Welcome to the dark side

To think that the most advanced and developing countries established laws and appointed government sponsored organizations like the E.P.A to make sure they avoid making bad decisions when it comes to the environment, well this is true I suppose for the rest of the world but not , sadly the situation in an Oil rich country like Kuwait.

I was in a trainer’s course in Sharm Alshake this month to become a new code trainer, I’m happy to report that today I’m one of the first trainers of new code in the Arab world, when I got back I was surprised to find that my department had brought in a coral reef expert from Egypt to help in the assessment of the state and help conserve what’s left of the coral reefs in the islands of Kuwait, of course this is not by choice we are being forced to present data that details the efforts of the country in maintaining a healthy aquatic environment to other associations we have signed up with to as you say “join their club”, so I had a meeting with this fine gentlemen, as I walked into the office that was temporarily assigned to him, I introduced myself and explained that I’m a TDI (Technical Divers International) advanced Nitrox diver, his reaction was “Finally some one that can clarify this misunderstanding” I had a puzzled look on my face and the man explained : “I got  an e-mail from your department inviting me to come over for a week to look at some collected data on coral reefs, I was surprised when I arrived that there was no data and I was asked to start a project and hand in a detailed progress report before I leave! , so I thought I could do some pulmonary work to generally assess the situation, I asked for a team of 5 divers including me to make us a total of 6 so each diver has a buddy for safety, the department provided me with a list of at least 18 people that claimed that they are expert divers and are willing to take on this one week task, when the time came for them to do the job only 2 people out of the 18 showed up one of them said he didn’t bring his equipment the other one said the water was too cold, I then discovered that all 18 of them had open water  license, so buoyancy was going to be a big issue, another important note was that in this time of year Kuwait has strong currents and winds , so diving in this conditions with inexperienced divers is not an option, when I tried explaining this points to your boss she said that her husband’s hobby is fishing and that he claims that this is the best time to go fishing! What the hell dose fishing on a bloody pear have to do with assessing coral reefs!”he looked at me and said “you have to help me set up a meeting with your boss and help explain the situation” I smiled and shook his hand one more time and said “Welcome to E.P.A Kuwait , I’ll do my best” “at the meeting I explained how if they want a team of divers they are going to need training be for we can do this and that the weather conditions are not suitable to do the work at this time of the year, so we agreed that the guys would get the training they need by an expert, I am responsible to lead this team, but my only condition is that they get the proper training, after long discussions to save face with the visiting prophesier they boss reluctantly agreed. They guy looked at me and said wow it’s just one of thaws’ days , I looked back t him and said “welcome to EPA Kuwait , where all the days are this type of day”.