Qatar - Drumming الدوحة

How did y'all like that Belorussian station? We totally dug the "Can't Help Falling In Love" cover in the Russian accent. Perfect! Perfect.

What do you say we head to Qatar today?

While Qatar was initially part of the post-British regional federation that evolved to become the U.A.E., Qatar made the decision to go it alone and became a sovereign state in 1971. It was ruled by a fella with 53 letters in his official name until '95 when he went off to Switzerland for a vacation and his son executed a coup. Imagine that, huh? If we (more like Pinky) was that fella's dad, we'd be piiiiiiiiiiiiiissed. Especially since the son only has 22 letters in his name. His dad was in exile for 10 years, but is back in Qatar now.

what a nice oil painting of former Emir Khalifa bin Hamad bin Abdullah bin Jassim bin Muhammaed Al Thani

Anyway, so his son has enacted a bunch of social liberalization, like women's suffrage, a new constitution, launching Al Jazeera (which offers dissenting views, a rarity in the Arab world), and others. This might be a one of those coup de tat success stories! It's all good, though. Even though it's pretty liberal for an Arab country, they've still have Islamic laws ruling family and personal lives. (not that that's bad or wrong, it's just not "liberal")

Did you know they have one of the highest GDP's per capita in the world? Us either! That's pretty tough to do with oil and gas money. Those markets tend to provide a lot of national income but not personal income. Qatar does have a pretty small population and coupled with the absence of an income tax we suppose helps. 

man-made islands are all the rage! you can buy one, too!

But, we've got a caveat here! The population is only about 1.3 million and over half, if not more, of those folks are guest workers brought in for a year or two from south Asia for menial and labor-intensive jobs. Does their GDP per capita include non-citizens? We can't find an answer. These guest workers often wind up as modern day slaves in some other comparable prominent Arab countries and Qatar shares this shame.

The really bad part about living in Qatar is that it flirts with hitting 130 degrees in the summer. Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck that. That oppressive heat encourages them to keep cool (and all that money allows it)  and as a result they have the highest per capita CO2 emissions in the world. Three times that of the US! And, when it comes to polluting the environment, we're tough to beat! They don't have to pay for water and electricity either so they use both liberally. With expensive and intensive water desalinization plants, we guess you'd expect to spew a ton of carbon dioxide.

OK, let's tune in to MC Doualiya transmitted from the capital city of Doha (الدوحة). However, if you're in need of the holy word of Allah (and, let's be honest, who isn't?), you can tune in to hear recitations of the Qu'ran.

MC Doualiya

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