I’m sure that this national day is going to be a big one! With us winnning the 2022 World Cup as hosts, Qatar will probably want to show how awesome it can be.
Be warned though, if you are anywhere near the corniche, you’ll be stuck for a good couple of hours as people drive down on packed lanes, dancing, cheering, and waving flags.

Usually the westbay area has huge led screens showing different shows and arab celebrities (for those stuck in traffic and unable to watch the show on tv), trees are lit up with in themed colors (last year was purple and yellow), signs drip with led lights, banners and flags are waved all over the place and people parading to enjoy the festivities.

Around 6pm is when you should get on the corniche. That’s where you can see the sound and light show and enjoy the fireworks display. If you are lucky, you’ll also be able to get a table at Al Mourjan and enjoy some delicious food, desert, and if you’re partial to it, have some sheesha.

It’s going to be cold as usual, so make sure you come wearing a jacket. Last year was so amazingly cold and since the corniche is by the sea, I can assure you that you’ll regret not bringing something warm to wear.

So if you’re looking for a great guide to the events around Qatar (not just the official ones), visit http://www.nationalday2010.com You’ll find a bit of information about the history of Qatar, various events, some downloads, and you’ll also find some funny videos made by Qatar’s first Qatari comedian (and ILQ Ambassador), Mohammed Kamal! Thanks to Vodafone for helping ILQ put all this together. (To other companies, if you’re willing to partner up with ILQ and help us do other awesome stuff, please drop me a line!!)

Don’t forget to sign up to the ILQ newsletter. Registration on the site!

I thought I’d make a list of tweeters to follow. Now this list is based on people’s tweets that I enjoy reading and I find useful. It’s important to follow people that you enjoy following and dont spam your feed with either garbage or repeat posts. I’m going to go ahead and divide them by category too.

People:

@expatcookie – Fun tweeter

@sknox40 – Fun tweeter

@qatarvisitor – Posts some great articles.

News:

@qatarnews - A news aggregator that collects news from many different sources on everything related to Qatar. Including The Pen, GT, Arabian Business, BBC, etc…

@dohanews – Not only does Dohanews post Qatar related news, but I enjoy reading interesting chit chat and its not all Press releases!

@peninsulaqatar – The Peninsula Newspaper’s twiter

Events:

@qatarevents – Your daily fix on events happening in Qatar

@qatarhappening - Qatar Happening magazine’s twitter feed. They cover a lot of dining events.

Qataris:

@hndqtr – Qatar’s first female Comedian

@nazqatar – Just enjoy reading his tweets from time to time

@osamaalassiry – A fellow Qatari geek

@iloveqatar – that’s me!

@nawafalthani – Always finding out some cool Qatar news from this guy

@roosnamla – A Qatari sports nut. He knows where the best sporting spots are

@ahmedalbaker – A Qatari movie producer that’s working on Qatar’s first 3D movie!

Misc:

@dohafilm – The Doha Film Institute’s twitter channel. DFI is the company responsible for the Tribeca Film Festival too.

@greatdohafind – The idea is that this person tweets ‘gems’ that he finds around Qatar.

Sorry if I’ve left you out. This is off the top of my head right now.

Want to get on the list? Leave a message in the comment section below!

Oh no he di’int. (Think of a woman named Laquisha saying that). I decided that since people seem to be under the impression that Qatari’s have a magical iPhone application that enables us to deport people with the touch of a button, then I might as well create a list of people that I wish I really could deport.

1) The guy in the right lane who decides to not just turn left at a round about, but also attempt a U-Turn. You know who you are Mr. crappy pick up truck or busted up Honda Civic.

2) The guy who says ‘next week’. You know the guy. He works in a small store, and when you walk in and ask if he’s got something, he says ‘Next week’, when he KNOWS he’s not getting them in next week. He just wants you to come by the store again. That’s like the equivelant of night clubs in the UK that build up a cue outside, even though nobody is inside!

3) Crappy customer care agents. Who promise to call you back soon and don’t. No I don’t mean they don’t call back soon. They never call back…. Never.

4) That guy who stares so hard that he either might have constipation OR thinks he’s superman and is trying to shoot lazer beams out of his eyes. Yeah Yeah, we live in a society where there is a 3/1 ratio of men to women, but common!! These dudes don’t just stare down women, they stare down everyone! I feel naked when they look at me

5) All those people who never smile or say thank you when you hold the door open for them. Although it was my life long dream to be a door opener, I never graduated from door opening school, so I never got the job… I open doors for free now. Well maybe not for free payment is a smile or thanks!

6) Lazy Traffic police. I think they didn’t get the memo. Traffic police aren’t supposed to CAUSE traffic. Why is that there’s always a super build up of traffic at a round about?

7) Roundabouts. While I’m dreaming. Let’s deport roundabouts. Bring over underpasses and bridges to keep traffic FLOWING.

Both insensitive and sensitive people when it comes to religion. Can’t handle people wearing a bikini at a beach? Don’t go to that beach. Think it’s funny that some people cover up a lot when they go to the beach? Then… *sighs*….

9) Guys with pointy shoes. You definately know who I’m talking about. They usually wear tight shirts, have greasy hair, and pointy shoes. Looking like you came straight out of Saturday Night Fever is NOT going to come back into fashion! Women like men that are clean and look fresh. Plus you might poke someone’s eye out with those shoes!

So who do YOU think should be deported?

Well we’re busy running around and creating a great events list. We’ll have a great little suprise for everyone soon.

More importantly, ILQ and Vodafone have teamed up for a fantastic event at Aspire park. There’ll also be details released very soon.

So get ready to have a fantastic National Day!

More here

UPDATE! This site is ready! It has a complete list of events for what’s happening, including ILQ and VF’s own event at Aspire! I’ll cover more of that tomorrow

Visit http://www.nationalday2009.com

Sometimes I get asked about what a good souvenir is to take back home, or what would be a good gift to give people that’s from Qatar, so now here’s a little list

Click here for Qatar Souvenir Ideas

You’d think that with all this talk of Qatarisation, things would be a bit easier.
We’re in the process of highering a secretary in the office (not ILQ but my day job office). So we started to search for Qatari secretaries.

We needed an Arabic and English speaker, we thought that we’d want to help Qataris searching for jobs, and that we’d be helping the system.

So we knew that the Ministry of Labour had a list of Qataris searching for jobs. We went to http://www.mlsa.gov.qa/Pages/default.aspx in order to get the number (side note, the English section is under construction and it’s probably going to remain that way for a couple of years).

How can the english side not be up yet? There should at least be a basic page so that foreigners can also search for Qataris to hire, especially if it’s a rule now.

You’ll finally get the following number 4841111. Give it a call. If you get an answer, you’ll win… win….. satisfaction. The type of satisfaction that comes with a hint of shock

We called for three days and nobody answered. How can we help Qataris if nobody answers? Why isn’t the database of employees searching for jobs accessible online?

So my colleague decides to head off to the Ministry and speak to someone. He meets someone in an office who promises to email us the list.

After receiving a list of graduates and non-graduates we go through it systematically.

I’ve now read every unusual (yes I heard some names I’ve never heard of before) name and heard every exception in the book.

- I want to wear the niqab in the office (against policy)
- I want my own office (you’re going to be a secretary..)
- I want a higher salary (do a good job first!)
- I don’t want to be in a mixed office (we live in a mixed world)
- I don’t like your company (fair enough… but if you’re on a government job site should you be so picky?)

The list goes on! We finally find TWO out of 100 people that seem suitable, ask for their cvs, they sound happy, and they send nothing…

As usual everything is messed up. From the institutions to the inviduals the institutions are trying to help.

side note: for those that can’t read the ‘about’ section or couldn’t have guessed by the title of the blog. I’m Qatari.