Settled in Doha
My day just got umpteen million times better. I found my top-secret essential-to-my-survival notebook. I lose it about once a month and I despair unnecessarily until it shows up in an unexpected but perfectly logical place. This time it was in one of my suitcases that I threw stuff in as I moved into my apartment. Hooray or was it Gossam? I can’t believe I forgot the superior Hooray synonym already.
Well to the point. I am in Doha, set up and ready to go. I am extremely relieved to be here, well anywhere really, that I can safely call my home for the foreseeable future. For most of the last nine or ten months I have been bouncing between Houston, Doha, and Lagos, and that was getting a little stressful. So how is it? Awesome.
I arrived on Monday night and pretty much threw my stuff down in my temporary apartment and tried to stay awake long enough to get a decent nights rest. My permanent apartment on the 19th floor of the cool tower was not supposed to be ready for a few weeks, but they had both an unexpected vacancy on the 9th floor of the other tower, so I ended up moving into my permanent place the next day. This place is huge… I am not good with square feet, but I would guess it is about 1500 square feet at least. It is fully furnished (and stocked with food) which is good because my stuff would have fit in maybe one room and would have made it look crappy in the process. If anyone comes to visit Doha, you will have plenty of room.
So Wednesday was the Qatar Culture Awareness, which was actually very informative despite my four months of exposure to this country. We learned that politics is still very tribal and that the Emir is chosen partly on ability and partly on political appeasement. The current Emir had an interesting history with his half-brother because everyone figured the brother was the most qualified and the obvious choice. But I guess the powers that be wanted a more neutral candidate. The Emir is married to two cousins and a non-relative, the latter has borne the Heir Apparent (the successor). We were given all kinds of other tidbits of info, and frankly, a lot of it ground against our socialization as Westerners. In the discussion on labor rights, our presenter simply said: “Here we do not believe in unions, or the rights of workers. Or for their ability to make demands or strike or force higher wages, it is just taboo.” On citizenship: “I have lived here my entire life, but because my parents were not born in Qatar and of Qatari heritage, I cannot be a citizen. I have to renew my work permit just like anyone of you.” On rules: “There are the rules but there are also exceptions. You know its who you know, so yes, mentioning a name or making a few phone calls can get you around many things here. Its not that the rules are broken, we just understand different circumstances.” And on women rights: “It’s really just a pride thing, nothing against the women. Men here just want to feel like they are the head of the household and that they make the decisions.” On this last one, I would like to point out that Qatar is making huge leaps in the area of women rights. One example is in the Sheikha Mozha who is a spokesperson for the country around the world, but another is in their version of a parliament or congress. He told the story of four years ago, women were allowed to run for the first time. Three chose to do so. By the day of the election, two succumbed to the pressure, and pulled their name from the ballot. The third stuck in, and received one vote, her own. Fast forward four years to the latest election, and not only did more women run, but three won. This is even more astounding when you consider that it’s a 40 person cabinet. I know it’s not perfect, but I think they are on the right path. It is interesting though that Qatari men are given very valuable parcels of land and a salary from the state (assuming they are from a recognized family) and a women has to either marry (which is typically arranged) or she has to petition the state for funds if she remains single, which the state is happy to oblige.
Other interesting stuff is that they are completely tax free in this country, loans are extremely cheap (4.25 percent no matter who you are and credit cards are like 8 percent), and the population has doubled over the last couple of years. Also, the PGA tour golf course that they have uses 10% of the countries water supply. Talk about a status symbol.
After the class, I went car shopping, and have pretty much settled on a new 4-Door Jeep Wrangler. Gas is like 30 cents, you need a SUV to go in the desert or to get through some of the more dodgy streets, and the to survive the driving here you need something to intimidate others with.
Today I took a tour of Doha for half the day, but declined the full thing because my boss was asking me if I ever planned on coming in to work. I did get driven around the golf course, and it is was no surprise that this thing consumes as much water as it does. It was by far the nicest golf course I have ever been on and it had better be if its on the PGA tour. My only beef with it was how unnatural the whole thing was. The landscape was at war with this monstrosity, and nature was losing. The desert wins at the fringes, but this country is so rich that it can afford the million dollar a month (guess) water bill that is required to keep it going. On a side note, the head groundskeeper is a black man which was neat.
My group had a honorary lunch for one of our employees at the Four Seasons hotel, and afterwards I did my first bit of work since I got in town. After work I was able to go out with a young Qatari guy that joined the team. He invited me out to a football game with some other guys and I showed that Americans know how to play. I don’t mean to brag, but I was pretty awesome out there scoring like 6 or seven goals, and this was in tennis shoes. Unfortunately, next time I play, they will be expecting the same performance. That brings me to tonight, and I am simply going to clean up my place and hit the sack to sleep off the last of this jetlag. I plan on writing again now that I am settled, so look out for more.
P.S. Today on the way to the soccer game I drove behind a Rolls Royce Phantom ($400K+), an Aston Martin DB9 ($150K+), and a Lamborghini Gallardo ($150K+). In another display of Qatari wealth. The same guy I played soccer with took me to lunch with his friend one day. This kid had a Cartier wrist watch, a pen with diamonds running down the clip, and drove us in a Porsche Cayenne Turbo. I say kid because he was like 22 and had been out of university for maybe three months. He did explain that it was his uncles Porsche, and that he was borrowing it until his car gets in. I asked him what kind, and he said, “oh another Porsche Cayenne”. Seeing my incredulous look, he explained “Its not the Turbo version, just the GTS.” Money like Arabs.
Well to the point. I am in Doha, set up and ready to go. I am extremely relieved to be here, well anywhere really, that I can safely call my home for the foreseeable future. For most of the last nine or ten months I have been bouncing between Houston, Doha, and Lagos, and that was getting a little stressful. So how is it? Awesome.
I arrived on Monday night and pretty much threw my stuff down in my temporary apartment and tried to stay awake long enough to get a decent nights rest. My permanent apartment on the 19th floor of the cool tower was not supposed to be ready for a few weeks, but they had both an unexpected vacancy on the 9th floor of the other tower, so I ended up moving into my permanent place the next day. This place is huge… I am not good with square feet, but I would guess it is about 1500 square feet at least. It is fully furnished (and stocked with food) which is good because my stuff would have fit in maybe one room and would have made it look crappy in the process. If anyone comes to visit Doha, you will have plenty of room.
So Wednesday was the Qatar Culture Awareness, which was actually very informative despite my four months of exposure to this country. We learned that politics is still very tribal and that the Emir is chosen partly on ability and partly on political appeasement. The current Emir had an interesting history with his half-brother because everyone figured the brother was the most qualified and the obvious choice. But I guess the powers that be wanted a more neutral candidate. The Emir is married to two cousins and a non-relative, the latter has borne the Heir Apparent (the successor). We were given all kinds of other tidbits of info, and frankly, a lot of it ground against our socialization as Westerners. In the discussion on labor rights, our presenter simply said: “Here we do not believe in unions, or the rights of workers. Or for their ability to make demands or strike or force higher wages, it is just taboo.” On citizenship: “I have lived here my entire life, but because my parents were not born in Qatar and of Qatari heritage, I cannot be a citizen. I have to renew my work permit just like anyone of you.” On rules: “There are the rules but there are also exceptions. You know its who you know, so yes, mentioning a name or making a few phone calls can get you around many things here. Its not that the rules are broken, we just understand different circumstances.” And on women rights: “It’s really just a pride thing, nothing against the women. Men here just want to feel like they are the head of the household and that they make the decisions.” On this last one, I would like to point out that Qatar is making huge leaps in the area of women rights. One example is in the Sheikha Mozha who is a spokesperson for the country around the world, but another is in their version of a parliament or congress. He told the story of four years ago, women were allowed to run for the first time. Three chose to do so. By the day of the election, two succumbed to the pressure, and pulled their name from the ballot. The third stuck in, and received one vote, her own. Fast forward four years to the latest election, and not only did more women run, but three won. This is even more astounding when you consider that it’s a 40 person cabinet. I know it’s not perfect, but I think they are on the right path. It is interesting though that Qatari men are given very valuable parcels of land and a salary from the state (assuming they are from a recognized family) and a women has to either marry (which is typically arranged) or she has to petition the state for funds if she remains single, which the state is happy to oblige.
Other interesting stuff is that they are completely tax free in this country, loans are extremely cheap (4.25 percent no matter who you are and credit cards are like 8 percent), and the population has doubled over the last couple of years. Also, the PGA tour golf course that they have uses 10% of the countries water supply. Talk about a status symbol.
After the class, I went car shopping, and have pretty much settled on a new 4-Door Jeep Wrangler. Gas is like 30 cents, you need a SUV to go in the desert or to get through some of the more dodgy streets, and the to survive the driving here you need something to intimidate others with.
Today I took a tour of Doha for half the day, but declined the full thing because my boss was asking me if I ever planned on coming in to work. I did get driven around the golf course, and it is was no surprise that this thing consumes as much water as it does. It was by far the nicest golf course I have ever been on and it had better be if its on the PGA tour. My only beef with it was how unnatural the whole thing was. The landscape was at war with this monstrosity, and nature was losing. The desert wins at the fringes, but this country is so rich that it can afford the million dollar a month (guess) water bill that is required to keep it going. On a side note, the head groundskeeper is a black man which was neat.
My group had a honorary lunch for one of our employees at the Four Seasons hotel, and afterwards I did my first bit of work since I got in town. After work I was able to go out with a young Qatari guy that joined the team. He invited me out to a football game with some other guys and I showed that Americans know how to play. I don’t mean to brag, but I was pretty awesome out there scoring like 6 or seven goals, and this was in tennis shoes. Unfortunately, next time I play, they will be expecting the same performance. That brings me to tonight, and I am simply going to clean up my place and hit the sack to sleep off the last of this jetlag. I plan on writing again now that I am settled, so look out for more.
P.S. Today on the way to the soccer game I drove behind a Rolls Royce Phantom ($400K+), an Aston Martin DB9 ($150K+), and a Lamborghini Gallardo ($150K+). In another display of Qatari wealth. The same guy I played soccer with took me to lunch with his friend one day. This kid had a Cartier wrist watch, a pen with diamonds running down the clip, and drove us in a Porsche Cayenne Turbo. I say kid because he was like 22 and had been out of university for maybe three months. He did explain that it was his uncles Porsche, and that he was borrowing it until his car gets in. I asked him what kind, and he said, “oh another Porsche Cayenne”. Seeing my incredulous look, he explained “Its not the Turbo version, just the GTS.” Money like Arabs.
posted by Anthony Jackson at 12:11 PM
1 Comments:
Goosby, Anthony. Goosby. And you will have your own Porsche Cayenne soon enough. Keep stacking those little green pieces of paper. I'll talk to you soon.
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