Doha, Qatar
Qatar has the unbridled energy and singular focus of a place on the move - and on the make! There seems no limit to what can be bought here and no subtly about building or buying the world's biggest "that" or tallest "this." It is an adolescent growth stage similar in some ways to the settlement of the western United States in the 19th century, at once exuberant and exorbitant. Of course, who wouldn't have such brash ambitions with one of the largest reserves of natural gas in the world?
Of the nation's 800,000 residents, only 20 percent are Qatari. The rest are guest workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Kenya, Tanzania, the Philippines and elsewhere. One can live and work here for many hours a day and never actually see one of the 160,000 or so Qatari who cannot possibly build and run this nation without imported labor. They would not be winning medals in the Asian Games or elsewhere either, without imported distance runners and other world-class athletes from Tanzania, Kenya and Morocco.
Still, the Qatari are smart in how they are going about their development. Taking a page from the Dubai playbook - and the competition between these two emirates is intense, so the Qatari would not appreciate the comparison - government officials understand the need to move well beyond the energy sector. As the prime minister told The Financial Times last year, "Our hydrocarbons won't last forever - we need to secure the same standard of living for our children." (September 22-23, 2007) That is why the al-Jazeera media empire is based here as well as the Education City project whose tenants include Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Georgetown, Northwestern, Texas A&M and Virginia Commonwealth. That is why Qatar is becoming a global investment and financial services powerhouse, almost overnight. And that is why the new Doha International Airport will feature the longest runways and most military-friendly facilities found nearly anywhere. For better and worse, the long shadow of U.S. foreign policy, economic and national security interests is never far from Qatar's remarkable development.
One looks at the skyline under development here in Doha, already larger and taller than Boston's, and shudders at the notion that Qatar was nearly bankrupt just 15 years ago. What will they do for an encore? Well, don't be surprised when Doha makes a serious run at the 2016 Summer Olympics and actually wins it. The ruling al Thani family can make anything happen here; just witness the extraordinary athletics infrastructure already in place. Furthermore, Qatar can come as close as to any other benign dictatorship to guaranteeing a peaceful games that would also be free of any debt. Besides, the Games have never come to this part of the world and what a statement that would make, despite the improbability of asking athletes and spectators to endure summer temperatures well in excess of 100 degrees. Hello to a late-October Olympiad.
Qatar has the unbridled energy and singular focus of a place on the move - and on the make! There seems no limit to what can be bought here and no subtly about building or buying the world's biggest "that" or tallest "this." It is an adolescent growth stage similar in some ways to the settlement of the western United States in the 19th century, at once exuberant and exorbitant. Of course, who wouldn't have such brash ambitions with one of the largest reserves of natural gas in the world?
Of the nation's 800,000 residents, only 20 percent are Qatari. The rest are guest workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Kenya, Tanzania, the Philippines and elsewhere. One can live and work here for many hours a day and never actually see one of the 160,000 or so Qatari who cannot possibly build and run this nation without imported labor. They would not be winning medals in the Asian Games or elsewhere either, without imported distance runners and other world-class athletes from Tanzania, Kenya and Morocco.
Still, the Qatari are smart in how they are going about their development. Taking a page from the Dubai playbook - and the competition between these two emirates is intense, so the Qatari would not appreciate the comparison - government officials understand the need to move well beyond the energy sector. As the prime minister told The Financial Times last year, "Our hydrocarbons won't last forever - we need to secure the same standard of living for our children." (September 22-23, 2007) That is why the al-Jazeera media empire is based here as well as the Education City project whose tenants include Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Georgetown, Northwestern, Texas A&M and Virginia Commonwealth. That is why Qatar is becoming a global investment and financial services powerhouse, almost overnight. And that is why the new Doha International Airport will feature the longest runways and most military-friendly facilities found nearly anywhere. For better and worse, the long shadow of U.S. foreign policy, economic and national security interests is never far from Qatar's remarkable development.
One looks at the skyline under development here in Doha, already larger and taller than Boston's, and shudders at the notion that Qatar was nearly bankrupt just 15 years ago. What will they do for an encore? Well, don't be surprised when Doha makes a serious run at the 2016 Summer Olympics and actually wins it. The ruling al Thani family can make anything happen here; just witness the extraordinary athletics infrastructure already in place. Furthermore, Qatar can come as close as to any other benign dictatorship to guaranteeing a peaceful games that would also be free of any debt. Besides, the Games have never come to this part of the world and what a statement that would make, despite the improbability of asking athletes and spectators to endure summer temperatures well in excess of 100 degrees. Hello to a late-October Olympiad.