It’s time to bust a few myths. I’m so sick and tired of expats assuming that qataris are all rich clones.

Few things I always hear, “oh but Qataris get so many benefits”, or “qataris have super high salaries”.

Where do people get these facts? Did they just see a couple of Al Fardans or Al Thanis and assume that we are all of the same economical background?

40% of Qataris can be considered to be in extreme debt. This means that 70%+ of your salary goes towards repaying loans. Why do they have loans? 1) because they try to keep up the image of being as rich as the 5% of the actually rich population. Or 2) they don’t really have the salaries that expats think.

Graduates start off with a salary of 15k depending on the job. Those without a degree have salaries as low as 5k.
15k sounds pretty good right? Well then you haven’t lived in Qatar. Half your salary goes straight to accommodation, a huge amount to support family, another huge amount to bills (qtel comes to mind as a wallet sucker) and the list goes on.

Oh but what about the land? Free utilities? The salary you get from the government? You get the land after you graduate and get a degree. You are placed on a waiting list. You can’t choose where the land is. You can’t build and sell the property because its not yours until they say it is, yep the government can take it away.

Utilities? I get free water and electricity (capped) once I get married. If I’m single then no. How much do I save? Nothing because I’m not married yet and pay bills, but once I do, I’ll save 300 qr.

Free salary???? Are people insane? No Qatari gets a free salary, unless they’re from the royal family or something. We have a pensions system though just like the UK or US.

What about the education system, its so cheap for qataris! When I was in UK my tuition cost 10k and i’m talking pounds! British students paid 1,300. Countries took care of their citizens. I got that.

What about the almost free medical system? Guess what! Mexico has a better health care system than the US and medicine is dirt cheap too!

Let’s put this all together now.
Ok I graduated and got a job. Let’s say that its 18k a month. I live in my family’s house to save some cash. I decide to get married finally. I go to my love’s family and I’m asked where I’m going to house her. Oh… Um well Ill get an apartment. It’s not the norm but lets say they agree. I put her in a fully furnished apartment in ZigZag which costs 8k. Alright got 10k left. Now I have to give my wife her monthly salary. It’s 2k. Ok got 8k left. Now it’s time to pay bills. Phone, Internet, petrol, installments for a car, and a bit here and there. Let’s assume it’s 4k. Ok I have 4k left to cover groceries, home insurance, some entertainment, general shopping, etc…

Do you see where I’m going here? In this scenario, life is pretty ok isn’t it? But have I demonstrated that I’m a rich Qatari? It’s all relative. (I’m still quite a lucky person in life to be born a Qatari of course. Something I definitely appreciate).

Seems to me that people should be going back to their awesome democratic countries and demand more from their governments than getting all anal about how ‘great’ a Qataris life is.

So at the end of the day, separate fact from fiction. I’m off to bed under my silk sheets. Oh! Need to brush my teeth with my diamond encrusted toothbrush first.. almost forgot.

Night night.

If there’s one Arabic country that I have to choose as a country which I respect, it’s Bahrain. I love that country and its people. Quite recently it was ranked internationally as the world’s most friendliest country. I definately agree.

Put simply, if someone were to ask me why I love Bahrain, my list would be a page long. However in the interest of not boring you to death, I’ll list what makes them a great nation and a reason for why they turned out quite different from Qataris.

1) Bahrainis run their own country. No this isn’t a locals vs. expats comment. I feel that if all the expats left Bahrain, they’d be able to survive. You see Bahrainis working as taxi drivers, throughout the business hierarchical chain, and at your local cold store. There’s isn’t an exclusive dependancy on foreigners. Lets face it. If the expats dropped everything and moved out of Qatar, things would pretty much come to a stand-still.

2) Bahrainis work hard and they don’t act like anything is beneath them. You see them working at petrol stations or as security guards in the malls. This touches upon point one, but the reason for their motivation is because they’re hard workers. It’s obvious to me that the government recognizes this because Bahrainis are considered the ‘Golden Expat’ by Qatari companies. (The fact that they’re from the GCC, similar values to Qataris, and are hard workers).

3) They’re incredibly smart. The average Bahraini is very intelligent. They definitely have the entrepreneurial spirit. It all comes down to their education. Qatar only quite recently started putting an emphasis on education with, well… , with Education City. There’s been major changes in the government schooling as well, however Bahrain has a 20 year lead. One of the reasons why I moved to Qatar was because my family wanted a better education for me. I studied at a private school and ended up with an I.B. Diploma.

So why are they like this? They’re poorer. Seems a bit simplistic doesn’t it? Hear me out. As Qataris, we’re given quite a lot of opportunity. I’m priveledged and I’m trying to make the most of the fortunauate position that God put me in. However it seems that people have grown up where they think that government support (in its current form) is their ‘right’. Many people became too rich, too fast, and they forgot about the basics. The basics of raising their own kids, the basics of Islam (peace, respects and tolerance), and probably more importantly, they forgot how hard it was for Qataris two generations ago and aren’t greatful for that. This mentality has spread across to even the poorer Qataris.

If you’re the government of a poorer nation, you have to become more business centric. That’s why the market is open for advertisers (street ads) in Bahrain and we’ve got one company (QMedia) that has an unexplainable monopoly.

4) They don’t receive as much in terms of state support. The cost of living is lower and salaries are lower. So Bahrainis compete. They are forced to survive on their intellect. They are forced to be reasonable. They are forced to be more down to earth.

5) They’re forward thinkers. Their mentality is quite different. Their more open to the idea of being progressive. Qataris are getting there. My friends and the younger generation of Qataris are all working so very hard to prove that we’re not the lazy stereotype that people imagine.

Bahrain isn’t the best country in the world. They’ve got issues. Qatar also has some major pluses too! (The support for media freedom, a progressive Emir,  our strong Shaikha Moza, and of course, the fact that its a country that has so much opportunity come to mind). I just feel that I wish we learned a bit more from Bahrainis, thats all.

You want an ideal Arabic nation? Qatar’s wealth, opportunity, and leadership + Bahrainis mentality + Kuwait’s business focus + Emirates marketing team = the country I wish I could create.

Qatar’s still got a great shot at being something amazing! That’s why I (heart) Qatar Can’t wait for the bridge to be built. Lets see if they rub off on us.

I was being driven to my home by Dr. A, yes yes, Mr. Q and Dr. A, Questions and Answers, Qatari and…. Axpat… ok that doesn’t work; and was marveling at the huge sky scrapers in westbay and wondering when they’d start building a bit out of westbay and into other areas when I suddenly started to think about what we don’t see.

Qatar is indeed a land of variety. You get a variety of nationalities, ages, religions, and classes. On one end of Doha, you’ll find broken up roads with holes large enough for the ozone to fall in to; on the other end, you’ll find luxury apartments, amazing roads with greenery and trees, and shopping malls underneath towering cranes. Alright, you’ll find this everywhere, however what makes this food for thought is that this isn’t caused by natural evolution.

Laziness from people who can make a difference causes lack of maintanence and degradation. Rich tyrants use labourers as slaves to make them richer. Authorities are complacent about enforcing some of the more basic but fundamental laws.

I was thinking about the labour camps of Doha. I visit a couple of the hidden ones behind high walls. I felt as if I was walking into a prison yard. One of my most prominent memories was when ILQ participated in aiding the fire victims. We walked into the camp and looked around to see faces emerge from the tiny streets, from their windowless windows and from behind scraps of metal. They all looked at us as if we had found them in one of those huge shipping containers you see on tv when the smuggle Mexicans or Chinese in the US.

How difficult or costly would it be to set up a microvillage made OUT of those shipping containers? Steel costs too much? Fine, how about using those temporary office spaces as accommodation? They’ll last! You want them to take care of it? Here’s a plan, how about giving them a little speech telling them how they need to take care of the home they live in. How about giving them some basic farming tools and tell them that a bonus will be given to the best garden in their unit? See how productive thinking works?

Forget the expensive Barwa project, this environmentally friendly and quick alternative could create an amazing labour village. The difference? It could be finished in months.

It’s all about education. Educate the public as well as the labourers. They’re smart enough to build a skyscraper, I’m sure they’ll be smart enough to start a productive community.