There are nine islands scattered off the Kuwait coast, the largest of them being Bubiyan in the north-west of the Gulf with an area of 863 square kilometres. To the north of Bubiyan lies the much smaller island of Warba. At the entrance to the Bay of Kuwait are the three sisters. The first of these is Failaka, the most beautiful and famous of Kuwait's islands, which lies twenty kilometres north-east of Kuwait City. It is not only an historical site with Greek ruins, it is also keeping pace with modern life in construction and tourism. Its two sisters are Miskan to the north and 'Awha to the south. Inside the Bay of Kuwait is Umm Al-Naml island, where ancient Islamic ruins have been found. Near to it is a former island called 'Akaz, which has been turned into a piece of ordinary land adjoining the stores of Shuwaikh harbor, after the water separating it from the mainland was filled in. The three islands of Kabbar, Qarouh and Umm Al-Maradim to the south are colonies for sea birds, which live there in large numbers. But their numbers have recently been reduced after people began to shoot them.

          This is Kuwait, its land and sea, its sands and waters, its past and present. Its people now live a modern life with an active democracy through constructive parliamentary activity in the National Assembly, which ensures that development will continue and offers people a decent life. The Kuwaitis have succeeded in building up important institutions since the early 1960s, including the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, and the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science.

          Kuwait applies a policy of free medical treatment and free education, from kindergarten to the completion of university studies, for all its people.

          The news media are prospering in Kuwait. In addition to ordinary television channels, two satellite channels and Kuwait Broadcasting, there are seven daily newspapers, five of them in Arabic and two in English. All these enjoy complete freedom guaranteed by the Constitution.

          The Kuwaitis have been able to bandage their wounds caused by the Iraqi invasion whose clouds were dispersed in February 1991. They are continuing to build, with one eye open to the love and appreciation of fraternal peoples, and the other eye on the alert to prevent the hateful and greedy from depriving them of their liberty. All that remains of that crisis, which exposed concealed hatreds, is the appeal by all freedom-loving people in the world for the release of the innocent prisoners of war who are still held in Iraqi prisons.