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:

Follow Maryam Al Naemi on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MBA_AlN3aimiFollow FilmForChange on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/filmforchange
Follow Alex on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/alexklimHave a great Qatari related video you want to share with everyone? Let us know! Just send an email to contact -at- iloveqatar.net

I’m really quite honored by the fact that Katara believe in ILQ’s vision. After sitting down with the President of Katara, Bassam and I explained that we needed so much more support than we currently have to be able to raise funds in order to redesign the website, create new functionality, support the community, AND help encourage the community to create their own original content. ILQ is backed by a fantastic community that volunteer for our events and donate their time to help us grow but now it’s time to rely on bigger organizations to take us to the next level.

Our current offices are on Salwa Road (second floor of King Koil) and we’re now moving into Katara! It feels right! Katara not only aims to be an international cultural hotspot, but it’s here to turn Qatar into a vibrant country with great events. I’ll keep you all posted once we finish off the office.

OH! If anyone knows a company that’s reasonable priced and can help us decorate our offices let me know! Not looking for anything extravagant, we just want the offices to look modern and well spaced.

Soon after the Big Day Out, we embarked on our next charitable project at ILQ. It was time to go ahead and show the country that gave us Land Cruisers that we appreciate them. Qatar without Land Cruisers just isn’t Qatar! We already did have a booth at the Big Day Out where we raised money for Japan (as well as gave out some awesome freebies like footballs with 2022 on them), but we wanted to do more. So we posted and tweeted that we’d be selling special t-shirts that were had writing in Japanese and Arabic. (I’ve never seen a t-shirt with those two languages before by the way). Our forum user, and the person in charge of the Japanese Society Qatar (JaSoQa), Daisy said that we should use the words Hope, Love, Brave, Happiness, and Peace. She even went as far as making sure that each color chosen was the right one.

 

 

Jim, one of the senior managers over at Landmark group went ahead and offered us space at Villaggio and Landmark (we are very thankful to them!) in order to sell the t-shirts; and it was with that we embarked on our mission. There were some fantastic people from ILQ and the Japanese community (thanks to Kasumi, Hiromi, Yoshiko, Joel and his friends, Kinimoto (who was dressed up as Naruto!), Ryan, Ellie, Joann, Zhan, Keiko and family, and Daisy) that manned the various booths.

So far, we’ve managed to raise over 16,000 QR selling the t-shirts and we’ve now been offered space at the Hyatt Plaza to do the same this Thursday and Friday as well. We’ll be giving the money to the Japanese embassy to do as they see fit.

I’d like to thank all of the kind souls out there that donated and helped us! I’m so very glad that everyone left feeling as if they had achieved something important with their time.

Now for my next ultimate challenge… find a someone to wash my car and guarantee it won’t rain the next day. Anyone?

To many people this is incredibly obvious, but alas, I’m always reminded of someone’s profile that I once read that said ‘Qatar – the land that logic forgot’.

It’s incredibly important to show some love back to the sponsors of events. If you’re an events organizer, showing them that they are important enough to be recognized, means that you’ve got a sponsor that will come back to you. If you’re someone who’s enjoying an event, recognizing the sponsor (or even using that sponsors services/products) means that they can afford to sponsor more events.

But who’s job is it to support sponsors of events? It’s everyones! Let’s say that Qatar Airways decided to go ahead and sponsor an event happening in New Year. Website’s (and magazines) that list the event, should ensure that sponsors logos are on materials (I’ve seen some places CUT OUT sponsor logos!). A lot of people complain that there aren’t enough events happening in Qatar (I’m sure that twitter.com/qatarevents would disagree), but rememember, if sponsors stop.. sponsoring.. events, then there’ll be less events. Less events means less content to cover. I mean, an events guide isn’t really useful when there’s nothing to cover right?

Now this is only my opinion so I hope that this won’t be a ‘I’m more of a fan than you are’ topic.

Let’s rewind a bit to the first match a couple of days ago between Qatar and Uzbekistan. Qatar was excited. The crowd was roaring. Flames spit out of the ground in Khalifa stadium and there was a fireworks display that looked to be MILES long and visible all the way from the Zig Zag towers.

People of all different nationalities in Qatar were all routing for Qatar.

The match starts.

The crowd is clapping, cheering, and drumming. For the first half, it’s just a giant party and it seems that the two countries are pretty event. However, GOAAAAL Uzbekistan scores against us. My heart sinks for a second. “It’s alright, there’s plenty of time left”, I tell myself. I pick up my phone to tweet “Don’t give up on Qatar yet!”. I noticed people tweeting that they are leaving. I look at the stadium seats and I see that sure enough, some people are leaving. “How can they leave at this time?” I think.

Sadly near the end, the Uzbeks score another goal. “It’s alright, 10 minutes left and it probably is enough for us to score one goal”, I hope. Looking at the crowd, I see event MORE empty seats. It’s a sad view.

5 minutes before the match and many have left. I start to thinking. How can a supporter or a true fan desert his team? You need to support your country in both the good times and the bad. I found myself empthazing with the team. Imagine.. the opposing team scoring a goal against you. You look up at the crowd only to see empty seats. People have given up on you. You feel deserted. All for what? To save time so that you don’t get stuck in a few minutes of traffic? What? So you you came for the fireworks and leave?

Someone actually said that it was embarassing. What’s embarassing is when you don’t have the courage to stand by the team you support. Reminds me of those people who always side with the winning team.

Let’s use the analogy of an army. Why fight for a people, who won’t be there for you when you need them the most. Why do some sports have cheerleaders? Qatar doesn’t have super sexy bikini clad babes on the side-lines with their pom poms cheering the team on. WE are the ones who are supposed to give our country support.

Qatar has given many people a better life, but more importantly it’s given everyone HOPE that this place will change everything in the region, the least you can do show some love

Oh and to everyone else, chillax, Qatar isn’t the only country in the world to have ever lost a match.

Good luck everyone! And no matter WHICH country you support, support them til the end.

Hey there all! I just thought I’d let people know of the many ways people can support ILQ!

1) Clicking on ads! Yep, the easiest way is to just click on banners! ILQ relies on sponsors, so if you click on banners then that helps us not only maintain the site but also generate funds to sponsor more events!

2) Spreading the word. Let people know about the fantastic community that iLoveQatar.net is.
People can make friends here, find answers on the forums, check out the classifieds, find out the latest events in Qatar, read up on Qatar related news, join one of the largest friend networks there is (Qfriends) and read up on a great guide!

3) Adding ILQ buttons in your signature! Create a button and add it onto your signature or blog! We’ve also made some buttons for you to use here http://www.iloveqatar.net/linkus.php

4) Share your articles and opinions. Why not write and share articles on ILQ’s forums. We’ll be launching a dedicated section out of the forums but until then, you can write reviews or even share some funny stories!

5) Link exchange. If you’ve got a site, ILQ would love to know about it. We don’t mind people linking to their sites on the forums (as long as they either link back or participate on ILQ).

6) Volunteering! We participate and sponsor loads of events in Qatar. It could be something charitable (like a red crescent event or doing something nice for the labourers) OR something more entertaining (like helping out at the David Guetta or Akon events). Yep not only are you helping out the community but you’re also

7) Updating the guide! If you spot something that isn’t right or something that should be added. Let us know! Drop us a line at contact@iloveqatar.net and we’ll get the guide updated.

8) Install the alexa toolbar from (http://www.alexa.com) and then set ILQ as your homepage. [www.iloveqatar.net]

Do you prefer setting google as your homepage? Here’s an ILQ version! http://www.iloveqatar.net/search

Want to set google as your homepage AND help the environment? Then set http://www.iloveqatar.net/search/black.html as your homepage.

Read this article http://blog.iloveqatar.net/2009/11/energy-efficient-google/ for how you’re helping the environment!

I’m sure you guys can come up with other ways of helping out! Whether it be partnering, sticking stickers around, or just helping out on the forums or our facebook group (which as of today has over 8,400 members!)

Oh! Don’t forget to ‘Like’ ILQ’s Fan page http://www.facebook.com/iloveqtr and Join the ILQ Facebook group! http://www.facebook.com/khalifas?v=wall&story_fbid=158935400797225&po=1#!/group.php?gid=36900681716