Yearbook 2004
Kuwait. In May, the government proposed a legislative amendment that would allow women to vote and stand for election to Parliament. Under current law, these rights were reserved for men over 21 years of age whose relatives lived in K. before 1920. The bill passed to the country’s emir, Jabir al-Ahmad as-Sabah, who would decide on it before it would be considered by Parliament. In 1999, Parliament voted down a similar proposal that the Emir had approved.
The total population in Kuwait is 4,270,582 people in 2020. Over 1,400 companies from 48 countries, including Sweden, participated in the trade show “Rebuild Iraq 2004” in Mishref in mid-January. The fair, which focused on Iraq’s reconstruction, was presented, among other things. health care products, water purification equipment and equipment for the oil industry.
In 1962, a new constitution was introduced, which meant the establishment of a 50-member National Assembly elected individually (political parties were banned) by all men over 21 whose fathers or grandfathers had lived in the country before 1920. Among the 826,500 Kuwaiti people living in the country in 1990 (a minority among the population), according to these rules, only 85,000 voters would be eligible if elections had been held.
In 1966, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia resolved their border problems, and the “neutral zone” that had been established between the two countries was now shared equally between them. In 1969, Kuwait’s Central Bank was established, and in 1976 a social insurance law was passed, as well as a law establishing a Reserve Fund for the Future Generations, to which 10% of government revenue was to be spent.
Over the course of a few years, the oil radically changed the look of the country. The Bedouins replaced their camels with luxurious air-conditioned cars. Pearl fishing disappeared and the entire population settled in the modern, newly built cities, where the slender towers of the mosques lie side by side with the shopping centers that had displaced the old socos. The level of education and the life of the population increased, but at the same time all the manual labor and work in the oil industry was left to migrant workers, who in 1970 corresponded in number to the Kuwaiti population. In 1985, there were twice as many migrant workers as Kuwaiti.
The Kuwaiti rulers quickly realized that so much wealth in such a poor region could question their legitimacy. In 1961, therefore, the Arab Economic Development Fund was established to channel “soft” loans and gifts to third world countries. When the OPEC oil organization succeeded in drastically raising the oil price in 1973, Kuwait’s revenue rose tremendously.
Most third world countries supported OPEC in the hope of forcing the rich industrialized nations of the north to agree to a ” New Economic World Order ” that would mean better prices for third world export goods. But instead of investing oil revenues in its own countries or in other third world countries, the monarchs along the Persian Gulf placed their fortunes in the western banks. In doing so, they helped create a huge surplus capital in the international financial market. This surplus capital was lent to the Third World through the 1970s until the debt crisis of 1982 caused this mechanism to collapse. See securitypology.com for Kuwait basic information.
But compared to the other Gulf states, Kuwait was generous with its wealth. In the late 1980s, Kuwait was the country in the world that provided the most development assistance – in terms of its national product.
However, prosperity did not prevent political conflicts. In August 1976, the emir dissolved parliament. He died in December 1977 and his son, Prince Jaber al-Sabah took over the post. This printed a general election in February 1981. Of the 50 seats in Parliament, 40 went to Sunni candidates who were loyal to the royal family. The Shiite candidates got 4 and the fundamentalist Islamic candidates 6 seats. Only 6.4% of the country’s population had the right to vote.
When the Iran -Iraq war broke out in 1981, Kuwait formally took a neutral position, but in effect supported Iraq with large gifts and loans. Like the other Gulf Monarchies, Kuwait considered Iraq to be “the front line in defense of the Iranian Islamic revolution.”
From 1985, the National Assembly began to go against the government’s steps – control of the press, increases in public services and educational reforms – and at the same time criticized the emir’s family for corruption. In August 1986, therefore, the emir dissolved the parliament and ruled per. Decree.
In the late 1980s, it was estimated that the Kuwaiti Investment Office (KIO) had invested over $ 100 billion outside the country. It owned hotels, art galleries and properties in Europe and the US, as well as significant holdings in major multinational corporations: 10% in British Petroleum (BP), 23% in Hoechst, 14% in Daimler-Benz and 11% in Midland Bank.