As I read Kuwait’s daily newspapers or hear of what’s going on in Kuwait, I feel like people are getting more uncivilized as time progresses. Why am I coming to such a conclusion? Here are my observations:

1) A 12 year old kid stabbed his friend yesterday over a football match

2) A murderer killed a foreigner and disposed her body in a trash container

3) Police officers raped 3 women in custody yesterday

4) A man assaulted a doctor in a hospital. The doctor told the man to abide by the rules of the hospital and he wasn’t too happy

5) The list goes on and on..

My frustration for all these incidents is beyond expression. These criminal acts are committed only in barbaric societies, and are never suppose to happen in my country of Kuwait. Studying in the US, I see many similar incidents, but I always thank god for the country I live in. Over time, I feel like this preserved image of how Kuwait is safe slowly deteriorating. I remember back in Middle School when I read the newspapers, the number of incidents never surpassed two or three a day. Now, they’re literally up to almost twenty a day. What should we expect in 2020? At this rate, I think the number of criminal incidents are going to surpass forty a day.

In my perspective, the solution to this problem is not simple and requires a great deal of national effort to actually be successful. Speaking in the matter of psychology, many scholars have come to agreement that crimes committed by adults can be rooted back to their childhood. For a fact, I know that there are numerous Kuwaiti families that neglect their children in the most prominent time of character building. That time ranges between the five to six years in which the child moves from being a child to their stage of adolescence and responsibility. Knowing that one cannot change the mentality of those parents quickly, the only initiative that I see possible is launching a nation-wide campaign of “re-civilizing” our country. Sounds too utopian for Kuwait, but taking this path is the only solution to this problems.

The main government sector which this initiative is “idealistically” suppose to launch from is the Ministry of Education. The current Kuwaiti public education system is set up to throw ideas at children without insuring that this eduction is being applied in their surrounding environment. I am not a professional in the matter of restructuring educational systems, but the current failing system has to change in a way to advance minds to a level never reached to before. Whether its in mathematics, science, art, sports, somewhere that keeps our youths’ mind stimulated enough to block off all the unnecessary ideas that will eventually lead to further crimes and corruption when they grow up.

In California public schools, there are qualified psychologists that are ready to tackle any problem with any child no matter how large the problem is. For sure, funding should not be a problem for Kuwait. Last year, California’s deficit was $42 billion dollars and still they never failed to leave any child behind in the educational system. Even though crimes are still countless in California and you still hear of many high school drop outs, there is still some sort of initiative from the state government to keep children on track. Why is that so difficult for Kuwait? On the contrary, it should be much easier. Our population is much smaller and our budget is very large comparing to other countries.

In my opinion, tackling childhood issues from their roots and establishing an educational system that actually stimulates and challenges the young mind will make Kuwait a country not only clean of crimes we read of in daily newspapers, but also a nation with a future of credible thinkers, sophisticated personalities and individuals that seek to hold our country together.

“Let us think of education as the means of developing our greatest abilities, because in each of us there is a private hope and dream which, fulfilled, can be translated into benefit for everyone and greater strength for our nation” – John F. Kennedy

“He who opens a school door, closes a prison” – Victor Hugo