I dunno... I think Qatar is definitely going the right way with Education City (perhaps a bit biased; after all, that's where I'm employed), particularly with creating relationships with other GCC countries. However, Doha probably has a ways to go before it's the cultural capital of the Middle East.
On the other hand, hosting the Asian Games, and being the first city out of Asia to do so, was a feather in Doha's cap. I saw in the paper yesterday that Doha plans to bid on the 2016 Olympics. I'm not saying they're a shoe-in to win by any means, but they're going in the right direction to promote themselves.
Qatar, like any country, has problems. The most apparant ones I see right away are the lack of recycling (they'll have to probably fix that if they want to get the Olympics in, given the negative reaction Beijing is getting from the OCC with its environmental problems), the lack of traffic rules (hopefully yesterday's new laws will help some of this, as long as they are enforced), and the exploitation of foreign labor to build the new empire. Eek.
I dunno... I think Qatar is definitely going the right way with Education City (perhaps a bit biased; after all, that's where I'm employed), particularly with creating relationships with other GCC countries. However, Doha probably has a ways to go before it's the cultural capital of the Middle East.
On the other hand, hosting the Asian Games, and being the first city out of Asia to do so, was a feather in Doha's cap. I saw in the paper yesterday that Doha plans to bid on the 2016 Olympics. I'm not saying they're a shoe-in to win by any means, but they're going in the right direction to promote themselves.
Qatar, like any country, has problems. The most apparant ones I see right away are the lack of recycling (they'll have to probably fix that if they want to get the Olympics in, given the negative reaction Beijing is getting from the OCC with its environmental problems), the lack of traffic rules (hopefully yesterday's new laws will help some of this, as long as they are enforced), and the exploitation of foreign labor to build the new empire. Eek.