I had to share this picture that was added to ILQ’s Facebook page. Take a look at how Doha’s skyline changed in such a short period of time.

Click image to enlarge

Qatar’s a new country. You probably already knew that, but I wanted to put things into perspective for everyone. Only 25 years ago, there wasn’t much in Qatar. Some guide books even went as far as calling Doha the most boring city in the world. There weren’t many shopping areas to go to, everything was much more… flat, and there weren’t any traffic problems either.

The education system was lacking, not many people wanted to come visit Qatar (if they knew where the country was), and the internet was probably a few years behind neighbouring countries (you know that I love my precious internet).

That’s not to say that things we’re terrible; not at all. Communities were more tight nit, families visited each other much more often, people were much more humble, and everything wasn’t as fast paced; you could say that of any developing country.

This is a picture of the old Souq.

Here’s a photo of the corniche area probably 12 years ago

Here’s Westbay around 7-8 years ago

Qatar’s used to be a pearl-fishing country up until the 1940′s when large oil and gas fields were discovered. To date, many still think of Qatar as an oil-rich nation, but a majority of the country’s wealth comes from Liquified Natural Gas. It was only in 1971 that Qatar declared independence, 1999 that women were allowed to vote, and 2005 that our constitution went into effect. Next year, in 2013, we’re going to have our first national legislative elections. I’m not exaggerating when I say that you’re in Qatar at a great time. You’re witnessing a huge change in Qatar and a dramatic re-birth in the Middle East.

People seem to forget that Qatar is quite a young country. Although we’ve got skyscrapers, world renowned universities, and the extremely popular Al Jazeera; Qatar is still a developing nation.

Society, people’s mentalities, and the physical landscape is changing. It’s like having a culture shock in your own country. That’s why a lot of Qataris wonder how this change is going to affect our culture and traditions. I often talk about how great it is that there are so many different nationalities here in Qatar. It reminds me of the story of the ancient cross-roads between the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. Different people with their own ideologies, educational background, and opinions all coming together and sharing. It’s a great opportunity for Qataris to learn and take on a new perspective. With that though, there are obviously those that are worried about the ‘negative’ influence on a small population. I put the word negative between quotation marks because it’s all a matter of personal opinion of course. To some, it could be something as simple as the youth adopting more westernized fashion for example.

Just as Qataris may have some concerns, there’s a great number of fantastic projects to look forward to. The opening of the New Doha International Airport, Katara, Lusail City, the completion of The Pearl, Msheireb project, the state of the art Industrial Zone, the development of Wakra and Al Khor, the Space City Project, Energy City Project, and Education City are a few of the amazing developments I could think of off the top of my mind.

Besides the great projects, there are also some fantastic focuses on culture, art, entertainment, sport, and education. Let’s think about this for a second. We’re going from hardly anything to working towards having everything with a majority of the development happening in the past 10 years! That’s astonishing don’t you think?

The great thing is that we’ve got the national vision 2030. If you haven’t read it, please do. Here’s a link to it. It’s like a roadmap to what the country is striving to turn into. It’s shaped around 4 pillars; Human Development, focusing on education, healthcare and justice; Social Development, which ensures social care and protection, being actively involved in the region, and contributing towards international peace; Economic Development, which explores reasonable exploitation of oil and gas, economic diversification, and encouraging SMEs; and Environmental Development, where there is a focus on protecting and promoting a greener nation.

I’m looking forward to seeing what that the next 5 years (yep I’m confident a lot will change in 5) will have in store for us. I find myself thinking of that famous quote, “you can’t fight progress’.

I had to share this video by Omar Khalifa. He really is a talented guy! Well done!

Qatar and Japan are celebrating 40 years of friendship this year and there’s a lot of celebration going on. Qatar is doing a lot of events in Japan and Japan is doing just the same right here in Qatar. (By the way, if you haven’t checked out Takashi Murakami’s Exhibition called “Ego”, then you’re missing out!).

Japan is a country that I think Qatar has a lot to learn from. I could go as far as saying that I admire the country. Just as people sometimes refer Dubai to Las Vegas, I’d like people to compare Doha to Tokyo. As far out there as it may seem, there are a great number of similarities between the two. Japan has a great rich culture and has managed to rebrand itself at the world’s stage. Qatar is at the point where we’re trying to rebrand ourselves as well as shape our identity. When it comes to culture and taking the leap forward to modernity, Japan did that, and that’s what Qatar is trying to do. It’s not easy ensuring that you keep you’re heritage alive in a rapidly developing society. The two nations are also amazingly giving. Both Qatar and Japan have always been supportive of other countries when they were in great need. Go ahead. Google it. Just type in “Qatar donates” or “Japan helps” and check out the results.

I admire Japanese people’s work ethic, their strive for perfection, their focus, their incredible talent, and of course, how welcome they make foreigners feel. I want that. I want Qatar to be just like that.

Having said all of that, today is the 1st anniversary of the Tsunami and Earthquake that hit Japan. Just watching the videos of how people remember the day was very difficult for me. One particular quote I read that hurt my heart was from a 82 year old man who remembered the day the Tsunami struck recalling that he would never be able to see his wife again as she was swept away into the sea. I cannot imagine such pain.

iLoveQatar helped out by supporting a special event at Katara called “Aftermath – The Earthquake“. It was put together by people from the Japanese community and was a tour by a person known as Chonmage. We even had the President of Katara and the Japanese Ambassador visit.

To lighten people’s spirits at the time and to encourage people to donate to Japan we had sold tshirts with the words Love, Happiness, Bravery, and Courage in Japanese and Arabic. They were sold at different malls and it was a great experience. ‘Show support to the country that gave us Anime, Sushi, Robots and Land Cruisers’, I had posted on the community forums. You can find more here and here. Take a look at the Japanese Embassy’s website to see how many different schools and institutions rallied to show that Qatar loves Japan. If you’re interested in being part of the Japanese Society Qatar (JaSoQa) that started out of iLoveQatar as well just click here.

What I am incredibly proud of is that Qatar is one of, if not ‘the’ biggest donators to Japan. The Ambassador shows his appreciation to Qatar at every single public event here in Qatar. Qatar donated over 100 million usd on day one.

I’m so glad that Japan has a great ambassador here in Qatar. Mr. Monji really is a great person. Polite, friendly, and fun. So far he’s brought quite a number of events to the country including a Judo demonstration by Japan’s gold medalist, a Taiko drum performance at Katara (which he says is the best cultural act he’s ever brought to Qatar), and of course he’s also brought over the talented Gamarjobat silent comedy group to Souq Wagif. There’s loads more information about what’s to come at www.qatarjapan2012.com

Let’s hope for a bright future for both countries.

Japan is so 3ajeeb! Don’t forget to visit www.qatarjapan2012.com to see how Qatar and Japan are celebrating their 40th anniversary.

ILQ has always been about the community. We have always loved showing what everyone can do to make Qatar a great place to work and live. With our new home at Katara, we were only just on the tip of the dunes (No icebergs as we are nowhere near a place that has snow )

Katara has been buzzing over the past months with many activities, and they have partnered up with ILoveQatar for a giveaway. What could that be? How about 2 pairs of VIP tickets for Akram Khan Company’s ‘Vertical Road’ show as part of our ILQ sweepstakes? We’re giving two people out there a chance to win these highly coveted VIP tickets that puts you in prime seating to marvel at this show. You don’t want to miss this show, especially when it features music from acclaimed composer Nitin Sawhney (You’ll remember his performance from DTFF 2010)

How can you participate? It’s quite simple! We’re running this sweepstakes on Twitter.

Just follow these simple rules if you want a chance to win:
1. Participant must be a resident of Qatar.
2. You must be following @KataraQatar for your entry to count.
3. In addition to following, you must RT the giveaway tweet from @KataraQatar to enter into the draw.
4. You can also tweet about the sweepstakes, as long as it contains ‘@KataraQatar‘ and #AKC (We will be monitoring this hashtag for entries as well). This will count if and only if you have fulfilled (2).
5. The sweepstakes will last for 3 days.
6. Winner will be contacted directly via Direct Message and then announced on Twitter.
7. Winner must collect tickets 2 days after it is declared. Otherwise, another winner will be selected.
8. Employees of Katara and their families cannot participate in this sweepstakes.

What are you waiting for? Head over to @KataraQatar and follow them so that you can RT when they post it.

While I was in Japan, I decided to do a bit of Vlogging. Here’s my attempt

Just wanted to give you all an update We broke the world record for the largest game of Hide & Seek. It was held at Katara and over 1,200 people came on down to participate.

Way to go!