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!