Kuwait:
Most famous as the oil-rich country Iraq invaded in 1990, Kuwait is still the home of ultra-rich oil barons. Kuwait City is located on the Persian Gulf, and there are a few other towns in the country, but mostly it's a desert wasteland where you wouldn't want to get lost. Temperatures in the summer are searing, and in the winter you can freeze to death overnight. There is some cultivated land, but Kuwait is not an agricultural country.
For the most part, Kuwaitis are well off. Everyone gets free education right through college, and health care is free as well. Among Middle Easterners, Kuwaitis are considered snobby and obnoxious, but who knows: this is probably just due to jealousy over Kuwait's prosperity. However, the fact is that the men who rule Kuwait have noncategorically voted to NOT allow women to vote or to--God forbid--actually become members of the ruling elite themselves. So this gives you a good idea of the kind of society Kuwait actually is.
The population of Kuwait is 2.2 million, and two thirds of them are actually guest workers from Arab and Asian countries
This page last updated August 4, 2000.