Kuwait

(click on pictures to enlarge)

Hottest place I've ever experienced. It was 117 degrees AND humid. We were out of the vehicles for less than 10 minutes and my black camera became almost too hot to hold.

This is the massive Burgan Oil Field - the second largest in the world. It's also one of three Kuwaiti oil fields where Saddam Hussein implemented the ultimate scorched earth policy: setting fire to nearly 700 oil wells. The photo shows an oil storage tank with stairs, melted from the heat of the fires.




























A stream of smoke from the Kuwait oil field fires begins at the top of the Persian Gulf and extends south over Saudi Arabia. The little peninsula extending into the Persian Gulf is Qatar.











These pictures are from a subsequent trip to Kuwait as an election observer. This is election day 2003 held at one of Kuwait City's polling stations, an elementary school as I recall.

Also shown is the ubiquitous custom in Arab countries that drinks are always present - usually in the form of a demitasse of hot, overly sweetened tea.











Since women were not allowed to vote there was a shadow women's poll held by determined suffragettes of Kuwait. (2 years later the legislature passed an amendment finally granting women voting rights).




























Election officials











Kuwait's National Assembly in session - from the visitors' gallery.