Kuwait’s development is stagnant compared to that of its sister countries. There’s a development just outside the city that sits vacant and unfinished because there is no electricity. And there is no electricity because one MP decided to save hundreds of thousands by NOT building any more power plants (though they did pay the developer for screwing up his plans). There has been a stimulus package to deal with the financial crisis (here as well) sitting at their desks for months that has yet to come to a vote. Add to this that the Parliament consists mostly of hard liners and Islamists (freely elected by the people) and you can see why the Cabinet keeps resigning. The main reason this time has been the constant calls from the Islamists to ‘grill’ the Amir to see if he is as holy as they are.

So rumor has it that the next step for this little, America-friendly democracy is that the Amir will dissolve Parliament for two years. This is a move that a lot of people – especially expats and the business community – are hoping for.

In Dubai, an edict was issued this week to clamp down on those bawdy, noisy and drunken tourists that it caters to. The new rules make it a crime to wear short-shorts in public or be caught exhibiting public displays of affection. Bikinis on public beaches are a no-no, as are public dancing, loud music or swearing. I wish them luck with this. I mean – you have to remember where you are. In Dubai, people tend to forget they are in a Muslim country. Remember that American boy in Malaysia who was whipped for spitting gum on the ground? That British couple who was caught having sex on the beach SHOULD have been thrown in jail for a spell. But this act will be a problem for Dubai. First – they are bleeding money and any further blow to tourism will wreck the place. Their main source of revenue is wealthy Westerners, celebrities and the Russian mob. Neither group is very good at rules. Then – the numbers are against them. Right now the ratio of expats to Emerati is probably 20 to 1. The ratio of non-Muslim to Muslim may be around 10 to 1. That’s a HUGE amount of skirts to be checking the length of – and we’re not even talking about the prostitutes.

Strange days, indeed…

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