Where has the compassion in Kuwait gone??

I stopped by the Crowne Plaza this weekend for some pampering at Spa Aquatonic.  It was a lovely day.  When we pulled up to the valet, our usual guys weren't there.  There were a lot of new faces.  When we came out, one of our old friends who has been working as a valet parker for 15 years told us that the new GM has hired a valet parking service and that all the old parking attendants have been terminated.   Some of them have been parking cars there for over 20 years.  They were given their notices with no fanfare or appreciation.

When you share employee accommodations and work long hours for decades, your co-workers become your family.  How stressful it must be for these men to be given notice and told that's it!

I find it very hard to believe that the Bukhamseen family would knowingly do this to people who have been loyal to them in service for decades.  From everything I've ever heard about the owners of the Crowne Plaza, they are humble and decent people.  Perhaps they are just too busy to see (?)

One of my favorite aspects of the Crowne Plaza was going in and being greeted by name by the attendants.  They always had big smiles and treated all their customers respectfully; something that I immediately noticed has been replaced by the opposite from the new valet service.  I loved it that once in a while my old friends would park my car next to the door, or take the time to get the AC going high before bringing it to me.  They always came to shake my hand.  Always smiling.  They always asked how I was and if I had been away for too long, where I had been.  You can't easily replace this kind of personalized service by cutting corners on cost.  It is a service that many companies take years to earn:  customer loyalty.  And you certainly don't DUMP good people to bring in cheaper labor! How do people like that sleep at night?

I felt really sorry about this uncaring move.  Great. You lost one customer.  I've been patronizing the hotel for the past 21 years.  In fact, Sakura was one of the very first restaurants I visited when I moved here in 1996.  I refuse to grace their doorstep again after this. Some of us actually do have ethics and morals and stand for what we believe in.  It was very discouraging to hear.  It made me sad.

So, I knew I was going to post about it anyways and then I came upon an article today in the Arab Times, discussing the fact that many Egyptian fisherman had illegally been displaced from their homes in Sharq.  Full story here.  Their sponsor had already paid the April rent (and today is the 2nd).  They are supposed to be given notice or compensated, but alas, this type of crappy behavior is becoming the norm.  Where have people's ethics and values (and might I also add - religion) gone?  Is there no compassion?  Was that the first to be deported?

Two years ago, I was ready to leave Kuwait  and not look back after something similar; being kicked out and terrorized until I left the apartment I was renting.  I was subjected to psychological warfare and illegal behavior from my former landlord. They threatened to kill my dogs, damage my car.  They turned off the AC and electricity daily.  Threw dog feces at my door and then broke keys off in the locks so I couldn't enter. They put up baracades so I couldn't enter or exit.   I never thought that it could happen to me.  The police never imagined that a Kuwaiti family would be so blatantly awful.  But it happened and I am shaking right now just remembering;  Apartment rental PTSD.

Humans don't get the full brunt of the atrocities.  I'm on social media for animal rescues - quite a few of them, actually.  The amount of horrific acts of torture (many times by CHILDREN) in this country is staggering.  There isn't a week when (and I'm sorry to even write this, but the photos I've seen have caused SO much more damage) an animal isn't beaten to death, or buried alive, or tortured in some unimaginable (by sane-human standards) way.  It's pure evil.  What the hell is happening here?  Is anyone actually watching?

I love Kuwait.  It is so discouraging to see so many bad things happening. Compassion is so much harder to find these days.