Choices, Choices, Choices

My first knowledge of Kuwait coincides with the first Gulf War when the senior bush declares war on Iraq for invading Kuwait. Names like Ramadiyah, Fahaheel, Ahmadi, Sabahiya, Abu Halifa, Maboula and Mangaaf sounds exotic and foreign to a boy just getting into his teenage years.

This ignited a lifelong interest and passion about the Middle East. It was this interest that led me to my current job and a career that i'm pursueing now. Never did I imagine on that day that I would one day set foot in the country that I barely know of and even being to those exotic sounding places.

My impression of Kuwait was that it is a war-ravaged country that had stood up on its own two feet and wings forming, ready to fly. Being there in person never change that impression. It is one of the most westernized Middle East country and affluent.

One of my turkish friend told me a wise saying that I agree completely! "To know how rich a country is, just look at the supermarket!"

On my off days on my oversea trips, I love to visit the supermarkets not because I like it but it was often the only place to go to. One other reason was to see what they got to offer. By far, I was most amazed and amuzed by the Sultan Center in Kuwait.

Boy, they had absolutely everything. For orange alone, they have an entire section of it which ranges from Taiwan Mandarin Orange, China Mandarin Orange, Ceylon Orange, Egyptian Orange, Colombia Oranges (???), Sri Lanka Orange, Australia Orange and even Malaysia Orange. There's another section wholely devoted to apples, water-melons, vegetables.

A quick glance in the vegetable department, you could be forgiven for thinking you are looking at a color platette. There are vegetables of all sorts, sizes and color! I seen for my own eyes a purple capsicum and that is so freaky!

Truly, only the affluent could have afford to have so much exotic fruits, food and vegetables imported for their consumption. My mainland Chinese friends and friends from communist or ex-communist countries all told me that during those years of the Cold War, they had only sweet potatoes and green vegetables, apples and orange on the shelves of their supermarkets. Even them, it looked more like a monochrome black and white television, rather than the dazzling radiant plasma color we are seeing these days.

The power and signs of affluence.