Reciprocity makes sense only when the two nations in question are relatively equal. While Qatar might be in the same league as some of the bottom of the 33 countries in question, it is not remotely on a par with places like the EU and US, which ranked first and second last year in GDP.
Take the US for example. Qatar was 56th in GDP at 1/145 the size of the US. Qatar depends heavily on the US (and other members of the 33 countries) for professionals that run the oil and gas industry, financial industry, higher education, defense, etc. If you are wondering about the “defense” issue, ask yourself how long a tiny, natural-resource rich, militarily nonexistent country in the Middle East would last without Western military backing? Kuwait learned the hard way in 1990. For the US government Qatar is little more than an airstrip for its military and source of revenue for some of its oil companies that produce and distribute Qatar’s natural resources to other nations. The US, which overtook Russia to be the largest producer of natural gas last year, does not rely on Qatar for its energy needs. And if all the Qataris were to leave the US, do you really think anyone in the US would notice?
Is this inequality between the US and Qatar fair or just? ABSOLUTELY NOT! But then is it fair that Qatar exploits the inequality between it and countries like Sri Lanka and Sudan? If Nepal suddenly decided to offer a visa-on-arrival for Qataris, would Qatar do the same? Of course not. Nepal, by the way, is almost identically as far below Qatar in the national rankings for GDP as Qatar is behind the EU and US.
So a policy of reciprocity simply makes Qatar look naïve. The US will not change its policy, because there is no way a sitting US government would want the political fallout from home of giving automatic visas to an Arab country. Again, racist and unfair on the part of the US, but that is the reality. In the end, the change in visas will hardly affect countries like the US; it will only hurt the tiny handful of the 330 million American citizens who know where Qatar is and are interesting in coming here. For Qatar this will hurt all of the international conferences that newspapers like the Gulf Times loves to run stories on and job recruitment in places like the US and EU. Even with massively higher salary offers, coming to this country is a tough sell to the vast majority of Westerners. Once they visit here most seem to like it and find the people polite, welcoming and intelligent, but visa hassles will only act to ward people off. Besides, does anyone here honestly believe this country’s foreign embassies will be prepared to deal with the initial onslaught of visa requests? The inefficiency will only put big question marks in peoples minds about the ability of this country to host major events. Forget the Olympics or World Cup.
Yes, Bleu is right. People will still come, but when faced with this additional hassle, I imagine it will be far fewer and lower in quality.
"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."
Reciprocity makes sense only when the two nations in question are relatively equal. While Qatar might be in the same league as some of the bottom of the 33 countries in question, it is not remotely on a par with places like the EU and US, which ranked first and second last year in GDP.
Take the US for example. Qatar was 56th in GDP at 1/145 the size of the US. Qatar depends heavily on the US (and other members of the 33 countries) for professionals that run the oil and gas industry, financial industry, higher education, defense, etc. If you are wondering about the “defense” issue, ask yourself how long a tiny, natural-resource rich, militarily nonexistent country in the Middle East would last without Western military backing? Kuwait learned the hard way in 1990. For the US government Qatar is little more than an airstrip for its military and source of revenue for some of its oil companies that produce and distribute Qatar’s natural resources to other nations. The US, which overtook Russia to be the largest producer of natural gas last year, does not rely on Qatar for its energy needs. And if all the Qataris were to leave the US, do you really think anyone in the US would notice?
Is this inequality between the US and Qatar fair or just? ABSOLUTELY NOT! But then is it fair that Qatar exploits the inequality between it and countries like Sri Lanka and Sudan? If Nepal suddenly decided to offer a visa-on-arrival for Qataris, would Qatar do the same? Of course not. Nepal, by the way, is almost identically as far below Qatar in the national rankings for GDP as Qatar is behind the EU and US.
So a policy of reciprocity simply makes Qatar look naïve. The US will not change its policy, because there is no way a sitting US government would want the political fallout from home of giving automatic visas to an Arab country. Again, racist and unfair on the part of the US, but that is the reality. In the end, the change in visas will hardly affect countries like the US; it will only hurt the tiny handful of the 330 million American citizens who know where Qatar is and are interesting in coming here. For Qatar this will hurt all of the international conferences that newspapers like the Gulf Times loves to run stories on and job recruitment in places like the US and EU. Even with massively higher salary offers, coming to this country is a tough sell to the vast majority of Westerners. Once they visit here most seem to like it and find the people polite, welcoming and intelligent, but visa hassles will only act to ward people off. Besides, does anyone here honestly believe this country’s foreign embassies will be prepared to deal with the initial onslaught of visa requests? The inefficiency will only put big question marks in peoples minds about the ability of this country to host major events. Forget the Olympics or World Cup.
Yes, Bleu is right. People will still come, but when faced with this additional hassle, I imagine it will be far fewer and lower in quality.
"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."