I went on down to the African Festival at Katara. It was a pretty fun event. I thought it would be nice to see what happened, what they were up to, and check out the entertainment. Don’t forget to Thumbs Up, Comment, and Subscribe 
Then I know if you’ve liked it! If you REALLY REALLY like it then please share it too! Take care all, Mr. Q (Your friendly neighbourhood Qatari)
This is a repost from last year’s blog with some updates.
Qatar is building on the number of events to celebrate National Day year on year. There are a number of huge milestones and events that have lead up to this as well. Qatar’s definitely in the spotlight thanks to mega event after event (World Cup, COP18, Arab Spring involvement, Katara expansions, etc… etc…) and Doha will continue to shine bright as long as changes keep happening.
Why are Qataris so proud? Well we haven’t had that much to be proud of for a long time. Our Emir has brought so much change and development to Qatar that it’s something to almost brag about. A typical Qatari will gladly sacrifice a lot for his country. The Emir has done so much to make our lives better, so why don’t we lift the burden off of his shoulders a bit and try to help?
So whether you’re Qatari, American, British, Indian, Philipino, Japanese, Korean, Lebanese, Pakistani, Chinese or any other nationality (let’s face it, Qatar is a melting pot of diversity), please celebrate National Day with us! Let happiness flow through you like a rush of energy. Think positive and have hope for a fantastic future. Think of each firework that goes off on December 18 as the sound of the country’s heartbeat. WE are Qatar.
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 about 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!
Of course don’t forget to check out www.qatarnationalday.qa for all events and great content.
Interested in sponsoring iLoveQatar.net or particular activities? Drop the team an email at contact@iloveqatar.net
That’s nice of Marhaba Magazine, they were very complimentary. If I was a blusher, I would have blushed 
You can read it here: The elusive Mr Q from iLoveQatar
Updated! Have you checked it out yet? No? Then check it out habayeb (that’s multiple of habeebee). http://www.youtube.com/iluvqatar
Since launching it, it’s reached almost 650,000 views, but the really cool thing is that we’re getting some awesome community submissions! I really do want to see more vloggers, animators, comedy, anything really, on YouTube. Here are a few of the latest submissions:
I thought it would ajeeb to share a visualization of ILQ on Facebook thanks to the awesome community that helps us grow.
Click on image to enlarge.
I thought I’d share three clips added to the ILQ YouTube channel.
iLoveQatar.net helped put together Qatar’s first ever comedy marathon and the crowd loved Qatari standup comedian Moh’d Fahad Kamal’s routines
I Cancel your Visa
Guys Kissing
No Speak English
It’s been an incredibly busy week. So what have I been up to the past weekend? Well I sponsored or partnered up with a number of events.
ILQ was a part of Think Pink (Walk for Life), Woofstock, QSports Leagues and Arab Games Basketball in the mall, ILQ women’s volleyball team entry to semi-finals, and a special Calvin Klein and ILQ joint event at Landmark.
Here are links to some pics if you’re interested!
Pics from CK Shock and ILQ special event
Pics from Think Pink Walk for Life
So what’s ILQ a part of and that’s coming up? You’ve got Beachfest, ASQAT Beach Clean Up, The Red Carpet 3 (with SISQO), Qatar Investors Window, The League of Extraordinary Comedians Vol. 5, Cool Runnings, and I’m sure there’s something I’ve forgotten.
I love have iLoveQatar has grown to becoming an integral part of helping to make Qatar a better place and a country that’s more vibrant and exciting
So although there’s no room for excuses, that’s why I’ve been silent from blogging for quite a while. There’s just quite a lot going on. All the while, I’ve been focusing on getting the NEW events section on ILQ ready. Still a way to go since I’m very picky about the design and user experience.
If you want to stay up to date with what’s happening, make sure to check out ILQ’s Events section, Qatar Events on Twitter, Qatar Events on Facebook, ILQ on Facebook, Sign up to the ILQ newsletter, or pick up a copy of Qatar Happening
So Dine Out Doha has been getting off to a great start and the reviews and comments are starting to come in! Exciting stuff!
If you haven’t been yet, click here for Dine Out Doha. Be sure to start rating, commenting, posting micro-reviews or even submitting your full fledged restaurant reviews too!
Now you’ll remember we launched what we called the Beta of I Love Qatar at http://beta.iloveqatar.net (it’s actually an alpha). We did something special which was taking the link live even though it was still being built! We did that so that people could watch the site come together! Now the great news is that we should be around 2 and half weeks away from completion!
What’s even more exciting is that we’re going to revealing the awesome new MyLife function as well as the new ILQ Originals which will host a great amount of original content too! We’ve got some great Qatari comics, Online videos, skits, and some stuff that’s under wraps for the moment too.
In the mean while, you can go ahead and sign in (or sign up) in the beta section of ILQ and play around by posting events in the new event section or even start posting in the new forums.
(Don’t worry, you won’t lose anything once we remove the ‘beta’ tag from it).
Anyway! That’s my update!
So one of ILQ’s forum users “Smoke” organized a nice little ‘Quiz night’ yesterday.
I thought I’d share a few photos of the crowd. People also won some nicely packed ILQ goodie bags!
Another very exciting milestone coming up, we’re about to hit 3,000 members of the ILQ Facebook group!
Help us get as many members as possible and more importantly, join a fantastic group where a fantastic community is brewing
Join our group now! Click here
update: 8/5/2010 – We’re now 3,010 members!
update: 23/5/2010 – Almost 3,510 members!
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