Friday, April 17, 2009

Doha, Qatar

Qatar has oil ( roughly 15 billion barrels worth) but it's real wealth is derived from natural gas and has proven reserves amounting to roughly 1/3 of the world's supply. That translates to circa 800 Trillion cubic feet.
What does that mean?
1 trillion cubic feet = 80 billion barrels of oil..........
That translates into staggering potential wealth. The total population is 950,00 of which only 350,000 are citizens. The rest are expats, the vast majority of which hail from South Asia and non oil rich Arab states. As in the rest of the region, these folks do the tough, dangerous and dirty jobs . As most of the expats are male, Qatar has a peculiar demographic make up and women are in short supply.
The ratio is 3.5 men to every female.Though heavily dependent on oil and gas, Qatar is trying to diversify its economy and fashion itself as an education and media hub.
Al Jazeera is based in Doha ( the English language service is quite interesting) and has established itself as a major player in the global news market. George Bush was so incensed with it's coverage of the Gulf war that he reportedly considered ( albeit briefly) bombing it. This would have been a dicey move given Qatar allows the US 5th fleet to use it as a base for the region.I had a limited amount of free time in Doha, but given the weather was a delightful 75 degrees, I took a walk along the Corniche, where I came across local people enjoying the sea breeze.
Imagine that.......
Qatar hosted the Asian games in 2006 and it was generally acknowledged to be the biggest and most successful in history.
Emboldened by this success they're bidding for the 2018 Football World Cup.
Given the present infrastructure, this feels a bit of a pipe dream at the moment, but all that wealth sitting underground will no doubt give them the financial muscle to host it one day.
Or not.
Though not as liberal as the UAE or Bahrain, Qatar is still considered a " progressive" practitioner of Islam. There's freedom of religion and though the country's legal system is based on Sharia law, a fairly "soft" interpretation is practiced.
Women can drive, censorship is abolished and alcohol is available at selected venues.
My hotel was dry.
I also spent an hour at the Waqif Souk. Its a "new" old Souk, and knowing it was a recreated version of the demolished 200 year old version, I went prepared for a "Disney-fied" let down.
I was pleasantly surprised.
I suppose, given the overwhelming majority of the people there were locals or at least Peninsula Arabs, it felt ( to me at least) an authentic representation of what such a thing should be.
People were buying "stuff" they would use.
Sure there was touristy junk piled high in some shops, but the herb stalls and incense vendors (for which the place is famous) were telegraphed by sweet smells wafting in the air long before you saw them.
Shisha smoking men and women ( 'm always a bit jarred seeing floor to ceiling black clad women smoking) lounge on pillows drinking Turkish coffee and watching the world go by.
Not a Starbucks or McDonalds in sight.
I'm in Dubai now and head to Abu Dhabi tomorrow where I'll be until Wednesday.
I'll post a bit more as and when.
Stay well
T

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

For the avoidance of doubt, this is not indended as negative. But these pictures could be taken anywhere from Aleppo to Aqaba; Beirut to Marrakesh. Arabworld really is arabworld, at the very least as far as the souk. And it's a different world. I'm not sure that I know what my point is here.

TR-HW

Anonymous said...

Love the pic's got a real feeling off being there with the back ground music to go with them, i might just be in luck on the men front if i went out there :) penny xx

Anonymous said...

Have you:
(a) been abducted by aliens, again;
(b) signed up to a lock-down, no-nicotine, tough love programme;
(c) functionally silenced your BB AND laptop (e.g. by loss, damage or confiscation?);
(d) entered the twilight zone;
(e) been sectioned;
(f) been quarantined, without privileges;
(g) entered the seraglio;
(h) managed to find somewhere, other than North Norfolk, that has no mobile coverage or internet connections, whatsoever;
(i) been stolen by gypsies;
(j) been eaten by solenodons, or hutias, or manatees;
(k) been worked to death;
(l) assumed another identity;
(m) spontaneously combusted;
(n) autodigested;
(o) dissolved in alcohol (hmmm);
(p) joined the cast of "Lost";
(q) entered a monastery (unlikely);
(r) been taken as a sex slave (possibly more likely);
(s) crossed the beams;
(t) fed a Gremlin after midnight;
(u) been eating Harbour seafood, again;
(v) given up the ghost;
(w) locked yourself in a car park;
(x) run away from home;
(y) decided to down-blog;
(z) gone on holiday and managed to get away from it all.

Z's good.

Take care

TR-HW

Anonymous said...

I agree with Penny - the music really transports you to the Arab world. I still like jazz more, but hey, variety in small doses is a good thing.

Reading your blog has been my bi-monthly Friday after 6pm pick-me-up. A bit of task chair travelling without leaving my cubical.
Thanks Terry!

Lastly - I'm glad that your hotel room was dry. You know what happen when you have too much whisky!
Take care - YYZ