(3) I would be arrested arbitrarily or given a fine without fair treatment before the law.
In Japan of the early 1990s, I recall feeling radically free—at times even leaving my personal luggage on the platform of trains and going to coffee shops to have a bite to eat.
Similarly, in both the UAE and in Kuwait, I have felt comfortable taking long walks at night by myself at all hours of the day or night & in whatever grungy or ghetto-like neighborhood I was in.
However, within a few months of moving to Kuwait, my own sense of ease & safety began to diminish at moments, for example, as I went swimming off the beaches of Kuwait.
There on the seacoast and along the beaches it was quite obvious that jet skiers of all ages thought nothing of approaching a swimmer at 35 to 55 mph—just to have the fun of frightening others, me, and other watchers scattered around the waters or on the beach.
I observed that this did not occur simply because I was a foreigner.
This also happened to Arabs, South Asians, and anyone else on the seaside.
During my presentation at the AWARE Center last month , I learned from the audience that other residents in Kuwait were put un-at-ease and felt both a sense of urgency and danger in their free time—even when onshore or in boats on the Gulf due to the proximity of these reckless jet skiers.
Last August 2007 the FRIDAY TIMES presented a lengthy an article on the Gulf State phenomena endangering the lives of recreational swimmers and boaters:
In summary, my zone of comfort and sense of safety during my free time was became smaller and smaller every time I attempted to go swimming—which was 3 or more times a week during the hot hot summers here.
The same sense of spike in lack of a comfort zone occurred the next year (in 2005) as I purchased a old car and started driving around the cities of Kuwait on my own, i.e. instead of taking a taxi or public bus.
Since that date ( April 2005) , I have been hit by cars or have had cars jump in front of my own vehicle at high speed dozens of times. I have been involved in 7 collisions of one sort or another.
One of those collisions was even intentional and at done at 65 mph. This was when a tailgating red taxi had bumped me--simply because he thought I was going too slow at 65 mph.
More than ironically, less than 20 minutes prior to my speaking on “Sense of Safety in Kuwait” at the AWARE Center that January 22, a young Kuwaiti female driver hit my car from the U-turn lane side--from which she was turning-too-wide into my lane.
ONE THEORY TO EXPLAIN GROWING LACK OF SAFETY IN KUWAITBefore presenting the findings of the survey from this first stage of my research on “the sense of safety of Kuwaiti residents”, I need to note that I have posited a theory about the root causes of some of the growing perception of a lack of safety in some facets of the Kuwait experience.
This theory is that a greater awareness and wide-ranging societal dialogue about proxemics could lead to less insecurity in one’s comfort zone while living in and moving around Kuwait. Who knows? Perhaps a sound awareness campaign could reduce accidents and stress in Kuwait by 10 to 20 percent each year.
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
