Mark in Arabia: September 2013

It’s been six months since my last blog entry, so I’m way overdue to add something fresh. This entry will jump around a bit to cover some of the topics I’m often asked about.

Where I live

This is my apartment building in the West Bay section of Doha, the capital. About 90% of Qatar’s population lives in greater Doha. I live on the 24^th floor in a good-sized 2-bedroom apartment. It also includes a “maid’s quarters”, a miniscule bedroom with its own bath. Doha has a tremendous amount of construction going on. There are 7 high-rises going up within one block of me.

This is the view from my apartment. You can see the Persian Gulf through the high-rises. Keep going maybe 100 miles and you’ll be in Iran.

Weather

Let’s just say nobody comes to Qatar for the summer weather. Good days are 105+ and low humidity, bad days are 100+ and high humidity. The humidity varies depending on the wind direction – if from the east it comes from India and their monsoon season, and if from the west it comes from very dry and dusty Saudi Arabia. And it only cools to 90 or so at night. When I arrived in February it was quite nice, only in the 80’s and very dry, so I’m looking forward to November. And rain? I saw a little in May, but otherwise it’s been dry as a bone. Qatar will host the soccer World Cup in the summer of 2022, and they’re building air-conditioned stadiums for the games.

Qatar’s ethnic make-up

Only about 1 in 8 residents is a native Qatari. Everyone else is here on work and/or residence visas, and there’s little if any illegal immigration. No one can become a citizen – you have to be born to a Qatari father to have citizenship. The biggest groups of foreigners are from South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal), and most of the remainder are from other Middle East countries (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey mostly), the Philippines, Africa and various Western countries. So it’s quite a melting pot. Certain professions tend to be dominated by different nationalities. For instance, taxi drivers and construction workers are usually from India, store clerks and waiters are usually young Filipinos, and doctors are usually Egyptian. From everything I’ve seen and heard, there is little social mixing with Qataris.

Foreign workers can only bring their families if they earn a certain minimum salary, so few of the lower-paid workers, such as construction workers, clerks and taxi drivers, have spouses or children here. Also, there are age restrictions on certain kinds of visas. The net effect is there are relatively few children or older people here. Also, since so many foreign workers are male, only 29% of the population is female.

Shopping

There is no shortage of shopping in Qatar. There are numerous shopping malls and more are under construction. One of the newest, the high-end Villagio, has a Venetian theme which includes gondola rides in an indoor canal. There is a 5-story mall across the street from my apartment that includes an ice rink and a multiplex movie theater. I shop for groceries at Carrefour, a French chain store that is like a super Walmart, half grocery store and half department store. There’s a pretty good selection of just about anything I want, although a sudden craving I had for Grape Nuts was destined to be frustrated. Since it’s a French store, they have a great cheese selection. Most interesting is the produce department. Everything is labeled with its country of origin. Since Qatar grows almost nothing (although I did have some pretty good Qatari broccoli once), it’s a virtual United Nations of produce: France, Turkey, Philippines, South Africa, Chile, United States, New Zealand, etc.


Carrefour


Produce from around the world

Eating

Restaurants are more plentiful than back in the States. What first struck me was the popularity of just about every American fast-food chain: McDonalds, Pizza Hut, KFC, Burger King, Krispy Kreme, Subway, etc. The only one to interest me would be In-N-Out, but no luck. Starbucks is almost as common as back home (no Peet’s unfortunately). But once you look past the common American restaurant chains, there are a lot of interesting food options. For example, Arab food (also called Turkish or Syrian food) is plentiful, which includes hummus, grilled meats, fresh pita bread and delicious salads such as tabouleh and baba ghanoush. There are also restaurants representing other international cuisines, mostly Asian, as well as a number of world-class restaurants (see below).

The Expatriate Community

When I refer to “expatriates”, I mean mostly Westerners – Europeans, Americans, Australians, New Zealanders – but also Japanese, Arabs, South Americans, Indians, etc., who are typically English-speaking professionals. We're all far from home, here for maybe 1-5 years. Expats are a small percentage of the population – less than 5%. Expats tend to be interested in travel, meeting people from other cultures, and getting the most from their experience working overseas. That’s led to a very vibrant social environment for those who want to participate. There are numerous opportunities for social activities in a place like Doha. There are all kinds of clubs, for example. One can participate in amateur theater and music events, organized sports, religious services, charitable organizations, and numerous special-interest groups. The expat community is also an invaluable source of day-to-day information about how to survive in this new and sometimes challenging environment. People tend to be very helpful in sharing their experiences in order to help new arrivals learn their way around.

Islam and Cultural Norms

Of course Qatar is a Muslim country. But unlike some other Middle Eastern countries, Saudi Arabia for instance, that doesn’t have a lot of impact on the day-to-day lives of expatriates. There are a couple of Christian churches in Doha, for instance. Alcohol is allowed, but only in some of the higher-end hotels and the one state-run liquor store. Pork is only available in a section of the liquor store. During the fasting month of Ramadan which recently ended, restaurants were closed during daylight hours.

Culturally, Qatar is more conservative than the United States. You don’t see women dressing in skimpy clothing, for example, although there’s no policing to discourage it. Movies are popular, but they are censored for sex and profanity. There is some censoring of the Internet as well – pornography websites are blocked. Otherwise day-to-day life would look very familiar to an American.

Crime

Qatar is famously safe. I have never heard of any property or violent crime (well, one correction to that – I just read about an alcohol-related stabbing at one of the workers camps on the city’s outskirts). I know people who have lived here for years, and they are never concerned about locking their homes or cars.

In case visiting all the countries that begin with the letter Q is on your bucket list, what would you see and do in Qatar?

Visit the Museum of Islamic Art (www.mia.org.qa), the largest collection of antique Islamic art in the world. It’s housed in a stunning building on Doha Bay, designed by the renowned architect I.M. Pei.
Visit the Souq Waqif nearby. It’s a traditional Middle Eastern souq, or marketplace, a warren of passageways, small shops and interesting smells. It is actually quite new, rebuilt a few years ago to modernize it but still retaining the original architecture and character. Unlike some souqs I’ve visited elsewhere, the interesting smells are all pleasant! Carpets, spices, clothing, gold, pets, hardware, antiques, electronics, kitchenware, just about anything is available. One part of the souq is dedicated to restaurants, representing cuisines of Persia, Syria, Malaysia, Iraq, and Morocco for example (I have yet to find Qatari cuisine – I’m still not sure what that would be).
Eat. There are many interesting restaurants (see above), some world-class. For example, the St. Regis Hotel has two Gordon Ramsay restaurants. At the Museum of Islamic Art is a restaurant opened by the famous French chef Alain Ducasse.

Miscellaneous observations

I’ve never seen a mosquito here.
Drivers aren’t terribly crazy (hello Saudi Arabia), but you need to stay alert, especially for drivers on their cell phones. Yes, that’s against the law here too, and no, it doesn’t help.
There was a brief hailstorm in May, very unusual for that time of year.
The healthcare system is decent and probably better than most of the foreign workers will find in their home countries, but expats universally return to their home countries for anything major.
There are quite a few “international” schools, catering to various nationalities. They typically have curricula mirroring their home countries, but there’s no strict segregation. For instance, the American School of Doha has students of many nationalities, including Qatari, and the nearby Lycee Bonaparte French school has quite a few Lebanese students.
Although Qatar is the world's biggest exporter of natural gas, I've yet to see a gas stove.

The Middle East in the news

I work with a number of Egyptians and Syrians, and we often talk about the news coming out of their homelands. For all the issues we argue about in America, I am often reminded of how fortunate we are to live in peace and prosperity. And rest assured that Qatar is very peaceful and safe.

Some miscellaneous photos