Jaber concurs, saying "that when it comes to parliamentary elections, he has no choice other than voting for whomever his father and uncles are voting for. It is more of a tradition to follow the elders, he said, and admitted that it should not be that way anymore, especially in today's Kuwait."
On the other hand, some students do, in fact, leave the Islamist blocs.
Afnan, who is a British-Kuwaiti, noted, "No matter how different [you are and feel], though, you can always find someone to accept these differences."
Qatari notes, "Afnan, who is half-British, half-Kuwaiti, is a supporter of the Democratic Circle. She says that throughout her five years in KU, she worked with Al-Islamiyah, a Shiite bloc that clearly supports Shiite MPs, and then moved to Mostaqillah [Independence group], and finally started to work for the Circle."
Afnan adds, "I don't get harsh judgment from people here in the Circle because of the way I look or of my bad Arabic. They never make me feel like I'm a stranger. I feel as if I'm a member of a cult where everyone accepts everyone's difference and where they don't bullsh** you, but actually work with you transparently."
Finally, Afnan concluded by saying "she is going to as many candidates' headquarters as possible this year. She will base her judgment on their principles and goals afterwards."
She declares, "I already short listed a few," she said.
OTHER NEWS FROM KUWAIT AND IRAQ
All the weekend newspapers in the Gulf covered the report that a Kuwaiti, who had been released from the infamous prison at Guantanamo Bay, had killed himself and others in a suicide bombing attack in Iraq in April.
"A cousin said Abdullah Saleh Al-Ajmi, a Kuwaiti who was released from Guantánamo in 2005, was reported missing two weeks ago. His family learned of his death Thursday through a friend in Iraq, al-Arabiya said." In short, Al-Ajimi had been released from Gitmo without charge, indicating that there had been known grounds for charging him found after three years of incarceration there.
Al-Ajmi had been missing for several weeks this past month before his family in Kuwait learned of the former-army man's death in Iraq.
That's right. Al-Ajmi had been on leave from the Kuwait military at the time he was captured in Pakistan in 2002, and he was there ostensibly doing volunteer work-- helping children in Pakistan.
No one in Kuwait is openly stating or charging that whatever psychological scars he might have received at Gitmo may have led to Al-Ajmi's recent journey to Syria and his killing himself in a bombing in Iraq.
UM ALI
The "Mother of Ali" is a famous fortune teller in Kuwait. Perhaps Kuwaitis could turn her for answers about whether Al-Ajmi had earned the heart and soul of a suicide bomber before or after his three years in Gitmo.
"Um Ali" is a term of endearment for a women who is raising interest in the occult in Kuwait through her ability to predict the future. For example, she says that the new "parliament's members will be new faces" after this election.
As a Kuwaiti figure, Um Ali is quite popular and has been predicting the future based on dreams since her early childhood. She comes from a great tradition in Kuwait of such fortune tellers, including one from the royal al-Sabah family who predicted the location of oil in the Kuwaiti desert in the 1930s.
