This was a bit of surprise. Hukoomi now has a new layout and design. Feels more blog like. I kind of miss the older design.
(For those that don’t know what it is, it’s a page for people to renew visas, pay traffic violations, renew documents etc..)
What say you?
Visit Hukoomi at www.hukoomi.com
I’m not going insane. It’s something I’ve always wanted to talk about and a commenter on the “Qataris are Rich – The Myth” post had touched on taxes and brought this back on my mind.
I don’t want to be taxed like crazy (like how the UK does to its people) but maybe a slight tax would be a good thing. (I’m talking about income tax and none of that VAT stupidity!)
Imagine if Qatar taxed citizens 1-2% of their salary for example.
1) That should be enough to beautify the country, parks, water systems, lights, etc…
2) People would demand that the country does something with their tax money
3) People would start conciously thinking of their financial status
The government should also provide tax breaks.
1) If you build a garden or put grass outside of your house, you get a 50% tax break (this forces people to beautify Qatar to avoid paying tax)
2) If your organization (or even your household) does something charitable, you get a tax break
If you think about it, Qatar is the ‘perfect’ country to have tax.
1) The taxes aren’t ‘needed’ by the government, which means that it should remain stable.
2) The tax money they generate would be considered a ‘bonus’
Who can give me their views on tax? Good? Bad? If you think it’s good, explain why? Remember, don’t just think of the economic impact, think of society, psychology, bureaucracy, etc..
If there’s one Arabic country that I have to choose as a country which I respect, it’s Bahrain. I love that country and its people. Quite recently it was ranked internationally as the world’s most friendliest country. I definately agree.
Put simply, if someone were to ask me why I love Bahrain, my list would be a page long. However in the interest of not boring you to death, I’ll list what makes them a great nation and a reason for why they turned out quite different from Qataris.
1) Bahrainis run their own country. No this isn’t a locals vs. expats comment. I feel that if all the expats left Bahrain, they’d be able to survive. You see Bahrainis working as taxi drivers, throughout the business hierarchical chain, and at your local cold store. There’s isn’t an exclusive dependancy on foreigners. Lets face it. If the expats dropped everything and moved out of Qatar, things would pretty much come to a stand-still.
2) Bahrainis work hard and they don’t act like anything is beneath them. You see them working at petrol stations or as security guards in the malls. This touches upon point one, but the reason for their motivation is because they’re hard workers. It’s obvious to me that the government recognizes this because Bahrainis are considered the ‘Golden Expat’ by Qatari companies. (The fact that they’re from the GCC, similar values to Qataris, and are hard workers).
3) They’re incredibly smart. The average Bahraini is very intelligent. They definitely have the entrepreneurial spirit. It all comes down to their education. Qatar only quite recently started putting an emphasis on education with, well… , with Education City. There’s been major changes in the government schooling as well, however Bahrain has a 20 year lead. One of the reasons why I moved to Qatar was because my family wanted a better education for me. I studied at a private school and ended up with an I.B. Diploma.
So why are they like this? They’re poorer. Seems a bit simplistic doesn’t it? Hear me out. As Qataris, we’re given quite a lot of opportunity. I’m priveledged and I’m trying to make the most of the fortunauate position that God put me in. However it seems that people have grown up where they think that government support (in its current form) is their ‘right’. Many people became too rich, too fast, and they forgot about the basics. The basics of raising their own kids, the basics of Islam (peace, respects and tolerance), and probably more importantly, they forgot how hard it was for Qataris two generations ago and aren’t greatful for that. This mentality has spread across to even the poorer Qataris.
If you’re the government of a poorer nation, you have to become more business centric. That’s why the market is open for advertisers (street ads) in Bahrain and we’ve got one company (QMedia) that has an unexplainable monopoly.
4) They don’t receive as much in terms of state support. The cost of living is lower and salaries are lower. So Bahrainis compete. They are forced to survive on their intellect. They are forced to be reasonable. They are forced to be more down to earth.
5) They’re forward thinkers. Their mentality is quite different. Their more open to the idea of being progressive. Qataris are getting there. My friends and the younger generation of Qataris are all working so very hard to prove that we’re not the lazy stereotype that people imagine.
Bahrain isn’t the best country in the world. They’ve got issues. Qatar also has some major pluses too! (The support for media freedom, a progressive Emir, our strong Shaikha Moza, and of course, the fact that its a country that has so much opportunity come to mind). I just feel that I wish we learned a bit more from Bahrainis, thats all.
You want an ideal Arabic nation? Qatar’s wealth, opportunity, and leadership + Bahrainis mentality + Kuwait’s business focus + Emirates marketing team = the country I wish I could create.
Qatar’s still got a great shot at being something amazing! That’s why I (heart) Qatar 
Can’t wait for the bridge to be built. Lets see if they rub off on us.
Ok not everyone… but there’s new news about the change to the Visa rules.
Limafoxtrot first made a post about the fact that Qatar was changing the rules so that everyone had to go and get visas from an embassy rather than on arrival at the airport. (New Visa Rules from 1st of May)
However it looks like things have changed again! Adam_new posted:
“Hi All
Am not sure if this is true and it would be useful if anyone else can either confirm or deny it but i have heard this morning from a reliable source that the introduction of the new visa regulations has been delayed for an indefinite period”
Lucky for everyone it IS true, read the Qatar News Agency article here (Visa on arrival rule for 33 countries stays)
To be honest, Qatar’s a neutral country. Just because there are other countries in the Middle East that might seem to have a bad image, the west has grouped the whole region as a ‘threat’. The Qatari population is around 250,000, getting into Qatar isn’t the easiest of things to do, and obtaining a Qatari passport is near impossible, so I don’t see a major threat from Qatar at all.
Let’s all pray that it’ll be easier for Qataris to travel 
I hated the fact that I had to go through so much paper work with the Japanese embassy. I’d like to pay for a visa on arrival please!
I’m feeling proud today. Despite being sick with a fever and a soar throat, what happened today was great.
I was asked to speak at the ictQatar Business Connect seminar today at Al Sharq Village. http://www.ictqatar.qa/output/page977.asp however what I experienced today was something special. The conference halls were packed full of people. Who knew there would be so many people that would be interested on starting up online businesses?
I’m not going to act indifferent, (as some do to seem ‘cool’), since I was ‘stoked’ for lack of a better word. In the middle of my presentation, I had a standing applause, and by the end, I had swarms of people coming up to me, and various companies that all wanted to be a part of iLoveQatar.net
Long story short, it was just the type of moral support that I needed to rejuvenate my enthusiasm. Of course, I also appreciate the fact there are so many people online and in the Qatari community that support me on a daily basis!
I’ll be posting my presentation up soon for you to go ahead and read through at your leisure
update: as promised here’s the presentation and the presentation transcript.
I just thought that I’d share this URL with everyone http://www1.internationalliving.com/qofl2010/
Give it a peek. It’s the International Living standards database. They rate the final score based on cost of living, leisure & culture, economy, environment, freedom, health, infrastructure, risk &safety and climate.
Long story short: Qatar is ranked 130. A few countries that ranked HIGHER include, Nepal, Namibia, India, China, Ghana, and Vietnam.
Where Qatar’s rank was pulled down was in Climate, Infrastructure, and Freedom.
What do you all think? Should Qatar really be ranked that low. (I personally agree that the three they ranked low on were correct.)
I spoke at the IIC conference yesterday at Al Sharq Village and Spa. It felt good to be a part of a panel that had different topics to talk about. The beauty of it all though, we all flowed! Each presentation melded into the next. It’s quite luck to have that happen with 5 different presentations in a row.
I met up with some great people and we all shared our insights. Hope to meet them all again soon!
I just wanted to talk about something which doesn’t make sense to me. Qatar’s making some great strides towards getting rid of monopolies and improving the country through competition. One ‘exclusivity’ doesn’t make sense to me; QMedia. I’m not sure why they have the exclusivity / monopoly, I assume its because they were the first and only and there weren’t others that were keen on entering into such a business.
JCDecaux’s website says
q.media Decaux, a joint venture between JCDecaux and Qatar’s media market leader q.media, enjoys the exclusivity for the entire outdoor advertising network in Doha. q.media Decaux also manages exclusively the advertising on a fleet of 1,450 buses and 800 taxis in this capital city.
How can one company that has exclusivity to outdoor marketing possibly be good for businesses? I remember just being excited at the fact that I wanted to bring some new display technology to Qatar and just try and take advertising to the next level. I loved what I saw in Tokyo and Shanghai. When I went to the authorities, they simply said that I wasn’t allowed to start that business because QMedia had the only rights… I don’t get it… the country is encouraging it’s youth to try and start businesses but when they actually have an interest, we’re shown that we can’t do anything because of a monopoly. It’s sad… I wonder when this next hurdle will be passed in the progression of Qatar.
Looks like there’s a lot of interesting sites popping up on the net! I stumbled upon http://www.ruleoflaw.org.qa/
Not only is it quite attractive, but I think it’s a right step towards letting people know about what the laws are in Qatar. I’m a law graduate myself and I can definately say that finding out what the laws are in Qatar isn’t easy nor convenient. If only there could be an online legal database, that would be fantastic!
Oh my God… look at this horrendous article…
“The Indian population in Qatar has gone beyond 500,000. This was revealed by Deepa Gopalan Wadhwe, Indian Ambassador to Qatar at an event honouring a high level visiting Indian delegation, yesterday.
According to the latest figures from the Statistics Authority, the population of Qatar has reached 1,597,552 based on data collected on August 31, 2009.
This could meen that Indians represent almost half of the whole population in Qatar.”
Source: The Peninsula via (ILQ News)
I am CONVINCED that they did this on purpose just to test their reader-base and to see whether they are intelligent enough.
1) The writer spelled mean as MEEN.
2) How the hell does 500,000 equal HALF the population of Qatar when the population is 1,597,552…..? Hint= (500,000/1,597,552) * 100 = 31.2%
Either way though, half a million is A LOT!
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