When asked about the future of tribalism in Kuwait, Dr. Al-Haddad noted that once the benefits of tribalism can be erased, i.e. providing jobs and connections to governments and ministries, the need for the tribe would disappear politically and economically.
He believes that in the long-run education and diminishing returns for being a tribesmen in the modern world will reduce the pull and power of tribalist tendencies in Kuwait society.
This would leave tribes only dealing with social matters and the role of the family.
Dr. Al-Haddad is hopeful that this situation will evolve slowly in Kuwait, especially with Kuwait's youth clamoring more and more for fairer access to jobs and the opportunity to govern better than their parents and grandparents have.
NO ONE MENTIONS THE OBVIOUS
As the large multinational and multicultural audience listened to Dr. Al-Haddad's lecture that evening, no one mentioned the obvious: That is, if Kuwait would grant citizenship rights to long-time residents of Kuwait-and not base citizenship on tribal blood lines-Kuwait could become a modern state much more quickly.
There are currently 2 million non-citizens in a country of 3 million people in Kuwait.
There are probably nearly one-million people, for example, who have lived in Kuwait more than 7 years or were born here. If citizenship was granted to all these folks, the political landscape would change significantly because politicians & government would not only have to listen to tribesmen but to thousands of others in their voting districts each election period.
The conditions of the majority of people living and working in the country of Kuwait-the naturally wealthiest per square kilometer in the Gulf--would improve drastically as well. This is because political franchise would become spread out more equally throughout the society.
NOTES
Garcia, Ben, "Tribalism: A Social Phenomena in Kuwait", http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=NjI5ODA0ODEx "Kuwait dissolves parliament, sets May 17 election date", http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5igKC7in0Kqf2xAbW3TFF8a3ahhdA Longva, Anh Nga, (2006) "Nationalism in Modern Guise: The Discourse of Hadher and Badu in Kuwait", International Journal of Middle East, Cambridge University Press. Al-Husaini, Meshari, "An Investigation Into Factors That May Contribute to School Violence in Male High Schools in Kuwait" (dissertation) http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-04272004-210004/unrestricted/MeshariDissertation.pdf "Police use teargas to disperse tribesmen" http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=Njc5Nzk0MjE0
