Doha

Doha, Qatar is...weird as hell. Imagine a city built without (apparent) need to consider weather, disease, animal, plant, or previous inhabitants (there weren't any). A blank natureless slate into which billions of dollars of oil revenues can be poured in an ever-widening stream. I can't decide if it is magical or horrific. Creative architecture that would else where be simply impractically pricey could be the norm here, yet it seems a bit that the contractors second guess themselves. Buildings are torn down as fast as they are built up in order to construct something even more impressive. They have just one shot to get it right, now while they have more money than they know what to do with, and then...the desert will simply take over agian it seems. I couldn't find anyone with a plan as to a non-oil future, (though I suppose this is a global phenomenon).
We just came from "City Centre"--a crop of sky scrapers under construction, some commerical centers open and ready for consumption, the whole area populated almost exclusively by the Southeast Asian workers. A metropolis built for no one. The Qatari population is tiny, they were previously Bedouin or pearl divers, (so say the history books, which only cover Qatari history in depth since it began in the 1950's). Qatar essentially=Doha; there is not much else. Sand. Oil and natural gas under the sand.

Not to say that I didn't enjoy it: we visited the Equestrian Center, (Doha is hoping, salivating really, over the chance to host the Olympics in 2016--they already have the logo on everything, although the decision is not yet made). No one minded us wandering in and stroking the noses of the rows and rows of GORGEOUS Arabian show horses. Then to the camel market and fruit market(tried camel milk for the first time, and sheep brain last night actually,as well as camel meat. Brain tasted like very fine slippery tofu, camel a bit gamey, camel milk sweet and light and slighty hay flavored. At the fruit market tried a custard apple, delicious, and unidentified thing like an unripe plum, both from India).Then to the Oman Market for "cultural" goods. Ha.

I just wonder if it is similar to how Europeans might have felt visiting America, Miami perhaps, in the years of boom construction. Money, optimism, consumption, no thought to the future nor the past, all in the gorgeous breeze and sunshine.
More later, and pictures.
On to the Emirates, which I am told is even more surreal.


About the photos: The recording center for Al-Jazeera English, workers in the still unfinished downtown area, driving to the airport in the sunset past huge billboards advertising future development projects.