Qatar Man
”He can make you love, he can get you high
He will bring you down then he'll make you cry
Somethin' keeps him movin' but no one seems to know
What it is that makes him go.”
Well as some of you may or may not know I am now in Doha Qatar working on another and completely different project. Smart City the project I left in Dubai is still going but much slower. I was part of large shuffle of staff at the end of the year as Dubai Projects were cancelled and the economy there cratered. I am actually very happy to have a job as many people I came to know do not. So as Wesley my friend in New Orleans asked “where in the ding dong hell is Doha Qatar, the following map should help.
Wanted to throw in a picture of my good friend Lord Severs and the "Fixer" Naji who gets our paperwork and residency permits taken care of.
Wanted to throw in a picture of my good friend Lord Severs and the "Fixer" Naji who gets our paperwork and residency permits taken care of.
Qatar is nice as far as the Middle East goes. It is not as hyped up as Dubai was, but there is still a large amount of building going on here. The World financial crisis is just starting to take hold here, albeit without the vengeance visited on Dubai. There is still this fundamental problem with the "I will build it, they will come" mentality here.
I do not think they are coming.
Qatar is a beautiful place in a dusty sort of way. The city surrounds a beautiful bay with emerald green water and a Corniche (like a river walk) all of the way around it. They have built a quite beautiful skyline even if it is usually obscured somewhat by the dust in the air and clinging to everything around you, it almost never rains, so the City just gathers dust.
These are video clips that I took of a sandstorm moving into Doha.
And the Skyline looking from the East Bay (old town) to the West Bay (downtown) from the top of the building I work in. The Corniche extends all the way around the Bay from the right of this picture to the right end of the skyline across the bay.
I do not think they are coming.
Qatar is a beautiful place in a dusty sort of way. The city surrounds a beautiful bay with emerald green water and a Corniche (like a river walk) all of the way around it. They have built a quite beautiful skyline even if it is usually obscured somewhat by the dust in the air and clinging to everything around you, it almost never rains, so the City just gathers dust.
These are video clips that I took of a sandstorm moving into Doha.
And the Skyline looking from the East Bay (old town) to the West Bay (downtown) from the top of the building I work in. The Corniche extends all the way around the Bay from the right of this picture to the right end of the skyline across the bay.
The museum of Islamic art http://www.mia.org.qa/english/index.html#home is one of the most stunning buildings I have seen, designed by I. M. Pei, and housing a very large collection of cultural art and history that should not be missed by anyone coming here. By the way, entry is free.
Museum from the water during a cruise we took one after noon on a Dow
The Cruise
The lobby looking toward the entrance
Shah Jaha (the man that built the Taj Mahal in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal) commissioned this solid gold parrot encrusted with diamonds sapphires emeralds and other precious stones. This guy was very in love and very cool.
Neat armored horse and rider
Biggest oriental rug I have ever seen.
Biggest oriental rug I have ever seen.
The Souk Waqif puts the Souks (markets) in Dubai to shame. They have all been completely rebuilt by the Governments, but here, they got it exactly right. It is a wonderful place to stroll and shop in the cooler days of winter or evenings. You will see spices, Abaya’s, antiques, Falcons, Arabian Horses, and some great restaurants. Where else in the world are hobby hawks, over a hundred in their own building, for sale from QR.5000 to QR.1,400,000?. They say the baby Camel is delicious, but the name of the dish puts me off.
The Falcon Souq
The driving here is a little more aggressive than Dubai, which I compared with chariot racing, here its more like out of Mad Max. There are lots of roundabouts and after sitting in traffic people like to go as fast as they can around the roundabout and keep everyone else out. On the roads, when the traffic is moving, get out of the way or get run over. When it’s moving at a crawl be prepared to play chicken with the guy or gal trying to wedge into and out of the traffic as they battle to get ahead of you at all costs. Night driving is also fun, especially with women dressed in all black Abaya’s leisurely crossing the road.
My new position is very interesting and challenging as we are setting up a project management company from scratch for the largest developers in Qatar. I am working on management controls and we also manage some of the developers projects which are usually over a $billion with the largest being $32 Billion. You just do not get the opportunity to work on this scale in the U.S. We are also getting involved in the strategic planning for the water, sewer, roads, and other utility infrastructure components. It seems nobody had a plan to cope with all of this growth from an infrastructure standpoint. As a result many developments are going to be finished and just sit waiting for utilities.
So after 6 months here I have come to the conclusion that this is just not a place I want to live. Sue would be miserable here and being apart is just not worth it. I am looking at options closer to home or in the U.S. We’ll see how that goes in this economy, wish me luck.
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