Sometimes it gets difficult following all these different sites. So to make life simpler for you Twitter users, all you need to do is follow one of these three twitter accounts that have been specially set up!
Looking for straight up ILQ stuff and some of my own tweets? Follow @iloveqatar
Looking for Qatar related news? Follow @qatarnews
Looking for the latest events in Qatar? Follow @qatarevents
Qatar Today, one of Qatar’s most widely circulated magazines, asked Bassam and I to do an interview with them and to pick our brains about why we think it’s so difficult for Start Ups and SMEs. Of course we don’t have the exact answers to those questions, but we definitely shared our own experiences.
Click here to read the article on ISSUU
But what about you guys out there? What are the difficulties you’re facing? Things have definitely got to change if Qatar wants to be a business friendly hub.
I thought that some people may find it interesting to know what goes on in Eid with my family.
The children wake up early in the morning. Excited. Playing. Waiting for the day to start. It’s Eid! The adults lay slumbering in their beds and wake up around 8-9 am (after waking up in the early morning for prayers and going to bed). After a hearty breakfast which consists of eggs, olives, honey, cream cheese, bread, and tea, it’s off for a quick shower and everyone puts on their brand new clothes that were specifically bought for Eid.
Eid is about celebration and about looking your best for your family as well.
It’s off to prayer before heading off to Baba Oad’s (Grand Father) house. All of the 50-60 cousins, 6 aunts and 6 uncles (as well as a huge amount of indirect relatives) arrive. The women go off to the sitting room, the men go off to their sitting room, and the children run around the house.
The general banter is usually along the lines of, “When are you getting married?”, “Why haven’t you been visiting more often?”, “Are you working hard?”, and “What have you been doing these days?”.
Children will come around and ask for Eidiya. This could be anything from 1 QR to 10 QR (more if you really like them 
) and then go out to ‘Ayid’ to the neighbours by singing songs and getting a few riyals in return. It’s our form of ‘caroling’.
When the children get back, they sit around and count their new found fortunes and plan what they’re going to buy.
Soon enough, it’s time for the feast. We all sit around the floor and dig into a selected slaughter. It sounds kind of cruel to some, but it’s an animal that is killed the Halal way (the most humane method possible where the animal feels no pain). Rice, drinks, lamb or sheep and chit chat.
After washing our hands, we then return the sitting rooms where we have a nice cup of tea (mint, red, or saffron), and relax.
The adults then slowly each return to their homes or go off to make their rounds to other close friends and relatives and wish them a prosperous future. Kil sina wa inta tayeb or kil am wa int ibkhair (every year and you are fine) is repeated from individual to individual.
What we did was head off to a coffee shop where myself and cousins chatted about memories and teased each other.
Eid. An Arabian ‘Christmas’. (or at least as important to us as Christmas.)
Update: This is just my personal experience. Also read ‘We’re not the Borg!‘
This is a repost of ‘A Qatari’s Eid’ from 2008.
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Here’s a nice example of a positive experience from a company in Qatar. While driving back from a very poor experience at a restaurant (which will soon be reviewed at Dine out Doha), I had passed by a building that was right opposite of Blue Saloon and next to Regency Travel, it stood out because it looked modern, had some colorful lights on it and Rogers Diner grabbed my attention.
I drive up to the car park and parked round back. The good news is that they’ve got underground parking by the way! I know! I was pleasantly surprised myself. Walking into Patchi (a chocolate gift shop), I walked through a marble doorway and the first thing I see in front of me is this huge wall of colorfully wrapped chocolates. First impressions? This feels more like Japan than Qatar. Great to see someone stepping up standards.
A man came up to me and offered me some arabic coffee. To my right was the their silver-ware and glass ornaments, and to my left was special packaging for children and special occasions. Near the center were individual peices of chocolate on glass pedistal.
The general manager came up to me and Read the rest of this entry »
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 I asked a simple question on twitter yesterday. I asked people to name ONE place that stands out in their minds where they got great customer services in Qatar. Some interesting results. Some I didn’t expect myself. Without further adue I present all the responses! (In no particular order!)
Nissan – Infiniti division – @iknw101
TableArts – @Shanti_eka
Grandhyatt – @haniarif
The Ritz – @bradycreel
Ritz @expatcookie
FFC @vanish_forever
Sushi Minto @jmugford
Vodafone Landmark – @_maricala
Khan Farooq – @theesal
VLCC @cameliacesin
GlowSalonDoha – @jodygryan
WafiGourmet – @halawala
Café Tasse – @abuarja7
W Doha – @MaryH_K
Jumbo – @rainydoha
BMW – @shivasingh
W Doha – @sweetymathewB
Yoko Sizzlers – @Qatarday
Carluccios – @dohaben
Woqod near the Mall – @jibbersindoha
I thought I might shed some light as to what’s the ‘norm’ when it comes to buying a property and what to do after hand-over.
I’ve recently had the delightful news of having the keys being handed over to me at the Porto Arabia project at The Pearl. I have to admit that I was SHOCKED at the fact that I could hardly find any issues to raise before agreeing to sign the handover form. I’m serious… I did find that one of the sockets was slightly wonky and a bit of paint on one of the tiles but that was it.
For a moment I had thought, wow… they’ve really stepped up their game (side note: different properties have different developers by the way). I was sadly disappointed though when I received an email from the Pearl telling me that I had to sign a document that agreed to The Pearl Owners corporation to maintain the building. It also included ‘community rules’, insurance, and so on. (Wait a minute… I didn’t agree to any community rules… the tenants association should be the ones putting this together in the first place).
Now what annoyed me was how the letter started in explaining that they are appointed by the pearl. As if it’s a done deal. Wait a minute.. we don’t have a choice here? That means they could turn around at any time and say 1 million riyal service charge please.
In this case it had also said that I needed to pay 12,000 in maintanence fees for the year. (It’s a 1 bedroom apartment).
I didn’t hesitate in picking up the phone and contacting one of the property managers at The Pearl to ask about what was going on.
I first started off the phone call by saying that I was surprised by an email I got but before explaining what the email contained, I wanted to know if what I was about to explain was the norm and if the manager agreed with me.
Usually once an apartment is handed over, the developers maintain the property for the period of one year. This is to ensure that any issues with the building, common areas, and so on are taken care of (as it’s part of the snagging process). When reaching the end of the year, a tenants association is put together and they represent the tenants in the building. The tenants association is supposed to take tenders from different management companies and then select the one that would be the best to manage the property on behalf of the tenants.
Usually for at least three months, a maintenance fee is NOT paid. This is because tenants should not have to pay to repair a brand new building. I should also get a copy of what they propose, rules, how they calculate the charges etc..
The manager agreed. I then explained the contents of the email and what I was being asked to sign. He promised to look into this and get back to me.
Now once I hear back, I’ll post an update to this post so check back for more and in the mean-time, I recommend that you do NOT sign any documents committing to anything after hand-over.
I really do hope this isn’t a case of ‘Buy an apartment from the pearl, be forced to pay a company appointed by the pearl, pay whatever fees the pearl wants, and live by the pearl’s rules as well’.
Not really worth the price of sacrificing freedom in my opinion. This would be another example for why not to buy in Qatar at the moment if this is true… (I really do hope I’m wrong!)
Check out my interview with Doha Luxury 
http://www.dohaluxury.com/qatarportraits/khalifa-saleh-haroon/
Time to edify! People are probably wondering, “where’s the next rant or humorous misadventure?”, well I’m here to say that this latest blog is all about fun again and making a difference in the world! The guys over at Global DJs contacted iLoveQatar with a simple thought, “How can we do something that will be fun, engaging and memorable?” We brainstormed a bit and we discussed wanting to be as inclusive as possible.
We didn’t want this to be ‘one-type-of-person-type-of-party’; and so the Big Day Out was born. A two day festival (14th for all ages and 15th for 21+) and bands from the US, UK, Romania, Jamaica, Qatar, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Philippines and more would be coming. Awesome, so we’ve got all age groups and different nationalities, what next? How long should the event be per day? All day if we can! (15th is from 2pm to 2am). That way we can make sure that everyone can come on down any time of day. Next? Types of acts! We’ve got some current celebrities, some amazing blasts from the pasts, fast rising stars, and local acts. SWEEET, so we’ve got different types of acts but what big bands do we bring over? And so, as if SNL had inspired us a few weeks earlier, we signed up Hoobastank. Next? It’s becoming hot now and Qatar’s got a great deal of something it’s called SUNSHINE (You probably thought that I was going to say Cruisers or Sand, but sadly there’s no famous song for that), so we signed up Aswad and made sure that they were going to perform their smash hit ‘Shine’. Now we need to make sure that people dance until the moon comes out, you know it, we’ve got TopLoader signed too. The list goes on. 16 bands long actually! Click here for the full line up.
You can find some information here www.iloveqatar.net/bigdayout
Just to add more on that, this is Qatar’s first music festival, we’ve created a festival that mirrors Qatari society. Qatar is a great country that is a melting pot for all nationalities to come, live, and even help build this country. We wanted the festival to reflect the many different nationalities in Qatar.
At the event there will also be competitions to win prizes such as iPods, iPhones and Blackberries. Vodafone will also be giving away free sim cards with credit to people who come to the event! A chance for people to maybe call their friends and let them hear what’s happening at The Big Day Out! We haven’t even touched on the ILQ freebies too! On the 14th it’s going to be focused on families where there will be fun, games, face painting, food, toys, gifts, and of course various entertainment.
Since we want to make a difference, all profit and proceeds that are collected by iLoveQatar.net will be donated to the earthquake victims in Japan in Qatar’s name. We’ll be selling these AWESOME Japanese designed shirts for around 40 QR (I think).
We are also giving people the chance to become a star! People just need to record a video of themselves singing a song or doing something entertaining, upload the video to youtube and send the link to contact@iloveqatar.net
The rule is that people have to start the video by saying “Hi my name is _________ and this is for The Big Day Out“.
The best ones will be shown on the GIANT screen on stage. Who knows, since there will be so many bands and singers, there could be a chance that they are selected by the band managers and be the next celebrity.
Finally we’re going to be auctioning off FIVE t-shirts with all the different bands signatures on it. The money we get will be given to charitable causes as well.
iLoveQatar.net has become a brand and we’re still committed to our core vision; to making Qatar a better place. This time we’re helping to put on the Big Day Out to make everyone in Qatar feel at home and welcome in Qatar.
OH! And since you’ve got to the end of the blog post, here’s a nice little competition so that you can WIN tickets to the event (we’re giving away 10!). Click here.
For those who don’t know what the Doha Twestival is, have you been living under a rock? It’s only one of the world’s biggest festivals that happens in multiple countries around the world!
This year it’s happening at Aspire Park (from 6pm – 9pm) and organized by Qtel Virgin Mobile and sponsored by Aspire Zone, Al Saad Rentacar, QatarHappening, and all proceeds going to Reach Out to Asia.
Tickets cost 25QR per person (or 40QR for a family). So not only are you coming on down for a day of fun but by buying a ticket, your money goes to charity too! You’ll get to enjoy music, traditional dancing, some stand up comedy, and there will ALSO be auctions for Sixth Senses massages, Glow manicures and event tickets to iLoveQatar and GlobalDJ’s Big Day Out!
Anyway, if you need more convincing, click here. Hope to see you at the event tweeting away! Don’t forget to say hi to people from iLoveQatar (ILQ). We’re not sponsoring the event but we’re definitely supporting it
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