Al Kuwaitiyah - Tale of a Building
I was a sign of prosperity, an icon for a new country. With me rising on the horizon, my birds flew. I’m Al Kuwaitiyah. Towering over Kuwait City, my walls adorned with patterns reminiscent of my ancestors and my glass windows gleaming like jewels. At first, they danced on my head, they drank and ate as they overlooked their new city taking shape. The highways and streets stretching as far as the eye can see. Hotels and shopping avenues sprang around me. People looking for adventure, a change or escape, they came to me seeking answers. I appeared on postcards, on television, even postage stamps. I was a symbol of a new nation, ready to take flight.
The change came in waves, waves that shook my core until I could stand no more. People stopped dancing on my head; they left me all by myself. I stood in the face of terror, remained still as my head was set ablaze. I continued to hold on, refusing to let go of my identity. My occupants came back to a torn country. Black clouds covered the sun for days upon days, a land scorched. But I returned, in all my glory, once again an icon and a source of pride for this country and its people.
But things weren’t the same, something has changed, even though I was back, something remained left behind. My birds didn’t fly as high as they used to, losing power and presence. People quickly forgot about me, even mocked me, in the presence of others. I still stood, my whites slowly losing their luster, my blue glass not as glossy as before. Then the final blow, some said that I wasn’t stable, ever since the fire, some said there’s something else wrong with me or my birds. Slowly but surely I watched as everyone abandoned me, my glass taken out, leaving me bare. Trucks came and knocked my podium down, with it the memories of all the travelers that crossed my doors.
I still stood, I stood and watched in horror as a man came crashing right through me, his life cut short, because of me. With half of me gone and the other half standing, refusing to let go. I remained still watching as life goes by around me, seemingly not affected by my ever diminishing presence. Wall by wall, floor by floor, a symphony of sound, clouds of dust rose around me until I was no more.