Incidentally, for those readers now living outside of Kuwait, it will be surprising to learn that very few of any of these varied respondents mentioned any level of fear of war overflowing from Iraq or Iran in Kuwait.
This is likely because in the last 5 years only a few terrorist attacks, threats of attacks, or robberies have been reported in the press in Kuwait.
Therefore, it should be understandable that many other issues of safety are more important in the daily lives of the 3 million (mostly foreign born) residents who live in Kuwait. The wars or rumors of war abroad are reported but as Kuwait is not at war with Iraq and as Kuwait currently prohibits its citizens from participating in the current occupation of Iraq, the war seem light years away at times—even though in actuality it is only an hour or two away by car.
FINDINGS OF MY RESEARCH ON “SENSE OF SAFETY” IN KUWAIT In response to the first question, these are some of the tremendous variety of responses: (1) What is your general feeling about safety in Kuwait? Is it very safe? Only safe in certain areas and/or at certain times of day?--“It seems safe.”
--“Safe, concerning crime.”
--“I feel it is safer than some cities/or most cities in the U.S., but being so close to a ware zone, always need to be aware of surroundings.”--“Yes, but in the desert there are dangers”, i.e. reckless boys on three wheel buggies, and some animals, like scorpions.
--“The cities are most safe, but some deserts are surrounded by bombs.”--“Yes, Kuwait is a safe place to live in, however, residential areas of local Kuwaitis need improvement in safety measures. At noon or night it is not safe for peddlers (and commuters).”
--“Depends on other country(ies), Kuwait is very safe.”--“Kuwait is safe at certain times of day.”
--“I think there are different places (that are safe)like at home, at school, at shops or supermarket.”--“No, it is not safe. Well can’t say because every now and then there is problem everywhere. It’s mostly (unsafe) during the evenings.”
The overall variety of respondents felt that only location and time of day led to lack of comfort in moving about in Kuwait. Only a few males claimed that Kuwait was very safe. In response to the second question, these are some of the tremendous variety of responses: (2) At what times are you most concerned personally about safety?--“At night.”
--“When I am driving at night.”--“Rush hours (7 to 9am), (12-2pm), (5-7pm) & weekend and nights.”
--“When I’m not at home or in school.”--“If I am alone in the mall.”
--“Riding in the bus because you can’t get out if there’s trouble.”--“When a guy dies in front of you and you can’t do anything.”
--“When driving on the road (being driven) or as a pedestrian crossing the road.”--“After 3am”, i.e. drag racing time scenes are around Kuwait in early mornings
--“Like I said, it’s only on the roads and highways and that has no particular time.”--“When I ride a car with a bad driver.”
--“In the malls on weekends because of the fights.” When discussing personal safety, the female respondents showed greater variety of fears for all locations and times in contrast to male respondents. Moreover, Asian respondents felt more fear more of the time than did either Arabs or Westerners.In response to the third question, these are some of the tremendous variety of responses:
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