Is it a national holiday … or idleness and laziness?

This news has been read 21761 times!

THE state affairs were disrupted for more than a week due to the long vacation on the occasion of the National Day and Liberation Day. However, the absence of national festivities and entertainment was obvious, as if the intention was to suspend life and not enjoy the two national occasions that hold great symbolism. They should have served as an incentive for effort and action, and not laziness and idleness.

No country has ever closed all its ministries, banks, institutions, and even its embassies, for about 15 days without any justification unless the goal is to escape from facing the daily requirements of a country, which is not trying hard enough to get out of a financial predicament that is worsening day after day.

Perhaps if there were a series of great celebrations, and a national festival befitting the two occasions, these holidays would have been the lesser of two evils. However, in light of the subjection to a list of prohibitions imposed by closed and backward factions, this matter became the last of the state’s concerns. Joy has been hijacked in a country that used to be described as the first source of entertainment in the region.

Today, this country is closed, while the neighboring Gulf countries celebrate its holidays with great elegance, something that delighted the Kuwaitis. We therefore ask – What is the purpose of such a long vacation?

It is a known fact that the countries that suffer from a deficit in their GDP operate their institutions seven days a week in order to compensate for the loss. Such a concept is  unfortunately not present in Kuwait where “everything is different”.

Therefore, the holidays came to make matters worse. It can even be said that they added to the confusion of the government, as it is unreasonable, under such sensitive international circumstances, to close down a country, which is, in one way or another, concerned with all the changes that are taking place in the world.

In all countries, the holidays for national and religious occasions and local events usually last for a day or two. Despite that, there are institutions that still work. On the other hand, in Kuwait, which is still suffering from the negative consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, everything was disrupted.

This especially happened at a time when the country is in dire need for every effort to get out of this crisis. The last thing it needed was for a quarter of a million people to flee abroad due to the absence of touristic facilities at a time when the country needs every penny to be spent inside it and not in other countries.

These long holidays represent a dangerous indicator of a lack of prudence in dealing with all of the problems that Kuwait suffers from. The government should be aware of this. It should realize that it is participating in stifling the national economy, which needs intensive care, and should be supplied with oxygen through openness, as is the case in the rest of the neighboring Gulf countries. It should stop burying its head in sand, and confront the currents and the MPs of closure and backwardness.

By Ahmed Al-Jarallah

Editor-in-Chief, the Arab Times

This news has been read 21761 times!