Qatarisation

12 Jun, 2008  Work

Qatarisation

Today I did my bit to support Qatarisation in the office. To be honest I’m all for a country trying to help it’s own people, it’s only natural. I guess some expats don’t like it because it takes jobs away from them, however the expats are taking jobs away from the locals in the first place.

I think it’s a good step if they push forward with the training and educational portion of Qatarisation before throwing someone into a job.

We’re looking for a receptionist in our company and so far there’s been this very good Syrian girl. She speaks English well and has a friendly attitude, which is what a receptionist should have. However HR said that we had to pick a Qatari and could only hire her if there was no suitable candidate from the CVs we receive.

That’s fair enough. So a few CVs were plonked on my desk for review; four to be exact. I had to sadly reject two for the simple fact that one said she had experience with ‘Castomir Servise’ and the other had no mention of her English skills.

I was left with two. I looked at them carefully as they were both quite similar. So I decided to call them in. I rang once to both at 10am. No answer. Oh well.. let’s give them another hour. At 11 I picked up the first CV and dialed the mobile….”beep beep beep, this number is not in service” (or should I say servise). No problem, I’ll call the home phone. A woman answers the phone. “Hello, may I speak to *insert your favourite name here”. “I’m sorry there’s nobody by that name that lives here.”…. oh… seems like she’s moved and changed her number. I look at the CV. It’s dated November 2007… it took HR 8 months to pass over the CV! No wonder there are Qataris seeking jobs.

Ok, I need to get serious now. One CV left. I dial the number and a man answers “Hello?”… “Hello yes, make I speak to *insert another name here*”. “Who’s this?”, he says in a tone which implies I’m a secret lover. “I’m with *Company*, your wife sent us a CV and I’m calling to ask if she’d like to come in for an interview sir.”. “oh well thanks anyway, I appreciate it but she’s already got a job. You do know we handed in that CV months ago.”. “Oh, I’m sorry”, I say in a friendly voice, “thank you anyway for your time”. *click*

So I’ve ended up with no one. I call up HR to mention the news. “Good, now we can just hire that Syrian girl”. *sighs* Again… no wonder we need Qatarisation… those CVs I had showed that they had trained and took up extra training to study English but simply weren’t given the chance…

Oh well! I did my best to give them a shot. That’s the best I can do.

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.