Everybody welcome back to a brand new episode of Geography Now, thanks for your patience. I know you've been, Ku-waiting.
Heh heh heh heh heh heh...
(slap)
(Music)
It's time to learn geography, now!
Everyone I'm your host Barb's.
Yeah, we got a whole new set of intros, outros and transition slides.
, Ken made them. Follow him on instagram. Give him a round of applause.
Now when we cover Arab countries, I try really hard to explain how each of them is unique and distinguishable from the others?
I mean clearly a Yemeni will be pretty different from a Lebanese person, so what makes Kuwait stick out?
Well, let's find out by starting out with another cool transition slide.
One last time we were in the Gulf, was it Bahrain? No no is Iran? - No it was Iraq! Iraq, yes Iraq.
Yeah
This place has a lot of interesting people surrounding it. First of all,
Kuwait is located on the northeastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula.
At the tip of the Persian Gulf bordered by Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
*Gasp* You called it Pers- We've been over this like four times. I'm not doing it again.
The country owns nine main islands. The largest being Bubiyan right at the border with Iraq on the Khasr-Az-Zubayr waterway.
The capital is Kuwait City located on the bay whereas the country is divided into Six Governorates.
The country is currently almost complete with finishing the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah Causeway
which is set to cross the bay connecting the main city, Kuwait City to the northern part, effectively cutting traffic in half.
The largest city is of course Kuwait City
Which also holds the country's one and only International Airport, Kuwait International.
Whereas the other airports are just for military use like the US military base camp Buehring.
The largest cities outside of Kuwait City's metropolitan area would be Abdali in the north and Al Wafrah in the south.
However, the country's hoping that a ton of people will move into the Sabah Al-Ahmad Sea city after completion,
known for being the "opposite and more eco-friendly version of Dubai's Palm City" because it's like:
Kuwait: Hey Emirates. What are you doing?
UAE : Yeah? Umm Um, just making artificial islands.
Kuwait: How does that work?
UAE: Well see, I siphoned the land up from the bottom of the sea up and then voila a new island appears.
Kuwait: Well wouldn't that like actually destroy most the coral reefs and kill all the fish?
UAE: Either way how you kind of have a better idea on how to make a...
Kuwait: Well actually I do. you see in Kuwait, we just build artificial waterways
and let the sea naturally funnel through them through tidal gates. That way we don't destroy the ecosystem.
UAE: Uhh Okay, here's like 50 dirham. Just just shut up. Okay
Kuwait: That's cute. My currency is way higher in value than you!
UAE: Ohhh you....!
Otherwise, some places of interest might include places like:
The Old Souk, Avenues Mall,
Aqua Park, The Scientific Museum, Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Center,
Al Mubarakiya, Kuwait Towers,
360 Mall, the Mirror House, Jaber Al-Ahmad Stadium, Al-Shaheed Park, Al Hamra Tower and Mall
One another weird but kind of cool thing that maybe you can check out.
If you go to the northern border with Iraq, you can see all the residue from the Gulf War times,
destroyed oil fields that have solidified into tar and near the South you can see a ton of industrial pipelines and refinery buildings.
That's where Kuwait's little secret lies. Perfect opportunity for us to jump into the next part, shall we?
For those of you that know at least a little bit about Kuwait, images of the burning oil fields from the 90s Gulf War are
are probably what get conjured up when you hear the word 'Kuwait'.
Fair enough, I mean that was a thing that happened.
I mean they are the world's third largest oil producer holding about 104 billion barrels
and reserves almost 10% of the entire world supply mostly found in Bergenfield,
but hey, There's a little bit more to Kuwait than just oil - like what?
Water. Water? Water.
Now if you watched one of our previous episodes that
I loved researching so much that I literally went there because I was curious, Bahrain
You'll probably know how Kuwait, a dry desolate desert country with no permanent bodies of water gets its water.
Rain? - No. - Wells? - Not really... - Waterfalls?
I said no permanent water bodies.
Waterfalls aren't necessarily permanent. They can halt if conditions cause the thing to occur.
OK That's true but,
Ok Barby, you clearly need some help.
Kuwait like many other countries gets hydrated primarily through desalinization plants.
In fact, Kuwait was the first country in the world to introduce desalinization as a primary supplier of water
to a large scale population back in the 50s.
The iconic landmark symbolizing the nation, the Kuwait Towers are in themselves Water Towers that store up water.
Well, these two are but this one holds equipment and controls the power of these two
and this one also has a cafe and rotating restaurant on top and this smaller sphere thing.
Thank You Noah. You guys asked for more of Noah so I gave it to you.
Alright, my turn! Uhh let's see.
The highest point is only about 110 meters tall. There's the Bubiyan Island Wetland Conservation where birds flock to.
The national animal is the Golden Falcon. Uhhhh,
On all those Shamal winds from Iraq that we talked about in the Iraq episode made Kuwait generally colder than its neighbors.
Seriously, sometimes you see people wearing this which is called a Bisht.
This was actually sent to me in the Jamaica flag/fan Friday episode in which one of you guys an actual Kuwaiti person,
Abdul Aziz, you sent it to me. I actually get to use your gift in the Kuwait episode. Isn't that cool? You rock man!
Also he sent these sandals and this fan.
Speaking of which, summers can be swelteringly hot. It's not uncommon to reach over 50 degrees Celsius.
It's so hot that they literally had to change their national day from June 19th of February 25th
to allow the people to celebrate comfortably and not die outdoors.
Otherwise outside of oil, Kuwait used to be known for having some of the most sought-after pearls harvested from wild oysters.
The problem was somewhere in like 1916, this happened.
Kuwait: I'll never lose this industry. I'm on top of the world!
Japan: Wait, why don't I just cultivate these oysters and artificially graph them so that I can manufacture pearls on a large and controlled scale?
Kuwait: Oh No, you little!
And that's kind of how that ended, but yeah again, oil. So yeah.
Security Cushion!
But anyway. Enough on all of that. Let's see another cool transition slide, shall we?
Kuwaiti, that's what you call these people, Kuwaitis
Not Kuwaiti-an, not Kuwaitian, not Kuwaitinese, Kuwaiti.
Alright first of all,
the country has about 4.2 million people and is the second richest GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) Country after Qatar.
Remember guys, Qatar, not Katarrr!
Now here's where things get a little interesting. Out of all the people in Kuwait,
only about 30% are actual Kuwaiti people and citizens whom identify as Arab as well.
about 70% of the country is populated by non-citizen expatriates.
You get a lot of this type of population dynamic in the Gulf countries. Don't be too shocked.
Wait till we get to Qatar.
Out of the remaining 70% of expatriates, another 30% or so are Arabs coming from places like Iraq and Egypt
while the remainder of the population mostly comes from a slew of Asian countries mostly
Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, *Indonesia* , even some Filipinos tagging along.
The small three or so percent are made Africans and Europeans again mostly expats.
They also use the Kuwaiti dinar as their currency which as of 2018 is the highest valued currency in the world.
They use the type C and G plug outlets and they drive on the right side of the road.
Oh and by the way for those of you that don't know, an expat is like
How can I put it? It's it's like this:
I'm rich, but I don't want to hire my own countrymen because they're all rich and won't work for me.
Plus, they're kind of whiny and lazy. You know I need a cheap, but desperate workforce.
I'll do it!
Great! So okay, you can like legally live here for a long time, but remember, you do not actually belong here and most likely never will.
Ok? OK!
Whoa you actually became a citizen.
Yeah, I married a Kuwaiti and paperwork was pretty easy after that so you know...
Awesome! You're one of us now. Welcome to the rare few. (Yes!)
Oh by the way you're too expensive now sooo, you're fired.
Keep in mind, Kuwaiti citizens do work, it's just mostly high-end positions
as they rarely ever find themselves in lower tier jobs that are filled by expats.
Oh and keep in mind, being a GCC citizen is like highly valued in the Arab world, but anyway.
What does it mean to be a Kuwaiti and how is it different from all the other Gulf countries?
That's a little hard to answer, but I asked you guys the Kuwaiti subscribers and this is what you said:
For one, Kuwait is kind of a monarchy run by a crown prince today it being this guy.
However, they have a strange inheritance law in which an Emir and Prince kind of alternate the rule.
It's hard to understand but yeah. Sometimes there can be an Emir, sometimes a crown prince. Whatever Kuwait.
Also Kuwait has a lot more Shias estimated to be anywhere as high as 40% of the population but numbers are hard to come by.
Otherwise in addition to Bahrain, Kuwait has some of the freest religion laws in the Gulf.
Christians make up about 17% of the population mostly expats.
Churches have been built and around 400 Kuwaiti citizens in themselves are Christians.
Otherwise all other religions mostly Hindus and Buddhists make up the remaining 13 or so percent of expats
and they were allowed to worship freely as well.
Kuwaitis have a little accent apparently. most of them pronounce their Js like Ys.
So the word for new, "Jadeed" would be pronounced "Yideed".
Kuwait is the only place where you can find robot camel races with remote-controlled jockeys.
It used to be children jockeys But then there was like a child abuse law thing going on to cancel it
yadda, yadda yadda
That boob, you people are so soft on your kids.
Kuwaitis supposedly also wear their clothes a little differently. This is what I was told.
Yo Ken! I need you to model for me.
For men, the thwabs or "Dishdashas" as it's referred to in Kuwait
have collars popped up, single button with a slim fit and now this, the Ghotra and Agal.
Now every area wears it differently and there's like an art to it
But I've been told the Kuwaiti style is balanced and even looking.
Also I think most of them would probably wear a white white Ghotra, not a plaid red one
Sorry, this was a gift given to me from Geograpeep Sultan, when I was in Saudi Arabia. Thanks man.
Dude, I love this. I love using your gifts in episode.
Thank you Ken! Great.
As for women, Kuwaiti women are disputely the least likely to wear hijabs in public in the GCC.
Some just settle for hair caps but you can tell if a woman is Kuwaiti or an expat based off of whether or not,
she wears big sunglasses with something maybe leathery and jewelry makeup and has a luxury brand purse
and the same kind of goes for all GCC women.
Speaking of women, Kuwait is known for having the best models in the Gulf
as well as some of the most popular soap operas in the entire Arab world.
Kuwait like many other Arab states has quite a few tribes and clans
but the two biggest ones are the Handar city dwellers, and the rural Bedouins.
Now keep in mind, Bedouins are like everywhere in the Arab world.
They're nomads. They're like that weird retired uncle who sold his house and drives around in an RV every day for the rest of his life.
Anyway, history time!
Bani Utubah settle in the area and start fishing. They become famous for their boats,
Alexander the Great, Persians, Rashidun Caliphate,
pretty much every other caliphate after that, Ottomans get a little touchy,
East India Company gets in on it,
They sign a treaty and become a British protectorate to fend off the Ottoman Empire,
Great Depression hits hard, 1961 independence,
Iran-Iraq war messed things up a bit,
Kuwait does not forgive Iraq's debt, tension begins, Iraq invades, Gulf War,
Shortly after they prosper once again,
2005, women got the right to vote and run into elections.
HDI becomes one of the highest in the Arab world and here we are today.
And to close off this segment, some notable people from Kuwait might include people like:
Safaa Al Hashem, Abdul Al Hussein Abdul Reha,
Nawal (El Kuwaita), Abdullah Ruwashid, Daffy, Bader Al Mutawaa, Fehaid Al Deehani,
Hammod Al Khither, Marzouq Al Ghanin and Saleh Ajeery (this picture probably isn't him).
Kuwait is known for being the 'Level-headed loved one of the Gulf', which is why they cooperate so well in the area.
Let's discuss more that in our final new transition slide segment of,
Okay. So once again, I'm pretty sure you're all aware of the fact that the GCC countries are close
and will probably be mentioned in the segment as Kuwait's best friends.
However, let's break down the GCC just a little bit, so you have a little bit more insight.
Saudi Arabia is like the big mack daddy kingpin head honcho,
The UAE and Qatar are like fraternal twins that hate each other,
Bahrain is Saudi Arabia's girlfriend that is always getting hit on by Iran,
Oman is like the wise old uncle and Yemen is like his loud ex-wife.
And then comes in Kuwait, the older attractive quieter sister of the gulf, who usually mediates between all this drama.
Iraq is like the ex-ex-ex-boyfriend that she hooked up with and then broke up with multiple times
and while they're on break, he kind of had a fling with Qatar but broke that off too.
But when the Gulf states were all against him, she still kind of remembered the good times and was like "no comment".
Outside of the region though, Kuwait actually kind of favors the US and UK
due to the historical ties of being a protectorate under the UK.
And also the U.S., helping out with getting rid of her ex-boyfriend's drunken invasion back in the Gulf War.
When it comes to their best friends though, most of the Kuwaitis i've talked to has said in the end, Saudi Arabia.
Even though some small issues have popped up here and there, Saudis and Kuwaitis are siblings
that we'll always have a strong bond that goes back thousands of years back to the humble fishing village days when it all began.
In conclusion, Kuwait was kind of like the first one to really kick off the whole 'Managing and exponential prosperous Gulf nation' thing into the 20th century.
and through modernization, through the battles, through the drama,
They still somehow come out with Gucci bags.
Stay tuned. For real this time, Kyrgyzstan is coming up next.
You see what I did there because you know the South Korea episode we I h -
Nah, forget it. Just cut into the outro.