As for them evacuating non-Kuwaitis as well - I saw them with my own eyes turning away Lebanese whose entire families were in Kuwait but who were not Kuwaiti by blood. The non-Kuwaitis they were evacuating were the maids that were accompanying Kuwaiti families, or ones who were married to Kuwaitis.

“The three men that you labeled as “unhelpful and rude” liars, are heros that put their lives on the line to help others.” –> I think that’s overdramatising things a little bit. And yes, a couple of them were very rude. One of the men kept refusing to talk to me. I kept saying “excuse me, excuse me?” and he kept ignoring me. Maybe it’s because I’m a woman, or because I’m 27 - or both - but he didn’t think it necessary to take me or my concerns seriously. I would be waiting to speak to him, and then a man who’d come by like 10 mins later would get addressed first. It reached the point where I had to nearly grab him by the arm and force him to look at me and talk to me (and I don’t mean because he was so busy - he was sitting and drinking tea).

None of us who went through this expected to be pampered. We understood that we were in the middle of a war, and that it was an evacuation, not a “conference”. In fact, many of us told the embassy that we could find taxis on our own if it would make things easier on them, and they refused and said that going by bus was better because 1) the embassy would be accompanying us, and 2) if we took the bus we’d be guaranteed a seat on a flight. Why lie?? Why lie when people are volunteering to make their own arrangements? It wasn’t a matter of “If telling people that a seat would be waiting for them at the airport in Damascus is what it takes to get them out of an area that has been ridden non-stop for days with air raids, then thats what they should do.” It’s not as simple as all that. You had old people, families with children, even handicapped people, who arrived at Damascus airport only to find that they did not have a flight out like they had been told. Many people had also suggested to the embassy that they would go to the Kuwait Airways office in Bhamdoun and make their own flight arrangements out of Damascus, and the embassy officials told them it was not necessary - that it was all taken care of. All I’m saying is, why not just tell the truth? None of us wanted to be coddled - we just wanted to know what was really going on.

Anyway, I guess it doesn’t really matter now anyway, since we’re home.

“Shame on them they should’ve rented out a GulfStream Jet to pick you up kleio” and “Next maybe she should consider saying “Beam me up Scotty !”. It might work!!” –> Cute. Very cute.

I mean look at how the americans are dealing with the situation:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/19/stranded.family/index.html

Just remember that what ever suffering you have faced there are people who wish to be in you place.

And, el7emdellah 3ala al salama :)

You noted that there were only 3 embassy employees left, including the ambassador himself, which as shocking as this may be, this is not part of his job description. Frankly, I am impressed with what 3 men were able to do, since you clearly note that the place was a mad house, overcrowded with hundreds of people, also noting that the evacuation effort started on day 1 of the strikes, was nonstop, and had already evacuated hundreds, maybe thousands. Embassy workers were still in Lebanon yesterday, pulling people that did not want to leave Lebanon out of their homes.

I’d like to mention that the Kuwaiti embassy has not only helped Kuwaitis cross the border, but hundreds from other nationalities as well.

As bumpy as your experience may have been, you still made it out alive. This wasn’t an unorganized conference or meeting, it was an evacuation effort to avoid the kiling of thousands of people, displacing well over 500,000.

If telling people that a seat would be waiting for them at the airport in Damascus is what it takes to get them out of an area that has been ridden non-stop for days with air raids, then thats what they should do.

The three men that you labeled as “unhelpful and rude” liars, are heros that put their lives on the line to help others.

And I could understand why Kleio would be paranoid to pull out his camera! I would be too!