Scholarships

One of the most wonderful things about Kuwait is that it provides its people with the opportunity to better themselves and their country in turn. Every year they have a cretin number of scholarships used for educational purposes. They send the most deserving (or so it seems) students to study abroad, places such as the States, Australia, Egypt and the UK to name a few. The purpose of creating this opportunity is to educate the Kuwaiti citizens to create great minds, so that they can implement change and development. So, intelligent, smart and those who hold much promise are sent, so that they can one day become innovators right? Wrong. A minority of those who are sent are the one’s who actually fall under this category, the rest are the ones who’s father, mother, brother, uncles or whatever’s hold a great influence ( “ Wasta”) placed them their. Some of these students who have been placed into the program are truly deserving of it, when they get to their destinations they actually study, learn and improve themselves, thankful for the opportunity they have been given. In this case there is a justification for the use of “Wasta”. Others give Kuwaiti’s a bad name. They travel for the purpose of partying and bringing destruction to themselves. What’s worse is that even after their first year is up and no positive development has happened on behalf of a given student, “Wasta” is used again to keep him there. This has many repercussions on the following generations who apply to get a scholarship; the scrutinization is painful, yet many low life’s slip through the cracks and manage to get a scholarship once more thanks to the “Wasta”. So instead of punishing those who are the cause of the problem, it falls on the heads of those who aren’t even at fault. The worst part of the whole issue is that usually the people with the most influence are those with the greatest amount in their bank account. It is really unjust to use the “Wasta” to send their sons or daughters on a scholarship if they don’t deserve it, because they can afford to send them and this minimizes the available slots.