Capital Consistency

5 May, 2008  Uncategorized

Something that kind of always annoyed me was the fact that people don’t have consistency when deciding whether they want to talk about cities or countries. There has been many occasions when I’ve been sitting with a person who’d say something like “I’ve been to China, Tokyo, Qatar, and Dubai”.

Let’s talk about this. I understand that some people like to be specific about certain things but let’s try to be uniform in our discussions! Look at Simmons&Simmons website. Their office listings include London, Tokyo, Shanghai, Rome, Paris, Qatar, Madrid, Lisbon… wait… did you spot the odd one out? If you said Qatar you’re right! Ding Ding Ding~~ Have a cookie.

Yes I know that Qatar isn’t that big, but size doesn’t matter (a bit of de ja vu there). We either use all cities or countries. For those that are confused, Doha is the capital of Qatar.

So next time somebody says “I’m going to Qatar then Dubai”, stop them, pull them to the side, smile, whisper gently in their ear in a manner that might almost be considered arousing and say “Doha and Dubai or Qatar and the Emirates”. As they pause to wonder why you’ve mentioned it in that fashion, give them a little pat on the bum and walk away.

Consistency people! Consistency….

Freedom of Expression

    Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which the Qatari Government is a signatory of states: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any medias and regardless of any frontiers.

    The Emiri Decision Number 86 of the year 2007 on the establishment of the Doha Free Information Centre marked yet another step towards establishing a State of rights and freedom of speech. The decision stipulated that the Centre be a non-profit organization, headquartered in Doha City, and have the authority to establish other affiliated centres inside and outside Qatar. It is worth mentioning that His Highness the Emir issued a decision in 1998 annulling the ministry of information, giving birth to a new era of freedom of speech where censorship was removed from local media.