[This post contains outdated information, I recommend going to my post of May 21, 2011 for the most recent information about car inspections]
The registration of my car is done and finished! Repairers were finished no problem and at no charge (yay warranty!). A friend of mine told me that the line-up at the testing centre is really short on a weekday morning so I gambled by not making an appointment and just showing up at eight in the morning. I was always under the assumption that you had 30 days after the expiry of your registration to get it renewed but at lunch the other day someone told me it was 20 days, any later than that and you get a QR1000 fine (US $270). Since he told me that on day 18 I figured I'd better turn up at the testing station the next day.
Sure enough there was only three cars ahead of me, and the friendly Algerian clerk was at his desk looking a lot better since he did not have 20 people crowding around him waving papers. I got my paperwork and the car tested in under 15 minutes. The car passed inspection (yay!). So then it was off to the Ministry of Interior desk, conveniently located at the mall across the street from work, where they renew registration cards. Gave him my old registration card, inspection papers, proof of insurance, and QR 100, and was rewarded for all of my time and effort with my brand new vehicle registration card.
And I have to do this rigamarole every year now! I can see why some people just choose to sell their old car and get a new one once their old one is three years old. Would definitely save a lot of hassle.
Anyway the car is okay for another year.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
H1N1 update
H1N1 cases in Qatar are now up to 17, which in the grand scale of things is still pretty minor in that it represents around 0.9 cases per 100,000 people. (I think in Canada it is around 2.9 per 100,000). Given Qatar's small population though it won't take many more cases before its per capita average is on par with many European countries. All the cases have been mild and I do not think at this time there is any concern that more serious cases will appear.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Do the crime . . .
Just a quick H1N1 update - I believe the number of cases in Qatar is now at 15, which doesn't seem like much but on a per capita basis it means there are more cases here than in Japan. Everyone seems pretty "meh" about it though.
In other news, literally, I was looking through the paper today and there were three interesting articles about recent cases at the court:
A bus driver who was stealing fares (over time he took about $10,000). He got five years in jail.
A Filipino maid and her Indian lover who were on trial for the death of their newborn. She apparantly abandoned the baby in a dumpster after it was born, and had been hiding the fact that she had been pregnant from her employer. The coroner could not determine with certainty whether she had deliberately killed the baby so she was found not guilty in the death, but she and her lover were sentenced to three years for "illicit relations" since they were not married. Illicit relations is a charge that you see in the courts every now and then in this part of the world, authorities take things like that seriously and jail time for illicit relations is not uncommon.
Finally, a Lebanese man on charges of blasphemy. For some reason the online version of the paper doesn't have it but here's another example. I don't know what he said (and the article isn't saying) but it must have been pretty nasty -- he got seven years! Wow!
So the lesson to be learned here is that anyone reading this who is moving to the Middle East try to bear in mind that some of the laws are different in this region, and what might not be considered too serious in the West could get you in real trouble here. Blasphemy, illicit relations, even standing on a Qur'an can get you in real trouble. Remember, countries in the Middle East are Islamic nations and for civil crimes the legal system is based on Shari'a principles. None of that church/state separation as in the West.
In other news, literally, I was looking through the paper today and there were three interesting articles about recent cases at the court:
A bus driver who was stealing fares (over time he took about $10,000). He got five years in jail.
A Filipino maid and her Indian lover who were on trial for the death of their newborn. She apparantly abandoned the baby in a dumpster after it was born, and had been hiding the fact that she had been pregnant from her employer. The coroner could not determine with certainty whether she had deliberately killed the baby so she was found not guilty in the death, but she and her lover were sentenced to three years for "illicit relations" since they were not married. Illicit relations is a charge that you see in the courts every now and then in this part of the world, authorities take things like that seriously and jail time for illicit relations is not uncommon.
Finally, a Lebanese man on charges of blasphemy. For some reason the online version of the paper doesn't have it but here's another example. I don't know what he said (and the article isn't saying) but it must have been pretty nasty -- he got seven years! Wow!
So the lesson to be learned here is that anyone reading this who is moving to the Middle East try to bear in mind that some of the laws are different in this region, and what might not be considered too serious in the West could get you in real trouble here. Blasphemy, illicit relations, even standing on a Qur'an can get you in real trouble. Remember, countries in the Middle East are Islamic nations and for civil crimes the legal system is based on Shari'a principles. None of that church/state separation as in the West.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Qatar education
The other day I was talking to some Qataris and the conversation went on to education. They commented that in Qatar the public education system wasn't very good and many Qataris nowadays are opting for private school for their children. I recalled similar problems in Bermuda with the quality of public education and wondered if there was a strange quirk about very wealthy countries that for some reason they struggle with their educational system.
Coincidentally I was later on the OECD website looking up some materials when my search found the PISA assessment for 2006. PISA is an assessment undertaken by the OECD every three years (the first one was in 2000) where thousands of 15 year-olds in OECD countries take a 3+ hour standardised test measuring their abilities in reading, mathematics, and science. It is one of the most comprehensive worldwide surveys, possibly the only decent worldwide survey, measuring the ability of students in some fundamental concepts of education. Though there have only been three studies so far most countries treat the results seriously. Media tend to take a keen interest in the results and then discuss with education ministers as to what the deficiencies are and where improvements are needed. And with every PISA survey more and more countries sign on to take part, even those that are not in the OECD. In 2006, fifty-seven countries took part, the 2009 one had something like sixty-seven. To my surprise Qatar had taken part in the 2006 survey, the only country in the Gulf to do so. I was impressed that Qatar would take part, I think it shows that the Education Ministry is taking these things seriously and wants to measure how its students are doing compared to international counterparts. Over 7000 children in Qatar wrote the test, which given at the time the population of the country was probably one million people it is likely that almost every 15 year-old in the public education system wrote it.
So how did Qatar do? Well, here's the base rankings on the three categories including some other OECD countries, (top 5 plus selected others):
Reading (56 countries)
1. Korea
2. Finland
3. Hong Kong
4. Canada
5. New Zealand
. . .
15. Japan
17. UK
18. Germany
23. France
33. Italy
39. Russia
. . .
54. Azerbaijan
55. Qatar
56. Kyrgyzstan
(for some reason there are only 56 countries on the reading list because the United States is not listed, why I don't know)
Math (57 countries)
1. Taiwan
2. Finland
3. Hong Kong
4. Korea
5. Netherlands
. . .
7. Canada
10. Japan
20. Germany
23. France
24. UK
34. Russia
35. USA
38. Italy
. . .
55. Tunisia
56. Qatar
57. Kyrgyzstan
Science (57 countries)
1. Finland
2. Hong Kong
3. Canada
4. Taiwan
5. Estonia
6. Japan
. . .
11. Korea
13. Germany
14. UK
25. France
29. USA
35. Russia
36. Italy
. . .
55. Azerbaijan
56. Qatar
57. Kyrgyzstan
So I guess the Qataris I spoke to were right as these are very surprising results for a country with such wealth. In fact I showed these results to a couple of them and they were not alarmed at all. They could not clarify specifically why results were poor however. Poor-quality teaching? Lack of parental involvement? Lack of discipline by students for studying? Class sizes too large? Curriculum lacks focus? I guess that is something for the Education Ministry to investigate - I hope that whatever it is they are undertaking reforms. Then again it would depend on the reasons why, I know that Qatari public schools do a lot of religious instruction in Islam and the Qur'an which would mean less class time on math and science (I don't know if that would impact reading scores since reading skills would be important for understanding the Qur'an). Anyway it would appear that Qatar has some changes to make.
Qatar's Education Ministry posted articles about the PISA study when it was published and had signed on to do the 2009 study, which was conducted in March, with even more students participating than in 2006. I see that as a positive sign that Qatar is taking the issue seriously and wants to see if whatever changes they have made have improved things. Dubai signed on as well for 2009 but no other GCC country has, including other UAE emirates.
As for Canada I am glad that it is doing very well in terms of the results, but I sure couldn't tell you why that is. I guess since I have only been through one educational system (Canada's) I can't really compare and contrast with what is done in other countries. The US education system appears to score poorly which is perhaps not too surprising as there has been a lot more criticism and discussion of the issue in the United States over the last 8 to 10 years, and major attempts by the government to rectify problems, such as the No Child Left Behind Act. I have not looked at the previous two studies to see if the US has shown improvement over the last six years.
Finland had the highest overall scores of any country in the world, again I'm not sure why. They solidly outscored other Scandinavian countries so they must be doing something differently. Neighbouring Estonia also has decent results, much better than the other Baltic states and Russia so I suspect they have then taking a page from the Finnish model.
If you're interested in the PISA study I highly recommend looking at the full reports at www.pisa.oecd.org. The reports are very long and detailed, have additional tables with further information, and also provide methodologies and examples of the questions. From looking around I even know that countries could get detailed reports by region -- Canada has published their results by province, probably on a Canadian Gov't website somewhere.
Look out for when the results of the 2009 study are published -- probably in early 2010.
(And if anyone from India is reading this your country does not take part in the PISA survey. Given the emphasis Indians put on education I'm surprised they haven't signed on. Pressure your government to get on board, I suspect India will have good results and PISA is a valuable way to identify possible weaknesses)
Coincidentally I was later on the OECD website looking up some materials when my search found the PISA assessment for 2006. PISA is an assessment undertaken by the OECD every three years (the first one was in 2000) where thousands of 15 year-olds in OECD countries take a 3+ hour standardised test measuring their abilities in reading, mathematics, and science. It is one of the most comprehensive worldwide surveys, possibly the only decent worldwide survey, measuring the ability of students in some fundamental concepts of education. Though there have only been three studies so far most countries treat the results seriously. Media tend to take a keen interest in the results and then discuss with education ministers as to what the deficiencies are and where improvements are needed. And with every PISA survey more and more countries sign on to take part, even those that are not in the OECD. In 2006, fifty-seven countries took part, the 2009 one had something like sixty-seven. To my surprise Qatar had taken part in the 2006 survey, the only country in the Gulf to do so. I was impressed that Qatar would take part, I think it shows that the Education Ministry is taking these things seriously and wants to measure how its students are doing compared to international counterparts. Over 7000 children in Qatar wrote the test, which given at the time the population of the country was probably one million people it is likely that almost every 15 year-old in the public education system wrote it.
So how did Qatar do? Well, here's the base rankings on the three categories including some other OECD countries, (top 5 plus selected others):
Reading (56 countries)
1. Korea
2. Finland
3. Hong Kong
4. Canada
5. New Zealand
. . .
15. Japan
17. UK
18. Germany
23. France
33. Italy
39. Russia
. . .
54. Azerbaijan
55. Qatar
56. Kyrgyzstan
(for some reason there are only 56 countries on the reading list because the United States is not listed, why I don't know)
Math (57 countries)
1. Taiwan
2. Finland
3. Hong Kong
4. Korea
5. Netherlands
. . .
7. Canada
10. Japan
20. Germany
23. France
24. UK
34. Russia
35. USA
38. Italy
. . .
55. Tunisia
56. Qatar
57. Kyrgyzstan
Science (57 countries)
1. Finland
2. Hong Kong
3. Canada
4. Taiwan
5. Estonia
6. Japan
. . .
11. Korea
13. Germany
14. UK
25. France
29. USA
35. Russia
36. Italy
. . .
55. Azerbaijan
56. Qatar
57. Kyrgyzstan
So I guess the Qataris I spoke to were right as these are very surprising results for a country with such wealth. In fact I showed these results to a couple of them and they were not alarmed at all. They could not clarify specifically why results were poor however. Poor-quality teaching? Lack of parental involvement? Lack of discipline by students for studying? Class sizes too large? Curriculum lacks focus? I guess that is something for the Education Ministry to investigate - I hope that whatever it is they are undertaking reforms. Then again it would depend on the reasons why, I know that Qatari public schools do a lot of religious instruction in Islam and the Qur'an which would mean less class time on math and science (I don't know if that would impact reading scores since reading skills would be important for understanding the Qur'an). Anyway it would appear that Qatar has some changes to make.
Qatar's Education Ministry posted articles about the PISA study when it was published and had signed on to do the 2009 study, which was conducted in March, with even more students participating than in 2006. I see that as a positive sign that Qatar is taking the issue seriously and wants to see if whatever changes they have made have improved things. Dubai signed on as well for 2009 but no other GCC country has, including other UAE emirates.
As for Canada I am glad that it is doing very well in terms of the results, but I sure couldn't tell you why that is. I guess since I have only been through one educational system (Canada's) I can't really compare and contrast with what is done in other countries. The US education system appears to score poorly which is perhaps not too surprising as there has been a lot more criticism and discussion of the issue in the United States over the last 8 to 10 years, and major attempts by the government to rectify problems, such as the No Child Left Behind Act. I have not looked at the previous two studies to see if the US has shown improvement over the last six years.
Finland had the highest overall scores of any country in the world, again I'm not sure why. They solidly outscored other Scandinavian countries so they must be doing something differently. Neighbouring Estonia also has decent results, much better than the other Baltic states and Russia so I suspect they have then taking a page from the Finnish model.
If you're interested in the PISA study I highly recommend looking at the full reports at www.pisa.oecd.org. The reports are very long and detailed, have additional tables with further information, and also provide methodologies and examples of the questions. From looking around I even know that countries could get detailed reports by region -- Canada has published their results by province, probably on a Canadian Gov't website somewhere.
Look out for when the results of the 2009 study are published -- probably in early 2010.
(And if anyone from India is reading this your country does not take part in the PISA survey. Given the emphasis Indians put on education I'm surprised they haven't signed on. Pressure your government to get on board, I suspect India will have good results and PISA is a valuable way to identify possible weaknesses)
Friday, June 19, 2009
Car inspection - part 2
[This post contains outdated information, I recommend going to my post of May 21, 2011 for the most recent information about car inspections]
So after my recently tuned-up car failed inspection I went back to the garage to ask them (1) why one of my brakes didn't pass muster and (2) fix it.
"Oh, we don't do break inspections at this garage.", thanks for letting me know ahead of time!
"You need to go to the main shop. It is in the Industrial Area."
Where? The Industrial Area !?
Crap.
The Industrial Area is a vast area of streets on the western side of the city, and home to many of the labourers. I have heard that its population at any given point in time is around 75,000. It is notorious for being clogged with traffic and having horrible roads with tons of potholes, all of the heavy trucks and industrial equipment that roam the area really wear down the roads. A lot of people avoid going to the Industrial Area if they can help it, and to drive around there after it has rained (so you can't tell how deep the holes are because they are filled with water) is to risk damaging your car. Seriously, I have seen potholes there at least 18 inches deep! I haven't been in the Industrial Area in nearly 2 years.
So here it is six o'clock in the evening on a weekday and I need to go to the Industrial Area. I'm told the garage in the Industrial Area is open until 10 at night but not to bother going there this evening because "they will be booked solid".
So I thanked the guys, got into the car -- and immediately drove out to the Industrial Area. You see, my insurance was going to run out in three days and I had always been told that I can't renew the insurance unless I renew the registration, but I can't renew the registration until I have passed inspection, and I can't pass inspection until I get the problem fixed, so I did not really have a lot of time. I also wanted to get there before it got dark so I can see the potholes in the street.
Sure enough traffic in the industrial area was heavy and there were a few jams in a couple of places, but eventually I got to the garage. And of course the other garage was completely wrong, they were not booked solid, and they could look at my car tonight. Great!
But it will take at least two hours. Crap.
So I waited in their waiting room for two hours, reading their newspapers and watching TV, but to their word after about two hours they were done.
Bad news: I needed a part replaced to get the car up to specs.
Good news: it is covered under the warranty (which expires in four days)
Bad news: they do not have the part and it will take five days to get it here.
Good news: I can still drive the car though
So that means my insurance will have expired by then. Aaaaargh.
Well it has now been nine days and they have not called me to say the part is in. Not to worry, I will call them tomorrow. You see, whenever someone in Qatar says they'll call you when something is ready they rarely ever do. You need to call them. I'm not as concerned as I once was because I also went to the insurance company and got my insurance renewed. Rumour that I could not get my insurance renewed was wrong, I went to the insurance company and a renewed it -- no problem.
That's the other thing about Qatar, don't believe everything you're told about how things work here. Find out for yourself as you might be surprised. That's why I went to the insurance company even though everyone was sure I would not get a renewal/extension.
Now I just need to get the part fixed, get the car reinspected, then go to the Ministry to renew my registration. If there are further complications I will let you know.
So after my recently tuned-up car failed inspection I went back to the garage to ask them (1) why one of my brakes didn't pass muster and (2) fix it.
"Oh, we don't do break inspections at this garage.", thanks for letting me know ahead of time!
"You need to go to the main shop. It is in the Industrial Area."
Where? The Industrial Area !?
Crap.
The Industrial Area is a vast area of streets on the western side of the city, and home to many of the labourers. I have heard that its population at any given point in time is around 75,000. It is notorious for being clogged with traffic and having horrible roads with tons of potholes, all of the heavy trucks and industrial equipment that roam the area really wear down the roads. A lot of people avoid going to the Industrial Area if they can help it, and to drive around there after it has rained (so you can't tell how deep the holes are because they are filled with water) is to risk damaging your car. Seriously, I have seen potholes there at least 18 inches deep! I haven't been in the Industrial Area in nearly 2 years.
So here it is six o'clock in the evening on a weekday and I need to go to the Industrial Area. I'm told the garage in the Industrial Area is open until 10 at night but not to bother going there this evening because "they will be booked solid".
So I thanked the guys, got into the car -- and immediately drove out to the Industrial Area. You see, my insurance was going to run out in three days and I had always been told that I can't renew the insurance unless I renew the registration, but I can't renew the registration until I have passed inspection, and I can't pass inspection until I get the problem fixed, so I did not really have a lot of time. I also wanted to get there before it got dark so I can see the potholes in the street.
Sure enough traffic in the industrial area was heavy and there were a few jams in a couple of places, but eventually I got to the garage. And of course the other garage was completely wrong, they were not booked solid, and they could look at my car tonight. Great!
But it will take at least two hours. Crap.
So I waited in their waiting room for two hours, reading their newspapers and watching TV, but to their word after about two hours they were done.
Bad news: I needed a part replaced to get the car up to specs.
Good news: it is covered under the warranty (which expires in four days)
Bad news: they do not have the part and it will take five days to get it here.
Good news: I can still drive the car though
So that means my insurance will have expired by then. Aaaaargh.
Well it has now been nine days and they have not called me to say the part is in. Not to worry, I will call them tomorrow. You see, whenever someone in Qatar says they'll call you when something is ready they rarely ever do. You need to call them. I'm not as concerned as I once was because I also went to the insurance company and got my insurance renewed. Rumour that I could not get my insurance renewed was wrong, I went to the insurance company and a renewed it -- no problem.
That's the other thing about Qatar, don't believe everything you're told about how things work here. Find out for yourself as you might be surprised. That's why I went to the insurance company even though everyone was sure I would not get a renewal/extension.
Now I just need to get the part fixed, get the car reinspected, then go to the Ministry to renew my registration. If there are further complications I will let you know.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
H1N1 update
Well it took a lot longer than I expected but Qatar now has its first confirmed cases of H1N1. So far it is limited to three people all of whom recently travelled into Qatar. All are quarantined and are being monitored. Their symptoms are mild so there appears to be no risk that it will be something serious. Qatar has also tested about 70 other people and the remaining tests have been negative. Qatar was the last country in the Gulf region to have confirmed cases, all the other ones had confirmed cases about a week or so before so it was only a matter of time.
Because H1N1 has so far not been as serious a disease as once feared (with the vast majority of people experiencing only mild symptoms) everyone here in Qatar appears to be calm. Some companies are making employees work from home for a week if they have just flown in from areas with a high incidence of H1N1, but that is a sensible precaution. Why risk unnecessarily exposing your employees?
And I'm fine. I am scheduled to fly to Europe in six weeks so hopefully everything remains calm.
Because H1N1 has so far not been as serious a disease as once feared (with the vast majority of people experiencing only mild symptoms) everyone here in Qatar appears to be calm. Some companies are making employees work from home for a week if they have just flown in from areas with a high incidence of H1N1, but that is a sensible precaution. Why risk unnecessarily exposing your employees?
And I'm fine. I am scheduled to fly to Europe in six weeks so hopefully everything remains calm.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Car inspection
[This post contains outdated information, I recommend going to my post of May 21, 2011 for the most recent information about car inspections]
Okay, here's the car inspection story I mentioned briefly in my last post.
In Qatar after your car is three years old you have to get it inspected on an annual basis to get the registration renewed. It involves checking out the car and testing things like emissions and so forth, I wasn't exactly sure what was being tested. Some friends of mine had been through it before and apparently it was a nightmare and they had to go back multiple times. So with that in mind their advice was:
1) take your car in for a tuneup before you get it inspected to make sure it passes; and
2) have a woman take the car to the inspection, because she will be put ahead of the men in the queue.
Since I'm not married (2) was not an option since I assume they would check things like ID or registration, otherwise by now I'm sure some women would be charging money to take people's car for inspection.
So I went to the dealership garage and told them that I will be taking the car in for inspection, so to take a look at it. They told me that since I was close to my 15,000km service they would do that. One hour and $125 later that was done. Now I had to get it to the inspection area, which I've been told always had a really long queue.
Luckily my friend Serdar and his wife were also going to get their car inspected so we went together on a Saturday. The inspection area was a parking lot adjacent to a shopping centre, where an inspection garage had been set up next to a mobile trailer, which was the office. There were two lineups, one with about a dozen cars and another with about 40 cars. Turns out the short lineup was for people who had made reservations while the longer one was from people who just showed up. Since I didn't have a reservation I was in the long lineup. A security guard handed me a piece of paper with a number and another guy in line got out of his car to tell me that I need to go into the office to get my official paperwork. So I left Serdar with my car and went in.
The office consisted of a TV, a water cooler, about 10 chairs up against the walls, and a single desk at the far end with about 10 people crowded around it yelling and waving papers at the lone beleagured clerk sitting at the desk. I'm now used to this sort of thing so I started wading into the crowd as well but I guess the clerk was already at his wits end and just started shouting to everyone "Sit down! Sit down!" in both English and Arabic. So we sat down and he started calling numbers, the first one being about five before mine. So while I sat there waiting for my number to be called more people came in to crowd around the desk, which caused some of the people who were sitting to get up and go to the desk as well and before long we had another crowd of people waving papers at the clerk. Poor guy.
Eventually, after about 20 minutes or so, it was my turn. It turns out the clerk was a very nice Algerian man and we had a chat while he processed my paperwork. When he saw that I was Canadian from my registration he even spoke to me in French (Algeria was once a French colony so it is still widely spoken there) but switched to English once he realised I was not from Quebec. He also gave me a couple of phone numbers and told me to call one of them to book an appointment, otherwise I would be in line for at least four hours! Since the thought of being in an open parking lot in 45 degree heat for 4 hours was not appealing in the least I decided to heed his advice, but then the guy behind me told me that he had an appointment and he had been waiting for over an hour already. Ugh, this was not looking good.
Anyway I went out to find that after 25 minutes my car had moved all of about five places in line. Luckily Serdar had made an appointment for his car so his wife was in the short lineup with it and would probably be another 15 minutes. So we went to the mall next door and got coffees while we waited for her to finish. Meanwhile I called the numbers and managed to book an appointment for Monday afternoon.
Fast forward to Monday afternoon. I leave work to drive across town to the inspection centre, to find that the lineups were much shorter (protip for anyone in Qatar reading this -- go on a weekday). The security guard told me that I had to go in to get my paperwork changed since it had the wrong date on it but since there were not as many people lined up for inspection it was easier to get to the Algerian clerk and get my paperwork reprinted. So within about 20 minutes I had my car inspected.
... and it failed! One of the rear brakes did not meet the required standards.
So I was told that I had to go get it fixed and come back to get it reinspected all over again. Aaaaaargh!
Tune in next blog post for part two of this saga -- Glen goes to get his car fixed.
Okay, here's the car inspection story I mentioned briefly in my last post.
In Qatar after your car is three years old you have to get it inspected on an annual basis to get the registration renewed. It involves checking out the car and testing things like emissions and so forth, I wasn't exactly sure what was being tested. Some friends of mine had been through it before and apparently it was a nightmare and they had to go back multiple times. So with that in mind their advice was:
1) take your car in for a tuneup before you get it inspected to make sure it passes; and
2) have a woman take the car to the inspection, because she will be put ahead of the men in the queue.
Since I'm not married (2) was not an option since I assume they would check things like ID or registration, otherwise by now I'm sure some women would be charging money to take people's car for inspection.
So I went to the dealership garage and told them that I will be taking the car in for inspection, so to take a look at it. They told me that since I was close to my 15,000km service they would do that. One hour and $125 later that was done. Now I had to get it to the inspection area, which I've been told always had a really long queue.
Luckily my friend Serdar and his wife were also going to get their car inspected so we went together on a Saturday. The inspection area was a parking lot adjacent to a shopping centre, where an inspection garage had been set up next to a mobile trailer, which was the office. There were two lineups, one with about a dozen cars and another with about 40 cars. Turns out the short lineup was for people who had made reservations while the longer one was from people who just showed up. Since I didn't have a reservation I was in the long lineup. A security guard handed me a piece of paper with a number and another guy in line got out of his car to tell me that I need to go into the office to get my official paperwork. So I left Serdar with my car and went in.
The office consisted of a TV, a water cooler, about 10 chairs up against the walls, and a single desk at the far end with about 10 people crowded around it yelling and waving papers at the lone beleagured clerk sitting at the desk. I'm now used to this sort of thing so I started wading into the crowd as well but I guess the clerk was already at his wits end and just started shouting to everyone "Sit down! Sit down!" in both English and Arabic. So we sat down and he started calling numbers, the first one being about five before mine. So while I sat there waiting for my number to be called more people came in to crowd around the desk, which caused some of the people who were sitting to get up and go to the desk as well and before long we had another crowd of people waving papers at the clerk. Poor guy.
Eventually, after about 20 minutes or so, it was my turn. It turns out the clerk was a very nice Algerian man and we had a chat while he processed my paperwork. When he saw that I was Canadian from my registration he even spoke to me in French (Algeria was once a French colony so it is still widely spoken there) but switched to English once he realised I was not from Quebec. He also gave me a couple of phone numbers and told me to call one of them to book an appointment, otherwise I would be in line for at least four hours! Since the thought of being in an open parking lot in 45 degree heat for 4 hours was not appealing in the least I decided to heed his advice, but then the guy behind me told me that he had an appointment and he had been waiting for over an hour already. Ugh, this was not looking good.
Anyway I went out to find that after 25 minutes my car had moved all of about five places in line. Luckily Serdar had made an appointment for his car so his wife was in the short lineup with it and would probably be another 15 minutes. So we went to the mall next door and got coffees while we waited for her to finish. Meanwhile I called the numbers and managed to book an appointment for Monday afternoon.
Fast forward to Monday afternoon. I leave work to drive across town to the inspection centre, to find that the lineups were much shorter (protip for anyone in Qatar reading this -- go on a weekday). The security guard told me that I had to go in to get my paperwork changed since it had the wrong date on it but since there were not as many people lined up for inspection it was easier to get to the Algerian clerk and get my paperwork reprinted. So within about 20 minutes I had my car inspected.
... and it failed! One of the rear brakes did not meet the required standards.
So I was told that I had to go get it fixed and come back to get it reinspected all over again. Aaaaaargh!
Tune in next blog post for part two of this saga -- Glen goes to get his car fixed.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Financial updates
Sorry about the lack of updates, I've been really busy the past couple of weeks. I had a two hour presentation to prepare for work and on top of that I had to get my car inspected in order to get it to be registered. That in itself is a long story that I'll probably get to next post.
So how's the financial crisis doing in the Middle East? Well in Qatar the Government announced another support package to the local banks, buying out their real estate portfolios. This package is to the tune of 15 billion riyal (US$4 billion). And this for a country of around 1.5 million people! Needless to say this should keep the local banks out of trouble. Maybe the government was being generous because oil has climbed above $65 a barrel. I think the country created its budget for 2009 based on an oil price of around $40 a barrel so they must now be looking at a decent surplus this year.
In Dubai it is still more doom and gloom. It is hard to say what is the truth with all of the media reports coming out, one article has an "expert" saying everything has bottomed out and the real estate market will now climb, meanwhile UBS just announced it expects another 40% drop in real estate prices there before everything levels out -- and there have even been estimates that by the end of 2010 one in three properties in Dubai could be empty. I have seen a number of estimates that the population there will decrease 5-10%, with the biggest estimate being 17%. Imagine what your town would be like if 17% moved out over the next year! Anyway, all of these predictions seem to be just stabs in the dark, we will have a better idea in September when all of the expats return from summer holidays and put their kids in school. Once the school year starts it will become apparent just how many expats returned. Rumours of a " mass exodus" from Dubai in the summer still circulate but I think it has reached a stage where it is overhyped and will probably not be as bad as rumour makes it out to be (don't get me wrong it will still be bad but not as bad as the rumours think it will be). Qatar is not going through a downturn anywhere near as bad as what is happening in Dubai, and one report estimates Qatar will have the highest GDP growth in the world this year.
I guess I am kind of fascinated with what is happening in Dubai because it is like watching a train wreck in slow motion that you knew was going to happen. Property speculation can be nasty if you're not careful, basing a large part of an economy on property speculation is downright dangerous.
So how's the financial crisis doing in the Middle East? Well in Qatar the Government announced another support package to the local banks, buying out their real estate portfolios. This package is to the tune of 15 billion riyal (US$4 billion). And this for a country of around 1.5 million people! Needless to say this should keep the local banks out of trouble. Maybe the government was being generous because oil has climbed above $65 a barrel. I think the country created its budget for 2009 based on an oil price of around $40 a barrel so they must now be looking at a decent surplus this year.
In Dubai it is still more doom and gloom. It is hard to say what is the truth with all of the media reports coming out, one article has an "expert" saying everything has bottomed out and the real estate market will now climb, meanwhile UBS just announced it expects another 40% drop in real estate prices there before everything levels out -- and there have even been estimates that by the end of 2010 one in three properties in Dubai could be empty. I have seen a number of estimates that the population there will decrease 5-10%, with the biggest estimate being 17%. Imagine what your town would be like if 17% moved out over the next year! Anyway, all of these predictions seem to be just stabs in the dark, we will have a better idea in September when all of the expats return from summer holidays and put their kids in school. Once the school year starts it will become apparent just how many expats returned. Rumours of a " mass exodus" from Dubai in the summer still circulate but I think it has reached a stage where it is overhyped and will probably not be as bad as rumour makes it out to be (don't get me wrong it will still be bad but not as bad as the rumours think it will be). Qatar is not going through a downturn anywhere near as bad as what is happening in Dubai, and one report estimates Qatar will have the highest GDP growth in the world this year.
I guess I am kind of fascinated with what is happening in Dubai because it is like watching a train wreck in slow motion that you knew was going to happen. Property speculation can be nasty if you're not careful, basing a large part of an economy on property speculation is downright dangerous.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Hot
Man, it is hot. (Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking, "Really Glen, is it hot in the Arabian desert? Who knew?"). I mean that it is much hotter than usual for this time of year, odd since we had such a mild spring. The newspaper is expecting temperatures to reach 48°C today (118°F), and the temperature has been around that for the last week or so. On the bright side it is not humid so the heat is more bearable than it should be. Still it is not easy getting out and about. My car A/C struggles to keep the temperature tolerable, I still find myself sweating driving around.
Looks like GM might be going bankrupt. Good thing I warned a buddy of mine about that possibility, he was thinking of buying a Hummer earlier this week but I advised that he wait and see how the GM crisis pans out. The Qataris have been telling him to get a Toyota anyway (they love their Land Cruisers) but those are some of the most expensive SUVs here in the Middle East. Probably because they are in such high demand. I have heard a joke that the reason why there is a Japanese embassy here is because of all the business Toyota does with Qataris.
Otherwise things are staying pretty mellow. The Qatar Natural History Group is finished until October, Arabic classes end next week for the summer, and my next vacation is not until the end of July (Paris for a friend's wedding, isn't that cool?). Once the humidity kicks in it will be too hot to even go to Souq Waqif. Looks like a couple of months of reading books, watching DVDs, and wandering around malls.
I've been asked a few times how I can handle the heat, being Canadian and all, and I think the question comes from a misconception that Canada is always cool/cold. Most people are surprised to hear that where I grew up temperatures in the mid-30s were a regular occurrence in the summer. 40°C was rare but has happened. But that was a dry heat so more tolerable than the summer here. Oddly enough I think that the Canadian winters actually helps me tolerate the summer here. Canadians are used to spending three or four months of the year mostly indoors, going from your heated house to your heated car to your heated office/restaurant/mall. It is just like here in the summer only the temperature is reversed, going from your A/C'd house to your A/C'd car/office etc. I think people from temperate climates struggle more with the summer here because they are used to being able to go out any time of the year, so go stir crazy being stuck indoors for a few months. I'm not saying that summer here is fantastic but I tolerate it.
Looks like GM might be going bankrupt. Good thing I warned a buddy of mine about that possibility, he was thinking of buying a Hummer earlier this week but I advised that he wait and see how the GM crisis pans out. The Qataris have been telling him to get a Toyota anyway (they love their Land Cruisers) but those are some of the most expensive SUVs here in the Middle East. Probably because they are in such high demand. I have heard a joke that the reason why there is a Japanese embassy here is because of all the business Toyota does with Qataris.
Otherwise things are staying pretty mellow. The Qatar Natural History Group is finished until October, Arabic classes end next week for the summer, and my next vacation is not until the end of July (Paris for a friend's wedding, isn't that cool?). Once the humidity kicks in it will be too hot to even go to Souq Waqif. Looks like a couple of months of reading books, watching DVDs, and wandering around malls.
I've been asked a few times how I can handle the heat, being Canadian and all, and I think the question comes from a misconception that Canada is always cool/cold. Most people are surprised to hear that where I grew up temperatures in the mid-30s were a regular occurrence in the summer. 40°C was rare but has happened. But that was a dry heat so more tolerable than the summer here. Oddly enough I think that the Canadian winters actually helps me tolerate the summer here. Canadians are used to spending three or four months of the year mostly indoors, going from your heated house to your heated car to your heated office/restaurant/mall. It is just like here in the summer only the temperature is reversed, going from your A/C'd house to your A/C'd car/office etc. I think people from temperate climates struggle more with the summer here because they are used to being able to go out any time of the year, so go stir crazy being stuck indoors for a few months. I'm not saying that summer here is fantastic but I tolerate it.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Amusingly, someone just left a comment on my very first blog post back in September 2006. Every now and then I get comments on an old post but of course this one holds the record (although they did admit themselves that they were late). Rather than respond in the post itself, I figured I would reply here. No sense in starting a comment chain on a nearly three year old post.
The comment was as follows...
there are not anti-science groups or whatever they call it in Qatar, at least by the muslims. infact, islam encourages science and knowledge, it is considered worship! except the thing that humanity began from apes, and I think most religion agree with it I guess.
Now islam encouraging science may be true at some points in Islamic history, in some Islamic areas, but I do not think any scholar of Islamic history would agree that throughout the Islamic period science was embraced.
Islam went through a period that some refer to as their "Golden Age" but the timing of it varies depending on the area we are talking about. It is true that from around the 8th to 12th centuries in areas like Syria and Iraq, maybe the 13th century in Egypt, and from as late as the 15th century in southern Spain, these Islamic areas generally encouraged inquiry and research. The leading thinkers of the time read and translated the Greek and Latin works from ancient Greece and Rome, added ideas from the Babylonians, Indians, and Chinese, and expanded on the knowledge they now had. For a time the Islamic world could have had reasonable claim to contain the most advanced societies in the world in fields like medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and optics (though I'm sure the Chinese would probably argue the medicine claim at the very least). Europeans flocked to centres of learning such as Cordoba to learn from Islamic scholars and many of the works by such scholars would form the backbone of Rennisance learning. Maimonides, Geber, Rauxes (sp?), were latinized names of some of these Islamic scholars. Many of the ancient Greek and Roman works that we have now exist only because they were preserved by Islamic scholars who had translated them into Arabic.
But after a while the Islamic empires faded. Wars, invasions, and a move towards religious conservatism eroded Islamic scientific learning and things soon stagnated. By the time of the Ottoman Empire Islamic science was in decline, while Europe took up the mantle. By the 19th century the once mighty Ottoman Empire and other Islamic areas could only marvel at the scientific and engineering achievements in Europe. Much of the medical knowledge gained in the early Islamic period had been lost to its discoverers. In some parts of the Islamic world people were doing things such as wearing verses of the Qur'an as charms to heal illnesses and ward off evil, or drinking water that Qur'anic verses had been immersed in as medicine. Qatar did not even have its first official school until I think the 1950s (not including religious instruction), and I suspect its first hospital was around the same time.
Of course that is now once again changing and one could even say that the Islamic world is moving towards a second "Golden Age" of scientific learning and achievement. Countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE are building science and technology centres, encouraging research on items such as stem cells, sending its young citizens to universities around the world while inviting other prestigious institutions to set up satellite campuses. The Islamic world now has dozens and dozens of universities with fierce competition for students to get into them. From documentaries I've seen on education in places such as Palestine and Lebanon high school students are very serious about learning, preparing for final exams that determine whether they get one of the precious spots in good universities.
And it is not just men, women also attend university and go on to careers in science. Qatar University typically graduates 1500 students a year and around 80% of them are women. One of my Qatari colleagues has sisters studying in the UK, and many Lebanese women have degrees from Canada, US, or France. My dentist is a Lebanese woman (or maybe Jordanian), and in the medical clinic I go to I figure about 30% of the doctors are Muslim women. I even remember back when I was taking chemistry one of the students in my upper level chemistry class was woman who recently moved to Canada from Iran. Remember everyone, most of the Islamic world is not like Taleban-controlled Afghanistan.
I wouldn't say that the Islamic world is on the cutting-edge of the sciences yet but perhaps with time we will be hearing more and more about scientific discoveries in the Middle East and other parts of the Islamic world. If an Islamic scientist, working primarily in the Islamic world in a university or research centre, were to win the Nobel prize in one of the sciences I think we could safely say that the second "Golden Age" has truly begun (maybe it has happened already, I have not combed the list of Nobel prize winners recently).
Do I think it is a good thing? Of course I do! Why would I want any society to reject science and learning? I would not care if one day every Nobel prize winner came from the Islamic world. Hopefully not because the West has descended into another Dark Age though.
Speaking of which it may be good that the Islamic world is moving towards learning in science because sometimes trends in places like the US worry me. Christian fundamentalism has been gaining strong footholds in the last few decades and in many parts of the US it has been affecting the quality of science education, especially in biology. When I went to conventions sponsored by the James Randi Educational Foundation many Americans I spoke to were definitely concerned about the impact fundamentalist Christians are having in their attacks on scientific learning. I have not seen religious anti-science attitudes here in Qatar anywhere near the extent one sees in North America. Hopefully now that Bush is out of the White House things will improve again -- the Bush administration definitely had some anti-science positions or interfering in issues such as biology, sex education, and certain aspects of NASA research. That recent court ruling against so-called "intelligent design" was also a positive step. And don't forget Obama rescinding the Bush restrictions on stem cell research. The US might be heading back to a more pro-science, pro-education stance. One can hope.
(btw humans are apes, genera Homo.)
The comment was as follows...
there are not anti-science groups or whatever they call it in Qatar, at least by the muslims. infact, islam encourages science and knowledge, it is considered worship! except the thing that humanity began from apes, and I think most religion agree with it I guess.
Now islam encouraging science may be true at some points in Islamic history, in some Islamic areas, but I do not think any scholar of Islamic history would agree that throughout the Islamic period science was embraced.
Islam went through a period that some refer to as their "Golden Age" but the timing of it varies depending on the area we are talking about. It is true that from around the 8th to 12th centuries in areas like Syria and Iraq, maybe the 13th century in Egypt, and from as late as the 15th century in southern Spain, these Islamic areas generally encouraged inquiry and research. The leading thinkers of the time read and translated the Greek and Latin works from ancient Greece and Rome, added ideas from the Babylonians, Indians, and Chinese, and expanded on the knowledge they now had. For a time the Islamic world could have had reasonable claim to contain the most advanced societies in the world in fields like medicine, astronomy, mathematics, and optics (though I'm sure the Chinese would probably argue the medicine claim at the very least). Europeans flocked to centres of learning such as Cordoba to learn from Islamic scholars and many of the works by such scholars would form the backbone of Rennisance learning. Maimonides, Geber, Rauxes (sp?), were latinized names of some of these Islamic scholars. Many of the ancient Greek and Roman works that we have now exist only because they were preserved by Islamic scholars who had translated them into Arabic.
But after a while the Islamic empires faded. Wars, invasions, and a move towards religious conservatism eroded Islamic scientific learning and things soon stagnated. By the time of the Ottoman Empire Islamic science was in decline, while Europe took up the mantle. By the 19th century the once mighty Ottoman Empire and other Islamic areas could only marvel at the scientific and engineering achievements in Europe. Much of the medical knowledge gained in the early Islamic period had been lost to its discoverers. In some parts of the Islamic world people were doing things such as wearing verses of the Qur'an as charms to heal illnesses and ward off evil, or drinking water that Qur'anic verses had been immersed in as medicine. Qatar did not even have its first official school until I think the 1950s (not including religious instruction), and I suspect its first hospital was around the same time.
Of course that is now once again changing and one could even say that the Islamic world is moving towards a second "Golden Age" of scientific learning and achievement. Countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE are building science and technology centres, encouraging research on items such as stem cells, sending its young citizens to universities around the world while inviting other prestigious institutions to set up satellite campuses. The Islamic world now has dozens and dozens of universities with fierce competition for students to get into them. From documentaries I've seen on education in places such as Palestine and Lebanon high school students are very serious about learning, preparing for final exams that determine whether they get one of the precious spots in good universities.
And it is not just men, women also attend university and go on to careers in science. Qatar University typically graduates 1500 students a year and around 80% of them are women. One of my Qatari colleagues has sisters studying in the UK, and many Lebanese women have degrees from Canada, US, or France. My dentist is a Lebanese woman (or maybe Jordanian), and in the medical clinic I go to I figure about 30% of the doctors are Muslim women. I even remember back when I was taking chemistry one of the students in my upper level chemistry class was woman who recently moved to Canada from Iran. Remember everyone, most of the Islamic world is not like Taleban-controlled Afghanistan.
I wouldn't say that the Islamic world is on the cutting-edge of the sciences yet but perhaps with time we will be hearing more and more about scientific discoveries in the Middle East and other parts of the Islamic world. If an Islamic scientist, working primarily in the Islamic world in a university or research centre, were to win the Nobel prize in one of the sciences I think we could safely say that the second "Golden Age" has truly begun (maybe it has happened already, I have not combed the list of Nobel prize winners recently).
Do I think it is a good thing? Of course I do! Why would I want any society to reject science and learning? I would not care if one day every Nobel prize winner came from the Islamic world. Hopefully not because the West has descended into another Dark Age though.
Speaking of which it may be good that the Islamic world is moving towards learning in science because sometimes trends in places like the US worry me. Christian fundamentalism has been gaining strong footholds in the last few decades and in many parts of the US it has been affecting the quality of science education, especially in biology. When I went to conventions sponsored by the James Randi Educational Foundation many Americans I spoke to were definitely concerned about the impact fundamentalist Christians are having in their attacks on scientific learning. I have not seen religious anti-science attitudes here in Qatar anywhere near the extent one sees in North America. Hopefully now that Bush is out of the White House things will improve again -- the Bush administration definitely had some anti-science positions or interfering in issues such as biology, sex education, and certain aspects of NASA research. That recent court ruling against so-called "intelligent design" was also a positive step. And don't forget Obama rescinding the Bush restrictions on stem cell research. The US might be heading back to a more pro-science, pro-education stance. One can hope.
(btw humans are apes, genera Homo.)
Friday, May 22, 2009
Emir's Cup
Last week I went to the final soccer match of the year, the finals of the Emir's Cup. Since tickets were only QR 10 ($2.70) I figured why not, I had a good time at the Heir Apparent Cup a few weeks ago.
This time it was held at Khalifa Stadium, the largest stadium in Qatar and where the opening/closing ceremonies for in the Asian Games was held. What my friends and I weren't expecting was the large crowds in front of the stadium all going in to see the game. Signage was not very good and when we approached the gates into the stadium there would be a mass of people in front of it with police/security telling people they couldn't get in here and to go to a gate somewhere else. One attendant told us to go "east" to get in, so we started going east but it looked like hundreds of people were going in the opposite direction also looking for a gate so it struck us as a little odd that we would be sent in this direction.
Suddenly there was a big commotion up ahead. Someone had figured out that they could jump and grab a stairway railing to get up onto the stairs to the upper bleachers, so dozens of people started doing it as well. It was like a wave of white was flowing up the staircase railing (all the men were wearing white dishdasha). We stood around watching and my friend Vanessa pulled out her cell phone to record it. Then the police showed up with truncheons and chased after people, arresting one guy who climbed up on the railing as the police ran up. We watched as two guys dragged him away and cuffed him. As far as we can tell he was the only one the police arrested (poor guy, he was just the last person of about a hundred or so to climb up).
Anyway the gate near the stairwell was still crowded with people but we saw that a few people were being let in so we decided to try to get in here. We let Vanessa go in front of us -- she was the only woman in our group and we hoped security would be nice to her and let us in. Sure enough we were let through, while security was turning other people away and yelling at them in Arabic. It was a crazy scene, we couldn't figure out why there was all this hassle to get in. Once we got up the stairs we then realised what the issue was, this was the Family Section of the stadium. All the commotion was the police keeping out all the men who were not with women and children. The entrances the men needed to use were on the other side of the stadium. Organisers could have saved a lot of hassle by having signs indicating that those gates were for women and families only. Now we knew why Vanessa could get us in.
Anyway once you got in everything went smoothly. The stadium was packed but we were able to find seats and yes there were plenty of women there in their abayas to watch the game. The final was between Al Gharaffa and Al Rayyan (who lost in the finals of the Heir Apparent Cup on penalties) and both teams' supporters were out in force, waving flags and scarves in the team colours. His Highness the Emir was of course attending and video screens in the stadium showed his motorcade approaching then him walking in the stadium towards his seat. Naturally the game was not going to start until he had arrived.
While the first half of the game was okay the second half was excellent, Gharaffa had a man sent off so both teams went on the offensive because it was tied 1-1 and Gharaffa knew that with a man down they were unlikely to survive overtime. Gharaffa managed to get a penalty in the 80th minute and the guy missed it so the Rayyan supporters were joyously jumping up and down. But in the 90th minute Gharaffa managed to score an excellent goal which caused the other half of the stadium to jump up and down. There was no time left and Gharaffa won 2-1. The Gharaffa supporters around us were dancing on their seats, yelling and singing.
His Highness the Emir then shook hands with every member of both teams and handed the Cup to the winners. There was then a large fireworks display.
All in all we had a great time, I might have to start attending more Qatari soccer matches next season.
This time it was held at Khalifa Stadium, the largest stadium in Qatar and where the opening/closing ceremonies for in the Asian Games was held. What my friends and I weren't expecting was the large crowds in front of the stadium all going in to see the game. Signage was not very good and when we approached the gates into the stadium there would be a mass of people in front of it with police/security telling people they couldn't get in here and to go to a gate somewhere else. One attendant told us to go "east" to get in, so we started going east but it looked like hundreds of people were going in the opposite direction also looking for a gate so it struck us as a little odd that we would be sent in this direction.
Suddenly there was a big commotion up ahead. Someone had figured out that they could jump and grab a stairway railing to get up onto the stairs to the upper bleachers, so dozens of people started doing it as well. It was like a wave of white was flowing up the staircase railing (all the men were wearing white dishdasha). We stood around watching and my friend Vanessa pulled out her cell phone to record it. Then the police showed up with truncheons and chased after people, arresting one guy who climbed up on the railing as the police ran up. We watched as two guys dragged him away and cuffed him. As far as we can tell he was the only one the police arrested (poor guy, he was just the last person of about a hundred or so to climb up).
Anyway the gate near the stairwell was still crowded with people but we saw that a few people were being let in so we decided to try to get in here. We let Vanessa go in front of us -- she was the only woman in our group and we hoped security would be nice to her and let us in. Sure enough we were let through, while security was turning other people away and yelling at them in Arabic. It was a crazy scene, we couldn't figure out why there was all this hassle to get in. Once we got up the stairs we then realised what the issue was, this was the Family Section of the stadium. All the commotion was the police keeping out all the men who were not with women and children. The entrances the men needed to use were on the other side of the stadium. Organisers could have saved a lot of hassle by having signs indicating that those gates were for women and families only. Now we knew why Vanessa could get us in.
Anyway once you got in everything went smoothly. The stadium was packed but we were able to find seats and yes there were plenty of women there in their abayas to watch the game. The final was between Al Gharaffa and Al Rayyan (who lost in the finals of the Heir Apparent Cup on penalties) and both teams' supporters were out in force, waving flags and scarves in the team colours. His Highness the Emir was of course attending and video screens in the stadium showed his motorcade approaching then him walking in the stadium towards his seat. Naturally the game was not going to start until he had arrived.
While the first half of the game was okay the second half was excellent, Gharaffa had a man sent off so both teams went on the offensive because it was tied 1-1 and Gharaffa knew that with a man down they were unlikely to survive overtime. Gharaffa managed to get a penalty in the 80th minute and the guy missed it so the Rayyan supporters were joyously jumping up and down. But in the 90th minute Gharaffa managed to score an excellent goal which caused the other half of the stadium to jump up and down. There was no time left and Gharaffa won 2-1. The Gharaffa supporters around us were dancing on their seats, yelling and singing.
His Highness the Emir then shook hands with every member of both teams and handed the Cup to the winners. There was then a large fireworks display.
All in all we had a great time, I might have to start attending more Qatari soccer matches next season.
Friday, May 15, 2009
So... how is that financial crisis going?
I was reading the paper today and there were two articles discussing the impact of the financial crisis in the region. The first was about Dubai and how property prices continue to fall, in some parts of the city over 30% in just the last three months, not including any decreases before then. But before you think Dubai must be getting very cheap take a look at the prices being mentioned:
Renting a two-bedroom flat on the Palm Jumeirah, an island shaped like a palm frond and visible from space, was 14 to 33 percent cheaper in May than it was in March.
That puts annual rent at between Dh120,000 and Dh175,000 dirhams, or $2,723-$3,972 a month in May compared with $3,178-$5,901 in March.
Got that? Three months ago a two-bedroom apartment in an upscale neighbourhood could rent for as high as US$5,900 a month. A two-bedroom apartment!! So yes prices have plummeted to "only" $3,900 a month for the apartment, the cheaper ones for $2,700 a month. Gee what a deal, I'll take four please!
This is why I had said in my blog even two years ago that property prices in Dubai were heavily overinflated and I don't know how anyone who bought into that market seriously thought that prices were going to continue to increase 20 to 50% a year. Did they honestly think no one would mind paying US$5,000 a month to rent a small apartment? Did they expect that next year $6,000 a month would be reasonable? Or that an apartment that they bought at $400 a square foot would sell for $800+ a square foot three years later? Well, I guess for the last five or six years growth in property value of 20 to 50% a year was indeed how it worked in Dubai. I guess a lot of people thought it would last forever. Those people have now lost a ton of money.
From what I have read general expectations are that prices are going to continue to fall in Dubai for at least the rest of this year, possibly longer. They have got a long way to go yet before they get to what I would consider reasonably priced. There is a lot of speculation that there will be another mass exodus of people from Dubai in the summer who have just been waiting for the schools to finish for the year before moving out. If so rental prices will continue to plunge.
The other article was about deflation in Qatar. Prices have gone down a bit in the last quarter driven generally by rents and housing. I had not really noticed much of a decrease here but from the occasional snippet in the newspaper I guess rental prices have probably gone down 10 to 15 per cent. The cost to buy/sell property has apparently fallen more than that but almost all property here can only be purchased by Qataris (or maybe other GCC nationals as well) so it does not really have an impact on foreign investors. I think foreigners can only purchase property on the Pearl and Zigzag Towers and even those two developments are not completed yet. The Qatari government is probably breathing a sigh of relief that it did not get into property development to the extent Dubai did.
Renting a two-bedroom flat on the Palm Jumeirah, an island shaped like a palm frond and visible from space, was 14 to 33 percent cheaper in May than it was in March.
That puts annual rent at between Dh120,000 and Dh175,000 dirhams, or $2,723-$3,972 a month in May compared with $3,178-$5,901 in March.
Got that? Three months ago a two-bedroom apartment in an upscale neighbourhood could rent for as high as US$5,900 a month. A two-bedroom apartment!! So yes prices have plummeted to "only" $3,900 a month for the apartment, the cheaper ones for $2,700 a month. Gee what a deal, I'll take four please!
This is why I had said in my blog even two years ago that property prices in Dubai were heavily overinflated and I don't know how anyone who bought into that market seriously thought that prices were going to continue to increase 20 to 50% a year. Did they honestly think no one would mind paying US$5,000 a month to rent a small apartment? Did they expect that next year $6,000 a month would be reasonable? Or that an apartment that they bought at $400 a square foot would sell for $800+ a square foot three years later? Well, I guess for the last five or six years growth in property value of 20 to 50% a year was indeed how it worked in Dubai. I guess a lot of people thought it would last forever. Those people have now lost a ton of money.
From what I have read general expectations are that prices are going to continue to fall in Dubai for at least the rest of this year, possibly longer. They have got a long way to go yet before they get to what I would consider reasonably priced. There is a lot of speculation that there will be another mass exodus of people from Dubai in the summer who have just been waiting for the schools to finish for the year before moving out. If so rental prices will continue to plunge.
The other article was about deflation in Qatar. Prices have gone down a bit in the last quarter driven generally by rents and housing. I had not really noticed much of a decrease here but from the occasional snippet in the newspaper I guess rental prices have probably gone down 10 to 15 per cent. The cost to buy/sell property has apparently fallen more than that but almost all property here can only be purchased by Qataris (or maybe other GCC nationals as well) so it does not really have an impact on foreign investors. I think foreigners can only purchase property on the Pearl and Zigzag Towers and even those two developments are not completed yet. The Qatari government is probably breathing a sigh of relief that it did not get into property development to the extent Dubai did.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Rock
Whoops, I just realised it has been over a week since I last posted. I hope no one thought I had come down with H1N1 or something.
I have been reading This Is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin, a book about the science behind how we perceive music and what makes certain combinations of sounds pleasant or unpleasant to people. One part of the book amused me, in the mid-90s a prominent scientist, who was not familiar with rock music, had asked him to bring six songs that "captured all that was important to know about rock 'n' roll". The scientist also noted that he was familiar with Elvis Presley so Daniel didn't need to bring any of his songs.
While Daniel felt that no six songs could really cover all that was important to know about rock 'n' roll this is what he brought:
"Long Tall Sally," Little Richard
"Roll Over Beethoven," the Beatles
"All Along the Watchtower," Jimi Hendrix
"Wonderful Tonight," Eric Clapton
"Little Red Corvette," Prince
"Anarchy in the UK," The Sex Pistols
Daniel did admit that now he would probably make some adjustments to the list, but didn't say what changes he'd make.
So that got me thinking what I would have chosen as six vital rock 'n' roll songs. Here is what I came up with:
1) "Jailhouse Rock," while Elvis Presley was excluded from the original list I won't constrain myself that way; this is one of Elvis's quintessential rock songs;
2) "Great Balls of Fire," Jerry Lee Lewis. Another early-era choice: I would put Jerry Lee Lewis or Bill Halley over Little Richard for that early piano-rock sound;
3) "Shook Me All Night Long," AC/DC. While I am not the biggest fan of AC/DC this song is high-energy and it is difficult to not tap or sway to the beat. Narrowly beat out "Gimme All Your Loving" by ZZTop;
4) "Bodies," The Sex Pistols. I think the Sex Pistols deserve to be on the list but I don't think "Anarchy in the UK" is their most rock-like song. While the lyrics of "Bodies" leaves something to be desired the music has a better beat and faster tempo. I even think "God Save the Queen" would be a better choice then "Anarchy". (Of course I doubt the Pistols would ever identify themselves as a rock band but it's my list dang-it);
5) Any three songs in quick succession by The Ramones. Really I don't think you can pick just one song by the Ramones, the kick lies in how they go from one song to another; and
6) "A Hard Day's Night," the Beatles. A lot of their other early songs sound, to me anyway, closely related to the other rock acts of the late 50s and early 60s that the Beatles were inspired by. I think "A Hard Day's Night," has a more original sound.
Looking at my list it appears that fast tempo is my key criteria for a good rock song, which is why I think guys like Clapton and Hendrix didn't make my list.
What would make your list?
I have been reading This Is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin, a book about the science behind how we perceive music and what makes certain combinations of sounds pleasant or unpleasant to people. One part of the book amused me, in the mid-90s a prominent scientist, who was not familiar with rock music, had asked him to bring six songs that "captured all that was important to know about rock 'n' roll". The scientist also noted that he was familiar with Elvis Presley so Daniel didn't need to bring any of his songs.
While Daniel felt that no six songs could really cover all that was important to know about rock 'n' roll this is what he brought:
"Long Tall Sally," Little Richard
"Roll Over Beethoven," the Beatles
"All Along the Watchtower," Jimi Hendrix
"Wonderful Tonight," Eric Clapton
"Little Red Corvette," Prince
"Anarchy in the UK," The Sex Pistols
Daniel did admit that now he would probably make some adjustments to the list, but didn't say what changes he'd make.
So that got me thinking what I would have chosen as six vital rock 'n' roll songs. Here is what I came up with:
1) "Jailhouse Rock," while Elvis Presley was excluded from the original list I won't constrain myself that way; this is one of Elvis's quintessential rock songs;
2) "Great Balls of Fire," Jerry Lee Lewis. Another early-era choice: I would put Jerry Lee Lewis or Bill Halley over Little Richard for that early piano-rock sound;
3) "Shook Me All Night Long," AC/DC. While I am not the biggest fan of AC/DC this song is high-energy and it is difficult to not tap or sway to the beat. Narrowly beat out "Gimme All Your Loving" by ZZTop;
4) "Bodies," The Sex Pistols. I think the Sex Pistols deserve to be on the list but I don't think "Anarchy in the UK" is their most rock-like song. While the lyrics of "Bodies" leaves something to be desired the music has a better beat and faster tempo. I even think "God Save the Queen" would be a better choice then "Anarchy". (Of course I doubt the Pistols would ever identify themselves as a rock band but it's my list dang-it);
5) Any three songs in quick succession by The Ramones. Really I don't think you can pick just one song by the Ramones, the kick lies in how they go from one song to another; and
6) "A Hard Day's Night," the Beatles. A lot of their other early songs sound, to me anyway, closely related to the other rock acts of the late 50s and early 60s that the Beatles were inspired by. I think "A Hard Day's Night," has a more original sound.
Looking at my list it appears that fast tempo is my key criteria for a good rock song, which is why I think guys like Clapton and Hendrix didn't make my list.
What would make your list?
Monday, May 04, 2009
A(H1N1) flu update
Okay looks like I was wrong in terms of manifestation of suspected cases. So far there have been no suspected cases reported in the Arabian Peninsula, despite cases being detected in more European countries. Governments here are continuing to monitor the situation. The Gulf region's Ministers of Health met on Saturday to discuss the issue, and have met again today to possibly iron out a regional strategy.
Airports in Dubai and Sharjah have now installed thermographic equipment to detects signs of fever in arriving passengers. I expect Doha Airport will be following shortly. Qatar Airways is also having all of its flight staff wear masks on flights from the United States. The Government recommends people not travel to affected countries but has put no restrictions on doing so.
Otherwise it is life as usual. People still go to work and school, shop at the mall, attend football matches and so forth. Maybe there is a bit of tension about it but for the most part everyone is staying cool. With any luck people will continue the hand-washing habits after this is over so that other germs won't spread. I had a flu about a month ago and I would rather not the repeat the experience thank you.
Airports in Dubai and Sharjah have now installed thermographic equipment to detects signs of fever in arriving passengers. I expect Doha Airport will be following shortly. Qatar Airways is also having all of its flight staff wear masks on flights from the United States. The Government recommends people not travel to affected countries but has put no restrictions on doing so.
Otherwise it is life as usual. People still go to work and school, shop at the mall, attend football matches and so forth. Maybe there is a bit of tension about it but for the most part everyone is staying cool. With any luck people will continue the hand-washing habits after this is over so that other germs won't spread. I had a flu about a month ago and I would rather not the repeat the experience thank you.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
H1N1 flu
Just a quick update on the H1N1 flu and its impact in the Middle East.
So far there are no suspected or confirmed cases in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is stopping flights from countries where the flu has been reported despite WHO suggestions that closing borders/airports is unlikely to stop the spread of the virus at this stage. No other Middle East countries have followed suit so far. UAE is banning pork products, and Egypt has called for at the culling of the approximately 250,000 pigs in the country. Why I'm not sure, this flu may have started from a mutated flu strain from a pig but is spreading by human-to-human transmission, not from pigs. The cull is unnecessary. Cooking meat would kill any viruses so banning pork products seems like an odd move as well. Anyway Qatar doesn't have to worry about banning pork products as pork has always been banned here.
With the WHO alert level at 5 I expect there will be further action in the region over the next coming days. I also suspect that we will see cases of H1N1 in the Middle East in the next three days. Cities such as Doha and Dubai are major air transport hubs and since the virus is in many countries in Europe, and suspected to be in India, it is likely that it is already in the region as the Middle East is a common midway stage for travellers going between India and Europe. My three-day estimate is because it takes time, 5-10 days, for symptoms to develop from a flu. Given the region where the flu originated from I don't think there will be many cases here since there would not be a lot of travel from Mexico to the Middle East. Tourist travel from Mexico is primarily to the US, Canada, and Europe, and the pattern of cases reflects that.
Otherwise the Qatari Health Ministry has been issuing daily bulletins to watch for symptoms and has advised people not travel to affected countries unless it is necessary.
As for me, I have been doing what WHO recommends and so should you: washing hands frequently with soap or those antibacterial hand cleansers (which despite the name will work against viruses if the main ingredient is ethyl alcohol, effective at killing viruses on the surface of your skin), coughing/sneezing only into tissues, and promptly throwing used tissues in the trash. Things in Qatar are calm, no one here is going overboard and locking themselves in their home, wearing masks or panic-buying. I do admit though that I am using tissues to open commonly-used doors, such as the door of the men's room at work.
If there are any other significant updates on the flu and how it is impacting the Middle East I will let everyone know.
So far there are no suspected or confirmed cases in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia is stopping flights from countries where the flu has been reported despite WHO suggestions that closing borders/airports is unlikely to stop the spread of the virus at this stage. No other Middle East countries have followed suit so far. UAE is banning pork products, and Egypt has called for at the culling of the approximately 250,000 pigs in the country. Why I'm not sure, this flu may have started from a mutated flu strain from a pig but is spreading by human-to-human transmission, not from pigs. The cull is unnecessary. Cooking meat would kill any viruses so banning pork products seems like an odd move as well. Anyway Qatar doesn't have to worry about banning pork products as pork has always been banned here.
With the WHO alert level at 5 I expect there will be further action in the region over the next coming days. I also suspect that we will see cases of H1N1 in the Middle East in the next three days. Cities such as Doha and Dubai are major air transport hubs and since the virus is in many countries in Europe, and suspected to be in India, it is likely that it is already in the region as the Middle East is a common midway stage for travellers going between India and Europe. My three-day estimate is because it takes time, 5-10 days, for symptoms to develop from a flu. Given the region where the flu originated from I don't think there will be many cases here since there would not be a lot of travel from Mexico to the Middle East. Tourist travel from Mexico is primarily to the US, Canada, and Europe, and the pattern of cases reflects that.
Otherwise the Qatari Health Ministry has been issuing daily bulletins to watch for symptoms and has advised people not travel to affected countries unless it is necessary.
As for me, I have been doing what WHO recommends and so should you: washing hands frequently with soap or those antibacterial hand cleansers (which despite the name will work against viruses if the main ingredient is ethyl alcohol, effective at killing viruses on the surface of your skin), coughing/sneezing only into tissues, and promptly throwing used tissues in the trash. Things in Qatar are calm, no one here is going overboard and locking themselves in their home, wearing masks or panic-buying. I do admit though that I am using tissues to open commonly-used doors, such as the door of the men's room at work.
If there are any other significant updates on the flu and how it is impacting the Middle East I will let everyone know.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
News from Qatar
The title of this Qatari news article says it all:
Cross-dressing seen as a ‘serious menace to society’
Cross-dressing seen as a ‘serious menace to society’
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Oryx
I forgot to mention that last weekend I went out on another excursion with the Qatar Natural History Group. This time we went out to a small nature reserve outside of Doha to see the endangered Arabian Oryx. Oryxs (Oryxes? Oryx? Oryxi?) once roamed across the entire Arabian peninsula but when rifles were introduced to the region their numbers started to decline. When four-wheel drive vehicles were introduced the remaining animals were quickly wiped out. By the 1970s there were only a few left in the wild near the Empty Quarter. These were captured to protect the species. Despite their extinction in the wild they are still considered one of Qatar's most important animals and is commonly used in logos (such as Qatar Airways) or mascots (2006 Asian Games).
Two Qatari gentleman who oversaw the reserve gave us a lecture about the Oryx. In response to their extinction in the wild Qatar and a couple of other GCC governments started conservation programmes where captive Oryx were kept on reserves and bred to increase their numbers. There are now over a thousand of them, but almost all of them are in captivity. About a decade ago a few hundred were released into an area between Saudi Arabia and Oman but poaching has reduced their numbers, so the GCC governments are reluctant to release any more back into the wild except in parts of Saudi Arabia. One of the gentlemen told me that the meat from one Oryx could fetch as much as $10,000 on the black market. This is more than the annual income for many Omanis so it is not too surprising that poaching occurs.
It is great that Qatar is making such efforts to protect the species but it looks like the Oryx will remain in captivity for a long time to come. Qatar is a small country so would not be able to sustain a population of free-roaming Oryx anymore -- I don't think there is enough space. Oryx are about the size of a large gazelle or antelope so would need a lot of desert to graze in.
Anyway my friend Serdar and I asked what we considered an important question -- are Oryx tasty? The Qatari gentleman answered without hesitation, "Oh yes, very tasty! That's why we ate them." he also mentioned that the meat was tough though so needed a lot of cooking. I had suspected as much, I figured Oryx would be similar to venison in terms of taste and toughness.
The Qatar Government also breed other types of endangered Arabian antelope and gazelle which are kept in three reserves throughout the country.
Two Qatari gentleman who oversaw the reserve gave us a lecture about the Oryx. In response to their extinction in the wild Qatar and a couple of other GCC governments started conservation programmes where captive Oryx were kept on reserves and bred to increase their numbers. There are now over a thousand of them, but almost all of them are in captivity. About a decade ago a few hundred were released into an area between Saudi Arabia and Oman but poaching has reduced their numbers, so the GCC governments are reluctant to release any more back into the wild except in parts of Saudi Arabia. One of the gentlemen told me that the meat from one Oryx could fetch as much as $10,000 on the black market. This is more than the annual income for many Omanis so it is not too surprising that poaching occurs.
It is great that Qatar is making such efforts to protect the species but it looks like the Oryx will remain in captivity for a long time to come. Qatar is a small country so would not be able to sustain a population of free-roaming Oryx anymore -- I don't think there is enough space. Oryx are about the size of a large gazelle or antelope so would need a lot of desert to graze in.
Anyway my friend Serdar and I asked what we considered an important question -- are Oryx tasty? The Qatari gentleman answered without hesitation, "Oh yes, very tasty! That's why we ate them." he also mentioned that the meat was tough though so needed a lot of cooking. I had suspected as much, I figured Oryx would be similar to venison in terms of taste and toughness.
The Qatar Government also breed other types of endangered Arabian antelope and gazelle which are kept in three reserves throughout the country.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Mandated Requirements for Rap/Hip-Hop Videos
Flipping through the channels one day I wandered to one of the music video channels and watched it for a while. This channel seemed to be big on rap/hip-hop videos, not the type of music I'm really into but I was bored so I watched anyway. They haven't changed much over the years, the style and format is little different from a decade ago. I figure there must be a “hip-hop music video" set of requirements mandated by some union or another. But that's okay -- I've cracked the code!
Here it is:
Mandated Requirements for Rap/Hip-Hop Videos
Any video must contain at least five of the following six elements:
1) at least one performer must wear "bling", outrageously gaudy gold/diamond jewellery or accessories
-- this can include teeth jewellery (grillz)
2) at least one person in the video must be wearing a baseball cap slightly askew
3) there must be at least one scantily clad woman shaking her behind provocatively (bootie girls)
4) there must be one expensive car in the video (using another vehicle such as a yacht is acceptable but considered "avant-garde")
5) there must be at least one instance of "the show off", where the performer deliberately shows off a piece of merchandise or wealth to the camera. This can include:
• bling, especially grillz or diamond-studded necklaces
• the brand of shoes or other clothing they are wearing
• cash
• champagne
6) there must be a "posse", a bunch of people normally standing behind the performer looking tough and occasionally shouting "Yeah!", nodding their heads, or making gang symbols with their hands
• a big crowd of people dancing behind the performer is an acceptable substitute (but better if you have a posse as well)
• having a number of bootie girls dancing with the performer is considered meeting the criteria of requirement #3, not #6
• if the video features at least two performers [ex. XYZ featuring ABC and DEF] then requirement #6 is met if at least at some point in the video the other performer(s) are standing behind the singer performing the standard actions of a "posse" ("Yeah", nodding, etc). No posse is then required.
Seriously everyone, next time you see a hip-hop video remember this list and count the elements in it. I swear there must be videos where the guy is attending his mother's funeral and in the background there's scantily clad girls rubbing their butt up against a nice car like they're polishing it.
Here it is:
Mandated Requirements for Rap/Hip-Hop Videos
Any video must contain at least five of the following six elements:
1) at least one performer must wear "bling", outrageously gaudy gold/diamond jewellery or accessories
-- this can include teeth jewellery (grillz)
2) at least one person in the video must be wearing a baseball cap slightly askew
3) there must be at least one scantily clad woman shaking her behind provocatively (bootie girls)
4) there must be one expensive car in the video (using another vehicle such as a yacht is acceptable but considered "avant-garde")
5) there must be at least one instance of "the show off", where the performer deliberately shows off a piece of merchandise or wealth to the camera. This can include:
• bling, especially grillz or diamond-studded necklaces
• the brand of shoes or other clothing they are wearing
• cash
• champagne
6) there must be a "posse", a bunch of people normally standing behind the performer looking tough and occasionally shouting "Yeah!", nodding their heads, or making gang symbols with their hands
• a big crowd of people dancing behind the performer is an acceptable substitute (but better if you have a posse as well)
• having a number of bootie girls dancing with the performer is considered meeting the criteria of requirement #3, not #6
• if the video features at least two performers [ex. XYZ featuring ABC and DEF] then requirement #6 is met if at least at some point in the video the other performer(s) are standing behind the singer performing the standard actions of a "posse" ("Yeah", nodding, etc). No posse is then required.
Seriously everyone, next time you see a hip-hop video remember this list and count the elements in it. I swear there must be videos where the guy is attending his mother's funeral and in the background there's scantily clad girls rubbing their butt up against a nice car like they're polishing it.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Egypt, part four.
I'm going to try to keep the rest of this brief. I realised that I could probably go on for about another six posts about this trip.
Luxor Museum: it is a small museum, taking around two hours to see everything, but the quality of items here makes it worth the trip. A lot of statuary from the 18th to 20th dynasties, artwork from the period and two mummies. It is the statues that are the highlight of the exhibits, with one guidebook noting that it is one of the finest collections of Egyptian sculpture in the world. Mum and I went one evening and enjoyed it a lot. It helped that we had already seen some of the temples beforehand so that we had some idea about the statues, who they represented, and some of the background behind them.
Karnak Temple: I mentioned it in a previous post when Mum and I did an evening sound & light tour, and we spent about three hours one morning with our guide touring the site during the day. Three hours was not enough given the size of the site and if you were really interested in Egyptology you could spend all day there.
The entrance of the Temple is a roadway flanked by sphinxes, part of a ancient roadway that extended about 3km through Thebes to the Luxor temple. Most of that roadway is destroyed or buried under the silt and excavations are underway to expose the ancient road. Maybe in a decade's time tourists will be able to walk the entire roadway from Karnak to Luxor Temples.
While the site does not have a pyramid it has everything else you would expect from an Egyptian site. Hieroglyph-carved walls, huge pillars with carvings of Pharaohs and ancient gods, large statues, small dark chambers, and huge obelisks. The site was the most active Temple in the Kingdom for about 500 years and subsequent Pharaohs kept adding onto it until the site was over 2 sq km. It even has a Sacred Lake where ceremonies were performed. The most impressive part is also the most well-known part of the Temple -- the Hall of Pillars. I took a lot of photos there.
To go into the history and individual areas of the Temple would take far too long, one of our guidebooks spends 46 pages just on this site, so you'll have to google Karnak to get all the details. Some parts of the Temple are little more than rubble and a couple of times Mum and I were sitting on or climbing over some random 3000+ year old inscibed blocks of stone, which I thought quite bizarre since those stones would rival almost anything in North America (and Europe) in terms of age. The Egyptians did not appear to like small bricks, almost every block of stone seemed to be at least 4x2x2 feet, though most were much larger and had to have required a lot of men to get those blocks to the roofs of temples and other buildings. Queen Hatshepsut was fortunate that such large stones were used -- attempts by her son Thutmosis III to erase her name from all monuments failed because her name was inscribed in a hard-to-reach places like the top of obelisks.
Luxor Temple: the other main site in the city of Luxor itself is Luxor Temple, just a few kilometres away from Karnak. The Temple was active until at least Roman times, Alexander the Great had soldiers do some work on the inner shrine to show himself as a Pharaoh, and there are some Roman-style paintings on a wall of one courtyard. The Temple then lay forgotten for centuries and was slowly buried by the sands or the silt from the flooding of the Nile. In the 18th-century a mosque was built above the site (apparantly back then no one paid much attention to the odd pillar or block of carved stone poking out of the sand). Eventually Egyptologists figured out that a significant site was buried here and excavated it -- but the mosque was left alone. So it is quite weird when you wander into the first main courtyard to see a mosque 25-feet above you on top of one of the walls! The mosque is still in use today, its entrance is to the east of the Temple. Luxor Temple is smaller than Karnak ("only" a bit bigger than 4 football fields) but still impressive in its own right.
The next day was spent touring more of the West Bank, visiting some sites that are off the main tours. Most tourists in Luxor arrive by cruise ship (over 400 cruise barges work the Nile) and stay in Luxor only one or two days, which gives them time to see the major sites like Karnak and Valley of the Kings but not enough time to see other sites. Suddenly instead of thousands of tourists a day we were visiting sites that probably only see a couple of hundred tourists a day. It was great.
Tombs of the Nobles: while the Pharaohs were burying themselves in the Valley of the Kings the aristocracy were building tombs nearby in what is now called the Tombs of the Nobles. There are hundreds of these tombs ('TT' is the archaeological designation and one guidebook mentions TT 359!) but they are much smaller then the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, usually no more than one room or two, and no long corridors. There may be more tombs to discover -- a village exists over the site and the Egyptian government is in the process of moving the villagers to new homes a few kilometres away and bulldozing the current village. Needless to say the villagers are not impressed but the Egyptian government is not impressed with them either -- for decades the villagers have been digging holes in their basements and looting whatever tombs they find, selling the antiquities to dealers.
In some ways I liked the Tombs of the Nobles better than the Valley of the Kings. While the Valley tombs were decorated primarily with paintings of gods and the Pharaohs themselves the Noble tombs were painted with scenes of everyday life. We saw scenes of fishing, harvesting grain, a funeral, even a party where the guests had those perfumed cones on top of their head. It was much easier for a non-Egyptologist such as myself to understand what you were seeing, the scenes were things you could relate to. And like the Valley in most of the tombs the paint was still colourful after all these centuries. Two of the tombs had lighting but one tomb didn't but that was okay because an Egyptian villager was waiting outside with mirrors and, for a tip of course, set up mirrors to reflect the sunlight into the tomb, following us with another mirror to reflect sunlight onto the walls we were looking at -- just like you sometimes see in those old movies about archaeologists entering Egyptian tombs. I thought that was neat.
Anyway we saw three tombs, Ramose (TT 55), Userhet (TT 56), and I think Khaemhet (TT 57).
Next up was the Ramesseum, a temple dedicated to the great Ramses II. It was another large Temple with huge inscriptions on the walls showing Ramses II leading troops into battle, and ruling over the land. At least one scene had him running over enemy soldiers in a chariot. While not as impressive as Karnak or Luxor is still worth a visit and the lack of tourists made it more relaxing and easier to take pictures without dozens of heads being in the frame.
Finally a temple dedicated to Ramses III, the Madinat Habu. This Temple is massive, the entire complex is about the same size as Luxor Temple. It is notable for its tall stone walls with huge carvings on them, as well as intricately carved pillars and courtyards. Ramses III obviously learnt a lesson about erasing other Pharaohs names, wherever his name appeared it was carved so deeply into the stone that birds could roost in it. The Temple also has a large imposing entranceway between the fortifications which I assumed was designed to inspire awe in visitors. Mum and I spent most of our time here taking photos of the various scenes on the walls, as well as one famous part where a lot of hieroglyphic numbers were carved, allowing Egyptologists to decipher the numbering system.
*Whew* I think that's everything. Oh, forgot about the sunset cruise Mum and I took in a sailboat, sailing up and down the Nile for an hour was a relaxing way to end the day.
So in summary: fabulous trip, definitely worth doing, wouldn't have a problem going to Luxor again.
Luxor Museum: it is a small museum, taking around two hours to see everything, but the quality of items here makes it worth the trip. A lot of statuary from the 18th to 20th dynasties, artwork from the period and two mummies. It is the statues that are the highlight of the exhibits, with one guidebook noting that it is one of the finest collections of Egyptian sculpture in the world. Mum and I went one evening and enjoyed it a lot. It helped that we had already seen some of the temples beforehand so that we had some idea about the statues, who they represented, and some of the background behind them.
Karnak Temple: I mentioned it in a previous post when Mum and I did an evening sound & light tour, and we spent about three hours one morning with our guide touring the site during the day. Three hours was not enough given the size of the site and if you were really interested in Egyptology you could spend all day there.
The entrance of the Temple is a roadway flanked by sphinxes, part of a ancient roadway that extended about 3km through Thebes to the Luxor temple. Most of that roadway is destroyed or buried under the silt and excavations are underway to expose the ancient road. Maybe in a decade's time tourists will be able to walk the entire roadway from Karnak to Luxor Temples.
While the site does not have a pyramid it has everything else you would expect from an Egyptian site. Hieroglyph-carved walls, huge pillars with carvings of Pharaohs and ancient gods, large statues, small dark chambers, and huge obelisks. The site was the most active Temple in the Kingdom for about 500 years and subsequent Pharaohs kept adding onto it until the site was over 2 sq km. It even has a Sacred Lake where ceremonies were performed. The most impressive part is also the most well-known part of the Temple -- the Hall of Pillars. I took a lot of photos there.
To go into the history and individual areas of the Temple would take far too long, one of our guidebooks spends 46 pages just on this site, so you'll have to google Karnak to get all the details. Some parts of the Temple are little more than rubble and a couple of times Mum and I were sitting on or climbing over some random 3000+ year old inscibed blocks of stone, which I thought quite bizarre since those stones would rival almost anything in North America (and Europe) in terms of age. The Egyptians did not appear to like small bricks, almost every block of stone seemed to be at least 4x2x2 feet, though most were much larger and had to have required a lot of men to get those blocks to the roofs of temples and other buildings. Queen Hatshepsut was fortunate that such large stones were used -- attempts by her son Thutmosis III to erase her name from all monuments failed because her name was inscribed in a hard-to-reach places like the top of obelisks.
Luxor Temple: the other main site in the city of Luxor itself is Luxor Temple, just a few kilometres away from Karnak. The Temple was active until at least Roman times, Alexander the Great had soldiers do some work on the inner shrine to show himself as a Pharaoh, and there are some Roman-style paintings on a wall of one courtyard. The Temple then lay forgotten for centuries and was slowly buried by the sands or the silt from the flooding of the Nile. In the 18th-century a mosque was built above the site (apparantly back then no one paid much attention to the odd pillar or block of carved stone poking out of the sand). Eventually Egyptologists figured out that a significant site was buried here and excavated it -- but the mosque was left alone. So it is quite weird when you wander into the first main courtyard to see a mosque 25-feet above you on top of one of the walls! The mosque is still in use today, its entrance is to the east of the Temple. Luxor Temple is smaller than Karnak ("only" a bit bigger than 4 football fields) but still impressive in its own right.
The next day was spent touring more of the West Bank, visiting some sites that are off the main tours. Most tourists in Luxor arrive by cruise ship (over 400 cruise barges work the Nile) and stay in Luxor only one or two days, which gives them time to see the major sites like Karnak and Valley of the Kings but not enough time to see other sites. Suddenly instead of thousands of tourists a day we were visiting sites that probably only see a couple of hundred tourists a day. It was great.
Tombs of the Nobles: while the Pharaohs were burying themselves in the Valley of the Kings the aristocracy were building tombs nearby in what is now called the Tombs of the Nobles. There are hundreds of these tombs ('TT' is the archaeological designation and one guidebook mentions TT 359!) but they are much smaller then the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, usually no more than one room or two, and no long corridors. There may be more tombs to discover -- a village exists over the site and the Egyptian government is in the process of moving the villagers to new homes a few kilometres away and bulldozing the current village. Needless to say the villagers are not impressed but the Egyptian government is not impressed with them either -- for decades the villagers have been digging holes in their basements and looting whatever tombs they find, selling the antiquities to dealers.
In some ways I liked the Tombs of the Nobles better than the Valley of the Kings. While the Valley tombs were decorated primarily with paintings of gods and the Pharaohs themselves the Noble tombs were painted with scenes of everyday life. We saw scenes of fishing, harvesting grain, a funeral, even a party where the guests had those perfumed cones on top of their head. It was much easier for a non-Egyptologist such as myself to understand what you were seeing, the scenes were things you could relate to. And like the Valley in most of the tombs the paint was still colourful after all these centuries. Two of the tombs had lighting but one tomb didn't but that was okay because an Egyptian villager was waiting outside with mirrors and, for a tip of course, set up mirrors to reflect the sunlight into the tomb, following us with another mirror to reflect sunlight onto the walls we were looking at -- just like you sometimes see in those old movies about archaeologists entering Egyptian tombs. I thought that was neat.
Anyway we saw three tombs, Ramose (TT 55), Userhet (TT 56), and I think Khaemhet (TT 57).
Next up was the Ramesseum, a temple dedicated to the great Ramses II. It was another large Temple with huge inscriptions on the walls showing Ramses II leading troops into battle, and ruling over the land. At least one scene had him running over enemy soldiers in a chariot. While not as impressive as Karnak or Luxor is still worth a visit and the lack of tourists made it more relaxing and easier to take pictures without dozens of heads being in the frame.
Finally a temple dedicated to Ramses III, the Madinat Habu. This Temple is massive, the entire complex is about the same size as Luxor Temple. It is notable for its tall stone walls with huge carvings on them, as well as intricately carved pillars and courtyards. Ramses III obviously learnt a lesson about erasing other Pharaohs names, wherever his name appeared it was carved so deeply into the stone that birds could roost in it. The Temple also has a large imposing entranceway between the fortifications which I assumed was designed to inspire awe in visitors. Mum and I spent most of our time here taking photos of the various scenes on the walls, as well as one famous part where a lot of hieroglyphic numbers were carved, allowing Egyptologists to decipher the numbering system.
*Whew* I think that's everything. Oh, forgot about the sunset cruise Mum and I took in a sailboat, sailing up and down the Nile for an hour was a relaxing way to end the day.
So in summary: fabulous trip, definitely worth doing, wouldn't have a problem going to Luxor again.
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