Kuwait and the dynamics of socio-economic change

Middle East Journal

Volumn 51, Issue 3, 1997, Pages 358-371

  Ghabra, Shafeeq ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 0040428318     PISSN: 00263141     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (52)

1. M. W. Khouja and P. G. Sadler, The Economy of Kuwait: Development and Role in International Finance (London: Macmillan Press, 1979), pp. 14-26. Today, Kuwait's oil revenues are $9 billion per year. See Ministry of Finance statement, and 1996-97 balance of payments estimates in Al-Qabas (Kuwait City), 24 July 1996, p. 19.
2. M. W. Khouja and P. G. Sadler, The Economy of Kuwait: Development and Role in International Finance (London: Macmillan Press, 1979), pp. 14-26. Today, Kuwait's oil revenues are $9 billion per year. See Ministry of Finance statement, and 1996-97 balance of payments estimates in Al-Qabas (Kuwait City), 24 July 1996, p. 19.
3. See 'Abd al-'Aziz Husayn, Muhadarat 'an al-Mujtama' al-'Arabi bi al-Kuwayt (Lectures on Arab Society in Kuwait) (Kuwait: Dar Qurtas li al-Nashr wa al-Tawzi', 1994).
4. Kuwait, Ministry of Planning, Al-Majmu'a al-Ihsa'iyya fi 25 'Aman. 'Adad Khas (The Statistical Report in 25 Years: A Special Issue) (Kuwait: Ministry of Planning, Central Statistical Administration, 1990), p. 21.
5. Al-Watan (Kuwait City), 23 November 1994, p. 1, reported official statistics that stated that 126,000 buduns had applied for Kuwaiti citizenship.
6. Kuwait, Ministry of Planning, Al-Majmu'a al-Ihsa'iyya al-Sanawiyya 1993 (Annual Statistical Collection 1993), issue 3 (Kuwait: Ministry of Planning, Central Statistical Administration), pp. 259, 266; see also, 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Rushayd, Tarikh al-Kuwayt (History of Kuwait) (Beirut: Hayat Bookshop Press, n.d.), pp. 295-96.
7. Kuwait, Ministry of Planning, Al-Majmu'a al-Ihsa'iyya al-Sanawiyya 1993 (Annual Statistical Collection 1993), issue 3 (Kuwait: Ministry of Planning, Central Statistical Administration), pp. 259, 266; see also, 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Rushayd, Tarikh al-Kuwayt (History of Kuwait) (Beirut: Hayat Bookshop Press, n.d.), pp. 295-96.
8. Kuwait, Ministry of Planning, Al-Ihsa'at al-Ijtima'iyya 1990-1991 (Sociological Statistics, 1990-1991), issue 20 (Kuwait: Ministry of Planning, Central Statistical Administration), p. 11
9. Kuwait, Ministry of Planning, Al-Majmu'a al-Ihsa'iyya al-Sanawiyya, 1993, pp. 259, 266; see also, Al-Rushayd, Tarikh al-Kuwayt, pp. 295-96.
10. Kuwait, Ministry of Planning, Al-Majmu'a al-Ihsa'iyya al-Sanawiyya, 1993, pp. 259, 266; see also, Al-Rushayd, Tarikh al-Kuwayt, pp. 295-96.
11. Kuwait University, Dalil al-Qubul: 1996-1997 (Admissions Guide, 1996-1997) (Kuwait: Kuwait University Admissions, 1996), p. 3.
12. Kuwait, Ministry of Planning, Al-Ihsa'at al-Ijtima'iyya, p. 11.
13. Kuwait, Ministry of Planning, Al-Majmu'a al-Ihsa'iyya al-Sanawiyya, p. 287.
14. Kuwait, Higher Council of Planning, Bada'il li-Siyasat al-Tawzif (Alternatives to the Employment Policy) (Kuwait: Higher Council of Planning, Economic Department, 1996), p. 12.
15. Kuwait, Ministry of Planning, Al-Majmu'a al-Ihsa'iyya al-Sanawiyya, p. 277.
16. Kuwait, Ministry of Planning, Al-Majmu'a al-Ihasa'iyya fi 25 'Aman, pp. 11, 14.
17. 'Amir al-Tamimi, "Al-'Ajz" (The Deficit), in Al-Zaman (Kuwait City), 5 March 1996, p. 6.
18. There are no official figures to confirm this amount. However, this figure has been used by members of parliament and economic experts over the last three years.
19. The government did not publish these figures, but did present much of the economic outlook to the parliament in a closed session in January 1996.
20. Ministry of Finance statement, and 1996-97 balance of payment estimates in Al-Qabas, 24 July 1996, p. 19; see also al-Tamimi, "Al-'Ajz," p. 7.
21. Ministry of Finance statement, and 1996-97 balance of payment estimates in Al-Qabas, 24 July 1996, p. 19; see also al-Tamimi, "Al-'Ajz," p. 7.
22. Ministry ot Finance statement, Al-Qabas, 24 July 1996, p. 19.
23. Hind Ahmad al-Naqib, Al-Tanmiyya al-Ijtima'iyya wa Atharuha fi Tawtin al-Badu fi al-Kuwayt (Social Development and its Impact on the Settlement of Bedouins in Kuwait) (Kuwait: That al-Salasil Press, 1981), p. 151.
24. Al-Rushayd, Tarikh al-Kuwayt, pp. 297, 315-33, 366-76.
25. Khalid Sulayman al-Adsani, Nisf 'Am li al-Hukm al-Niyabi fi al-Kuwayt (Half a Year of Parliamentary Rule in Kuwait) (Kuwait: n.p., 1947); Najat 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jasim, Al-Tatawwur al-Siyasi wa al-Iqtisadi fi al-Kuwayt, 1914-1939 (Political and Economic Development in Kuwait, 1914-1939) (Kuwait: n.p., 1973), pp. 205-51.
26. Khalid Sulayman al-Adsani, Nisf 'Am li al-Hukm al-Niyabi fi al-Kuwayt (Half a Year of Parliamentary Rule in Kuwait) (Kuwait: n.p., 1947); Najat 'Abd al-Qadir al-Jasim, Al-Tatawwur al-Siyasi wa al-Iqtisadi fi al-Kuwayt, 1914-1939 (Political and Economic Development in Kuwait, 1914-1939) (Kuwait: n.p., 1973), pp. 205-51.
27. Kamal al-Munifi, Al-Hukumat al-Kuwaytiyya (Kuwaiti Governments) (Kuwait: Sharikat al-Ruba'an li al-Nashr, 1985), pp. 25-33.
28. Ahmad Abdullah Saad Baz, "Political Elite and Political Development in Kuwait" (Ph.D. dissertation, George Washington University, 1991), pp. 105-107.
29. See Muhammad Jabir al-Ansari, Takwin al-'Arab al-Siyassi wa Maghza al-Dawla al-Qutriyya: Madkhal ila I'adat Fihm al-Waqi' al-'Arabi (The Political Making of the Arabs and the Significance of the State: An Understanding of the Arab Reality) (Beirut: Center for Arab Unity Studies, 1994).
30. Al-Naqib, Al-Tanmiyya al-Ijtima'iyya, pp. 188-89.
31. Ibid., p. 188.
32. Khaldun al-Naqib, "Al-Dimuqratiyya wa al-Intikhabat: Nahwa Ta'miq al-Tajruba al-Dimuqratiyya fi al-Kuwayt" (Democracy and Elections: The Deepening of the Democratic Experience in Kuwait), Al-Qabas, 15 February 1992, p. 17.
33. Al-Naqib, Al-Tanmiyya al-Ijtima'iyya, p. 234.
34. Ibid., p. 235.
35. Ibid., p. 219.
36. Al-Naqib, "Al-Dimuqratiyya wa al-Intikhabat," p. 17.
37. Baz, "Political Elite and Political Development in Kuwait," p. 104.
38. According to Kuwaiti government files, registered buduns number 120,000. An equal number moved from Kuwait with the Iraqi forces during Kuwait's liberation in 1991. Most of them were of Iraqi descent. See, Human Rights Watch/Middle East, "The Buduns of Kuwait," (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1995).
39. One can make a case that the Sabahs and the 'Utubs, who originally migrated from Najd to Kuwait in the eighteenth century, were originally bedouins. It was the process of urbanization that made them, after several generations, a settled urban group that lost its bedouin characteristics in both style of living and worldview.
40. The electoral files confirm that those voters living in the densely populated districts known as the Outer Areas are a tribal constituency. It is the population of these areas that makes up the new majority. In addition to migration to the city, bedouins have much higher birth rates than urban families, and therefore, it is not surprising that their numbers have increased more rapidly than that of their urban counterparts. See Khaldun al-Naqib, "Tahlil al-Mu'ashirat al-Siyasiyya wa al-Ihsa'iyya li Nata'ij Intikhabat October 1992" (Analysis of the Political and Statistical Results of the Elections of October 1992), Al-Qabas, 15 November 1992, p. 36.
41. "Desertization" is a term used by Muhammad Jabir al-Ansari in Takwin al-'Arab al-Siyassi, pp. 56-57.
42. See Al-Qabas, 6 March 1993, for the story of a Shi'ite child denied by a teacher the right to pray in school with other children because of differences in the manner of prayer.
43. Shafeeq Ghabra, "Democratization in Kuwait, 1993," Middle East Policy 111, no.1 (1994), pp. 102-19. Two Sunni Islamist political groups have emerged in Kuwait since 1992, and slowly have gained important footholds in bedouin areas. The Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM) has its roots in the Muslim Brothers in Kuwait and in al-Islah al-Ijtima'i (Social Reform), an influential Islamic group that has been gaining strength since the 1970s. The Islamic Popular Alliance, better known as al-Salaf (Ancestral), has roots in the Jam'iyyat Ihya' al-Turath (Society for the Revival of Islamic Tradition). This group, which has been attracting followers since the 1980s, is more literal than the ICM in its interpretation of Islam.
44. James Bill, "Resurgent Islam in the Persian Gulf," Foreign Affairs 63, no. 1 (Fall 1984), p. 120.
45. At the height of the Iran-Iraq war, and in particular between 1982 and 1986, numerous terrorists attacks occured in Kuwait. Some were committed by external Shi'ite groups and others by Kuwaiti Shi'ite groups. The most famous of these attacks was an attempt to assassinate the emir of Kuwait in 1985.
46. The INA, before it split into more than one grouping, was faithful to the Islamic ideology expressed by Iran. It has, however, committed itself to peaceful opposition and participated in elections in 1992. INA representatives usually hold two or three seats in the Kuwaiti parliament.
47. Kuwaiti University Student Data Base, Center of Computer Services, Kuwait University, 20 August 1996.
48. Kuwait, Ministry of Planning, Al-Majmu'a al-Ihsa'iyya al-Sanawiyya, 1993, p. 266.
49. Ibid., p. 81.
50. Al-Watan, 13 May 1997, p. 7.
51. For a unique and updated study on Kuwaiti women, see Haya Mughri, Women in Kuwait: The Politics of Gender (London: Saqi Books, 1993).
52. See Law 44 in Al-Kuwayt al-Yawm (Kuwait City), 17 July 1994.