at the low end of construction quality; and in a country like Qatar, where customer satisfaction, service after sales, and follow-up in general, are concepts which are absent from the vocabulary and the culture, expat residents have really nowhere to go with their complaints.

However, it is a different story when it comes to institutional construction. If you have a chance to visit the new faculties being built in Education City (under the guidance of Sheika Moza), it is a totally different story. You have the same Asian construction workers, but you have signature architects, international construction management companies, owner implication in the daily running of the business, and lots of money to be spent.

It is well known in quality circles worldwide, that 90% of failures in “quality” are due to Management failures rather than worker failures.

On an other topic, lots of rumors have been circulating to the fact that most of the new business district office towers as other residential compounds will sit empty, because often, it is a game of sheikhdom camaraderie and “strictly clean business”, where sheikh no 3 thanks sheikh no 2 for his services by renting his building/compound for say 2 years, without anyone occupying it. It’s looks good in the books and great for night-time photography, but that’s about it.