US embassy cable - 05KUWAIT514

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 000514 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARPI, NEA/PD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EINT, SCUL, SOCI, ECON, KU 
SUBJECT: KUWAITI BLOGGERS: VOICES OF THE FUTURE 
 
This cable is sensitive but unclassified; please protect 
accordingly.  Not for Internet distribution. 
 
1.  (U) Summary:  Econ Officer attended 2 February a monthly 
meeting of Kuwaiti web-bloggers where the group discussed 
their various web-logs, technology, politics, religion, 
social life, and a variety of other issues.  The group was 
made up of nine men and one woman, mostly in their early to 
mid-twenties, and is representative of a larger group of some 
20-30 Kuwaiti bloggers.  While the group is not necessarily 
representative of young Kuwait society as a whole, it 
certainly represents a growing population of highly educated, 
westernized Kuwaitis looking for an outlet for their energy 
and creativity.  End Summary. 
 
Kuwaiti Blogs: Background 
------------------------- 
 
2.  (U) There are a few dozen people writing online web-logs, 
or blogs, from Kuwait, and a handful of Kuwaitis living in 
the U.S. and elsewhere that also maintain blogs.  (A blog is 
an online journal or diary.)  These blogs range from personal 
thoughts to conversations with friends to cultural, social 
and political commentary.  Some blogs include pictures. 
About two-thirds of the most popular blogs in Kuwait are 
written in English and the other third are written in Arabic, 
with a handful using both languages.  (By most popular, we 
mean the blogs that are linked to the most by other 
bloggers.)  Most Kuwaiti bloggers host their blogs on 
third-party sites such as Blogspot (http://www.blogspot.com); 
few of them actually maintain their own sites hosted in 
Kuwait. 
 
From Online Community to Caf Get-Togethers 
------------------------------------------- 
 
3.  (SBU) While some of the more prolific bloggers have been 
at it for over two years, interest has increased in the last 
few months.  An October 2004 Kuwait Times article, "Blogging 
revolution comes to Kuwait," highlighted some of the more 
popular Kuwaiti blogs, and a few of the blogs have since been 
nominated for regional blog awards.  With growing interest, 
one of the Kuwaiti bloggers, "Nibaq", created a site that 
pulls together all of the Kuwaiti blogs and allows a reader 
to see the latest posts from each blog 
(http://safat.kuwaitblogs.com).  Another blogger, "Talal", 
came up with the idea of having a physical meeting of 
bloggers.  He used the online meeting tool MeetUp 
(http://www.meetup.com) and invited Kuwaiti bloggers to a 
meeting.  The group had two previous meetings, attended by 
about 4-5 people each time, before this latest meeting. 
 
The Bloggers: Young, Mostly Male, Very Smart 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
4.  (U) The meeting attendees were similar in age and 
background, but different in their views on religion, society 
and politics.  There were about nine men and one woman, 
though there were other women in the larger online group that 
had expressed interest in coming to the meeting but could not 
for one reason or another.  (The one woman in attendance was 
a 27 year-old expat Arab who was accompanied by her 
grandfather.)  Most of the bloggers were in their early to 
mid twenties.  A few had been to school in the U.S., and 
others were graduates of, or currently attending, 
universities in Kuwait.  None seemed to be representative of 
the "super-rich" in Kuwait, but rather, were more 
representative of the Kuwaiti "middle-class," to the extent 
there is such a thing. 
 
Employed in Government and Private Sector 
----------------------------------------- 
 
5.  (SBU) The attendees who were working were either 
self-employed as graphic artists or web-designers, or were 
working in the government sector.  Those who were employed in 
the government did not take any particular pride in their 
work, simply seeing it as something to pass the time during 
the day and to provide a paycheck.  One attendee, 
"Abdulatif", boasted about the free time he enjoyed at this 
Civil Service data entry job, saying that he did a good 
amount of blogging and personal web surfing from work.  All 
those in attendance agreed that government work was a "joke" 
and offered no challenges or incentives to work hard. 
 
Down on Terrorism 
----------------- 
 
6.  (SBU) The entire group was resolutely against the aims of 
the extremist groups that had recently engaged in shootouts 
with the Kuwaiti police and none of them could be described 
as conservative or deeply religious.  Only one showed up 
wearing a dish-dasha, and even he said that it was a rare 
occasion that he wore one.  (He seemed to be wearing it more 
as a joke, as he is the author of a blog that talks about the 
underground party scene in Kuwait and was probably the most 
Westernized of the group.) 
 
Keen on Technology 
------------------ 
 
7.  (U) The entire group was on the cutting edge of 
technology and telecommunications, aware of the latest trends 
in blogging and web design and familiar with the most current 
hardware and software technology.  Most learned their 
technology through a mix of formal education and 
self-teaching.  The group is very symbiotic, both online and 
in face-to-face meeting, with group members constantly 
feeding each other new ideas for the blogs and for other 
technological projects.  A number of group members were 
familiar with basic hacking techniques for computers and 
satellite TV systems. 
 
Unafraid of Censorship 
---------------------- 
 
8.  (SBU) While none of the bloggers had had any experiences 
with the GOK trying to shut them down or censor anything they 
say, some of them admitted to self-censorship on some of 
their blogs.  It was not clear though if the bloggers, 
concerns were with the GOK or with the sensitivities of their 
audience in Kuwait.  When asked, none of the bloggers thought 
that the GOK would ever censor any of their blogs, but no one 
completely ruled it out as a possibility.  Most of the 
bloggers knew how to get around the GOK,s censorship of 
other websites. 
 
The Future: Keep on Blogging 
---------------------------- 
 
9.  (U) Most of the bloggers in attendance had specific plans 
about their future, including career goals, and even those 
without specific plans had a positive attitude about their 
future and the future of Kuwait.  None expressed any interest 
to leave Kuwait.  On the contrary, a few had recently 
returned from abroad, either from the U.S. or from Gulf 
locations such as Dubai, to pursue business opportunities in 
Kuwait. 
 
 
******************************************** 
Visit Embassy Kuwait's Classified Website: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/ 
******************************************** 
LEBARON