Unfortunate

People in Education City are planning a Model United Nations here in Education Ciity, so they have put up a Flags of the World poster on a pillar near the library.

Unfortunately, someone vandalized the flag of Israel.

Some points:

• There is no pornography allowed in the State of Qatar. Ironically this is the most pronographic thing (ie. the penis) I have seen on display in the State of Qatar.
• This may have been done by someone no more than 18 years old which means that tolernace is not being understood among the next generation.
• The US flag and the flag of Denmark were, so far, not vandalized.
• According to the CIA World Fact Book - The capital of Israel is "Jerusalem; note - Israel proclaimed Jerusalem as its capital in 1950, but the US, like nearly all other countries, maintains its Embassy in Tel Aviv."
• The poster lists Israel as a European country.

If you think their driving is bad...

wait until you see their parking!!!!

An Evening with Amy Tan

You would think that after attending a talk with Amy Tan, author of the Joy Luck Club and the Kitchen God's Wife, that I would have a picture of the famous author...nope, I have a picture of John chowing down on the entire serving bowl of chocolate mousse.

One of these State of Qatar seals is not like the others

The state seals below are from Qatar money in a private museum here in Qatar from the the past to the present, from the oldest on the left to the most recent on the right. What you will notice is that the oil rig on the oldest seal has dissappeared in subsequent seals including the present seal. What does this mean? Identity of state includes sanitizing/disappearing the past? Was the oil rig seen as a western symbol or just one that didn't fit into the image of who/what the country should be? Are the symbols of the dhow ((the boat) and palm tree more authentic or are they idealistic whereas the oil rig is realistic. One interesting thing to note is that the sails on the dhow have changed from an authentic three sails to a symbolic/idealistic one sail. One other interesting thing to note is that the fishing industry whose symbol is the dhow is not the primary industry anymore...that would be oil production, yet the symbol for oil production has been taken off the state seal.

My Pet Falcon Bob

Weather Advisory

It was 80 degrees Farenheit here in Doha on Friday, so I decided it might be a good idea to go to the jacuzzi in my compound and sit in the jacuzzi and drink Skyy vodka and Nada strawberry juice for a couple of hours.

Speaking of cool, what is the weather like in DC? Cold with snow???
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

The forecast here calls for a sunny vodka front with a mix of strawberries with an even sunnier bourbon front moving in behind it on Saturday.

Date with a stewardess

John and I had a double date with stewardesses from Qatar Airways tonight.

Yes, I said stewardesses!

John's date, Junko, is a cool Japanese chick he met when we went to the dunes with Nadim.

My date was a friend of Junko's, a sassy little Japanese girl named Kazaho. YUMMY!

We had Thai take away (carry out) at the their apartment where all the Qatar Airways stewardesses live.

Yes, you heard me right! I know where ALL the Qatar airways stewardesses live in Qatar and their building is only one block away from my villa.

Yeah, baby YEAH!!!

Cool time. We brought a bottle of red wine. Since they can't get alcohol, they were all about the wine!

The Thai food was the best Thai food in Qatar.

And the conversation was real. It has been a really long time since I talked to a real person. Someone who has a real job and no lofty ideas. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

One more thing...the stewardesses are not allowed to have men stay over at their apartments past 10pm. At 10pm exactly, the security guard phoned up to say that we had to leave. Very 1950-1960s US college sorority house feel.

Superbowl

I watched the Superbowl on ESPN...LIVE. That means I was up from 2am-6am Qatar time watching the game AND drinking beers.

Did I go into work that morning at 8:30am...YOU BETCHA!

Arabic Eating

Eating like an arab (what the Arabs called it, not me) means eating with your right hand out of communal bowl of rice mixed with fish or goat. You press the rice and meat in your hand, make a ball of the rice and meat carefully, and then roll the ball up your hand into your fingers. You do this with your right hand, never your left. The left hand is seen as unclean. After you finish one scoop, you dig in again and repeat the process.

Why did the camel cross the road?

Why did the camel cross the road? To get to the other side.

Robot Camel Jockeys

The Qataris used to use children from the Sudan as jockeys for there camel races. Someone took issue with this in regards to child labor, so now they use robot camel jockeys that slap/zap the camels to prod them to race. I guess someone has not taken issue with the treatment of the camels yet.

One intersting thing about the robot jockeys is that they wear baseball caps...not jockey helmets or nothing at all...as if the robot is going to feel pain (if it falls off the camel (not at the moment, but what about the future)...but baseball caps. The baseball caps cause wind resistance and cause the robots to slope backwards in the saddle.

The Fourth is GREED

The fourth type of person who comes to Qatar is one who comes to get paid.

As that great symbol of 80's Reaganomics, Gordon Gecko, once said:
GREED, for lack of a better word, is good.

So as long as this country is pumping out the oil AND as long as the US is, as George W. Bush says, addicted to it. People will flock to the Middle East and get paid.