Envoy Muhammad’s home

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At the beginning of Independence, the career of a diplomat was attractive and tempting financially and morally, and the leadership was keen to have the representative of the head of state with a high level of understanding and experience, and many qualified people were appointed ambassadors, and sometimes many, from outside the diplomatic corps, and this is followed in several developed countries, especially if the scholarship country enjoys a special advantage!

All Kuwaiti ambassadors to the major countries were, and still are, from outside the diplomatic corps, and there is no offense in that to those working in this area, as they have full respect for them.

From the mid-1970s until before Saddam’s despicable invasion and occupation, Kuwait passed through a state of great economic recovery, from which many benefited and achieved considerable wealth for themselves, whether through prudent speculation in stocks, or participation in subscribing to the shares of many companies offered by the state for subscription, whether new ones or those that were sold to the private sector.

The country’s ambassadors or diplomats abroad were among those who did not benefit from this “wave of wealth”, either because of elevation or mostly because they were unaware of it, or because they were preoccupied with their tasks far from it.

They returned to the homeland after many years of service, moving from one diplomatic rank to another, to find that the world had changed a lot during their stay abroad, and that many of their colleagues, who remained in Kuwait, benefited from the situation and made an impact financially.

Some also discovered that they were about to retire soon, and their chances of obtaining a home worthy of them and their previous history were very slim, so they contented themselves with renting an apartment or a villa to live in with respect, without asking the government agencies to treat them in a better way.

Brother Muhammad Fadel Khalaf joined his father at a young age 60 years ago, when he was working as a diplomat in Tunisia, and left after 12 years, after receiving a sophisticated education in the school run by the nuns there, and other distinguished bilingual schools, especially Arabic and French, in addition to Italian.

He then joined the well-known French University of Besançon, then the University of Grenoble in 1980 and obtained a Master’s degree from the University of Brussels in international relations.

Like his father, Ambassador Muhammad joined the Foreign Ministry in 1982, and after years of work that lasted for four decades, he recently retired and returned to his homeland, from which he had lived far away since 1962, because of his family and work conditions!

Because of his total dependence on the monthly salary, his dream of owning a house has always collided with the great acceleration in real estate prices, which was ahead of his dreams and capabilities, and therefore he was unable to own the house of his life, and he is now at the beginning of his enjoyment of retirement after his long and exhausting national service!

State property has many empty houses, and most of those who deserve it are like Ambassador Muhammad Fadel Khalaf, whose self-esteem did not allow him to submit this request to any party, so I decided, on my personal initiative, to write about him and his circumstances, and it is not only his desire, but his right to own a house like anyone else. They rightly say that ambassadors have done invaluable service to their country, with honour and dignity!

Hopefully this request would have a good response from those to whom it concerns.

e-mail: [email protected]

By Ahmad alsarraf

This news has been read 44033 times!