I was pleased when Abode magazine contacted me because they wanted to hear what my views were on blogging and the blogosphere in Qatar. All I had really done was share my view (in English) so that people can read up on what one Qatari thinks.

Has this blog inspired you to become more vocal? Start up your own blog! Sign up to WordPress or Iktib.com !

Still prefer reading? Then pick up a copy of Abode magazine at a nearby store!

So what’s new? Somewhere on the exponentially growing world wide web, a site has pissed off someone. Also not suprising, there’s a rude post on QatarLiving.

I first saw this on the front page of The Peninsula:

“Disparaging remarks about National Day celebrations on a popular local website have upset many in the local community, says a young national.
Some remarks against the festivities and the people of Qatar as well as Asian expatriates were in bad taste and smack of racism, said Mohamed Al Jufairi, a civil engineer.

“We are quite upset and writing to some major corporations which advertise on this website to withdraw their patronage,” he told this newspaper in a brief interview yesterday.”

Looking on Twitter, I’d estimate that I’d had around 70% against QL and 30% for QL. I jumped onto a couple of other sites to see what people had to say. Global Voices wrote a great article on this http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/12/21/qatar-critiques-bristle-calls-to-shut-down-popular-online-forum/

What’s my opinion on this? My opinion varies. With QL it’s a love/hate relationship. I’m 100% for freedom of speech and tolerance. Having said that, people should be educated enough to share their opinions in a proper manner to encourage debate. I’m usually on their forums trying to provide a different perspective on things, and I can honestly say that there are many threads which infuriate me; I won’t go into detail as that’s not the purpose.

The thread itself made it seem like Qataris were animals on National day and I agree with a lot of other people’s retorts. In Brazil you have topless celebrations, in Spain you have that Bull race and tomato fight, in San Francisco you have MardiGras, and the list goes on! National Day in Qatar is a day where people let go and had fun; Qatar doesn’t have very many celebrations for everyone (don’t forget we only got National Day 2 years ago!). Yes it’s true that there were some people taking it to the extremes and I also didn’t like the fact that I saw some children hanging off the edge of a cruiser at high speeds, but to make it seem like all Qataris were like that is wrong.

QL, like ILQ, is the gateway to Qatar for many expats, so as ‘ambassadors’, (I think that word is suitable), the way we go about conveying a message is important.

“I hate you”. <— that’s an example of flame bait

“I disagree with what you’ve said because I think that ….” <— That encourage debate.

A lot of people have said “Look, the thread is deleted now”. I’m sorry but personally, I think that it’s a bit too late. You can’t delete a thread just because it’s now getting negative attention. You either stick by what you’ve done, or you should have moderated it ages ago.

So what’s my wish? That QL gets proper moderation and works with other sites to help support alternative views. It’s not about ‘who’s site is bigger’ or ‘who causes the most controversy’, it’s about creating a network of views. What users need to remember is that people are free, they’re free to bookmark a million sites related to Qatar, and it’s up to people to know when to use proper judgement.

Sorry but I just had to mention this. This is an example of an article written the “WRONG WAY”. This one comes from The Peninsula.

Source

Villa Gutted

Inmates of a villa in Al Hilal area had a providential escape as the part of a building gutted in fire due to a suspected short circuit, yesterday. It was a narrow escape for more than 20 resident living in the two storied villa.

Residents have noticed smoke emanating from a room in the second floor of the building at 7.00am and alerted the Police and fire fighters.

“Fire broke in side a room and smoke started spreading all over the villa around 7 in the morning. Every one was panicked and we quickly got out of the building,” said a resident.

“Fire fighters rushed to the spot which brought the fire under control within an hour and investigations have commenced,” he added. Extensive damages are caused in a room in the villa which has 10 rooms.

1) Title leads reader to believe that the villa was ransacked
2) Inmates? The article should elaborate or else the wrong word was chosen. I do understand how some people feel they’re prisoners in their own home though
3) Fire’s cannot ‘gut’. Gut means ripped apart. The correct title should be Villa Fire-Gutted (IMO)
4) Grammar of first sentence is appalling
5) 2 story villa not storied. (I was corrected. Thank you adey.)
6) 20 residents not resident
7) Residents noticed
“On the second floor” not” in the second floor”
9) The final quote from a resident is too formal which means that either the resident is an official (which I doubt) or the quote was made up (tut tut).
10) Tense changes throughout the whole article.
11) The final sentence should have been included in the first paragraph.
12) Police capitalised but fire fighters not.

So my dear friends, that’s an example of a poor article. I don’t understand how that one got past the editor…

Note: I am not simply ranting, I personally know the editor. She’s fantastic and is working amazingly hard to improve the newspaper. I believe that it’s essential for people to highlight flaws and mistakes so that they can be improved just as some users on this blog are doing! It’s the only way we can learn. I’m also not a journalist myself, just a normal reader.