(Please do share this! Let’s get people to be smarter about protecting their accounts online).

Here’s some breaking news thanks to the online community that covered this quite well and quite fast.

Qatar Foundation’s social media accounts have been ‘hacked’. People have been saying that it’s Assad Supporters Syrian Electronic Army. No they’re not a professional organization, it’s just some people trying to make themselves sound bigger than they really are.
You want to know what I think? No this isn’t the result of a ‘hacking’ attempt (because then the headline would be ‘twitter’ hacked, not QF), but more probably (and realistically) the result of poor password protection. (I’ll come onto that in a second, but let’s see what the community said).

First off, shout outs to @nasnas_here , @DJLedz, @dohadelivery, @mufyd_me , @teampistonbroke , @YasserM86, and Khalil, for bringing this to our attention and sending us images too.

At around 10:30AM on the 1st of March tweets started coming in that the Qatar Foundation twitter account was tweeting ‘anti-Qatar’ posts. Of course the online community, being mostly comprised of Read the rest of this entry »

This isn’t NEW news but a few people asked me about this after reading ‘Fact 5′ in the Facts section on iLoveQatar.net

Yes Doha and Dubai are super close. The ties between the two are undoubtedly strong. In 1966 (officially 1967), Qatar and Dubai had a shared currency. It was known as the Qatar and Dubai Riyal. It’s one of the most rarest currency notes to get your hands on today. While doing a bit more research to share with you all, I stumbled upon this article from Trade Arabia from October 2012:

Rare-Find ‘Qatar & Dubai Currency Board’ Notes Auctioned in the UK!

At Bonhams ‘Banknotes and Coins’ auction in Knightsbridge in London, England yesterday, a number of mint-condition uncirculated Qatar and UAE banknotes – extremely rare in the world – has been purchased for £ 180,000 (QR 1.05 million) against pre-auction expectations range: £ 25,000 – 35,000 (QR 146,180 – 204,640), according to official press release from the auction house. 

At closer look by an expert, the corresponding early serial numbers – all marked ’000009′ – bolster more the intrinsic value of the collection.

The whole public sale, including non-currency items, hauled in a total of £ 580,194 (QR 3.39 million) for just 90% of the entire lots. Many rare coins of international origin and era as old as in Egypt 285 BC, the rule of the Ptolemaic kings.

Mr. John Millensted, Head of Coins at Bonhams, stated during a press interview: “It is a tremendously rare set and has been preserved well over the years, the price exceeded all expectations and we are very pleased with the result.”

The paper currencies, issued by the Qatar and Dubai Currency Board were a complete set of 1, 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 Qatari Riyalsdating back in September 1966, were neatly stored in a blue-leather presentation album with the cover inscription: ‘Council For the Currency of Qatar & Dubai’.

The banknotes appear with a vignette with a dhow, derrick, and palm tree at left portion, reverses with denomination at middle and upper corners, and issuing authority across the top. They were modestly mounted on card pages and secured by a thin masking tape strip on back of right edge. 
What’s the history behind the bills?

Back in March 1966, the so-called ‘Qatar-Dubai Currency Agreement’ was sealed to pave way for the ‘Qatar and Dubai Currency Board’ which, in turn, was expected to give birth to a common currency.

Six months later, the Board issued its first banknote. For some major reason, however, the formal treaty was dissolved — within less than seven years hence.

The State of Qatar went ahead to commission its own paper money, as the United Arab Emirates Currency Board circulated its own bills in Dubai. 

At present, high-grade banknotes of the short-lived Qatar & Dubai Currency Board – except for the 1 riyal — are such rarities, with the 25 riyal having such a limited production that it is almost nowhere to be found in any condition. 

Having said that, there’s been talks about a shared common currency for the GCC. Apparantly the first time that the decision was going to be made, the UAE declined, the second time GCC leaders met up UAE was onboard but Oman declined. Right now it’s all just a dream, but perhaps we’ll get there. I’m not quite sure of what the reasons are behind a shared currency not happening (perhaps someone can comment below and let me know), but it sounds interesting. Do you think it’ll be worth it?

Your friendly neighbourhood Qatari decides to go take a drive down Al Khor. (The potential for this place to be something amazing is HUGE).
While driving down and doing the usual Vlogging, I bring up a good point – 998!

Master Plan

I’m a huge fan of Qatar Foundation’s initiatives. I love the push for the development of a knowledge-based economy through Education City especially since the education system was quite poor not too long ago.

I actually studied in an IB school in Bahrain. At the time my father was one of the heads of Gulf Air (Qatar had a share in the airline and this was before Qatar Airways existed) and their Head Office was (and still is) on the island. The education system was considered to be ahead of Qatar, there were more choices when it came to private schools, and parents had a choice of putting their children in a school with a British, American, Canadian, or French curriculum.

Anyway, before I go off into too much of a tangent, let’s get back to talking about Education City. Look at Qatar now! We’ve got more schools, choices of universities, and the nation is encourage to ‘Think’ and ‘Innovate’; just in case you weren’t sure, there were signs, adverts, and giant words on the cornice that spelled it out for you. Education City itself is a great idea. Getting the world’s best universities together in the same area and walk-able campus. So much so that more foreign students are choosing to come to education city for their further education and more Qatari’s are starting to choose to stay in the country.

Two thoughts that come to my mind though are 1) what’s missing in Education city? and 2) is it better for a Qatari to study here in Qatar than going off abroad?

I feel like the university campuses are still lacking in facilities and in having that community feel. As beautifully designed as they are, they don’t feel like the campuses I studied at and visited when I was in the UK. Campuses had squares or outdoor common areas, restaurants, cafes, recreational areas, or even arcades. It felt like a little town. Plus most universities were close to actual town centers. At the moment students are sort of isolated. Most students need a car to get around (alright this is Doha so it’s understandable), but they’re quite far from the main city. I loved being able to get up, go to a seminar, and then grab the uni bus and head to the town center that was 10 minutes away, have dinner, watch a movie, and head back to uni. I’ve been told by some students that there’s a nickname for the mood they get into because they don’t feel like they’ve got enough to do, it’s called the “Doha Depression”. Honestly, it’ depressing to hear that such a phrase or expression exists. When I pressed to ask why they felt that way, I was told that they didn’t think there was enough to do or places to go. Honestly, part of university life is the social experience. Learning to interact, mingle, make friends with strangers, hang out, play sports, and explore. I’ve heard of great plans to build malls, more sports grounds, and even a cinema, but I haven’t seen any plans so far. I wonder what the hold up is.

It was also fun having different universities competing…. For anything! “We’ve got the best looking building, we’ve got the best cafes, we’ve got the best courses for Sociology 305, we’ve got—“ you get the point. Right now I feel like Education City is the university and the different universities are departments. Not only because they’re so close to each other, but because of the shared student spaces. Should each university be more independent infrastructure wise as well?

When it comes to more Qataris choosing to study here, the question is whether it’s the best choice. It’s a personal thing, that’s for sure, but I loved studying in the UK. I made friends with people from all over the world, I learned to be independent, I learned how to manage funds living in an apartment alone, and I learned to understand things from different perspectives. Studying abroad gives you experiences that no classroom can provide.  It’s both scary and exciting to be in a foreign setting and being immersed in a new cultural environment. I found new challenges and found ways to solve new problems.

It also gave me appreciation for what I have here in Qatar. No tax worries and lower cost of living are two that come to my mind. Personally I’d take studying abroad every time.

One popular Qatari group called Qatari & Qatariah had questioned the public with “Do you think that Qataris who study abroad are more intelligent or can perform better in the work place?”.  It was a mixed bag of answers. Some said that intelligence depended on the abilities of the person regardless of where they studied, but most agreed that studying abroad gave them that extra edge and a different way of thinking.

I’m proud of the way that Qatar has progressed in the Education sector. We’re doing some amazing things. Qatar Foundation and Education City are encouraging people to read, question, and create. That’s exactly the type of social development the country needs to create a country of the future. Whether choosing to study abroad or here in Qatar. One thing’s for sure, it’s great that we now have more choices.

Qatar is building on celebrations year on year. There are a number of huge milestones and events that have lead up to this as well. Look at the launch of the Museum of Islamic Art, The Media Expo, Qatar Media Freedom Center, the involvement in Philipines resolutions, advancement in Human Rights, the launch of other huge developments for example, winning the World Cup, and the list goes on. Qatar’s definitely in the spotlight and Doha will continue to shine bright as long as changes keep happening.

So whether you’re Qatari, American, British, Indian, Philipino, Japanese, Chinese or any other nationality, and let’s face it, Qatar is a melting pot of diversity, please celebrate National Day with us! Let happiness run through you like a rush of energy. Here’s a thought to make you smile. Think of each firework that goes off on December 18 as the sound of the country’s heartbeat.

One common question I’m asked is how is it that Qatar changed National Day’s date? It never changed. They’re thinking of Independence day, which is on the 3rd of September. Here’s some more info on National day (from QatarNationalDay.qa)

On 18 December 1878, Sheikh Jassem bin Mohamed bin Thani succeeded his father as the ruler of Qatar. With that, Qatar became a country with a vision… a country that would find unity, grow rapidly, and reach toward ever higher heights.

National Day, also known as Founder’s Day, celebrates the rise of Sheikh Jassem as the father and founder of the State of Qatar. And yet this holiday is a mere two years old: it was founded in 2007 to give people an occasion to honour the history and identity of their country, and to commemorate those who have worked and continue to work to make Qatar a great nation.

The 18th of December is a special day – a day of unity for the people of Qatar. We want you to be a part of it!

Now that the frenzy has ended, I’ve been asked by quite a few people to share my thoughts on the recent salary increases. I’ll start this off by answering some of the most common questions I got.

Mr. Q! You’re rich now! When are you getting that Ferrari?
First of all no I’m not. Second of all, it’s a Porsche -_- On a serious note NOT all Qataris got the salary increase!

So who does the salary increase apply to?
It’s not really black and white. It was initially given to government employees. That meant that those in the private sector weren’t part of the salary increase. However since the annoucement, a lot of companies in the private sector have followed suit. 1) It does make them look good to follow an Emiri Decree and 2) Some didn’t really have a choice (mostly the larger private entities).

Ok tell us, how much did Qataris in the government get?
For state civilian employees they got a 60% increase on their basic salary and social allowance
For Military  personnel it’s a 50% increase on their basic and social allowance
For  Military personnel of an officer rank, they get a 120% increase on their basic and social allowance.

Nice huh? Makes you want to think about joining the army.

No seriously, how much did Qataris REALLY get?
It’s no joke. Don’t believe me? Check out Emiri decision No. 50 of 2011.

So that’s over DOUBLE their salary!
Wrong! It’s 60% of BASIC and SOCIAL. Let’s say your salary is 10k. Your basic is 4k. Your social is 1k. Your remainder salary is made up of housing, transportation, etc… In this case you get 60% of 5k. That’s 3k or a 30% pay increase overall. Of course this is just an example

Anything else you want to mention?
It’s not just salaries. Government employees also get their pensions to go up by 60% and Military by 50% or 120% depending on their rank.

Why did they do this… It doesn’t make sense!
A lot of things don’t make sense in this world, but there’s actually a good reason for all of this!  First of all, lets start from the beginning. Government employees actually had their salaries ‘balanced’ two years ago to comply with their new grading scheme. For some people it was great, for others… it made life really tough. If you were a junior staff at 15k, you could have been dropped to as low as 7k per month. That’s a 50% decrease. Some people’s salaries went up though but only by a small margin. So if you look at the 60% pay increase, they’re probably back to where they were. Of course I’m talking about the people who were affected negatively. To be honest, many people especially in the Military were known to have received extremely low salaries and they definitely did deserve more.

How much is this going to cost the government then?
A cool 10 billion riyals a year (that doesn’t include the extra 10 billion given to the pensions fund and 10 billion to the retirees’ subscriptions.

How do you feel about this Mr. Q?
You want to know? Well I’ve got mixed emotions to be honest.

Now here are my thoughts from a number of different angles…

As a citizen, it’s great to know that the government is there to take care of it’s people. It’s nice to feel that my country care about government officials so much. I do think that it would have been great to have spent 10billion riyals on training government workers so that they could work much more effectively though (just thinking about my own experience with simple processes here). The cost of living has definitely increased significantly in the passed few years. Building a house is near impossible and a decent price anymore.

However as someone who works in the private sector,I’m left thinking, “What about me?”. I studied hard. I went to university to get my degree. I came back and worked in the private sector. I proved that I was a hard worker, dedicated, and was set to prove that Qataris are ready to make a difference in the world. So why aren’t I being rewarded as well? In fact, are we giving the wrong message to the new generation? Come and get a cushy government job. Aren’t we trying to build a knowledge based economy? One that will encourage start ups, Qatari entrepreneurs, and see a growth in SMEs? Why would a youngster create his own businesses now when he can get a great salary working in a government job? Despite all of that, I’m still left thinking “what about me?”.

As someone who cares about the economy, a couple of days after the announcement, shops didn’t waste their time. I received BBM notifications constantly about the different shops that raised their prices. The government had already threatened companies with fines if they raised their prices and also set up a hotline for people to report it, but that didn’t stop many. Car washes raised their prices, restaurants raised their prices, cold stores raised their prices, everybody was doing it! Some people said, “It’s only a couple of riyals”, no it’s not! It all ads up! This my dear friends is what causes INFLATION. Many Qataris started to complain about this; online forums, BBM, and the newspapers published article after article of examples in price rises. Well if the people who got the pay rise are complaining, what about the Qataris or the exapts that didn’t get the pay rise?

What I don’t understand is why didn’t the just give government employees a pay rise quietly? Alright it might have been difficult to contain that one, but what about Kuwait’s solution? They got rid of Kuwaiti’s debts (up to a certain amount). I’m pretty sure that would have helped out more, and would have been fairer on all of us.

From the point of view of a private business owner, there are LOADS of problems here; Qatarization was hard enough! Now companies have to compete with the government too! I don’t really want to think about this one…. Let’s start with listed companies, they have a duty and a responsibility to share-holders. If a private company increases Qataris salaries, that dips into the shareholders pockets. It would be fair to say that it would be in the companies best interest NOT to hire Qataris to reduce cost (that can’t happen though since Qatarization is not an option). I’ll give you a really simple example. You own a business that sells Land Cruisers (had to slip that one in. Heh.). Everything’s going well, but now you have to cut into your own profits to increase your employees salaries. They’re not really doing any more work than they signed up for. Inflation is only up by 10% but you have to give them 60% increase. Now the funny thing is, you understand where I’m going with here, but I’ll bet you still want to be that person with the 60% pay increase. Am I right? Don’t worry, it’s human nature.

Point of view of the expat, “That’s not fair, what about us? We work harder than Qataris! We deserve more too!”, the people scream on one particular forum that shall not be named. You know what I say to them? Don’t like it? Tough! I’m sorry but it really gets my blood boiling. I feel like Qatar is the only country in the world where some expats (Most of the ones I personally know are awesome btw!) discriminate against the locals! They come to Qatar, live quite a comfortable life, more comfortable than back where they live, their governments probably tax the hell out of them, and then they complain that they deserve more. Think about this logically, wherever you are from and imagine that a foreigner comes to your country and feels entitled to more; not the same (I believe in equality), but more than the locals…

I’m sorry but shouldn’t you be demanding more from your own country? Looks to me that we’re in a new age where the new saying is “Ask not what you can do for your country but what your country can do for you.” and not the other way around.

So what should those who got the pay rise do now? Splurge? Obviously not. The best thing would be for them to invest their new income in something that will give them a safe future. I don’t know put it in a savings account, invest in stocks, start your own little business, SOMETHING, that doesn’t encourage un-necessary inflation please!

I’ll end this quick piece with with what one of my favourite users on ILQ said (TimeBandit), and I think it sums it all up nicely.

“Hey I don’t pay tax, so I don’t care what the government does with its money. I just want a job, on commission, working for a car dealership ASAP.”

You might also be interested in:

Qatars are all rich – the myth

I envy Bahrainis

I felt compelled to write something about this since there are so many people that make posts on the forums about employers not paying salaries, people not getting a No-Objections-Certificate (NOC) after the end of their contract, transfer of sponsorship, or people just not being a part of a positive work environment.

New to Qatar? Here’s the 101, if you don’t have an NOC, you can’t transfer your employment to another company and have to leave Qatar for two years before being allowed to come back.

Let’s start from the beginning? Why do many people take a job here in Qatar? Answer: Because Qatar is a super awesome country. Just look outside of your window, see the blue skies? Tropical weather? Lush greenery and smiling people walking down the street? That’s why. *serious face*

Alright alright. Let’s put the sarcasm to the side. I love Qatar! Just take a look at the title of the website after all! It’s just that there are a few laws in this country that don’t make sense; there probably was a good intention behind the need for them, but it’s like punishing all your kids when you damn well know that it was little Omar who lit the cat on fire! (Poor kitty).

Let’s get back to reality. People come to Qatar for a number of reasons; They want to explore a new part of the world (Doha is an exotic city for many people), people get better salaries, they can live more comfortable and laid back lives compared to where they come from (yes.. depending where you come from), and they probably want to make a name for themselves and climb the occupational ranks. Sound fair so far?

I’m going to try and appeal to the managers out there with this article.

Scenario 1: Let’s say that you come to Qatar after getting an offer for a managerial position. It’s 30,000 QR a month. Nice! You arrive, work hard, and your boss tells you that he can’t pay you this month because the company isn’t doing so well. You’re nice. You understand that companies go through hard times. You’ve made the journey all the way over here and you’re not about to turn away now that you’ve got so far right? Three months of no salary so you decide you’ve had enough! You quit. Your boss confuses your kind-heartedness (since you lasted so long) for stupidity, and thinks that stupid people don’t deserve an NOC. What do you do? Does that mean that you can’t leave?

Scenario 2: You’re already in Qatar. You’ve got an RP and on a family sponsorship. Let’s say that you get a job and so get the company to give you a work permit and you start living a higher quality of life because you and your husband now bring in more money to the house. Either you or the employer decide that after 16 months it’s not working out. In fact, you’re lucky because you got a better offer! Sadly, your employer turns out to be a bit of a douche. You ask for an NOC to transfer employment and he turns into ShaNayNay and tells you to speak to the hand (translated: you’re not getting an NOC). What do you do? Does it mean that you have to leave now? Is it easy to switch back to your husbands sponsorship? Let’s say that everything’s cool, but your family was used to a dual-income (you got a second car and a bigger house)… how do both of you survive in Qatar now if you can’t get a job?

Scenario 3: You’re working for a company. You get a better offer somewhere. You go back to the company and ask for an NOC. Boss says ‘no’ and in fact, since you wanted to leave, you’re now fired and get shipped back home in a crate.

Scenario 4: You get this really awesome job in Qatar! You get 40,000 QR a month to work 2 hours a day! It’s so awesome that I want it! Ok ok.. I don’t want it. It’s cool, it’s all yours. So you get a place in the pearl, take a loan for a BMW Z4, start wearing Massimo Dutti suits, hair all slicked back and three months later, on your way to work, your boss tells you that you’ve been replaced with a monkey. You’re fired! Oh.. and no NOC for you! So you decide to pack up and leave the country, but wait… you’ve taken a loan for your Z4. You’re not going anywhere! You have to pay back the loan before you can leave the country remember? So you don’t have a job to pay back the loan, and can’t get one because you don’t have an NOC. So what do you do? Work illegally or go to jail.

Note: These scenarios are meant to just get the point across. There are flaws in the system. Inshallah they’ll be fixed..

According to a friend who used to work for the National Human Rights Committee, their #1 complaint is when it comes to sponsorship or not being able to get an NOC. What does that say? Worse yet, since they get so many complaints, they turn away most people! So much for compassion…

I’ve never denied any of my employees from leaving iLoveQatar and grabbing better opportunities. I only ask them to give me a chance to better their offer (it’s not always about the salary), otherwise I wish them the best and hope that they’ll always be there for ILQ.

It’s like one of the most basic rules of life. Something my father taught me when I was younger. “Before doing something, ask yourself whether you’d like it if someone did it to you. If the answer is no, then don’t do it”. I know I wouldn’t like to be trapped under an NOC law.

If someone gets a better offer, why not let them take it? Why force an employee to remain in the company and work unhappily? They’re definitely not going to be efficient workers. They’re not going to have the company’s best interest. In fact, from an economical point of view, if companies were worried of employees leaving them, perhaps more companies would treat them with respect and provide for better work environment.

Just a thought.

You might also be interested in the “Workers Rights Handbook”

Update: April 2013
I should have mentioned that there is also a reason to why the NOC is necessary in many cases. Sadly smaller companies can’t compete with bigger companies poaching employees too.
For example, I may have to spend up to 5,000 QR to sort out the processing of a visa for an employee, fly him or her into the country, train the person, and next thing you know, a big company comes and snatches that person up. Leaving poor little small company without an employee and out of pocket. That’s one of the issues here.

So it’s clear to me that the real estate market in Qatar is messed up. Who agrees with me? No? You think that things are great?; then I shall break it down for you with some examples.

Let’s say you bought a property in Zig Zag towers. You paid well over a million Qatari Riyals because you were promised the best in luxury. You think to yourself, I’m going to be living in an amazing peice of architecture, instead, all you get is what can only be described as a wonky building.

The banks:
To buy that lovely apartment, you need to take a loan. QNB’s interest rate for me was something like 9.7% (I know I know). At 25 years that’s around 11,000 QR per month. Recently I was offered an amazing deal from Doha bank that would lower my installments by 3k and also shave off 5 years. Nice! Sadly I can’t switch. Qatar’s introduced a new law that doesn’t allow banks to buy off loans… so I’m stuck with QNB. (This law was most probably passed because QNB was losing customers and so needed some good ‘ole wasta).

Central cooling:
So I’m stuck with using Qatar Cool. A monopoly since there is no other company other than them that provides this service. They want around 12,000 QR per year so that you can be provided with a service that would otherwise have cost me 50-100QR extra a month (since I still have to pay for water and electricity anyway!) if I just had a split unit. I’m sorry, I really DO care about the environment, but who are we fooling? The carbon emissions are simply being moved to the central cooling facility. We’ve just moved the problem, we haven’t solved it…

The developers:
So Al Dar, the company that sold ZigZag, took the first year’s ‘maintenance fee’ and did nothing for the tenants. 2 year later, and countless days of fire alarms going off, leaks in the underground parking, filthy marble floors and me staring at a tic-tac-toe game that was scratched into the stainless steel door of one of the elevators, they decided to go ahead and create the tenants committee. What they did was dump all of their dirty laundry with them and didn’t even bother to give them the maintenance fee from the previous year!

The late fee:
According to Al Dar, the late fee is automatically waived if you buy the property from second party. Wait what? So Al Dar was supposed to pay 1,000 QR a month for every month they were late with the development. They didn’t finish the property until a year and a half later (they had 6 months delay allowable), so they had to pay 12,000 QR to me. Nope, I bought that apartment from someone so they automatically got up to THREE YEARS extra time to delay the project. How does Qatar legally allow that? I’ll tell you how, we don’t have a Land Law court. Going to Civil court takes an average of two years here…

The maintenance fee:
So the tenants council mentioned that they were thinking of a way to make the maintenance fee a bit more fair. It’s currently set at 1% of what you bought the property for. I had wanted it to be a fixed price per square meter. It makes logical sense to me that they should first calculate the cost of what was needed for the maintenance and then divide it by the total number of square meters. Nope, they decided that if it’s from below 90 Sqm it’s 11,000 QR, 100-150sqm it’s 14,500 QR, if it’s 151-200sqm it’s 17,500 QR , if it’s 201-250sqm its 19,800 QR and if its 250sqm its 21,000 QR(something like that anyway, if you’ve got the exacts let me know as I cant remember).
How the hell is that fair? Long story short, I’m paying 2,000 QR MORE now for my 147sqm apartment and 10,000 QR more for my 250SQM apartment I bought a while back. I guess to the association I’m paying ‘fairly more’. Their math doesn’t even make sense. The different between a property that’s 250sqm and one that’s larger than that is 1,200 QR, that means 1,200 QR / 50 (sqm) is 24QR per sqm. But the difference between a 93sqm tier and a 100sqm tier is 3,500 QR which means that it’s an extra 70 QR per sqm. That means that the smaller your apartment, the more you pay… Shouldn’t it be set so that we all pay equally per square meter as I had just mentioned?

So now let’s do the math. For a fully furnished and redone apartment like mine that’s 147sqm, on the 21st floor, and facing the lagoon, I could probably get 10-12k (depends really). Let’s say 10k for arguments sake.

I’ve got to pay 11,000 QR a month for the mortgage, 12,000 QR a year for Central cooling, 14,000 QR for a maintenance fee, which means that over 2 months of rent goes straight to fees and even after that all the rent goes straight to the bank. It’s actually BETTER for an owner to just RENT than buy in this country!

If you’re confused by the time you get to the end of this blog post. Good. We all are.

What… the… hell…? Qatar! Help us! Help place rules and regulations in the country to help the real estate sector. Companies like Al Dar are causing foreign investors to lose faith in our market.

Mr. Bassam Al Muharaj ( بسام المهرج)made a special announcement today in Qatar that is said to improve the state of the nation drastically in the coming years. The Ministry of Logic was recently opened in Al Ghashmara road in hopes of rejuvenating a sense of faith in the progression of infrastructure development. Al Muharaj gave a few examples during his explanation, “Should a law wish to be created where a person had to build a house in order to apply for a land to build that house, then it would be rejected on grounds of inappropriate use of logic.”.

The Qatari Ministry of Logic is said to have recently been set up due to the massive amount of irregularities emerging from existing Ministries operations. Three reports had concluded that there are issues with infrastructure, national projects, and day to day activities. A recent survey found that the communities’ top three complaints were 1) The fact that roadworks takes an average of 6 years only to be destroyed to make way for a future project 2) That skyscrapers, towers, and commercial districts were built with no parking areas 3) Prison sentences did not have any logical pattern in terms of judgement.

Mr. Al Muharaj was kind enough to point out that the Ministry of Logic would act as a filter before other Ministries and Authorities could act. He was also quite proud of the fact that the team put in place were amongst the brightest in the world.

Recently it was reported that projects such as Qatar Cool, which was supposed to be both an environmentally friendly solution to central cooling as well as a cost effective alternative to standard split unit air conditioning, simple did not make sense. Prices were found to be up to 30% above an average electricity and water charge and the cost of piping and connections was 5 times higher than installation of split units. It was also found that from an environmental perspective, although carbon emissions were reduced from areas that we centrally cooled, the location of Qatar Cool’s facility actually produced carbon emissions that were equally as high thus defeating it’s purpose. The Ministry of Logic’s role would be to ensure that projects such as these are studied and thought through carefully.

Mr. Al Muharaj said, ‘Not only are we proud of this new initiative, but we are are also taking measures to create the correct policies and procedures in place to ensure that adequate logic is injected into projects related to the country and it’s people. We have in fact created a new policy for what is the correct method of creating the correct policies and procedures and will ensure that a study is created to measure the effectiveness of our policy.’. Mr. Al Muharaj would not comment on the necessity for the creation of the Authority of Redundancy and Bureaucracy Authority Bureau.

All comments and suggestions can be emailed to the Ministry of Logic. The email may be obtained by faxing 4478339222 with a request.

Source, http://iloveqatar.net/forum/read.php?28,27612,27612

Why do we need the World Cup? A few people seem to think that it could be a waste of money and we’ll end up with unused stadiums (but that only goes to show that people don’t even bother doing any research before jumping to conclusions and making definitive statements).

I for one am very excited at the thought of us getting it. Not only does Qatar have what’s considered to be unlimited cash to spend on such an event, but Qatar has some great ideas for how to make this event about bringing the world closer.

It’s the fact that it will be bring further development and change that gets me more excited though. Qatar will be under the world’s spotlight and will be scrutinized. With people paying attention, things have to change (or most likely will). Remember that road in westbay in front of City Center that was under construction for 6 months and was finished in a week before the UN came over for a meet up? Perhaps this is the kick that Qatar needs to improve quality and get things done faster.

Think about it! New laws which’ll open up so many doors and make things more transparent. Expats will most probably no longer need an exit permit, the Human Rights Authority will be given more funds and responsibilities, there’ll be more construction in anticipation for the games which’ll hopefully provide more accommodation than there is demand (that’s good because it means we’ll have a market adjustment and commodities will hopefully drop to their true value), plus it’ll bring a huge amount of businesses interested in opening up within Qatar. (Fingers crossed that everyone gets in on that action though and it’s not just the same group of people running everything). Unlike the Olympics which is hosted in one city, the World Cup is country wide, that means that Qatar will have to develop and focus on other areas of Qatar. This means more variety, more choice and hopefully a more dispersed population that will reduce congestion.

Why do I personally want the World Cup? I want to show the world the meaning of Arabic hospitality. I want to see foreigners come into Qatar and enjoy Qatari kindness. (Let’s hope that modernization doesn’t completely kill that though ) I want those who are corrupted and seedy to be exposed as a result of scrutiny, I want laws to open up and there to be more ‘open-ness’ within the country, and I also want there to be a better perception of our culture. I’m sure that you, dear reader, can think of more advantages than disadvantages.

Doha has already stated that it will make the World Cup the most amazing and greatest event in history. That’s believable after the success of the Asian Games 2006. Doha has announced that it’ll be flying in students from all over the world for free for the games, will provide state of the art centers, fields, and media villages for all, and will be developing at a tremendous speed to satisfy all requirements.

They’ve also planned to do some great stuff AFTER the World Cup as well! The stadiums that are being built will be dismantled and reconstructed in developing nations. For all those people concerned with alcohol and siting by the pool in bikinis. Don’t worry, there’ll be special ‘expat’ areas that will be like open zones. (Although you can already enjoy the two in many places in Qatar, just not in public.) Some had concerns about Israel participating in the games. Qatar has already said that it isn’t an issue. Some Muslims might not like that, but I say TOUGH. It’s Qatar’s chance to show the tolerant, respectful and fair side of Islam.

If that doesn’t satisfy you with a reason to support Doha, think of it this way, if you’re not in it for the amazing spectacle that it’ll create, be in it for the fact that it’ll change the region. It’ll change the world’s view of the Gulf. It’ll bring the world closer and give the Middle East a step forward towards the ‘peace’ the west has been wishing for us.

Also see:

Qatar 2022′s first five stadiums!

Although not about the World Cup, I wrote a few posts about the Olympics which might be of interest.

Olympics 2016