Fasttelco has been going through some changes over the last 6 months and mostly for the good. One of thing they are doing that I like is that they are looking for creative Kuwaitis to joining their team and I like that they are looking for people with or without experience. Its good when companies such as these takes this step, and its the step in the right direction.

Over the last year I have noticed a lot of items increase in price, and some drastically like plane tickets. Increase of fuel prices have one part of it, then there are a lot of other factors and one that I never knew of. We are considered a War Zone which causes the cost of items coming to Kuwait to increase in price. One of the main factors is insurance, to insure items coming to Kuwait including the planes flying here have increased three fold. Thats is why shipping costs have increased drastically over the last few years. I bought four tires for my car and it cost 620 KWD when the same tires cost about 480 KWD the same time last year which is a drastic increase, and one of those increases sited was shipping as well as the shortage of rubber.

The List:

• Egypt
• Syria
• Jordan
• Lebanon
• Saudi Arabia
• Kuwait
• UAE
• Bahrain
• Yemen
• Iraq
• Iran

Surprisingly Qatar is not on the list, and I do not know why some countries like Kuwait and UAE are on that list. With the way things are going we will never be off that list and some costs seem to keep going up instead of down. With all the floods and earthquakes asia has been facing there has been increases in pricing from cars & rubber to hard drives & electronics. I was wondering how countries get on this list and how to get off of it.

Over the last few years there have been incidents where I have had some interaction with private hospitals from normal cases to emergency cases which could be fatal. There is a lot that can be said about Kuwait’s medical system, one simple thought that comes to mind is that it is that we are lacking hospitals. And a few private hospitals have popped out but they aren’t as good as people have in mind.

Public:

When it comes to serious cases in Kuwait they always go to the Public sector, they have really good doctors and there are that people that care. It is sad seeing people get caught in the bureaucracy which is rampant in the public hospitals they end up not getting the medical treatment that is needed. Then there is the lack of professional care, half the recovery is after the surgery or when you are in the case of the nurses and in the public hospitals the employees are slightly disgruntled or do what they can with what they have.

What we need is some new hospitals and a drastic cut in the bureaucracy, our hospitals are in disarray and badly maintained with patchwork keeping it together. The same person cleaning the bathrooms is the same person serving the patients food which is a disaster. For country such as Kuwait it sad to see the state of these hospitals even when our doctors are really good. We really do have good doctors but sadly they get disheartened and we loose some of them who become prominent doctors in Europe, Canada, and the US.

Private:

There are a few private hospitals that have popped over the last few years and some of them are decent. But what I always feel about private hospitals is that they are trying to squeeze every penny out of you, not necessarily trying to rob you bling but a bit going over board.

One very drastic problem with private hospitals is that they will not accept dangerous cases or accidents which has happened with me personally. I was taking someone in who had a severe head injury and was refused entry by security at the door even though he was covered in blood from his head to his waist. I put him back in my car and flew to Mubarak Hospital who took him in right away and got him into surgery.

Then there is the drastic lack of equipment and expertise in emergency or complex cases. They all say they have emergency rooms or floors but in reality they don’t have the adequate equipment to handle them and this we have also experienced. There has to be some sort of oversight by the government to make sure they are ready for all types of cases which they are not. They might have nice buildings, clean areas, and smiling staff but still they aren’t equipped for every type of issue.

I got a chance to check out GUST for the first time, and they had the GulfRun booth in the center next to FoilArt & Zain. This was my first time to enter the GUST campus in Mishref and I have to say that I was impressed as an outsider the only thing that they are missing is a parking structure even though it does have ample parking. I didn’t walk through the facility completely but I was impressed with what I did see, and I really liked the spirit of the students.

The Carnival is an event organized by the Student Association and I have to say they did a very good job organizing it. I like the setup and it was in a nice area with a lot of walking space, and in the circular courtyard were the food booths. There were a lot of student entrepreneurs and its great to see them trying to sell their products and services. The funny part for me was seeing the GulfRun booth just in front of Zain since the Wataniya Logos were all over the cars, but they seemed to be a good sport about it, and the Zain Zone people were pretty nice. My surprise was seeing the Lotus 211 parked right there and the Lamborghini Aventador parked on the side walk as well. While I was roaming around I also picked up a lot of Kettle Corn from Popcornopolis.

Its been too long since I have had my car detailed, I have even drove it much over the year. I took it for a very necessary service to get the beemer in optimal state, and I still had a few of the GulfRun stickers on the car. They fully detailed the car which took about a day and a half so I picked it up the next morning. Full exterior, interior, and engine detail brought the car back to a beautiful shine, damn it looked even better then it was at the dealer for the first time.

Whenever I leave Al Falah Car Wash I have to keep in mind that my tires were shined and just washed so I have to take it easy when I leave. But I just couldn’t help myself in such a clean car I just wanted to drive like a bat out of hell, and the roads were completely empty, I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face as I was driving down the highway with the music blasting.

Link: AlFalahCarWash
Phone: 2245 2432

Feed the dinosaurs, pet a leopard, moonwalk with an astronaut or brave a storm. Zain in cooperation with 360 MALL & National Geographic Channel, brings to you the spectacular world of augmented reality. Step in and be transported.

Venue: Main Atrium. Date: 22nd-25th December. Time: 10am-10pm.

For more info call : 1800360

Honestly this is something amazing by Zain & 360 Mall, to bring the Augmented Reality technology to our mall and all these kids to try it out. I heard from some family and friends that it really is amazing, and the kids love it.

This was a bit of a different type Wednesday night full of car fuel and lots drivers and some very cool machines. There were even PS3 Racing Units in the back from XCite that people were driving the F1 tracks on and taking it very seriously. This is GulfRun’s Seventh event and it just keeps on growing, they showed us a few different events that they have planned for Bahrain not including whats coming up in the car show. Again the best part was eating the shawarma in the chilly weather, it really warmed you up.

I loved seeing all the familiar faces and also meeting a lot of new people, its like a get together of a lot of good people. Then there was the lovely collection of cars, as usual the star of the show is the Porsche 993 Gemballa which is a gem to see, then there was the Ferrari 599, a CST-V out front, and a very very interesting 700+ horsepower Hennessy Camaro. Always something interesting to find out especially about the new machines joining this year which honestly have me scared out of my wits because of what they are capable of. The GulfRun 360 Mall Car Show is taking place on the 13th and 14th of June which is going to have the very interesting line up. GulfRun 7 takes place in Bahrain International Circuit on the 26th and 27th of January, it really is around the corner. You could feel your adrenaline rise while you are in that warehouse everybody was talking cars, parts, tools, garages, and what they need to do to prepare.

Pictures Stolen From BrakeBanzeen :P

I was passing by Shuweikh the other day and decided to pass by Audi to check out the S8 only to spot an Aventador parked in the lobby. So I walked over to the other side to see a mean Stealth Grey Aventador parked right in front of me, I always thought it was a beautiful machine, but pictures do not do it justice at all, it is a completely different creature when you see it in front of you.

It is extreme in its design and its performance, uncompromising in its standards and technology, and unmistakably Italian in its style and perfection. This machine looks like its speeding while parked in that showroom, then I got a sneak peak to see one getting prepared for his owner, Mashalla mashalla I was in awe. I loved the machine in both Stealth Grey and the lovely hue of Orange.

Is 0-62 Mph in 2.9 seconds fast enough? Well thats what the Aventador can do and thats even faster then a lot of bikes. And when I sat inside that cockpit I felt like I was about to go to warp speed, so after Lamborghini builds these machines they will build the Star Trek Enterprise, when your sitting inside the vehicle you feel like you are inside a Jet Fighter which is ready to fly into space. Technology has been infused into this machine perfectly the driver digital display feels like something out of Minority Report, completely digital and changes to what you need, all I needed was to start the turbines, adjust the flaps, and I fly out. And yes I started the car and I was about to drool, I was already mesmerized by the way it looks and the sound just took it to another level.

GBI and FastTelco agreement – The agreement will provide FASTtelco with connectivity on routes both within the Gulf and onward to Europe. The GBI Cable System will provide FASTtelco with greater choice, value, diversity and resilience for their traffic.

Scheduled to it launch its operations at the end of 2011 and designed to operate for up to 25 years, the GBI cable system will connect to all the Gulf countries and provide onward connectivity to Europe and Asia. The cable system is designed around a core ring, which can re-route traffic thereby increasing resilience. With a design capacity of up to 5 terabits per second on certain cable sections, the GBI cable system will have the capability to meet the rapid growth in demand that has been forecast for traffic originating and terminating in Gulf.

For those who don’t know GBI or Gulf Bridge International is a multinational company established in the Gulf for the sole purpose of providing connectivity to all the international carriers and the Gulf Nations. Participating nations are Saudi, Kuwait, Bahrain, UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, and Iraq. Basically large amounts of fiber connected by all these countries so if the cable gets cut you still have connectivity and its like negotiating with these large providers but with a lot more users then one ISP and big ISPs in the US, Europe, and Asia.

I have seen Fasttelco vastly improve over the past two years and especially the last 9 months. I have been using them and very happy with their service, and especially since they were the first to remove those ridiculous Data CAPs from the ISPs. And now with this addition it will help maintain their service, increase their capacity and provide them with a fallback plan if the cable in Gulf Sea or Mediterranean gets cut since GBI has a lot of routes and connected to a lot of carriers.

Zain originally has a 40% or 60% stake in Mada Communications, and it seems they are in the works to make it 100% at this stage. Mada has gotten a lot of good press for their WiMax services which they launch just before summer and the turbulent times of the Data Caps. Overall people are happy with their current services with Mada, they do have their issues when they update the towers, some times it increases speeds and sometimes they decrease the speeds drastically. Overall I think they have somewhat evened out, getting between 5 – 8 MB which is honestly really good but not the initial 10 – 11 MB that we used to get. The way their current system works is that they have a unit attached to every Zain Tower in a concentrated area that they cover, and each one has about a 2KM radius, that is why it is very different from location to location. Their Mada also provides other services but thats for corporate services that they give primarily to Zain. So it makes sense that Zain wants to buy them out but the question is will things change for the users?

Now the item in Question… Data Caps?

Since Zain has them, will they be applied under new management, what are exactly the implications we face. I’m not sure if the management will change but I do know how Zain are about their branding, what is theirs has to adhere to their rules. The system that Mada uses won’t put stress on Zain’s current 3G data network so I hope that they would let Mada’s current policies of no capping to continue and hopefully expand on it. Its always good to see services improve and expand and I hope its the case with this.