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“

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

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!