However, in Kuwait and in neighboring Gulf Arab states "wasta" has taken on more than a societal art form and occasional problem solver for the average Mohammad. "Wasta" in Kuwait and much of the Gulf is far-too-often the raison d'tet for almost all societal interactions. For example, simply in the sphere of education in Kuwait "wasta" might be used for the purpose of "inflating grades, using influential outsiders and insiders to hire staff members in various ways so that some students receive special consideration and bending of the rules in favor of certain outcomes".[2] Sure, this happens in almost all lands on the globe, but in Kuwait the volume of "wasta" pressures involved in one's daily life are not only mind-boggling but ubiquitous.
Recently, I spoke to a professor of engineering at the University of Kuwait about the widespread usage of "wasta" in the area of education. This Kuwaiti professor of a highly rated department at that university shared that he had received no less than 20 calls on behalf of a single student to raise that student's grade-despite the fact that this student had not completed his projects or even come to class all that often. The engineering professor added that several of those calls had been made by Kuwaiti parliamentarians.
CONSEQUENCES
In short, every effort to raise responsible youth, students, and leaders in Kuwait is adversely affected by "wasta"-and anyone with few or no connection is left out. For example, in 2005 the daughter of one Syrian friend of mine scored in the top 99% on the national exams given to the nation's graduating seniors each spring. (That is, she was number 18th in the whole country-among over 2500 other graduating seniors taking the same exam.)
This young Syrian female was assured by many Arab and Kuwaiti friends, who had lived here all of their lives, that with such a score she would certainly be accepted in any department at the University of Kuwait that she decided to study in.
Alas, with the "wasta" mania currently en vogue throughout Kuwait society, not only did this poor Syrian girl not receive the opportunity to study in the department of her choice at the University of Kuwait (the only major public university in the country), she didn't even get accepted in Kuwait university at all that fall. This was in the only university in the whole country whose entrance is ostensibly wholly or primarily based upon merit-not on "wasta".
That is, thousands of Kuwaitis with the right connections, known as "wasta", basically chased this young Syrian out of the department of her choice -and eventually she left the country--even though the young Syrian had lived in the country of Kuwait most of her life. This daughter of my Syrian friend now studies in Damascus. After serving as doctors in Kuwait for over the past few decades, both of the Syrian girls parents(and my friends) have decided to leave Kuwait, too, as of this summer. They have had enough of the Kuwait cultural experience.
By the way, a huge brain drain, even of among Kuwaitis, is one of the major consequences of the over-used "wasta" system in Kuwait. Some Kuwaiti medical specialists who have gone to get their post-doctorate degrees abroad return home after studying abroad and find themselves assigned by the Ministry of Health to work as general practitioners. Some just pick up and move abroad again. Similarly, some of the most enlightened businessmen in Kuwait move to Dubai or some other land to run their businesses and to raise their families.
FULL TIME JOB
Accumulation of "wasta" by both the individual and by the family in Kuwait are nearly full-time jobs and lifelong endeavors in Kuwait, i.e. from cradle to grave. This process of accumulating "wasta" affects the education of Kuwaiti youth in numerous other ways.
For example, one University of Kuwait professor, who graduated from twice from American universities, shared that he was capitulating to "wasta" protocol to protect his children. He related that he had now determined that based upon his own negative experience reintegrating himself into Kuwait's "wasta"-swamped society after his years abroad studying that he had told his very own children that they are going to have to stay in Kuwait and study here--even if the university education here is inferior to what he, himself, had received.
Why would a Kuwaiti father be forced to make such a decision in the face of his own son's desire to study abroad?This professor explained that his experience of living abroad was certainly wonderful, and he and other Kuwaitis of his generation who had studied abroad agree that their period of studying was often superior to what is offered currently to many youth in Kuwait today. However, sadly, any particular Kuwaiti youth who determines to leave his homeland for four to ten years of study will simply find himself upon his return feeling un-welcomed at home and treated by his society as an outsider in his own land.
This is because growing up and living in Kuwait appears for nationals to represent some sort of national initiation rite, similar to some lengthy entrance in a national fraternity ritual. Those Kuwaitis who haven't spent the previous four or more years cultivating connections and "wasta" in their homeland during their formative years are left out of that rite of interaction and key period of "wasta" cultivation.. Therefore, whenever those students return from abroad asking for help or "wasta" in getting a new start in Kuwaiti life, they are often looked upon (outside their family) as though they are foreigners.
In summary, the permeation of "wasta" throughout almost all relationships in Kuwait society is one of the main reasons that more and more parents have begun in recent years to refuse to allow their children to study outside the Middle East. This, in turn, has led to an amazing current boom in the business of higher education in Kuwait and in the Gulf region over the past eight years.
GROWTH IN PRIVATE UNIVERSITY SECTOR
Starting in the 1990s first in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and then later after 2000 in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait, the Gulf Arab region has seen a veritable explosion in terms of new private universities. By the start of the 2007-2008 school year, it is expected that eight new universities will have opened in Kuwait alone in less than a decade. Of these, many of the newer universities purport to be based on American university models, especially in the classical form of liberal arts universities.
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