Gold souq

Gold souq

Necklaces, gold souq.

Rings... note the size, they are huge! Pendants in the foreground.

Golden belts, Gold Souq.

Gold Souq

Gold Fever

Above are some photos from the Gold Souq. The area has dozens, probably hundreds, of little shops packed into a couple of city blocks downtown. The items on view are typical. Most of what you see is 22 karat gold. The pieces are sold by weight, and currently the price is 60 rials ($16) per gram. Prices are slightly flexible, but not greatly. You can usually knock about ten percent off, but margins are tight, so much more than that is difficult.

You can get a large necklace, with a matching ring and earrings for less than $500. Chunky bangle bracelets go for a couple of hundred dollars. Small, delicate western style pieces are extremely cheap. Most of the stuff you see here are production pieces mass produced in India or elsewhere. There are some very creative original pieces made locally as well, but these cost more.

Qataris typically own a lot of gold. Men never wear it, it is forbidden in Islam. The idea is that it is excessive and vain... a man should spend his money on his family or give it away in charity if he has extra. Women on the other hand, may wear as much as they like. Jewelry has typically been a wealth of last resort... a stockpile of value that can be sold in hard times or emergencies. That would never work in the west, but here in Qatar scrap values are a reasonably high percentage of the purchase price due to cheap (foreign) labor and low overhead.

This is a country that loves chaise lounges, you see them everywhere.

Here is an example of traditional architecture. Note the stacked stones covered with stucco. The roof is wooden support beams built into the walls, covered with palm weave. This building is still in use.

careful!

they are moving

hermit crabs

More Crabs

Here are some pictures from our most recent crab expedition. These were taken about a week ago. The small auger shells contain hermit crabs, although they utilize other types of shells as well, depending upon their size. You can see them crawling on the bottom in one of the photos.

The large guy was caught by Norcaida, not me. I don’t mind holding them (from behind), but catching them bare-handed is another story. I think I am too old and slow. They get much bigger than the one in the picture, but we need a different method for the big guys. I just got a net for my son, so our next trip should be fruitful.

Dhow in drydock

Wooden Ships and Iron Men

The photo above is of a traditional Khaleeji (Gulf) fishing boat, called a dhow. While motorized these days, they are still mostly made of wood. Such craft used to convey pearl divers to the oyster beds back in the hey-day of the pearl industry, and still serve as sturdy fishing boats. The harbors are full of them.

The fishermen weave their own traps for lobsters and crabs from metal wire, and stack them high aboard the boats. If you go down to the harbor at certain times of day, you can watch them work. The fishermen these days are mostly from India, and live aboard the boats. It’s common to see laundry hanging from lines across the deck, and to smell dinner cooking as you walk by.

Super fresh fish can be purchased right at the harbor. Crabs, lobster, grouper and snapper are the most prized catch, but there are plenty of other types of fish as well. The fishing industry has deep roots in Qatar, and many are proud of their sea-faring past. In a nod to tradition, one family has gone so far as to install an antique fishing boat in their majlis (the front room to receive guests). The thing is huge, and the majlis is fitted out with large windows, so you can see the boat clearly from the road.

Some dhows are set up for passengers, or as dinner boats. These are much larger and nicer than the one in the photo. The fishing boats though are no-frills affairs. They run them until they fall apart, and in certain harbors, you can see the sunken wreckage of scuttled dhows.

Note the oil drums used to support the boat in the picture. The fishing industry is still fairly low-tech here. Also note the homemade ladder to the right. These are funny, you see them everywhere... ladders made from scrap wood. Someone may have a multi-million rial house, but they will prominently display a homemade ladder. No home is complete without one, the more rustic looking the better!

painting, Qatari artist, Doha Cultural Festival 2005

Cheap Thrills

Football (soccer to my American readers) is very popular here. Leagues were started about 40 years ago, and it has sky-rocketed in popularity since. The country has ten professional teams, most representing various districts and suburbs of Doha, the capital. There are actually more than ten stadiums, due to the fact that extras have been built in anticipation of the Asian Games next year.

Each team has colors which are prominently displayed upon the vehicles and bodices of the faithful. The rivalries are civil, as far as I can ascertain, but they run deep nonetheless. Most folks tend to support the team from their district, but a couple of the better ones generate a wider appeal. In high season, virtually every round-about in town has people selling various flags, banners, ribbons, etc sporting team colors.

The quality of the game is much better than you would expect from such a small country. The rules state that all team players must be Qatari citizens, so do the math… 150,000 to 200,000 citizens… ten teams… you would think that the quality level of the game would be comparable to say secondary school leagues based on the number of players that must be drawn from such a small population. Not so! In fact, the rivalry between the teams is so great, that a way has been found to improve the quality of the game. Players are imported from around the world, at big salaries, to play in the Qatari leagues. They are given “citizenship” for the duration of their service! I got a big laugh out of that one, but at the end of the day, it makes sense…it does make for a better game. You get to see players from Arsenal, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, as well as other greats from the far corners of the globe. Of course many players are Qatari as well, but the stars hail from elsewhere.

The games themselves are free. No admission is charged, with the exception of the Gulf Cup. The stadiums are fairly packed as a result, but you can always still find a seat… there are only so many people here, so things can only get so packed. Refreshments are sold by wandering vendors, yet the prices that they charge for food and drink are no more than you would pay at any corner store. In short, the enterprise doesn’t generate any revenue… nothing! and in fact it drains quite a bit of cash from the sponsors of each team. It’s not about money though. Things like this have more to do with honor, reputation and generosity than they do with money. Money is just one of the details.

As you enter the stadium, you notice that general seating includes one entire side and both end zones, but on one side of the stadium, VIP seating occupies the center. You need wazda (influence) to score one of these seats. They are ornate chairs rather than bench or folding seats. At the center of this area is the super-VIP section. These seats are literally large gilded thrones. There is carpeting, and waiters for refreshments. These are reserved for the big sheikhs… team owners, and the royal family, should any choose to attend. These are the only paying customers in the whole place, so I guess they deserve good seats!

Most stadiums are pretty normal in appearance, but some of the newer ones are very high-tech, filled with all sorts of gadgets… rolling camera platforms along the sidelines, camera cranes, huge screens for replays, etc. Most of the Gulf Cup games were played in a new stadium that looks like something out of a science fiction movie… a building that looks more like a surreal sort of space-station than a soccer field. The structure has an incredibly elaborate lighting system, and a reflective exterior, so it literally changes color as the game progresses.

The crowd is very spirited. A sea of thobes goes wild every time a goal is scored. “Cheerleaders” are men up front with large frame drums, who get a beat going and lead various chants. Adding machine rolls are flung onto the field at crucial moments, and ad-hoc fireworks displays mark every goal. It’s all very entertaining. I am not certain why, but not many foreigners go to these things. Nearly all attendees are young Qatari males. At a typical game I will see fewer women than I can count on one hand, and only slightly more men than that who are not wearing traditional dress.

After the games, the traffic jams begin. These usually occur along the corniche, the street running along the waterfront downtown. The fans of the victors parade back and forth along this road, honking horns, waving banners and generally creating a ruckus. Qatar not only hosted the Gulf Cup this past year, but they won it! This created the largest traffic jam ever. People were dancing on the hoods of moving cars. In places traffic was stalled or slowed for hours.

Doha Cultural Festival, 2005

Schools

Schools here are interesting. There are more private schools here than I can count, and the education system in general is rapidly changing. First there are Qatari schools, which serve the Qatari citizens and are free to them. These have been fairly uniform until recently. There is a new program wherein certain schools are “independent” schools, which choose their own curriculum and methods. I think the idea is to try many different things at once, and see which schools do the best job, and then free market will determine which become the “best”. There are standards that each school has to meet, but I haven’t heard how these are measured yet. The independent schools either are open to foreigners, or will be soon, but for a fee (not expensive).

Qatari schools are moving towards using English as the primary language of instruction. I have mixed feelings about this, but it makes sense. Qatar is a tiny country… too small to produce everything it needs on it’s own. Adopting English curriculum opens a wide variety of doors both in terms of instructional material available, and in the child’s later career. Many Qatari kids go abroad for their university education, and having been taught in English from a young age will help them in that regard.

Private schools are also very common. Most affluent Qataris and virtually all ex-pats send their kids to these. You have to tread carefully here, regarding choosing a school, as it’s important to have a clear understanding of what it is you want your child to get out of his or her educational experience. Many private schools are set up for specific ex-pat groups, and mimic the schools of their home country. There is a French School, a Tunisian School, a Phillipino school, etc etc. The idea is that students can attend these schools and not be “behind” when they return to their home countries. This is ideal if someone has older children already established in their school career, or for someone who is transferred here for a couple of years (many still consider this a “hardship” post!). The school can provide some element of stability. The down-side is that your kids will be sequestered with other kids of their own nationality, …if you want this, then it’s great, but if not, then look elsewhere.

There are a lot of “English-language” schools here. The use of English in the national schools hasn’t been fully adopted yet, so these served that purpose up until now…providing an education in the English language. These schools are overwhelmingly Qatari, and private. Qataris attend the American and British schools too… but the difference is that in the English-language schools you will find relatively few ex-pats. There isn’t much sense in sending a young English speaker to these, as the Qatari kids are going there to learn the rudiments of English in the lower grades. Native speakers would be bored to death in that environment. Older ex-pat kids might do fine in these. There are also “themed” schools…sports academies, religious schools, science etc.

We have elected to send our son to a private Islamic school. He is still pre-K, and is studying at a first grade level (English) at home. I don’t see much point in sending him to an English language environment, as it would simply be glorified day-care at his age. My goal is for him to learn Arabic fluently by the time he is ready for first grade, and he is doing great so far. His teacher speaks English, so she can clarify things for him, but Arabic is virtually all he hears at school. He knows the Arabic numbers and letters, and sings Arabic songs. He understands things fairly well, but has trouble speaking yet. One more year, God willing, and he will get it. I want him to socialize with the Qataris, and being a bright kid, tackling the language affords him a challenge. The school’s curriculum for older grades includes horsemanship, falconry and swordsmanship. It’s rather like the education of a young knight. The school costs just over $1000 US dollars per year, and riding the bus every day costs another $30 per month.

As he gets older, we’ll make adjustments as necessary.

My son's school

standing in line

standing in line

classmates

...Old Mustafa had a farm, ee yi ee yi oh! Note that there is a camel, but no pig.

classroom

classroom

masks

Doha Cultural Festival, 2005

Free Lunch

We ate at one of our favorite restaurants this afternoon. It’s a great place with a large, secluded family section. Each party of guests gets their own private room. When you need something, you simply ring a buzzer and a waiter appears shortly thereafter. A large, high quality meal for six came to 85 rials, about $23.

I didn’t have cash today, I haven’t needed any recently, and I had forgotten that the restaurant doesn’t accept plastic. I was on my way out the door to an ATM (very close by!), when a Qatari stopped me, and gave me 100 rials. It would be rude to refuse a gift, so I accepted it. Qatar is like that.

I think of the money as a loan rather than a gift, because God willing, we will surely pass that and more on to someone else as soon as opportunity presents. Generosity is contagious, and it multiplies. The generosity we have witnessed and experienced in this country is truly amazing.

Bahraini artist, Doha Cultural Festival 2005

Qatari Funeral Rites

We attended a Qatari funeral the other day. A friend of ours lost his beloved father after a long illness. The death was expected, and he faced it well. He had time to make arrangements for his widow before he passed on, including remodeling the house.
His many children are all grown, with kids of their own. The family is taking it well, all things considered.

When Qataris experience a death in the family, the first thing the families do is say certain prayers for the deceased, and cleanse the body three times. This is done by the sons, if the deceased is a father. Although it is a literal cleansing, there is a certain ritual significance in it. It is a physical act of love and respect, and a way to say goodbye. Cleansing the body of a dead loved one creates a strong bond with the physicality of that person’s death. It is a powerful experience that people talk about long after the fact, how he/she looked, the feelings evoked by doing it, what happened before, during and after, etc. In this case one of the sons said that the body appeared to actually glow, and that he had a look of peace and contentment on his face. He was no longer in pain.

The body is buried in a simple white shroud, …no casket. It must be buried within twenty four hours. Graves in Qatar are dug out well in advance, as the earth is limestone. Each grave has a small indentation off to the side, at the bottom. This is so that when the grave is filled in, rocks aren’t thrown directly onto the body. There is no religious significance in that part of it, no special attachment is made to the corpse… the deceased is in God’s hands. It’s rather for aesthetic reasons that the corpse is protected.

A ceremony is held at graveside as the body is interred. A simple headstone, or sometimes none at all, is placed, and the grave is neatly lined with rocks. After the body has been buried, the family formally grieves for three days. Each night an open house is held at the home of the deceased, much like a wake. Friends, family and well-wishers come and offer their condolences, and help the family to process and accept the death.

We paid our respects. The women went one way, and the men another. On the men’s side a large room was constructed around the carport, using metal frames and carpets for walls. Dozens of chairs lined the perimeter of the room. As a new guest enters, he is greeted by a family member, and then proceeds to greet each of the other guests. This is standard procedure at any gathering. You walk around the perimeter and each guest stands, greets you, takes your hand and kisses you on the cheek. Brief pleasantries are exchanged.

After this you may seek out each of the male family members and offer your condolences and prayers for the deceased. Tea and coffee are served constantly. The mood is somber, but not sad. Qataris are philosophical about death. The sons displayed varying levels of grief, ranging from outward satisfaction that the deceased had lived and died well, to tears and sorrow. All mentioned that death is natural, life is brief, and that we shall all join the deceased soon.

The women’s area had a different mood. There was much less talk, and more grieving. This is where the widow was, and she will be the one most directly affected by the loss. Quran recitation was played on the stereo, voices were low, and no one talked much. The kids usually run and play everywhere, but for this event they were kept busy with quiet activities. No make up or jewelry is worn by Qatari ladies at funerals.

Faith tempers the grieving here. Due to a deep and strong faith, many express happiness that the deceased has gone to meet his Maker. Grieving itself is framed more as missing the deceased now that they are gone, rather than being sad for them. Many imams and religious scholars attended, funerals are an important part of their role. Between the sunset and nightfall prayer (nightfall meaning when it actually becomes dark), dinner was served. Huge trays, each stacked with a mountain of yellow rice and half a sheep were served.

I finally got to try sheep eyes. I’ve been in Qatar a year now, have been to dozens of Qatari-only events, and have never seen them eaten. It isn’t done much among the Qataris, but apparently is rather more of a Saudi thing. This time some Saudis were present. The eye itself dessicates with the roasting of the sheep, so it shrinks to less than half it’s normal size, like a flattened disk. It is a little chewy, …rubbery sort of, then a burst of warm fluid fills your mouth as you bite into it. Rather like that gum in the states, I have forgotten the name, but “the gum that goes squirt”. The taste is pleasant enough, not that much different than any other part of the sheep. The fluid has a meaty sort of taste, …eye gravy I suppose. It’s very watery, not gooey or sticky at all.

I have become completely used to stripping the meat off of sheep carcasses with my bare hands. The sheep is served with one large knife, which is used to make deep cuts across the carcass, making for easier access to the meat. After that, no utensils are used, you just rip hunks of meat off with your hands. The sheep is served in halves, and our half had the head, which was conveniently placed directly in front of me.

Even the skull is opened with bare hands. You first break the head off of the neck, easy enough when the sheep is cooked. Then you invert it, and break off the jawbones, each side splits off easily. Then you utilize one of the jawbones as a tool to pry open the skull, revealing the brain …which isn’t bad. The eyes are simply plucked from their sockets and eaten, although I hadn’t seen this done before up to this point. Several Qataris were mystified by this by the way… it really isn’t a Qatari practice for the most part.

When everyone has had their fill, the maids cart the trays off and pick the remaining meat off of the bones for other dishes. Drinks and side dishes are shared too. For clean up after the fact, large portable sinks are rented for these events. The women are usually inside the house, and the men outdoors, or in the majlis or the garage, so the women typically have all of the bathrooms except one. The portable sink frees up the one men’s bathroom for more urgent needs. It’s a large sheet metal cube on a trailer, filled with a couple of hundred gallons of water, and surrounded by faucets on all four sides. The water comes out of the spigot by gravity, it’s simple and efficient.

Typical Qatari grave.

Empty grave, note the recessed area to the left.

Painting, Doha Cultural Festival 2005

Fitri Iskander, photo from The Peninsula

Fitri Iskander, photo from The Peninsula

More Maid Abuse!

Another horrible case of maid abuse has come to light, once again from Saudi Arabia. Fitri Iskander was methodically brutalized by her Saudi employers, and after a period of months was put, injured, aboard a plane for home. She was given a black abaya to wear aboard the plane to hide her injuries. She fainted enroute, and fellow passengers notified the crew. She was taken off the plane in Doha, and sent immediately to Hamad hospital for treatment.

You can read the full stories in the Peninsula, one of the local newspapers here in Qatar, just click here, …and here. The Gulf Times also ran a piece, click here.

As I am looking up the links to this case, I find yet another, this one was originally reported out of Saudi. Massive burn injuries and sexual assault were inflicted upon another Indonesian maid, 25 year old Suniati Sujari . Click here. This is worse than despicable!

If there is any good at all that comes of this, I am grateful to see that the local press is picking this up. These stories are not new. Maid abuse has been an on-going problem throughout the Gulf for quite some time. The problem is that these cases have been historically swept under the rug by both the media and the criminal justice system. Publicizing these cases brings the scrutiny of society onto those that would commit these crimes, and also those that would conspire to hide them.

Freedom of the press is a relatively new concept in the Gulf. Qatar and the UAE have a high degree of it, and the other states are following along, more or less at their own pace (Qatar’s press is so free that even the USA disapproves at times, note Al-Jazeera!). Because these cases are getting publicity that similar cases a few years ago would not have, it appears as if maid abuse is on the rise. I doubt this strongly. The variable that has changed here is in the reporting, not the abusing.

Certain embassies have called for a ban on their citizens working in the Gulf. I think this is a craven and cowardly response to this problem. Those same embassies know very well to what extent their citizens have been victimized by employers here. The embassies handle repatriation for these women whether or not their cases make the newspaper, and it seems that as long as there is no bad press, these cases don’t bother them much. Only now, in recent months when these stories are being published for everyone to read do the embassies seem to take issue with it. They have known about it for years.

The result of this response is that it doesn’t address the abuse, but rather has the effect of discouraging the reporting of it. If too many cases are reported in the newspaper, then certain categories of workers may no longer be available to certain Gulf countries. If there is public silence, then the embassies seem to have no problem with the abuse. A better approach would be for the embassies to insist on aggressive prosecution of those individuals that commit these crimes. It wouldn’t even require any new laws, just better enforcement of the ones that already exist. The sight of a few Saudis going to prison for a long time, plus maybe some well-publicized abuse hot-lines made available to these women will better serve them, and keep them safer, than any government ban on labor to Saudi.

Maid abuse is by no means limited to the Gulf. Plenty of these cases occur elsewhere. One of the worst cases I have heard of involved a Chinese employer in Singapore. Even western ex-pats have been implicated from time to time. Maid abuse is fairly rare, and it occurs anyplace that allows the few sick people who practice it to get away with it. These poor women and their families depend upon their remittances. Maids in the Gulf earn the equivalent of professional level salaries in their home countries, and if you read the resumes you find that a certain number of applicants even have college degrees. Banning people from working in the Gulf merely serves to send the problem elsewhere. The Gulf will find another source for maids, and the maids will find another host country, and nothing much will change.

Rant finished. The follow up to Fitri Iskander’s case is endearing. No one in Qatar knew her, and the assault didn’t occur here, but there has nevertheless been a public outpouring of support for her. I went up to her room at Hamad (room 650, bed 1) to pay my respects and offer sympathy (you can do that here, privacy laws are different). Surrounding her bed was a cluster of ladies, mostly Qataris in niqab, but others too. There were gifts, and food and flowers, and the ladies seemed to be keeping her spirits up.

Fitri looked good. It was an awkward situation in a way. Because I was a stranger, and also due to the presence of the niqabis, I kept things short and to the point. I didn’t get a chance to ask her much, and there were language barriers, so details were lost. But all in all she is doing well, her affect is cheerful, and she seemed grateful for all the attention. It looks like she will do just fine, God willing. I would ask my Qatari readers to do me a favor. Go up to Hamad as soon as you read this, and give her a gift. Money won’t fix what has already happened to her, but perhaps it can serve to ease or avoid any future difficulties she may have. She is a traveler in need, and worthy of zakat (charity). Thanks!

Painting, Doha Cultural Festival 2005

This is what big Qatari houses look like.

Catching Crabs

We went to the beach this weekend. We had a picnic with some of our colleagues, mostly Arab ex-pats. It’s funny how dramatically different socializing is among the various immigrant groups here. No Qataris were present at this event, the people were mostly Jordanians, along with some Syrians, Egyptians, and north Africans.

Men and women spoke and mingled freely. There was still a general tendency for people to form conversation groups consisting mainly of their own gender, but more so out of interest in the topics discussed than any sort of social protocol, much like in the west. It seemed quite “normal” from a western point of view.

Several people brought musical instruments. One guy played the Oud, I guess you would call it a “lute” in English, but it’s the fore-runner of the guitar, and an essential component of Arabic music. He played amazingly well, mostly Andalusian style music. People were drumming as well. Most Arabs we have met can play the frame drum exceptionally well, even Gulf Arabs, despite the dim view so many take of music. The songs were very interesting, and everyone sang along. We couldn’t sing with them, due to limited Arabic and not knowing the songs well enough, but with a little practice perhaps we can soon keep up.

Music seems to be an important part of socializing among many of the ex-pat Arabs we know. Even in private homes, it’s not long before someone is breaking out the instruments and everyone is singing. Music from a stereo as “background” is less common when people have guests over, …most folks would rather make their own. This is in sharp contrast to the Qataris, who seem to reserve music for rare, formal events, like weddings and so forth. The Wahabbi theology of the Gulf discourages music in general.

The food was great, and quite different than Qatari food. Qatari dishes tend to revolve around huge portions of meat, with rice, spiced in many different ways. The food at the picnic was mostly Jordanian, and the dishes utilized a much greater variety of ingredients, lots of different types of pasta and grains, and conspicuously less use of meat. That aspect might reflect the relatively more modest economy of Jordan. It was all very good, and was followed by the obligatory smoking of the nargile.

The nargile is a huge water pipe. People of my generation would call it a bong, but a much larger version than what we may have seen before. Tobacco is smoked from it traditionally, often from several different mouthpieces. These are passed around, so one nargile can serve a lot of people. The tobacco is pretty mild, and often flavored. Tea and coffee are served at this time too, and the smoking, drinking, and of course, more singing go on for quite a while.

The beach itself was a developed area, with playgrounds and restrooms and so forth. As such there were quite a few others around as well, mostly non-western ex-pats doing the same things we were. In many trips to the beach I have seen relatively few Qataris. If they go at all, it’s usually just for walks on the beach near sunset, or perhaps for a beachside fire and tea after evening prayers.

One of Qatar’s greatest untapped resources is it’s miles and miles of completely undeveloped beach. If you don’t mind a lack of facilities and a short hike, it’s easy to find beautiful beaches without another soul around for miles. The water is an amazing turquoise color, and crystal clear in shallow areas. The sand is coarse and light brown in color. I am told that Qatari women do swim, but typically in places like these, where no one could reasonably see them.

There are no seagulls at the beach here. Not one, it’s very odd. The climate is too harsh to support them. It’s not for the lack of food, as the waters are full of fish, crabs and shellfish. Cranes and other large fishing birds are here, and many other species, including flamingos, stop here as they migrate through to Africa or Asia. The year-round species are all tough desert birds that can handle the lack of fresh water and the high summer temperatures.

There was an amazing number of crabs in the water. I suppose because there are so few seabirds that they have fewer predators than normal, and no competition in the pickings as scavengers. The water is crawling with them. Hermit crabs were the most common, I had never seen them wild before. There were hundreds in every field of vision. Most were pretty small. There were also fiddler crabs in holes along the shore, and then large green crabs on the bottom of the tidal pools and bays.

My kids had great fun catching the smaller crabs…. They are too small to pinch for the most part. Our maid was amazing to watch. She completely comes alive in the water, you can really sense that she’s homesick when she’s at the beach. She dove in and was catching large crabs with her bare hands. I am not sure exactly how she did it, but it involved a scooping motion and a handful of sand, and then she would toss them onto the shore. She never got pinched. She was also digging out large clams. She was very quick and efficient, and I can see that it wouldn’t take her long to collect a meal.

The oysters here look more like clams, they are very symmetrical, and have a dense coating of mother-of-pearl on the inside. They look nothing like the oysters I am used too. This is pearl country, but we haven’t found any yet.

The water is warm and great for swimming. The bottom is sandy. Crabs aren’t nearly as common in the surf, but there are stonefish… a bottom dweller that can carry a nasty sting… just shuffle your feet to avoid them. The waves are small in the Gulf, and there are few storms. A fair number of people were swimming, but the beaches are never really crowded.

Some of the beaches here would be world famous if they were located anywhere else. The fishing is great, the water seems healthy, and the scenery is beautiful. Qatar is mostly pretty flat, it’s a limestone peninsula with very little topsoil (topsoil hell, it’s SAND!). There are many large limestone rock formations in the country, especially along parts of the coast, so these add to the scenery.

Oud and nargile

Beach, Al-Wakra

Beach at Al-Wakra

Al-Wakra

Old minaret

Mihrab, inside the mosque

Old mosque by the sea

Scuttled fishing dhows

Madinat Al-Shamal, Northern Qatar

Bahraini artist, Doha Cultural Festival 2005

Economic Boom

I came across a couple of good articles about the economic boom here. The articles are actually about Dubai, but they can be applied to Qatar just as well, perhaps even more so. They are spot on. Just click here ...and here.

Doug Casey is one of the few Americans who seem to have caught on to this place as something more than where the oil comes from.

Here is a press release from the World Economic Forum’s recent conference here in Doha. They ranked Qatar #1 in the region for competitiveness. No, not just because they held the conference here, it’s true! No, really! Actually the several Gulf states share the potential to become major economic engines, much more so than they already are.

Qatari artist, Doha Cultural Festival 2005

Maid Abuse

I try not to mention politics or political issues too much on this blog. There is a reason for this. The internet is full of endless chatter for, against, and about virtually anything you could think of. While my opposition to the war in Iraq and Bush’s campaign against civil liberties and due process at home are well known, there are many voices out there far more eloquent than mine that address those issues. There are, however, a dearth of sites that address ex-pat Americans adjusting to life in the middle east. I am filling a niche, so to speak. On the other hand, while political issues are not the core function of the blog, as certain issues cross our path, we are honor-bound to address them. Thus the case of Nur Miyati.

It’s odd that I should discover this article today of all days. My own housemaid dropped our baby today… the baby is fine, she hit a well-carpeted area from a distance of less than a meter. After being quite annoyed for a few minutes, she calmed back down to her happy normal self, with no signs or symptoms that would indicate that she is any worse for it. No big deal, right? What I found striking though, was my housemaid’s reaction. She thought I was going to beat her!

I asked her if any of her previous employers had ever beaten her, and she denied it, but it was very strange to me that she would conclude that a beating would be our response to this event. We have very good relations with her, she eats with us, we talk and laugh, we have never threatened her. Even today, I don’t think anything we said or did would indicate that we would punish or harm her. I am forced to conclude that she has heard enough stories from others to believe that a beating is a common punishment levied against maids by people in the Gulf.

After assuring her multiple times that we would never beat her, we decided to try an experiment. My wife started calling her Qatari friends, told them what had happened, and asked what they would do. Overwhelmingly, the response was along the lines of “Don’t worry, these things happen….. I dropped my baby once and ….. Don’t be hard on her, accidents happen….” and some asked how rigorously we had trained her in proper transfer of the baby (we had, the baby arched her back unexpectedly when being picked up).

So on the one hand our maid fears abuse, yet on the other our Qatari friends (all of whom have maids) were all very understanding, and none even remotely suggested punishment of any kind, let alone beating. There is quite a bit of distance between those two realities. I am guessing that maid abuse must be common enough that all maids know of it, and expect it sooner or later, but not so common that any particular employer will hear a first hand account of it through friends, or his maids.

Our own maid has had two previous employers, one in Saudi and one here. The Saudi employer was ok she says. They were very strict Muslims, so she never saw much of the man. It would be untoward for him to ever be alone with her, or to speak to her unless in the presence of his wife, so she never saw much of him. Other than that, and the fact that they had a lot of kids that she was not allowed to play with… she was to be strictly a maid, not a nanny, otherwise things were pretty normal.

The second employer transferred her to us, because they weren’t getting along. Our maid has limited Arabic skills, although she speaks great English, and she can’t cook much. The woman of the house spoke no English, had no children, and expected someone who could put on elaborate meals for guests. The language problem, while easily surmountable, just made things worse as misunderstandings arose. They decided that everyone would be happier if she went elsewhere.

Neither of these employers ever punished her. Norcaida (our maid) does say that she has heard of many cases of beatings and sexual abuse, but not first hand accounts. What I am wondering is just how prevalent is it? 10%, 1%, 0.001%? The rate of abuse makes a huge difference. Is it an epidemic, or are these just rare cases that are well publicized? (or oft repeated in the maid rumor mills).

It’s not something that could be easily kept a secret unless the family was very reclusive. Everybody knows everything about everybody else around here. It’s just how it is. Gossip is the national pastime. Yeah, I know, it’s un-Islamic and all of that, but it’s true. Qataris are very social people for the most part, and people talk. At social events (frequent), the men go one way, the women go another, and the maids another, they all talk, and no one talks more than the maids (they know everything!). At the end of the evening you can put together a pretty amazing composite of information.

If someone were to make a sexual advance on a maid for instance, I would expect that not only would the man’s wife find out, but so would her sisters and all of her friends, not to mention their maids, who would have found out first.

I am tempted to say that maid abuse is rare, but I also don’t want to minimize it. It is absolutely awful, especially considering the dependent relationship that maids have upon their sponsors. It’s deplorable. I know that the embassies here do help women who want to go home, as does the government. By law a maid can’t be kept here against her will, and every month, a dozen or so Indonesians show up at the embassy and ask to be repatriated. The embassy flies them home, I think they must have some kind of arrangement with the Qatari government on this. The Indonesian and Sri Lankan embassies are especially conscientious I am told, and the Philippino embassy less so.

I would expect that the article is probably accurate in bandying around numbers of 1% or so being repatriated. I haven’t heard of any cases of violence against maids, but I have read of a couple of cases in the local paper. I did hear of one case where a maid was brought in to a hospital comatose, (they had waited too long), and the sponsor was unconcerned. He said to the nurses “It’s no problem, I can have another maid here in two weeks.” As if they were concerned about HIM and his not having help at home! That was a rumor though. They say the maid recovered.

So who are these women, and why do they do this? My maid comes from the fourth, not third, world. Heck, maybe it’s the fifth! She is from a remote island near Mindanao, in the Philippines. To her, Manila is a big, rich city full of opportunity, and very expensive. So expensive that it is risky to try to make a living there. Her perspective of Manila is similar to say, a sharecropper in Mississippi looking at Chicago.

Norcaida’s family are subsistence farmers. They used to be sharecroppers, but thanks to a big family full of girls who work as maids, her father has bought his small piece of land. They live almost completely without cash, except for that generated by the daughters. The land produces a small amount of cash in the form of coffee and other “cash crops” (sometimes they pay off and sometimes they don’t), but most of what is grown is eaten by her extended family, or traded to neighbors for services. They catch plenty of fish. Norcaida knows how to make fish traps and says she is quite good at spearing them with bamboo spears. I believe her.

Her family has no electricity, and no running water. They cook over an open fire, either by boiling or grilling. They use no spices! I couldn’t believe that one but she swears it’s true. I am sending packets of seeds with her when she goes home, herbs and so forth. At certain times of year they may eat nothing but plain rice, at others, nothing but sweet potatoes. Her life to me sounds about par with that of a medieval peasant in Europe.

She is great with the kids, for the most part, but has limited experience with modern accoutrements, and little sense of the dangers that they may possess. Until she has a firsthand experience with something, it’s hard for her to extrapolate what might be dangerous. Some would call this a lack of common sense, but I think it’s really a lack of modern experience. I would be a real “babe in the woods” in her world too.

She tells the kids stories from home, and frequently I have to monitor them or have her retract them. In one case she was telling my son that there are flying naked vampires that come into your window at night and suck your blood. In another, she said that if a Muslim and a Christian marry, their children will be one half red, and one half white, split right down the middle (never mind that Philippino Christians and Muslims are of the same race, and neither is white or red!). Are these just stories from an active imagination? No, she truly believes them! No amount of skepticism on my part dissuades her.

She speaks a language I can’t pronounce as her native tongue, Tagalog (the Philippino national language) is her second language. She speaks and reads English and some Arabic, and has very little formal education. She is bright, but due to circumstances has few skills that would translate into money, aside from working as a maid. As a maid she can earn more in a couple of years than her family has earned in their entire lives.

Recruiters pass through areas like Norcaida’s, looking for prospects to work abroad, and many go. Labor is the Philppines’ largest export, and remittances are it’s largest source of foreign exchange. Educated Philippinos go to the US to work as nurses or programmers, and the uneducated go to work as common labor in the Gulf and elsewhere.

Most maids around here are not “new” to this work. Families prefer to hire women with experience, and the average maid that I know, if there is such a thing as “average”, is probably on her third two year contract. Women tend to do this for several years, with some staying for decades. Typically an unmarried woman may be a maid for a few years, then go home and get married, but she may return to being a maid later, either when her children are older, or even while they are still young, if necessary.

Tragedy leads a lot of women into being maids. A common story is that a woman’s husband dies, and she is left with young children and no means of support. She farms the kids out to a relative, then works abroad as a maid, supporting both them and their care-givers with her remittances. She may miss nearly all of their childhood in some cases, although she will go home at least once every two years for a month or two. I am told that it beats starving (direct quote from “Rose”, who has been working in Qatar for over a decade).

So what to do about women like Nur Miyati? I think that the best thing is exactly what is being done… publicize the cases of abuse highly and prosecute the perpetrators to the full extent of the law. Abusive employers can only exist in a climate of secrecy, if these cases are reported adequately, hopefully they will become very rare.

Nur Miyati (photo from Reuters)

Despicable

Here is a photo of Nur Miyati, an Indonesian woman who was beaten and tortured by her Saudi employer. She was working in Saudi as a housemaid. You can read the whole story here.

Qatari artist

Welcome, Leila!

I would like to welcome Leila M. to my blog. She is an old friend from the states, and has agreed to be my “technical advisor”. The fact is I couldn’t code my way out of a paper bag, and as simple as these blog formats are, there are things I still can’t seem to get right, ….like setting up links! The content will be from me, unless of course Leila packs up her family and comes on over to Qatar! You can check out her blog here. Thanks Leila!

Some Are More Equal Than Others...

Life can be very different here, depending upon which passport you hold. Ex-pats working side by side at the same job may have profoundly different experiences and lifestyles, depending upon where they are from. Salaries are pegged to nationality, as well as education and experience.

There is a reason for this. If salaries for each job were level, regardless of nationality, then compensation that would seem great to a Cuban, might be insufficient to attract someone from the EU. Qatar wants to fill it’s professional jobs with people from a wide range of backgrounds. A certain synergy is created when people from all over the world collaborate with each other. The idea is that the “best way” to do something will probably result sooner or later. Everybody brings something different to the table.

The downside of this is that two people with the same qualifications, doing the same job, will receive dramatically different compensation. It can create tension at work, and has for us to some degree. I think the best approach is to be positive and cheerful but always mindful of it, and not say or do things that bring attention to the fact. The “mix” of people in most professions is that most are from (usually Asian) countries with relatively low wages, followed by a smaller number from other Arab countries, mostly Egypt, Syria and Jordan, with a few westerners up at the top of the earnings curve. There is an effort to get Qataris in these jobs as well, and most workplaces have some, but the process is slow.

The tiered wage system assures that there will be some westerners on site, as well as people from other areas outside of the labor “bargain basement”. A conscientious effort is made to set aside a certain number of spots for non-Qatari Arabs. Part of this is probably pan-Arab loyalty, but I think mostly it’s to make sure that at least a certain percentage of staff at a certain facility speak Arabic well.

Westerners receive pretty generous compensation. Most live in spacious accommodations and have few financial worries. People from other Arab nations may do almost as well, but more commonly will earn half or less of what their western counterparts will. Arab ex-pats are more likely to live in apartments than villas. Unlike the westerners, few ex-pat Arab families have maids.

The next tier of workers are from places like the Philippines, Pakistan, Indonesia and similar places, even Cuba (yes, they are here, quite strange!). They receive substantially less than their Arab counterparts. Compensation and lifestyle will vary dramatically depending upon the type of job they do. A Phillipino physician will live much better than a Phillipino laborer, obviously. The professional jobs in this category still offer a pretty decent lifestyle. The blue collar workers from this category lead a different sort of life altogether, although arguably better than where they came from.

The bottom tier of the Qatari labor hierarchy is occupied by those from Nepal, Bangladesh, and the poorest districts of India. The overwhelming majority of these jobs are as unskilled or semi-skilled labor. The work is hard and often dangerous, and the lifestyle Spartan.

Workers at the bottom usually earn about 1000 rials a month, a bit less than $300. Accommodations vary widely, depending upon the job. Most workers get free housing but not all. Qataris love to house their workers in the same spot that they work; it saves on transport costs I suppose, so this means that most factories and even retail shops have housing attached, either behind or on top of the place of business.

Large companies may have barracks or dormitory style housing for workers. Others opt for apartments, but these are shared among several workers. Typically people in this category can expect to have roommates. Rural settings like farms and the camel pens offer simple, rough quarters. Many East Africans work there, and often just throw a mattress out under the stars. Rural areas often don’t have electricity and running water.
Workers in town have electricity, but many cook over portable gas stoves.

It’s rather strange. Natural gas is Qatar’s biggest export, yet Doha doesn’t have gas lines yet. Everyone who uses it has tanks. Wealthier folks have the large, permanent kind outside, and poorer people use the portable tanks. A lot of infrastructure work is still being done here.

The poorer workers in town do all of the grunt work. Qataris don’t fill these jobs. These are the groundskeepers, laborers, construction crews, factory workers, drivers, and tradesmen. The typical worker supports an extended family at home with remittances, and is often here for many years. By law all workers must be sent home at least once every two years at the expense of the employer, for a vacation.

I am surprised at how few save their money. A Nepali friend told me about his situation. He had been unemployed for two years because of the civil strife in Nepal (he had worked in the tourist industry, now largely defunct). His extended family supported him and his wife and children during that time. Now he went abroad, and his remittances go to support the rest. When he eventually goes home, he won’t have any savings to show for his time in Qatar, but trusts that other members of his family will then pick up the slack. I have heard of others in this situation too, including my maid.

The poorest workers cannot bring their families to Qatar. In order to bring family, a worker has to earn at least 3000 rials per month. This means that the bulk of the blue collar work force are here alone. This is why the male to female ratio in Qatar is two to one (and also why even non-muslim women sometimes wear niqab to the souqs!). Professionals all earn enough to bring family, and usually do.

The Arab ex-pats here work a lot of the mid-range jobs. These are your car salesmen, bank tellers, travel agents, restaurant co-owners (gotta have that Qatari partner!), and so forth, as well as university professors, engineers etc. They are the ex-pat “middle class”, and live pretty well. Most are saving their money, so they are likely to drive used cars, and not have servants.

Ex-pats are four fifths of the population of Qatar, and the mainspring of the Qatari economy. It’s a real melting pot, but because these people are here only temporarily, it’s a pot that mixes but doesn’t blend. Most ex-pats lead lives fairly similar to where they came from, even down to the products they buy. It’s as if there are many insular bubbles of communities, filled only with one’s own countrymen and customs. It’s easy enough to break out of this though, if you want to.

Workers have rights in Qatar, but enforcement is sometimes difficult, because employers hold so much leverage over their employees. Not just wages, but housing and sometimes even food is provided by one’s employer, so speaking up takes courage. The main issues I have heard about in this regard concern workplace safety. Construction sites especially can be notoriously unsafe, and scarcely a week goes by without a workplace fatality someplace in Qatar.

The reasons are numerous. A lot of it is poor training. Many laborers have no experience in their jobs before coming here, and are unaware of safety procedures. Many more have plenty of experience, but practice the same unsafe methods here that they did where they came from. Another problem is that there are so many languages spoken here, that much is lost in translation. Imagine a Qatari project manager describing a procedure to an Urdu speaking foreman, who relays it to his Phillipino crew, who palm the task off onto some Nepalis. A lot gets lost in translation, and things that are “common sense” to one culture frequently aren’t to another. The result is a high accident rate.

A worker who gets out of line may be deported. This is especially true of those who violate the law. Because most workers have many people back home depending on their remittances, most strive to stay out of trouble. Qatar has one of the lowest crime rates in the world.

Obtaining Qatari citizenship is very difficult. People often stay here as residents as long as they wish, but citizenship is only obtained by being born to a Qatari father, or by special invitation. This goes back to the whole Qatari tribal thing. The issue is, what makes a nation? To the Qataris, their “nation” is a specific collection of tribes, more so than a geographic boundary or one’s place of birth. To be “Qatari” implies membership in one of those tribes.

Citizenship is patrilineal, it is given only to those with Qatari fathers. This is because Qatar, being a certain collection of tribes, is also a certain collection of last names. By one’s last name alone, a Qatari can tell what tribe you are from, where they lived, what your ancestors were known for, and how they made their living. Granting citizenship to those without a Qatari father introduces new last names to the mix, and undermines the definition of Qatar as this particular collection of tribes.

The obvious problem with this, is that Qatari women can’t marry foreigners and still give their children Qatari citizenship. Some go ahead and marry them anyway, but their children are resident aliens… ie no annual stipend from the government, no free education, no free land, etc. …a major disadvantage to say the least. The upshot of it is that it’s ok to marry a foreigner, as long as he is rich!

Marriages of Qatari women with men from neighboring Gulf states are common enough. If a Qatari lady marries an Emirati, the fact that her children are not Qatari is a wash, because Emirati benefits are similar. Qatari men on the other hand, often marry further afield. This creates a problem, because if too many Qatari men marry foreigners, the pool of available Qatari husbands for Qatari women shrinks proportionately. There is social pressure to avoid marrying foreigners, especially from a man’s mother and sisters, but some do so anyhow. Polygamy is one way the gap is closed.

Islam allows men to marry up to four women. In practice, polygamy is very rare throughout most of the Arab world, but nowhere is it practiced more than the Gulf. Each wife is entitled to her own home, equal in status with the others, so it is a practice reserved for either very wealthy men, or very poor, rural men. Therefore the places that it is most common are the Gulf, and also some of the very poorest backwaters of the Islamic world.

It’s difficult to get hard data on this, but I have heard that about 5% of Qataris are involved in polygamous marriages. This seems about right. That’s probably roughly equivalent to the percentage of men who marry foreigners. It’s hard to know if someone is, or is not, multiply married because it’s rude to ask a man about his wife. You can ask about his kids, but not his wife. You usually won’t know unless he either mentions it himself, or you see him out and about with the whole crew.

In my travels here, I have met three men who have more than one wife (that I know of). All are wealthy. The first case was a situation that would otherwise have ended in divorce. The man lives with #2, but continues to support his other wife and children. They lead separate lives, but for whatever reason have chosen to stay married. The other two guys have four wives each, but I don’t know either of them well enough to get into the how’s and why’s of it. I wonder if there was resistance or protest on the part of the other wives.

The divorce rate here is about 30% and rising. The odds increase with the level of education possessed by the couple. I guess that’s about standard anywhere. The average age of marriage is on the rise too. Just a generation ago, most women married at eighteen or so, some much younger than that. The average age is in the early twenties now, and is a topic of concern for some. You can’t have both a strict morality code and late marriages in a society without creating strife.

Some are adopting creative solutions, like marrying young, but maintaining a relationship with the spouse much like “dating” in the west. Their relationship mirrors a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, and they may still live with their parents, but they are married. If the relationship ends, they divorce with no strings. Couples in this situation postpone the “big wedding” ceremony (and the big dowry) until they are more settled in their lives, but even so, a dowry is given, and their bond is legal. These couples postpone having children too of course. As Qatar changes, I suppose we can expect more of these adaptations of custom to modern necessity.

Smile!

Animal Farm

We went out to the Dosari farm today. It’s a difficult place to describe, it’s part amateur zoo, part theme park, and part folklore festival. The owner has a large piece of land north of Shahaniya, near the camel track. He began collecting animals and hosting visitors on Fridays to view them. As time passed, the operation grew more elaborate and more features were added.

There is a huge collection of ostriches out there, I suspect he serves the eggs and meat to his guests at home as a rare delicacy. There are also monkeys, baboons, wolves, deer, all sorts of birds, as well as standard Qatari livestock... ie camels, donkeys, horses, sheep, goats, chickens etc. You may interact with the domestic animals as you please, within reason. My son got bucked off a donkey in true rodeo fashion. He didn’t even cry. The kids held and played with lambs and baby goats, fed the camels and horses, chased the chickens and generally had a great time. People feed the wild animals as well, although they are caged.

We rode four-wheelers (quadbikes) over a rough track. My two year old loved it, she had her hands out at a wide angle on the handlebars and leaned back in my lap like Easy Rider. Maybe she’ll be a motorcycle mama, we’ll see. There are ostrich and camel rides (yes, I said ostrich!) we passed on those but the kids rode the horses and donkeys. My son loved the (tame) donkey ride so much that he jumped into a pen full of them with some Qatari kids and just hopped on them bareback. It was hilarious. Liability insurance would make this place impossible in the states.

There were traditional singing and dancing displays, and contests and games for kids. There are inflatable slides and trampolines, and a train ride. There are stuffed displays of every animal native to Qatar. Most of the people who go there are Qatari, with non-western ex-pats making up a large plurality of the guests. Westerners don’t go there much, but there are always a few. This place is open only on Fridays after the midday prayer. How much does all of this cost? …Nothing! It’s free.

Mohammed Dosari does this because he likes to, so at great expense and trouble to himself, he puts the whole thing on for nothing. Qatar is like that.

What he does get out of it is a great reputation for hospitality and the goodwill of his countrymen. In Qatar that’s a currency worth more than gold.

A lot of people here have passive income. The royalties from Qatar’s main business, gas and oil, flow to pretty much everyone in varying amounts. Also every business in Qatar must be at least 51% Qatari owned, and Qataris own all of the real estate except for a few new developments that are opening specifically to accommodate foreign ownership. Most listings on the local stock exchange are limited to Gulf residents as well.

The real estate alone generates a fortune in rents, and that is the main source of income for many families. Eighty percent of the population here rents (the ex-pats), either directly or paid for by their employers. Typically a Qatari family builds some villas or apartments on a piece of land, fills them with ex-pats through government contract, and collects generous rents ad infinitum. Rents are high and building costs are low due to cheap labor so the equation works well at the moment.

Qatar protects it’s economy from foreign ownership because it so tiny. There is a fear of foreign ownership and influence. It wouldn’t take a lot of foreign capital coming in to really upset the balance here, especially in the real estate market. The protectionism actually makes real estate prices artificially low (limited pool of buyers), but the rents are unrestricted, so sooner or later prices follow. There is talk of loosening this up. I think that people are waiting to see what is going to happen with the new projects that are open to foreigners. Each unit purchased comes with a permanent residency visa, so they will cater to the tax-haven crowd. These places cost substantially more than similar places restricted to Qatari ownership, but that may narrow if a lot more are brought onto the market.

Banking here is interesting. Charging interest is legal. Most banks here operate just like they do anywhere else, but there are a few Islamic banks as well. Islam considers buying and selling legal, but forbids charging interest so these operate slightly differently. Rather than charge interest, the bank purchases a piece of property or a car on your behalf, then resells it to you at a set price, calculated by the term of the pay-off. The net result is exactly the same as a regular loan, but because it technically is not a loan, these banks garner a lot of business from people that would otherwise reject banks for religious reasons.

Islamic countries have typically had difficulty accumulating and managing capital because so many people have rejected the concept of banking a priori. Islamic banking, which is relatively new, may provide the solution. I believe they pay a dividend to large depositors, much like a credit union, but I am not sure. In any case, despite the Islamic banks there is still a huge market for combination safes (for cash and gold), ...most people have them. Old habits die hard!

Monica Seles in Qatari-wear

Bridal Jewelry

This is a photo of Monica Seles when she won the Qatar Open a couple of years back. The jewelry on her head is a typical component of Qatari bridal jewelry. Now imagine her with a similar piece covering her chest, a large ornate necklace, a mesh of chains linked by five rings on each of her hands, likewise on her feet, plus large earrings, lots of bangle bracelets, and a few extra rings thrown in for good measure. Some even have golden belts. The whole kit can add up to a couple of kilos or more. These are some strong ladies in order to be able to carry that much gold around! The dress is of a traditional variety as well.