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Minister: Kuwait Theater Festival is Beacon of Culture, Art in Arab World

People look on as fireworks light the sky in Fahaheel district, 35 km South of Kuwait City on February 25, 2024, during the country's National Day celebrations. (Photo by YASSER AL-ZAYYAT / AFP)
People look on as fireworks light the sky in Fahaheel district, 35 km South of Kuwait City on February 25, 2024, during the country's National Day celebrations. (Photo by YASSER AL-ZAYYAT / AFP)
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Minister: Kuwait Theater Festival is Beacon of Culture, Art in Arab World

People look on as fireworks light the sky in Fahaheel district, 35 km South of Kuwait City on February 25, 2024, during the country's National Day celebrations. (Photo by YASSER AL-ZAYYAT / AFP)
People look on as fireworks light the sky in Fahaheel district, 35 km South of Kuwait City on February 25, 2024, during the country's National Day celebrations. (Photo by YASSER AL-ZAYYAT / AFP)

Minister of Information and Culture Abdulrahman Al-Mutairi said that the Kuwait Theater Festival, whose 23rd edition kicked off Wednesday, has been a beacon of culture and art in the Arab world since its launching in 1989.

Speaking at the opening ceremony at the Abdulhussain Abdulredha Theater in Salmiya, Al-Mutairi, the festival's sponsor, said since its inception, the Kuwaiti festival formed its identity and continued its march toward excellence and dissemination of the culture of diversity.

The Minister added that the festival has also become a platform for developing the theatrical movement in the country.

This year's edition coincides with Kuwait's national days' celebrations and the 50th anniversary of the founding of the National Council for Culture, Arts and Literature (NCCAL), he said.

"We work at the NCCAL on implementing the directives of His Highness Emir Sheikh Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and His Highness Prime Minister Sheikh Dr. Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah on backing and encouraging culture and arts in Kuwait," the minister stated.

He said he was happy at the naming of Saudi Theater and Performing Arts Commission CEO Sultan Al-Bazie as the festival's guest and Kuwaiti artist Saad Al-Faraj the personality of this year's edition, honoring them as well as other dignitaries and artists.

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Japan’s Sado Mines Added to World Heritage List

This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)
This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)
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Japan’s Sado Mines Added to World Heritage List

This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)
This photo taken on May 9, 2022 shows a mine on Sado island. (AFP)

A network of mines on a Japanese island infamous for using conscripted wartime labor was added to UNESCO's World Heritage register Saturday after South Korea dropped earlier objections to its listing.

The Sado gold and silver mines, now a popular tourist attraction, are believed to have started operating as early as the 12th century and produced until after World War II.

Japan had put a case for World Heritage listing because of their lengthy history and the artisanal mining techniques used there at a time when European mines had turned to mechanization.

The proposal was opposed by Seoul when it was first put because of the use of involuntary Korean labor during World War II, when Japan occupied the Korean peninsula.

UNESCO confirmed the listing of the mines at its ongoing committee meeting in New Delhi on Saturday after a bid highlighting its archaeological preservation of "mining activities and social and labor organization".

"I would like to wholeheartedly welcome the inscription... and pay sincere tribute to the long-standing efforts of the local people which made this possible," Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said in a statement.

The World Heritage effort was years in the making, inspired in part by the successful recognition of a silver mine in western Japan's Shimane region.

South Korea's foreign ministry said it had agreed to the listing "on the condition that Japan faithfully implements the recommendation... to reflect the 'full history' at the Sado Gold Mine site and takes proactive measures to that end."

Historians have argued that recruitment conditions at the mine effectively amounted to forced labor, and that Korean workers faced significantly harsher conditions than their Japanese counterparts.

"Discrimination did exist," Toyomi Asano, a professor of history of Japanese politics at Tokyo's Waseda University, told AFP in 2022.

"Their working conditions were very bad and dangerous. The most dangerous jobs were allocated to them."

Also added to the list on Saturday was the Beijing Central Axis, a collection of former imperial palaces and gardens in the Chinese capital.

The UNESCO committee meeting runs until Wednesday.