Shafallah Sliding bus

30 Sep, 2009  Annoyances

Here’s something funny (or perhaps not). I was driving from the Zig Zag off to work and there was this mini-van that was driving all over the place. No indicator. Going from the right lane to the left lane on the round-a-bout and back to the right (presumably because this person was either an idiot or did not have the ability to turn a steering wheel properly; those things are heavy!!).

It’s normal, we get people who don’t know how to drive everyday. (I wonder when the Police are going to start stopping people for using the slip lane or not indicating or not even staying in LANE correctly?) What got to me was that it was a Shafallah bus! On the side it said, ‘Special needs children’. For those who don’t know, Shafallah is one of the regions leading institutes for disabled or special needs children, it was set up by Sheikha Mozah and is definately something to be proud of. Seeing a driver not taking extra care in such a bus bothers me… I just had to post this… *sighs*

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.