You read 365 days in Kuwait but not back home

Before picking up my pen I checked archive of Pakistan Observer and found that the newspaper was not published on 24^th & 25^th March 2012 because Pakistan celebrated Republic Day on 23^rd so for subsequent two days the newspaper was not published and I have no right to raise my eyebrows as to why the daily was off for two consecutive days but amusingly it is not so in Kuwait.

Arab Times which is the most leading English daily of Kuwait was published on both days namely National Day (25^th Feb) and Liberation Day (26th Feb) though the whole country was shut due to both national annual celebrations and it happens each year alike. Needless to mention as per Kuwait Labor Law anyone working on public holidays like 25^th & 26^th instant is to be paid overtime at double the rate meaning by that if on any ordinary working day someone gets KD 1/ per hour as OT then on public holiday he or she gets KD 2/ per hour so from that point of view Arab Times employees are to be paid OT at double the rate for working during these holidays to publish the daily. Needless to mention the employees of Arab Times will be paid at double the rate meaning by that the newspaper owner has to pocket extra burden to pay for over time but at the same time surprisingly the newspaper price is not increased whatsoever which proves that Kuwaiti newspaper owner is more concerned about the newspaper readers than his own profit. What prompts the owner to get AT published 365 days a year is a question for Pakistan newspapers’ owners, if not annoying?

I will go a step forward provided newspapers’ owners do not turn against me. I know for sure, if not mistaken, that Sunday newspaper is costlier than Saturday or Friday edition and therefore why Pakistani newspaper is not published on 24^th March? Logically speaking newspaper be published on 24^th March and ever since the staff had worked on public holiday and therefore they will be paid extra OT and therefore the extra cost incurred to publish on 24^th may be recovered by increasing the price of the newspaper and I am sure that newspaper readers will not object to such approach because they are used to buy costlier newspaper on 23^rd March and Sunday and therefore the newspaper readers will buy newspaper on 24^th March as well. Moreover, reading newspaper becomes a second habit and thus the one who does get it on a certain date definitely feels quite jittery and upset which can be avoided and the readers can continue to be reading the newspaper throughout the year.

I am lucky in a sense that here I read the newspaper throughout the year without any gap in between.

Iqbal Hadi Zaidi / Kuwait