Ahmad Al-Sarraf

There has been a recent increase in the circulation of lists related to the origins of Kuwaiti families and tribes. These lists have many true facts which are actually not significant, but what is important to note is that these lists include large number of false claims and serious mistakes which cannot be taken lightly.The information included in those lists is not in harmony with the trend of this era, which does not give much importance to such matters.It is known fact that the more urban a state is, the faster the differences among the societal classes vanish and the society becomes more coherent.Kuwait is a pioneer country among the Gulf countries in urbanizing people’s components. Kuwait wanted to eradicate the tribal heritage by making citizens from different tribes live together in one area. We saw this in the early 1960s in Surra, Da’iya and Shaab areas, and then later in Bayan and Mishref, Andalous and Ardiya areas.With the spread of random naturalization, some state bodies found it useful to let the sectarian and tribal sorting take its course by allowing the exchange of houses within different areas with the aim of enhancing electoral voting.For example the vote in area “x” might be useless, but when it is transferred to the area “y”, it becomes important.  Therefore, electoral areas, each of one tribal or sectarian color, started appearing, and the government knew about this.Voltaire said, “Do well and you will not be in need of your ancestors”.It seems when someone faces failure in his life, he then searches for his roots or links to boast about. There are countless cases worldwide where people from humble families went on to become famous and successful in politics, economy or any other fields. For example, Rafiq Al-Hariri from Lebanon, Aal Fayed from Egypt and Al-Khashutji from Saudi Arabia. With all due respect to these personalities and their like, they received affinity and respect as soon as they achieved distinguished success even though their names are not preceded by any ranks.In a previous article, I had mentioned the story of a Monaco monarch Prince Rainier when he chose a Hollywood star to marry instead of searching for a wife from the royal European families. The Internet is full of stories about princes and nobles who chose to marry girls from well-known families of humble roots for either their fame or their beauty.Note — In the past, honest Kuwaiti traders preferred to deal with honest traders from India, China and Africa, even if they were atheists, rather than dealing with deceiving traders and companies owned by Muslims.email: [email protected]By Ahmed Al-Sarraf