By Khalid Al-Saleh have been in journalism for 30 years, and from when I hand delivered the column until it started to be sent by fax, then email, I am attempting to monitor the reaction of my friends and colleagues to what I write, particularly with regards to the domestic situation. In recent years, WhatsApp became my quick way to send the column to colleagues and friends and receive quick answers, and as I like statistics, I used it in comments of my colleagues and friends, and I reached certain results. In the ‘90s, following the invasion calamity, the Kuwaiti citizen was full of regret due to the betrayal that accompanied the invasion of his country.The glow of reform was moving faster than corruption, and due to that Kuwait was rebuilt with young arms that wanted change. All our columns during that era revolved around answering our enemies and confronting them, and encouraging the strong building spirit. The people’s answers were in agreement with us, and harmony was the sign of what we wrote and heard. In the 2000s — in its first five years — it was clear that corruption was still breathing under the soil of the homeland. The old groups began to repair their nets and the struggle began to start slowly.Corruption had more than one head, and each head had a programmed brain, and the seeds of discord began to bloom. Then we as writers became preoccupied with repelling these attempts and warning people against a column that sought to employ all the country’s resources in its favor. Reformists won some battles and lost others, yet the spirit of optimism never weakened. During the following five years, ie, 15 years after the invasion, Kuwaiti society was at the door of forgetting the invasion ordeal and solidarity during it. During those years, corruption chose its way in beating the structure of unity, with attempts to divide the society on sectarian and social bases.The struggle between the society’s components began, so we were writing with caution in general and for no benefit, as social and sectarian strife is the harshest for any society. Few writers then were busy with general advice and many resorted to self-defense. Most comments of friends and colleagues were busy with the strife too. There was a stronger will dictated to Kuwaitis, and corruption succeeded in developing its mechanisms and was able to rise above the differences that it stirred up, jumping towards sources of income to win them.As soon as the first 10 years of the 21st Century ended, it was clear that corruption succeeded in instilling differences in Kuwait society and the flame of optimism began to fade, so most our writings were for restoring the spirit of optimism, but the comments of our friends were divided between encouraging and despairing towards reform. Despite many writers continuing to encourage values and spreading the spirit of love, comments of the public in the second 10 years of the current century were full of bitterness and frustration.The spirit of optimism is no longer with us, as if there was someone who suffocated it and sorted the people of the country into groups fighting among each other. Although I am still optimistic, yet I feel that there is a power that wants to spread frustration, encourage lawbreaking, spread wasta, burn the middle class with high prices, discriminate among the people with privileges and salaries, encourage the corrupt, distance the clean, naturalize those who do not deserve at the expense of those who do, limit tenders to certain groups and consider government work as either unemployment or processing interests.The thing that hurts a nation most is for its people to lose the spirit of reform and the spread of frustration. We are today in need to return to the people; we need to hear their opinion in running the country and maintaining the democratic path and strengthening it. Countries are not built with songs and words of appeasement — countries are built with the hands of their children that are full of hope.local@kuwaittimes.com