A New Way to Keep Up With Qatar News

Qatar is hitting the headlines at the moment.

Qatar is supporting the rebels in Libya, but the government in Bahrain. Al Jazeera has been challenged in it role of supporting freedom in the Middle East (and its assertions of editorial independence) after also supporting the Bahrain government, and Qatar jets could soon be in action over Libya.

It's not something we have covered on QatarVisitor.com, as some time ago we decided to focus on being a travel guide. So I am really glad that the excellent people from DohaNews, who supply us with a constant stream of both news and astute and funny comments on Twitter, have set up a new site focussed purely on Qatar and Qatar related news.

Check it out here: Doha News.

They have also promised to furnish us with their top stories every month, which we'll be adding to our monthly newsletter.

On a side note, I have been talking to the editor of our sister site in Japan. (Everyone involved in the site is fine, although a bit shaken up!) They have been covering the news there, and you check out their posts on the Japan Visitor blog or see this video by one of their bloggers: Tokyo Earthquake Trashed my Apartment.

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Peninsula Article Sparks Row Over Electronic Cigarettes

A recent article by the Peninsula on the Electronic Cigarette has sparked a row between Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and an Electronic Cigarette Company. It all started when the Peninsula claimed that the electronic cigarette contained 40 times as much nicotine as a regular cigarette.

E Cigarette Direct, who advertise with Qatar Visitor, wrote an open letter of protest to the Peninsula, arguing that, based on available research, the claim was false:

"Even the highest level of nicotine (31.5 micrograms per puff) [found by the FDA commissioned report] is lower than that of regular cigarettes."

ASH wrote a response to what it called a "nasty letter" by E Cigarette Direct, and alleged that the letter could not be trusted because the writer had no medical background.

"We are aware of a so-called "open letter" written to you by the managing director of an e-cigarette company which, especially because it is written by an entity with an obvious financial interest in the topic, and someone who apparently has no scientific or medical training, may not reveal all relevant information."

It then went on to suggest that the research that had been conducted into the electronic cigarette, and which suggests the electronic cigarette is safer than conventional cigarettes, had been compromised.

E Cigarette Direct then went to on to challenge ASH via a press release entitled: E Cigarette Challenge ASH to Respond to Issues.

In the press release as well as a supporting article on the website they alleged ASH had ignored the issues raised by the Peninsula Article: - whether electronic cigarettes do not contain more nicotine than cigarettes, and whether electronic cigarettes are safer than regular cigarettes. They went on to state:

"We believe, quite simply, that ASH did not deal with the issues we raised simply because there is no logical response to be raised. We challenge Ash to deal directly with the points mentioned."

ASH has yet to respond to the latest press release, but we will update you here when they do!

Related links: The Smokers Angel

BBC Qatar Article

Katy Adler visits Doha in a recent BBC news article on Qatar, but fails to get under the skin of the country.

In many respects she has the same experience as many expatriates here - the people she meets, apart from in an official capacity, are not Qatari.

Yet Qataris, when you meet them, are generally friendly people when approached, and while Qatar has its faults hospitality to guests is not one of them.

I have received numerous invitations to go on desert trips, camping, fishing and have visited houses several times.

Yousara Adelaal, in an article for us about Qatari men made a similar point, arguing that Qatari men only seem to be unaproachable, and that it is well worth breaking down that barrier. 

The BBC article did make some good points too. 

Its interesting that everyone clams up when freedom of the press is mentioned, although it's a shame they didn't mention the Doha Press Freedom Center, and the big row it is currently involved in over  local press freedom. 

However, I was very suprised at the mention of state hangings. 

Although officially legal, there has been a effective moritorium on executions for years, with the current Emir commuting all death sentences passed in the country. 

Cloud Computing in Qatar

As Yahoo shuts down its own contribution to office on the web, Yahoo briefcase, three of Qatar's universities announce a initiative to develop cloud computing on the web. 

Cloud Computing

Image by Michael Marlett

For the non-techies amongst us cloud computing refers to the ability to complete tasks and store information on the web. 

If security can be guaranteed the advantages are huge. 

When a laptop is stolen or a hard drive fails a user can just get on another computer - any computer - access "the cloud" and continue as before. 

It also means one does not have to lug around laptops or sensitive data - instead users can have different computers in different locations without having to worry about transferring data - a boon if a person works partly in the office and partly at home.

It is also great for collaboration - as we have found with writers in Qatar, an editor in Japan and a programmer in India. 

One document can be uploaded to the cloud - we use Google Docs - and then shared with other parties, who can then edit or annotate the original document. 

The Players

Image above by Mansika

Yahoo's briefcase was one of the forerunners of cloud computing, but has been taken over by over services.

As Yahoo! pointed out, other services like Flickr - offering online photo storage - are also examples of cloud computing. 

(Indeed, images used in this blog post are those stored by users on Flickr and licensed under Creative Commons.)

In many ways Google is leading the race (though it lags in photo storage) with Google Apps, a paid service for offices, Google Docs and Google Video and You Tube. 

Meanwhile Amazon Web Service are providing extremely cost effective services for web developers - a move which has been extremely popular, with over 300,000 developers using the service by 2007. 

Qatar's Contribution

Now Qatar is getting in on the act with the Qatar Cloud Computing Initiative. 

Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar, Qatar University and Texas A&M University are collaborating with IBM both develop cloud computing and to build a cloud computing network which will allow Qatar based organisations to test applications on the net. 

Further steps may see the Qatar Science and Technology park integrating its resources with the project. 

Embracing ICT

Qatar can put some European countries to shame with its recent efforts to embrace IT.

We were very impressed when Hukoomi was launched, and even more so when North Western University demonstrated a program that could go out on the net, collect the most important news stories of the dayand turn it into a news broadcast read by an online bot - all without the intervention of a person. 

The launch of a Qatar based Science and Technology park will hopefully maintain the pace of development of technology in Qatar.

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Editor of the Peninsula Leaves

In what is a bad day for Qatar news - but a very good day for the Gulf Times - Rachel, the editor of the Peninsula, is leaving the paper.

Under Rachel, the only female editor in the GCC region, the Peninsula newspaper, which had always been in second place to the Gulf Times, rose to match the Gulf Times in terms of quality if not in circulation.

A new front cover, an improved TV guide and quality international business news provided by the Financial Times, not to mention a policy of including those sections of the population who had felt neglected by the media, all helped to raise circulation by 20% in just twelve months.

Rachel has also shown more internet savviness than most, reaching out to readers on Qatar Living and Facebook as well as providing a daily news round up via the Doha Daily newsletter.

We wish her the best of luck in her next position!

Standard of Living in Qatar

The standard of living in Qatar is improving - but what about the cost of living?

According to the latest Human Development Report, reported today in the Gulf Times, the standard of living in Qatar improved slightly between 2005 and 2006. 

Acording to the report, although Qatar is one of the richest countries in the world it only ranks 34th in the standard of living index. The result may be surprisingly low given its wealth and huge natural resources, and below the rank given to its neighbours, the UAE and Bahrain, but is still one better than last year. 

The study looks beyond factors such as GDP  to include factors such as life expectancy, literacy and education to provide a more complete picture of country's development. 

If GDP alone were included Qatar would rank far higher - the GDP per person was nearly $73,000 compared to just 27,664 the year before. 

It is likely that GDP has also increased substantially since 2006 - but then so has the time spent waiting in traffic. It is perhaps ironic that as the spending power of some of Qatari's residents has increased (labourers continue to earn a fraction of what they would in the West) the time they have to enjoy that wealth has decreased. 

Also unmentioned in the Gulf Times report was the several years of high inflation suffered by Qatar. In addition, with the global economy suffering, wages seem to have been put on freeze, so even with the reduced rate of inflation now predicted (estimated to be around 10%) many people in Qatar are likely to see a decrease in real wages over the next year. 

Movie: Human Development Report: 2007

Al Jazeera Hits the News

We have long been a fan of Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera has annoyed the Americans and the Brits in the past, so much so that it was rumoured that the two allies were thinking of bombing their strongest Arab allies' news channel.

However, the fact that Al Jazeera has been thrown out of almost every country in the Gulf (Israel, surprisingly, is one of the few that has not expelled them at some point or other,) and that they have received threatening mail from Al Qaeda suggests that they have annoyed almost everyone at some point or other.

Which is what a good news channel should do.

Al Jazeera does something that has not been done by a news channel before. It gives the Arab people a voice. And recently it has hit the news itself for its reporting of the harrowing conflict in Gaza, with feature articles in the International Herald Tribune amongst others.

It has done so not only for its reporting of the news, but for the way it is reporting it.

One of Al Jazeera's problems is not getting the news - it has 6 reporters in Gaza, and is the only major network represented there - but getting it out to an international English audience.

For while their Arabic audience is huge, in America their audience is tiny - and at times deliberately blocked.

As a result the channel has turned to social networking to get their results across.

Internet users can follow Al Jazeera's updates on Twitter, and their You Tube channel has received over two and a half million views.

Their viral efforts may have been helped by the fact that they have a Qatar blogger, Mohammed Nanabhay, co-leading a digital leap team.

It may well take a blogger to understand the communicative and viral potential of the internet.

And with six out of ten youngsters in America now getting their news from the internet, that potential is huge.

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NYT Condescending View of Arab Women

The New York times is running an article on how Arab Women are Making Progress ... by becoming stewardesses:

Marwa Abdel Aziz Fathi giggled self-consciously as she looked down at the new wing-shaped brooch on the left breast pocket of her crisp gray uniform

I'm a little confused as to why an article on the progress Arab women are making has to focus on flight attendents! Not intending any offence to flight attendents, but the achievements of Arab women in recent years have been much broader than this. 

As one of the comments on the story said:

Wonderful. We're bringing our sexist roles to the Arab world. The Washington Post just ran a story celebrating the first Baghdad beauty contest. Bring on the freedom, bring on the sexism!

It is, to be sure, a great stride forward that women are respected enough to hold jobs; unfortunately, it seems like those things being rewarded in our elitist papers are those things that are from a more sexist American past: beauty contests and female flight attendants.

I've just done a quick ask around of my colleagues to ask them what jobs they knew Arab women were doing in Qatar, and they came up with the following:

• Nurses
  
• Bank Staff
  
• Pharmacists
  
• Heads of Schools
  
• Teachers
  
• Special needs teachers
  
• Director of a Further Education College
  
• Business Women and Entreupeneurs
  
• Minister of Education

I think it is true that opportunities are still more limited for women in Qatar. Some women told me that a man leaving school in Qatar could be assured of a 20,000/month job, whereas a women with a degree was more likely to get a QAR7000/month job.

They also complained that they were likely to end up in empty jobs - i.e. a company where they were just employed to fill the Qatari company.

And that's if they are allowed to work - a women needs the permission of the male members of her family before she can start work.

Nevertheless, there are still plenty of women achieving in almost all areas of life - and in Qatar law women are only prohibited from taking jobs with hazardous duties. 

So it's just a shame that New York Times has to focus on giggling young girls as evidence for the growing freedom of Arab Women... 

Also see: 

Working Women and Discrimination in Qatar

Working Women in Qatar

Qatar Jobs

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Qatar GDP: Soaring or Falling?

"Qatar's GDP to Soar 10% Depite Turmoil" said the Gulf Times today, quoting Samba Financial Group.

Or is it?

The statement ignores inflation, which is currently around 15%. If inflation does not fall, real growth would be around 5%.

Inflation is, in fact, projected to fall to 9%. If it does so, the growth would be around 1%, less than both the current 10% projected by Samba Group and the original 19.6% forecast for this year.

However, as the article points out, Qatar does seem to have an advantage in its reserves of Natural Gas.

Natural Gas projects are still coming on line, which should help maintain revenue growth even with falling prices.

Many Natural Gas projects are also sold on long term contracts, which will hopefully provide a more stable source of revenue than fluctuating oil prices.

Also see: Qatar Business

Qatar Kissing Makes the News

It's some time ago since we reported the story of a married couple landing in trouble after a public kiss.

Things only got worse for the Arab couple, who are from Lebanon, when a Qatar court refused to accept their marriage.

These two were sensible enough to do their kissing outside Qatar.

Image by Patries 71.

A Problem of Faith

The sticky point for the court was the interfaith issue. While it is usually acceptable for a Muslim man to marry a Christian woman, the opposite is not the case.

The assumption is that the offspring of a family will follow their father in religion. It is just not acceptable in Islam for the children of a Muslim to become a Christian.

Still, the judgement raised a stir in the community - if one marriage certificate is not accepted, can any truly be judged to be safe?

Spreading Story

Now the story has reached America, being reported in the Los Angeles Times blog.

According to the blog, the offending action of the man was not a kiss, but to place his hand on his wife's shoulder.

The police simply said that the couple was found in a compromising position.

The penalty? A year in jail. Although, fortunately enough for the couple, they had fled the country before the penalty had been passed.

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Qatar Tribune Online - How Does it Rate?

The Qatar Tribune has finally launched its website:


The website, while not exactly cutting edge design, is more attractive than either the Gulf Times or the Peninsula. The Gulf Times' unattractive new design looks a mess on Firefox, while the Peninsula seems stuck in the 90's, and also has problems with Firefox.

Web Standards

The website looks clean. Unfortunately, it is breaking current web standards. (So does Qatar Visitor, actually - we'll be addressing those in our redesign next year!)

For example, the pictures have no alternative text - meaning search engines can not identify the pictures and that the image will confuse text browers.

Headlines for the Web

Will the papers writers and editors make any compensations to the web? As This Boring Headline is Written for Google explains, writing headlines for readers and for writers are too different things.

Above, for example, we have written Qatar Tribune Online - How Does it Rate? rather than How Does The New Qatar Tribune Website Rate? The most important keywords - Qatar and Tribune - are placed at the beginning of the headline to make it easy for Google to identify the topic.

Early headlines are not great: Five Steps to N-free World is not going to make it easy for search engines to identify the topic. Nuclear Free World in Five Steps would have been better!

Writing for the Web

Web users are in a hurry. It is also harder to take in information from the screen than from papers.

That's why web paragraphs are short.

The long, paragraph free blocks of text on the front page do not bode well for today's impatient web reader.

Navigation

Navigation could be better. I would say that both the Gulf Times and The Peninsula, with their sidebar navigation menus, have a superior navigation.

There are too few stories on the front page, and too much information for each story. It is easier to click through to a story than it is to turn a page - and harder to flick through a website looking for things of interest.

And there is no search box - many internet users are still not aware of the site search function on Google, and so will not be able to find what they want.

Conclusion

The Tribune is a new company in a declining industry trying to make headway against more established papers. This was an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage against two newspapers which haven't got great websites.

What the Peninsula and The Gulf times have got, however, is an established presence and thousands of backlinks. With a poor navigation system, The Tribune will struggle to compete.

Qatar Newspapers: Which is the Best?

Qatar Writers - Free Service

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Domestic Workers

Qataris were up in arms yesterday after a proposal by the government to limit household to a maximum of two domestic workers, according to a story in the Peninsula.

As Qataris themselves point out, not every Qatari is rich. But with salaries of domestic workers starting at just QAR600 ($165 or GBP100) almost every Qatari family can and does have domestic workers.

To Westerners, coming from a culture where only the super rich can afford domestic workers, this may seem spoilt. However, many families could just not manage without help. An increasing number of Qatari women work nowadays, and with both parents in work by seven, even the school run becomes unfeasible without help.

Add to this the fact that large families are the norm, with familes often having six children or more, and you can see why Qataris become anxious at the thought of losing domestic help.

An additional proposal is for employment agencies to provide domestic workers on an hourly or daily basis. This might have the additional benefit of reducing abuse of domestic workers, with employment agencies able - and hopefully required - to monitor the workers. It could also reduce the large amount of runaways, many of whom then take on illegal work, but who get trapped in the country, unable to leave without first being taken into detention.

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Qatar News Update

In Qatar there always seems to be lots of things happening or none at all. Today seems to be one of the days when there are lots of things happening, both in the news and with what's on.

First there is the suprising statement by the Undersecretary of Business and Trade for Qatar that inflation doesn't matter if growth is high.

... if inflation stands at 12 percent and growth at 25 percent it is better than countries with two percent growth and one percent inflation.

Tell that to the parent trying to bring up a family of four on a salary that hasn't changed for three years! What he means, of course, is that growth is great if you are owning the companies that are experiencing the growth, especially if you have managed to keep down salaries. It is not so great if food prices are doubling and your income is remaining the same!

A particularly shocking story that hit the papers today is that of a marriage certificate rejected by the Qatar authorities. The poor couple in question got legally married in their own country but the courts are refusing to accept their certificate, presumably because it is a mixed marriage - a Chritian man with a Muslim woman. (The opposite is more acceptable.) While the circumstances are proably fairly rare, it has to be worrying for all of us expats when documents such as marriage certificates which have been legally issued in our home countries are not accepted in Qatar.

On a pleasanter note, there will be an exhibition of Orientalist paintings by the Mathaf Gallery from London in Souq Waqif art center. The exhibition will feature paintings by Arabic artists Ahmed Moustaffa as well as a number of Arabic scenes by Western artists.

A New City for Qatar

As the world economy is rocked by the credit crunch and property markets in America and the UK collapse, Barwa property announce they are going to build a new city.

The QAR36 billion (or nearly 10 billion us dollars) project could be seen as either brave or foolish - time will tell which - although in all probability planning for the project began well before the present unfavourable economic conditions.

The project, which is being built to house 63,000 visitors and is located at Al Khor, will cover 5.5 million square metres of land and will contain shopping malls, souqs, leisure facilities, open gardens, a 13-storey business hotel and a golf course.

The eco friendly city, designed by Canadian architect Cansult Maunsell, will be named Urjuan. It's an appropriate name, for it refers to the purple die used by kings and emporers in the past - a die that was manufactured in an island of Al Khor, as the thousands of shells belonging to the sea snails crushed in the process can testify.

Since 2004 non-Qataris have been able to buy property in Qatar in certain designated areas. Normally this only includes long term leases, although we have been assured that investors can buy property outright in the Pearl. See Qatar Property for more information.

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Hala Card Changes

Qtel is planning major changes to its hala card services, according to its press release in Zawya.com. Well, they call them enhancements, but we will reserve judgement until we have seen them. (Or at least until we know they don't involve a price rise!)

For anyone who is new to Qatar, Hala Cards are a very easy and convenient way of charging your phone with credit. You simply buy a card in the denomination you want (QAR30, 50 or a 100), scratch off the foil at the back and enter the number into your phone.

I have always wondered what happens if the number doesn't work, but it has never happened to me nor have I ever heard of it happening.

When something does work I always worry when there are plans to "energise" the service - energise being Qtel's words and not mine. Still, maybe I am being cynical, and the service will in someway be better. One improvement I can think of would be to make it easy to top up the phone online or by texting - or from abroad when your validity is about to run out!

Also see: Qatar Mobile Phones

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Fines for Wasting Water and Electricity

Washing your car in the car park outside your home? Forgot to turn the lights off before leaving for work? Under new laws in Qatar you can be fined over two and a half thousand dollars.

Under new laws it has been made illegal to use drinking water to clean cars outside homes or to use it for cleaning areas in front of buildings. Henceforth, the dreaded Doha dust can only be cleaned in designated car cleaning areas.

What's more, homeowners who forget to turn off exterior lights between seven am and four pm could also be fined, as could those who fail to deal with leaking pipes.

Before complaining, it might be worth remembering that we do live in a desert, and most of our water does not come from the sky!

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No bad smelling men please

The Gulf Times leads today with the continuing story of labourers barred from Malls.

The latest mall to ban single men has been the Hyatt Plaza.

We have noticed before, when in the Hyatt Plaza, that there have been a number of labourers, presumably as fall out from Villagio, which has closed its doors to them on their single day of leisure.

Now this remaining oasis of Air Conditioning and shopping has been closed to the men, although Hyatt Plaza has promised to be more flexible than Villagio, only turning away "bad-smelling, poorly-dressed adult men."

Presumably, only security guards with a good sense of fashion will be allowed on the front door. Even then, they will be forced to sniff every man coming through the door before the man will be allowed entrance.

No mention was made regarding badly dressed and smelly women.

One comment regarding this issue was left on our City Center review.

The man leaving the comment was understandably irked that he could not enter the City Center shopping mall. However, his comment may not be agreeable to either women or the libertarians amongst us, his solution being that all unaccompaied women stay at home to make way for the men.

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Diabetes

"Ramadam Kareem," shouted the KFC posters across Doha during the month long fast, before advising potential punters to break their fast with a bucket of fried chicken in the American fast food chain.

Other fast food chains followed suit. The Corniche, much to the ire of local residents, may have been devoid of decorations during the Holy Month, but McDonald's looked superb.

So many Muslims broke their fast not as Mohammed did, with a little water and a few dates - which contain numerous minerals which help the body to replace those lost during fasting - but with American fast food. Sometimes, the only difference between the food in America in Qatar is that the American version is healthier, as we noted in Krispy Kreme invades Qatar.

Of course, locals do have a sweet tooth. One Arab friend brings food so sweet when she comes to dinner that I can barely eat the mandatory one. Mandatory- because it is of course rude to refuse. At other times when I have been to friends' houses there has been nothing that has not been sweet.

And then there is the climate. In the hard times of old, there was no alternative but to work hard, in the sea or in the desert, whatever the heat. In easier times, the harsh climate is not conducive to either work - especially when Asian labourers can be hired for pennies - or for exercise.

Which is perhaps why the tragedy of diabetes is striking Qatar - not just adults, but children, some of whom are younger than five years old.

According to the Peninsula newspaper, a shocking 28.2% of children under the age of five have got diabetes. This was an increase from an already high proportion of 13.7% in 1997.

Educating the public is hard, takes years, and often seems to have little or no discernable effect. However, the Qatar government has already spent years and lots of money trying to persuade the public to take up sport. Let's hope they also educate the public about diet. It may be a difficult task, but the consequence of failure is the short and blighted future of its children.

Image by wer33y

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Labourers Whipped and Kicked by Police

According to a story in the Gulf Times this morning labourers were beaten with whips and kicked by police yesterday to prevent them entering a souq. It has been common to deny labourers and bachelors entrance to souqs and malls in Qatar, with the distincton often being made on race - a Western man, for example, will have no problem entering Villagio, whereas an Asian man is likely to be denied entrance. Only yesterday Villagio told the Peninsula newspaper that they didn't want bachelors because they didn't spend enough. Qatar's badly paid labourers are often also poorly treated, with numerous men having to share a single room for living accommodation. However, this is the first time that a newspaper has reported Qatar's labourer's being beaten by police.

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Mobile phones, Inflation and Press Freedom

There are a number of interesting stories in the rounds today.

Vodafone have gained the fixed line licence after winning the mobile licence several months ago. No-one seems to be very surprised, and in contrast to the first round only two companies actually bothered to bid against them. The company got the licence for a song too - they only paid QAR 10 million for the fixed licence, as opposed to QAR7.72 billion for the mobile licence.

Surprisingly, Qtel do not seem to be too concerned - I hear from a friend that works there that the employees are more concerned with their inter-departmental football matches.

Vodaphone, in the meantime, might do best financing their operations by borrowing in riyals. Despite the fall in the value of the dollar, which has been labelled by us as well as others as one of the main causes of rising prices, inflation has continued to grow and now stands at an incredible 16.59 percent. See Arabian Business for the full story.

Those thinking of coming to Qatar on a contract might do well to check if their salary is indexed linked, and start asking hard questions about what price rises they might have if any - the salary/bonus at the end of contract could be worth a lot less than it is at the start. Especially if the Qatar Central Bank continues to play with price control measures instead of doing what they need to do - raise interest rates.

Finally there is the opening of the Doha Medium Freedom Centre, which will be building a monument to journalists. Things have already been busy with Qatar flying women journalists from abroad after they have been threatened. Ironically, since the opening of the Centre has been announced several journalists have been taken to court for the stories they have written.

This included one journalist, sentenced to jail in absentia, for defamation of Hamad hospital. The journalist covered the story of a patient who had "come back to life" at Hamad hospital after being declared dead. The sentence was despite the fact that the woman who had supposedly fabricated the story had obtained documents, photographs and a taped recording of the man.

Still, I am sure all these journalists will feel happier when they can see the centre's monument. Hopefully, it will be in view of Doha's prison!

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