Gondolas in the Desert from qatar visitor on Vimeo.
Qatar (pronounced a little like cut-TER) is a country in the Middle East that is on the northern border of Saudi Arabia. The country is a peninsula on the Persian/Arabian Gulf. Qatar is an emirate that is ruled by an emir, which in Western terms is similar to a prince. What got me really interested in Qatar, besides the fact that while just about everyone is suffering from the global economic crisis and Qatar is not is a video I found a few weeks ago. The clip is above and was taped inside Qatar's best and most interesting mall: Villagio. One of my blogger friends also lives in Qatar. I asked him some questions about the country also because he has invited me to come there to possibly teach or to just travel around. I am also a fan of Al Jazeera English which comes out of Qatar's capital, Doha (pronounced doe-HA). When I get frustrated with our slack attempts at journalism here at home, I sometimes joke that I have to travel to Turkey to get real news on the Al Jazeera news network which is shown there and which not a Turk I know of will bother to watch. I encouraged my Turkish students to watch it to help with them with their English, but I think that most of them ignored my suggestion. There have been plenty of accusations of bias, but I think Al Jazeera does a much better job at interviews, exposes and documentaries than anything we have here in the US outside of 60 minutes. It is in the same league as the BBC and CNN International.
I asked my friend about Villagio and the most he said about it was that it is the classiest and most expensive mall in Qatar. I learned from my own reading that besides the gondola rides, the mall also has a ceiling that is a replica of the sky. It looks so realistic that you cannot tell if the mall is without a ceiling and if you are truly looking upwards at the sky.
My friend did give me some general information about Qatar. He told me that Qatar now has the world's fastest growing economy and the highest gross domestic product (GDP). Unlike their neighbor, scandalously surreal looking Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and which is experiencing debt woes , Qatar's economy has continued to boom. My friend says that no banks have collapsed unlike our 120 or so here. None of Qatar's building projects have had to be suspended as is the case in Dubai. However, like Dubai, Qatar's close to 2 million residents are mostly foreigners who in their own way aid the growth of the country and its educational system. Most have come to Qatar because of its petroleum and gas industry. Qatar has 13% of the world's gas. The emir of Qatar's second wife, the remarkable Sheika Mozad al-Missned, has worked passionately to promote education and reform in the country. According to my friend, most Qataris in their 20s have studied abroad at universities in the United States, Canada, England, France, Australia, Malaysia, and Singapore.
I also found this video (below) of traditional Qatari music which to me sounds very similar to some forms of traditional African music. Qatar has experienced cross pollination of cultures over the centuries from the Middle East, Africa, South and Southeast Asia.
Black Qataris were brought to Qatar a few centuries ago to be work as domestic servants. They have Arabic names. There are some mixed race Qataris with Arab and African lineage. My friend remarked that he thinks their complexions are not attractive like the mellow, coffee and cream brown of say someone biracial like Halle Berry. He says their skin have a bluish or greenish.
Qatari society is a mixture of the traditional and modern, East and West. Many young Qatari men and women go out to nightclubs and drink alcohol. Others are conservative. Many of the veiled women that are seen on the streets and malls of Qatar are not Qatari but Pakistani. My friend says these women wear the veil so they are not looked down upon as low class because of their ethnicity.
There are also Persian Qataris whose ancestors came from Iran. There is often distrust and dislike between Qataris who are Persian and Arab, Shiite and Sunni Muslims respectively. Though many of the Persians are Shiite like the people in Iran, there are some who are Sunni. My friend told me that the Persian Sunnis dislike the Persian Shiites just as vehemently as the Arab dislike the Persians. If this true, it is not surprising. From my travels and being African-American I've seem that people everywhere have some group they dislike, hate, and distrust. Outside the US where skin color is not as big an obstacle in some places, turmoil between peoples usually runs across religious and ethnic lines. Well, humanity for me--who tries to rise above the bigotry--can be tiring.
Notwithstanding, Qatar sounds and looks like a fascinating country. I have read some comments online by expatriates living there and their comments range from Qatar being a little boring because so much of it is newly constructed to it being a nice, peaceful country that they are proud to live in. If it is true that Qataris do not have to pay taxes, then that little bit certainly makes it a very nice place. I would like to visit Qatar someday, inshallah (Arabic for "God willing").
Links to Qatar:
Qatar Visitor
Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Qatari Statistics Authority
Qatari Coins and Rulers
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