Anyone ever been? Looks like I'll be spending a few days in Doha.

11/16/2008 6:54:45 PM

very boring...nothing really to do there.

11/16/2008 7:17:22 PM

except shoot people ?

11/16/2008 7:48:13 PM

Duke,

yep, been there done that, and Doha was baller when I went there. If you can, get the guys together and do some exploring, but as anyplace, just watch where you go. Also, keep an eye on the gold prices, I got some awesome deals on gold when I was there; brought it back to the states, make $texas profit.

11/16/2008 9:24:05 PM

^^ Qatar is actually pretty nice. Isn't there per capita something crazy like $85k?

11/16/2008 9:55:34 PM

i allegedly a bank account out of qatar

or maybe i didn't.

that's as much advice as i can give you.

11/16/2008 10:06:03 PM

I have a buddy working in Doha on building the new airport.

11/17/2008 3:14:57 AM

^^ huh?

^^^ Yes, the highest in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qatar

Quote :

"GDP (PPP) 2008 estimate - Total $95.130 billion - Per capita $86,669 GDP (nominal) 2008 estimate - Total $116.851billion - Per capita $106,459 "

But it doesn't mean a thing. There is not much of a middle class. Most people earn little, and then you have the overseas recruited specialists and experts who are paid millions a year. And of course, such a small place has tons of gas and oil which is exported. So as I said, it doesn't mean a thing.

For duke:

Quote :

"In March 2008 the Roman Catholic church “Our Lady of the Rosary” was consecrated in Doha."

Qatar is the first country in the Arab world (maybe in Asia) to have branches of actual US universities on its soil, and prestigious ones at that:

Carnegie Mellon University
Georgetown University School of Foreign Service
Texas A&M University
Virginia Commonwealth University
Cornell University Weill Medical College (pic below) (1st medical school located outside US borders)
Northwestern University

You might want to check out their campuses, as they might have some interesting fusion architecture.

Here are some places to see:













Some tidbits:

Quote :

"Expatriates form the majority of Qatar’s residents. The petrochemical industry has attracted people from all around the world. Most of the expatriates come from South Asia and from non-oil-rich Arab states. Because a large percentage of the expatriates are male, Qatar has a heavily skewed sex ratio, with 1.8528 males per female."

Quote :

"gas reserves in the giant north field (South Pars for Iran) which straddles the border with Iran and are almost as large as the peninsula itself are estimated to be between 800 trillion cubic feet (23,000 km3) to 80 trillion cubic feet (2,300 km3) (1 trillion cubic foot is equivalent to about 80 million barrels (13,000,000 m3) of oil). Qatar is sometimes referred to as the Saudi Arabia of natural gas."

Only < 30% of the population is comprised of citizens. The rest are workers recruited overseas, the vast majority being from South Asia, Southeast Asia, and non-oil rich Arab countries working as labourers, maids, etc.


https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/qa.html

Quote :

"2.01 male(s)/female (2008 est.)"

Quote :

"Arab 40%, Indian 18%, Pakistani 18%, Iranian 10%, other 14% "

(25% of those Arabs, i.e. 10% of the total population, and all the Indians, Pakistanis, Iranis, etc, are NON-Citizens)

Quote :

"Qatar's proved reserves of natural gas are roughly 25 trillion cubic meters, about 15% of the world total and third largest in the world."

[Edited on November 17, 2008 at 3:47 AM. Reason : ]

11/17/2008 3:41:07 AM

Quote :

"^ huh?"

http://www.bechtel.com/new_doha_airport.html

http://www.ndiaproject.com/

11/17/2008 3:50:01 AM

sorry, that was [obviously] not directed at you.

11/17/2008 4:09:03 AM

Well, now it looks like I might've managed to negotiate an even more interesting deal. I'm deployed to Iraq right now...looks like one of my friends and I are likely going to be allowed to go to Afghanistan for a month on an exchange with one of the Navy squadrons deployed there.

The only problem (besides the living conditions being quite subpar to those here in Iraq, from what I hear), is that I will have to give up my 4 day (including the 2 transit days) trip to Qatar over Christmas. Hopefully I'll still get to transit through there (and hopefully even stop for a day or two) on the way to Afghanistan.

11/18/2008 8:44:13 PM

why do you want to change to afghanistan, just curious

11/18/2008 9:56:04 PM

Duke.. .if you're doing the Deid, it's a nice base for the AOR, the AF is making it a perminant duty station. I spent a month there on deployment. (GOING HOME TODAY WOOT!) There's lots of stuff to do when you're not flying. I don't know how your place was in Iraq but the Deid isn't bad as long as you're not in a tent!
Rock some of the off base trips.. they're worth it. Discover Doha is a good one, and Dinner and a movie isn't bad either.

DEPLOYMENT IS OVER... PEACE!!!

11/19/2008 12:40:14 AM

^ cool

^^ it's all about adding to my collection of experiences, and a month of combat missions in Afghanistan is more interesting to me than a couple days of partying and sightseeing in Qatar.

Especially if I can score a couple days of partying and sightseeing in Qatar on the way to/from Afghanistan.

11/19/2008 6:13:37 AM

Well, the Afghanistan gig isn't looking good. The other squadron has already said no to swapping a pilot for one of ours...we emailed back about a week ago and asked if they could just swap an ECMO (navigator/copilot/electronic countermeasures officer/weapons system operator/). Haven't heard back from them.


...and my Christmas trip to Qatar got cancelled...I should still get to go (unless possibly if I work out the Afghanistan thing), but it'll be at a later date.

12/7/2008 9:20:29 PM

I am keeping my fingers crossed that you will have a white Christmas

12/7/2008 9:37:38 PM

you mean like white people?

12/8/2008 12:31:47 AM

It apparently actually snowed here in Iraq last winter. Not a lot...I think a half inch, maybe an inch. Apparently the war damn near stopped...there were 80 year old women running around in the streets fascinated because they'd never seen snow!

12/8/2008 9:04:45 PM

man, the place sure has changed. We were supposed to move there instead of coming to the United States. Back then it was no better then Dubai back then.

12/8/2008 9:29:18 PM

Quote :

"It apparently actually snowed here in Iraq last winter. Not a lot...I think a half inch, maybe an inch. Apparently the war damn near stopped...there were 80 year old women running around in the streets fascinated because they'd never seen snow!"

it hailed where I was at. That was pretty strange (and pretty baller).

12/9/2008 12:46:05 AM

Quote :

"It apparently actually snowed here in Iraq last winter. Not a lot...I think a half inch, maybe an inch. Apparently the war damn near stopped...there were 80 year old women running around in the streets fascinated because they'd never seen snow! "

My buddy was at Falcon when that happened... dumbass slept right through it... his buddies took some pictures though and he forwarded them to me... pretty crazy looking

12/9/2008 4:30:08 PM

^which you then uploaded on TWW to share

12/9/2008 6:08:39 PM

^nope... maxed out on free pics, and well too damn lazy otherwise

12/9/2008 6:54:33 PM

Sister company at work does powerplant pipe cleaning in CUTTER. We just made them 3 new machines to take with them when they go back Thursday.

12/9/2008 8:00:50 PM

ha, yeah, only problem with pronouncing it as "Cutter" is that few people have any idea what you're talking about.

Of course, probably most people have no idea where it's at if you say "Ka-Tar", either, so I say it the right way (well, I don't think "Cutter" is exactly right, but it's the best I can do with my non-Arabic speaking North Carolina accent.)

12/9/2008 9:54:38 PM

This is how to pronounce it:

Qu*t*ur

where

*t* = the t sound in tiramisu, not as in tomato

And phonetically, Q != K, at least in Arabic. The Q sound comes from the throat, so it is sharper.

12/10/2008 6:44:38 AM

so, like halfway between "cutter" and "gudder"?

12/10/2008 7:31:20 AM

Ehh we should go ahead and teach them all English first BEFORE we convert them to Christianity.

12/10/2008 9:37:54 AM