Villagio Mall

About two weeks ago the Villagio Mall was on fire.  It was a story that ran through the town very quickly.  In this small country of Qatar and its capital city there isn't much to do for entertainment.  In the modern Arab world the mall is the center of activity - dining, shopping, entertainment, etc.  The Villagio is probably the best Qatar has to offer. 


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18243136


It opened in 2006 in time for the Asian games and it was labeled the largest mall in Qatar.  It was beautiful as malls go.  If you are familiar with the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas, its interior was modeled after it, down to the Gondola ride.


The fire two weeks ago was a tragedy in many ways but most importantly the loss of 13 young lives that will never know what life will be like.  In that loss there is a lot of pain for the families that lost their children, like the parents of the New Zealand triplets - Lillie, Jackson and Willsher Weekes.  God bless them and protect their families in their time of sadness.


http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16243466


http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16238809


I don't know what will happen with the mall, it has been closed since the fire.  I'm sure a lot will take place before it reopens - arrests have been made, investigations are taking place and damage repaired.


When I first arrived in Qatar I was taken there as an example of what Qatar had to offer.  In the rest of this blog I want to share some of the photos of what the mall had to offer.

Signs

Cathy and I are fascinated by the country we are living in at the moment.  It is a pretty plain place with lots of western amenities and activities.  Qatar is a small country, smaller than Connecticut. Doha, the capitol city is a relatively small place.  A lot like my home town of Baltimore, it doesn't take long to get from one side of town to another.  You can travel to the furthest points of the country in about an hour.

Lots of desert to explore and plenty of oddities to observe, which brings me to the purpose of this entry.

In this blog I want to share some signs we've photographed lately.  I want to start by saying, early in my career I worked for a boss that was very peculiar and particular about wording in memos and signage.  As time has passed I've developed the same peculiarity, always correcting junior staff on spelling and sentence structure, even in SMS messages and IM's - who knew.

Anyway, on to the adventure we had that day....

When we saw these signs we looked at each other and said....

I hope the Road Works, by God I'm driving on it...

Can someone tell me what this means, please...

Now I know where to go if that landlord of mine...

Of course you need to know what the store is on the corner...

Not your father's Saloon for sure.  Is it Saloon or Salon?  

The Brits even looked puzzled when I ask.

Finally!! I found 'em.  I guess you can pick up a few Taliban here.

Now I'm on the look out for them damn Al Qaeda.

Oh well, there are many more oddities and signs that make you scratch your head and other body parts and realize there are about 20 different cultures here....

Doha Pearl Man

There are opportunities for adventure in Qatar.

Each weekend we try to take the opportunity to explore and find something different about the city or the country.  It isn't a big place, but there are a few gems to discover.

In early December we heard about the Pearl Man.  A lady we met told us about the man and the general location.

If you know anything about Doha or the Middle East, that is about all the information you ever get.  Most things are passed by word of mouth as very little is recorded, except about the major malls and ministries.

All we knew was go two round abouts past the Oryx Round About and make a U-turn.  The park is on the right.  He is in a small white building.

So, off we went in search of the Pearl Man.

In Rumailah Park there is a long water feature with a pool at each end and a long water canal.  Between the two water features is a row of shops.  Shops that at one point must have been very nice and in service.  Today they are mostly vacant and will be demolished when the Doha Grand Park is built.  We entered the shops from the south side and walked all along one row of shops to the end.  Not seeing the Pearl Man we started up the other side.  Almost near the end where we entered, we spotted a Qatari sitting inside a shop.  We asked him about the Pearl man.  He came out and pointed two shops down to an arab that was standing outside smoking.  Ah, could that be the Pearl Man.

We walked down and asked "Are you the Pearl Man?"  With a nod we knew we had found him.

The Pearl Man's Shop Door

He explained he travels around the world to find pearls (mostly Australia and China).  He has them made into strands and sells them to the "market" and in his shop.

You won't find a better price anywhere in Doha.

Having found a color that interested Cathy he sent her out in to the sun to see the real color.  No, no, no, you must go down there (about 100 yards away) to look at them in the sun.
Then he shoved another six strands in my hand and said go show these to her too.  I walked down to where she was standing and said, "He wants you to look at these also".  Then we looked at each other and started to laugh.  Where in the U.S. of A. would someone send you down the street with six strands of pearls "to look at them in the sun"???

So many to choose from

We went back to the shop and Cathy started to work her way through the decision making process.  I left to get cash, of course a transaction like this was "cash only".  When I returned she was having tea with the Pearl Man and looking over her final selections.

Oh, you are having tea I see.  Of course, like any good Arab, he offered tea and there was a cup for me.  Sweet black tea.  Very nice.

We left the store and half way back to the car when we returned to look at another strand.  The value was so good, you couldn't just leave with one purchase.  We were given a tour of the shop and his late father's art work.

In the excitement of the transaction, Cathy forgot she had put the pearls on in the picture and were forgotten until the Pearl man commented how nice they were.  After a brief moment of embarrassment the strand of pearls were returned to him.

We found the Pearl Man and he was happy to see us.  Another successful Qatari adventure.

Cathy and the "Pearl Man"

Three Days in the Kingdom

This is an occasional Blog about my time in the Middle East.  I went to Jubail and Al-Khobar to meet with a potential client.  I am writing this in the Dammam airport waiting to return to Doha.

I am concluding three days in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or KSA.

It is my first time in KSA since visiting the Port of Jeddah as a young sailor on a US Navy warship 30 years ago.

Thought I would memorialize a few observations.

Entry Card and Passport Control:

When I arrived on Saturday, I had to fill out the “Entry Card”.  At the top of the card in Bold RED letters “Immediate Execution to Drug Smugglers”.  That’ll make you pause.  I hope they look kindly on my maintenance drugs.

The card also asked your religion.  We’ll this isn’t a country known for tolerance.  In case you are wondering I wrote down Christian, I wonder if non-Muslim would have been OK.

Passport control was interesting in that the local gendarme worked the lines shifting people around.  I really didn’t know what was going on until I talked to a colleague later.  He’s an Indian.  He told me when he goes to KSA he is moved around in line until he is the last one from the plane processed.  The story goes like this “Hey Indian, you belong in this line”, and he moves, only to be moved again.  After he gets to the agent – the agent doesn’t want to process him.  I hope I never stop cringing when I hear stories like that.

At the passport control check point the agent finger prints and photographs you before letting you pass.

In the car to the hotel we were on a highway going 120KM/hr, about 70 miles an hour, in the fast lane.  We were passed several times by cars on the shoulder of the road.

There was a check point along the highway and we had to slow down for the soldier to look in the car.  What was he looking for, I asked.  With a snicker the driver said “Who knows”.

At the hotel under the car was inspected by mirror, while a gun toting Kevlar vest wearing dude watched.  Allowed to enter the hotel grounds my bags were collected by the bell hop and I entered the hotel.  Emptied my pockets and went through a metal detector and was wanded while my bags were being x-rayed.

Very welcoming country.

We toured a couple of facilities in what is known as Jubail Industrial City.  By King’s decree two cities were built – Jubail and Yanbu.  The petrochemical business is big in Saudi and significant investment has been made in manufacturing products from that raw material, except for gas and diesel.  There is only one refinery.  As a country sitting on 20% of the world’s crude oil they are a net importer of gas and diesel.  They ship crude around the world, and buy gas at the market price.  Even with that they generate $1B a day in income for the King and his royal family.

Saudi’s have a 50% unemployment rate.

It wasn’t all bad.  The people were friendly and the projects are interesting.  There is a real sense of who does what and like a good union (tribal) environment they don’t cross the line into someone else’s work, nor do they criticize the work of others.

The New Jubail City was very modern and has a beautiful hotel on the sea.  We had lunch there one day and I found it very delightful.

We went to Al-Khobar for one night.  The city is very modern with lots of traffic.  Our hotel was modern and had a nice restaurant.  Much nicer than the hotel in Jubail.

Random observations:

Women – In the outdoors women must be covered in an abaya (long black robe and head cover - hijab)westerner or Arab, it doesn’t matter.  Inside it is up to the establishment.  Most places allow the removal of the hijab, only western women will go without it indoors.

Cars – unlike the rest of the GCC where Toyota seems to rule the day, in Saudi it is American Cars, notably Ford and GM and the bigger the better.  The hotel car was a Mercury Grand Marquis (one of my personal favorites) if you needed more than three seats you got a “GMC Yukon”.

Young Saudi man – I had a chance to talk to a young Saudi during the site visits.  He was 22 and had just graduated in May from TCU in Texas.  When asked to describe Saudi, he made two comments.  One, Saudi lacks customer service – you get no customer service and you pay a premium, unlike America…  Secondly, in America people smile all the time, in Saudi there are no smiles.

I can’t wait for my next visit.  I will be in the capital city of Riyadh.

London 2011

I just returned from a vacation in London.

The trip was a result of a change in my schedule.  I never have control of my schedule.  Originally, the plan was to go home during the Eid break and move my household goods and collect my wife.  As things typically go, my schedule changed and it appears that I am needed in the States for a meeting in late September or early October, so my "move" is delayed again.

For the break, we decided to meet halfway in London.

Not knowing what to expect, I would say it was one of the best vacations I've had in a long while.

We spent 8 days walking around London to see the sights and just having fun hanging out.

Got to see my wife after eight weeks and do what we like to do - drink beer.



Saw some strange street performers.





Took a tour of the city





Had a nice breakfast at a French Bakery behind the hotel.




Visited Westminster Abby



Learned about the Household Guard and became fascinated with them.

Saw more interesting street performers

Lots of Monuments to wars past.

Did some shopping at Harrod's - well sorta

Ate a typical English Breakfast - Double...

Got a tour of the Tower of London by a Beefeater.

Saw amazing views from the top of St. Pauls Cathedral

Saw a 3000 year old monument - a gift from Cleopatra to the City of London 

Saw amazing views from the London Eye

Visited the Queen at her weekend home at Windsor Castle

Saw serious young men with serious weapons!

Took a lot of pictures of Big Ben (Windsor Clock Tower, Ben is the Bell)

  



Went to Abbey Road - Mecca for Beatles Fans



Not to mention - Covent Garden, National Gallery, two plays - Momma Mia and The Kitchen; Picadilly Circus, dinner with a friend, countless pubs including Salisbury, Sherlock Holmes, The Clarence, Horse & Groom and the Ship and Shovel (say that 10 time fast) - had a beer with another friend, rode the Tube (or the London Underground), Buckingham Palace, took a train ride to the town of Windsor and several cab rides.

Arabian Sands

August 22, 2011

I just completed the book Arabian Sands by Wilfred Thesiger.

It was recommended to me by our former regional president as a way to understand the Arab.  The book is a slow start and in the end it does paint a wonderful picture of the bedouin arabs that traveled around the peninsula in the middle of the last century before oil became prevalent and the wealth of the region changed the culture.

When I first started to write this entry I wasn't sure what to write about and what the book meant to me.  As I was driving back to the apartment tonight I saw a billboard for the Qatar Film Festival in October.  On the billboard there were images of what I would imagine was the typical Arab in the time of Thesiger's writings.  A presumably lost culture as the result of oil discovery and the impact it has had in this part of the world.

The result of the wealth from oil has taken a tribal culture and changed it in many ways, most notably to me it has created a sense of entitlement far beyond what I would have expected.  It has also created a very complex life for the Arabs.  The country is a state that is based in a conservative muslim tradition, with the impact of westerners converging on them to build the country.

Christians are infidels in the book and should be restricted from entering the country at a minimum, but death was often threatened if Thesiger went into an area without the proper permissions.  I often wonder if the feeling today is the same towards the expats who are here to help the country realize its vision.  We are looked down upon as infidels, only here to deliver a product or service because of the money available.

Qatar and the greater Arab world is a strange and complex place.  Thesiger's book does provide a romantic view of the bedu culture before oil arrived.  The world I am experiencing now is the result of the impact the oil wealth has and is having on this culture.

Thesiger feared this change in his book and I would say his fears have come true.

How to Read a Book

One of the benefits of living in Qatar by myself I have a lot of time to do the things I can never get to.  Reading and watching movies is a simple pleasure in life and I never make time to do either.  Well the long flights to Qatar and the quiet nights allow me to do both.

Recently, I picked up a book recommended several years ago by a proffessor of mine at the University of Baltimore.

How to Read a Book. The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading.

by Mortimer J. Adler

I just finished this book.

Everytime I told my wife that I was reading the book she would laugh and say that is funny.  You are reading a book on "How to Read a Book"!  It does seem funny, but the subject matter was engaging and in the end it is a very practical book and it was fun to read.  I would recommend the book to anyone looking for knowlege in books.

Mortimer Adler was a philosopher who found active and structured reading a requirment in learning and using the knowledge to make learned opinions on the information gathered.

The book is presented in four parts that are summarized below.

Key to the structure he provided in the book is the fifteen steps in performing analytical reading:

1. The first Stage of Analytical Reading: Rules for finding out what a book is about.
• Classify the book according to the kind and subject matter
• Stat what the whole book is about with the utmost brevity
• Enumerate its major parts in their order and relation, and outline these parts as you have outlined the whole.
• Define the problem or problems the author has tried to solve.
2. The second Stage of Analytical Reading: Rules for interpreting a Books Contents
• Come to tems with the author by interpreting his key words.
• Grasp the authors leading propositions by dealing with his most important sentences.
• Know the author's arguments by finding them in, or constructing them out of, sequences of sentences
• Determine which of his problems the author has solved, and which he has not; and of the latter, decide which the author knew he had failed to solve.
3. The third stage of Analytical Reading: Rules for Criticizing a Book as a Communication of Knowledge.
• General Maxims of Intellectual Etiquette
• Do not begin criticism until you have completed your outline and your interpretation of the book.
• Do not disagree disputatiously or contentiously.
• Demonstrate that you recognize the difference between knowledge and mere personal opinion by presenting good reasons for any critical judgement you make.
• Special Criteria for Points of Criticism
• Show wherin the author is uninformed
• Show wherin the author is misinformed
• Show wherin the author is illogical
• Show wherin the author's analysis or account is incomplete.

Adler also provides an outline for how to read practical books (such as this one), imaginative literature, stories, plays, and poems; history (interesting he encourages to keep in mind that history is written long after the fact and often romanticises the period; also autobiographies and biographies are from a single point of view and tends to make the person appear favorable); science and mathematics; philosopy; and finally social science.

The book concludes with a section on syntopical reading, wherein the reader is studying a particular topic by reading/researching several books.

Finally, the book concludes with a recommended reading list and exercises to demonstrate how to apply what is taught in this "practical" book.

I found the book very enjoyable and would recommend it to any serious reader.  I hope I live long enough to read the "recommended" list.