Save Pinocchio

Is it true that they are going to be shutting down baqalas in Kuwait? I heard that they will only be closing down the ones that are on inner residential streets and will keep the ones on the more main roads running through neighbourhoods, but others say that they are closing them all down. Either way, if it's true, I think it's an absolutely useless and downright stupid law. As 'red' said in the comments to Raine's Lunchbox Nut post, "Baquallas, the guys with the ice cream carts, street side benek stands — these are the vestiges of a Kuwait that is too quickly disappearing." She's right. It breaks my heart to see the Kuwait that I grew up with, that I love and know so well, gradually disappearing and being replaced with all-too-many Starbucks'. As red said, I don't mind change at all, but does change always have to come at the expense of our past? It's bad enough all our old buildings have been, and continue to be, torn down. The ultimate irony is that the government has finally regretted what was done in the 50s and 60s and are building 'historic villages' meant to replicate what the old Kuwait town looked like before it was bulldozed to the ground, and yet while they do this they are simultaneously tearing down buildings in Kuwait City that were built in the 50s and 60s, which have by now earned their own historic value as part of Kuwait's heritage, in order to make room for even newer buildings. Umm, can anyone else see a pattern of stupidity forming?

Anyway, going back to the baqalas, what could possibly be the argument for closing any baqala down? They are convenient, don't take up much room, and for such small places they are jam-packed full of everything good in this world: Kitco cocktail chips, Kinder eggs, Shani, lollies ('muthalith' ice cream), banak, and packs of Uno. I loved going to the baqala when I was a kid - for me and my sisters, it was a proper outing. We called our neighborhood baqala "Pinocchio" - I'm not sure why. Whenever my dad would say "Yalla guys, wanna go to Pinocchio's?" it was like everything else in the world ceased to exist and we were on our way to a 3mx5m paradise! And right next door to Pinocchio's was Rifaei's bookshop, also baqala-sized but with a worn-out green rug on the floor and chock-full of old school kashakeel (the notebooks that were either red or black or green or blue with a different colour bind and corners, or the ones that had the Amir's picture on the front), erasable pens, magic markers, and those half-blue half-brown erasers (the blue side supposedly meant to erase ink but it never worked). Whenever Dad would take Raine and I to the baqala on the weekend, we would insist on having a "midnight feast" that night - inspired by the endless stream of Enid Blyton books we were constantly reading - but we barely ever made it up that late. But it was fun - happy, simple, innocent fun. Why would the government want to take that away?

If anyone has any information on this supposed new law, can you please fill me and the rest of us in by leaving a comment?

And finally, on the topic of growing up in Kuwait in the 80s, do you guys remember the huge store in Khaleejiya that sold all the fun stationery stuff? And "My Toy" that used to be in Salmiya in that same little complex where the restaurant Fresh is now, close to Berdawny. And Kids'R'Us on the old Salmiya High Street, and the one out in Shuwaikh, next to where there used to be a Safeway. What were some of the other stores we used to go to in those days (back when there used to be so few!)?