"(This) once-sleepy country has changed almost beyond recognition"
- Jane Kinninmont
We stepped into the elevator to the passenger tunnel that would take us across the busy street. Just before the door closed a Qatari man and his family stepped in. They were wearing what we have come to discover as the 'uniform' of actual Qatari people.
The man was wearing the classic Thobe robe and gutra head wear. He was rich. The Montblanc pen and flashy Rolex watch was a giveaway. Beside him was his seven year old daughter who was in an immaculate little fashionable dress with her hair done and complete with a pill box leopard hat. She was naturally shy when she saw us and compared to her little outfit, we looked like schleps. Who could blame her? She looked to her Mother for reassurance.
Her mother was dressed in a Abaya (a long, black robe that covers the entire body). On here head was a variant of a hijab. This one covered her entire face with no eye holes. ( a Burqa) It was dropped over her forcing her to see through a black gossamer veil. She was forced to hold on to her husband's arm so he could guide her since she was severely visually impaired.
We couldn't help to think about this little girl. "Was this what she had to look forward to?"
Qatar is a very conservative country. The dress codes not only apply to the citizens but to visitors as well. If a traveler is wearing shorts or a sleeveless shirt in this blistering landscape that can and often are stopped by the police.
It is also a very clean country. I mean the whole place smells like a new car. Everything has been recently built. There is no trash of graffiti. For many years Qatar was considered the 'poor cousins' to her rich neighbors. All of that changed in the early 1990's when Qatar figured out how to manufacture and ship liquified natural gas. Then the money just exploded the country. Suddenly the 'poor cousins' are now the richest people in the world.
In order to fuel this level of change, Qatari's needed workers. Today 2/3 of the population of the country is hired help. Most of these workers are from India, Africa, and Southeast Asia. They come on contracts and live in segregated areas. There lives are not great and they have few rights, but the money is better than what they can get at home. They are not allowed to live permanently in the country.
It is these immigrants that we have seen the most above while we have visited here. Qatari's do not do manual work for the most part. They have hired help. So everywhere we have met some very nice people from Kenya to the Philippines. It is only rarely do we see Qatari's out in the shops wearing the classic local 'uniforms'.
In fact, despite the glistening new metro and malls, the place was largely empty when we walked through Souq Waqif - the local shopping village here for tourists. When we rode the metro, we found mostly immigrants with us. Qatari's even have a separate gate at the airport so 'they do not have to mingle'. It is an odd place - bright, shiny, new, and empty. It is hard to imagine The World Cup flooding into here in 2022.
This is the Metro in the middle of the day -
Here is a good story about the country from the BBC
The weather has been surprisingly nice, mostly in the 70's. The locals are walking around in sweaters as if they are facing a chilly Indiana morning. Below you will find some images from our walk today.
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