I am guessing the Michael Slackman is not Egyptian, but I understand that the additional contributor (Mona El-Naggar) is. Slackman is the real-deal journalist, writing about all sorts of Middle East topics, although seemingly mostly about Gaza, as that is that topic that receives the most news coverage in the NY Times. El-Naggar seems to maintain a blog and write various opinion pieces rather than investigative journalism.
I think the blog posts you linked (along with Olive) are taking this article way too seriously. The NY Times is an enormous paper and includes an array of articles and stories. Unlike the press in Qatar, it more clearly distinguishes between those stories that are investigative journalism and those that are more-or-less opinion pieces. I just looked at the whole paper for that day, and my guess is that the article is meant to be quasi-humorous poke at rich oil countries in the context of more bad economic news for Europe and North America. In that sense it is also reads like a response to the rash of articles in the TImes about how some nationals in Dubai are attempting a backlash against Western culture. This article is not meant to be balanced, and, to be honest, I seriously doubt the article would have been included in the Times if it were a genuine examination of the Qatari identity struggle (the readers simply would not care enough to read past the headline).
Education is a start, but that majority of students coming out of Education City are not Qatari (judging from the graduation photos), and a handful of physicians and engineers will only be a drop in the ocean of what is needed. It seems to me that Qatar has two choices if it want to remain in control of its own economy, culture and destiny: either scale down considerably to ensure that citizens make up the majority of the country; or extend citizenship to include the large numbers of people who are born and spend their lives here. In other words, boost the number of Qataris. The government could be selective (i.e. require citizenship tests, Arabic speaking, Muslim, etc.). Almost all first-tier developed countries have done this with great success, finding that such new citizens often work harder and are even more loyal to their new state.
I am guessing the Michael Slackman is not Egyptian, but I understand that the additional contributor (Mona El-Naggar) is. Slackman is the real-deal journalist, writing about all sorts of Middle East topics, although seemingly mostly about Gaza, as that is that topic that receives the most news coverage in the NY Times. El-Naggar seems to maintain a blog and write various opinion pieces rather than investigative journalism.
I think the blog posts you linked (along with Olive) are taking this article way too seriously. The NY Times is an enormous paper and includes an array of articles and stories. Unlike the press in Qatar, it more clearly distinguishes between those stories that are investigative journalism and those that are more-or-less opinion pieces. I just looked at the whole paper for that day, and my guess is that the article is meant to be quasi-humorous poke at rich oil countries in the context of more bad economic news for Europe and North America. In that sense it is also reads like a response to the rash of articles in the TImes about how some nationals in Dubai are attempting a backlash against Western culture. This article is not meant to be balanced, and, to be honest, I seriously doubt the article would have been included in the Times if it were a genuine examination of the Qatari identity struggle (the readers simply would not care enough to read past the headline).
Education is a start, but that majority of students coming out of Education City are not Qatari (judging from the graduation photos), and a handful of physicians and engineers will only be a drop in the ocean of what is needed. It seems to me that Qatar has two choices if it want to remain in control of its own economy, culture and destiny: either scale down considerably to ensure that citizens make up the majority of the country; or extend citizenship to include the large numbers of people who are born and spend their lives here. In other words, boost the number of Qataris. The government could be selective (i.e. require citizenship tests, Arabic speaking, Muslim, etc.). Almost all first-tier developed countries have done this with great success, finding that such new citizens often work harder and are even more loyal to their new state.