Arcadis

Doha Metro Gold line design

Progress on the Doha Metro continued to move forward this month after an international engineering consultancy began preparing detailed design and architectural finishes for stations on the Gold Line.

Arcadis, which is headquartered in Amsterdam and has subsidiaries in Doha, said today that it had won a contract worth nearly €20 million (QR81.51 million) to provide architectural, branding, design and construction consultancy services for 10 of the 13 Gold Line stations. Work began earlier this month, the company said.

“The design element of the metro line will be absolutely critical to Doha and its community,” said Sameer Daoud, the infrastructure global business leader of Arcadis in the Middle East, in a statement.

Once the first phase of the metro is completed, the Gold Line will run from Villaggio Mall to past the old airport via Msheireb.

Qatar Rail

Phase one of the Doha Metro is scheduled to be operational by 2019.

It is one of four lines that are currently under construction and expected to enter operations in 2019. The others are:

• The Red Line North, running from a connection with Lusail’s light-rail line to Msheireb via West Bay;
• The Red Line South, running from Msheireb to Mesaieed, with a branch to Hamad International Airport; and
• The Green Line, running from Al Rayyan Stadium to Msheireb via Education City.

UN Studio

Doha Metro rendering

Arcadis said it has a similar design contract to work on the Red Line South.

Last September, the principal architect for the project – Dutch firm UNStudio – published renderings to illustrate how elements of the project would look.

It said its design “forms a bridge between the past and the future of Qatar, drawing inspiration from the vast regional architectural lexicon, whilst simultaneously representing an effective vision of modernisation and preservation.”

Other projects

The metro project is one of three major public transportation projects planned for Qatar. The 38-station Lusail LRT is also expected to enter operations in 2019 and will connect to the Red Line North.

Qatar Rail

Al Mayeda TBM breakthrough at Msheireb station

A high-speed, long-distance rail line is also planned to run between Education City and the border with Saudi Arabia as part of a broader GCC rail network.

Despite reported delays in qualifying contractors for that project, Qatar Rail officials said in April that the long-distance passenger and freight line is still scheduled to enter operations by 2018.

The Doha Metro project reached a symbolic milestone earlier this month when a tunnel boring machine broke through the earth to reach Msheireb station.

So far, contractors have completed approximately 30km of the tunneling, which accounts for more than a quarter of the necessary excavation works, Qatar Rail said earlier this month.

Thoughts?

(The post Arcadis wins QR81.5 million Doha Metro station design contract is from Doha News.)

QP/Facebook

Photo for illustrative purposes only.

Qatar Petroleum (QP) has wrapped up its eight-month restructuring process and has no immediate plans to lay off any more staff, the company’s president and CEO said in the first official comment on the subject.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi, who took over the top job at the state-owned petroleum company last September, refused to confirm how many people were affected by the retrenchment program, which has been underway since November 2014.

Qatar Petroleum/Facebook

QP CEO Saad Sherida al-Kaabi

However, unconfirmed reports put the figure in the thousands. As part of the cull, several long-standing and experienced staffers have apparently had their contracts terminated, including those over the official QP retirement age of 60.

Earlier this year, unnamed industry sources told Reuters that the job cuts to the organization’s 14,000-strong workforce could involve losing up to 30 percent of employees in some areas.

‘Right-sizing’

Al-Kaabi described the reorganization as a “right-sizing” to create a more streamlined company.

“We have ‘right-sized’ our organization to be more dynamic and efficient and it’s complete as per our original plans. There are no plans for a further restructuring, at least at this point of time,” the Peninsula quotes him as saying to reporters yesterday, adding that no Qatari employees were laid off during the process.

But he declined to put a figure on the number of staffers who have lost their jobs or the total number of current employees, saying: “I am ready to take any questions, but not the number of employees whose contracts were not renewed. It will hurt sentiments, which I do not want.”

RasGas

Al-Kaabi also appears to have stopped short of promising job security for staff at QP’s subsidiary companies, which include RasGas, QatarGas, Qatalum and QChem, among others.

These firms are reviewing their requirements based on business needs and will make their own decisions on staffing, Gulf Times reported him as saying.

Plans for the corporate restructure are understood to have begun before the global oil price crashed.

However, as the world’s largest producer and exporter of liquified natural gas (LNG), Qatar has felt the impact of the dip.

“While we have no control over markets and prices, we do have control over our costs and expenditure,” Reuters reports Al-Kaabi as saying, adding that the firm had now reached a size which would make it dynamic and efficient. “This will be a stable organization going forward.”

Oil and gas focus

In addition to layoffs, QP will cease non-core business operations involving insurance, catering and service companies that will instead become part of the private sector, Al-Kaaba said, adding: “Today we have incubated them, they have grown…so it’s best to focus on our core business, oil and gas.”

At the beginning of this year, QP confirmed that it would be absorbing its wholly-owned subsidiary Qatar Petroleum International (QPI), which was formed in 2007 as a foreign investment arm, into the parent firm.

QPI had created 10 joint ventures in countries including the United States, Britain, Italy, Singapore and Egypt.

As part of the review of projects at the organization, QP also confirmed in January that it would not be proceeding with its $6.4 billion Al Karaana petrochemical project it had been due to undertake in Qatar in partnership with Shell.

However, Al-Kaabi said that QP was continuing with other international ventures, including a liquefaction plant in Texas, known as the Golden Pass.

If US regulators approve an export licence for the project, construction on it is expected to get underway next year, Bloomberg said.

“We are very ambitious internationally. We are focusing on the upstream business,” the business newswire quotes Al-Kaabi as saying.

Thoughts?

(The post Qatar Petroleum chief says no more job losses for now is from Doha News.)

Shabina S. Khatri

Appeals court

The nephew of an elderly Qatari woman who was killed in 2012 has expressed frustration this week over a Court of Appeal decision to delay delivering its verdict until after the summer break.

The court said it would hear more arguments this fall because the three men convicted of killing the woman lacked legal counsel.

Supar Manyn Alagba, 44, Shela Duwai Peyromal, 41 and 22-year-old Sevakumar Arashan confessed to breaking into the woman’s home in the middle of the night and stabbing her to death as they robbed the villa.

UAA Justice Center For Students

Photo for illustrative purposes only.

A judge found all three guilty of first-degree intentional murder, armed robbery, breaking and entering and weapons offenses and on Dec. 31, 2014, sentenced them to death by firing squad.

The men appealed the lower court’s verdict. After several sessions, a judge scheduled a hearing for this past Monday to deliver his verdict.

But to the dismay of the victim’s family, the court decided to reopen the trial and schedule a hearing for Nov. 18 to hear more arguments with lawyers present to represent the convicted men.

“Although we were content with the lower court’s verdict, the trial has taken too long,” Rashid Al-Kuwari, the nephew of the deceased woman, told Doha News. He added that he went to court on Monday expecting to hear that the lower court’s verdict had been upheld.

“My aunt was killed in 2012. It’s 2015 now and it’s still not over.”

Murder trial

The convicted men worked in construction, and were former neighbors of the 81-year-old woman, who lived in the Al Salata area of Doha. They would occasionally perform odd jobs and join her for meals during Ramadan despite not being Muslim.

A month after they moved away from the area, the men – wearing gloves and armed with two knives and a hammer – returned to Al Salata, climbed the wall of the woman’s villa and entered through a side door.

Brian Anderson/Flickr

Photo for illustrative purposes only.

According to the official court verdict, once the men were inside the home, the two older defendants knocked on the woman’s ground-floor bedroom door.

The victim opened it and was pulled outside. While one man pinned her arms behind her back, the other covered her mouth and stabbed her in the right side of her chest with a knife. Forensic examiners would later determine that initial wound to be fatal.

As she fell, she was stabbed in the back by the other man, kicked in the face and dragged into the bathroom.

“They killed the victim for fear of her identifying them,” the court ruling concluded.

Witness

Hearing the commotion, a 26-year-old domestic worker who had been sleeping upstairs left her room and began walking down the stairs, where she was attacked by one of the men armed with a knife.

After a brief struggle that left her with deep cuts in her hands as well as bruises on her neck and leg, the woman retreated to her room, locked the door and called for help.

The men fled with the deceased woman’s mobile phone and several perfume bottles, but were subsequently arrested by police after being identified by the domestic worker.

She knew them from their work in the house and, according to the defendant’s testimony, because she had a relationship with one of the men. However, she was not suspected of being part of the robbery.

A-Rahiem/Flickr

Photo of Al Wakrah coast for illustrative purposes only.

The men confessed to police and prosecutors and led investigators to where one of the knives had been dumped near Al Wakrah.

The defense lawyer for the third defendant argued during the criminal trial that his client only intended to rob the woman and not to kill her.

However, the court said a person is still responsible for “unintended consequences that could be expected” during the commission of a crime and convicted him of murder.

It also rejected arguments by defense lawyers that the prosecutor’s alleged sequence of events was “illogical,” that investigators lacked the authority to search the men’s home in Al Wakrah and obtained their confessions under duress.

On the contrary, the court concluded that the statements the men made separately to police and the prosecutor were “free-willed and valid.”

Lacking legal counsel

It’s not clear if the men were without lawyers for all or just some of the appeal hearings. It’s also not known why the sessions were allowed to proceed while the men lacked legal representation.

When a defendant does not have a lawyer and says he or she cannot afford one, an attorney assigned to be on call in the courthouse is typically summoned to take on the case.

It’s unclear why that did not happen in this case. However, in a separate trial last year, several lawyers refused to represent a Pakistani man accused of murdering a 68-year-old Qatari woman.

The attorney who eventually took the case speculated that the victim’s prominence in the local community or the evidence against the defendant may have played a role:

“I think that the previous lawyers dropped the case either because they know the victim’s family, sympathize with them and feel a degree of awkwardness representing the defendant, or because they can see how an open-and-shut case this is and they know in advance that they will lose it,” the attorney, Abdullah Isa al-Ansari, told Doha News in August.

The defendant, Muhammad Zaman Zirdad Khan, was eventually found guilty last November and sentenced to death.

Thoughts?

(The post Appeal court postpones verdict in murdered Qatari woman trial is from Doha News.)

Katara / Facebook

An art exhibition part of Katara\’s Ramadan Festival Miracles and Inventions.

It’s shaping up to be a weekend full of Ramadan-related activities around Qatar. In addition to eating, residents can check out ways to stay fit, build their own wooden majlis and fast for charity. Here are the highlights:

Fast-A-Thon

Keeping with the spirit of Ramadan, Hyatt Plaza has invited non-Muslims to participate in a day of fasting this weekend to help raise money to educate orphans in Somalia.

Hyatt Plaza / Facebook

Fast-a-thon poster

This annual event, which will be held on June 26 and 27, is supported by Qatar Charity, which has pledged to donate QR200 per participant. Proceeds from the fast will support the “Help the Orphans” program, which aims to teach some 500 orphaned and impoverished Somalian children English. The day will culminate in a free iftar party and communal roundtable about the fasting experience.

Interested participants are requested to register online via the Hyatt Plaza website, or by sending email to fast-a-thon@hyattplaza.com, or calling 4499-9666. Participants can also register in person prior to June 26 at the mall’s customer service desk.

All participants are required to attend an orientation session at 4pm on Friday, June 26 at the Hyatt Plaza foodcourt.

Katara Ramadan festivities

As part of its ongoing Ramadan offerings schedule, Katara is hosting a market each night from 8:30pm to midnight at the Esplanade, which features several stalls selling traditional goods along with storytelling sessions from 9 to 11:30pm.

An art exhibition part of Katara\’s Ramadan Festival Miracles and Inventions.

Several exhibitions and activities also open up to the public this week. An Ibn Batouta Tour is scheduled to be held daily from 8:30pm to midnight from June 23 to July 6 at the Esplanade.

Meanwhile, eight separate exhibitions focusing on Islam and Islamic traditions and astronomy have also recently opened in Buildings 13, 18, 19 and 22. They will run from 8:30 pm until midnight daily until July 22, and feature everything from interactive book spaces to Ramadan solar lanterns to information about early scientific achievements and Quran verses.

There is also a woodwork workshop offered at the Katara Arts Studios. During the workshop, which will be held every day from 8 to 11 pm on June 26 to July 30 at Building 19, participants will learn basic woodworking techniques, eventually building their very own wooden majlis. The workshops cost QR300 for the series, and interested participants are requested to register by sending their name and phone number via email to education@katara.net or by calling 4408-0233 or 4408-0235.

Katara is also hosting a variety of Islamic talks, including “Fasting – Legislative Miracle” on June 29 from 9 to 10pm at Building 18; and others on the self-determination of youth by Ibrahim Kafif Al Ajmi on June 28 and on the will to live by Dr. Tarek Sweidan on June 25. Both sessions will be held after Ishaa prayers on June 28 at the Katara Opera House.

For more information, see a detailed schedule of events here.

Beach volleyball

Republic of Korea/Flickr

For illustrative purposes only

Watch some of the best amateur beach volleyball teams face off until July 18 at the 5th Katara Beach Volleyball tournament. Matches run for a month and are scheduled to take place from 9pm to 11:30pm daily at the Katara beach volleyball courts, and are free and open to the public.

While registration for participants is closed, the public is still invited to watch the teams compete. Tournament winners will bag a QR30,000 prize, trophies, and gold medals, while the second and third place teams will win QR20,000 and QR10,000 respectively. For more information, visit the event’s website here.

Freej Aspire

Aspire Zone

For illustrative purposes only.

Aspire Zone will open a new Ramadan tent to the public on Thursday, June 25. Dubbed “Freej” or “neighbor,” the open air-cooled tent will have games and kids’ sports, entertainment, folklore activities and other interactive Ramadan events daily from 9pm to midnight until July 6.

The tent will also feature handicraft markets with vendors selling traditional crafts and merchandise, storytelling sessions, and a food court.

Garangao at Ezdan

Shafallah Center

Photo for illustrative purposes only.

Garangao doesn’t officially happen until next week, but kids looking to get an early start can head to Ezdan Mall tomorrow, June 25, from 8:30 to 11pm.

This year, children ages 3 to 12 years old are invited to attend the event and collect treats from stores all over the mall in celebration of Garangao. Registration for the event will be held 30 minutes prior to the event at Gate 1, and a children’s area will be set up in the basement floor for games and activities.

What are your plans this weekend? Thoughts?

(The post Five things to do in Qatar this weekend (June 25-27) is from Doha News.)

Phil Warren/Flickr

Photo for illustrative purposes only.

The Ministry of Interior (MOI) has called on Qatar residents to say no to the increasing number of panhandlers standing outside of public places and “exploiting the spirit of charity” this Ramadan.

In a statement published on Facebook this week, the MOI said:

“Begging is a social evil that increases in the holy month of Ramadan where some stand in the front of masjid (mosques), shopping malls and highly populated streets exploiting the spirit of charity.”

It added that the illegal practice of “begging” gives the country a negative image, and allows those soliciting money to obtain it the “easy way” instead of acquiring a job that benefits the society and the nation.

Residents are instead being urged to donate their money to authorized charities to ensure the money goes to those who really need it.

Chantelle D'mello

Ramadan 2015 Charity Iftar

This year, charities in Qatar have expanded their free iftar dinners and other services to meet increasing demand.

Mixed reaction

In a renewal of past campaigns, the MOI has also asked residents to report panhandlers via its hotlines, 234 7444 /3361 8627.

MOI/Facebook

Photo for illustrative purposes only.

The call received mixed reactions on social media, with some praising the country’s efforts, while others criticized the crackdown as inhumane.

On Facebook, Zii Unlimit said that she’s seen many panhandlers asking for money in Qatar, despite appearing to be in perfect physical shape and thus capable of working.

She added that they “act” needy until they get the cash and count it.

”Great job Qatar – catch (all the) fake beggars,” she said.

However, Alaa Diab criticized the crackdown, saying:

“The irony, aren’t there many men in Qatar dying because of hard labor involving the World Cup with barely any food or water working in extreme hot temperatures? Fix all the problems first, then make these campaigns.”

Commenter Ali Khan added, “How can we say NO to this poor people? This is not humanity.”

And Malak Eguna said:

“There’s nothing wrong to give food or small amount because we don’t know what are the reasons maybe they lost their job and they can’t feed the family.”

The practice of panhandling is relatively rare in Qatar.

Some attribute this to the strict penalties meted out to those found begging, which under the country’s penal code could include jail time of up to one year, in addition to losing all the money obtained from soliciting strangers.

Thoughts?

(The post Qatar residents instructed to refuse and report panhandlers is from Doha News.)

Chris Hoare / Flickr

Chris Hoare / Flickr

As the school year wraps up and one of Qatar’s busiest travel seasons kicks off, authorities have issued advice to residents to ensure their journeys go more smoothly.

In a series of Twitter messages using the hashtag #SafeTravel, the Ministry of Interior has said that preparation is the key to trouble-free traveling, adding that Hamad International Airport (HIA) will see a surge in demand as the annual summer getaway begins.

J Aaron Farr/Flickr

Photo for illustrative purposes only.

Tips included advising residents to ensure they have all the necessary documents for their trip, and that they are valid. This includes passports, visas, airplane tickets and exit permits. Residents should also make sure their residency permits won’t expire while they are on vacation.

Both expats and Qataris can convert their Qatar ID cards into E-gate cards, which allows travelers to fast-track what can be long queues at the airport’s immigration at this time of year, while also avoiding getting their passports filled up with stamps.

E-gate cards can be obtained at the immigration department in Madinat Khalifa for a fee starting at QR200, if residents bring their existing ID card and passport.

If your airline permits, check-in online in advance. Most carriers allow travelers to book seats in advance and order meal preferences, including children’s meals.

To avoid lengthy delays at the airport with overweight luggage, check the weight restrictions and size limits for check-in and carry-on bags for your airline in advance.

Craig Sunter/Flickr

Photo for illustrative purposes only.

Some travel shops sell baggage weighing scales, which allow for re-packing at home rather than at the airport check-in line.

If you know your luggage will be overweight, check if your airline allows you to pre-buy additional luggage allowance. It’s usually cheaper and easier in advance than trying to arrange it at the airport.

The MOI’s final tip includes taking Doha’s traffic into account. With Ramadan underway, peak times for road congestion have changed, so build in extra travel time.

Start to the airport well in advance, in anticipation of traffic congestion and to avoid any delay and missing the flight #SafeTravel

— Ministry of Interior (@MOI_QatarEn) June 24, 2015

Parking reminders

Residents driving their own car to the airport should remember that HIA introduced long-term parking fees at the end of April.

The prices are as follows:

• Each hour or any part thereof will be QR2 each;
• The cost is QR45 for every completed 24 hours; and
• A lost ticket will cost QR35 in addition to the actual tariff for the duration of parking.

Passengers transfer from the parking lot to the airport terminal by a free shuttle-bus, which runs around every 15-20 minutes.

Brian Candy/Flickr

Long term parking at Hamad International Airport

However, there is limited luggage storage on the bus and on its website, HIA advises travelers “arrive well in advance to the long-term car park to avoid any incidents or delays.”

For quick pick-ups, the multi-story short-term parking lot is next to the airport terminal. The first 30 minutes are free, and then costs QR5 for each hour or part-hour after that, which must be pre-paid in the machines before you leave the parking lot.

For those traveling over the next few weeks during Ramadan, cafes and restaurants in and around the check-in areas will be closed during fasting hours. However, eateries and lounges are operating normally throughout the day once passengers clear immigration and passport control, HIA said.

Do you have any more tips for travelers this summer? Thoughts?

(The post Qatar officials offer airport tips ahead of summer rush is from Doha News.)

QNA

Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani

Two years after assuming power in one of the region’s most peaceful government handovers, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has been guiding Qatar through one of the country’s most turbulent periods in recent history.

Only months after being named Emir by his father, Sheikh Tamim found himself at the center of the GCC’s worst diplomatic crisis in a decade.

Meanwhile, the Gulf country also faces mounting criticism over its 2022 World Cup bid and has watched oil prices – which affect much of the nation’s wealth – tumble dramatically.

Omar Chatriwala

Emiri Diwan

In response to these challenges, Sheikh Tamim has worked to mend fences with Qatar’s closest allies, rein in government spending and improve the country’s image abroad.

Many of these efforts have required spearheading new initiatives. However, in other policy areas, there remains a high degree of continuity between Sheikh Tamim and his father, the former Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.

Here’s what’s changed and what’s stayed the same during Sheikh Tamim’s second year in power:

What’s changed

Wikimedia Commons

GCC

DIPLOMATS RETURN TO DOHA

Barely eight months after Sheikh Tamim became Emir, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE withdrew their ambassadors from Doha in a rare public show of displeasure for Qatar’s foreign policy.

The three countries accused Qatar of violating an agreement among GCC members not to interfere in the internal affairs of fellow states, which was widely interpreted as criticism of Doha’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood.

QNA

Qatar Emir Sheikh Tamim with late King Abdullah in October 2014.

During the diplomatic row, Sheikh Tamim met several times with the Saudi Arabia’s now-deceased King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, a veteran government ruler who was more than 50 years older than Qatar’s Emir.

While initial reports suggested these meetings failed to heal the rift, they were followed by a formal end to the dispute several weeks later when the GCC leaders met in Riyadh in November.

It’s not completely clear what concessions Qatar made, although the country made several moves interpreted as attempts to appease its neighbors, including:

• Passing new cybercrime legislation, which was said to be part of an an agreement among Gulf states to criminalize online insults of the region’s royal families;
• Clamping down on charities that send funds abroad that some saw as an attempt to reduce the amount of money flowing through the Gulf state to certain fighters in Syria; and
• The departure of several senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood from Qatar, a move they say was requested by the Gulf state.

There are signs that relations between Qatar and some of its Gulf neighbors have since improved.

In May, the UAE agreed to pardon a Qatari doctor who was convicted of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood only months after it pulled its national team from the Men’s Handball World Championship being held in Qatar.

GOVERNMENT SHAKEUP CONTINUES

Sheikh Tamim’s first year in power saw several new faces assume senior government positions and a revamp of some of Qatar’s ministries and councils.

Qatar University/Twitter

Deputy Emir at QU Graduation 2015

During his second year as Emir, Sheikh Tamim named a Deputy Emir for the first time, his half-brother Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani.

Prior to being named Deputy Emir, Sheikh Abdullah was chief of the Emiri Diwan, Qatar’s seat of government.

Filling the vacant post is Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdul Aziz Al Thani, who Sheikh Tamim previously appointed director of the office of the Emir the month he came into power.

There have been no reports of Sheikh Tamim naming an heir apparent.

SPENDING RESTRAINT

The same day he named a Deputy Emir, Sheikh Tamim gave a speech to mark the opening session of the Qatar’s Advisory (Shura) Council.

During the talk, he promoted austerity as a virtue and denounced financial mismanagement:

“Waste, extravagance, mishandling of state funds, lack of respect for the budget, reliance on the availability of money to cover up mistakes are all behaviors that must be disposed of, whether oil prices are high or low … Reasonable spending is an economic matter … (and is) also related to the type of society that we want and the type of individual that we rear in the State of Qatar.”

There are signs Sheikh Tamim’s message resonated with government managers. Statistics released this month show spending on wages and salaries fell in 2014-15 for the first time in a decade.

Ashghal

Cultural Village Bridge

Meanwhile, several large-scale projects not directly related to the World Cup have been canceled or postponed. Among the most prominent is the Sharq Crossing series of tunnels and bridges, construction of which was scheduled to start this year.

COMMUNICATING WITH CRITICS

Over the past two years, Qatar has become more vocal in response to intense media and political criticism over several issues. That includes the treatment of migrant workers, accusations of bribery related to its World Cup bid and allegations that it turns a blind eye to individuals raising money for armed groups in Syria.

Last August, industry journal PRWeek reported that Qatar had hired UK-based Portland Communications to advise senior levels of the government.

In the following months, Qatar went on the offensive by publishing a series of newspaper op-eds and making several media appearances.

That included a column attributed to Qatar’s prime minister in the Guardian newspaper on the eve of the Emir’s visit to London under the headline, “Qatar and the UK stand together in the fight against terrorism.”

Similarly, an op-ed appeared under Sheikh Tamim’s name in the New York Times just before the Emir’s first official visit to the White House.

QNA

Emir with German chancellor

And after keeping a relatively low public profile during his first year in power, the Emir made two televised media appearances last September by appearing in a joint news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and then sitting down for a one-on-one interview with CNN.

This year, a Government Communications Office was officially established and has responded to the arrest of a BBC journalist in the Industrial Area and a controversial Washington Post graphic on expat deaths in Qatar.

What’s stayed the same

Video still

Sheikh Tamim during 2014 CNN interview in the US.

NO KAFALA CHANGES

In his September CNN interview, Sheikh Tamim decried the abuse of low-income workers in Qatar as unacceptable. Speaking to journalist Christiane Amanpour, he said:

“I don’t accept it personally to see laborers, poor people, coming from other countries to come and help us develop our country and the atmosphere and the environment isn’t helpful for them.”

He later added, “I’m personally hurt about the situation. I don’t accept that. Not even one Qatari accepts that.”

Chantelle D'mello

For illustrative purposes only.

Since then, the government has hired more labor inspectors and moved to mandate companies to pay employees electronically, although that measure is not yet in effect.

However, there have been no changes to Qatar’s controversial kafala sponsorship system, which human rights advocates say enables the exploitation of expats by creating a highly unequal power relationship between foreigners and their sponsors.

Reforms were proposed in May 2014, but this week, Qatar’s influential Advisory (Shura) Council said there was no rush in pushing through the changes and recommended that the new law be studied further.

In March, Amnesty International released a report that concluded that “very little has changed” for Qatar’s low-income workers in recent years.

GLOBAL MEDIATOR

In some respects, Qatar’s approach to external affairs under Sheikh Tamim’s foreign minister, Dr. Khalid Al-Attiyah, is markedly different and more low-key than his outspoken predecessor – Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani – who used Qatar’s vast wealth to inject itself in conflicts in Egypt, Libya and other countries.

However, some analysts say Qatar is following a long-term strategy of gaining favor with various states and groups by working as an effective global mediator.

“Qatar is showing that they are trying to do the right thing,” Michael Stephens, a researcher at Royal United Services Institute Qatar, told Doha News in August. “This makes Qatar look like the good guys and makes itself useful” to its allies such as the US, he added.

For example, earlier this month, the US officially announced a deal with Qatar to extend the travel ban on five former Taliban prisoners living in the Gulf state.

Video still

An image from a video shot last year as five former Taliban prisoners were released in Qatar.

By extending its offer to host the men – who were released from Guantanamo Bay in exchange for US Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in 2014 – Qatar helped US officials mute criticism that the Taliban members could return to the battlefield.

Other recent efforts include helping to secure the release of US journalist Peter Theo Curtis last August. Curtis had been held captive by al-Nusra Front – an armed Syrian group with ties to al Qaeda – for nearly two years.

Additionally, Qatar negotiated the release from Syria of several Greek Orthodox nuns in March 2014 and nine Lebanese men in 2013.

ARMS BUILDUP

Like many of its Gulf peers, Qatar has continued to ramp up defense spending, as well as flexing its military might.

In late April, Qatar finalized an agreement to buy 24 fighter jets from French manufacturer Dassault in a deal reportedly worth €6.3 billion (QR25.7 billion).

It was the latest multibillion-riyal military purchase for Qatar and followed a QR87 billion (US$23.89 billion) spending spree in March 2013 for new tanks, helicopters, warships, missiles and artillery at a major military trade show in Doha.

While the nation’s ambassador to the US has said the weapons are needed “to defend Qatar,” the country has shown that it’s willing to go on the offensive.

Bulent Kavakkoru/Flickr

Photo for illustrative purposes only.

Last September, Qatar’s Emiri Air Force took to the skies above Syria in support of military planes from the US and four Arab nations bombing ISIL targets.

More recently, Qatar participated in a Saudi-led military offensive against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

What’s ahead

The current term of Qatar’s powerful Advisory (Shura) Council ends in July 2016, raising the question of whether Sheikh Tamim will extend its mandate – as permitted under the Constitution when it is “in the public’s best interest” – or fulfill his father’s promise to hold legislative elections.

Citizens were supposed to go to the polls to elect two-thirds of the council’s 45 members in 2013, but Sheikh Hamad extended its mandate instead as he abdicated his post.

Marium Saeed

2015 CMC Elections

Qataris went to the polls in May to elect members of the Central Municipal Council (CMC). Some citizens who turned up to cast a ballot said they hoped their participation would show that there is “aspiration for (an elected) parliament and more elected bodies in Qatar.”

While turnout was heavy at some polling stations, overall voter registration was low. Many attributed this to the fact that the CMC can only make recommendations and does not have the power to draft new laws.

Others, however, have suggested that many Qataris are content with the country’s development and see no need to hold elections. Indeed, only 8 percent of Qataris believe having more say is a national priority, according to a 2012 survey on life in Qatar.

What changes have you noticed since Sheikh Tamim came to power? Thoughts?

(The post Two years on, how Qatar has (and hasn’t) changed under Sheikh Tamim is from Doha News.)

Chantelle D'mello

Photo for illustrative purposes only.

As it continues its ambitious plan to upgrade the road network across Qatar and relieve congestion at traffic pinch points, Ashghal has announced three new sets of diversions starting this weekend.

The first and most extensive is in the Old Airport area, where residents should brace themselves for five months of disruption as work begins to upgrade a handful of roads in the district.

Starting Saturday, June 27, the public works authority will begin construction on five routes in the area, which is also known as Matar Qadeem, reducing them to one lane and one-way only.

Ashghal

Old Airport diversions

The streets affected include Al Karama Street, Al Tabarani Street, Al Hussain Bin Ali Street, Al Salah Street, and part of Al Hurriya Street.

Those living in the affected streets will be given temporary access during the construction period, which is set to continue until late November. Other motorists should find alternative routes, Ashghal said in a statement.

Temporary access to residences will be provided throughout the construction period and vehicles can also use the internal roads of the area as alternative routes.

Two phases

This is the first phase of a two-stage program to reconstruct a total of eight routes in the district, and work involves creating footpaths and parking areas, as well as installing surface and groundwater drainage systems and street lighting.

The Old Airport area is home to several neighborhoods in the longer-established parts of Doha that regularly flood during heavy winter rains as the streets lack proper drainage.

As part of the works, new signal-controled intersections will also be created at the junction of Al Hurriya and Al Salah roads, Ashghal said.

Phase two of the works will involve reconstruction and upgrading of three more streets in the area – Al Ameen Street, Al Rawdha Street and Al Thumama Street. While Ashghal has not given a start date for this stage, all the construction is expected to be completed by the middle of 2016, the authority said.

Mohammed El-Hafy

Traffic at Toyota Signal

The work will likely cause a short-term headache for residents in the area as they seek alternative routes.

The district has been further impacted by new diversions around the nearby Najma area as Ashghal works to convert the Woqod Roundabout into a signalized junction and add an extra lane in the area to help with congestion.

With the road from Al Nuaija intersection at The Mall to Al Mansoura intersection near Gulf Cinema shut in both directions until about mid-July, commuters have been complaining of long traffic jams as drivers try to wind their way through the diversions.

Jelaiah roundabout

On the other end of town, Ashghal has said it has begun to convert Jelaiah roundabout in Duhail to a signalized intersection, which will affect traffic in the area until the the first phase of construction wrap ups at the end of September.

Sections of the surrounding roads of Al Khafiji Street and Arab League Street will be upgraded as part of the work, adding in an extra lane to help reduce congestion in the area, which gets particularly busy with traffic heading to Qatar University and the College of the North Atlantic in particular.

While the roads will not be closed for the duration, the number of lanes will be reduced from three to two. All works in the area will continue until early 2016, Ashghal added.

Al Maamoura diversion

The final diversion involves the service road running between Al Asiri (Midmac) interchange and Khalifa Bin Abdullah Al Attiyah interchange, on Al Amir Street which Ashghal said will shut for maintenance on Friday, June 26, for 45 days.

The closure on the route, which links Salwa Road with Haloul Street in Al Maamoura, will be in place until Aug. 6 to allow for repairs to longitudinal cracks in the side of the road.

Ashghal

Al Maamoura diversion

The diversion will mean that motorists coming from Salwa Road who want to turn right to get to Al Amir Street will need to make a U-turn to go back to Faleh Bin Nasser Interchange, then take a left and left again onto Haloul Street to reach Al Amir Street, Ashghal said.

Thoughts?

(The post Ashghal announces new diversions in Old Airport, Jelaiah and Al Maamoura is from Doha News.)

Chantelle D'mello

Ramadan 2015 charity iftar

With Ramadan now officially in full swing in Qatar, many charities have been working overtime to help the less fortunate both inside and outside of the country.

To help support their efforts, local groups have turned to residents for monetary and in-kind donations.

But charities also depend a great deal on volunteers. With altruism at its peak in Ramadan, some may be wondering how to give more than just money to help the community.

Here are five ways that both Qataris and expats can donate their time over the next few weeks:

Iftar delivery

Several charities have organized campaigns in which families in need and other groups of people are delivered iftar meals each day.

QRC

QRC volunteers

For example, Qatar Red Crescent’s volunteers pack, deliver and distribute the meals to hundreds of street sweepers in the Al Sinaiyah daily.

Those who wish to help drop off the meals can sign up to volunteer on QRC’s website here or by visiting the charity’s headquarters on the Corniche.

Notably, QRC requires volunteers inside Qatar to be at least 18 years old and hold a valid ID card.

Iftar tents

Several local charities have also set up air-conditioned tents around Qatar to feed thousands of people free iftar meals.

Omar Chatriwala/Flickr

2014 Ramadan tent

These groups rely on volunteers to help set up the tents and tables ahead of dinner, seat the people and serve the food, as well as assist with cleanup.

In addition to QRC, Sheikh Thani Bin Abdullah Foundation for Humanitarian Services (Raf) is also seeking volunteers to staff its iftar tents.

Volunteers must be 15 years or older, and can register by calling 44981094 or visiting the society’s youth center in Al Rayyan.

Qatar Charity also hosts a number of tents. Volunteers can visit QC’s headquarters near the Old Airport, and submit an application there to register.

Ramadan cannon

Each day during Ramadan, a canon goes off at the state mosque to signal the end of the fast.

Chantelle D'mello

Ramadan cannon 2014

The tradition attracts hundreds of residents, and QRC sometimes provides water, dates and nuts to visitors, as well as to workers inside the mosque and other nearby locations.

Speaking to Doha News, Najat Al-Haidous, head of QRC’s volunteers’ division, called the gesture a small tribute, saying, “These workers serve us all day and it’s time for us to serve them as well.”

Meals at traffic signals

As part of its “mobile iftar” program, QC is seeking volunteers to distribute meals and water on main streets and roundabouts during sunset prayers, to feed those who are still on the road when it’s time to break the fast.

MOI/Facebook

Photo for illustrative purposes only.

Those who are frantic to reach their destinations during this period can pose a safety risk for all, according to the MOI, which has advised commuters to drive with care during iftar time.

Picking up leftovers

After all the eating is done, the Sheikh Eid Charity Association offers a pickup service to collect leftover food from homes, hotels, restaurants and other venues where there is enough remaining to feed 10 or more people.

Chantelle D'mello

Leftover food

It also hosts iftar tents. Volunteers interested in helping the charity can fill out an application at the group’s cultural center, located near Al Markhiya Sports Club.

Thoughts?

(The post Five ways to donate your time (not money) to charitable efforts in Qatar is from Doha News.)

Nada Badawi

The scene of the deadly 2014 restaurant explosion.

More than a year after a restaurant gas explosion killed 11 people and injured 42 others, closing arguments have been heard in a trial to hold several defendants responsible for what happened.

During the two-part proceedings, defense attorneys argued that the prosecutor had failed to arrest “the real culprit.”

Meanwhile, lawyers for the victims of the blast petitioned for millions of riyals in compensation for their clients.

After accepting the attorneys’ arguments, a judge said he would deliver the court’s verdict on July 29.

Four on trial

On the morning of Feb. 27, 2014, a powerful explosion ripped through Istanbul Restaurant – a Turkish eatery located in a petrol station complex next to Landmark Mall – killing 11 people and injuring 42 others.

Peter Kovessy

The aftermath of a gas explosion that killed 11 people on Feb. 27, 2014 in Duhail.

The restaurant was closed at the time. An investigation found that the gas leading to a pizza oven had been left on overnight and was ignited by a spark from a refrigerator inside the restaurant.

Four men were charged with involuntary manslaughter, involuntary/accidental harm and the damaging of property belonging to others. All were released from custody and have pled not guilty. They include:

• A Woqod supervisor accused of failing to tell the company’s distribution department to stop supplying the restaurant with gas as maintenance work was carried out there;
• A Qatar Gas supervisor accused of connecting the restaurant’s new gas line without seeking a safety compliance certificate;
• The restaurant’s baker, who is alleged to have failed to turn off the gas valve of the oven; and
• The restaurant’s accountant, who is accused of not checking to make sure all the gas valves in the restaurant were securely closed before leaving for the night.

During his closing arguments, the defense lawyer representing the Qatar Gas employee argued that his client wasn’t the one who connected the gas line.

Instead, the attorney asserted that the fault lies with the restaurant’s manager, who instructed one of his employees to hook up the gas.

This task was done improperly and without the required Woqod inspections, which the restaurant – not Qatar Gas – failed to schedule.

“(The restaurant manager is) the real culprit. He should be on trial. I don’t understand why the prosecutor did not bring him on trial,” the lawyer told the court.

Unauthorized connection

According to previous testimony, Istanbul Restaurant’s gas lines were overhauled by the Qatar Gas Group to comply with new Civil Defense standards introduced after the deadly 2012 Villaggio mall fire.

The maintenance was completed on Jan. 14, 2014. Woqod was then notified to perform an inspection of the work, which was required before Qatar Gas could reconnect the restaurant’s gas lines to its rooftop tank.

Shabina S. Khatri

Lower criminal court in Doha

This month, the lawyer representing the Qatar Gas supervisor questioned whether that inspection ever actually happened, and alleged that the tank was connected by restaurant employees.

Days after this apparently took place, the Qatar Gas defendant received a call from the restaurant manager telling him that there was a gas leak. He visited Istanbul Restaurant on Jan. 18 and found that the gas tank was leaking because all the valves were open, including one that should have been closed at all times except during maintenance, according to the attorney.

The Qatar Gas supervisor closed the valves and scolded the restaurant worker who performed the unauthorized hook-up.

The defense lawyer noted that investigators who inspected the gas equipment in the aftermath of the explosion found that the same valve had been left open and suggested that the restaurant staff improperly connected the gas lines a second time after he left, leading to the explosion.

Safety concerns

In theory, the restaurant should not have been receiving new gas deliveries during this period because it did not have the proper safety certificates.

However, Woqod refilled the restaurant’s 1,000-liter rooftop tank the morning of the explosion because, prosecutors allege, the Woqod supervisor on trial failed to tell the company’s distribution department to halt deliveries.

For his part, the lawyer representing the Woqod employee argued that there was no relationship between his client’s actions and the explosion and asked that he be found not guilty. Similarly, the lawyer representing the two Istanbul Restaurant employees also submitted written arguments.

Peter Kovessy

A scene from the 2014 restaurant explosion.

The court also heard from lawyers representing the victims of the explosions, their families and the owners of property damaged in the blast.

They’re asking that the criminal court refer their claim to Qatar’s civil court system, a necessary step to pursue financial compensation lawsuits.

While the monetary value of each claim is not known, one lawyer said he was seeking QR15.12 million (US$4.15 million). That suggests the total sum sought by all claimants is much higher.

Thoughts?

(The post Qatar court sets July 29 verdict date for deadly gas blast trial is from Doha News.)

Chantelle D'mello

Saad Ismail Al Jassim

Surrounded by strings of pearls and precious stones, one of Qatar’s last living connections to the country’s oldest industry shows up each day to work behind a cluttered red-topped counter in the heart of Souq Waqif.

Saad Ismail Al Jassim, a 75-year-old Qatari, is regarded by some as the country’s oldest surviving pearl diver – a profession that provided a significant source of the peninsula’s wealth up until the mid-20th century.

Chantelle D'mello

Jewelry sold by former Pearl diver

“Times are different (now),” Al Jassim told Doha News during a recent interview. “No one dives anymore. Why would we do it? We have oil and gas now.”

But as the pace of modernization in Qatar quickens, some people are trying to revive the country’s ancient traditions in the form of educational tours, competitions and efforts to cultivate new pearl farms in the Gulf.

While many are quick to celebrate the country’s history, Al Jassim cautions that there was historically little glamour in pearl diving.

“We did it because we had to make money,” he said, adding:

“There was nothing else here. No oil, no cars, no roads or AC, not even water. Nothing. So we had to make our money somehow. It didn’t matter if it was hot or cold, we had to dive and sell our pearls. We had to hold our breath because there was no other (sources of) income.”

Relying on luck

Born into humble beginnings, Al Jassim started diving at the age of 15 and trained under some of the country’s top divers.

“We used to eat very little. Just dates and water in the morning, and a sweet rice cooked with date syrup and fish for dinner. If we ate too much, we wouldn’t have space for air when we dove,” he said.

Richard / Flickr

For illustrative purposes only

A typical dive would last around two minutes, or however long the diver – equipped with only a nose clip, basket and weights to help stay underwater – could hold his breath.

Divers would often stay at sea for months at a time, scouring the seabed off Qatar’s coasts and relying heavily on luck.

“We never knew what we would find … We would just pick up as many oysters as we could and then come up to open them and check for pearls,” Al Jassim recalled.

However, he was entering the laborious industry just as it was going into decline. Al Jassim said he moved to Saudi Arabia at the age of 16 to work part-time at oil giant Aramco and complete his education.

Chantelle D'mello

Saad Ismail Al Jassim as young bodybuilder.

Al Jassim took up bodybuilding in his spare time, placing second in the annual Mr. Dhahran competition held in 1958. Old portraits, showing a younger and more muscular Al Jassim draped in an animal print textile, are displayed in his shop.

He later returned to Qatar, where he worked in various government jobs in addition to serving as a Civil Defense officer for nearly three decades.

After his retirement, Al Jassim said he was presented with his shop in the Souq Waqif by his childhood friend, Father Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani.

“We grew up together. I used to go over to his house all the time and perform tricks. At the time, I was interested in magic, and I would do things like walk on hot stones and lie on a bed of nails. I’ve (since) given that up, but that’s how we used to be,” he said.

Seated behind the counter, Al Jassim fashions prayer beads out of thread and turquoise, tiger eye, amethyst, lapis and other semi-precious stones.

Chantelle D'mello

Saad Ismail Al Jassim

Most of his pearls are cultured and imported from China, Japan and Dubai, and retail for about QR15 for a pair of earrings and QR40 for a bracelet.

Perhaps ironically, Japan’s intensive cultivation of cultured pearls flooded international markets in the early 20th century and hastened the decline of Qatar’s pearling industry.

Reviving the tradition

In an effort to preserve Qatar’s connection to its past, several organizations are putting modern twists on the centuries-old practice.

That includes pearling contests for children and adults, as well as a reality TV competition:

Elsewhere, Qatar Foundation along with the Qatar Luxury Group and Tahitian pearl brand Robert Wan have collaborated in a pearl farming project, according to a recent article in The National.

The Qatar Pearl Legacy projects got underway some six years ago and consists of an offshore pearl farm with some 200,000 oysters, as well as various cultural and educational programs throughout the GCC.

The group has also begun cultivating cultured pearls and presented its first batch of harvested pearls at the Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition earlier this year.

According to the National, the project is also hoping to engage Qataris with the pearl farming process, and has flown students to Tahiti to learn more about pearls.

Al Jassim said he’s happy to hear that there’s more interest in his former vocation, which he worried was at risk of being forgotten.

“For years no one remembered pearls. It’s nice to see that they’re doing it now,” he said.

Thoughts?

(The post Amid modernization push, souq shop owner a link to Qatar’s pearling past is from Doha News.)

Chantelle D'mello

Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies mosque

The striking new Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies (QFIS) complex in Education City, along with two other architectural projects in the country, have been shortlisted for the prestigious title of 2015 World Building of the Year.

Some 338 projects from 46 countries have advanced to the final round of the award selection process, with nominations divided into 30 categories. The winners will be announced at the World Architecture Festival, which will take place in Singapore from Nov. 4-6.

QFIS has been shortlisted in two categories – religion and higher education. Built over three years by Qatar Foundation, the complex opened in March.

AGi Architects

Qatar courthouse rendering

The upcoming Al Maha Center for Children and Young Adults also made the cut, under the “future projects – health” category.

The Hamad Medical Corp. (HMC) center in Al Wakrah Hospital is for young people with complex medical needs and has been designed by architects HDR Rice Daubney.

The third project to make the cut for Qatar is a design for a new courthouse in Doha.

The facility has been nominated under the “future projects – competition entries” category and won the firm AGi Architects second place in a recent competition organized by the Private Engineering Office (PEO), which is seeking a new, modern structure to replace the existing lower criminal courthouse in Al Sadd.

The GCC cut

The Qatar entries were among a total of 10 projects in the GCC that were shortlisted for the global prize.

Mohammad Abdurraafay/Flickr

King Fahad National Library

They include the King Fahad National Library in Riyadh, by Gerber Architeken, in the category of “new and old,” Al Ghanim Ali Mohammed Thunayan Al Ghanim Center in Kuwait City by AGi Architects, under “health” and “color” and the Hazza bin Zayed Stadium in the UAE, by Pattern Design under “sports.”

Projects by the several of the world’s leading architects have also made the shortlist, including the Aquatic Center in London, which was built for the 2012 Olympics and was designed by Zaha Hadid – the same architect responsible for the design of Qatar’s Al Wakrah stadium for the 2022 World Cup.

Work from the British architects Foster + Partners also features on the list.

Led by Sir Norman Foster, this firm has also been chosen to design Qatar’s flagship football stadium at Lusail City, which will host the World Cup opening ceremony and final match.

Qatar nominations

Chantelle D'mello

Qatar Faculty of Islamic Studies mosque

QFIS

QFIS is home to a huge, white, cavernous mosque with a total capacity for 1,800 people. The ceiling is adorned with Quranic verses, and also has small lights reminiscent of twinkling stars.

A male prayer room on the first floor includes a library and a large gilded mehrab in a Qur’an verse-lined alcove, while a female gallery room with a separate seating area is sectioned off from the main prayer room by a high wall that separates the two genders.

The mosque rests on five structural pillars which are decorated with verses, while underneath water flows from an outer garden.

It has two, 90 meter-high minarets, while Islamic calligraphy is inscribed on almost every element of the structure’s surface, from roofs to ceramic tiles to glass windows.

The university also includes 54 classrooms, offices and a library, in addition to five research centers.

Al Maha Center

HMC

Al Maha Center for Children and Young People

Designed by Australian architects HDR Rice Daubney, this purpose-built facility will be situated on the grounds of Al Wakrah Hospital and will include a development and rehabilitation center specifically for children and young people with complex medical needs.

According to HMC, the center will be the first of its kind in the region, and is scheduled to open in 2017, the Supreme Council of Health’s Annual Report 2014 states.

“The center will be a one-stop, family centered facility providing a range of services for a highly vulnerable group of children (i.e. inpatient, outpatient, day care, respite care, palliative care and outreach pediatric home care services),” HMC said in an online statement.

Doha courthouse

Qatar’s final shortlisted entry was a design for a new courthouse that was submitted by Spain and Kuwait-based AGi Architects as part of a contest organized by the PEO.

AGi Architects

Courthouse rendering

While that design didn’t win the competition, and came in second place to Jordanian firm Faris and Faris Architects, it has been selected as a potential winner for the World Building category of “Future projects: competition entries.”

AGi had proposed a floating-style building to replace Qatar’s existing lower criminal court. The design had featured a ground-level public plaza, with a five-story courthouse on top.

Earlier this year, AGi principal Nasser Abulhasan told Doha News:

“The floating structure acts as a literal and figurative canopy: it offers protection from the elements and a place where one can seek refuge from the greater population.”

You can see the full shortlist here. Thoughts?

(The post Three Qatar projects shortlisted for World Building of the Year award is from Doha News.)

Expressing its full support for Kuwait, Qatar has denounced as a “criminal act” a suicide bombing that killed 27 people and injured more than 200 others during Friday prayers in the Gulf state’s capital.

The attack took place yesterday at one of the country’s oldest Shia mosques, Al-Imam Al-Sadiq mosque, and was believed to have been carried out by ISIL.

The bombing was the first of its kind in Kuwait, which has declared a state of emergency to manage the crisis, as well as a day of mourning to mark the tragedy.

In a statement, Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said:

“This criminal act is contrary to all moral and human values and contradicts all religions and teachings of Islam and its principles of tolerance.”

MOFA also stressed its support for security measures taken by Kuwait to preserve stability, and expressed condolences to the victims and their families.

Several Qatar residents also expressed solidarity with Kuwait and the victims of yesterday’s attack:

The blowing up of a Masjid in Kuwait today is a crime against all sects in Kuwait and all the peoples of GCC states https://t.co/wQR9WLUVje

— Nasser H Al-Khalifa (@NasserIbnHamad) June 26, 2015

We are all #Kuwait pic.twitter.com/6kZwn7L1bg

— Mohammed Al-Jufairi (@Halawala) June 26, 2015

According to Reuters, ISIL took credit for the bombing, saying in a statement that it had targeted “a temple of the rejectionists,” a derogatory reference to Shia Muslims.

Kuwait’s Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah responded to the attack by saying, according to the state news agency:

“The blast was meant to tear asunder the fabric of the well-knitted Kuwaiti society by fomenting sectarian divisions and conflicts, but that would not happen as Kuwaitis value their unity and societal solidarity.”

Other attacks

Separately, CNN reports that ISIS claimed responsibility for a shooting spree that killed nearly 40 people, many of them tourists, at a beach resort in Tunisia yesterday.

And in France, a man was taken into custody after apparently beheading his boss and then ramming his car into a warehouse at a chemical plant, causing an explosion.

Qatar also condemned those attacks, saying it “rejects violence in all its forms and manifestations, whatever its motives and causes.”

It is unclear if the attacks on three different continents were related.

According to Reuters:

“ISIL had urged its followers on Tuesday to step up attacks during the Ramadan fasting month against Christians, Shi’ites and Sunni Muslims fighting with a US-led coalition against the ultra-hardline jihadist group.”

The Kuwait mosque bombing comes about a month after ISIL claimed responsibility for two attacks on Shia mosques in Saudi Arabia.

The first killed at least 21 people after a suicide bomber detonated explosives hidden under his clothes inside Ali Ibn Abi Taleb mosque in Kudeih in the eastern province of Qatif on May 22, Al Jazeera reported.

A week later, a suicide bomber killed four people in the parking lot of the Imam Hussein mosque in Dammam, which is also in eastern Saudi Arabia.

The proximity of the explosions, both of which occurred less than 200km from Doha, left several Qatar residents uncomfortable.

Despite Qatar’s largely peaceful and stable history in recent years, yesterday’s bombing of another fellow GCC state is likely to add to those fears.

Thoughts?

(The post Qatar condemns deadly mosque bombing as Kuwait declares day of mourning is from Doha News.)

All photos by Chantelle D’mello

Continuing its annual tradition, Katara Cultural Village is hosting a series of bazaars, exhibitions and workshops as part of its 2015 Ramadan Festival.

Spread over the seafront area and several buildings, the festival honors famous Muslim scholars and inventors, photographers and Qur’anic texts, and offers small local businesses the opportunity to sell their goods.

Chantelle D'mello

Katara Ramadan Festival 2015

At capacity, the Ramadan bazaar on the Esplanade hosts some twenty businesses and Instagram stores selling everything from oud to Moroccan tajines to sequined baskets, mirrors, and jewelry that costs between QR30-150.

However, only a handful of the stores could be observed open for business over the weekend, and have largely been devoid of visitors.

Speaking to Doha News, several shopkeepers said that the market had drawn only a small crowd in the five days since its opening.

“We’re officially open until midnight, but sometimes we stay until 1am just to see if someone comes by,” said one of the ladies at a jewelry stall.

Other shopkeepers blamed a lack of advertising and half-empty shops for the dismal turnout.

Exhibits

The Ramadan Festival is also home to some eight different exhibitions spread over Buildings 19 and 22. Most feature large interactive screens with verses from the Qu’ran and other important Islamic texts.

Chantelle D'mello

Katara Ramadan Festival 2015

Others highlight leading Muslim inventors through holographic and photographic displays, and focus on the history of certain items like the camera.

All exhibitions are free and open to the public and run from 8:30pm to midnight.

In the coming weeks, the Festival is slated to include an inflatable dome theater at the Katara Amphitheater, treasure hunts, workshops and lectures, puppet shows and other attractions. For more information, see the full schedule here.

Thoughts?

(The post Qatar’s Katara kicks off Ramadan festival with new market, exhibitions is from Doha News.)

Wojciech Kowalski/Flickr

Photo for illustrative purposes only.

After a brief respite from last week’s dusty weather, strong winds are expected to return to Qatar on Sunday, reaching up to 37 knots (69 km/hour) in different parts of the country.

In light of the conditions – which are expected to create a fresh round of sandstorms – the Qatar Meteorology Department has issued a high wind and seas warning from tomorrow, June 28 to Wednesday, July 1.

In a statement, the MET attributed the new weather front to the “deepening of the Indian monsoon over the country,” and forecast a dramatic drop in visibility due to the expected blowing of dust.

Previously, forecasters have said that windy, sandy weather is normal for this time of the year – much to the dismay of some residents who may be fasting or have just had their cars cleaned.

Go away wind and dust! I've had enough thanks. #Doha #sandstorm pic.twitter.com/NrnjjTgGo8

— Henrietta High (@henniehigh) June 22, 2015

so I am washing my car today, hope it lasts a week without another dust storm. #dusty_doha, @qatarliving , @dohanews pic.twitter.com/wYvF0cuPOn

— Wael Al-Maghraby (@WMaghraby) June 23, 2015

Temperatures during the next few days are expected to hit a high between 42C (108F) to 44C (111F).

Thoughts?

(The post Qatar MET issues strong wind warning for upcoming week is from Doha News.)

Peter Kovessy

Photo for illustrative purposes only.

Amid an ongoing enforcement campaign, car dealers in Qatar have received a fresh warning from the Ministry of Economy and Commerce about selling new vehicles with minor repairs to unsuspecting customers.

Over the last six months, government inspectors have been cracking down on local dealerships for failing to inform car buyers that their new vehicle was damaged while being shipped and repaired once it arrived in Qatar.

MEC/Facebook

Closed Honda dealership.

That’s resulted in government inspectors imposing month-long shutdowns of some of the country’s largest showrooms, including Qatar’s main Nissan, Chrysler, Honda, Land Rover and Toyota showrooms.

Yesterday, the Ministry of Economy and Commerce issued a memo obligating car agents and showrooms to obtain “a written endorsement” from customers that proves they are aware of all repairs performed on a vehicle prior to its purchase, according to a statement by state news agency QNA.

Some dealers have previously told Doha News that this is already a common industry practice for vehicles scratched or dented during the shipping process. However, this marks the first time since the crackdown began that the ministry has publicly explained how it is interpreting broad provisions of Qatar’s consumer protection law banning “false or deceptive information” on all forms of displays, including food labelling and other consumer good packaging.

It’s also the first time that the ministry has itself stated that the dealerships were shut down because customers were buying cars without being informed that the vehicles had been painted or repaired to hide “bumps and scratches.”

Previous statements from the ministry only said that the showrooms were closed due to “commercial fraud” and selling vehicles that had been involved in accidents as brand new.

Consumer rights

It’s not clear what prompted the ministry to launch its crackdown on auto dealers selling scratched or dented cars. However, it comes amid a broader effort to give car buyers more power and anecdotal complaints of subpar customer service.

Emyr Jones/Flickr

For illustrative purposes only.

Last August, several service centers were penalized following customer complaints about poor after-sales service and long delays for repairs.

More recently, auto dealers were told to relax warranty rules on new vehicles and not automatically void a customer’s coverage simply because they serviced their car at a third-party garage.

The ministry’s latest memo to the industry warns of “legal consequences” for not following the rules. According to the Al Meezan legal library, the showrooms that have already been sanctioned will be closed for two months if they are caught a second time and three months for a third offence.

Criminal charges are also a possibility under the law and can include a fine of up to QR1 million or a combination of two years in jail and QR3,000 fine.

At least one local auto dealer has said the issue involving his business is one of misplaced paperwork, rather than customer deception.

Speaking to Doha News at February’s Qatar Motor Show, Declan McCluskey – the general manager at Saleh Al Hamad Al Mana Co., which operates the local Nissan dealership – said that the incident related to two Nissan Sunnys.

“One had a scratch on the front bumper, and the other on the rear. Damages like these occur all the time as cars are being transported from manufacturers to retailers, and as a distributor, we fix the cars before putting them in the showroom,” he said. “All prior damages are disclosed to any potential buyer. In this case, one member of the staff forgot to mention the damages, and when the (inspectors checked our books, it came to light.”

Thoughts?

(The post Qatar car dealers ordered to disclose new vehicle damage to customers is from Doha News.)

HMC/Facebook

Photo for illustrative purposes only.

Demand for emergency medical care in Qatar has soared well ahead of the state’s population increase, as the number of ambulance call-outs rose more than a quarter in just one year, according to new statistics released by Hamad Medical Corp. (HMC).

The volume of calls requesting an ambulance increased 28 percent in just 12 months, from 131,482 in 2013 to 168,332 last year, HMC said in its 2014-15 Annual Report, which has just been published.

That works out to an average of 461 calls for an ambulance every day that year.

Meanwhile, HMC-run hospitals have also recorded a significant increase in patients using their emergency departments, with the number of visits up by more than a fifth over the same period, to more than 2,800 a day on average.

HMC Annual Report 2014-15

Key statistics

In 2013, 855,025 patients visited the ER, while the following year, the total number of patients broke the 1 million mark at 1,044, 299, HMC said.

Visits to the specialist pediatric emergency centers also increased, but at a slower rate. Admissions were up 6.9 percent to reach 555,460 in 2014, compared to 519,619 the previous year.

While Qatar’s population has been rising rapidly in recent years, demand for emergency medical services in increasing faster than the number of new residents moving to the country, which increased by around 9 percent between December 2013 and December 2014, according to official figures by the Ministry of Development, Planning and Statistics (MDPS).

Ambulance demand

The 28 percent spike in the number of calls for ambulances between 2013 and 2014 is well ahead of previous levels. With 2012 figures showing a total of 110,645 calls, the growth between 2012 and 2013 was 18 percent, according to the 2013/14 HMC annual report.

The report does not detail any apparent reason for this hefty increase in demand. However, according to monthly statistical information released by MDPS, the number of injuries from traffic collisions rose through 2014, which is one of the key reasons for ambulance call outs.

HMC Annual Report 2014-15

Ambulance response targets

Qatar has a total of 167 ambulances, 20 rapid response vehicles and three helicopter ambulances, which are dispatched from 43 separate locations across the state.

According to the report, 84 percent of ambulances responded within 10 minutes of receiving a call in central Doha, while 97.8 responded within 15 minutes.

In rural Qatar, 94 percent of ambulances responded within 15 minutes.

Emergency cases

Hamad General Hospital emergency department remains the busiest in Qatar, although the increase in patients seeking treatment there rose moderately at around 5 percent, from 442,693 in 2013 to 464,601 in 2014.

HMC

Al Wakra Hospital

However, demand for services in hospitals such as Al Khor and Al Wakra is increasing amid the expansion of treatment options elsewhere in Qatar aimed at reducing the strain on facilities in central Doha.

Al Wakra hospital cited a 77 percent increase in patients in its ER, from 170,667 in 2013 up to 302,325 in 2014. Meanwhile, the number of patients at the Al Khor emergency department went up by 15.2 percent over the same period.

Previously, the head of HMC’s emergency medicine has said the services face extreme pressure in demand, with some facilities struggling to cope with the volume of patients coming through the doors for treatment.

Alex Proimos/Flickr

Photo for illustrative purposes only.

In October last year,  HMC Emergency Department director Dr. Peter Cameron told members of Qatar’s Central Municipal Council that many workers used the ER for minor injuries or to receive treatment for chronic conditions such as hypertension or diabetes, and urged the construction of more clinics and GP-type surgeries to take the pressure off of the emergency department.

Earlier this year, HMC said it was constructing a purpose-built trauma and emergency department at Hamad General Hospital, which would increase its current emergency facilities three-fold.

New babies

The number of babies born in Qatar continues to rise – between 2013 and 2014 it was up more than 5 percent across all HMC hospitals to 21,360, the report said.

Mark Biddle/Flickr

Photo for illustrative purposes only.

However, as part of a push to encourage women to use facilities at hospitals around the country, the Women’s Hospital in central Doha saw a drop in deliveries from more than 17,000 in 2013 to 16,269 the following year.

Meanwhile, births were up at the other hospitals with maternity departments around the state. The number of babies born at the Cuban Hospital in Dukhan doubled to 251 in 2014, while births at Al Wakra hospital rose 78 percent to 3,653 in 2014. Al Khor hospital also saw more newborns, up 7.3 percent from 1,106 to 1,187 last year.

David Barlow, HMC’s director of women’s services, previously told Doha News:

“We’re trying to ensure that patients are spread around so we’re not overloading one facility. If too much pressure is placed on a single facility, patients won’t get the best care.”

Thoughts?

(The post HMC report: Demand for emergency medical care in Qatar surges is from Doha News.)

Dan A'Vard/Flickr

For illustrative purposes only.

Al Khalidya Street and several surrounding roads in Najma will be partially closed tomorrow until mid-September by contractors upgrading the area’s sewer network, Qatar’s public works authority, Ashghal, said in a statement Saturday.

The development is part of a larger plan to upgrade the area’s infrastructure and comes on the heels of another set of road closures announced earlier this month in the same area aimed at widening roads and improve traffic flows.

Starting Monday, the 425-metre stretch of Al Khalidya Street heading south towards C-Ring Road will be closed to traffic. The opposite lane, heading towards Al Mansoura Street, will remain open.

A limited closure will also take place at the street’s intersection with C-Ring Road, preventing motorists from turning right and heading towards Al Mansoura Street.

Several other streets off Al Khalidya Street will also be closed, including the eastbound lanes of Al Kanary Street in the direction of Al Khalidya Street.

The stretch of Sahib bin Abbad Street closest to Al Khalidya Street will be shut down in both directions, as will a portion of Al Sanaa Street.

Drivers coming from Al Kanary Street or Sahib Bin Abbad can use Al Hilal Street as an alternate route heading to and from Al Khalidya Street.

The outdated sewer network in the area was targeted for upgrades last year as residents complained that the drainage system in the neighborhood frequently backed up with sewage.

Ashghal said that the older system was built for a much smaller population and that it was insufficient to handle the needs of the large number of new residents in the area.

Duhail

Ashghal also announced diversions for motorists approaching Leabaib Roundabout in Duhail, near the Lekhwiya Sports Club.

The roadwork will extend for 200 meters into each of the four roads connected to the roundabout, including Al Tarfa Street, Arab League Street, and Al Duhail Street.

The diversions will start at midnight tonight. The statement doesn’t specify how long they will stay in place.

It added that the speed limit will be reduced to 50 km/h in each direction when approaching the work zone.

Thoughts?

(The post Doha traffic tie-ups to intensify with Najma sewer project is from Doha News.)

Sanofi Pasteur / Flickr

Packaging line for the oral polio vaccine.

Several dozen passengers on a Qatar-bound flight from Pakistan were initially barred from entering the Gulf state last week because they were unable to prove they’d been vaccinated against polio, the Pakistan government has said.

While Qatar has not publicly commented on the incident at Hamad International Airport, a spokesperson from Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently addressed the issue in a press conference with reporters.

In a transcript published Thursday, the spokesperson said:

“Qatar has recently introduced these regulations vis-a-vis several countries including Pakistan. With the intervention of our Embassy in Doha and cooperation of concerned authorities of Qatar, all Pakistanis were allowed to enter Doha. The Embassy has also informed all concerned authorities that passengers travelling to Qatar should have polio vaccination certificates.”

Privately, a diplomatic source said the requirements have been in place since last year.

Shabina S. Khatri

Photo for illustrative purposes only.

He added that staff at Pakistan’s airports should have checked that the Qatar-bound passengers had the proper documentation before allowing them to board the plane.

The requirements affect all people who have spent a month or more in the country and not just Pakistani nationals.

On its website, the US embassy in Islamabad offered this advice last year:

“In order to exit Pakistan, everyone who has spent more than four weeks in Pakistan must receive a dose of either the Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) or Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) between 4 weeks and 12 months prior to international travel, regardless of nationality or vaccination status prior to one year before departure date.”

Outbreak fears

Pakistan News Doha / Facebook

Polio vaccination card

Authorities in Pakistan have struggled to keep polio in check in recent years, with 306 cases reported in 2014 and 25 so far in 2015. Polio – which short for Poliomyelitis and is also known as infantile paralysis – is an incurable condition that often has no symptoms. It spreads through virus-infected feces and results in muscular degeneration, defects and paralysis.

Eradication efforts by the WHO have met with strong resistance from some armed organizations such as the Taliban, which has killed more than 60 vaccinators and banned anti-polio campaigns in areas under its de facto control since 2012.

Last year, the WHO urged Pakistan, Syria and Cameroon to increase efforts to vaccinate young children amid fears of renewed outbreaks. Speaking to the New York Times in 2014, WHO spokesperson Gregory Hartl said:

“Things are going in the wrong direction and have to get back on track before something terrible happens, so we’re saying to the Pakistanis, the Syrians and the Cameroonians, ‘You’ve really got to get your acts together.’”

At the time, the WHO declared a global health emergency and imposed travel restrictions on Pakistan, Syria, and Cameron, encouraging all residents in those countries to be vaccinated prior to traveling abroad.

While the WHO has no power to enforce such measures, news organizations in Pakistan reported last November that travellers from the country faced restrictions when trying to leave the country without a vaccination certificate.

According to the WHO, Nigeria and Afghanistan also have continued endemic transmission, with the latter reporting its most recent case of paralysis caused by the disease last month.

Thoughts?

(The post Polio vaccination requirements catch Qatar-bound passengers off guard is from Doha News.)

Qatar GAA/Facebook

Eamonn Morgan and Charlotte Sant

A popular Irish physical education teacher and youth football coach died in a weekend dune buggy accident in the Sealine beach area that also claimed the life of his girlfriend, a fellow physical education teacher from England.

Eamonn Morgan and Charlotte Sant were both in their 20s and had moved to Qatar last year.

Qatar GAA/Facebook

Eamonn Morgan and Charlotte Sant

Morgan had just completed his first year teaching at Compass International School, where he was described as “an excellent teacher and a warm and friendly young man” who was “well-loved and well respected by his colleagues and the pupils he taught,” according principal Graham Horton.

Horton added that Morgan put in extra time outside regular school hours and encouraged youngsters to take up a variety of sports including football, sailing and golf.

“(He) will be fondly remembered and much missed by children across the school,” Horton said in a statement.

Outside of school, Morgan was an academy football coach at Evolution Sports Qatar, where he supervised teams of young players.

He described himself on his school’s profile page as being from a family of five and raised in a “small city in Northern Ireland.” He said he had previously coached in the US and UK and aspired to travel in South America.

Sant was identified in media reports as a physical education teacher from Manchester who, like Morgan, had joined the Qatar Gaelic Athletic Association.

Club chairman Peter Crowe remembered both fondly in a Facebook post, calling them “central to the community that is Qatar GAA”:

“I had the privilege of playing with Eamonn for the past year, an absolute gent, never to be seen without a smile on his face and the definition of a ‘character’ as we’d say back home. I also had the pleasure of training Charlotte for the past year, a sweet girl, who took to a new sport with more enthusiasm than you could ever ask for!”

Vehicle reportedly overturned

The exact circumstances of the dune buggy accident, which is said to have also injured two others, are not known. The Irish News reported that their vehicle veered off a steep incline along sand dunes. The Irish Mirror said the buggy subsequently overturned.

Ameer Abdul Razak/Flickr

For illustrative purposes only.

A manager at the Sealine Beach Resort said there were no reports of an accident on the hotel’s property or immediate vicinity. The vehicle rental company at the resort, Sand Dunes Holidays, said none of its quad bikes or buggies were involved in any incident over the weekend.

This is at least the second fatal incident in Qatar’s sand dunes this year. In February, a Sri Lankan Airlines flight attendant was killed and three of her colleagues injured while on a desert safari.

A memorial mass is scheduled for 7pm tonight at Church of Our Lady of the Rosary, according to the Qatar GAA. Compass International School says it will be holding a short time of reflection this week as well as a remembrance assembly in September to look back on Morgan’s “brief but memorable time” with the school.

Thoughts?

(The post Expat teachers killed in Qatar dune buggy accident is from Doha News.)