Qatar Population on Monday is 1,580,050
This gave me a grin – as of a certain date, Qatar has a number, not an approximate number, a fairly fixed number – for its population.
You know what? I believe it. I have seen the way the computers here operate; they seem to have some inter-operability, and quick ways of accessing information back and forth between departments. I can believe they are tallying people leaving, people coming, people being born, people dying, as fast as the data can be entered.
I wouldn’t have believed it six years ago. I believe they have this capability now. They must have made a significant investment in this infrastructure, and it’s continuous upgrade.
From today’s Peninsula
Doha: The population of Qatar till Monday is 1,580,050, according to statistics released by Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA) yesterday. These data represent the number of individuals of all ages (Qataris and non-Qataris) within the state on Monday, excluding Qataris and residents who were outside the borders of the State at the time of the statement monitoring. The total number of males according to these data, is 1, 225,487 compared to 354,563 females.
These figures indicate a decline in population within the state with 86,803 people compared to last October, which recorded the highest rise in population during the year. It is noteworthy that QSA started presenting data on its website showing total population at the end of each month since October last year.
British Mom Continues Qatar Court Battle for Abducted Son
Ayb! Ayb! (Shame! Shame!) Tricking a young woman by having her sign papers purporting to be inheritance papers but signing over custody of her son to his grandmother. Now he sits, idle, bored, confused and lonely, in his grandmother’s house, yearning to be with his mother, friends and classmates, and leading a normal life. She sounds like a reasonable young woman; coming to visit the “sick” grandmother, agreeable that he should visit with his father’s family. Why did they need to high-handedly take it to this level? What were they thinking?
He wants to come with me, says mom in custody battle
from today’s Gulf Times
A British mother, who has been fighting a custody battle for her son with her late husband’s Qatari family, was on Monday briefly reunited with the boy for the second time, Bahrain’s Gulf Daily News yesterday said.
Rebecca Jones claims her son Adam has been “kidnapped” by the Qatari relatives. She saw him for the first time last Thursday, after the Cassation Court in Doha agreed to let her visit him.
“It was a bit better tonight, still very upsetting. I brought Adam some presents and he seemed happy with that,” Bahrain resident Jones told the GDN.
“He keeps telling me he wants to come home with me so it’s really terrible. It’s difficult to leave him, he was very tearful tonight when I left but I get to see him twice a week now. I will be back to see him in two days. I think that has made it easier for both of us.
“I told Adam I’d bring some movies next time and we can just pretend we are back in Bahrain, just the two of us.
“He spoke to his friends tonight. He hasn’t spoken to them since he left Bahrain. Some of them were upset. He also spoke to his grandmother and Barrie (stepfather) and Alex (younger sister),” Jones said.
“I’m desperate to see my son. I wouldn’t care if it was even for one hour at this stage. He said he’s very bored and has got nothing to do during the day, he just plays the Playstation from morning to night. He said he can’t sleep at all,” GDN quoted her as saying.
“He knows I love him and he knows I’m not going to leave him until we can go back to Bahrain together and get back to our lives.
“I’m going to keep going until I can go to a judge and get my son back. I’m waiting for the day when they have to let him go.”
Jones claims Adam was abducted on October 3 after she was “duped into travelling with him to visit his sick Qatari grandmother.”
Meanwhile, Bahrain Human Rights Watch Society secretary-general Faisal Fulad, who has been central to the campaign to bring Adam home, is in London to meet British
non-governmental organisations.
“I have been making contacts with Amnesty International, Save the Children and the children’s rights committee in British Parliament. I hope to meet them for discussions tomorrow,” he told the GDN.
“I am also trying to get a hold of people in BBC, Sky News and some big British newspapers because we need to generate more awareness, more media coverage and more support for Adam’s campaign.”
A Facebook group demanding Adam be reunited with his family in Bahrain, meanwhile, has attracted more than 7,000 members in almost four weeks.
Those who set up the group has organised a sponsored swim at St Christopher’s Senior School in Isa Town, and raised about BD1,000 for the campaign.
Divorced from Rebecca Jones for a number of years, Adam’s Qatari father, Jamal al-Madhaiki, died in 2005. Adam had remained in Bahrain with his mother, stepfather and younger sister until he and his mother travelled to Qatar.
Jones claims that in Qatar, her late ex-husband’s family requested her to sign some documents relating to what they said was Adam’s inheritance.
According to Jones, the papers in Arabic turned out to be custody documents in the name of Adam’s grandmother.
Since the alleged “abduction”, Jones has remained in Qatar to win back Adam’s custody, which was granted to his 77-year-old grandmother by a Qatari court almost three weeks ago.
Good Looking
Seeing ads like this one always cracks me up. I don’t see so many specifying “must be under 30 years old” any more, but evidently, it is not politically incorrect here to specify that they must look good. 😉 It also cracks me up that companies are allowed to specify nationalities – like wouldn’t you think we could all work together? But it isn’t so – companies tend to have a Philipino staff OR an Indian staff, and rarely both.
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like . . .
I couldn’t believe my eyes – it wasn’t even the first day of Eid, and here were Christmas decorations popping up:
The Ritz is always so glorious with it’s sky-high Christmas tree; whoda thunk you would find so much Christmas in an Islamic country? There is a sense that goes beyond mere tolerance; I feel welcome here.
Hotels to begin Christmas revelries with tree lighting
Web posted at: 12/1/2009 5:41:55
Source ::: The Peninsula
DOHA: The Ritz-Carlton Hotels here, the Sharq Village and Spa and the Doha Ritz-Carlton Hotel, announced they will have their Tree Lighting Ceremony on December 4 and 5 respectively.
Kicking off their slew of Christmas events at Sharq Village and Spa is the Tree Lighting Ceremony at 6pm on December 4. The event will be held at the main lobby of the hotel where the hotel’s general manager Hossein Vetry will light the 15-foot tree.
The event includes performances from carole singers, a visit from Santa Claus and the presence of two elves. Throughout the evening, revellers can look forward to a continuous serving of hot chocolate with marshmallows, juices, apple cider and ohter drinks. Guests will also be offered homemade Christmas confections such as fruit cakes, minced pies, gingerbread cookies, which are also available for sale at the Christmas Gift Shop in Al Jalsa.
The Doha Ritz-Carlton Hotel will signal the start of their Christmas events with the Tree Lighting Ceremony on December 5 at 5.30pm. Guests will be served with cookies, hot chocolate and mulled wine and will be entertained by carolers. Santa will also drop by for a visit. The hotel’s Gingerbread House will also open at the lower lobby at this time.
1 in 4 US Mortgages “Under Water”
1 in 4 mortgages ‘underwater’
Report shows 10.7 million borrowers are stuck with homes that are worth less than the mortgages they owe.
By Julianne Pepitone, CNNMoney.com staff reporter
Last Updated: November 24, 2009: 12:19 PM ET
Foreclosure plague: It’s spreading
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — In a sign that more foreclosures could be on the horizon, 23% of people with mortgages owe more than their home is worth, according to a report released Tuesday.
Almost 10.7 million U.S. mortgages were “underwater” as of September, said research firm First American CoreLogic.
Another 2.3 million homeowners are within 5% of negative territory, the report said. The two figures combined comprise almost 28% of all residential properties with mortgages.
Negative equity, also called an “underwater” or “upside down” mortgage, has become more common as home values plummet. The report is closely watched because borrowers who are underwater are more likely to be foreclosed.
Would you walk away from your house?
Foreclosures have been rampant for some time, but lately the tide of decay had seemed to be slowing — so Tuesday’s report could dent optimism for the housing market over the next few months.
On the other hand, the trend that turned so many mortgages upside-down — falling home prices — has reversed the past six months. The S&P/Case-Shiller HomePrice Index has reported two consecutive quarters of increasing prices.
If home prices continue to go up or, at least stabilize, fewer mortgage borrowers will find themselves underwater in the coming months.
CoreLogic changed its methodology for the third quarter — now it accounts for payments that reduce principal, and it no longer assumes home equity credit lines have been maxed out. Using the old method, 33.8% of borrowers would have been underwater in the third quarter compared with 32.2% in the previous quarter, according to a CoreLogic spokeswoman.
State totals: The majority of underwater mortgages are heavily concentrated in five states that have particularly suffered from the housing bust: Nevada, at 65%; Arizona, at 48%; Florida, at 45%; Michigan, at 37%; and California, at 35%.
These five states have been especially beleaguered because of a high rate of prime loans that went bad. Many of those loans were option-adjustable rate mortgages, in which borrowers could choose to make minimum payments that were so low they did not even offset the interest being accumulated.
When that accumulated debt reaches a certain point — usually 10% to 25% more than the original principal — the option-ARMs loans are recast into fixed-rate mortgages. When that happens, many borrowers cannot afford the new payments.
Another Doha Perspective
Looking from the Diplomatic Club area (over on the left; you can no longer see the Diplomatic Club) toward the Sheraton/business center area of Doha.
Qatar Train Map
I found the paper with the map! How cool is this?
When I look at this, I think if the money ever runs out in Qatar, they will still have invested in a superior infrastructure – education, transportation, roads, parks, attractive public areas, effective policing and traffic control – way more important than luxury malls.
The Tribal in all of us – Prayers for Rain
I know it is about that time of the year . . . clouds are gathering, you can almost smell rain coming. And yet it holds off. Every year, in Qatar, and also in Kuwait, the national leader gathers with his people and prays for rain.
What country doesn’t need rain? Even in the Pacific Northwest, where jokes are made about the abundance of rain, when the rains fail to fall, people pray for rain.
I remember living in Monterey, California during a drought; it didn’t rain for a couple YEARS. When it rained, people danced in the streets for joy.
There is no sweeter smell on earth, I think, that the smell of the first rain hitting the dusty earth.
From today’s Gulf Times
Prayer for rains
HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani joining the worshippers to perform the Istisqa (rain-seeking prayer) at the Al Wajbah prayer ground yesterday morning. The prayer is in line with the Sunnah (sayings and deeds) of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), who performed Istisqa prayers when there was a delay in rainfall.
Cats Purr Purr-posefully
This study cracks me up. When a cat is catting around you in the morning, it is usually because they are hungry, and they want you to feed them. If you get up and feed them, you have just encouraged them to bother you. YOU train the cat to bother you! The Qatteri Cat knows I won’t get up and feed him until I am ready. With me, he will purr, but he settles down and waits for me to get up – and feed him. LOL, I guess he has me trained, too.
From today’s BBC News:
Cat owners may have suspected as much, but it seems our feline friends have found a way to manipulate us humans.
Researchers at the University of Sussex have discovered that cats use a “soliciting purr” to overpower their owners and garner attention and food.
Unlike regular purring, this sound incorporates a “cry”, with a similar frequency to a human baby’s.
The team said cats have “tapped into” a human bias – producing a sound that humans find very difficult to ignore.
Dr Karen McComb, the lead author of the study that was published in the journal Current Biology, said the research was inspired by her own cat, Pepo.
“He would wake me up in the morning with this insistent purr that was really rather annoying,” Dr McComb told BBC News.
“After a little bit of investigation, I discovered that there are other cat owners who are similarly bombarded early in the morning.”
While miaowing might get a cat expelled from the bedroom, Dr McComb said that this pestering purr often convinced beleaguered pet lovers to get up and fill their cat’s bowl.
To find out why, her team had to train cat owners to make recordings of their own cats’ vocal tactics – recording both their “soliciting purrs” and regular, “non-soliciting” purrs.
“When we played the recordings to human volunteers, even those people with no experience of cats found the soliciting purrs more urgent and less pleasant,” said Dr McComb.
How annoying?
She and her team also asked the volunteers to rate the different purrs – giving them a score based on how urgent and pleasant they perceived them to be.
“We could then relate the scores back to the specific purrs,” explained Dr McComb. “The key thing (that made the purrs more unpleasant and difficult to ignore) was the relative level of this embedded high-frequency sound.”
“When an animal vocalises, the vocal folds (or cords) held across the stream of air snap shut at a particular frequency,” explained Dr McComb. The perceived pitch of that sound depends on the size, length and tension of the vocal folds.
“But cats are able to produce a low frequency purr by activating the muscles of their vocal folds – stimulating them to vibrate,” explained Dr McComb.
Since each of these sounds is produced by a different mechanism, cats are able to embed a high-pitched cry in an otherwise relaxing purr.
“How urgent and unpleasant the purr is seems to depend on how much energy the cat puts into producing that cry,” said Dr McComb.
Previous studies have found similarities between a domestic cat’s cry and the cry of a human baby – a sound that humans are highly sensitive to.
Dr McComb said that the cry occurs at a low level in cats’ normal purring. “But we think that (they) learn to dramatically exaggerate it when it proves effective in generating a response from humans.”
She added that the trait seemed to most often develop in cats that have a one-on-one relationship with their owners.
“Obviously we don’t know what’s going on inside their minds,” said Dr McComb. “But they learn how to do this, and then they do it quite deliberately.”
So how does Dr McComb feel about Pepo now she knows he has been manipulating her all these years?
“He’s been the inspiration for this whole study, so I’ll forgive him – credit where credit’s due.”
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