January 2022 | Issue #264
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Int Some intros are harder to write than others. I mean sure, of course we hope you made some amazing resolutions, and of course this year is going to be different, and you will actually walk/jog/swim/bike (take your pick) every single day of the week, you’ll only eat junk food once a week, and you’ve already thrown away that last pack of cigarettes/vape/iqos and already feel healthier!
The bazaar team...
2022 was supposed to be different, but what with the newest variant of them all, Omicron rearing its ugly head at us all, challenging us to even dare think that perhaps, just maybe this whole Covid mess was behind us. Of course, it’s not, and here we are, almost as if we’re all living in a bad remake of Groundhog Day. I know…. I know that you’re all sick and tired of the word covid, and all that it entails, so enough on that subject!
Editor
As optimists (with a little bit of cynicism) our bazaar clan is focusing on the present instead and it IS a New Year after all! So, we’re starting a new chapter this issue by bringing you some awesome reads. We’re all about enriching our everyday with meaningful experiences and conversations that make us deeply ponder how we choose to move forward with the new year.
Content Manager
We discover the power of how art can heal the soul via our Up Close & Personal interview with Alaa Naeem. Not only is Alaa an inspiring and dynamic artist who’s showing us how to flex our creative muscle, she’s also empowering others through Art Therapy, and how it can help us navigate our everyday emotions, and heal past trauma. We also caught up with none other than the always dynamic artist Faisal Marei, who just dropped his new music video “Diamonds”. Our long-time short story contributor Craig Loomis was also brave enough for a round of Truth or Dare too, and it was really fun putting the renowned academic through our metaphorical bazaar hoops. We’ve also been busy bees, enjoying the social season. Our last month of the year was filled with so many fun events and activations, from Trafalgar Luxury Group’s celebration of their latest “It’s Kuwaiti” initiative geared at supporting local jewelry talents to Porsche Centre Kuwait’s Sustainability talks! Releasing three interesting talks revolving around the importance of making sustainability a part of our everyday, Porsche Centre Kuwait teams up with local entrepreneurs, corporate professionals and car enthusiasts alike in this latest series. Somehow, whenever life feels heavy, we find ourselves in Souq Al-Mubarakiya for some soul searching, and bargain hunting. This time, however, we headed out to The Base in SOMU to sample their soul-food inspired menu and experience the little café restaurant’s vibes. Spoiler Alert: We’re smitten. Finally, we’ll leave you with this quote from the great David Bowie: “I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring” Happy New Year! Ahmed El-Adly
Boss Ahmed El-Adly Alia Al Duaij
Operations Manager Ihab Youssef Yasmine El Charif
Mixed Media Solutions Jennifer Cádiz
Design Shadi Mofeed
Staff Writer/Online Media Mariam Raslan Yasmin Gamal
Communications Hala Y. Sharara
Contributing Photographers Muneera AlKhulaifi
Contributing Writers Shabana H. Shaikh
Syndicates & Sources Fast Company LA Times MCT International Newsweek
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w w w. b p a w w. c o m The views expressed in bazaar magazine are those of the respective contributors and not necessarily shared by the magazine or its staff (but sometimes they are).
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recycle me, please.
INDEX JANUARY 2022 22
FINDING PURPOSE AND PEACE THROUGH ART
We get Up Close and Personal with local art therapist Alaa Naeem. Hailing from an artistic and forward-thinking family, Alaa has always been an artist, but life’s hard knocks pushed her towards finding healing and dealing with her emotions through art. Find out how she’s bringing a new kind of creative therapy to Kuwait.
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We know him as Face or one of the leading men of now-disbanded Army of One. Faisal Marei dropped a music video earlier this year and has surprised us with another one to end the year on a high note. Find out more about the creative journey of this video and what’s to come next for the treasured local artist.
We’ve come to expect short fiction every month from long-time contributor Craig Loomis, but this issue he was ready to play some Truth or Dare with us. From the release of his latest book to his experience in Kuwait, there’s a lot more to Craig than we knew.
DIAMONDS FROM FAISAL
CRAIG LOOMIS TELLS THE TRUTH
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IT’S KUWAITI BY TRAFALGAR LUXURY GROUP
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ART N DINE
Trafalgar Luxury Group has always been a fabulous curator and source of all things fine and luxurious. Last month they opened their space, platform and hearts to local up and coming jewelry designers in the #itskuwaiti collaboration to connect their esteemed clients with Kuwait’s designers of the future in a glamorous night of fun and luxury.
Oh boy! We sure have missed traveling, but the new restrictions and precautions can still be daunting, unless you are an ABK Visa Infinite Credit Cardholder. The bank has partnered up with Pearl Assist for an amazing and streamlined experience that includes all the services that will help you focus on the fun and leave all the difficult bits to them.
Art is no longer a solitary activity, since Dana Kanso’s social art event planning venture. In 2020, Art n Dine, was launched in the midst of a pandemic to offer people the chance to come together in safe spaces, discover their hidden talents and enjoy a meal together. Read more to learn how and why Shabana H. Shaikh thinks this is just what we all need.
88 HEADING TO THE BASE
We love having a local hangout and we’ve found one that we’re ready to call our “base”. Nestled in the heart of SOMU, The Base is owned by the Sons of Yusuf brothers and Tareq (aka @KicksTQ). They’ve managed to create a unique cozy vibe that is perfect for chilling and meeting friends right in the heart of the city.
92 AMERICANA CRAVES
Don’t mind us, we’ll be firing up the grills and barbeques for as long as the weather allows us to spend time outside. And our favorite new products come from one of our most trusted brands, Americana. The new premium line includes burgers, hot dogs and chicken are delicious and can be used to make some amazing sizzling-offthe-grill lunches.
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TRAFALGAR P. 56
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Galleria Al Hamra Elevation Burger Boulevard Starbucks Costa Coffee The Promenade Caribou Mall 360 Dunkin Donuts Marina Mall Marina Crescent Casper & Gambini Chocolate Bar Johnny Rockets P.Q. Paul Souq Sharq Starbucks Haagen Dazs Symphony Mall Juan Valdez The Avenues Elevation Burger Johnny Rockets Paul Starbucks Airport Mall Starbucks Dar Al Awadi Starbucks Spoons Chocolate Bar Salhiya Complex Starbucks
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what's trending January 2022
#1
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What: @afreya_kw Info: artisanal beeswax candles and accessories Editor’s Note: choose your calming ambiance for the year
What: @my.peak.kw Info: fitness and performance lab Editor’s Note: not just for athletes!
#2 What: @visionbodynutrition Info: nutrition focused monthly meal plans Editor’s Note: great food to keep you healthy
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What: @artndinekw Info: a social entertainment experience Editor’s Note: a creative outlet AND snacks?!
What: virginmegastore.com.kw Info: keep your mind sharp with puzzles Editor’s Note: Play opportunities for the whole family!
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bazaar weekends
FARMERS FOR A DAY Leave the city behind for the weekend By bazaar staff
The weather outside is delightful, and what better way to fully enjoy it than by heading out to the farms and reconnecting with nature. Kuwait is home to several farms that allow visitors to spend the day, barbecue and generally have fun in the great outdoors. Here are some of our top picks:
Yasmin Farms in Wafra @yasminfarms This is a working farm that produces a number of products like jams and dairy that you can find in supermarkets or order online, but they also have a beautiful playground and picnic area. You can visit daily from 8 am to 8 pm. Farm Bab Doukkala in Abdaly @bab.dokalh Bab Doukkala focuses more on the animals and kids just love it. Open during the weekend, the large, beautiful open petting farm also has a restaurant and is the perfect destination for spending a long relaxing day. And just in case you don’t have access to a car or don’t want to drive, they have a transportation partner, and you can take the bus to the farm. Sadeer Farms in Abdaly @Sadeer_Farms Another working farm that you can visit, you should call 94444911 before you visit Sadeer Farms. They have more than one picnic area and even offer group
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bookings. The family-owned organic farm was started to elevate the quality of food available and to make sure it was free from pesticides and harmful chemicals. Albohayra Farm in Abdali @albohayra Open to the public on Fridays and Saturdays from 10 am to 9 pm, the farm, Albohayra has a lot to offer. From horse riding to petting friendly farm animals, it is a haven for little kids who are growing up in the urban jungle. And if you visit during strawberry season, you can pick your own fresh juicy fruits to enjoy and take home. Dar Shaikha in Wafra @darshaikha Dar Shaikha is a cozy destination Wednesday to Saturday from 8am to 10pm. It was desiigned with experience in mind. It’s a community minded space that hosts local food markets and artist workshops. You can also check out the Glass House, Lake and cute cabanas.
Make your trip better The farms are a substantial drive away, so make sure you are ready for it. Pack the kids snacks and make sure they’re comfortable so that the “are we there yet?” doesn’t start too early in the trip. A fun playlist, a game of I Spy, or an audiobook might even make it more exciting. Make sure to wear comfortable shoes that can be washed if they get muddy or dirty. Dress in layers, especially during the cooler months, so you can enjoy the whole day. If you are going with kids, encourage them to try things out, ask questions and learn something new while they’re having fun. But also, explaining that they need to respect the animals and the plants is important.
Photo by Arnaldo Aldana on Unsplash.
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BIG LIFE CHANGES MADE EASY
This is how to build resolutions around a major life change By Elizabeth Grace Saunders
As we stand at the precipice of a brand-new year, there’s a mix of excitement as well as caution. The last couple of years weren’t as predictable as we would have preferred. And for many, there’s an additional element of uncertainty due to a new life decision. Maybe you’re a member of the Great Resignation and are starting a new job or business. Maybe you have your sights relocating to a new state. Or maybe you have your ambitions set on going back to school or starting a family. But the question lingers: How do you make goals when you don’t even know what your life will look like on a personal level in 12 months, let alone try to predict what will happen across the world? As a time management coach, I’ve been helping many clients answer this question in 2021 as at least 50% have been through some major life transition. What I’ve found is that you need to tailor your goal-setting to where you are in your larger life transformation. Then as you move through a series of stages, you can redefine your goals. Before you made a change If you know you want or need to make a change, center your goals for the start of 2022 around actions that will move you forward. For example, my clients looking to change careers have a goal to reach out to a certain number of networking contacts a week for informational conversations. And we break it down further to have a certain day and time in their schedules, for example Saturday mornings, to get this activity done. The people I work with who are interested in attending graduate school make a goal to research a certain number of programs each month and to study a certain amount of time each week for their entrance exams. Then we also break down exactly when they see this fitting in their schedules. The same goal-setting principles apply to any other major shift you want to make in 2022, you’ll want to determine what you need to research and what actions you need to take to move toward the transition. Then make it your goal to do these items consistently. This phase before the transition may be as short as a few months or make take most of the year. You can’t know exactly when you’ll reach the next stage, but with concrete, action-oriented goals, you can know that you’re making progress each week. During the transition process Once you’ve hit the inflection point where you’ve gone from planning a pivot to actually living the big changes, your goals may evolve. To lower the chances of overwhelm and of waking up in the middle of the night with random tasks 20
popping into your head, create a master list of all of the things that will need to get done in this transition. I recommend doing a quick Internet search for pre-made checklists for moving, starting a new job, having a child, beginning graduate school, or your vision of a new beginning you might have coming up. In my experience, I find that if I search for a topic and then cross-check between about three different example lists, I feel pretty comfortable that I’m not missing anything big. Once you’ve made the master list, then you need to assess your schedule. You might need to devote most nights and weekends over a certain period of time to the change, such as to packing if you’re moving. And you also may need to take some time off work during the most intense periods. Your goal during this stage is to simply get to the other side of the change. Once you’re settling in The final phase of your refreshed life is the settling in stage where you’re in the new job, new home, or any other “new” where you’re not quite comfortable yet.
Take this stage to get organized and ready to jump off. For instance, if you just started a new job, use this time to set up your passwords and paperwork filed. If you just moved, you need to make sure your address is changed, you have an internet connection, and you know how to get around town. Do not expect yourself to operate at maximum productivity or efficiency. Instead, celebrate every time you establish how to do something new. You can feel reassured that the second time you take these steps, it will come much easier. The amount of time you need to spend settling in will taper over time. One morning you wake to find that many of the tasks on your list have dropped up. Expect these goals around settling down in to diminish as your refreshed life becomes more natural. Wherever you’re at in your process of change, you can set your intentions for 2022 by assessing your stage and making goals accordingly.
Photo by SOULSANA on Unsplash.
Sh op in store & o n line
up close & personal
ALAA NAEEM
Using art to heal and help others find purpose and peace By bazaar staff
We usually enjoy crafting introductions, but Alaa seems to have mastered the art. “I am always shocked by my introverted nature when I am asked this question! When I am introducing myself, I say my name is Alaa Naeem, in my head I think, a Gryffindor! but then I tailor my answer to the situation, mostly I am an artist who is specialized in Art Therapy, sometimes I am this mixture of middle eastern nationalities: Palestinian Jordanian, Lebanese mother, Egyptian partner, Kuwaiti Born and raised, under my breath I say: A temporary resident on planet earth. sometimes I talk about my experience and how I started my journey as an engineer who realized that this wasn’t what she wanted to do for the rest of her life, sometimes I mention that I was born on December 27th which makes me a Capricorn, no, I am not mythological, but I am spiritual and a strong believer. Generally, I smile and let people lead the conversation until I am triggered to pitch in,” she told us.
ALAA NAEEM
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Alaa is bubbly, full of ideas, creativity, and a zeal for life. She was born into an ar tistic and for ward-thinking family, her mother studied graphic design in the USA way back when it was an unheard of career in the Middle East, she found her passion in teaching ar t as a career. Alaa believes that she was born an ar tist, life happened and instead she became an engineer. Yet, she was always looking for more. Years later, she star ted her healing journey and decided to get a diploma in graphic design and began freelancing. That was how she ended up earning a degree in Ar t Therapy. Since then, she has amassed a dozen cer tificates in different topics related to ar t, healing, and coaching. Originally, Alaa star ted her Instagram account “from a to me”, with pretty much a diar y and a pencil. At first, she used it as a space to vent, and although she had been practicing ar t for most of her life, she didn’t feel it was ser ving its purpose. “Throughout my life I think I always searched for the deeper meaning of things, to tr y to make sense of the events that happen in life. I am still learning how to find peace in the midst of it all and I believe this is the key for happiness; finding your inner peace,” she explained. She had bought a notebook on a whim because of the interesting quote on the cover. It said, “Things are never as bad as they seem, so dream dream dream”, and she used it for daily doodling and journaling. It became a habit, and as the collection of notebooks grew, she realized that the practice helped her grow, keep her emotions in check and stimulated her creativity. This set the groundwork for what came later when she stumbled into Ar t Therapy as a profession. Some major changes in her life shook her to her core and she was forced to find ways to heal. “When I star ted my healing journey, I used ar t as a means for expression, and I realized how much it helped me and I wanted to share that revelation with ever yone I knew, so I star ted looking into it and
experimented with different schools, then I finally found a school that can help me develop it fur ther,” Alaa explains. Ar t Therapy explores and obser ves feelings through the creative process of making ar t. Alaa tells us that “It can also be wildly liberating because there are no rules in ar t. Instead, you’re encouraged to explore, have fun and play. There is no such thing as ‘good or bad’ ar t”. Ar t Therapy is therapeutic for a wide variety of issues like mental health problems, addiction, self-harm, anxiety, dealing with grief and so much more. But ever yone can benefit from Ar t Therapy, especially those who do not practice general forms of ar t in their daily routines as a creative outlet and stress reliever. Ar t Therapy is more than just encouraging people to doodle on paper or throw paint at a canvas. Professional ar t teachers can lead an inspirational class, however, only a trained ar t therapist can provide the full Ar t Therapy experience. There’s science behind it, which is why Alaa keeps going back for more and says “Yes, I go back to school ever y chance I get to learn something that helps me move for ward because I believe in the value added by an academic foundation.” Alaa’s route has been interesting and bumpy, yet she has found her calling, while also learning a lot on the way. “The most impor tant lesson for me so far, I believe, is realizing common humanity, how we all, despite our physical differences and different circumstances, share the same emotional core and complex experience layer, and also, surprisingly, how by healing others you expose and heal par ts of yourself as well. It’s an indescribable feeling when you work with someone and connect with them on a deeper creative level,” she explains. Alaa is excited to bring more Ar t Therapy to Kuwait, but also hopes to see a community of ar t therapists and more awareness as to what it is about and most impor tantly, how valuable it is to the community.
Courtesy of Alaa Naeem [Continued...]
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UP CLOSE & PERSONAL QUESTIONNAIRE What do you most value about your friends? How much fun we have being ourselves. Which living person do you most admire? Right now, my younger sister. What is your idea of perfect happiness? Content and gratitude. What is your greatest extravagance? If by that you mean, what do I spend on the most? Its traveling. If you mean a certain guilty pleasure, then its chocolate, and peanut butter, and strawberries, and caramel nougats, and coconut anything! What is your most treasured possession? Honestly couldn’t say... I try not to get attached to things, I even imagined losing my phone...I’d be sad for a day, but I’d get over that too... but I treasure people and memories and my sister’s bunny. What is your greatest fear? Currently I am working on my fear of uncertainty. Trying my best to let things go. On a lighter note, I am terrified of sharks and snakes. What is your most marked characteristic? Talented, and artistic! Which talent would you most like to have? Clairvoyance. What is one trait you have that you are most grateful for? Gratitude. What is the human trait you most dislike about others? Dishonesty and manipulation. What is it that you most dislike? Dishonesty and manipulation. Which words or phrases do you most overuse? Between me and myself: I am grateful, publicly speaking I say “ya3ni” a lot, hehe. What are your favourite words to live by? Focus on the journey, the rest will come. Where would you most like to live? Anywhere around the Mediterranean coast.
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[...Continued]
If you could have any job, what would it be? My job: An Artist. What would you consider your achievement? Getting started on my healing journey.
What do you hope for the future? Many things, I can’t count, but in the words of Ms. Congeniality: “... and world peace”
greatest You can find Alaa on Instagram @alaanaeeem, spreading positivity, art, and a lot of joy.
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WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK
This is what makes people happy at work, according to science By Art Markman
In a time when so many workers are searching for greener pastures, many of us are giving more thought to what type of work feels meaningful. After all, if you have a full-time job, then you’re spending a significant fraction of your waking hours each week at work, thinking about work, and/or commuting to and from your office. As a result, it’s only natural you’d like to be happy and satisfied with the work that you’re doing. Happiness versus satisfaction To kick things off, it’s worth distinguishing between overall satisfaction with your work and your momentary happiness. You may love your job and feel completely satisfied with your career path and still have moments at work in which you’re not happy or enjoying what you do. Satisfaction is a long-term state, while happiness is something that happens in the moment. Studies that explore what makes people satisfied typically ask people about their overall satisfaction, and then relate differences between people in their responses to aspects of the job. Studies that look at momentary happiness focus on particular events. These studies might stop people at particular times of the day to ask what they are doing and about the positive or negative emotions they’re experiencing, or they might have them reflect back over the day and think about activities and emotions. What makes you satisfied with your job? There are different frameworks that do a good job of predicting people’s satisfaction with their job. One focuses on the degree to which people see their job as a calling or a vocation. A calling is a job that serves a cause that has more societal impact than just the specific tasks. It provides a benefit to others and connects the daily tasks to a more significant theme. People who see their work as a calling are more satisfied with their jobs than people who do not. You might think that seeing work as a calling can only happen if you have a high-level job in an organization, or work at a nonprofit, but that isn’t the case. Anyone who feels their work is connected to a broader purpose can experience work as a calling, regardless of the specific tasks their job requires. A second approach draws on a framework called “Job Characteristics Theory.” The idea here is that there are five dimensions of your job that are likely to increase your satisfaction with your work. These are: • The job requires a variety of skills and activities to do well, so you perform many tasks. • You get to shepherd tasks from start to finish rather than just working on a small piece of the puzzle. • The job has broader significance (which relates 26
to the “calling orientation” I just described). • You have freedom to do your work without significant micromanagement or oversight. • You get frequent and timely feedback about whether your efforts are succeeding. The more your job displays these characteristics, the more satisfied you’re likely to be with your work. What events make you happy day-to-day? Whether you find your overall work satisfying, what does science have to say about your momentary happiness as the day goes along? Some studies look just at the amount of enjoyment people get from the activities they perform. Studies like this suggest that of all the things people do during the day, the only thing people enjoy less moment-to-moment than working is commuting to work. They also enjoy their time with coworkers and bosses less than they enjoy their time with friends and family. When you just look at average levels of happiness, then, the story of work doesn’t look so good. But, there are definitely work events that make you happy. Obviously, successes make you
happy. Completing a project, closing a sale, or contributing a great idea feel good in the moment. In addition, any activity in which you think quickly feels good in the moment. For example, having a great conversation in which the ideas flow, or making a lot of progress on a report or computer program, will feel good. Research relating to the job characteristics mentioned in the previous section also suggests that doing something out of the ordinary for your job, which relates to the positive aspects of job satisfaction, will make you happy. For example, if you generally have someone looking over your shoulder at work, and you get a chance to do a project without a lot of oversight, you will enjoy that. This research is valuable because it suggests things you can do to maximize your overall satisfaction with your work, as well as to increase your daily enjoyment of the work you’re doing. Even when you don’t have a lot of control over the particular tasks that are part of your work day, you do have a choice about how you perceive them. Photo by Count Chris on Unsplash.
GIFT YOURSELF SOME GOOD VIBES
Science explains the surprising benefits of gift giving By Dimitris Xygalatas
Whether it’s the dread of a trip to an overcrowded shopping mall, the challenge of picking out the right gifts, the frustration over delivery delays or the hit to the wallet, shopping for holiday gifts can be stressful. What’s the point of it all? Shouldn’t the holiday season simply be about family, friends and food? And wouldn’t everyone just be better off spending their own money on things they know they want? Gift exchanges may seem wasteful and impractical. But as social scientific research reveals, the costs and benefits of gift-giving aren’t what they seem. The Kula ring During his fieldwork in Papua New Guinea, anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski documented an elaborate tradition practiced by the Massim people. These island communities maintained a complex ceremonial exchange system that revolved around the gifting of shell necklaces and shell armbands. Each gift first passed between individuals and then traveled between islands in a circle that became known as the “Kula ring.” These artifacts had no practical utility or commercial value. In fact, selling them was strictly forbidden by custom. And since the objects were always on the move, their owners rarely wore them. Nonetheless, the Massim took long journeys to exchange them, risking life and limb as they navigated the treacherous waters of the Pacific Ocean in their wobbly canoes. This hardly seems like an efficient use of time and resources. But anthropologists realized that the Kula was instrumental in cultivating human connection. Individually, these gifts were not really free; they came with the expectation of repayment in the future. But on the whole, they served to create a cycle of mutual responsibilities, resulting in a network of reciprocal relationships encompassing the entire community. The giving effect Similar exchanges exist in societies around the world. In many parts of Asia, gift-giving is an integral part of corporate culture. Just like for the Massim, those symbolic gifts facilitate business relations. In much of the Western world, one of the most familiar contexts is the custom of exchanging holiday presents. On occasions such as Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, many families spend considerable time, effort and money on buying presents for their loved ones. Looking at it through the lens of cold logic, the practice seems wasteful. Everyone has to pay for someone else’s stuff. Some gifts end up 28
going unused or returned. If no one gave presents, everyone might be better off spending their money and time according to their own needs and desires. However, psychological research suggests otherwise. Studies show that spending money on others feels better than splurging on ourselves. In fact, neuroscientists have found that making a donation makes the brain’s reward circuitry light up more than receiving a gift. Moreover, the joy of giving a gift lasts longer than the fleeting pleasure of accepting it. By exchanging presents, we can double-dip, spreading feelings of gratitude all around. Besides, as families and friends know one another’s tastes, preferences and needs, chances are that most people will end up receiving what they wanted in the first place, with the added bonus of bringing everyone closer together. Weaving webs of connections Ritualized sharing occurs not only within but also between families. Think of birthday parties, weddings or baby showers. Guests are expected to bring a present, often of significant value. Both they and their hosts often keep track of the value of those presents, and receivers are expected to reciprocate with a gift of similar value when the opportunity presents itself in the future. This exchange serves multiple functions. For the hosts, it provides material support, often during challenging transitional periods such as starting a new family. And for guests, it is like investing money into a fund, to be used when their time comes to become hosts. Moreover, the gifts help raise the symbolic status of the givers along with that of the receiver, who is in position to organize a lavish ceremony partly or wholly funded by the guests. Most importantly, these exchanges help build a network of ritual bonds between families. Similar practices even extend to politics: When diplomats or leaders visit a foreign country, it is customary to exchange presents. French officials often hand out bottles of wine, while Italian leaders are known to give fashionable ties. Other diplomatic gifts may be more unusual. When President Richard Nixon visited China in 1972, Chairman Mao Zedong sent two giant pandas, named Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. The U.S. government reciprocated by sending two oxen to China.
From the shells exchanged by Pacific islanders to the toys and sweaters placed under Christmas trees, sharing has always been at the center of many ritual traditions. This is fundamentally different from other forms of material exchange, like trade or barter. For the Massim, exchanging a shell necklace for a shell armband is not the same as trading yam for fish, just as giving a birthday present is not the same as handing a cashier money to purchase groceries. This speaks to a more general rule of ceremonial actions: They are not what they appear to be. Unlike ordinary behaviors, ritual actions are nonutilitarian. It is this very lack of obvious utility that makes them special. Photo by Superkitina on Unsplash.
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SINGING FOR DIAMONDS Singer/songwriter Faisal Marei dropped a new music video By bazaar staff
Our favorite local singer songwriter and smooth crooner Faisal Marei has been delighting our ears since way back when he was part of Army of One. Early this year he dropped an inspiring single featuring Rahaf, called My World to reignite his solo music career.
The video was produced by Pacific Music, mixed and mastered by @ dj_peter_gl. The video production is a masterpiece, with Fadi Films @fadi_ almograby behind it. It follows Faisal in the desert, the car and at home singing his woman’s (played by @krati_porwal) praises (literally) and telling her that diamonds and love are the only way to thank her for her generous affection and support. It feels local, without being in your face. The shots are overlaid with fun text, giving it a very modern feel. Additional support and assistance was received from @aseel_aso, @ri_my95 and @conscious.sinner. We caught up with Faisal to learn more about the song and what’s in store for the future. What inspired Diamonds? The “diamonds” in the song seem to apply or imply different things, what do they mean to you? What is your favorite thing about the song? It is a song that has a simple storyline that follows a man showing his 30
appreciation for his woman, highlighting the ups and downs. And because of her patience, diamonds and unending love is given in return. How is it different from your previous work? How is it similar? “Diamonds” brought the best out of me musically, it was different as it had a mix of old school and new school sound merged in a cool way. The music video is really interesting and brings lots of cinematographic elements together, was that your choice? Did you have a vision of the finished project? I met recently with the director Fadi Attia Almograby who is also known as Fadi Films and who directed and shot the video “Diamonds”, when he heard the song he immediately had a story, a vision for the video and was really excited to work on it, we decided on a day and shot the video in 2 days. Fadi, is one of the most talented and creative people I have worked with, he brings
fresh, young and creative ideas to the table with amazing quality of directing, videography and effects. I’m so happy with this collaboration as Fadi and his team are not only talented but also very professional. When we caught up with you earlier this year when you dropped My World, you told us you were working on a mixtape/album of 8 songs, is Diamonds part of that project? Can you tell us more about that project? Honestly, I am working on dropping singles every few months. I dropped two songs after “My World”,“I Need You” and after “Come Down” with a Jamaican artist, then came “Diamonds”. The industry is not like before, where you drop an album and market it as an album or LP. I want to try new things by dropping singles and in the process collaborating and trying new things. Maybe once I drop 8-10 singles I can put all in one album and market it as an album, but at the moment just doing one song at a time What’s in store for the future? I have a new single called “Temptation” dropping soon and working on new ideas, some in Arabic and some in English with a different twist. So expect something new in the beginning of 2022. Follow @faisal.marei on Instagram to see his latest video and stay up-to-date with all of his news. 31
BEYOND THE NFT HYPE
5 surprising ways NFTs could transcend the hype and become seriously useful By Mark Sullivan
Today, most people associate non-fungible tokens with crypto nerds and overhyped and overpriced pieces of digital art. Maybe it was just bad luck that the art world was where NFTs first got traction: Long before NFTs came along, it was driven by hype and speculation. But crypto enthusiasts believe the story of NFTs is just getting going, and that more useful and predictable use cases for the tokens are ready to emerge. Though such scenarios are still far from mainstream, technology companies have already begun offering products and services to enable them. 1. Fashion goes virtual As hard as it might be to imagine, ownership in the virtual world might one day be every bit as important as it is in the real world. An NFT proving ownership of a parcel of digital land, might be as important as the deed to a house in the physical world. “NFTs (or their descendants) will provide digital property rights to billions of people, says Animoca Brands cofounder Yat Siu. “That property will include both digital and physical goods and information of all kinds.” “The Roblox/Fornite generation will look for brands that blend the real and unreal, and let them show that off to friends,” says RGA London executive creative director Nick Pringle. 2. Eternal web domains Website domains are often among the very first considerations of a company starting an online business. A simple, memorable URL can make all the difference in marketing the site and its wares. Because of that, and the limited URL extensions available, some domain names have become very expensive to buy. That’s also the reason some opportunists engage in “domain sniping”; they wait for popular domain name registrations to expire, then swoop in and buy up the URL before the owner knows what happened. NFT domain registrars such as Unstoppable Domains charge only a one-time fee for these domains, Gould says, while traditional registries ask for periodic fees in perpetuity. When site operators can buy domain names outright and own them forever, they’re no longer targets for domain sniping. Some believe, however, that because blockchain domains are decentralized and fairly anonymous, they could be used by bad actors as a tool for cybercrime. 3. ‘Play-to-earn’ games Some games allow users to buy in-game apparel and other digital merch as NFTs. For instance players of Epic’s Fortnite game use cryptocurrency to buy skins (outfits) for their avatars. This may sound a bit strange when those skins have no 32
value outside the digital confines of the game. But it makes sense to the millions of gamers who have spent money on digital goods within games. Actually, NFTs don’t necessarily have to stay inside the game. The game Axie Infinity has taken off in recent months, in large part because players have a chance to make real money by playing. In the game, players buy cute digital pets called Axies. These Axies battle other Axies. Players can earn tokens for fighting well. If they earn enough tokens, they can breed their Axies to create new ones. There’s much more to it than that. Axie is actually something like chess meets Dungeons & Dragons meets Pokémon Go. It’s an example of a game developer that found a NFT-based business model that works and keeps players coming back. There’s even a documentary about Axie and the “play-to-earn revolution.” Other game developers might find their own formulas within this genre. 4. Smart event tickets Imagine using bitcoin to buy an NFT that will get you into a concert or sporting event. The NFT might come with cool digital art or other special content from a band or sports team. Once inside the event, you may be able to use the NFT to buy extras like drinks, food, or a t-shirt. Companies like TicketMint and NuArca Labs have launched platforms to support NFT ticketing. Here’s a more detailed description of how the ticketing on the blockchain works. Even after the event is over an
NFT can carry value in ways paper tickets can’t. If you’re the sort that likes to hold onto concert or game tickets as memorabilia, you can hold onto your NFT in your crypto wallet. If it represents a memorable event, the NFT could even become worth something. 5. More rewarding rewards programs Gould tells me bands, sports teams, and promoters are watching the NFT space very closely because they see NFTs as a big opportunity to continually connect with fans. Since an NFT ticket is registered to you on the blockchain, the promoter of a concert or sports event could use it as the vehicle for a rewards program that offers extras to certain fans. This might mean admittance to a backstage party after the show, a meet-and-greet with a sports team after a game, or an event put on by the official fan club weeks after the event. Some of these special events might be real-world, while others might be virtual. We may finally realize NFTs have gone mainstream when we stop seeing the acronym in headlines. They are, after all, just mundane little smart contracts that can link out to valuable digital content. NFTs may ultimately be most useful when they’re quietly and harmlessly updating themselves in the background and out of the public eye.
Photo by Vadim Bogulov on Unsplash.
BETTER VIRTUAL LEADERSHIP IN 2022
Here are 5 ways to make it happen By James R. Bailey, Isabel Villamor and Sharon Hill
Virtual work—with its benefits and drawbacks—is not new. But its pace accelerated at a dizzying rate in 2020. Now, people don’t want to return to the office. That doesn’t mean they can’t be committed and productive through astute virtual leadership. Ensuring such leadership should become a key priority for organizations. Working virtually makes employees more taskfocused because the informal interactions that foster interpersonal relationships are eliminated. No chitchat before and after meetings, hallway and water-cooler conversations, or after-hours social activities. To get the work done, virtual leaders may become more directive because they feel a loss of control. It is difficult to monitor employees’ work remotely. To compensate, they over-rely on providing structure and direction to monitor and control. Paradoxically, this more directive approach is the opposite of what is needed for effective virtual leadership. Instead, research suggests it is more important for virtual leaders to empower employees and promote self-leadership. Although leaders certainly need to provide structure and direction, they also need to learn how to let go. This was the takeaway from a recent study that examined 3,909 teams in a wide range of jobs. Results showed that relationship-focused leadership (participative, empowering) is a stronger predictor of virtual team performance than task-focused leadership (directive, controlling), particularly in larger teams where it is more difficult to “see” what team members are doing. Why? Because relationship-focused leadership overcomes some of the challenges, and takes advantage of the benefits, of working virtually. NAVIGATING THE BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF VIRTUAL WORK Lack of visibility into team members’ work situation. In the office, leaders can clearly view progress and provide immediate feedback through direct communication. This is more challenging through a screen. So, rather than being overly directive, leaders should create conditions where employees feel empowered to complete their work, act in the team’s best interest, and make decisions about their work. Threats to team commitment and trust. Building team commitment, trust, and mutual support virtually is challenging. By focusing on relationship-focused activities, leaders promote a collective sense of purpose and a positive environment. Feelings of isolation. Virtual work increases feelings of isolation. This makes it more important 34
to be supportive and address team members’ concerns.
because it gives them enormous flexibility to balance their personal and professional lives.
Benefits of autonomy. Virtual work bestows autonomy, and employees appreciate choosing when, where, and how to complete their work. This increases motivation and well-being. Being overly controlling undermines this empowering sense of autonomy. Based on our experience talking to leaders with virtual employees across different work contexts and research in this area, we suggest five leadership best practices for becoming more relationship-focused.
Give people permission to speak up and call you out (if necessary). This is even more critical in virtual environments where people offer feedback less readily. But, it may not happen unless leaders make a special effort to solicit feedback, surround themselves with people who keep them honest, and reward this behavior.
PRACTICING BETTER VIRTUAL LEADERSHIP Delegate—empower your team. Accept that micromanagement isn’t possible as a virtual leader. Delegate to team members and empower them to manage their own performance. Studies show that team leaders fear becoming dispensable and underestimate team members’ ability to lead when necessary. Check in, but don’t micromanage. Team members need to know that you care about their well-being and are there to support them. So, check in regularly and encourage team members to keep everyone informed of their activities and any challenges. Focus on results, not so much on how things get done. Ethics and collaboration aside, evaluate employees on the outcomes of their work rather than how, when, and from where they produce those outcomes. Remember that employees value the autonomy working virtually provides
Get over your desire for control. Of course, none of these best practices is possible unless leaders relinquish their desire for control. If letting go is difficult, take time to self-reflect. Why micromanage and smother employees? Why keep checking if team members are connected? Employees know when leaders are checking in out of genuine concern and when they are using that check-in as a means of control. Leading virtually requires a velvet hand, not an iron fist. It is perfectly understandable that leaders who enjoy daily face-to-face contact, with all the monitoring and direction it allows, yearn for the control they have lost. Yet, these concerns are not well-grounded, since research shows that employees can be equally (if not more) productive working remotely than working in the office. There’s been a sea change. And those new seas will never change. Adjusting to new work attitudes and dynamics will not be easy. It will be slow but hopefully measured and done with empathy and respect. But it can be done.
Photo by Headway on Unsplash.
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CRAIG LOOMIS On finding plot twists in the mundane and his latest book “This is a Chair” By bazaar staff
If you’ve been reading bazaar for a while and check the bylines, then you definitely know that Craig Loomis is our regular reality-inspired short fiction contributor. His stories usually start by setting the scene and telling us where the narrator is or what’s happening. It’s usually something ordinary, like being at the beach or in the passenger seat of a car. His protagonists are almost never named, but we know who they are. We understand their place in the story. Then, he’ll start showing us why this scenario is special and will give the reader their own space to come to a conclusion or make their own interpretation. Craig is Associate Professor of English at the American University in Kuwait. After speaking to him for a couple of minutes, you would probably guess he was an educator or should be one. He pauses to consider your questions but not for too long before he gives a well thought out answer that makes sense and is easy to digest. The conversation mirrored his writing, open and honest, but layered and meaningful. Craig grew up in a small town called Placer ville, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, near Sacramento, California, went to college in Arizona and realized that he really enjoyed reading. He stumbled into teaching by chasing what he really liked doing. His career has taken him all over the world to countries like Japan and Malaysia before ending up in Kuwait more than seventeen years ago where he’s been since then. Traveling to and living in different countries has taught him that “… people are people they say and do the same silly things. Par t of my writing experience is that I make an attempt to capture the daily, the mundane, the ever yday, and just put a new twist on it or bring it to people’s attention. So that if you go to Johnny Rockets, you can see the same thing that I see,” he explains. His writing career star ted in the 60s when he became acquainted with James Baldwin’s writing and was inspired to take pen to paper. “I read [that] and a light bulb went on. And I said I can do this as well, or at least, I could tr y to do. And so the actual serious writing began, which I do ever y day,” he explains. As a professor of English and an author, Craig is in an interesting position: he understands the mechanics and technicalities of writing, but he also understands the respect and time the creative process demands. “Now, I’m willing to wait longer for the stor y to come. [When I was younger] I would push the stor y to finish it. And it really wasn’t good. But I was done with it,” he says. Writing His first book titled “A Softer Violence: Tales of Orient” was published in 1995 while 36
he was living in Malaysia. Later he published “The Salmiya Collection” which is a collection of shor t stories of life in this little corner of the world. His most recent book “This is a Chair: A lyrical Tale of Life, Death and Other Curriculum Challenges’’ came out last October. He describes it as “a collage, a kind of mosaic of stories glued together that, I hope, make a complete novel”. He picks up a copy and reads the commentar y at the ver y beginning of the book. “If arranged correctly, sharp, smaller stories, slivers of images, por traits of people and fragments and
places can be marbled and mixed in such a way as to create a larger more comprehensive narrative. This final mosaic will assume its own life,” he reads. This could be used to describe all of Craig’s writing. He breaks things down to their smallest unit, that ever yone can understand and relate to, because he is speaking about basic human traits and behaviors that we have all experienced or might even be guilty of having or doing. Which is why we’re always happy to read his work, because it offers us a different perspective on things we’ve seen before but maybe never really noticed.
TRUTH OR DARE QUESTIONNAIRE What is the most ridiculous question you’ve ever been asked? Do you like to read?
If you could change your name, to what would you change it? Davy Crockett.
What is the most spontaneous thing you’ve ever done? Jumped on an airplane to Japan.
How would you describe your handshake, in one word? Accommodating.
Where would you like to live? Somewhere warm with a beach. What is your dream retirement location? Somewhere warm with a beach. Do you miss anything from your childhood and if so, what is it? Being young.
Finish this sentence: “Happiness is…” “coming to the realization that happiness should not be the endgame to life and living.”
Who is your favorite historical figure? Ernest Hemingway. What in the world do you least desire? Retirement. What do you think is lacking in the world, which [if there were more of it] would make the world a better place? Patience.
You can find his new book on Amazon.com and read Craig’s short fiction on bazaar.town/author/ craigloomis/. 37
THE METAVERSE HAS ISSUES
4 essential pieces of research that explain Meta-Facebook’s problems By Eric Smalley
Meta, née Facebook, had a rough year in 2021, in public opinion if not financially. Revelations from whistleblower Frances Haugen, first detailed in a Wall Street Journal investigative series and then presented in congressional testimony, show that the company was aware of the harm it was causing. Growing concerns about misinformation, emotional manipulation and psychological harm came to a head this year when Haugen released internal company documents showing that the company’s own research confirmed the societal and individual harm its Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms cause. The Conversation gathered four articles from our archives that delve into research that explains Meta’s problematic behavior. 1. Addicted to engagement At the root of Meta’s harmfulness is its set of algorithms, the rules the company uses to choose what content you see. The algorithms are designed to boost the company’s profits, but they also allow misinformation to thrive. The algorithms work by increasing engagement – in other words, by provoking a response from the company’s users. Indiana University’s Filippo Menczer, who studies the spread of information and misinformation in social networks, explains that engagement plays into people’s tendency to favor posts that seem popular. “When social media tells people an item is going viral, their cognitive biases kick in and translate into the irresistible urge to pay attention to it and share it,” he wrote. One result is that low-quality information that gets an initial boost can garner more attention than it otherwise deserves. Worse, this dynamic can be gamed by people aiming to spread misinformation. “People aiming to manipulate the information market have created fake accounts, like trolls and social bots, and organized fake networks,” Menczer wrote. “They have flooded the network to create the appearance that a conspiracy theory or a political candidate is popular, tricking both platform algorithms and people’s cognitive biases at once.” 2. Kneecapping teen girls’ self-esteem Some of the most disturbing revelations concern the harm Meta’s Instagram social media platform causes adolescents, particularly teen girls. University of Kentucky psychologist Christia Spears Brown explains that Instagram can lead teens to objectify themselves by focusing on how their bodies appear to others. It also can lead them to make unrealistic comparisons of themselves with celebrities and filtered and 38
retouched images of their peers. Even when teens know the comparisons are unrealistic, they end up feeling worse about themselves. “Even in studies in which participants knew the photos they were shown on Instagram were retouched and reshaped, adolescent girls still felt worse about their bodies after viewing them,” she wrote. The problem is widespread because Instagram is where teens tend to hang out online. “Teens are more likely to log on to Instagram than any other social media site. It is a ubiquitous part of adolescent life,” Brown writes. “Yet studies consistently show that the more often teens use Instagram, the worse their overall well-being, selfesteem, life satisfaction, mood and body image.” 3. Fudging the numbers on harm Meta has, not surprisingly, pushed back against claims of harm despite the revelations in the leaked internal documents. The company has provided research that shows that its platforms do not cause harm in the way many researchers describe, and claims that the overall picture from all research on harm is unclear. University of Washington computational social scientist Joseph Bak-Coleman explains that Meta’s research can be both accurate and misleading. The explanation lies in averages. Meta’s studies look at effects on the average user. Given that Meta’s social media platforms have billions of users, harm to many thousands of people can be lost when all of the users’ experiences are averaged together. “The inability of this type of research to capture the smaller but still significant numbers of people at risk—the tail of the distribution—is
made worse by the need to measure a range of human experiences in discrete increments,” he wrote. 4. Hiding the numbers on misinformation Just as evidence of emotional and psychological harm can be lost in averages, evidence of the spread of misinformation can be lost without the context of another type of math: fractions. Despite substantial efforts to track misinformation on social media, it’s impossible to know the scope of the problem without knowing the number of overall posts social media users see each day. And that’s information Meta doesn’t make available to researchers. The overall number of posts is the denominator to the misinformation numerator in the fraction that tells you how bad the misinformation problem is, explains UMass Amherst’s Ethan Zuckerman, who studies social and civic media. The denominator problem is compounded by the distribution problem, which is the need to figure out where misinformation is concentrated. “Simply counting instances of misinformation found on a social media platform leaves two key questions unanswered: How likely are users to encounter misinformation, and are certain users especially likely to be affected by misinformation?” he wrote. This lack of information isn’t unique to Meta. “No social media platform makes it possible for researchers to accurately calculate how prominent a particular piece of content is across its platform,” Zuckerman wrote.
Photo by Dima Solomin on Unsplash.
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DO YOU WANT TO BE MY FRIEND?
5 strategies for making friends as a working adult By Diana Shi
How many of us have felt the struggle of making new friends? As the responsibilities of adulthood pile up, we often have little time for socializing and bonding over shared interests. The past year and a half has only complicated things. With some data showing more than half of workers were given the option to work from home during at least some of the pandemic, personal and professional worlds have blurred. Many of us felt depleted, time-starved, and isolated. Strong social ties can make all the difference. Long-term studies suggest a clear connection between close relationships and sustained happiness. So, if one of your goals for 2022 is to make more friends, read on. A few simple tips can help you expand you social circle: Make time to connect If you’ve found your schedule increasingly cramped during the pandemic, you’re not alone. But making new friends (and maintaining existing friendships) does require prioritizing social interactions in the same way you prioritize other activities. When plans are broken last minute, or we lean on excuses to get out of coffee dates, our social connections can gradually unravel or fade away. Before long, you may be asking yourself what happened to that friendship with a college classmate or coworker whom you always admired. Don’t shy away from making a plan. Friendships are built on making a consistent effort, remaining positive, and staying vulnerable. As Corey Weiner, CEO of Jun Group, writes for Fast Company, vulnerability is often misinterpreted as spilling your guts. What it really means is feeling comfortable to be yourself around others. “It doesn’t mean taking some huge risk and bearing your soul,” Weiner writes. “[More so,] do you feel recognized when you do good work? Do you feel like you can be yourself around a person?” Making an effort goes beyond throwing a “like” on someone’s social media post or sending a “Happy Holidays” group text. If you’ve got a few minutes while walking the dog, or doing dishes, reach out to an old friend on the phone and see how they’re doing. Or invite a new coworker to lunch. Simple actions like these show you’re interested in reviving (or creating) a genuine connection. Lean into your interests Our adult lives are typically organized around the realms of work and family, meaning you may not get much opportunity to cultivate your hobbies and personal interests. Find time to reconnect by joining local organizations, and leaning into hobbies. 40
The very act of engaging in a creative, tactile hobby—like painting or flower arranging—can boost your everyday performance and problemsolving. And hobbies can also help you connect with new friends who share similar interests. The celebrations and wins you have when involved in these pursuits will be all the more fulfilling. Get intentional It can be easy to convince yourself that you can go without socializing. But burnout and loneliness have ticked up alongside the explosion of remote work, meaning connecting with others is important. Shasta Nelson, author of The Business of Friendship, encourages working parents to think of how they encouraged socialization for their kids schooling from home during the pandemic. Think of how your kids may not immediately seek out time with friends, but as a parent, you know this is good for them, says Nelson. “We know homeschooled kids need their social needs met, and parents have to be intentional about it. When it comes to working from home, we can still build social networks, but we need to be more intentional about it.” Stay upbeat No one wants to start a new relationship feeling completely deflated. Yes, it can feel nice to vent
and complain to a new friend, but also, it can wear down others if you always seem unhappy when you talk with them. As Weiner points out, “Friendships almost always happen extremely gradually as a result of shared time and continued effort.” Take things slow and take a genuine interest in people to develop real friendships that can last beyond a few casual lunch dates. It’s normal if you’re feeling a little rusty. “It’s okay for things to be a bit uncomfortable at first, especially when everyone is not familiar with one another,” he says. “Acknowledge the first few hangouts will be awkward. This will relieve the pressure to hit it off instantly, and encourage people to open up more.” Invest in interesting people To find good friends, cast your net wide when it comes to seeking out people with whom you feel you would click. They could have something in common with you outside of work, or simply be someone with an appealing personality. Make a list of people you’d like to get to know, and then set a goal of reaching out to a new potential friend each week. Remember, in order to build relationships, you need to spend time cultivating a strong connection with people. No long-lasting friendship is built overnight.
Photo by Bewakoof.com Official on Unsplash.
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DRIVING TOWARDS SUSTAINABILITY WITH PORSCHE CENTER KUWAIT
Leaders, entrepreneurs and car enthusiasts from Kuwait explore the meaning of sustainability and how they are contributing to a more sustainable world By bazaar staff
At the heart of conversations for close to a decade, sustainability has become a familiar word among individuals of all age groups. Some connect it to being environmentally conscious, while others see it as the guide to achieving the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). But do we truly know how sustainability is translating in our society today?
Agility, Alargan International Real Estate and Alternative Energy Projects speak of sustainability in their operations. Leaders, entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts from various fields and backgrounds in Kuwait came together to explore the meaning of sustainability and how themselves and their businesses are contributing to building a more sustainable future. “Driving Towards Sustainability” delivers three talks, each bringing the notion of sustainability from the point of view of a group of speakers. “Sustainability is all about making conscious decisions for a better future.” This is what local female entrepreneurs had to say about venturing into sustainable entrepreneurship and changing mindsets about consuming fashion and ever yday needs. In this first episode, Hind Alkhatrash and Sama Alwasmi share their passion and principles and how they’ve aligned them to consciously help build a more sustainable future.
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Large companies also have a role to play in building a common sustainable future. Chairperson of Agility, Henadi Al-Saleh, Chief Executive Of fice and Vice Chairman of Alargan International Real Estate Company, Engineer Khaled Almeshaan, and Chief Executive Of fice of Alternative Energy Projects Company, Dr. Hassan Qasem, discuss how their respective businesses incorporate sustainability in their operations, highlighting the impor tance of investing in research and development and engaging stakeholders in the drive toward sustainability. The last episode of the talks features two car enthusiasts and Porsche owners, Abdullah Alaskari and Yousef Al-Qahtani, who discuss the future of car making. Believing that driving a Porsche is a journey rather than a destination, they both agreed that the Taycan
combined per formance, speed and Porsche’s true engineering in a car made for the future. Alaskari and Al-Qahtani concurred that while one can enjoy the unique per formance of a spor ts car, being conscious about its impact on the environment adds value to the overall experience. “Driving Towards Sustainability” is hosted by Porsche Center Kuwait to provide audiences in Kuwait with an understanding about how they too can contribute to these global goals. Having launched its first all-electric spor ts car, Taycan, in 2020, Porche’s vision to have a carbon-neutral balance sheet and a future where 80% of Porsche cars have electric motors by 2030. Speaking of the initiative, Porsche Centre Kuwait, Behbehani Motors Company, General Manager, Hany Marie, said: “We are ver y
Female entrepreneurs Hind Alkhatrash and Sama Alwasmi speak of sustainability as a way to change mindsets about consumption.
Abdullah Alaskari and Yousef Al-Qahtani speak of the value the Taycan adds as CO2-neutral vehicle.
honored to be hosting pillars from the local community to highlight the many facets of sustainability. We share a common vision for a sustainable world with these leading companies, local female entrepreneurs, and car enthusiasts. Sustainability is not just a talk or one thing we can do. It is a collective action in which ever y member of the global
community has a par t to fulfill. And Porsche envisions to have its spor t cars produced from 100% renewable energy in a more sustainable supply chain.” Through the many aspects of sustainability, Porsche Center Kuwait aims to engage in a talk on a sustainable future and how the community at large can contribute to it. The
episodes are now available on Porsche Center Kuwait’s Instagram and Facebook handles. For more information visit Porsche Centre Kuwait, Behbehani Motors Company, please call 1870 870 or visit porschekuwait.com. For the latest updates on social media, follow @PorscheCentreKuwait on Instagram and Facebook. 43
LEAP INTO THE UNKNOWN
How to pivot to a new career in 2022 By Diana Shi
Changing careers is a big decision. This is especially true if you feel like you lack sufficient experience in your new field. However, if you’re feeling completely wiped out from your current job, and wrestling with symptoms of burnout, now might be an ideal moment to consider a new job or a career switch. After all, lots of other people are feeling the same way: A staggering 4.4 million workers left their jobs in September 2021. As Shelley Zalis, chief executive of the Female Quotient, says, “Life is precious. Too precious to spend time in a job you hate where you feel undervalued, underpaid, and uninspired. […] It’s no longer the impressive title, corner office, or big bonus, but having more flexibility to pursue our passions and be present with our families.” Here a few tips if you’re ready to take a leap and change careers in 2022: 1. Get comfortable with risk Times of great upheaval can be opportune moments to learn something new about yourself. But if you’re about to take a big leap into a completely new field, you also should also get realistic about the risk involved. As Fast Company contributor and author of The Long Game: How To Be a Long-Term Thinker in a Short-Term World, Dorie Clark, advises, consider this as an opportunity for self-discovery, which will help you make better decisions going forward. Ask yourself some guiding questions like: What is your level of comfort with taking risks? How do you react and respond to confronting an unknown that may work (or not) in your favor? Are you holding on desperately to your current job simply because you fear a lack of stability? 2. Reach out to connectors If you’re new in an industry, you may find yourself reaching out cold to a hiring manager without someone who can vouch for you. To guarantee a higher level of success, it’s smart to get in touch with a connector. In other words, ensure that you’re making time to contact and network with people in your desired industry. If networking feels uncouth and slimy, try to re-frame it in your own head as an exchange of resources. As Fast Company contributor Dina Smith describes it: “Think of networking as an opportunity to give, rather than to get. … There’s always something you can extend to others, and you probably have more to offer than you realize.” Consider networking to be another advantageous skill that will help you land solidly in your dream field. Remember the next person you talk to could be the person who helps you land your big break. 3. Overcome feeling stuck According to an August 2021 survey, workers said they stay in unsatisfying jobs or industries due to 44
low confidence and/or the challenge of breaking out of a career rut. If you find yourself saying to yourself, “I’m not what they’re looking for” or “why would they hire someone like me?”—shake yourself out of these confidence-depleting statements now. One way to overcome these feelings is by asking yourself what sort of progress or life fulfillment you could achieve by remaining at your current role. If the motivation you’re craving to do great work includes a new job, with better working conditions and flexibility to maintain the life you built during the pandemic, then let these values guide you to take action. Don’t let the uncertain side of yourself dissuade you from trying something new, forming a plan, and going for it. 4. Show that you have the right skills You may not have the exact set of skills necessary to start mid-level in a new industry—you are new at this!—but that doesn’t mean you have nothing to offer. Demonstrate to a hiring manager what skills can transfer from your history of work. In a recent LinkedIn Learning report, a leading skill of 2021 was “resilience,” followed by other general skills such as “communication across distributed teams” and “emotional intelligence.” Show them that you have these soft skills that can make you
an asset, no matter what industry or team you’re joining. This isn’t to say you should ignore signs you’re not qualified for a position when looking for new opportunities; instead, you should work on being an adaptable candidate for a job. Take in the obstacles and assess how you will tackle each. Fast Company contributor Tomas Chamurro-Premuzic describes the importance of demonstrating that you are “curious, confident, [and] concerned about improving.” 5. Review how financially ready you are It takes a lot of guts to jump head-first into the known, but it also can be challenging financially. “If you have enough money in savings, you may be able to quit without a job lined up,” says Vicki Salmei, a career expert from Monster. “Or you may want to hang on to your current job and look for another job in your spare time.” Salemi also recommends keeping in mind other expenses that may pop up if you quit, such as healthcare, or education costs. Be prudent with how much financial risk you can handle— including what your decision will mean for those who rely on you for support. Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash.
SAD CLIMATE NEWS
2021 cancelled out nearly all the emissions reductions of 2020 By Kristin Toussaint
After a record-breaking drop in carbon emissions in 2020, global CO2 emissions have bounced back, nearly to pre-pandemic levels—a sign of how a “return to normal” isn’t enough to curb the emissions crisis and avoid tipping over our carbon budget. When the world shut down in 2020, carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel use that year dropped by two billion metric tons, the equivalent of taking 500 million cars off of roads globally. But as things reopened, with people heading back into offices and even flying again, all that activity has brought global emissions back up, mostly cancelling out that 2020 decrease. Experts saw this coming. In 2020, airplanes were parked, industries were closed down, commutes were curtailed. But society didn’t replace any of those things for the world’s reopening, they were just turned back on once vaccines became available. “When the same polluting infrastructure fires back up, it still emits greenhouse gases into the atmosphere,” says Rob Jackson, a professor of Earth Sciences at Stanford University and chair of the Global Carbon Project, an international group of experts that tracks carbon emissions. “When the global economy returns to close to normal—at least emissions return close to normal—that’s what we saw in 2021.” Overall, global CO2 emissions are projected to increase 4.9% over 2020, for a total of nearly 36.4 billion tons of CO2 emitted into the atmosphere. Rebounds are common after any global crisis that halts economic activity; that 4.9% bounce back is similar to the emissions rebound that followed the 2008 global financial crisis. Different countries saw different rebounds, as well. In the U.S. and across Europe, fossil carbon emissions rebounded by 8%, compared to a 10% drop in 2020. In other places, the emissions rebound was so high that 2021 emissions actually eclipsed 2019 levels. In India, CO2 emissions jumped almost 13% in 2021, to actually be just above its 2019 emissions levels. In China, fossil emissions rose about 4% compared with 2020, and 6% higher than in 2019, partially because China’s COVID-19 response came earlier than much of the rest of the world; experts already saw the country’s emissions start to ramp back up in 2020. Climate experts had hoped that COVID economy recovery packages would funnel money toward environmental solutions to change the trajectory of our emissions-heavy future. But ultimately, that hasn’t turned out to be true. “What I’m most discouraged about is how little stimulus funding around the world so far has gone to green energy and tech,” Jackson says. The U.S. is behind other countries when it comes to COVID stimulus funding, with the 46
Build Back Better plan seemingly off the table in Congress. But the rest of the world has still largely spent stimulus money on “brown,” or fossil-fuel based, industry, as opposed to green industry. “Around the world we have stimulated business as usual instead of change,” Jackson says. There were a few pieces of good news: The renewable energy sector grew 10% globally in 2020, which will have long-lasting impacts, and wind and solar capacity continues to grow. The Global Methane Pledge to drastically cut emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas announced at COP26 could help greenhouse gas emissions decrease (this doesn’t help carbon dioxide levels, but could still help global temperatures, and Jackson adds we should be paying more attention to all three major greenhouse gases, adding nitrous oxide alongside carbon and methane). The Global Coal Pledge—which saw more than 40 countries commit to phasing out coal—could be good news for the climate, too, but Jackson adds that the language change from a “phase out” to
“phase down” was disappointing, and “it remains to be seen what actual changes happen because of that.” Coal use is something Jackson plans to pay special attention to in the coming years. Experts thought that global coal use peaked in 2013, and that it’s been declining ever since. But COVID recovery plans helped coal use jump back to just below that peak. “Coal was the only fossil fuel where we thought we had seen the permanent global peak six or seven years ago, and [now] we could surpass that peak next year,” he says. “It would be genuinely bad news.” Looking to 2022, Jackson is concerned about fossil fuel emissions increasing even more, especially if coal use grows and transportation ramps back up fully to pre-pandemic levels. “If the world’s economy roars back,” he says, “we could see a new global record in fossil carbon emissions next year.” Photo by Jasmin Sessler on Unsplash.
DO IT FOR THE ‘GRAM:
A GUIDE TO GLAMOROUS KASHTAS Get your supplies ready because camping season is well and truly underway! By bazaar staff
Is there a better way to relax than a trip to the desert? The fresh air, wild landscape and cozy campfires are some of the reasons younger generations are now reliving this favorite pastime. But, forget practicality and take a leaf from the new generation’s book to modernize and revamp your next camping trip or Kashta outing this winter. So, take a break from the hustle and bustle of the city, and follow this quick and easy guide for the perfect desert trip using JYSK accessories and furniture. Porsche hosts one of the region’s largest car culture gatherings and attracts thousands of visit
#1: Location, Location, Location First thing’s first, what’s the ideal backdrop for your Kashta? Is it a scenic desert escape or a sandy beach? Whatever you decide on, remember to plan ahead! Make a list and scout out locations to fit your needs, and make sure you’re nowhere near ant farms, desert holes (where critters and snakes can be lurking) and noisy highways. Then, for the best pictures, get to your chosen location before sunset to hit golden hour and make sure your Kashta setup is perfect for your photo. Don’t forget to clean up before you go! #2: Staying for the night? So, you’ve decided on your perfect location, time to think about your perfect tent. From sturdy desert tents to waterproof beach ones, ask the advice of our Kashta experts in deciding what’s best for your needs. Only taking a day trip? Then, a simple tepee or umbrella should do the trick (pssst!. JYSK experts can help with that too).
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#3: Kashta Setups… Glamorized Now for the best part, deciding on your Kashta vibe. From boho-chic to Scandinavian minimalist, JYSK is here to help you with all your setup needs. Things to consider: Lighting, seats, and rugs, oh my! The basic necessities of any Kashta are cozy seating, rugs and festive lightings to make this experience truly a home away from home. Starting
with the rug, we recommend bamboo or straw rugs for practicality’s sake and its natural design. Add more warmth to it by incorporating floor pillows and warm blankets. Sitting on the ground is not your thing? JYSK has a variety of foldaway lightweight, portable chairs and tables that are easy to assemble and aesthetically pleasing, or if you’re looking to get extra cozy, sink yourself in one of our comfy bean bags. To really take your Kashta to the next level, JYSK has a variety of lounge sets
and furniture that’ll easily fit in the back of your truck and make your Kasha truly stand out. A quick nap or a night under the stars Whether you’re there for a day or three, sleeping equipment is an often-overlooked necessity when it comes to Kashta setups. Bring your favorite sleeping bag and JYSK blankets and pillows to bring next-level comfort. Don’t forget to bundle up with your bisht! [Continued...]
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The finishing touches What takes your Kashta from just a camp in the desert to the perfect escape are the accessories. From candles to pillows, incorporating them into your Kashta setup will add warmth and comfort to your desert escape. And if the light from the firepit is not enough, JYSK has battery operated fairy lights to make your experience in the desert all that more magical. Don’t forget the food! Although this isn’t a guide on the perfect Kashta menu, this will help you pick what it’s served on. The cop-out option is to use disposable cups and plates, but that will take away from the glam of the whole set-up (and sucks for the environment). Instead, JYSK has many easy to transport cutlery and plates to fit any vibe so that you can serve your menu on dishes fit for a king (or a queen). Whatever your setup vibe, this guide (and JYSK) has you covered. Follow these tips and tricks to make your desert escape a night to remember.
All of JYSK’s furniture is available online at www.JYSK.com.kw or at one of their showrooms in Dhajeej, Shuwaikh, the Avenues, and their newest location, Assimah Mall. Should you have any inquiries, feel free to contact the Customer Service Hotline through WhatsApp at 22261884 from 9 a.m. to midnight or send an email at customerservice@JYSK.com.kw. Use the code KASHTA25 online and receive 25% off your next purchase. Hurry! It’s a glamorous kashta season.
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ALL TOGETHER NOW
Try this science-backed powerful leadership strategy to bring people together By Next Big Idea Club
David Brendel is the co-founder of Strategy of Mind, an executive coaching, consulting, and leadership development firm rooted in philosophy and psychology. He is a board-certified psychiatrist with an MD from Harvard Medical School and a PhD in philosophy from the University of Chicago. Ryan Stelzer is cofounder of Strategy of Mind. He served in the Obama White House as a presidential management fellow, where his team was responsible for improving and sustaining high levels of performance across federal agencies. Below, David and Ryan share five key insights from their new book, Think Talk Create: Building Workplaces Fit for Humans. 1. The CEO should be a custodian. A few years ago, we ran a half-day workshop for a property management company that ran assisted living facilities. They were struggling with low morale, high employee turnover, and a plateau in their earnings. In a large catering hall, we arranged for the members of each division of the company to sit together at round tables. After a mini-lecture, we pivoted to our favorite openended question: “What keeps you up at night?” At first, we heard a bunch of common workplace grievances: heavy workloads, too many emails, a lack of communication from leadership. At the last table to go sat the custodians. Their designated summarizer reported that what kept them up at night was loss. These custodians didn’t just fix leaky faucets—they also became friends and confidants. With tears in his eyes, the custodian told a story about how an elderly resident called him regularly to open a pickle jar that she was too weak to open herself. They would then sit together and warmly talk about each other’s families. They came to care about each other over a number of years. And when the calls to help with the pickle jar ceased, he was devastated. 2. Conversation is a hard science. Ensuring that custodians contribute to overall company growth shouldn’t be serendipitous; it’s best to be proactive and intentional about fostering great conversations with everyone at work. Those conversations should start with carefully constructed open-ended questions, which is harder to do than it might appear—especially when we’re overwhelmed by our to-do list. But we should be as rigorous with how we talk to each other as we are with the more technical aspects of our jobs. The methodology we’ve developed, which we call “active inquiry,” can be fine-tuned through practice. It entails a meticulous and nearly exclusive focus on asking open-ended questions and making clarifying statements. Active inquiry breeds neural synchrony and interpersonal harmonization. It gives people the space to slow down, reflect on pesky problems, and construct 52
novel solutions. Closed-ended questions (which result in little more than yes/no responses) and leading questions (where the inquirer already thinks they know the right answer) do just the opposite. 3. Humanism is an overlooked technology. Active inquiry is a key skill not just in business, but in all areas of professional practice, including medicine. Physicians are trained to deploy their wealth of scientific knowledge to render a diagnosis and make a treatment plan. But without active inquiry as part of their skill set, opportunities for treatment may be lost. Sociologist Thorstein Veblen talked about the “trained incapacity” of experts—the blind spots created when outsize knowledge in one area obstructs the view of other salient human phenomena. 4. It pays to be raised in a barn. Professional hockey is a surprisingly good place to glimpse the power of active inquiry. Starting in 1972, the New York Islanders played in a beloved arena that, by the early 2000s, was pretty dilapidated and malodorous. That is, until the NHL and team owners saw greater financial opportunity in the swanky Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The team was moved there in 2016, and it was quickly a calamity, in part because it was so far away from the fan base. Ticket sales and revenue plummeted. So the new team owners began to ask a masterful set of open-ended questions. Jon Ledecky joined fans on the Long Island Rail Road to and from games in Brooklyn, and he asked them what the team should look like in the future. They gave him an earful, and he took it all in with a warm, boyish smile. Ledecky also engaged with the governor, the Nassau County executive, and other stakeholders to fashion a new deal for his loyal customers on the Island. As a result, the Islanders are moving into a new arena close to their fan base on Long Island. UBS, the multinational Swiss bank, has purchased the naming rights to the arena. The bank’s leaders would do well to conduct active inquiry sessions with residents across Long Island about how they can engage the community and excite the fan base. Perhaps a marriage of big bank and Old Barn values may be just what we need to bring the world of professional sports, and of the entire economy, into a more sustainably human equilibrium.
5. Believe yourself capable. Urban legend tells of a story in which the famed psychologist William James was asked to deliver a lengthy speech in front of a crowd of academics and researchers. Settled in for an extensive report, the crowd was shocked by James’s choice to speak for just a few seconds. “They’ve asked me to talk about the last hundred years of psychological research,” he allegedly told them. “It can be summed up in this statement: People, by and large, become what they think of themselves. Thank you and good night.” “I am capable of changing the world,” James said, “can only be true—or become true—if you first adopt the belief without prior evidence.” In other words, if you haven’t changed the world yet, the first step in doing so is believing that you can. Photo by Matteo Vistocco on Unsplash.
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TO QUIT OR NOT TO QUIT
Take this simple test to measure your workplace burnout By Connie Lin
We surveyed more than 6,000 workers around the world to find out how they’re feeling and what they expect from the future of work. Having done the same research a year earlier, this year’s findings offer valuable insight into how attitudes have changed and what’s driving the shift. Economists and labor experts are still struggling to explain the full phenomena of the Great Resignation. Some link it to the COVID-19 pandemic, which demolished most work norms. Some claim a mass employee revolt was inevitable, much like the boom-and-bust cycles of our economy. But most agree that one key driver is a pervasive sense of burnout: Employees feel overworked, overwhelmed, and overlooked. Burnout is a state distinct from mental health conditions like depression or anxiety, according to Leah Weiss, who researches the issue and teaches a perennially waitlisted class on compassionate leadership at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Burnout can result directly from “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed”—as the World Health Organization defines—leading to “feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to the job.” In fact, the term originated in the early 1970s to describe why air traffic controllers—frustrated by increased congestion, user-unfriendly machine interfaces, and generally tedious work—began making more human errors, causing a spike in collisions. But while burnout is sometimes seen as a binary state—you either are, or you aren’t— Weiss argues that’s not the case. It’s a spectrum, and your place along it can be measured by a simple, six-question quiz, courtesy of the team at 360Learning. The quiz is data-driven, with an initial set of responses from 20,000 people who took the exact same quiz sourced from HackerEarth, along with data sourced from Gallup about why people quit their jobs and industry turnover data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Job-to-Job Flows explorer. According to Weiss, there are actions employers can take to fight the scourge of burnout—and those don’t involve yoga, meditation, or TED talks. Instead, companies should be asking their workers questions, like, “Do you feel a sense of autonomy and voice in your team?” If they fail to do so, they could face more staffing headaches still to come. A record 4.4 million people quit their jobs this past September, and a recent survey from Joblist suggests nearly 75% of workers are considering quitting. Photo by Jackson Simmer on Unsplash. 54
“IT’S KUWAITI” BY TRAFALGAR LUXURY GROUP CELEBRATES LOCAL JEWELRY TALENTS! Local jewelry designers The Carats, Thhaba, Fida Al Awadhi and Sé Jewels are now available at Trafalgar 360 Kuwait By bazaar staff
For Trafalgar Luxury Group, ambition, dedication, and imagination are not just mere words used to describe the Group’s values, but rather an edict that continuously drives the company to present its esteemed customers with compelling, luxury experiences. Now at Trafalgar 360 Kuwait, the group is once again leading the way in the world of luxury with “It’s Kuwaiti”, a bespoke project and partnership to support Kuwaiti fine jewelry design talents The Carats, Thhaba, Fida Al Awadhi, and Sé Jewels, amongst a growing list of local designers.
Since its inception in 1972, Trafalgar Luxury Group has shaped the way customers across the region interact with their favorite premier brands; whether it’s through the group’s longstanding, strategic partnerships with leading international brands Chopard, Patek Phillipe, Harry Winston, Tag Heuer, Dior, and Gucci among others, to establishing individually designed, prime locations across the region to highlight the extraordinary craftsmanship of each brand and product and to create a memorable customer experience. At Trafalgar 360 Kuwait, customers have come to expect nothing less of spectacular experiences, and the Group’s “It’s Kuwaiti” launch was a true celebration of local jewelry talents. 56
The company’s decision to continue this special initiative in Trafalgar is a passion project geared at supporting local craftsmanship and connecting their esteemed clients with original, Kuwaiti-born concepts that are renowned for creating distinguished, inimitable pieces. This is why the group is proud to announce this collaboration with emerging jewelry designers The Carats, Thhaba, Fida Al Awadhi, and Sé Jewels in addition to Trafalgar’s continuing collaboration with local concepts Ebbarra and Intisars by offering them a platform to showcase their special creations alongside the world’s most renowned high-end luxury brands. The dazzling #ItsKuwaiti red carpet event at
the Trafalgar Flagship store in 360 Kuwait on December 15th arrived as a true celebration of this continuing initiative, and was attended by a roster of Kuwait’s creative community and jewelry lovers alike. During the special event, the designers met with Trafalgar’s esteemed customers, shared their own stories with attendees, and demonstrated their keen eye for bespoke craftsmanship via personalized, one-on-one customer consultations. Attendees gloriously celebrated and socialized to a complete #ItsKuwaiti theme for the evening. Modern Kuwaiti-inspired canapés and refreshments by locally loved concept Dar Hamad were served as guests joyfully mingled, and the
talented local DJ Bonita set the tone for the night with her curated select playlist, presenting a backdrop of incredible sounds. Trafalgar’s customers were invited to become their own cover star with Trafalgar’s custom magazine cover box, and Instagrammable moments were forever captured via the glitzy Glambot installation. A whimsical Claw machine presented a fun opportunity for attendees to win luxury prizes from The Carats and Thhaba, and each guest received a special Trafalgar gift bag to commemorate the evening. Locally commissioned, custom-made neon structures were placed within Trafalgar 360 Kuwait to represent a distinctive meeting point for each jewelry designer, who equally regaled attendees with signature pieces that were specially created for their respective displays along with a carefully curated collection designated for the #ItsKuwaiti event. The Carats, Thhaba, Fida Al Awadhi, and Sé Jewels each presented uniquely breathtaking pieces. Fida Al Awadhi’s display was otherworldly, utilizing meteor-like structures with a bold golden base color to present her iconic gold chain creations, Thhaba tantalized attendees with her precious Tanzanite pieces which took her three years to bring to life. The Carats presented a stunning emerald twist to her signature Trillium
creations, and Sé Jewels dazzled attendees with their bespoke, modern pieces which effortlessly showcased the highest quality precious gemstones like rubies, sapphires, and emeralds alongside pearls and diamonds. Inspired by the beauty of flowers and the mesmerizing colors of mother nature, homegrown Kuwaiti brand The Carats entered the world of luxury and jewelry with contemporary designs and floral motifs that continue to charm. Founded by Shahad Alshaya, the designer chooses the trillium flower as the center of her creations, “I love the symmetry and delicacy of this beautiful flower, it’s perfectly feminine.” Designed in 18k gold, the brand’s designs are centered around curves, layers, petals, and the enchanting colors of flowers, at the focus of all its creations. The Carats showcases their designs with two main collections showcasing high craftsmanship and subtle elegance for everyday and every occasion contemporary jewelry. From modern, diamond trilliums set on transparent lines to stunning emerald renditions and eyecatching bangles, her designs are visionary in every sense of the word. Telling us more about her experience with #ItsKuwaiti, Shahad believes that the potential for women in the GCC to succeed in jewelry design is strongly present, “While I am aiming to reach [Continued...]
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an international audience with my work, as that is my dream, I believe that women in the GCC have the opportunity to create because Middle Eastern women value jewelry, style and craftsmanship.” Established in Kuwait in 2011, the fine jewelry brand Thhaba was founded by Abrar Alebrahim, an architect and artist. With inspirations from architecture, literature, nature, and travel, Thhaba is a celebration of a journey of discovery and exploration in the world of natural gems and precious metals. Produced in limited quantities, the designs are a tribute to unique gemstones and uncommon diamond shapes and cuts to represent the strong, the bold, and the adventurous. Thhaba finds joy in creating bespoke designs, one-of-a-kind pieces for clients, reflecting their unique personalities, and expressing their individuality. In every piece of jewelry, the design process is celebrated, and the story is told. A creative journey that is ten years strong, Abrar honors the learning process above all, “I am learning something new with every collection I design, with every gemstone I hold in my hands and with every visit to the goldsmith. Learning and education has become one of the core values of THHABA, and I would like to embed that value throughout our processes and interactions with our suppliers and customers. I feel that people should know the stories and qualities of the jewelry they adorn themselves with and love the value behind those gemstones and designs not only for how precious they are in materials, but also for how rich they are in thought.”
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At Trafalgar 360 Kuwait, Abrar’s creations shone during the #ItsKuwaiti launch and today, you can find a specially curated selection of Thhaba’s work on display. At the event, the designer’s appreciation for architecture shone with her Thamaniya collection, inspired by the Pyramids of Giza. She describes the geometric design at the back side of each pyramid as the main inspiration for this collection, aiming to highlight the Pyramid’s often overlooked eightsided structure. Citing exploration as a key to her creative process, she explained, “My experience meditating at the Pyramids was one of the most intense meditation experiences I have ever had. The journey was that of discipline. It was also an experience in becoming fearless. One evening, at a group dinner, we started a conversation about the geometry of the structures. I was blown away when I found out that the Pyramids were not four sided, but rather had eight sides. The eight-sides were discovered entirely by accident in 1940 when a British Air Force Pilot, P. Groves, flew over the pyramid and realized the concavity.” From pendants, bracelets, oversized hoop earrings to delicate anklets, the collection is modern and visionary. Founded by Fida Al Awadhi, the eponymous label is making waves with the designer’s exciting chain creations. Fida’s passion for jewelry stems from her childhood days. She believes that she expresses herself through her designs, and most of her pieces that are hand-made with love in Kuwait are designed to evoke an emotional
connection for the wearer. She believes that her pieces add a certain delicacy and character which breaks everyday monotony, designating a special moment for the Fida Al Awadhi customer. The designer says that “wearing daily jewels creates a sense of empowerment in our character that we may not pay attention to, it is gold that shines and you who carries it,” Each piece created by Fida is expressed differently on every individual’s body, and the designer utilizes 18K Gold and diamonds to bring her creative visions to life. Recounting her experience at the special #ItsKuwaiti launch at Trafalgar 360 Kuwait, the designer felt right in her element, stating, “I’m very proud to be here, to be selected amongst my fellow designer talents, and to me #ItsKuwaiti feels like home. It’s lovely to be all together in one special hub like Trafalgar 360 Kuwait.” When we asked the designer about what she hopes to relay to other aspiring designers, she said, “I hope everyone goes after their talents and chases their dreams!” she excitedly exclaimed, proudly stating, “It pays off.” Sé Jewels indulge in the mystical power of precious stones and their unique symbolism. Cofounded by Mahnaz Daneshyar, Yalda Golsharifi, and Karim Golsharifi, Sé Jewels was born to illuminate women by reminding them of the immense power that resides within them. Inspired by the Persian origins of the three partners, every piece has a story and intention. These stories get to live on through the clients of
the brand reminding them of their innate value. Sé which means 3 in Farsi was chosen to highlight the three partners, the number 3 was considered as the perfect number, the number of harmony, wisdom, and understanding. It was also the number of time – past, present, future; birth, life, death; beginning, middle, end. Yalda and Mahnaz truly sparkled at the #ItsKuwaiti launch, and the energy between the two partners, who actually happen to be lifelong friends, was contagious. Their support for one another is really inspiring, as Yalda explained, “Mahnaz and I go way back. We’re friends first, and our collaboration and the decision to work together is completely natural. Mahnaz, originally the founder of Naz Jewelry, is a designer, and my father Karim Golsharifi is also a jeweler. It worked out perfectly.” Commenting on her experience at the event, Mahnaz added, “For us, #ItsKuwaiti means designing and creating in Kuwait, for Kuwait, and for women around the world. We’re thrilled to be here and we are so lucky to have each other. Every effort we put into Sé Jewels is filled with an energetic push, love and passion.” Always at the forefront of creativity, Trafalgar Luxury Group continues to spark joy and imagination in the minds of its esteemed customers, and their latest “It’s Kuwaiti” concept is not to be missed. Shop the latest collections from The Carats, Thhaba, Fida Al Awadhi, and Sé Jewels at Trafalgar in 360 Kuwait and on www.itsluxury.com. Follow @TrafalgarKuwait @Itsluxuryofficial on Instagram. [...Continued]
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A DIFFERENT ROAD TO HAPPINESS
To be truly happy, you need to consider this one controversial approach By Next Big Idea Club
Wendy Syfret is a Melbourne-based writer and editor. She is the former managing editor of VICE Asia, as well as head of Editorial for VICE Australia. She has contributed to publications such as The Guardian, Crikey, and ABC Life, to name a few. Currently, she is editor-in-chief of RIISE, a climate-forward fashion and lifestyle publication. Below, Wendy shares five key insights from her new book, The Sunny Nihilist: How a Meaningless Life Can Make You Truly Happy. 1. Nihilism doesn’t deserve its bad reputation. Nihilism has a PR problem—the term itself has become shorthand for “grim” and “depressing.” But I’d argue that this reputation is undeserved, owing more to the people who have embraced, promoted, and manipulated it than the concept itself. In its simplest form, nihilism preaches that “life is meaningless.” In turn, so are you and I. When we accept that “meaning” isn’t an inherent thing, we can examine it as a concept we create, and hence have the ability to control. Additionally, we can question where it comes from, and who is pushing it. Even if you don’t go full nihilist, it can be a prompt to wonder: Why do I believe what I believe? Where do these ideas come from? Who is benefitting from them? What do they really deliver to me? And how do they benefit others? 2. Meaning is supposed to make us happy, but our obsession with it is making us miserable. The search for a meaningful life isn’t a bad thing. It is a quest that has pushed humanity forward for millennia. It’s also a lot of work—people have dedicated their entire existence to understanding meaning through religion, philosophy, art, and even a commitment to civic life. Few of us have that kind of time, but our desire for meaningful connection remains. Unfortunately, that lust can easily be hijacked by power-holders who recognize that if they can produce a dupe of that meaningful feeling—for only a fraction of the work needed to create a true sense of meaning— then that’s a powerful tool. Meaning was never supposed to be binged on. Even believers of meaning located it in, perhaps, one or two parts of their lives. But now, every job is suddenly “culture-defining,” and each consumer product “life-changing.” Nothing can exist without some huge, bloated narrative attached to it. It’s great marketing, but it’s also exhausting. 3. Meaning makes you selfish. Rejecting it might make you kinder. One of the deceivingly nice things about buying into all this meaning is it can make self-obsession feel like a truly noble act. When we embrace personal myth-making, placing ourselves at the center of 60
the universe, we give ourselves permission to spend a lot of time thinking about our own lives, actions, and experiences. Who doesn’t love that? In contrast, nihilism’s major selling point of “you don’t matter” is a spikier declaration. Honestly, staring into the abyss takes guts, but there are a lot of benefits to attempting it. Acknowledging nihilist principles doesn’t need to be a destructive experience. Accepting our own smallness in the face of the universe prompts interesting considerations around how we spend our time, money, and energy—when we’re not totally devoted to ourselves. We start wondering about what we want to last beyond our short lives, and what needs to be protected and treasured. For each person that will be different, but I’d bet it’s not your follower count or LinkedIn presence. 4. Value vs. meaning. I dunk on meaning a lot, but I’m careful to point out that it’s not the same as value. Value is real, like the practical use of the products we’re bombarded with. We could all benefit from thinking more about value and spending less time wondering about meaning. At this moment, what do you need to feel happy and well? What is truly being offered for your time and effort? Navigate your life by prioritizing value over meaning, and I promise you’ll feel far more rewarded for your efforts.
5. Meaning takes us out of the moment. Meaning promises fulfillment, enlightenment, and a path to “living right.” In reality, it too often delivers confusion, and a sense of somehow being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Meaning can manifest as just another box we can never manage to tick. When we stop thinking about what our lives could be, we return to the reality of what they are. If we accept that existence doesn’t have a reason, then all we have is this life and this precious, fleeting moment. With that perspective, how do we spend our time differently? For me, each second feels like a rare treat to be enjoyed and savored. Even a mundane day is a gift that will never be repeated. The world feels larger, but also smaller. I’m able to more clearly ask: What makes me happy? What do I need right now? Where is pleasure really found? The answers are simpler and closer than you think. A perfect peach, time with loved ones, a midday walk in the sun. These actions are “meaningless,” but they are the tiny blocks that build a beautiful (pointless) life.
Photo by Szilvia Basso on Unsplash.
Innovative Japanese Cuisine
PLAY NICE OR BE KIND
Research explains the big difference between kind and nice. One has a bigger impact on success By Mahfuz Ahmed
If the past 18 months have taught us anything, it’s the immense power of kindness. In the corporate arena, kind leadership has become more than just a “style.” Instead, it is an essential ingredient to creating an environment that nurtures innovation. Signature Consultants, in partnership with national research and data firm Dynata, recently conducted a study of kind leadership. From this we created a Humankindex to underscore just how important kindness is to spurring innovation throughout an organization. Kind vs. nice leadership and the correlation to innovation While the meanings may seem to some to be interchangeable, there are key differences between being kind and being nice. Kind leadership is defined by our research as creating a culture of taking concrete action to help others, addressing a person’s need, regardless of tone, and giving permission for real success and failure. Niceness, by contrast, typically centers on pleasing others and being polite so as not to offend. In this context, flagging a struggling employee and telling them they are not meeting expectations in their role may be seen as not very nice. Yet it is considered kind in the sense that it helps them improve. This distinction makes it clearer to understand how leading with kindness can foster greater innovation and a stronger competitive advantage. The Humankindex is based on two key components: Kindness Quotient: The degree to which a company practices a culture of kindness leadership, as well as the extent to which individuals feel and recognize it. Innovation Capability: How well the organization’s culture and leadership support and promote an innovative work environment, as well as the extent to which this is perceived by employees. In the first annual release of the research, the data shows a direct causal relationship between the height of a company’s kindness quotient score and the degree to which it is able to foster an environment of innovation. In fact, an organization is five times more likely to be considered innovative if it is also considered kind. The Humankindex for all companies is 58 (based on a total index value of 100 points), comprised of a 31.5 kindness quotient and 26.5 innovation capability. In our study, workers were asked to identify the leadership style that best leads to a more innovative work environment. Respondents ranked “leads with kindness” first among other leadership styles, including leading with authority, empathy, courageousness, and risk-taking. Further, respondents who said their current company’s leadership style was one that “puts kindness before anything else” were most likely to agree that this leadership style has led to more of a competitive advantage in the marketplace. And 62
when kindness is considered a core value of the organization, employees are 3.5 times more likely to share a sense of purpose between their job and the company’s larger goals. Particularly amid the pandemic era, kindness at work and in the larger society is driving significant impacts on individuals’ overall mental health. But have company leaders embraced a move toward more kind leadership as a result? According to our study findings, nearly one-third (30%) of workers say their company’s leadership has embraced kindness as a value less so since the COVID-19 pandemic began. More concerning is that 76% of workers say their company’s leadership has embraced the value of “profits before people” at levels that are the same or more since the COVID-19 pandemic began. However, organizations who put kindness ahead of profits have employees who are 120% more likely to feel a sense of meaning and purpose in their current job, and 89% more likely to have a strong desire to think of new and innovative ideas. The value in meaningful work Another key trend that has emerged over the pandemic era is the rising quest for meaning in
work, which supersedes pay increases for many workers, particularly those in the IT industry and those who are earlier in their careers. Particularly for millennial workers, who along with Gen Z now comprise nearly half of the workforce (46%), meaning is an essential element in a daily work environment. Six out of 10 workers, especially in the millennial and Gen Z age groups, say they would rather have a management team that helped them find meaning in their work than receive a 5% pay increase. That sentiment increases among IT professionals, with 81% in agreement. Kindness is the key ingredient Now, perhaps more than ever, leaders will need to embrace or return to powerful core values such as kindness to drive a successful path forward. Our research has illustrated a strong business case for adopting kind leadership, not only because it is the right thing to do but because it leads to competitive advantage. A desire for kindness exists right now. Will you offer it?
Photo by Dee @ Copper and Wild on Unsplash.
FLAVORS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN
WANDER THE WORLD, STRESS-FREE WITH ABK
Al Ahli Bank Of Kuwait Emirates Visa Infinite Credit Card is your new favorite travel buddy By bazaar staff
Few experiences in life are as life-changing and fun as travel. The pandemic may have robbed us of the pure joy and abandon of buying tickets and heading to the airport on a whim, but ABK is helping make it a much easier and fun experience, like it used to be! We’re ready to step into 2022 with new travel experiences in plan, and ABK is here to make the process swift, smooth, and easy!
ABK partnered with the renowned Pearl Assist global network of airport lounges and ser vices that make your arrivals and departures a delight. No more queues, and remove the notion of uncertainty by knowing that ever y step of the process is taken care of. Together, ABK and Pearl Assist are offering an additional range of benefits for ABK Emirates Visa Infinite Cardholders for even more peace of mind when you come to make those much needed travel plans. The world is, truly, now your oyster! 64
Our sense of wanderlust was instantly ignited when we went through all of these amazing benefits available for ABK Emirates Visa Infinite Cardholders, and we’re pretty sure that your inner travel bug will be super happy too. Unlimited home PCR service free of charge We have all become familiar with PCR testing, and are grateful for having a way to reduce the spread of COVID-19. But it can be a hassle booking one, and then also going to get it,
especially when traveling with a wider group or your immediate family. Now, all ABK Emirates Visa Infinite Cardholders can use the free PCR home ser vice provided by I’m Negative Lab in collaboration with Pearl Assist ser vices. The ser vice can be booked before departure or upon arrival and should be booked within 24 hours before your planned flight. The offer includes a PCR test for the ABK Emirates Visa Infinite cardholder and up to three first degree family members, for added convenience!
Free Baggage Delivery No one wants to wait for their luggage on their return flight, especially with a bunch of overtired kids in tow. We’re usually exhausted and ready to go home and call it a night. Unlike regular passengers, ABK Emirates Visa Infinite Cardholders can get their baggage delivered straight to their home for free. As long as the name on the baggage tag matches the cardholder’s name, it’s taken care of. The service is available in Kuwait International Airport (T1). So you can book your favorite delivery meal online, get straight home to run yourself a relaxing bath, and let ABK take care of your luggage for you. Now that’s what we call #ArrivalGoals. Free Meet and Assist service for arrivals and departures We don’t know about you, but we really like being taken care of, especially when it comes to travel. Travel is meant to be indulgent and explorative, and once you have tried the Meet and Assist service by Pearl Assist, you won’t be able to go back to queuing. ABK Emirates Visa Infinite Cardholders traveling through terminals 1 or 5 and up to three of their first degree family members, will be met by the staff and have all of their needs taken care of, to make their journey smoother. Free Family COVID-19 travel insurance We now know how important travel insurance is, and these days, no one wants to or can travel without it. The Free COVID-19 Travel Insurance Package covers COVID-19 worldwide, and is available for all ABK Emirates Visa Infinite Cardholders and three additional first degree family members. The insurance covers you from one week up to a month. Pre-seat booking at the Pearl Lounge Relaxing in the airport lounge is the only way to go. Avoid the crowds by heading to the Pearl Lounge in Kuwait International Airport, Terminal 1, because ABK Emirates Visa Infinite Cardholders can book a Free Lounge slot. Just make sure you book six hours in advance to make sure that space is available for you at your preferred time. All of these services can be booked via the ABK Pearl Assist website abk.pearlassist.com in advance, so you can focus on planning the fun stuff! 65
WHO WANTS TO BE A PRINCESS?
Walt Disney didn’t invent princess culture. He borrowed it from 18th century Paris By Elizabeth Segran
My six-year-old daughter—along with little girls around the world—aspires to be a princess. But her notions of princesses are shaped almost entirely by the heroines of Disney movies, with their bustled dresses, pink turreted castles, and talking animal sidekicks. A new exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York shows visitors that Walt Disney didn’t dream up these fanciful royals. He was heavily influenced by Rococo, an ornate, dramatic aesthetic that emerged from Paris in the early 18th century. “Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of the French Decorative Arts” explores Disney’s own fascination with the paintings, architecture, and interior design of the French elite, and how he incorporated them—sometimes wholesale— into his movies and theme parks. In doing so, he popularized this aesthetic, transforming it into a global phenomenon that continues to make up the stuff of my daughters’ dreams even a century later. When Walt Disney visited France The exhibition was curated by Wolf Burchard, the associate curator of European sculpture and decorative arts at the Met. He was fascinated by the fact that Disney’s animated cartoons and 18thcentury design are two artistic realms that appear to have nothing to do with one another. After all, Disney was trying to create popular movies for the masses, while the Rococo arts were designed for the French aristocracy. But as Burchard places these two worlds side by side, you immediately see the connections. Disney appeared to love the luxury and excess the Rococo arts represented, and wanted to create movies that would allow audiences to lose themselves in this fantasy world. His earliest movies, like Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, and Snow White, all feature architecture, interior decor, and clothing pulled directly from things he had seen on his European trips. In some ways, this made a lot of sense because they were based on fairy tales written in the 17th and 18th centuries, coinciding, in fact, with the Baroque and Rococo artistic movements. As he conceptualized these films alongside the hundreds of artists he employed in his studio, he used images from Rococo paintings of women in flowing pastel dresses. Even the notion of creating sidekicks of talking animals or inanimate objects came from this period. Many Rococo arts featured clocks or teapots with faces. “People at the time were intrigued by the notion of animating inanimate objects,” he says. “They wondered what their clocks saw or said when they weren’t there.” In some ways, Disney himself saw these arts as an escape. As Burchard points out, Disney 66
came from humble origins, growing up in a poor family in rural Missouri. He first visited France as a 17-year-old while serving in the Red Cross in the aftermath of World War I. That’s when he first discovered and fell in love with the French arts, from the gardens of Versailles to the Louvres. He later returned with his wife to explore the palaces and artifacts in greater detail. Disney did not seem to see these objects as out of his grasp; in a distinctly American way, he saw them as something to aspire to and dream about. By incorporating these aesthetics into his films, he gave others something to fantasize about as well. “Walt Disney tapped into the fact that we all love to dream,” Burchard says. “These fantasy fairytale castles are a symbol of the idea of letting your imagination run free and think about what other life you might be leading.” This aesthetic and the aspirations they symbolized had global appeal, as we now know. Disney’s movies were hits in the U.S., and when exported internationally, did equally well. The origins of princess culture When he founded his company a century ago, Disney couldn’t have known how powerful his ideas and imagery would become. Generations of children have grown up watching these movies, taking in the castles and storylines. Girls, in particular, can grow up immersed in the princess culture these films created. Over the past few
decades, there’s been criticism about the gender norms in Disney’s early films, particularly how the princess’s main objective is to marry the prince, usually after he saves her. The films also have been criticized for their lack of diversity. All the early princesses were white. Disney did try to modernize the heroines of his fairy tales. Burchard points out that Disney was using fairy tales that first gained popularity 300 years prior, and the moral of those stories was generally that women should try to find rich husbands to have comfortable lives. But in Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and later Beauty and the Beast, the heroines are complex characters with other passions and interests. They often turn down the prince’s advances at the start. “The films feel archaic to us today, but the heroines were distinctly more modern than the original literary source material from the 17th and 18th centuries,” Burchard says. And ultimately, Burchard makes the case that Disney did not create princess culture but simply tapped into its allure. After all, princesses have been features of fairy tales from around the globe for centuries. Disney’s skill was translating these stories into engaging movies, and then capitalizing on them extensively.
Photo by Jorge Martínez, instagram @jmartinezz9 on Unsplash.
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THE CUP NOODLES STORY
A surprising origin story By Alisa Freedman
See a container of Cup Noodles at a convenience store and you might think of dorm rooms and cheap calories. But there was a time when eating from the product’s iconic packaging exuded cosmopolitanism, when the on-the-go meal symbolized possibility, a Japanese industrial food with an American flair. Cup Noodles, first marketed in Japan 50 years ago, on September 18, 1971, with an English name (the “s” left off because of a translation mistake), is portable instant ramen eaten with a fork straight from its white, red, and gold cup. I research how products move between America and Japan, creating new practices in the process. To me, Cup Noodles tells a story of crossing cultures, and its transpacific journey reveals how Japan has viewed America since World War II. A flash of inspiration It is a story widely told in Japan: Cup Noodles was created by the same person who invented instant ramen, Momofuku Ando, who founded Nissin Foods in 1948. Ando was born in Japan-occupied Taiwan and moved to Osaka in 1933. In war-torn Japan, he watched people line up to purchase cheap bowls of noodles from stands in black markets. The noodles were made from wheat flour donated by the United States to make bread, a food more filling but less common in the Japanese diet. Ando wanted to make noodles that people could easily eat at home, so he built a laboratory shed in his backyard. After several failed attempts, inspiration struck in 1958. While observing his wife, Masako, frying tempura, he noticed that oil removed the moisture. He then realized that fried and dried noodles could be remoisturized when boiled. Seasoning powder and dehydrated toppings could be added, making countless flavor combinations possible. Ando chose chicken for the first flavor because chicken soup seemed rich, nutritious, and American. Because Ando’s “Chikin Ramen” cost six times the price of a bowl of fresh noodles, he had trouble attracting investors. His solution was to take his product directly to the public through tasting events. Chikin Ramen caught on and later became one of the most prevalent foods in postwar Japan. In the mid-1960s, Japanese sales of his Chikin Ramen—and spin-off products like “Spagheny,” an instant spaghetti created in 1964—declined, in part, because of market saturation. Ando then sought a new market for instant ramen: the United States. So in 1966 he traveled to the U.S. to promote Chikin Ramen. He was surprised to see Americans 68
break packs of dried noodles into pieces, put them into cups, and pour boiling water over them, rather than prepare Chikin Ramen in a pot and then serve it in a bowl. When Ando returned to Japan, he set out to craft a new product inspired by this American preparation technique to sell in Japan. On the go becomes all the rage After much trial and error, the Nissin team devised a way to wrap a plastic foam cup around dried noodles placed in the center for easy expansion. Different flavors were placed atop the noodles to help them cook better and make them look like a fuller meal. The cup had a pull-back lid inspired by a container of macadamia nuts Ando had eaten on his transpacific flight. Nissin held tasting events in Japan to promote Cup Noodle and teach people how to eat it. The most successful was held on November 21, 1971, in Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district. It targeted young adults strolling the “Pedestrian Paradise,” Japan’s most fashionable street. More than 20,000 Cup Noodle units sold in four hours. More than a fashionable food Cup Noodle epitomized the dominant belief in postwar Japan that a better life could be achieved through convenience and comfort, whether it was through appliances like refrigerators and televisions or take-out food. Over time, the manufacturing process improved and prices dropped, and instant ramen became a go-to food for economically precarious populations.
Cup Noodles hides its Japanese roots None of these strategies was used to sell Cup Noodle in the United States, however. The product took a different path in the U.S. by downplaying foreignness and fashion and by becoming an ordinary American food. Cup Noodle was first sold in the U.S. in November 1973 at a time when Japanese products like Toyota cars were designed to be different from those made in America yet easy for Americans to understand, pronounce, and accept. Americanized as “Cup O’Noodles” (and later renamed “Cup Noodles” in 1993), it had shorter noodles that could be eaten with a spoon and fewer flavors than those offered in Japan. Nissin’s first overseas factory opened in 1973 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Now, in 2021, Cup Noodles is made in 80 countries and territories, each with its own local variants. For example, you can eat masala Cup Noodles in India and mushroom Cup Noodles in Germany. By May 2021, 50 billion units of Nissin’s Cup Noodles had sold worldwide. In the U.S., a neon 60-foot Cup Noodles ad hung in New York’s Times Square from 1996 to 2006, a symbol of Nissin’s global reach. It represented the idea—common in Japan—that making it big in America is the key to business success. In America, however, Cup Noodles has succeeded by hiding its Japanese roots. Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash.
START THE NEW YEAR LIKE A SAGE Discover all of Sage’s dynamic kitchen appliances exclusively at X-cite! By bazaar staff
It’s a new year, and a new opportunity to step into the shoes of the person we’ve always wanted to become. This isn’t about resolutions, or about slowly building habits and changing lives. Instead, it’s about making your life easier, better, and more fun by using the right tools. We’ve stalked the X-cite aisles and have found some of the smartest Sage products for you.
Be that breakfast person
You can be a busy mom AND a fabulous cook You may have noticed that the products look and feel familiar, it’s because you knew them as made by Breville. The globally renowned company has rebranded to Sage. Not only do they offer world class coffee machines, but a full range of premium kitchen appliances ranging from tea makers and kettles to toasters and bread machines. X-cite is the official distributor in Kuwait for Sage, so you’ll find them all in one place! Sage makes smart appliances look sleek in any kitchen with their brushed stainless-steel finishing, but the real reason you need these appliances is because they bring you one step closer to your perfect lifestyle. We’re setting new foodie goals, and we’re going to make them happen with Sage!
Embrace your inner foodie
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You too could be that breakfast person Breakfast is more than the most important meal of the day for you. It’s a daily ritual and you love making it special. The Sage 4 Slice Toaster is the perfect addition to your kitchen, allowing you to toast four slices of bread at a time. Ready for you to butter, spread jam on, or enjoy with some freshly made omelets. The display counts down how much time is left until your toast pops out, perfectly browned on both sides. If you’re the “I’ll make toast and pancakes and omelets and waffles!” kind of person, then rest assured this beautiful toaster will do the trick, every single time!
Embrace your inner foodie Only true foodies understand the hidden potential in every loaf of bread. It can be a vehicle for other foods or it can be the star of the menu. Nothing beats the scintillating aroma of freshly baked bread, hot out of the oven. But reality is, you need arms of steel to be a dough making machine, and baking bread can be tiresome and needs some practice before it is perfected. Enter the Sage Bread Maker, a nifty little machine that will do all the work for you. Just fill it with the right ingredients, press the button and wait for the magic to happen. The gourmand If you understand the difference between poaching and boiling and can differentiate between subtle flavors then you are described as a gourmand. Also, you’ll probably want to level up your cooking skills so you can enjoy five-star quality meals at home, so trust us when we say that you definitely need a Sage Risotto Plus. The aluminum pot with nonstick coating helps you slowly perfect your delicious risotto without a lot of effort. It comes with all the accessories like a steaming tray, a measuring cup and serving spoon that will make prepping a breeze.
Just juice it
The busy mom deserves a break! Busy moms who are low on time, energy and meal inspiration need a Sage Pressure Cooker. It’s compact and handy, with different cooking modes to help you efficiently cook for the little ones. You no longer need to spend hours watching the stove. Whip up nutritious and delicious meals that you and your kids will gobble up. The best part is that it’s quick and simple, while also being super easy to clean. The Juice Freak Whether you recently discovered the virtues of fresh juice or have been trying to get your friends on the bandwagon for years, the Sage Nutri Juicer is a game changer. It is a beast and can extract up to 70% of nutrients from fruit, automatically eject pulp and add color, and fun into your daily routine. We love creating our own juice combinations like orange and carrots or kiwi and apple, and this machine makes it so much easier to start our day with a fresh glass of our favorite vitamin-rich beverage.
Make your zen
The Zen master Our days are mostly fueled by coffee, and while many of us just grab a caffeinated cup of joe, there are others who stop to smell (and grind) the beans every day. They’re the ones who need a Sage Barista Pro. It holds 2 liters of water and 280gm of beans. Your cup of coffee is customizable, from the adjustable grind size and dose to the temperature. You don’t need an external milk frother because this one gives you micro foam milk texturing. It is like having your own private barista service at home. Some zen masters might prefer to find their enlightenment through a cup of tea. The Sage Tea Maker has five pre-programmed settings, 1-touch functionalities, customizable settings and can keep your tea warm for up to 60 minutes. Choose your strength; mild, medium or strong, push a button and enjoy your cuppa in minutes.
For a comprehensive list of X-cite’s 43 store locations and to shop online for the latest deals visit www.xcite.com. Download the X-cite app for Android on Google Play or iPhone on the App Store. Follow X-cite social media accounts on Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat, @xcitealghanim and Facebook XcitebyAlghanim. Call 180 3535 for further Inquiries. 71
IT’S A TOUCHY SUBJECT
The power of touch is no joke—even if it’s through a screen By Andrea Luangrath
Consumers who see a product on sale being touched virtually are more engaged and willing to pay more for it than if the item is displayed on its own, according to a recent research paper I coauthored. Behavioral economists have previously shown that people value objects more highly if they own them, a concept known as “the endowment effect.” Marketers have found that this feeling of ownership can occur even when a consumer merely touches something in a store. With Americans buying a record amount of stuff online, I wondered whether virtual touch also influences how consumers perceive and value products. To find out, I teamed up with marketing researchers Joann Peck, William Hedgcock, and Yixiang Xu and performed a series of studies. In one, we examined 4,535 Instagram posts from four companies with tangible products that could be displayed in one’s hands. For example, we reviewed Instagram posts including ones that showed a hand grasping a Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte against a backdrop of autumn leaves and hands unboxing the latest Samsung smartphone. We also examined posts without any touching. Of the posts that contained a product, 43% portrayed hands in physical contact with it. These garnered significantly more engagement, receiving on average 65% more “likes” than those that didn’t. To test this in an immersive environment, we recruited 144 students to a behavioral lab and asked them to wear a virtual reality headset that depicted them inside a sportswear store. Students could look 360 degrees around the virtual store, which mirrored a brick-and-mortar retail space with mannequins in the window and floor-to-ceiling clothing displays. After about a minute, the headset simulated moving toward a red T-shirt hanging on a rack. Onethird of the students then viewed their virtual hand reach out to touch the shirt, a second third saw a cursor appear over the product—and no hand— while the rest witnessed the hand grasp a pole on a nearby shelf. Afterward, students completed a survey asking them to state how much they would pay for the T-shirt, up to $30. Those who saw their hand touching the shirt were willing to pay an average of 33% more than those who did not. We tested across six additional studies using a variety of stimuli, including GIFs and videos. We varied the type of product being touched, the apparent gender and realness of the hands, and their movement. We found consistent results showing an increased willingness to pay for the product when people “touched” it—even when we gave them a cartoonlike blue hand.
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Why it matters Touch is a powerful tool for forming connections with products. Companies have known this for years and try to encourage consumers to touch products in their stores. Apple reportedly tilts laptop screens in its stores to a specific angle to force consumers to touch them to have a comfortable viewing angle. As more sales occur online, companies are trying to adjust to replicate the in-store sensory experience, such as by making return policies lenient so people know they can still try before they buy. Studies have found this strategy can increase sales. Sellers are also experimenting with other ways to mimic the sense of touch to get consumers to form these critical connections with their products. For example, companies are testing ways to use haptic or touch technologies to allow consumers to get sensory feedback on their mobile phones when they watch ads.
Our research suggests that observing a product being touched establishes a connection to the hand on-screen doing the touching. This may create the sensation that the virtual hand is one’s own, which increases the feeling of psychological ownership over the product. What still isn’t known We’ve studied how people perceive products that are being touched virtually, but we don’t know how this affects other consumer behaviors, such as returning a product. It’s possible that seeing someone else touch a product may backfire by creating high expectations for how a product feels but then fall short when consumers actually hold the product in their hands.
Photo by Zoe on Unsplash.
Visit Turkey in the heart of Kuwait
DECISIONS BY AI
This new kind of AI is built to help you make better decisions By Richard Potter From content recommendations on your Netflix dashboard to interactions with Amazon voice assistants to AirBnB, Uber, and Google— all couldn’t do what they are doing without AI. But these are some of the world’s most successful companies. What about the rest? This might be the intelligence era, but the vast majority of companies have yet to tap into its potential. And it’s not that they’re doing anything wrong. Big tech companies were datafirst from the start. Smaller-scale companies with more traditional roots just aren’t built with the capability to harness AI in their day-today operations. And until ver y recently, such a capability remained far out of reach. Decision intelligence and the new business reality What’s changing the intelligence game for businesses is a new AI categor y that’s built for commercial settings: Decision Intelligence (DI). This exciting technology is helping companies in sectors outside of tech to layer in AI-informed decision-making through ever y vertical of the business—from supply chain to marketing. DI is set to help a much broader spectrum of businesses harness data to make better decisions. Gartner predicts that over a third of large organizations will be using it within the next two years. It makes sense that the commercial application of AI should be focused on decisionmaking. The value of a business is the sum of its decisions: A product positioning or logistics approach that cuts ahead of the competition, grows revenue, and funnels back into the value chain. We can look at DI as the leap from hoping we’re making a decision that will create value for a business—to knowing we are. In the computing age, we’d use historical data to make a guess at good forecasting, pricing, or marketing decisions. In the age of DI, real-time data becomes endemic to the decision-making process, so we can be confident in the outcome ever y time. In this new business reality, data teams are no longer hidden away in a back office, building models that never see the light of day. They’re in constant communication with the commercial side of the business, absorbing data from ever y department, and translating it into immediately actionable recommendations. Suddenly, we’re seeing workforces where ever y employee—from the process level to the C-suite—is empowered to use AI in their ever yday decision-making. 74
The path to DI adoption This is what the ver y near future could look like. But what’s the path to adoption for companies who want to start embedding DI? I typically break this down into three key requirements: • an AI-ready data set • an intelligence customized to your specific business • an inter face available to teams company-wide so that non-technical teams can engage with a model and its outputs For the majority of companies, though, building all of that is a tall order. That’s why I think we can expect a growing demand for off-the-shelf DI platforms in the next couple of years—a trajector y similar to what we’ve seen with CRMs. In the early 2000s, 80% of companies were building CRMs in-house. Today, we’d never dream of it. Companies are accelerating time to value by investing in ready-made solutions—and DI is ripe for the same kind of innovation. Out in the wild, only 10% of all machine learning models are actually being put into production with an organization. As companies begin to adopt DI, particularly through a readyto-use platform model, we’ll see that number increase exponentially.
Potential for impact It’s interesting to think about the impact of this broader-scale adoption on macro issues like sustainability. For many businesses, reducing supply chain emissions is the next frontier for corporate climate action. We can start to picture how DI could help companies assess the environmental impact of a decision across production, distributions, and consumption—and choose the best outcome for their business and the planet. In fact, I’ve already seen a major CPG company use DI to reduce haulage emissions by an impressive 147 tons of CO2. Most exciting though is the fact that much of what DI is capable of will be discovered in practice. There may be breakthrough applications across healthcare, accessibility, DEI, and more that we can’t yet conceive of. And shifts in how we as individuals approach our daily work that we’d never have imagined.
Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash.
ROSE
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ART N DINE
For Anyone Who Loves Art! By Shabana H. Shaikh
In 2020, an art venture specialized in social art events, Art n Dine, was launched in the midst of a pandemic. Reflecting on the timing, marketing professional and founder of Art n Dine, Dana Kanso’s first reaction was that ‘it’s a blessing in disguise’. With everyone forced to stay at home, Dana finally had the time from her demanding job to focus her attention to an idea that had been long-brewing in her mind.
Art n Dine Founder Dana Kanso Back in 2013, Dana’s husband attended a guided painting event at a pub in Canada, and returned back excited about it. With no background in art, he still enjoyed the experience so much so, that to this day, his artwork proudly hangs in their bathroom. Since then, the couple began nurturing a dream to have their own guided painting events someday. That’s how Dana, a digital strategist with over 15 years of experience, founded Art n Dine, and christened herself an Artepreneur—art enthusiast + entrepreneur—a term she uses to describe herself.
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Dana moved to Kuwait from Canada with her family and have been calling Kuwait their home for the last 6 years. In 2020, she quit her job as business director at multinational agency JWT, and decided to become an entrepreneur. The timing of her decision scared her initially—with the onset of Covid-19—but, then she saw it as an opportunity to do some additional research and take time to study her target market. “After conducting significant research on Kuwait market and consumer habits, an opportunity was identified to enter the market with a new modified
painting event model; blending food, beverages, music, step-by-step guided painting and lots of fun to connect people in a unique, and relaxing atmosphere for couple of hours at local elegant venues,” explains, Dana. Art n Dine was finally launched in early 2021. The pandemic also brought along a lot of frustrations. At the start of her project, Dana had her shares of rejections, but she is glad she did not stop to listen. She used the time wisely and enrolled into a Harvard entrepreneurial course to fine tune her skills.
Dana also admitted that when she first shared her plans with a few close friends, they were skeptical of the concept and whether it would work in the Kuwaiti market or not. Many said that the art scene in Kuwait wasn’t supported and that the target audience to possibly attract is very niche. Fortunately, these very people later participated in Art n Dine events and kept coming for more despite them not having any previous interest in art. “Pandemic made everyone turn towards some artistic activity,” says Dana, voicing a fact. In February 2020, they soft launched Art n Dine with few small events, keeping in with health safety protocols at the time. When restrictions were lifted in summer, they were ready to fully launch the show. Dana likes to call it an experience for everyone, even if you have never held a brush before, you can paint when given the right guidance and tools. She believes, “Everyone has an artist in them and that’s what Art n Dine is about, having fun with paint without being judged.” In spite of the timing, or perhaps because of it, when their very first event was announced, it sold out in less than a week and Dana was pressured to increase the number of events to meet people’s demand. Apart from their content on social media, and their event videos trending on tiktok, the oldest form of advertisement worked best for them. Word of mouth worked wonders for Art n Dine and the response has been more than Dana had expected. In fact, she says, “Between repeated customers and new ones hearing about Art n Dine from friends and family, we are growing a lot faster than we anticipated. All our events are sold out and we constantly get requests to add more events to our existing calendar just to give everyone an opportunity.” Besides providing a creative and entertaining venue for people stressed by months of restrictions and health scares, Dana’s initiative has also provided support to local restaurants and cafes, with whom they team up for their events, providing them a much-needed boost to pick up the slack after several months of closure and losses. In addition to the public events, Art n Dine also provides private and corporate events. With the weather turning beautiful, they have added outdoor events. The universal appeal and fluidity of the concept can practically be integrated into any celebratory or functional event. So, if you are looking for a creative, judgementfree outlet, or wanting to discover a new hobby, or to socialize and meet other art lovers, Dana invites you to give Art n Dine a try.
To sign-up for Art n Dine events or to know more, follow them on Instagram at @artndinekw or visit their website www.artndine.com
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bazaar techno
EK-MD088 VERTICAL MONITOR
We’re not sure who would need the Elsonic EKMD088, a monitor with a 420×1920 pixels resolution display, but it is definitely on-trend. The portable monitor has an 8.8-inch display and a 420×1920 resolution which gives the panel an aspect ratio of 7:32.The monitor’s base is approximately 3.07 × 0.83 inches, and the entire thing is 9.76 inches tall, including the edges. It weighs 198 grams. It charges via USB-C and relies on mini HDMI for its video signal instead. Perfect for endlessly scrolling your feeds but on steroids.
MARSHALL MOTIF A.N.C
The true wireless headphones from Marshall that amplify your audio while shutting down the noise around you with active noise cancellation. Why settle for boring headphones when you can have the Motid A.N.C. They’re sleek, black and sexy. Carry the big stage in your pocket with 20 total hours of wireless playtime and the sturdy portable charging case. These wireless earbuds deliver big on their promise of thunderous sound in a neat package. Enjoy amplified audio in a sealed-fit design that is made for all-day listening.
LOGITECH POP KEYS MECHANICAL KEYBOARD
CANON EOS R3 MIRRORLESS CAMERA
NANOLEAF MODULAR LIGHT PANELS
HELIX CONTENT CREATOR STUDIO KIT
If you’re living life as the main character then you must have an aesthetic keyboard. POP Keys comes with eight swappable emoji keys which you can easily mix and match* to suit your mood. You can assign these to any existing emoji you like using Logitech Software, or tap the emoji menu key to choose from the full range of emojis as you chat with friends. Experience typing that’s almost addictive on typewriter-style mechanical keys. Feel your fingers bounce across the keys, and hear the mechanical switches click, clack and pop with every press. Old-school and oh-so satisfying.
With the newest modular color changing smart lighting panels, mix and match shapes to create next-level RGB layouts and completely change the vibe of your room in seconds. Create your own completely unique layouts with modular panels. Use Hexagons, Triangles, or Mini Triangles on their own, or mix and match the different shapes with Connect+ technology for endless design combinations. Control the lights with swipes and taps right on the panels themselves. Turn on and off, adjust the brightness, and change Scenes, without ever pulling out the app. Or just have fun with interactive Touch Games like Whack-A-Mole.
Source: bestproducts.com 78
Level up your photography this year with a new camera built for speed, versatility, and reliability. The Canon EOS R3 combines the technology from their mirrorless EOS R system with the robustness and performance you’d expect from a flagship DSLR. Revolving around a new full-frame stacked sensor, updated AF performance, and refined body design, the EOS R3 is first 3-Series camera since the film era and plants itself as a fast-shooting, flexible, and contemporary mirrorless camera.
Everyone’s creating content now, whether it’s because you dream of becoming an influence or it’s part of your job, so you know it’s not as easy as it looks. But having the right gear can make it much easier. No matter where your adventures take you, this Helix Content Creator Portable Studio Kit makes it easy to take incredible photos and videos. It includes an LED ring light with adjustable temperatures and brightness so you can customize the look of your content, a stereo microphone for true-to-life dialogue and sound, and much more.
Turkish Restaurant from the South
bazaar books
I HOPE THIS FINDS YOU WELL
NO LAND TO LIGHT ON
by Kate Baer, Poetry
by Yara Zgheib, Fiction
Like countless other writers—particularly women— with profiles on the internet, as Kate’s online presence grew, so did the darker messages crowding her inbox. These missives from strangers have ranged from “advice” and opinions to outright harassment. At first, these messages resulted in an immediate delete and block. Until, on a whim, Kate decided to transform the cruelty into art, using it to create fresh and intriguing poems. These pieces, along with ones made from notes of gratitude and love, as well as from the words of public figures, have become some of her most beloved work. I Hope This Finds You Well is drawn from those works: a book of poetry birthed in the darkness of the internet that offers light and hope. By cleverly building on the harsh negativity and hate women often receive—and combining it with heartwarming messages of support, gratitude, and connection, Kate Baer offers us a lesson in empowerment, showing how we too can turn bitterness into beauty.
THE GOOD SON
Hadi and Sama are a young Syrian couple flying high on a whirlwind love. She had come to Boston years before chasing dreams of a bigger life; he’d landed there as a sponsored refugee from a bloody civil war. Now, they are giddily awaiting the birth of their son, a boy whose native language would be freedom and belonging. When Sama is five months pregnant, Hadi’s father dies suddenly in Jordan, the night before his visa appointment at the embassy. Hadi flies back for the funeral, promising his wife that he’ll only be gone for a few days. On the day his flight is due to arrive in Boston, Sama is waiting for him at the airport, eager to bring him back home. But as the minutes and then hours pass, she continues to wait, unaware that Hadi has been stopped at the border and detained for questioning, trapped in a timeless, nightmarish limbo. Sama and Hadi yearn for a way back to each other, and to the life they’d dreamed up together. But does that life exist anymore, or was it only an illusion?
THE FINAL CASE
By Jacquelyn Mitchard, Fiction
By David Guterson, Thriller
What do you do when the person you love best becomes unrecognizable to you? For Thea Demetriou, the answer is both simple and agonizing: you keep loving him somehow. Stefan was just seventeen when he went to prison for the drug-fueled murder of his girlfriend, Belinda. Three years later, he’s released to a world that refuses to let him move on. Belinda’s mother, once Thea’s good friend, galvanizes the community to rally against him to protest in her daughter’s memory. Meanwhile Thea struggles to understand her son. At times, he is still the sweet boy he has always been; at others, he is a young man tormented by guilt and almost broken by his time in prison. But as his efforts to make amends meet escalating resistance and threats, Thea suspects more forces are at play. And if there is so much she never knew about her own son, what other secrets has she yet to uncover—especially about the night Belinda died?
TO PARADISE
From the award-winning, best-selling author of Snow Falling on Cedars—a moving father-son story that is also a taut courtroom drama and a bold examination of privilege, power, and how to live a meaningful life. A girl dies one late, rainy night a few feet from the back door of her home. The girl, Abeba, was born in Ethiopia. Her adoptive parents, Delvin and Betsy Harvey—conservative, white fundamentalist Christians—are charged with her murder. Royal, a Seattle criminal attorney in the last days of his long career, takes Betsy Harvey’s case. An octogenarian without a driver’s license, he leans on his son—the novel’s narrator—as he prepares for trial. So begins The Final Case, a bracing, astute, and deeply affecting examination of justice and injustice—and familial love. David Guterson’s first courtroom drama since Snow Falling on Cedars, it is his most compelling and heartfelt novel to date.
LET’S GET PHYSICAL
By Hanya Yanagihara, Fiction
By Danielle Friedman, Non-fiction
In an alternate version of 1893 America, New York is part of the Free States, where people may live and love whomever they please (or so it seems). The fragile young scion of a distinguished family resists betrothal to a worthy suitor, drawn to a charming music teacher of no means. In a 1993 Manhattan besieged by the AIDS epidemic, a young Hawaiian man lives with his much older, wealthier partner, hiding his troubled childhood and the fate of his father. And in 2093, in a world riven by plagues and governed by totalitarian rule, a powerful scientist’s damaged granddaughter tries to navigate life without him—and solve the mystery of her husband’s disappearances. To Paradise is a fin de siecle novel of marvelous literary effect, but above all it is a work of emotional genius. The great power of this remarkable novel is driven by Yanagihara’s understanding of the aching desire to protect those we love—partners, lovers, children, friends, family and even our fellow citizens.
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Source: Goodreads.com
For American women today, working out is as accepted as it is expected, fueling a multibilliondollar fitness industrial complex. But it wasn’t always this way. For much of the twentieth century, sweating was considered unladylike and girls grew up believing physical exertion would cause their uterus to literally fall out. It was only in the sixties that, thanks to a few forward-thinking fitness pioneers, women began to move en masse. Danielle Friedman reveals the fascinating hidden history of contemporary women’s fitness culture, chronicling in vivid, cinematic prose how exercise evolved from a beauty tool pitched almost exclusively as a way to “reduce” into one millions have harnessed as a path to mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Each chapter uncovers the birth of a fitness movement that laid the foundation for working out today and the ongoing push for a more socially inclusive fitness culture—one that celebrates every body.
N AT U R A L B E N E F I T S
F m d, body & so
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THE ART OF LEADING WITH ABDULLAH AVCI
Meet the sage hospitality guru at Emirgan Sutis and Akdeniz Hatay Sofrasi By bazaar staff
First impressions can sometimes happen even before you’ve met the person. I often do my research, write out my questions, and then reach out via email or phone to set a date to meet the person in question. In the case of Abdullah Avci, head of Restaurant Operations at Turkish restaurants Emirgan Sutis and Akdeniz Hatay Sofrasi in Kuwait, I was preparing for a high-strung conversation about hospitality, complete with difficult customer challenges and staff scheduling nightmares. But, to my surprise, Abdullah’s Whatsapp icon is a simple black tee-shirt that reads, ‘Keep Calm and let Abdullah handle it.’ I instantly knew that I was about to meet a quiet person, someone who truly values control.
Abdullah Avci, Operations Manager at Al Hajery Group for Emirgan Sutis and Hatay Sofrasi I am used to, quite enamored, actually, by the constant hustle of the hospitality industry, the action never stops. We have to catch chefs for photoshoots between shifts in fleeting moments, and managers are usually too busy to get two words in, but when I’d arrived at Emirgan Sutis at The Avenues, everything was moving along like a well-oiled machine. Abdullah greeted me warmly,
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the gracious host that he is, and offered me a steaming cup of Turkish coffee, followed by Çay and some dessert. Extremely mild-mannered and well versed in the world of hospitality, Abdullah Avci’s role as Operations Manager at Al Hajery Group is not easy. He has to manage the restaurant operations at not one, but two very famous Turkish restaurants
in Kuwait. Ask any local diner about their preferred Turkish dining destinations, and you will find that Sutis and Hatay usually feature in their replies. Known to recreate those wonderful Istanbul vibes, Emirgan Sutis is a favored hotspot for local diners, and Hatay Sofrasi brings rustic, southern Turkish dining for customers who favor hearty family-style meals. With multiple locations across Kuwait,
a large number of staff members between the kitchens and restaurant floors, I was amazed at how this sage restaurateur keeps it all together. The Turkish Abdullah started his career with Al Hajery Group eight and a half years ago. He was there to witness the early days and help grow both concepts, starting off as a waiter in Sutis, and he is proud to see how popular both concepts have become. Before coming to Kuwait for the first time, Abdullah wondered what life would be like in the Middle East. “I was based in Miami before coming to Kuwait, “ he started us off, “I was working on a cruise ship, traveling the world for three years. I was ready for a new chapter.” Surprisingly, Turkey is just a footstep away, “ But I was always wondering what life would be like in Arab countries like Kuwait. I loved it right away, the people are really nice. I was lucky that Turkish serials were super popular back then. I was so surprised by how locals were picking up on the Turkish language. Even though I didn’t watch them as much, now I do!” He laughingly said. Growing in his role, he ascended to supervisor at Sutis, then assistant manager, and proceeded to enter the dynamic world of operations for first Sutis, then Hatay. He credits the company’s management for their belief in their employees. “For them [Al Hajery], the staff is very important and they are always taking care of us. They care about your life, and your safety and well-being, especially with what we experienced with this pandemic. I am blessed to be here with my family, but seeing how so many of our team members were totally alone here during the pandemic, and how some lost family members, we are all very lucky to have the support of our management during these times. I believe that our loyalty toward our company and our jobs greatly increased due to their support.” I was also stunned to learn how Al Hajery has embraced both Abdullah and his wife Gulcin Avci, who, to our utter surprise, also happens to be the head chef at Emirgan Sutis. Abdullah’s support for his wife is heart-warming, “She’s an AMAZING cook, she runs the kitchen like the total professional that she is. Her talent in the kitchen really shines, she’s constantly self-learning and always developing, and she is now managing the entire kitchen operations. Every strong man would be lucky to have a stronger woman, like her, to support him.” Abdullah recounts his nerves during his first years in Kuwait, as he didn’t speak Arabic properly, a language he is now able to command, and he credits his wife’s drive and support as key factors which led him to excel at his job. On living in Kuwait, Abdullah loves how the country is such a melting pot of different cultures. He tells me
Couple support goals: Gulcin and Abdullah Avci that his daughter is picking up Arabic much easier now, and she is growing up to have a wide circle of friends from different countries. Support, listening, problem-solving, are all qualities which Abdullah displays effortlessly. His calm demeanor is a strength, as guests arrive at the restaurant and they don’t know what goes on behind the scenes. Training, scheduling, and kitchen operations. When I asked him how he does it all, he once again credits Al Hajer y’s support in believing in his techniques, “I am aware that there are many strategies to manage the business, and my strategy, my belief is that
happy employees make for happy diners. It’s easy. Yeah, you know if they are happy even while yes, training is there, and schedules are there, but once you have a happy team, ever ything is easy. We are super lucky.” He never makes his team feel like he’s the boss, he treats ever yone with respect and takes the time to listen to the team members, their needs, and most importantly their goals. He still likes to wait on tables and works on the kitchen floor alongside the waiters. “I don’t just give instructions and do different things, I work side by side with my team.” [Continued...]
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Checking in with the team at Hatay Sofrasi
Abdullah likes to divide his day between both restaurants to spend enough time with his teams. Abdullah’s passion for Turkish cuisine shines as he takes the time to tell me about the key differences between the offerings over at Emirgan Sutis and Hatay. “You know, Turkey is a big country, and different parts of the country have their own cuisines too. At Sutis, you get a flavor of the city of Istanbul. It even smells like Istanbul. Yet at Hatay, named after the city which is near the border with Syria, the style is definitely more country-like, more Arabic. More stews and sauces, yet Sutis is the best place for breakfast and desserts. The regular menu has kebabs and shawarma, where Hatay you’ll find more hearty dishes like the Salted Beef and Salted Chicken, which is always entertaining to see the staff crack open the salted shell to see the roasted meats inside, it is definitely more traditional.” 84
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When I asked him about what he loves most about managing both concepts, he credits the authenticity of the food, and the staff preparing these dishes too. “I personally love the Kaymak, the fresh cream (Ashta or Gaymar) which we get straight from Turkey, and the Shawarma at Sutis. I think the shawarma we serve here is actually better than the one we have over in Istanbul! Over at Hatay, I always prefer the Salted Meat and the Iskander Kebab. Dessert is always a treat at both restaurants. Turkish cuisine is quite famous for its ice cream (Dondurma), and we call it Maraş ice cream as they play with it before giving it to the customer. Our ice cream chef is actually from the city of Maraş, known for this preparation. We do everything authentically, we actually travel to different villages in Turkey to
see the most authentic preparation of our dishes and bring these traditional practices to both restaurants, and I love it.” Abdullah is always on the lookout for new talents to bring to both restaurants and relies on his connections back home to ensure that all the experiences at Hatay and Emirgan Sutis remain authentic. Self-development and learning are a constant for Abdullah. He’s worked in hotels, on cruise ships, restaurants, and now operations, he speaks multiple languages and is never tired of the process. In fact, he values it. “I hope we see more of our restaurants across Kuwait, and in order to do that, I must always work on my own skills and learn new things.” He is extremely well-read in the world of Human Resources, self-development, and social psychology, and uses this knowledge in his day-today operations. He adds, “I love growing concepts, ideas, and humans. I’m always thinking long-term, and I love seeing staff members grow in their roles. I always tell my team that hard work and belief pay off if you do both. For example, seeing one of our hard-working waiters get promoted to supervisor. One of my team members here who used to be a waiter is now the operations manager for our sister restaurant Solia in Saudi. Growth makes me happy. I’m proud of my team and my dream is to see them all become successful in their roles. I worked really hard to grow our teams as individuals and my goal is to look back and be proud of my work.” For more information, check out Emirgan Sutis and Hatay Sofrasi in Kuwait to get your taste of Turkish Hospitality at The Avenues, The Gate Mall and Murouj. Follow @Sutis_Kw and @HataySofrasi_Kw on Instagram for the latest updates! Photography by Muneera AlKhuliafi, @I9ora on Instagram.
bazaar music
JANUARY MUSIC New Year, new you, new outlook on life! New tunes? No way! We’re looking at our Spotify and thinking about our Winamp playlists from the days of yore to find the best beats to start 2022 with. Who knows, maybe we can musically manifest an incredible and wonderful year for us and everyone we know.
Title: Raise Your Glass Artist: P!nk Release date: 2010
Title: This Will Be Our Year Artist: The Zombies Release date: 1979
Title: Auld Lang Syne Artist: Mariah Carey Release date: 2010
The song was written by Pink, Max Martin and Karl “Shellback” Schuster, and produced by the latter two, who are responsible for many of Pink’s hits. The song celebrates the first decade since Pink’s debut in 2000, and is dedicated to her fans who have been supporting her over the years. The song was both a critical and commercial success, being acclaimed by most music critics and described as a party anthem, and reaching the top-ten in several countries.
“This Will Be Our Year” revels in open-hearted positivity, with Argent’s sprightly piano serving as the driving musical force. But that positivity means more because of how the song hints at darker times without dwelling on them for very long. It feels like the couple at the heart of the song have earned this happiness.
“Auld Lang Syne (The New Year’s Anthem)” is a re-write of “Auld Lang Syne” by Scottish poet and lyricist Robert Burns, which was written in 1788 and published in James Johnson’s Scots Musical Museum in 1796 and has become the New Year’s Eve anthem.
Title: New Year’s Day Artist: U2 Release date: 1983
Title: One more time Artist: Daft Punk Release date: 2001
Title: It’s Just Another New Year’s Eve Artist: Barry Manilow Release date: 1977
“New Year’s Day” is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the third track on their 1983 album War and was released as the album’s lead single in January 1983. With lyrics written about the Polish Solidarity movement, “New Year’s Day” is driven by Adam Clayton’s distinctive bassline and the Edge’s piano and guitar playing.
“One More Time” is a song by French electronic music duo Daft Punk, released as a single from their second album, Discovery (2001), on 13 November 2000. It is a French house song featuring a stylistically autotuned vocal performance by Romanthony. The music video of the song forms part of the 2003 anime film, Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem.
The song was recorded by Barry Manilow and written by Manilow with Marty Panzer.It was followed by the single “Can’t Smile Without You”. The song appears on Manilow’s 1977 album Barry Manilow Live. The single reached number 33 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart that year. Panzer recalled that Manilow wanted to write this song specifically for his Uris Theatre run, during which his live album was being recorded: “We wrote the song on Monday… it was orchestrated on Tuesday… and recorded on Wednesday.
Sources: wikipedia.com 86
FLAVORS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BASE The little café with a musical origin story, and the best Side Chick in K-Town feat. Sons of Yusuf and Kicks TQ By bazaar staff
Our favorite place in all of Kuwait is Mabarakiya. It is the old city juxtaposed against the high rises of a modern nation, quietly and defiantly celebrating roots and carefully watching the world change. We found ourselves sitting at a colorful table at The Base in SOMU square thinking these deep thoughts. It only lasted a couple of minutes until our food started arriving.
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We met with Tareq Q known in the digital realm as the one and only @kicksTQ, a partner at The Base to find out more about how this cozy little restaurant came into being. He actually joined the Sons Of Yusuf brothers, Abdul Rahman and Yaakoub El-Refa’I at a later stage. They had already conceptualized it as a café that only served drinks. Their love of music had inspired the name partly as a nod to bass and to Jay Electronica, who had once labeled their presence in Kuwait as the base. As we spoke, Tareq ordered us a Salted Caramel Latte and a Saffron Latte to try. Both were brewed using organic coffee beans. The Salted Caramel was beautifully balanced and not overly sweetened. The Saffron Latte, on the other hand, had these lovely distinct layers. It felt like a shame to stir it, but it was so worth it, to taste the unique flavor of the spice. Tareq and Sons of Yusuf had met through their mutual love of music and he had invited them to his Follow/Unfollow event that raised awareness about the negative impact of social media. Since then the brotherly bond extended to include Tareq. When Sons of Yusuf approached him to partner up with them, he was all in. The Base has evolved slowly into a cozy little restaurant that offers comfort food, made really well. It’s not habba-oriented, instead they have curated a menu that focuses on foods that people love and constantly crave. The space itself is designed to feel like a den; exposed brick, bold artwork and meaningful memorabilia adorns the walls. When the weather permits, you can sit outside and enjoy the swings and dine on a hand painted, one of a kind table. Just like the tagline, Art, Culture and Kitchen. The head Chef Acis ( @chefacis ) told us “To
me, the way we are here. Once we started with the restaurant, it’s not like you’re working. It’s like doing what you love most and doing it with the people that we feel very comfortable with,” when he heard us asking about what makes the food unique. We wanted to experience it ourselves. We started with the Side Chick, four super crunchy chicken strips served with beautiful hand-cut potato chips and a special sauce. The sound of the crunch would have been perfect for an ASMR or Muckbang video. We also tried the Spicy Chick, a spicy fried chicken burger topped with sharp yellow cheddar cheese, lettuce, string sweet potatoes, and The Base’s special chicken sauce. If you deconstructed it to examine it, you wouldn’t think it would taste so good, but the layering and the proportions of all the textures and flavors work together to create a banging sandwich. The winter always gets us in a carby mood, so we were delighted when the two pasta dishes arrived, both topped with fried chicken. The Pink Matters Pasta is made using a special pink pasta and parmesan cheese, while the Truffle Chicken Pasta And Mushroom has just the right amount of truffle oil. Both were rich and creamy, without being heavy or greasy. You can’t leave a table without having dessert and the Nutella Croissant Waffle left us stunned. As it arrived at the table it looked delicious but unassuming. It had a generous layer of Nutella chocolate drizzled on the in-house made croissant waffle, topped with fresh blueberries, strawberries and whipped cream. The real magic happens when you take the first bite. Alone, it is worth the visit. We needed something to wash all the delicious food down so we ordered the Mixed Berries Mojito and the colorful Nipsey Blue, a fresh lemon mojito, with soda, mixed with crushed mint and honey.
It’s easy to get lost in today’s breakneck speed of life, but we need our own ‘Base’, where we can head to and find comfort, the familiar and a safe space where we can think, be creative, reconnect with old friends and build new relationships. And for now we’re calling The Base our second home. The Base is located in SOMU Square - Souq Al Mubarkiya and is open 12pm-10pm every day except Mondays. Follow @thebasekuwait to stay on top of their news. 89
bazaar Apps
TOCA HAIR SALON
MASTERCLASS
PUPPR
DINOSAURS ARE PEOPLE TOO
MY NOISES
PHOCUS
Run your own Toca Hair Salon! Cut, color, comb, shave and blow-dry lifelike hair on six different cute characters. Using your fingers, you can make just about any hairstyle you want! This game is geared for kids, but we think adults can enjoy some colorful creativity too.
Has a little puppy entered your life recently, and you need help teaching it some tricks. Meet your new dog trainer! Puppr includes step-by-step video instructions to help you teach your dog basic obedience like “sit” and “stay” to advanced tricks like “fetch leash” and “sit pretty”. Great for both new and experienced dog owners.
This app creates beautiful noises to mask the noises you don’t want to hear : your chatty colleagues, tinnitus, or even your inner voice when you can’t shut it down! The concept is simple, works extremely well, and does not require expensive noise-cancelling headphones. Thanks to its unique audio engineering, it sets the standard among background sounds.
If learning a new skill is part of your New Year’s resolutions, this is the app for you. You’ve probably heard of Masterclass before, but we’re highlighting the Serena Williams course this time. Level up your tennis game and learn from the OG player herself.
Dinosaurs Are People Too is an original tapper game in which you can watch how the world advances with dinosaurs in it. See how history would have changed through the eras if that fateful meteor had never hit Earth. A fun and simple game that allows you to journey through history and experience key advances that transformed the world, such as the discovery of fire, the wheel or writing.
The perfect photo editing app for creating depth and portrait lighting effects on any phone. Simple design paired with the advanced person recognition technology we use in the background It is not just a portrait mode editor, but it also has many unique photo editing tools, and applies these professionally just in seconds with minimum effort.
play.google.com itunes.apple.com 90
LEVEL UP YOUR NEXT BBQ WITH AMERICANA CRAVES Discover the AMERICANA CRAVES range available today across all Kuwait coops and supermarkets! By bazaar staff
It goes without saying that AMERICANA is deeply rooted in Kuwait’s food culture. We all grew up with the homegrown brand, from our moms rustling up superquick burgers for weeknight dinners at home to birthday parties complete with the whimsy of AMERICANA’s signature nuggets, or our constant favorite, the kofta burgers! Without a doubt, AMERICANA is a heritage food provider in Kuwait and its commitment to quality speaks for itself. So when we recognized the logo on their latest premium AMERICANA CRAVES range during one of our recent weekly coop shopping trips, we had to stop for a look. 92
Pan roast, BBQ or boil!
Perfect Fillet Shape 100% tender, juicy Chicken Breast Infused with BBQ flavors
Get creative with your recipes! Perfect for Weekend BBQs
Smashed Texture and Char-grill infused flavor Angus Beef Tender & Juicy Here to completely change up your ever y day with an entirely gourmet yet value offering is their all-new AMERICANA CRAVES range. Making premium burgers and hotdogs, either from Angus Beef or juicy delicious chicken breast accessible to ever yone, leave it to the good folks at AMERICANA to help us level up our weekend at-home BBQs! The modern, sleek packaging says it all. AMERICANA CRAVES is an entirely five-star food offering that delivers on restaurant-quality experiences all within the comfor t of your own homes. We’re going to take a deep dive into how AMERICANA CRAVES will level up your ever y day, but before that, here’s ever ything you need to know about this exciting new range. Made with Cer tified Angus Beef, the AMERICANA CRAVES Beef Burger will transform burger nights forever! Infused with aromatic herbs,
and its unique chargrilled flavor, each patty is smashed for that renowned homemade texture! Rest assured that ever y bite of the burger will be super moist, tender, and juicy! Also prepared using Cer tified Angus Beef is the AMERICANA CRAVES Angus Beef Hotdog, where you will get that sensational snap, ever y single time. Chicken lovers will love the versatility and the freshness of the AMERICANA CRAVES Chicken Fillet Burger. Made using 100% tender and pure chicken breast pieces, you’re getting the real deal here. Ever y single breast is infused with those distinct barbeque aromas to make your meal prep super delicious. For fans of the chicken hotdog, you can enjoy the same premium quality chicken with the AMERICANA CRAVES Chicken Hot Dog prepared with CRAVES’s signature chicken breast recipe. The entire AMERICANA CRAVES range is chargrill-
infused to recreate your favorite BBQ flavors, all within the comfor t of your own homes, and we’re breaking down all the different ways you can enjoy AMERICANA’s CRAVES range at home! COME TOGETHER OVER AMERICANA CRAVES Yup, you read that right! Turn on your favorite playlist, set up your balcony or backyard/garden space, fire up that grill, and invite all of your favorites over for a cookout! Whether you simply want to host a casual gathering, or you want to invite your entire flock for a meal at yours, you can stop second-guessing where you’ll get your grill essentials and let AMERICANA CRAVES do all the talking. Not only are you getting great value for your money, you’re also getting an amazing premium quality offering. Simply defrost, and yank it on a hot grill for a few minutes and you’re all done! [Continued...]
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Soft and delicious 100% pure beef Char-grill infused
Perfect for Kashtas!
Tender and juicy
Made from 100% Chicken Breast Char-grill flavor MAKE IT AN AMERICANA CRAVES KASHTA! We know that Kashtas are all the rage right now, and there is nothing quite like driving out to the deser t to enjoy the beautiful views, especially at sunset! While so many companies are jumping on the Kashta bandwagon, we prefer doing it old-school. Speakers, por table grill, charcoal, blankets are simply all we need! We also let AMERICANA CRAVES take out the guesswork of what to put in our icebox for that por table grill. All you have to do is pick up a few boxes of each offering, depending on the number of people going, and you’re all set! For our Mutlaa’ Ridge outing, it was all about Hot Dogs! So we stocked up on the Beef and Chicken hotdogs and these were fired up in a matter of minutes. Delicious! BURGER NIGHTS MADE MEMORABLE AND YUMMIER WITH AMERICANA CRAVES We know that feeling, mamas. The kids are nagging you to order burgers and hotdogs from their favorite fast food joint, but you’re tr ying to steer them away from all the nasty additives. The struggle is real, and this is why we cannot 94
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recommend AMERICANA CRAVES enough! Made using Certified Angus Beef and 100% fresh chicken breasts, you can recreate the magic of ‘fast’ food literally within minutes at home. All you need to do is defrost your AMERICANA CRAVES offering of choice, and you don’t even need a barbecue, just prep it on a hot pan and it will be ready in minutes! For a fiery experience you can marinate for a couple of hours in sweet chilli sauce but remember not to bite your lips! You can oven roast some fries to complete the ‘restaurant’ experience at home et voila! Your picky eaters will have no excuse, and they will be asking for seconds. Trust us. GET CREATIVE WITH THE AMERICANA CRAVES CHICKEN FILLET BURGER One of the main reasons we absolutely adored experimenting with the AMERICANA CRAVES Chicken Fillet Burgers is its versatility. As it’s already marinated and infused with incredible, barbecue flavors, the chicken breasts will actually work in a variety of meals. Make it a part of your weekly meal prep, as you can opt to serve it up in burger form, wraps, salads, or even just on their
own with some quickly sauteed vegetables and salad. The options are really endless, you simply have to use your imagination! TAKE ON THE AMERICANA CRAVES BURGER CHALLENGE Okay, we might have made up this challenge, but trust us, it’s a fun one to do amongst friends! Take turns hosting one another every week for a burger night using AMERICANA CRAVES Angus Beef Burgers, and challenge yourselves to come up with inventive burger toppings. The rule is, no lettuce, no tomato, no fresh onions or pickles or bacon, but everything else is allowed! Perhaps, scallions and mushrooms with fancy melted brie cheese? Or maybe your friend comes up with a guacamole topping that wins the challenge? We’re thinking of mozzarella, sundried tomatoes, and pesto sauce too. You can make the prize as interesting as you want it to be, but make sure you DM us your AMERICANA CRAVES creations because we’re super interested! Shop the AMERICANA CRAVES Range today all across Kuwait coops and supermarkets!
bazaar movie night January Movies
FORTRESS
OPERATION MINCEMEAT
The 355
SCREAM
MORBIUS
BLACK PHONE
Release Date: 6 January Genre: Action, Thriller Cast: Bruce Willis, Jesse Metcalfe Synopsis: A group of criminals hellbent on revenge, forces a retired officer and his son to save the day.
Release Date: 20 January Genre: Thriller, Horror Cast: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette Synopsis: Twenty-five years after the original series of murders in Woodsboro, a new killer emerges, and Sidney Prescott must return to uncover the truth.
Release Date: 6 January Genre: Drama, War Cast: Colin Firth, Kelly Macdonald Synopsis: During WWII, two intelligence officers use a corpse and false papers to outwit German troops.
Release Date: 27 January Genre: Action, Adventure Cast: Michael Keaton, Jared Leto, Adria Arjona Synopsis: Biochemist Michael Morbius tries to cure himself of a rare blood disease, but he inadvertently infects himself with a form of vampirism instead.
Source: cinescape.com.kw 96
Release Date: 13 January Genre: Action, Thriller Cast: Penélope Cruz, Jessica Chastain, Sebastian Stan, Diane Kruger Synopsis: When a top-secret weapon falls into mercenary hands, a wild card CIA agent joins forces with three international agents on a lethal mission to retrieve it.
Release Date: 1 February Genre: Horro Cast: Ethan Hawke, Jeremy Davies Synopsis: After being abducted by a child killer and locked in a soundproof basement, a 13-yearold boy starts receiving calls on a disconnected phone from the killer’s previous victims.
bazaar around town
THE NEW TOYOTA RAIZE IS HERE The Raize was developed to be active, practical, and compact and provides world-class mobility for customers in every scenario. All aspects of the vehicle, including its platform and powertrain unit, have been newly developed to deliver performance, comfort, safety, and peace of mind. The new Raize measures around four meters in length, making it ideal for customers who wish to enjoy the additional luggage space and safety associated with an SUV, while also bringing the benefits of a vehicle that is compact and easy to drive. Equally suited to weekend leisure trips and everyday use. The compact SUV combines a spacious interior and distinctive styling with a confidence-inspiring balance of maneuverability, safety, and stability for greater peace of mind. The vehicle comes with a choice of two engine options, including a 1.0-liter three-cylinder turbocharged engine with 97 hp or a 1.2-liter three-cylinder engine offering 87 hp. For more information visit toyota.com.kw, call 1803803, or follow @toyotakw on Instagram.
LYNK & CO CENTER LAUNCHED IN KUWAIT BY AL-ZAYANI Al Zayani has just launched the new showroom of the latest premium brand, Lynk & Co in grand style on 14th December 2021. Launched in 2016, Lynk & Co is created for the new generation of open urbanites. The design is inspired by the landscape, time change and lifestyle in Mega cities all across the globe. Its development is the comprehensive expression of advanced technologies begin with European to fulfil the needs of urbanites. Lynk & Co is a new brand in the car industry, but not just a new car brand. Born global, open and connected. With a global view, the brand wants to build an open platform connecting people, cars and the world. As the first model of Lynk & Co, 01 adopts the unique design philosophy called “Mega-city Contrast” to lead the global aesthetics and urban fashion. It presents the brand mission of “Changing Mobility Forever”, which shall bring Lynk & Co’s exclusive sense of value to the end-user on product experience. Lynk & Co 01 creates an iconic family front face, which integrates urban skyline and urban matrix air-inlet grille to manifest urban youngster’s eccentric lifestyle. For more information and to test drive Lynk & Co, kindly contact 1808010 or 90014022.
TAMANNA’S POP-UP LAUNCH AT THE AVENUES MALL The new Kuwaiti online destination for an unforgettable and convenient local shopping experience, TAMANNA, has recently launched the TAMANNA Pop-Up at The Avenues Mall, Kuwait on the 9th of December and ran for two weeks. The pop-up included multiple interactive activations. The launch event was hosted by no other than actress and presenter Laila Abdullah. Known for its stylish popular international brand offerings, TAMANNA makes online shopping easy for Kuwaiti shoppers. Customers can enjoy next day local delivery service, a convenient Click and Collect service at The Avenues Mall, and a simple 30-day return process. But that’s not all - TAMANNA has become more accessible than ever with their recently launched app that already swept the title of the best shopping app from Kuwait for Kuwaitis. Testament to its digital footprint, Tamanna Pop-Up boasted a “Digital Room” where visitors got to play with life-sized interactive screens displaying the Hot-New-IT products available on the APP and website. The most Instagrammed area of the Pop-Up was undisputedly the “Photo Wall” with its pink wall and yellow bench, clearly a wink to Dalal Al Hajeri’s #BornInKuwait Campaign’s slick shots. The #BornInKuwait campaign also included professional dancer Sarah Al Homood and internationally acclaimed artist Hamad Al Humaidhan, the three talents are featured wearing head to toe outfits that embody their personality. From clothes to beauty products, all their looks are shoppable on TAMANNA.COM and the TAMANNA App. Driven to root for local and genuine talents the #BornInKuwait campaign put the three young and upcoming content creators under the spotlight. TAMANNA believes in the authentic creativity of Kuwaiti youth and strives to collaborate with them to create meaningful partnerships. Following the terrific campaign’s initial success, other Kuwaiti talents like fashion influencers Abdulaziz AL-Khamis (@wickedzzzz) and the talented young actress Nouf Al-Sultan (@ noufalsul6an1989) have embraced the #BorninKuwait message and shared their Kuwait pride through beautifully curated content on social media. For More Information, Visit TAMANNA.com, And Follow @Shop.tamanna On Instagram For The Latest Updates. 98
bazaar scopes influences from someone else could require you to seriously assess things very important to you in life. This first began in July 2021 but will reach peaks of pressure again in mid-January and mid-May.
CANCER JUN 22 – JUL 22 You are entering the final stretch of lessons you have had to learn about personal commitment and responsibility since June last year. The next stage of serious consideration will be to important values in your life, beginning around your birthday. This could also be the start of significant changes with your personal finances that may include work opportunities.
LEO JUL 23 – AUG 22
CAPRICORN DEC 22 – JAN 19
Your interactions with others have been going through important developments since last year. You have had the opportunity to become aware of the effect other people can have on you. More than any other time in your life, no matter your age, are you in a position to completely alter the obligations you tend to naturally accept when involved with others either on a personal or business level.
AQUARIUS JAN 20 – FEB 18
2022 will be a busy year with you believing there are better things to come. Your birthday will be the beginning of important personal changes that will develop fully over the following 2 years . You will have to develop greater levels of self-discipline. You need to clearly define obligations you are willing to accept and perhaps it is time some of these things from the past are changed.
VIRGO AUG 23 – SEP 22 The unpredictable nature of others is still something you will have to deal with during 2022. This may produce some rather exciting experiences, especially early March and mid-May. Whatever, you have to be prepared to embrace alternatives. Things important to you personally and the path you ultimately want your life to take should remain uppermost in your mind. You will have to learn to have faith in the future.
LIBRA SEP 23 – OCT 22
A sense of putting in a lot of effort but not gaining appreciation or recognition will continue until late July. Try not to feel too disappointed. Any health issues may seem at a standstill. The important thing is to persist with regular routine with improvement in mind. In mid-March what is possible for the future may suddenly become clear. It may be a result of accepting certain things that can’t be. Maintaining a sense of optimism should be your aim.
Any hold-ups or boundaries in life should be fast disappearing as you move into 2022 and continue that way until your birthday. There will be little inclination for you to place limitations on anything that involves you personally. This can be good in some senses but not so good in others. Amongst other things, it could see you gaining weight very easily. Your lesson in life to learn balance will be strongly tested.
PISCES FEB 19 – MAR 19
SCORPIO OCT 23 – NOV 22
The strong sense to break out and become what you really want to be will continue during 2022. If the intentions of others around you are not on your wavelength, you could easily find yourself becoming overwhelmed by what they expect until late October. Confidence of mind will be strong from late July. Be prepared to deal with possible workings against you during late August and early November.
Until your birthday you are meant to contemplate exactly where you are in life and your dreams for the future. Your energy level will be low and you will no doubt find yourself needing more rest than usual. Since June it has been necessary to focus on future You have to be able to have confidence in them, which may not be so easy. On your birthday you will begin a new 12-year personal cycle.
ARIES MAR 20 – APR 19
SAGITTARIUS NOV 23 - DEC 21
2022 will be a year of considerations between your own position and your relationships with others. Right up to mid-2023 you are meant to focus on what your life means to you and the things you feel you should set out to accomplish. Coupled with this is the need to be aware of how other people either affect or influence you. Falling into old habit patterns is something you need to be alert to all year but especially mid-August.
Personal transformation is a continuing fact in your life as is some sort of emotional dependence from someone else. The need to break this or alter it dramatically first arose in July 2021 and will emerge again in January 2022 of which there can be a final outcome in mid-May. Oddly enough, it will be much easier to take an optimistic view of future potentials. This can be a huge help in taking actions that need to be taken.
TAURUS APR 20 – MAY 20 2022 will be one year full of stops and starts. From late July to early October, you will feel it is all go but there is a strong need for you to analyze things carefully and not be tempted just to look at the big picture and move too quickly. If you do not do this, you could suffer some disappointments between early October and mid-December. It will be early ’06 before you will succeed in organizing things to your complete satisfaction.
GEMINI MAY 21 – JUN 21 There should be plenty of opportunities to enjoy life right up to late October. It is as if you need to look at this aspect of your life as a separate entity from all other situations that are occurring at the same time. Powerful 100
Source: wisehoroscope.org
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