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There is no doubt that crime reporters at Al Watan exert great efforts to unearth places of immorality which mostly turn out to be restaurants and cafes in some areas and markets in the country. Such immoral practices aren”t new as Al Watan and other local dailies have always reported and published articles on them. These immoral activities send shivers down the society”s spine and demand accountability from the authorities.

Every weekend or during official holidays, the country”s airport and land borders are usually clogged with people who travel to other unrestrained countries where they can let their hair down and bask in recreational entertainment away from the curiosity, stalking and harassment that is the norm in our country. The last official holidays were during Eid AlـFitr which lasted for nine days. According to unofficial information revealed by the local press, the number of departures during the Eid holidays reached 500,000 people. Let”s assume that the average rate of expenditure for each traveler is 750ـ1,000 Kuwaiti dinars during the nine days, it means that KD 400ـ500 million” almost about a billion and a half U.S. dollars are usually spent outside Kuwait during the Eid holidays. Wouldn”t it better to spend that amount of money in Kuwait instead of spending it on the recoveries of the economies of other countries, especially in light of the crippling global economic crisis? If appropriate means of entertainment and recreation were available for Kuwaitis and expatriates in Kuwait, half of the revelers wouldn”t even think of leaving the country and traveling to spend their hardـearned money in other countries.
It is not the responsibility or the authority of the State to govern or rule the fact that its citizens will enter Paradise or that all its citizens will not go to Hell. Only God can decide who enters Paradise and who goes to Hell. The responsibility of the State should not be religious but worldly. Theocratic States have failed to direct the course and conduct of its citizens on the basis of morality and virtue. There are many examples which support my claim. I think that smart readers do not need any further explanations.

During the last three or four decades, the State went along the dictates of fundamentalists and political Islamic groups and that made the State lose its identity. The State did not apply the religious approach nor did it adhere to an approach of openness and freedom of the individuals fully. This created a sort of a limboـlike situation for the residents.

Fighting against immoral practices and detecting dubious places of entertainment is the responsibility of the security forces. On the other hand, we should not forget that our country and society in general is a closed one and hence young people suffer from utter depression due to a lack of places for entertainment and recreation. Therefore, we shouldn”t blame some youths when they break laws or confront the security forces. We should also not blame the halfـaـmillion people who left the country during the Eid holidays to other moderate and free countries where they found means of entertainment.

And then we have an article published by Al Watan to mobilize voters to attack the government and the security services and accuse them for their dereliction in duties. This was an attempt to achieve political gains and not to combat immortality or solve the problems of the youths or even a call for openness or the provision of means of entertainment and recreation. The enemies of joy and happiness will always remain the enemies of joy and happiness; no matter what.

Hasan Ali Karam – Al-Watan Daily