Bedouin Cowboys

I have stated before that there are many similarities between Gulf culture and that of the US. There are the obvious things, …a proclivity for big, fuel-guzzling vehicles, large houses with fenced yards, suburban sprawl, malls and multi-theatres, …and of course fast food. There are deeper similarities too. Qataris tend to be religious and political conservatives, trying to reconcile tradition with a changing world. They remind me very much of “red state” Americans, though perhaps with a bit more tolerance.

Qataris tend to be more receptive towards the US rather than Europe regarding modern culture and so forth. This is because they too, sense a certain similarity between themselves and Americans, many in fact, make mention of it. This is tempered though by a few things, first, there is a sense that the Gulf in general is under a cultural assault from the West. Things like “Fear Factor” and “Girls Gone Wild” come to mind. These things are known here, and utterly horrifying to Qataris. Media involving humiliation, nudity, adultery, etc are viewed as a direct attack upon traditional values, as many conservative Christians would agree. Another thing that is well known here is the American press. The US has lost a lot of credibility here based upon the slanted and self-serving media reports that have issued recently. Especially noted are the lack of concern for civilian casualties in Iraq, and the arrogant chest-beating of certain commentators. The whole Arab world is watching these bozos, and most don’t like what they see.

While Qataris aren’t crazy about certain American media, they love films and television that are family oriented. They also follow most of the toy crazes from the US, as well as Japan and Europe. They also love technology. Everybody wants to have all of the latest gadgets, and they spend huge amounts of time making creative use of them.

There is a huge dichotomy between “modern” life, represented by big, fast vehicles (white Landcruisers are by far the most common thing on the road), big modern houses full of electronic whatchamacallits, etc and traditional life. Many people have a traditional Bedouin tent set up on their property or even inside their homes. It’s sort of a reminder of who they are, and where they came from. When men go out visiting, they commonly congregate in these tents, often with a fire going. They will make Bedouin coffee (green, with cardomom) over the fire, eat dates, and talk. The arts of camel raising, falconry, swordsmanship and so forth are still alive and well.

Qatari men frequently visit each other in the evening. The visits are short, often just long enough for a couple of glasses of tea, but they are frequent. A typical night of visiting will involve several stops. News of the day is shared and discussed, and bonds of friendship affirmed. Guests are received in the majlis, a front room set aside for this purpose, or out front in a tent or raised, open porch.

Qatari men strive to entertain their guests in the most traditional way possible. If food is served, it is served on the floor, from a common dish, and eaten with the hands. The furnishings in the majlis or tent are Spartan but functional; usually a low table, a central fire pit, carpets on the floor, and “couch Arabi”. Couch Arabi is a set of cushions on the floor, set up like a series of sofas. It can be rearranged in many ways, but usually lies around the perimeter of the room. Alternatively, there may be low upholstered couches, or ornate Louis the 14th type chairs lining the walls…. sometimes thirty or more of them. The patterns for couch Arabi reflect traditional Bedouin designs and colors. Ironically, the colors… red, black, white and dark green, are based on traditional dyes that were available in the area, but all are made with modern dyes today, only the patterns remain.

Like “red state” Americans, Qataris are tied to their rural traditions. There is nothing that quite corresponds to country music here (music is often viewed with suspicion), but as country music helps reaffirm American rural culture, Qatari traditions have the same effect. In keeping their traditions alive, they are affirming their bond with their Bedouin heritage. Most folks who can, keep a place out in the country. The “country” I’m talking about looks pretty bleak… miles of rocky, flat desert scrub for the most part, except for the huge dunes of the Empty Quarter in the south. These “farms” as they are called usually have a few head of livestock and a house or shelter of some sort. Many opt for a place near the camel track, but many others, craving solitude, get a place out in the middle of nowhere.

The Bedouin still live out here too. They don’t move around anymore… that would involve crossing the border to the oases in the south, in Saudi. In order to get government benefits they must retain a fixed residence. Tents have given way to brick and mortar houses, and camels to Land Rovers (they actually still have the camels, just not as their primary mode of transport). They live either out in the country in small enclaves of one or more families, or more recently, they maintain a house in town too (there is only one town of any size in Qatar… Doha). If they have a place in town, often they choose to live in Rayyan, a suburb of Doha noted for its Bedouin traditions, and it’s horses. Rayyan was also the site of the al-Thani (royal) family’s first palace.

The Bedouin are tough and independent. They have their own system of justice, and are typically left alone by the authorities. The government seems content to let them work things out for themselves so long as they don’t cause trouble for others. Bedouins are a bit wilder and less restrained than the average Qatari. They tend to drive more aggressively (yes, it’s possible), and prefer tricked out, used, muscle cars to anything new. It’s said that Bedouins won’t drive new cars. There are some amazing old classic cars here, often with bizarre modifications. One guy in town has hundreds of shiny brass objects affixed to his old Cadillac. It looks like a speeding pin cushion.

Many folks here drive with their lights off at night. The more considerate ones at least put the parking lights on so that they can be seen. Those who drive that way claim that they can see better without lights! Of course it wouldn’t occur to them that others can’t see them. God only knows what happens when two of these guys meet going in opposite directions. I guess that this is the reason that most roads here are divided by large medians. Unnecessary risk taking is a part of the whole Bedouin tribal identity thing. Maybe young men can’t raid caravans anymore, but at least they can drive around with their lights off. Yikes!

Religion is the big cultural driving force here, and modern “culture” in the sense of mindless media displays probably doesn’t stand a chance against it in the long run. This is wahabbi country, and religion plays a larger role here than it does in most Islamic countries. Wahabbism is a simple, literalist interpretation of Islam, and it fits the Gulf mindset much like literalist Christianity fits in the American rural south. Some Americans seem to think that the Gulf will one day “outgrow” it’s religious roots, and join the “modern” world. I think that’s fantasy. If anything is ephemeral here, it is probably the fascination with western “culture”. While Qatar, and the Gulf in general, will no doubt continue to modernize, they are doing it in their own way, and at their own pace, and the roots here are probably stronger than the west realizes.

Royal Wedding

Some things just weren’t meant to be photographed. I went to a royal wedding celebration last night. The crown prince, Tamim, has gotten married, and there have been three days of celebrations. Each tribe erects its own tent out near Rayyan, the Bedouin suburb where the old royal residence used to be. I counted about twenty tents or so. Each one is enormous, the largest being close to an acre in size. The ground is completely covered in carpet, along with an equal area outdoors in front of the tent. The edges of the carpet are ringed with a solid line of upholstered chairs.

The first encampment we visited had a bonfire going near the entrance to the camp. The Qataris seem to freeze below 75 degrees fahrenheit, so many folks were clustered around the fire. There were many enormous incense burners near the entrance. You could get smudged with oud or frankincense as you entered. Once inside, greetings are exchanged, tea is served and people mingle or take a seat. This event is men only, and boys age five and older or so. Each camp has about 300 people in attendance, on the average, though a few had many more. The most senior sheikhs all sit in the most ornate chairs near the head of the circle.

As some time passes, the wedding dances begin. In Qatar there is plenty of dancing, but it is strictly ceremonial and men and women never dance together. The dance begins with a drum circle. Roughly a dozen guys with large frame drums start a beat, and two lines form facing each other, with the drummers in the center. Each line has about 20 men, and they begin to chant. They start a simple step, forward and back, side to side and they mirror the opposite line. A call and response sort of chant starts… similar to something you might find in Africa.

After this gets going, the rest of the men enter and start to circle the drummers in a slow, shuffling step. They draw their swords (swords or daggers are worn for this occasion) and wave them in the air and chant. Some have antique rifles, and these are held aloft as well. The circling goes on for a long time, and the energy builds, the shuffling and waving grows more intense, and people start to ululate. I hate to draw comparisons to other cultures, but anyone who has been to a Native American pow-wow has seen something pretty similar to what I am describing.

There are many variations on this dance, but they all more or less follow this cycle. The dances continue on and off for hours. The men all wear tradition costume for this event, with some accessories rarely seen otherwise. Many wear ammunition belts, in addition to sword and scabbard. Several carry antique rifles, and a few carry revolvers in holsters. I saw no modern firearms, the “newest” rifle was a WWII era bolt action piece. Some of the handguns looked like they could be more recent, but none were semi-automatic. I saw one guy with what looked like 7.62 mm rounds in his belt (Kalashnikov) but he had no weapon. Other guys carried long spears. The weapons represent the whole macho tribal warrior thing, but despite all the hollering and waving of weapons, it was all pretty tame. No one ever shoots into the air at these events (illegal), and I handled some of the swords…most are strictly ceremonial… no sharpened blade. You couldn’t cut butter with them things.

The legality of gun ownership is, like many things in Qatar, somewhat ambiguous. Officially, guns may not be purchased, and carrying them is prohibited. In practice, the government understands the role of gun ownership in the Qatari psyche, and actually doesn’t mind if citizens own guns and use them responsibly. There is a gray market for guns, and no enforcement of the gun laws typically ensues unless there is some breach of protocol. The fact that guns are illegal allows selective enforcement of the law to occur if problems develop. For the most part, gun ownership is allowed provided that the owner is a Qatari citizen of good standing, and provided that he doesn’t wave the thing around recklessly (except at weddings).

Prayers are done in the tent, and after the last prayer of the evening, dinner is served. In traditional Qatari fashion, the meal is brought out on huge multi-handled serving trays. These things are more than a meter in diameter and are carried by four or more men. They are stacked high with a huge mountain of spiced rice and vegetables, topped by half a sheep. About ten of these trays are placed on the floor at strategic locations. The men cluster around the trays, kneeling, and literally dig right in. Food is traditionally eaten with the hands in Qatar, rice, gravy, mashed potatoes…. anything. Meat is picked from the carcass by hand, and if a particularly good piece is liberated, it’s good form to toss it to someone else. Only about a dozen guys can fit around each tray, so people eat in shifts. It’s a sign of respect to be invited to eat first. The most senior guys and the youngest boys generally get first crack at the food, and as each person finishes, someone else takes his place at the tray. By the time you get your fill, most of the faces in the circle have changed. The younger, unmarried men go last among the Qataris, and the hired help eats after them.

I saw no foreigners at this event, with the exception of some Afghanis and Pakistanis who handled the food, and they didn’t really participate, but rather stood off to the side until it was time for them to do something. Tea was poured by Qataris. Each tribe had its own camp, but the activities were the same from tribe to tribe. After dinner we visited some of the other tents, and I noted no particular differences. Each tribe pays homage to the royal family by having this celebration for three days. The royal family has it’s own celebration during this time, but the crown prince visits the camp of each tribe at some point during the event.

Very few people attend the actual ceremony of a Qatari wedding… any Qatari wedding. The vows are private. There is a marriage contract that is agreed upon, enumerating the rights and responsibilities of each party. A dowry is given to the bride by the groom, and a major part of this is traditional wedding jewelry. A draping crown of gold, and golden chains covering hands, feet and chest are typical. The gold is 22k and quite soft, so it’s only worn on rare occasions. Rings, necklaces, earrings etc complete the set. A bride from a moderately well to do family might receive a kilo or so of gold for her dowry, as well as gems. A wealthy or royal bride receives much more. The dowry may include other things as well, land, a house, cash, anything really. The purpose of the dowry is that it is something of value which remains in the woman’s name alone, and may be sold to help support her in the event of her husband’s death or divorce.

Only the women get to see the bridal jewelry or even the bride for that matter, as all Qatari weddings are strictly segregated by gender. At those times when men and women are together, like when people are arriving and leaving, the women all wear abayas (long black gowns) and niqab, a veil over the face. Very conservative women may wear glasses and gloves as well. Each gender quickly congregates in their appointed place. The men’s wedding gatherings are outdoors, and proceed as described above. The women gather indoors, at someone’s home. Once safe from the eyes of men, the abayas and veils come off. I am told that Qatari women dress very ornately. The fabrics and designs are incredibly intricate. Much jewelry is also worn at these formal events. I have seen women’s dresses in the shops, and they are quite elaborate. Women have their own dances and music, but I will probably never see them.

I didn’t see Prince Tamim at the wedding party. He had already passed through when we arrived, but I have seen him before. In a country this small it’s kind of hard not to sooner or later. Qatar only has 150,000 citizens, and half of them are minors. I wasn’t able to photograph anything at the wedding. As the only foreign guest in attendance, it would have been an awkward retort to the hospitality I received. There are many photos around of this type of Qatari dancing, but most have been taken at various folklore type festivals. This was the real deal, and I didn’t want to embarrass anyone.

Something else that was really great about the wedding was the fact that so many of the elderly Qataris were there. These guys are real national treasures. The Qatari economy used to be based upon fishing, pearling, and herding livestock, in that order. The only significant crop they had was dates. A typical settlement was a few mudbrick buildings surrounding a well or spring, a few fishing dhows, and a bunch of date palms. In the mid 1930’s the pearling business more or less collapsed due to the advent of cultured pearls. After that, Qatar was a severely impoverished backwater, people had a real hand to mouth existence. There was a lag of only a few years between the collapse of the pearl market and the discovery of oil, but because the oil couldn’t be developed right away (World War II) the poverty lasted for more than a couple of decades. These guys experienced all of that. They are very close to their traditions, and very much men of the desert. Many didn’t know what an apple was until they were well into adulthood.

Kid Stuff

Qatar is a great place for kids. There is a lot for them to do here and ours love it. Our neighborhood has seventy kids or so, and they run in packs all day long. Kids are constantly coming to the door asking for our son, and sometimes even our daughter; she’s two, and the neighborhood girls make a big fuss over her. It’s gotten so bad I had to disable the doorbell (we can hear it upstairs), if they knock it doesn’t wake us or the baby. I have had children at the door as early as 5AM (morning prayer time), and as late as 11PM (on the weekends kids stay up late), throw in the fact that we, like good Qataris, take frequent naps, and you’ll understand the logic behind no doorbell.

The kids are of course football (ie soccer) fanatics, so that is a big draw. Qatar won the Gulf Cup this year, so everyone is pretty excited about that, and the kids know and idolize all the players. My son is picking it up. There is also a playground across the street from us. In addition to football, the kids also ride bikes and skateboards and play with remote control toys in the streets here. Cars don’t come through too often…

The big toy fads here are “bey blades” and Yu-Gi-Oh cards. I have no idea what the cards are for, except that they have monsters on them and the kids love them. They play games with them, but the games vary from group to group. My son just whips out a card and pretends that he is the monster depicted… other kids beware! He’s a tough little guy. Bey blades are essentially souped up tops. They are low friction tops with a plastic pull device that enables them to go very fast for a long time. The point is to be the one whose top stays going the longest, frequently by knocking others out.

There is also a swimming pool and tennis court here. My wife has been “cured” of playing tennis here. Whenever we would go out to play, the neighborhood kids would all come out to help. At one point we had at least 30 kids on the court “helping”, some with squash or tennis rackets, others with cricket bats, or whatever they could find. It was a very interesting game, but not what my wife calls tennis. It was hilarious. With so many people you need to have more than one ball going, and then someone decided that because of the varying equipment, we should even have varying kinds of balls. Things got crazy fast at that point, but it was fun. It’s too cold to swim now, once the temperature drops below 75 or so everybody dresses up and complains about how cold it is. I have yet to wear socks or a jacket here, the most I’ve done is wear an extra shirt on cool nights.

Women generally don’t swim here, at least not at outdoor pools like ours. It’s considered too racy. Our neighbor does swim, but it doesn’t affect her reputation because she wears a swimsuit that covers her from neck to ankle. It looks something like the old turn of the century swimsuits with the petticoats, loose fitting to hide the shape of the body. Most women don’t bother. My wife can get away with swimming because she is western, and therefore crazy. She is also discreet about it. Young girls swim with impunity until the age of thirteen or so, and then they tend to stop. There are no laws covering any of this, just social protocols and customs. Qataris are shocked and scandalized by seeing westerners swim at the hotels. One result of this is that Qatar has miles and miles of beautiful, completely undeveloped beachfront.

We got to experience Garangao here last October, it is Qatar’s answer to Halloween. On the fifteenth night of Ramadan (which just so happened to fall very near Halloween this year…)Qatari kids dress up in traditional costume and go door to door for candy, money and nuts. The clothes are formal Qatari dress; thobes and vests for boys, and a long embroidered veil and abaya for girls. Traditionally they sing a song at each house, but we didn’t know the Garangao song… they gave us candy anyhow. The other expats apparently aren’t clued into this… not even the Arab expats. The only people I know who went are Qatari, this custom is apparently exclusive to the Gulf. For us, it proved to be a great way to meet some of the Qataris in the area. The people give enormous quantities of candy, and make a big deal over the kids, but this is offset by the fact that the progress is slow…you get invited in for tea, to see the falcons, etc, so by the end of the night you wind up with about the same amount of loot you would get at Halloween, but with less effort and more fun.

Other kid activities I have described before, the amusement parks, malls, playgrounds, and zoo. There is never a lack of stuff to do. There are several theatres here as well, and most show films in English as well as Arabic, Urdu and Malayam. Video games are a big deal here too, and they frequently come second hand from all over the world in their original language. There are machines that play in Japanese, Korean, and some stuff I haven’t figured out. There is one large bubble machine in a mall that has instructions that must be in Welsh, …every other letter is a “y”. No one reads instructions here anyway, so nobody minds.

The parks here are great. The entire waterfront in town is one long park, with restaurants, playgrounds, and boat docks interspersed. You can jump onto a traditional dhow boat and have coffee or tea while tooling around the harbor for very little money. One boat is a ferry to Palm Tree Island… a small, developed beach island with playgrounds, swimming pools, and a restaurant. Al Bidaa park is on the landward side of the waterfront, and it contains a life size display of a traditional Qatari village settlement, complete with re-enactors on certain days who man the shops and exhibits. Here you will also find a bargheel or wind tower. This is traditional Qatari air conditioning, a two or more story tower, attached to a building and open at the top on all four sides, with a masonry or cloth “X” formation inside. The tower catches and channels the slightest breeze, and sends it downward into the building, where it circulates. Don’t ask me how, but it works.

Parks can be full of odd surprises too. I took my son to a new one not far from the house. He is an engaging lad, and full of imagination, and this particular park wasn’t quite finished yet, so there wasn’t a lot of structured things he could do. He went around noticing that there were holes in the ground, with uprooted trees near them. The trees were actually to be planted, but he concluded that they had been pulled out, and set about to discover who would do such a thing. I played along. He further found that the irrigation system wasn’t finished, and determined that it had been destroyed. It was obvious….someone who hated plants was destroying the park! Even more evidence came to light as not all of the park was yet covered with grass, much of it was sand. I suggested that perhaps a sandtroll was responsible. That must be it, a sandtroll had made his home here and was converting this beautiful park into barren desert.

I suggested we try to find out where it lives, and lo and behold, we had gone not 100 yards before we discovered a circular fenced area of rough sand and rock, with an enormous cave right in the center. I couldn’t have planned it better if I’d known about it. We took a flight of stairs down into the cave and stray cats and other things were scooting about in the darker corners. He was terrified and thrilled. I was amazed that he fully believed that there was a troll down there and that he was going to go in after him. The best part was the cloud of bats that flew out at sunset.

My eldest daughter is all girl. Her favorite things to do involve cosmetics and dressing up. The neighbor girls all like to put bows and stuff in her hair and she adores it. My maid can spend a whole morning with her with just some lotion, perfume and an outfit change. She’s in the right country. She also loves dolls. She too has a vivid imagination and concocts all sorts of complex plots with her dolls. She also fears Giants.

We read stories about Giants, and the idea has always gripped her, but what really got her was one day in one of the malls we saw some stilt-walkers at a special event…she was simultaneously horrified and fascinated…she hid behind me but wouldn’t take her eyes off of them and wouldn’t leave. Every time we went to the mall thereafter she would be on the lookout for Giants, and have to be held. Eventually I tired of this (she’s heavy!), and the next time we went, when she expressed her concern, I assured her that there were no Giants. She continued to be visibly afraid though, and was constantly looking around. Her brother helped me in reassuring her repeatedly that there weren’t any Giants, and not to be afraid. I picked her up and told her that there was nothing to be afraid of, and that there were absolutely no Giants in the mall and no sooner had the words left my lips than around the corner comes….what else? A Giant. Not some old cheesy stilt-walker either, but a real, live, Disney character style Giant with a HUGE head. All credibility vanished into thin air at that moment, and she’ll probably never believe a word I say for as long as I live. The Giant was some character promoting a sale, but the damage was done. She still talks about it.

Manchild in the Promised Land

Not every kid in Qatar has an idyllic life. Witness the little guys in these photos. As difficult as child labor may be to justify, the relevant question is how does their life here compare to growing up poor in Darfur, or say… Mogadishu? Is this a tragedy, or an opportunity? Or both? Anyhow the point is moot. These are the last of Qatar’s camel jockeys, and after this season the practice will stop.

Sudani trainer 

Preparing for race day 

Camel jockeys 

training 

Camel Jockey 

Six Billion and One

I would like to announce the birth of Sema (say-ma) Jenna at 08:35 12/31/04. She is healthy and normal, weighed 3.3 kg at birth and was 53 cm long. The birth was fast and without incident… a textbook birth.

My wife went into labor at about 2AM, shortly after I posted my last entry. We walked for awhile, and I held her through the contractions. They got regular and strong by 4AM, then she conserved her strength, resting between contractions. I gave her water mixed with honey, rubbed her back, and helped her change positions for pain control. By 7AM we went to the hospital. She entered transition shortly after we arrived, her water broke at 10 centimeters, and the baby was born soon after, about an hour after we got into the delivery room. I cut the cord (I’ve cut the cord for all three of my kids), and she was placed on my wife’s chest, and immediately latched on. She has scarcely released herself since. My wife’s milk came in 24 hours later and everybody is doing just what they’re supposed to. We are blessed.

My wife and the baby stayed in the hospital another 36 hours, mostly to rest. Peace and quiet is hard to come by in our house. Both are home now and doing fine. Sema met her brother and sister (and maid) four hours after she was born. They are absolutely fascinated with her. My daughter especially is quite protective of her, rebuking me for letting her cry during a diaper change “Daddy stop that, the baby don’t like it”.

Sema is a scrawny little thing, just like her brother. She looks just like him too at that age. She has long fingers and toes, skinny little legs and a perfectly round head…. Amazing.

The facilities at the hospital were fine. We chose a private hospital because the main hospital here is a teaching hospital… too many residents and too many bells and whistles for our tastes regarding childbirth. For just about everything else we like teaching hospitals. The one we chose is very small, and they did a great job. Per our wishes, the OB just let my wife do her thing unmolested, caught the baby when it was time, and monitored my wife’s recovery. No drugs were used, and for us a first… no lacerations.

We have been inundated with food, clothes, baby stuff, chocolate, and goodwill. The welcome that Sema has received is remarkable. They don’t typically have baby showers here, as there is no need, people just spontaneously give things, and quite generously too I might add. Thanks everyone!

Introductions 

Sema's first cry 

Sema Jenna 08:35 12/31/04