Brew me some coffee, brew me some cardomen
These black beans will heal my soul.
How can we burn this and pour it in our hearts,So that it may release our dreams and our goals.

(Poem recited by Colonel of the Saudi Arabian Army Khalaf Al-Tebi at the GCC conference prior to calling for the invasion and liberation of Kuwait from

the Iraqis.)

via The Winter School Middle East

"Kuwait is a country in which political parties are banned. Yet throughout recent history, Kuwait’s political process has found an indirect form of democratic expression in a deeply rooted cultural tradition that also corresponds to an architectural typology: the Diwaniyah. The Diwaniyah is a simple, four-sided room, with seating on each side, in which daily meetings are held; a central element of the ritual of this discursive articulation of Kuwaiti politics is the consumption of tea and coffee. By providing a platform for facilitating quick communication and consensus building, Kuwait’s diwaniyahs constitute an instrument of political expression and debate that in man ways mirrors the role of the newspaper in the West; it is no coincidence that the Diwaniyah was of central importance in the struggle against the Iraqi occupation in 1990, a fact acknowledged with poetic subtlety in Colonel Khalaf Al-Tebi’s address to the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) prior to the first Gulf war."