Doha Gets a Drenching
A wonderful day, a day that started with a downpour, and never cleared up the whole day, with intermittent showers continuing to give the soil the moisture it so desperately needs. I love the thought of Doha getting a good wash with Qatar National Day being celebrated this entire week. 🙂
Some Rainy Day photos from Doha:
For my Kuwait friends – you are WELCOME, see! There is even an Al Kout coffee shop!
Snug and warm having breakfast at Tagine:
Compare Kuwait and Doha Weather
People are always asking me, “which do you like better, Doha or Kuwait?”
It’s apples and oranges. Kuwait is big city, with big city problems and big city shopping. Kuwait is just bigger, with faster roads. Doha is growing, solving a lot of problems Kuwait has still to face, but the two are so different that they just don’t compare. I like them both, for different reasons.
One of the things that is hard to get is that while they are so close, the weather is not the same. Kuwait gets hotter in the summer and colder in the winter.
Here is the forecast for the next five days:
Kuwait 5 day forecast December 8 - 12
Doha five day forecast December 8 - 12
Breakfast in the Souks
“I need a hundred camel spoons,” my friend said, and since we all sort of think on the same track, no one looked at me like I was crazy when I said “let’s all meet for breakfast, shop when the souks open and leave.”
In fact, they didn’t look at me like I was crazy for two reasons. One was that we really sort of think alike, and meeting for breakfast is just the kind of thing we don’t do often, but it is a good time to grab some time together in lives that get very busy later in the day.
The second reason is that we are all introverts, and three of us were doing most of this arranging by e-mail. We’re not really phone chatters, although every now and then we will dial, but it tends to be the exception rather than the rule.
The weather is perfect. You would be amazed how lovely and peaceful the souks are early in the morning. There are customers in the restaurants, but it is a very laid back time of the day.
For a significant sum – I can’t remember how much, but I think I remember like 80 QR – you can park in VIP parking. Me, I was there an hour, and paid QR4 (just a little over a dollar) I just wanted you to see the difference from plain old everyday common folk parking and the VIP parking (above.) (Those signs in front of the stores straight ahead say VIP Parking, and at night they are roped off with red velvet ropes)
We find a shady table and order breakfast, across the street guys are into their early morning hubbly bubbly, there are people sweeping up to be sure everything is Disney-tidy, and it really is. As we are sipping at our coffee, the mounted police come by. Their horses are gorgeous, with high bushy tails and beautiful dressings in Qatar’s blood red and white colors.
What I like even better is the police-riders. They are handsomely dressed, and they ride like cowboys – look at that posture, the way real horsemen ride, with that cowboy slump and the weight firm in the saddle. The horses aren’t big horses, but they have beautiful bones. I wonder where they stable these horses in the souqs?
On to find the Yemeni Honey Man, relocated from Karabaa / Electricity Street. The police help us find him, hidden back next to a metal kitchen crafter, and we see he has other old customers who have also found him. His new shop is shiny and clean, with great shelves for displaying his beautiful baskets from the Asir.
“Big troubles” he says, and I know he is right, many people are being evacuated from that area while the Saudis and Yemenis have problems near the border. One of his customers communicates to us with gestures that in our new baskets, we must pack our jewelry in the bottom, then our abayas, and then food, oud or honey on top, so people won’t know where we are hiding our jewelry.
My Kuwaiti friend told me that in his memory, before oil, people kept all their clothes in baskets like this, folded neatly. They didn’t have a lot of clothes, he told me, and then there were other baskets specially woven to hold food stuffs, and to keep the insects off the food. Those baskets are not the same as these sturdy baskets, the more local Kuwait and Qatteri baskets are woven from palm fronds, I believe, and you can still find them in the more traditional stores at the Souq al Waqef, behind where the Bedouin women sell foods on Thursday night and sometimes on Fridays.
Big Change; No Smoking
Sometimes change happens, and it happens so slowly or so subtly that you don’t really realize it has happened until something draws it to your attention.
Kuwait blogger Touche, one of my old virtual-blogging-buddies commented on a driving post, wondering about the baby steps it takes to change a mentality. The subject was driving, and I know he was right, I am writing “endlessly” about how annoyed I get by the lack of civility in driving here.
What I am not writing about, I noticed, is how annoying it is to be breathing other people’s smoke while I am eating.
Because it is not happening.
Who knew?
When we lived in Qatar before, people would sit right under the NO SMOKING signs and light up.
I saw things change in Kuwait. From the time we got there to the time we left, there were fewer and fewer times someone would light up in a restaurant.
Things CHANGED.
Expectations changed. I am guessing the smokers felt pressure, not just from the community, but also from family members. I don’t know if there are fewer smokers; I am inclined to think not, because I can see them smoking in their own cars. Hey – as long as I do not have to breathe their smoke, it’s fine with me, it’s their choice.
But the significant thing is – I didn’t believe it could ever change. And it did change, and it changed faster than I would have thought possible.
So I have hope for the driving issue. I think it starts with seat belts. I think if Mothers and wives start buckling up, and buckling up their children, that will be a first step. I think if there is an emphasis on driving manners, things could change. It’s a mind-shift before a behavior shift, an awareness of safety and an awareness of our interconnectedness. One thing I have seen in the Gulf is that parents raise their children to have good manners; manners are an important consideration also when considering a mate. If you take the driving problem as a manners problem, and emphasize the need for good manners on the road, maybe there is a possibility of change . . .
There is another area where I think change can happen – throwing things out the car window. If it becomes a commonly held value that throwing trash / cigarette butts / food wrappers out the window is bad behavior, I think it will stop. Maybe hand out car trash bags to raise awareness?
Have you seen the change in smoking? What I am noticing is that my dinners are no longer ruined by someone nearby lighting up. I don’t smell smoke in the malls. I don’t smell smoke in the airports. Pretty amazing, don’t you think?
Open Window
For the last few nights, AdventureMan and I have been sleeping without the air conditioner – it has cooled enough that we can do that.
This morning, for the first time, I have the window open in the upstairs lounge where I do my computer things first thing every morning.
When we lived in Kuwait, I missed the open windows. We lived on the tenth floor, and there were no screens. I couldn’t trust the Qatteri Cat not to jump out the window. He is smart in a lot of ways, but not so smart when it comes to windows and being ten stories up.
It is migration time, and our gardens are full of birds. I remember seeing flocks of parakeets, wild bright green parakeets one time, it totally thrilled my heart. Just being able to sit here with the windows open – it doesn’t take much to make me happy. 🙂
The Carrefour Majlis
Hubby and I were at a mall which is one of the Qatar see-and-be-seen places tonight, not to see nor to be seen, but looking for a special end table. As it turns out, we can probably get it, but not until January. No problem.
AdventureMan wanted to pick up some teas for his office and I needed skim milk so we headed for the Carrefour before leaving.
“Oh! How totally cool!” I said to AdventureMan, “Look! They have provided a tent majlis for guys waiting for their wives to grocery shop!” (A majlis, sometimes called diwaniyya, is a place where people gather – usually men, but not always, sometimes women also gather in a majlis but usually separately from men)
“I think that is one of the Islamic Center places,” AdventureMan said.
On our way out of Carrefour with our purchases, the majlis was packed, and everyone was drinking Arabic coffee in graceful little cups, even one western couple. It is a lovely, hospitable oasis, full of soft surfaces in a hard surface mall.
Doha: Keep Your Camera Handy
Today I had one of those experiences I have so often in Doha, a “no-one-would-believe-me” moment, but I have learned to keep my camera handy, and fortunately we were stopped in traffic so I could snap this one without endangering any lives, especially my own.
Traffic is steady, busy, but pretty mellow. Yeh, there are the normal “I’m-going-to-make-a-left-turn-from-the-right-lane” guys; I’ve lived here for so long it doesn’t even rate a roll of the eyes. It’s part of the Doha / Kuwait driving culture.
This, however, I only see in Qatar. Mr. I’m-So-Important-I-Can’t-Wait is this guy in the white Land Cruiser.
He is sitting half on top of the street median, trying to get back into traffic going in his direction. To get there, he drove down the wrong way down the street on the other side of the divider. At first, there was no traffic, but when traffic came, he got up on the divider so he was only HALF blocking traffic from the other direction, and he is bullying his way back into the line he was too important to wait in.
I carry my camera now, every day, in my purse, because I know if I just tell you about these things, you won’t believe them.
I have seen this also at major roundabouts. Some yahoo drives up the other side of the road to the roundabout to avoid waiting in the line. Up over the medians, facing oncoming traffic. I know, I know, what are they thinking?
In Kuwait, I was sickened by the number of young men killed on the roads every week, every month. If it were an epidemic killing young men, people would do something about it, but tell these guys to obey the law? Make them pay fines for reckless driving? Make them wear seat belts? Their behavior tells me that no one has ever held them accountable for their arrogant and dangerous driving habits.
While we are told that “no one is above the law” somehow the message hasn’t made it to these guys.
Harvest Festival Bazaar, Kuwait NEC
This year the Lighthouse Church has its annual Harvest Festival on Nov. 14 (Sat) from 9:30am-4pm.
It takes over the entire Evangelical Church compound in the city (next to the Legislative Bldg where they are doing all the construction) and is a huge indoor/outdoor bazaar.
There are many things for sale including clothing & shoes, books, household and electronic items. There is live music all day by our various church bands and children’s groups plus games and other activities for children There are also food stalls from many different nations so you could snack all day if you like. Basically, there is something for everybody.
Update on Animal Market in Kuwait
From the Kuwait edition of the Arab Times today:
Confusion on closure of animal market, need seen to set minimum standards
KUWAIT CITY, Nov 2: Conflicting reports to the Arab Times caused confusion about the shut down of Al Rai animal market. News reports said that the animals were kept as hostages within the stalls to “starve to death”.
Ayesha Al-Humaidhi, from Animal Friends League of Kuwait, assured that shopkeepers do have access to the shops and tend to their animals. “They do enter their shops and do conduct their business, but they can’t run their business openly until they settle the rent dispute with the Municipality,” she said. Al-Humaidhi explained that a number of her friends have gone to Al Rai area and had either purchased animals or animal related products. “It’s logical that if proprietors can access their shops to serve customers, they can enter the same shops to feed their animals,” she explained. She, however, pointed out that if animals kept in the stalls are lacking anything, it would be a proper flow of air.
“My friends told me that birds were the main sufferers, and that is only because of the way they are kept by the shopkeepers. “Up to 50 birds are put in one small cage which causes a relatively higher death rate amongst birds compared to other animals under normal conditions. Slower air flow had cast its toll on the poor birds,” she added.
Al-Humaidhi affirmed that the conditions in which these animals are kept were “hellish to start with”. “The shutting down of these stalls has made it worse. “However, there is a dire need to set minimal standards for shopkeepers to abide by when tending to their animals. “It’s inevitable from the reckless way these shopkeepers tend to their animals that they would not even feed them if they had no market,” she said.
Meanwhile Abu Sulaiman Al-Hadad, one of the shopkeepers, claimed that he, along with other proprietors, have not accessed their shops since these were shut down on Oct 15. “My animals have been imprisoned for more than two weeks and have all died from starvation,” he complained. Asked if he had entered his shop at all during this period he said it’s “impossible”. “If any of us is caught entering a shop we’d be obliged to pay a fine of KD 500, along with other legal action,” Al-Hadad said.
Al-Hadad said that shopkeepers have been selling some of their shop items which they managed to pick before the Municipality shut the shops. Asked about measures taken by him and or other proprietor to “rescue” their businesses and animals, Al-Hadad informed the Arab Times that a law suit has been filed to the Administrative Court. “No one knows how long it will take to be finalized. Our animals have long since choked to death,” he said.
By Dahlia Kholaif
Arab Times Staff
It seems some of the shopkeepers are keeping this story going.
Barbaric. Animals Left to Starve to Death
It’s hard to believe that this could be happening. This article is from Kuwait’s Al Watan and I learned about it from Mark, at 248am.com. Unbelievable. Unthinkable.
KUWAIT: It only happens in Kuwait. No other country would demand money from people already paying rent.
Initially, those renting stalls at the animal market in AlـRai thought it was a mistake, but when their shops were shut down “because of rent arrears,” business owners went berserk. In addition, the animals displayed in the stalls were left inside the locked stalls, with the proprietors unable to tend to or remove then, thereby what was a municipal disagreement has ballooned into an animal rights fiasco.
It remains unfathomable to many where the decision to charge a second “Municipality rent” arose from, when the proprietors were already paying rent to the owners of the commercial space, the Ministry of Finance. With the Municipality shutting down the stalls, and the Ministry of Finance staying silent ـ only to say: “this is not our issue” ـ the business owners are helpless as the animals howl and cry for food, with every passing day the stench of death growing ever stronger.
Al Watan Daily went to the animal market in Al Rai area and witnessed the disaster first hand.
Shopkeepers told Al Watan Daily that the Municipality had closed all the stalls over two weeks ago, “and they haven”t opened the doors even once till now. All the animals are inside the stalls, and most of them have died due to lack of water, food and air. These animals have been in cages within the stalls for 15 days and they have not seen any light, nor eaten anything.”
Ridha Ashkanani told Al Watan Daily: “We signed contracts with the State Properties Department; we pay them 300 Kuwaiti dinars per year, and we also have been paying KD 60 per year to the Municipality as for the cleaning of the area. We were forced to pay this sum although the Municipality is not taking care of the area and the place is not clean at all. The problem now is that the Municipality is asking us to pay another rent for the stalls themselves. They want KD 3 per every square meter within the shop per month. They also want the money to be paid in arrears from 1995. We can”t afford to pay all this, and there isn”t any law that requires us to pay a second rent to the Municipality.”
The situation is this: according to the traders, they have been paying a normal rental fee since 1997, which continued when the Ministry of Finance relocated their businesses to the current location, but in 2004, a Municipal inspector came and asked them to pay a “Municipality rent.”
The proprietors explained to the inspector that they were not aware of any second “Municipality rent,” and that according to the contract with the Ministry of Finance, the rent was to be paid to the ministry, and the ministry only.
After receipts were shown to the inspector that payments were being made to the ministry, he quietly withdrew and disappeared.
However, in 2006, another inspector came demanding “Municipality rent.” The traders explained, once again, to the new inspector the same story, to which he accepted their argument but demanded a KD five monthly surcharge for cleaning.
The traders saw no qualms with the demand and agreed to the nominal fee, but then some months later, the inspector returned, requiring that the cleaning fees be paid in lump sum six months in advance. After some grumbling, they acquiesced.
Oddly, some weeks later, traders were informed that instead of 6 months, it would have to be 12 months in advance. Again, they reluctantly agreed.
Now you have the current situation, where the Municipality has shut all the stalls with the animals locked inside, and is demanding the “Municipality rent,” in arrears as far back as 1995.
“Our major issue is that the animals are trapped inside the stalls, and most of them died. We are losing our business and losing the animals we have in the shops, and we are not allowed to open the shops at least to feed the animals, which have not eaten any food for 15 days,” explained Ashkanani
Ahmed, another proprietor, said: “I lost all the gold fish I had in the shop, worth KD 5,000. We want the animal rights societies to help us in our problem. We went to the State Properties Department and they didn”t help us, and stated that it”s not their responsibility. We then went to the Cabinet and they told us to go to the minister, and he also refused to help us. We finally went to the Municipality, (which refused to open the doors until they are paid), and now we are filing a case at the court and we are waiting to see what will happen.”
ـ
Last updated on Monday 2/11/2009
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