Reflecting on Mountains

The jolt of pleasure shouldn’t have surprised me when I awoke in Muscat recently and saw the mountains in the bright sunlight outside my room - how much I have missed mountains in this flat sandy peninsula of Qatar that I now inhabit. During my brief visit to Oman the enjoyment persisted, driving through mountains, over mountains and inside mountains, as my Arab driver repeatedly referred to places and villages: ‘inside the mountain’ is not to be taken as literally within the earth but as a place within the mountain range completely surrounded by mountains, as if a piece had been carved out. The mountains in Oman are raw and jagged with little if any plant growth. Perhaps they have only recently pushed themselves to the surface and are looking around to grasp the measure of the place they now dominate.

Growing up in New England, the largest mountain I encountered was Mt Washington and not insignificant especially in the howling winds of winter; it was however dutifully climbed in high school. It wasn’t until I spent a summer in southern Arizona during my undergraduate years and experienced the size and power and silence of the mountain range at the south, where one could, at least 40 years ago, gaze from the heights over miles of land stretching south into Mexico. I recall to this day the silence that accompanied the view, few birds and insects and no noises of civilizations. This was a silence akin to one I experienced in a vastly different setting along the Nile some twenty years later when, having left the sights and sounds of modern life behind, I felt I was as close to what the early Egyptians experienced as I could get as my boat silently slipped down the river with the bulrushes on either side. Somewhere during the following years I read Loren Eiseley’s The Immense Journey and was struck dumb by the following:

Once in a lifetime, perhaps, one escapes the actual confines of the flesh. Once in a lifetime, if one is lucky, one so merges with sunlight and air and running water that whole eons, the eons that mountains and deserts know, might pass in a single afternoon without discomfort.

Mountains have accompanied my field work in southern Italy and Sicily: the Alburni mountains south of Salerno and west of our excavations at Tufariello served as a magnificent backdrop to our work; the majestic stone outcropping defined the essence of La Muculufa in central Sicily, under whose shadow we found remains of a village as well as a ceremonial site from 2000 BCE and, literally, in which burials had been placed and looted millennia before; the mountains east of Paestum, seen both from the Greek temples as well as from the hardscrabble site of Trentinara on their western edge from which one could easily watch with safety and ease the activities further west in the areas where the Greek temples would sprout 1500 years later; the ‘mountain’ on Ustica, merely the edge of the tipped caldera of a very ancient volcano, from which we could survey the entire small island; and mountains running across and up and down Sicily through which we travelled time and time again, through bright sunlight, silvery moonlight and glorious thunderstorms. The passes through the mountains and the mountains themselves have long provided safe havens as well as opportunities for travel. The people whose remains we excavated too may have wondered at the eons that mountains know and questioned who else had passed through or would. The evidence of commerce can be found in mountain passes but not all evidence of such passages can be readily interpreted. A few decades ago evidence from a cave in southern Italy prompted the following interpretation of mine:

Zinzulusa
ca. 1050 b.c.

He’d been travelling since dawn.
Now the heat rose from the fields below, here green sunlight and cool shadows,
Farther up, the shadows he sought, a refuge for his axes –
‘a scuri a occhio’, one handsomely decorated –
too fine to leave with those in the valley.

A quick climb then to the cave,
recesses stretching back in time as well.
A niche in the wall to the right, easily covered by rocks,
would conceal should someone enter the cave.

The depths of the grotto reached out, inviting cool darkness.
Safer perhaps back there?
No, time was short now, and he’d soon return.
(Pots, unseen in the shadows for a thousand years already, remained undisturbed.)

The darkness was a welcome respite to the hot bright outside.
But he’d lingered too long already.
One last look – yes, this cave would harbor his axes.
He stepped into the sunlight, out of the quiet toward the heat and strife below.

Zinzulusa
ca. 1980 a.d.

These things alone are known:
two bronze axes,
burnished pots from the depths of Zinzulusa
and Zinzulusa itself.

(1980)

O man! Oman

Last month I traveled to the Sultanate of Oman, referred in the western world as Oman. The magic of many of these political states seems lost when we shorten the name, removing sultanate, kingdom and so forth. The Kingdom of Saudia Arabia is simply Saudia Arabia, although abbreviated here as KSA, forcing us to remember it is a kingdom. The United Arab Emirates retain their formation status in their name, although the world commonly refers to them as the UAE. Other kingdoms in the Arabian Peninsula include the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan where I traveled on route to Israel. Qatar and Oman are both emirates and Yemen is the only republic. But it is the magic invoked by sultanate and kingdom that seems to harken back to stories we read as children that we regain when visiting these countries and see and hear them as they describe themselves. ‘Welcome to the Sultanate of Oman,’ is offered as we land in Muscat, on time as promised by Captain Abdullah, who declared on take-off that we would reach Muscat at 10:05 p.m., inshallah. I myself prefer to rely on the expertise of the pilot than god’s will. But whatever, it worked.

The origin of the name Oman has been variously suggested and at times it has been referred to as Magan, an allusion to its history of shipbuilding. The early Roman historian, Yalainous (23 - 79AD) was one of the first to acknowledge a city named Omana, which is also mentioned in the writings of Ptolemy.

I prepared for my trip by reading The Southern Gates of Arabia, by Freya Stark, originally published in 1936. An account of her travels in what is now Yemen, just west of Oman and south of Saudia Arabia today, it has recently been republished with an introduction by Jane Fletcher Geniesse, author of a biography of Stark. Stark’s account of her attempts to follow the ancient frankincense route in the remote Hadhramaut Valley offers an excellent introduction to the countryside and people some 70 years ago. Her writing is extraordinary and I offer a few seductive passages:

No grimmer coast can be imagined. The mountains are sharp – naked apparently as when they hissed in black coils from the darkness of the earth, lonely and hard as death, and with a derelict and twisted beauty. Their cliff faces press one behind the other towards the sea, whose luminous moving waves seemed to repeat in gentler and more living form the chaos of their desolate chasms and ridges.

But here, between one village and the next, there is nothing except the wind when it blows: and on a still night, that waterless silence is so still that you may fancy you hear in its arid quiet the growth of the desert scrub beneath its breastwork of thorns.

People as well are depicted wonderfully through her lens:

He was showing a Victorian disapproval of females who do not keep themselves to themselves, a thing I find dull and difficult to do. He was, moreover, stupid, and when he got an idea into his head, clung to it with a tenacity of people to whom ideas are not an everyday occurrence.

Freya Stark died at 101 in 1993.

Oman was renowned for its role in ocean navigation both because of the size of its ships and by its prolific trade in copper, stone and timber to the Mesopotamian cities. Due to its strategic position lying on some of the world's most important trade routes, the ports of Sohar and Muttrah have held great prominence among spice, edible oil and textile trading merchants. By around 300AD, Oman was considered one of the world's wealthiest countries due to its abundance of frankincense, which, at one time, was more valuable than gold. Today, all gift shops sell small amounts of frankincense.

The earliest evidence of human habitation seems to be around 10,000 bce during the stone age. Remains include rock carvings around the area of Muscat. Fast forward to the 3rd millennium bce and we find some of the earliest traces of towers, carbon-14 dated to ca. 2750 bce. It is the continued presence of towers around the countryside, both watch towers and towers to protect groups of people, that is so visible today.

In an article published in the May-June 1983 issue of Aramco World, John Lawton writes

Oman is a land of 1,000 forts - at least. They tower above the treetops of inland oases. They cling to the cliffs above ancient ports. And over virtually every village, fortified watchtowers perch atop handy crags high enough to command a view of approaching enemies.

Many of the forts date back several centuries - magnificent reminders of Oman's turbulent past - and though most are crumbling, some have been, or are being, restored and one was defended in battle as recently as 1972. …

This masterpiece of fortification [Nizwa fort] was built by Iman Sultan ibn Saif, who ejected the Portugese from Muscat, in 1650, without - so the story goes - firing a shot. It seems an Indian merchant named Narutem had a daughter whom the Portugese commander of the Muscat garrision wanted to marry and the only way Narutem could prevent this was to have the Portugese driven out. Narutem persuaded the commandant to replace the water, food and gunpowder in Muscat with fresh supplies. But when the cisterns and stores were emptied, Narutem sent a message to the imam to attack before they were restocked.

In Muscat, there are two special forts - twin, fairy-tale forts built by the Portugese in the 1580s to protect their Far Eastern trade routes - which featured in several other colorful episodes in Oman's history. In 1782, for instance, the two forts bombarded each other across the harbor - Ahmad ibn Sa'id in one, his two rebellious sons, Saif and Sultan, in the other.

Despite this, and other fierce battles fought in Oman's history, the two forts remain in near-perfect condition, providing visitors with one of their most vivid memories of Oman though as sentinels these forts, like the others scattered across the crags and cliffs of the coast and hinterland, are now entirely symbolic. Oman's main form of defense falls to the jet fighters, missile boats and other sophisticated weaponry of the country's modern armed forces.

My visit in Oman took me to many forts, including Mizwa (Nizwa), capital city to Oman in the 6th and 7th centuries, where a booming market does a great business. The town has an immense palm oasis which stretches 8 kilometers along two wadis.

The town in fact is an oasis, enclosed by a series of mountains, one of which is the famous green mountain, al Jabal al Akhdar. Inside anumber of forts have been restored affording visitors a sense of living in these building. A couple illustrations give a sense.




On another day we drove north of Muscat along the shore to Barka where I visited its fort and fish market just off the beach.



We then proceeded to the ancient fort of Nakhl set among acres of palm groves and protected by the surrounding mountains, perfectly situated for defense.

Our visit to the 18th century Al-Hazm fort with its gigantic carved doors found it closed, under restoration. But the security guard allowed a walk through the courtyard, an inspection of the carved doors, and servings of coffee, dates and local sweets.



From here we proceeded to one of a number of hots springs - here we see tourists walking in the warm/hot water and taking pictures of all of us.


On the final full day tour we drove to Mudairib, another village dominated by its fort, and the childhood home of our guide. From there we proceeded to the evergreen wadi, Wadi Beni Khalid, whose presence encircled by mountains immediately made clear the expression I had heard about villages, ‘it is within the mountain.’ To get there we took winding roads with vertical drop-offs up and then down a high mountain, gazed at villages nestled well below us, all supplied with electrical lines and water. The wadi itself did not disappoint.










We left a crowd there picnicking and swimming and drove to Wahiba Sands, considered one of the most fascinating and mysterious regions of Oman, with its quick changing colors at different times of the day.



I spent the final morning visiting museums and wandering around the port, reacquainting myself with my almost visceral love of ports and their evocation of journeys beginning and ending.

March Sand Storms

This morning was slightly hazy but shortly after lunch the wind picked up and the sands blew in. I thought it would be interesting to compare photos from this afternoon, ca. 3-4 pm, with similar shots on much clearer days. The view across the bay from before was earlier morning in December with a slight fog. Today's pictures could be assumed to be simply bad photography but in fact they are due entirely to the weather - same camera, same photographer.... you can imagine the dust on the balcony and slipping through the balcony doors to the apartment.

Current events and the price of oil

After posting this blog, I see an interesting related item inthe New York Times. It reinforces the sense that the U.S. just does't get it and I have added it below.

As always it is interesting to see Middle East current events from the perspective of being here. I was struck recently, for example, of the U.S. concerns regarding Ahmadinejad’s visit to Iraq. While it is very natural from this part of the world, and in fact, Ahmadinejad visited here in Qatar, the U.S. finds it, to say the least, not in good taste. Yet from the Gulf perspective where all these countries are allied in one fashion or another it is natural. This alliance despite the fact that the Gulf Cooperative Community (GCC) was formed specifically because of concerns about Iran in the early 1980s.
Recently the New York Times editorial spoke of necessary negotiations in this part of the world, specifically citing three countries, one of which I live in currently. It is at least a measure of Qatar’s growth that it is mentioned in peacekeeping efforts alongside Egypt and Saudi Arabia. I quote briefly

If there is any hope of salvaging the effort, the United States, Europe and Arab states must move quickly to arrange a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and give serious thought to a new strategy for dealing with Gaza.
Arab nations — especially Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar — must help the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, pressure Hamas into halting rocket attacks against Israel.

From this week-end’s local papers we see some other interesting current events, for example, the Gulf States approach to oil:



Gulf States are becoming more pragmatic in their oil policy, increasingly basing it on market fundamentals rather than seeking to appease their Western allies, analysts said yesterday.
Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Qatar on Wednesday joined other OPEC members in deciding to maintain their crude output, drawing strong criticism from the White House.
"He (President George W Bush) would have liked OPEC to have made a different decision. He is disappointed that they decided not to increase production," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. Bush "does not think it's a good idea for their biggest customers, such as the United States, to have an economic slowdown, in part because of high gas prices," she said. …
Kuwaiti oil analyst Kamel Al Harami said he believed that Gulf States were no longer capable of convincing their OPEC partners of something that is not supported by market data.
"The US is not willing to read market figures correctly. US fuel stocks, for example, have reached their highest level in 14 years and US inventories have risen for six consecutive weeks," Harami said. …
"The Gulf OPEC members' approval of the cartel's decision was not a snub to Bush's call. It was a decision totally supported by fundamentals and facts," Harami said.

This was followed in the New York Times report of Reuters on March 10 that

Cheney also will meet with Saudi King Abdullah at a time when oil prices are hitting record highs of above $108 a barrel.
He was expected to reinforce the message from Bush, who had urged OPEC to increase production during his visit to Saudi Arabia in January. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries decided not to boost output.
"Obviously we want to see an increase in production," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. "Our message remains the same."

It does make you wonder who is reading what ...



Another sense of Qatar’s globally developing life is the recent announcement, even in my backyard, of the planned presence of a shopping street in Education City, a site in which 8 American colleges have branch campuses. And lest you think that this is an easy step forward, read briefly about Sheikh Majad’s struggle.


Villa Moda, the well-known Kuwaiti luxury fashion brand is planning to set up the first “indoor shopping street” in the Education City in collaboration with Qatar Foundation. This was disclosed by Sheikh Majed Al Sabah, a member of the Kuwaiti royal family and creator of Villa Moda, at Tasmeem Doha 2008.
Once established, the “shopping street” would be the first such facility in the Education City. The facility to be named “UR Street” will introduce a new concept of indoor street shopping in Qatar, claimed Sheikh Majed.
The shopping street will be set up at a 270 meter area, which will also have two multi-storeyed buildings, with shops on both sides selling various luxury lifestyle products. The facility has been designed by Philippe Starck, an internationally-renowned French designer. Sheikh Majed, however, didn’t give any time frame for opening of the facility.
He said Villa Moda is also preparing to launch its second outlet in Doha at the Villagio Mall, which is expected to be opened in three or four months. The first Villa Moda store was set up at the Ritz-Carlton Doha.
Sheikh Majed, nephew of the late Emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, launched the first Villa Moda store in Kuwait in 2002. The company, dealing in a wide range of high-end fashion products, has now grown in to an international brand with outlets in Dubai, Doha, Damascus and Bahrain, and a London store in the pipeline.
It was a long and hard struggle for Sheikh Majed to create a niche as a luxury fashion retailer, a field which was not considered ideal for a member of the royal family. “Ours is the only Middle Eastern luxury lifestyle brand with an international reach,’ said Sheikh Majed. An innovative mix of regional and global concepts and standards made the venture a huge success, he added.

Piglet and Pork in the Mid-east

Muslims and Jews exclude pork from their diets and there is none to be found in this country (although anecdotes about dried pork smuggled in abound), so it was fascinating to see some recent news. This was reported in Qatar Living which provides blogs for a variety of people. The following quote comes from one person’s space, the family Muslim, and relates the story of the Disney book found in books stores with the character piglet blacked out. I only give a few pieces but you can follow the URL for more discussion and more photos. (NB: There is an excellent English language bookstore in the Virgin Megastore located at Villaggio, the mall with the Venetian canal and gondola, despite the opening comments.) As a follow-up on this story, I note that some time ago here in Qatar I purchased Reynolds cooking bags and when I took the box out of the bag at home saw that on the back the suggested recipe was for pork tenderloins, and it wasn’t blacked out.

Disney's Piglet banned in Middle East! From http://www.qatarliving.com/blog/camper/disneys-piglet-banned-in-middle-east

By camper on Sun, 28/01/2007 - 9:29pm
In Qatar there is only one decent bookshop (that happens to be a Saudi chain) that has a few shelves of English books. Shopping there is hit or miss - you don't go there to look for a title. You go there in the hope of stumbling upon something interesting. The kids’ selection is not bad though. The other night we saw Disney's "My Very First Encyclopedia with Winnie the Pooh and friends". We grabbed it and thought it was exactly what we needed for our daughter - not only does she love Winnie the Pooh but she's also started taking a keen interest in nature.

Piglet Censored in Middle East : Hello Kids!
We flipped it open and noticed that some of the pages had been vandalized with a black marker. We figured it must have been bought and returned after some kids had got there hands on it. Further inspection made us realize that this was actually systematic. Someone had deliberately "censored" out each and every picture of Piglet from hundreds of pages in the book with a black marker (my guess is that the book got caught by Saudi Censors enroute to Doha). …

This whole incident reminded me of a discussion with a friend from South Africa a few years ago. He was explaining kindness and mercy in Islam. He said that a even a pig, a creature which is seen as "despised" by Muslims, is a creature of God and should thus be treated with kindness and mercy. So while we should not eat it, that doesn't meant that Muslims are interested in torturing or trying to exterminate them... even if only with a brand new 3-inch black marker. If a pig was injured, it would be a Muslims duty to assist it.

Camel Racing

I went back to the camel races Friday to actually watch the races - we toured the stables and grounds the last time - and what a bizarre phenomenon! I went with friends (american, she originally from Greece, he from Egypt) and their two kids. As Saleh said - it isn't an arabian but Gulf tradition: camels with robots race along a basically straight 1200 m track. SUVs and pick-up trucks race beside them, separated by thin red horizontal poles on each side. After the race, the vehicles then turn and go back for the next race, while a fresh load of camels is brought in. The Arab in the car parked beside us used a stop watch, to what end? In any event, the vehicles race at the same pace of the camels, perhaps their way of determining how fast. More likely this is another opportunity to exercise the cars. The images posted here show camels racing, cars and drivers, cars with antennae, and one fellow in the flat bed of his truck controlling his remote. There are images as well of gaggles of camels and the robot on the ground, approximately 18" x 12". At one point the robot on the ground started flailing its whip and making noise and the nearby camels went into a panic. My camera and skills could not get the flavor of the event; nonetheless I offer what there is.










A friend suggested that the pictures weren’t required, writing, after my initial description to him:
Love your description of the camel races. The word picture is just fine, vehicles "racing" alongside camels, little robots whipping away. Mercy! Couple of q's occur: is there gambling on the outcomes? Or is it just a "my camel beat your camel" kind of thing? And who controls the robots? And from where? Would it be people in the racing vehicles? What does it all smell like? C'mon, Babe, you've brought me there, now gimme ALL of it. Just kidding but also very curious about this strangeness. I can imagine something like our football would be all the more strange to these folks. Let alone baseball--imagine trying to explain baseball to someone who had never seen it! ("They wear what? And bats? And it lasts three hours? You gotta be kidding me!!")

To which I reply, there is no smell in the arid desert. Gambling, if there is any, quite underground. And baseball is an excellent comparator highlighting the lack of adrenalin rush there that these races provoke and helping define some essential differences in our past-times.

Current weather and news

Although the seasonal changes are not nearly as pronounced here as in the northeast U.S., the more subtle changes are still worth remarking on. I now wear the usual array of trouser suits (as the Brits call them) but with long sleeved shirts underneath (hot weather calls for short or sleeveless, although the jacket remains on in public all the time). Sometimes it is cool enough in the morning (6:30 am) to throw a pashima silk/wool scarf around my neck. Usually when I leave work ca 4:00 pm, it is not needed. Last week we had extremely violent winds which tossed my balcony furniture around, thoroughly loosening one bolt and completely removing the tied down chair cushion. This cushion sailed into freedom somewhere and I will need to sit on the chair without it. During the next few days following the winds, the air was filled with sand – my eyes stung for days and the light was dimmed. The top photo is from my balcony after the air has cleared up - a welcome sight. Local news reports, however, that “Oman has come under a freak spell of cold weather and snow fall in mountain areas of Al Hamra and Jabal Al Akhdar provinces. Oman Arabic daily said the cold weather spell and snowfall caused farmers to halt irrigation and prompted workers to stay indoors and keep away from work."

For some time we have seen the return of greener palm trees and the many colored flowers now lining the median strip on the highways , of which I attach one from the Corniche.

From the local news this week we read of the blooming of the desert:

Qatar deserts have bloomed! A month after winter arrived, the parched landscape of the country's interiors is sprinkled with indigenous flowers in various hue and colours. The natural flowers can be spotted aplenty in places like Umm Salal Muhammed, Umm Salal Ali and Shahaniya. A mosaic of violet, yellow and white flowers can be spotted in these areas. Winter has brought its magic all around these villages. (Photo from the newspaper).
The environment which was marked by dust storms and high temperature till a few weeks ago has been transformed into greenery with soothing salubrious winds.
The visuals here are a proof that the deserts aren't really barren and it again challenges the misconception that there is little or no flora in Qatar. In fact, it was Friends of the Environment Centre (FEC) who took up this challenge when they launched the ‘A Flower Each Spring’ project under the leadership of H H Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned almost a decade ago. Sheikha Mozah is expected to announce the name of the ‘Flower of the Year’ in the coming days.

In the same Penisula paper we also read that

Acacia tortilis popularly known as Al Samr, has also sprouted largely in the area. It produces fragrant clusters of white or pale-yellow flowers typically one centimetre in diametre, and there are often as many as 400 flowers on a single branch. The flowers eventually develop into a yellowy brown fruit. (The following image is from Banana-tree.com who report that the tree has very fragrant white flowers, spiny branches, and seed pods that are tightly spiraled; the mature height is 35'.)
One of the interesting features of the acacia tortilis is its ability to grow in areas with an annual rainfall as low as 40mm, and it can withstand temperatures ranging from 45 degrees Celsius at midday to below 10 degrees Celsius at night. The acacia tortilis has a wide variety of uses, not least as forage or shade for farm animals. Its flower pods are often fed to lactating animals to increase milk production; the flowers are an important source of honey, and the leaves, bark and seeds can be used to make medicine. The plant is threatened by its popularity and cutting down acacia vegetation poses an increased risk of desertification.

Other good news is the opening of the Museum of Islamic Art on February 22. This museum, on the Corniche and overlooking the West Bay, was designed by IM Pei and is said to be a perfect blend of traditional and modern architecture and a fusion of the West and the East. The collection itself is drawn from the middle east as well as from countries ranging from Spain to India and includes ancient robes from Iran, diamonds and rubies from India, an incense burner from Syria, a 14th century Holy Quran from North Africa, bowls from Iraq, a fountain head from Spain and ancient candle sticks. Exhibitions for the next five years have been planned and will include material from museums such as the Louvre Museum, France; British Museum, London; Museum of Islamic Arts, Egypt; Metropolitan Museum, New York; Royal Collection of Morocco and Cartier Collection, France. Acting President of Qatar Musuems' Authority(QMA), Abdullah Al Najjar, said the museum would be a world-class place of learning and would serve as a platform for international dialogue. “The museum will play host to a number of exhibitions, where visitors will journey through time and across cultures and regions, based on the themes of historical periods and dynasty groups selected by the designer of the galleries, Jean-Michel Willmotte.”

Buried among all the good news, we read also of problems in neighboring Kuwait where the drive for co-education has serious opposition.

A Kuwaiti liberal MP said yesterday that his life was threatened after he proposed amendments to two laws that enforce the segregation of the sexes at universities. Kuwait's parliament, controlled by Islamists and conservatives, passed a law in 1996 and then exended the ban in 2000 in to co-education to private universities. Rashed and two other liberal MPs on Tuesday filed a bill calling for the two laws to be amended in order to allow co-education, saying that the segregation laws had a strong negative impact on students. The three lawmakers also argued that Shariah law does not ban the mixing of the sexes because men and women can mix freely in markets, shopping malls and in workplaces. Parliament speaker Jassem Al Khorafi condemned the threat against Rashed and urged the interior ministry to try to apprehend the culprit.

Camels

Part of my excursion last week was to the camel race track at Al Shahaniyah. This image of a camel handler controlling four camels and a cellphone vividly demonstrates the antiquity and the modernity. From the government web site on camel races,

Camel race is an exciting sport, for which Qataris have exceptionally high regard and appreciation. It stands for originality, most esteemed heritage, honorable, competitiveness, excitement and speed. In light of that and in recognition of the importance of the practice, H.H the Emir and H.H the Heir Apparent issued the directives to hold camel races on annual basis. By encouraging this sport, they also sought to highlight the popular heritage, conserve the authentic Arabic traditions and remind the youths of the era of glory and the sport of forefathers. …The Camel Race Committee is responsible for supervising the camel races. There are two breeds of camels in Qatar; one is the Qatari and the Omani and the other is the Sudanese. Sudanese camels have come directly from the Sudan across Saudi Arabia. They are characterized by their speed and agility while the Arabian breeds are characterized by their strength and endurance. Fast camels are useless without a skilful trainer. …The first ever camel racetrack to have been built in Qatar is the one at Al Abgah, which was established according to the directives of H.H the Emir. Races continued to be held at this 16-km long track until late 1989, when the number of entries to the race increased beyond its capacity and when H.H the Emir ordered the establishment of the present camel racetrack at Al Shahaniyah. Races on Al Shahaniyah track started in 1990 with all 6, 8 and 10-km race categories. The auditorium has a main terrace, a veterinary clinic, modern stalls for camels, a big mosque and large water tanks.

What follows are portraits, of camels and of camel handlers. The camels are very interesting as our retiring Dean of Medical Education explained. Their hare lip (seen in the portraits) is critical for eating and in fact the two sides are used as our fingers are. The narrow eyes, also seen, are critical for closing during sand storms. Seen readily on the image is the fifth foot, on the sternum. For years, this hard patch was believed to have been caused by the action of camels resting on their chest. In fact, as our expert revealed, when he dissected a camel embryo, he saw the same structure and realized that it didn’t develop during life but was there from the beginning.

First the camels, together and alone:

Then the camel handlers:

Spreading Culture Globally

In the last few weeks billboard ads have sprung up on the streets of Doha in both Arabic and English (separate ads per lanauage keeping the ad very simple for ease in reading as the cars speed by) announcing the availability Feb. 1 of Krispy Kreme donuts . The ads feature adults in traditional garb and children. Needless to say, none is overweight. From the ArabianBusiness of March 2007 we read that

American doughnut giant Krispy Kreme is set to open its first UAE outlet in Dubai tomorrow (March 16), adding to concerns over the region's mounting obesity crisis. ... Currently the UAE holds the highest obesity rates in the world - higher than the United States - because of easy access to high calorie foods and a sedentary lifestyle. One in five adults in the region also suffers from one of the many obesity-related illnesses, diabetes. ... The Krispy Kreme franchise move comes as the UAE works on strategies to combat mounting levels of obesity in the region. In the United Arab Emirates, 74% of women are obese or overweight according to a 2005 report by the International Obesity Task Force, a London-based think tank. In Lebanon the figure is 75% and in Bahrain, 83%.

From another blog we read

I was in Villagio with my friend last week and she couldn't stop talking about Krispy Kreme when she found out that it's going to open soon. I guess it must be that good. But the thing is how much would one piece of the famous Krispy Kreme cost. Dunkin Donuts is expensive enough and how much more the Krispy Kreme that everyone seems to be raving about. Well in any case Tian and I love to give it a go and find out for ourselves.I even heard that they have a promo on the opening day, the first 25 customers will get a free box of doughnuts every week for one whole year! I just don't know if we're that crazy enough to really be waiting there at the food court of Villagio Mall hours before the opening to be able to win the promo. But who knows, hahaha...

The ads for Krispy Kreme are almost as plentiful as the flags championing the 2016 Olympic Games whose fate will be decided in fall 2009. By then how many Qataris will have raised their weight and sugar levels to dangerous levels.

On another note, I get a wonderful TV package here which brings me Meet the Press live on Sundays (5:00 p.m. my time, 9:00 am eastern time) and then George Stephanopoulos one hour delayed. Wonderful TV for this primary season. Aftr these shows, I clicked around the dial last Sunday and got an old Law and Order: bizarre. Fred Thompson as the lawyer standing beside Bloomberg (or an excellent lookalike although I think he gave a cameo performance) discussing a case of an Iraqi woman married to an American, she accused of the murder of a former Abu Ghraib attendant in New Jersey. All with Arabic subtitles. I felt as if I were in the twilight zone. U.S. politics mingles with some form of fiction, but is it really any different than the political events? Last night I watched another Law and Order which featured post-traumatic stress syndrome from 9/11 as a defense against murder - subtitles again in Arabic ...

Winter Rains and other Gulf State Visitors

Winter rains have been with us for the last few days – quite heavy today, flooding roadways, collapsing road edges not designed for rain, filling deep holes but appearing as shallow puddles. The inside lane of the round-about tends to be treacherously deep. Pumps are positioned by the sides of some roads to lower the depth of the collected water and traffic jams up the highways. Despite this some large SUVs insist on travelling as if there were no treacherous conditions. The rear view from my balcony shows the threatening skies around 5:00 pm and the lights of the traffic, heavily backed up as the cars attempted to bypass choked up roads in front of the City Center and only succeeded in attempting to join the queue half way up the road.

Visitors to the Gulf States this week included President Bush who stopped in Bahrain and then hopped over to the UAE skipping Qatar. As an editorial in the Online Peninsula indicates “US President George W Bush is likely to return home empty-handed at the end of his marathon tour of the Middle East. Despite his repeated calls for peace between Israelis and Palestinians by year end, the prospects to end the decades-old conflict seem bleak. He used his visit to the region to hold high-level talks with the leaders of Israel, Palestine Authority and some heads of states in the Gulf. … It was also surprising to note that Bush did not elaborate much on troop cuts in Iraq this year or about the ongoing insurgency in Baghdad or the tensions at the Iraq-Turkey border over the Kurdish issues. … He indeed was up to something else, something really serious that concerns America. The real cat was out of the bag during the Kuwait leg of Bush’s tour when the US president embarked on a vigorous campaign to rally the oil-rich Gulf states around America against Iran.”

The U.S. President’s absence in Qatar was made up by President Sarkozy, however, as the local paper, the Online Peninsula, reported today, who “tomorrow starts a three-nation tour of Gulf states eager to take up his offer to share France's expertise in civilian nuclear technology with the Islamic world. On his first trip to the region since taking office in May, he will visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, three states interested in developing a civilian nuclear programme despite their oil and gas wealth.”

It is ironic that as Bush attempts to rally Gulf States against Iran and its nuclear building program, France is in town offering expertise in building civilian nuclear programs. "The sharing of civilian nuclear (technology) will be one of the foundations of a pact of confidence which the West must forge with the Islamic world," Sarkozy said after signing the agreement with Algeria last month. Amid concerns over Iran's nuclear ambitions and growing regional clout, the six Arab monarchies of the Gulf decided in December 2006 to develop a joint nuclear technology programme for peaceful uses. The UAE's energy undersecretary, Ali bin Abdullah Al Owais, has said the Gulf states aim to have a joint nuclear reactor by 2025. But in parallel with the joint plan, "each country can do whatever they wish" and pursue its own nuclear activities as a means to ensure the future of its industries, another Emirati official said, requesting anonymity. "I don't think there is any contradiction. ... Although the UAE will be the only country on Sarkozy's tour to sign a nuclear-related deal, nuclear energy cooperation is also likely to come up during his talks in Riyadh and Doha, where the idea is at an earlier stage."

London Sojourn

This December when Eid and our Christmas holiday came close in time,  I took a week to visit my good and long-term friends in London.  While we visited the central city on a couple occasions, most of our time was spent in the countryside, visiting a number of historic sites. Such a contrast - the green hills and valleys of Great Britain compared to the flat brown desert of Qatar - and yet such similarities due to the British influence in the region - my Doha hair dryer worked in England, roundabouts, of course, and signs that indicate Deep Excavation.  But how nice to sit in a pub and have a pork sausage and a beer...  And of course the temperature differences - high 60s/low 70s farenheit in Qatar, twenties, thirties and forties England... one morning with a beautiful blanket of frost on the fields.

 

I have attached separate blogs for the individual day trips we took.  Enjoy the brief descriptions and photographs.  Although not Qatar, they exist because I have been in Qatar and find the change refreshing. While in London, I reflected on the fact that much of the discomfort I feel in Doha is caused by the fact tha I cannot truly explore this city on foot. Hours, days I have spent roaming Boston when a teen-ager, Rome, Venice, London,and, of course, New York City. Doha is not a city for walkers and I feel hampered in my ability to get to know the city.

London Sojourn: Standen

Standen was built between 1892 and 1894 for the London solicitor James Beale, by an architect who was a close friend of William Morris, Phillip Webb.  The guidebook tells us that in early 1856, "Phillp Webb met the 22-year old William Morris for the first time: 'we understood one another at once,' Morris said later.  From that understanding grew William Morris & Co., which was to transform the standard of interios design in Britain and to play a central role n the Arts and Crafts movement."

 

As the guidebook, published by the National Trust, indicates, the house enjoys the best views to the south but does not dominate the prospect.  Web paid equal attention to the needs of the family and their staff, creating light filled roms with plain panelling that was combined with Morris wall papers and fabrics.  The house remained used by the family through to 1972 when the last surviving Beal died and Arthur and Helen Grogan took a long term lease, unertook extensive restoration and then transferred the house and grounds to the National Trust.   

 

I've attached some photos taken the day of my visit when a heavy frost coaed the fields and hedges; Rosemary and I had a Christmas dinner in the barn.