A Crane in the neck!

Kuwait has been bitten by the construction bug. Everywhere you go, you see buildings being constructed at a furious pace. Gone are the days when it would take over a year to get a building constructed. Nowadays you have a 12 storey apartment complex come up in about 6 months!

What really bothers me apart from the shoddy construction that starts to crumble even before you've managed arrange your furniture, is the way the entire process is managed. Cranes blocking the street during peak traffic hours, scaffolding material lying around on a public road along with cement and rubble. It's bad enough that the standard of material the contractors use is poor, now the standard of contruction is just as bad if not worse. Apart from causing huge blockages in traffic which can be a nuisance when you're off to work in the morning, what's worse is they do it like it's their damn birthright - to block streets.

There are numerous methods of construction (mainly adopted in developed countries) that require minimal usage of public areas. Seeing how technology has improved so much that you can (seemingly) build complexes in a matter of months, I'm sure the same can be done to conserve the sanity of the landscape around construction sites! In fact in places in Europe and North America, contractors are fined heavily for blocking public access, something the government in Kuwait should seriously think about considering the construction boom that has hit the country.

For now I am just annoyed at having to take a longer route to get the the highway from my house thanks to two large cranes that have partially and completely blocked access for me respectively. A crane in the neck I tell you........or is it 2 cranes in the ass? ;-)

Indian TV - It gets worse by the day!

I'm not saying I have all the time in the world to watch cheesy Indian talent shows but when it's Ramadan and you get home at 4:30 and have lunch, you can't take a nap too soon, you can't work on anything from home so what do you do? Watch some Indian telly.

And from my last post where I pointed out how judges show partiality towards certain contestants it get worse. Now some dingbat judge (we know her as Alka Yagnik) decides that women are getting voted out on purpose and it's a big conspiracy etc etc. The channel then goes on to air sentimental footage on how some ladies think it's unfair that boys get all the votes and the girl that is ousted gets another chance.

Damn you people, do you know anything about TV programming? And what's with the hosts saying it a show for the junta and right out of the blues, judges are given veto powers, arguing rights and permission to show affection towards one contestant? This might be good for TV ratings but it puts a very bad taste in some peoples' mouths. Especially the people who think India is one of the world's largest democracies!