One of things that I’m very passionate about is taking care of the environment. Did you know that Qatar was the first country in the region to sign the Kyoto protocol? It’s a great step towards reducing our carbon footprint.

It takes very little for us to do our bit to take care of the environment!

Did you know that a white page takes around 72 watts to display? (of course if you’re using an LED backlit screen then you’re saving much more energy). I found out about this by Blackle, but since I set my homepage to my own custom page I thought I’d do the same!

So to do my part, I’ve gone and created an energy efficient Google page. You can find it by going to http://www.iloveqatar.net/search/black.html (I’ll be adding Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, QMail, and a few other quick links to it soon)

Yep, it’s just Google with a black background. It also comes with a nice light up ILQ heart.

So go ahead and set it as your homepage and save some precious juice!

Oh my God I can’t believe this! I just called the Gharaffa branch which is around 10-15 minutes drive from the Zig Zag tower. So I had to cycle through FOUR different employees of the branch trying to find out if they know where ANYTHING is in Qatar!

Do you know the Zig Zag tower?
No sir
Do you know the Intercontinental Hotel?
No sir
Do you know the Grand Hyatt?
No sir
Do you know the Ritz?
No sir
Do you know the Pearl Island?
No sir
Do you know the Golf Club?
No sir
Do you know Westbay?!
No sir
DO YOU KNOW QATAR?!

I’m sure you can tell that I got very frustrated!

So where DO you deliver? What is your radius?
Only anywhere 6 minutes away sir

What the hell?! What delivery service only delivers 6 minutes away?! Dominos is a joke. If Dominos sponsor knew about this, he’d go crazy knowing that his employees reject business they shouldn’t be rejecting!

A lot of people have asked me about celebrities in Qatar. Who are they, what do they look like, who are the famous people from qatar, etc..? So I thought I’d share a few of them since you’ve probably seen them around but didn’t realize it. I’ve listed four that came to my mind first. Actors, Martial Artists, Singers, and Sports Icons.

Adel Al Ansari – Model/Actor
http://www.adelalansari.com
You probably know this guy from the Asian Games! He’s the actor that was one of the stars for the intros and endings of the days. He’s gone on to do plays, shows, and commercials in Qatar including being QNB’s ‘ambassador’ for 2 years.

Ali Abdul Sattar – Singer
http://www.tulumba.com/mmTULUMBA/Images/MUAR000743_250.jpg
Ali started singing for fun. Some said that it was hard to get him to shut up when he was younger. Ali has become one of the regions well known Khaliji singers pretty fast!

Nada Zeidan – Nurse/Archer/Rally Driver
http://www.nadazeidan.com/
Yep an odd combination! Nada started off as a nurse but soon found that she had an affinity for Rally driving. She actually won the Middle East Rally Championships (Women’s cup) three times (Dubai, Syria, and Lebanon). She also found a passion for Archery and is the regions top female Archer!e

Ahmad Al-Sulaiti – Actor/Martial Artist
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1219198/aukmen_ahmad_al_sulaiti/

Ahmad Al-Sulaiti started at Qatar Petroleum believe it or not! However behind that front-desk smile was a martial artist of 20 years! Quite recently, he starred in a movie called Aukmen (which is based on his story). It was also filmed in Thailand and showcased a new Qatari talent to the world! He’s also the cousin of a friend of mine

I don’t understand something with the Doha Tribecca Film Festival. If they’re trying to promote it in the country and someone adds a video on vimeo (uneditted, unchanged, and links to the DTFF) in order to promote the event and to promote Qatar, then why would you want it to be removed?

I’m sorry but I’m trying to make sense of this… because it’s personally beneficial to me if someone did it for a video of ILQ.

I picked up an iPhone 3GS from Vodafone yesterday. I just had to grab one since I loved my iPhone 3G but I needed something a bit faster. However that’s not the only feature I was looking forward to. Oelephobic screens are supposed to be the rage because you have a lower chance of leaving fingerprints and wiping off oil is easier. Am I feeling it? I don’t know… I mean all new phones are pretty easy to wipe clean at first, it’s after you get that super thin layer of oil (doesn’t sound nice huh?) that wiping it becomes an issue.

So far it feels pretty smooth to touch though and I am noticing that I’m not leaving fingerprints on it as much. I just wish they covered the WHOLE phone with that special coating that’s scared of oil.

Original post by Paperboy

If you didn’t get a chance, go to http://www.dohatribecafilm.com/

This is a very huge deal! Not only will it be hosted in the Qatar Islamic Museum with its cool Babylonian theme, but it will have a beautiful skyline and celebrities in the forefront!

Who’s excited?

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s Ramadan 2009! As usual there’s a great list that’s constantly being updated to let you know about the Ramadan events! Why not head over to a tent and enjoy the Qatar Tent Events! Yes! I’ll call this…. *updates title* Tents and Events!

Click here to go to Qatar Ramadan Event Guide 2009

More than 80% expatriate employees said they were happy they had come to Qatar, according to a jobs and employment survey released yesterday.

Commissioned by tourist and residents’ website qatarvisitor.com and community portal iloveqatar.net (ILQ), the survey aimed to assess both how people found work here and how that work had changed their lives, an official said.

While 87.6% employees approved the relocation to the peninsula, more than 30% said they found work via the Internet.

On the Internet, 16.1% found jobs via job sites, 7.2% through jobs advertised directly on employers’ websites and 7.2% by uploading their resumes to websites.
Recruitment agencies accounted for a further 16.6% of positions found.

“More than a quarter of those who found work in Qatar via agencies claimed they had been illegally charged by those head-hunters,” the official said.

To the question on why people made the move to Qatar, almost half of those surveyed attributed money as the main motivating factor, while another sizeable proportion (of 28.1%) sought work in Qatar in order to experience a new culture.
A small percentage (5.3%) said they were “looking for adventure”.

About 57.2% of those surveyed had a graduate or post-graduate degree, while only 1.8% of respondents claimed no qualification at all.

Another finding showed that the majority of employees coming to Qatar experienced a sharp increase in their salary with the proportion of those earning $1,000-$2,000 a month (before relocating to Qatar) going up from 13.7% to 25.7%, while the proportion of those earning $2,001-$4,000 a month more than doubling from 12.4% to 25.7%.
The survey questioned more than 220 employees working in Qatar.

Qatar Visitor editor Philip Beech said: “We hope that the results of this survey will help give our users an idea of how to look for work in Qatar, the likelihood of finding work and also what to expect when they get here.”

“The majority of our users actually come to qatarvisitor.com looking for work,” Beech added.
ILQ official Khalifa Saleh Haroon said: “The results clearly show that there is increased usage of online portals by those seeking jobs in the Middle East. It’s undoubtedly going to increase in popularity in the future.

“Unfortunately, the results also show that there is a greater need for the regulation of employment agencies,” Saleh added.

http://gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=309920&version=1&template_id=36&parent_id=16

Qatar Visitor is doing a competition that I thought was quite nice. It encourages people to whip out the camera and share what they see through their eyes. Why not go and enter it and besides the prizes, you’ll get your work published in the Gulf Times

Head on over to http://www.qatarcomp.com

A lot of people have asked me how to increase ranking of their site so that they in turn can get more visitors. The simple answer? Content. The realistic answer? It’s temporary. Unless….. Read the rest of this entry »