Qatar
Get flash to fully experience Pearltrees
The first concern of the Emir of Qatar is the prosperity and security of the tiny kingdom. To achieve that, he knows no limits. Stuck between Iran and Saudi Arabia is Qatar with the third largest natural gas deposit in the world. The gas gives the nearly quarter of a million Qatari citizens the highest per capita income on the planet and provides 70 percent of government revenue. How does an extremely wealthy midget with two potentially dangerous neighbors keep them from making an unwelcomed visit? Naturally, you have someone bigger and tougher to protect you.
Qatar: Rich and Dangerous
Morocco, the Gulf and the media
An interesting item at Angry Arab — Aljazeera and Morocco : "Yassine sent met this: "So al-Jazeera decided not to air the documentary on Morocco and the 20th of February Movement (nuqta sakhina), which they had been promoting for more than a week. Why not? Again? (In November the same thing happened (back then the al-Jazeera crew was forbidden to go to Tanger and the al-Hoceima area: two centers of the Moroccan uprising). The Moroccan king recently 'gave' the Qatari emir some 4 5.000 hectares (=450 km²) in the Guelmim area so that the Qatari emir could go hunt there.
Qatar - curators..
Qatar’s Impromptu Alcohol Ban
The Pearl Jenifer Fenton reports from Qatar. There is no flambé at Les Deux Magots, a high-end French restaurant on The Pearl , a mixed development man-made island in Qatar, which hopes to “redefine an entire nation” according to its sales pitch. The sale of alcohol (and use even for cooking) has been banned on The Pearl (where I live) since mid-December, but a month later businesses have still not received formal notification of the reason for the prohibition or when and if it would end, according to interviews with more than a dozen people affected at various establishments.Al-Jazeera : du « printemps arabe » à l’hiver de l’information
Depuis la chute du président tunisien Ben Ali, suivie rapidement de celle de son homologue égyptien Hosni Moubarak, on ne compte plus les commentaires, les articles, les colloques et même déjà les publications qui tombent comme feuilles en automne et qui décernent aux soulèvements arabes du printemps des éloges aussi chaleureux que la surprise a été grande. En dépit de la formule assez dépréciative, voire méprisante, sous laquelle on nous la présentait, la « rue arabe » a montré qu’elle était bien une opinion qui, au contraire de ce que martelaient nombre de commentateurs, n’était pas vouée à plébisciter des valeurs opposées aux « nôtres » ; elle pouvait au contraire les épouser et combattre pour ses aspirations démocratiques, parfois au prix de lourds sacrifices.
Amnesty International says a blogger and human rights activist has been detained incommunicado in Qatar and is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment. The UK-based human rights group said Sultan al-Khalaifi was arrested on March 2 by around eight individuals in plain clothes, believed to be members of the security forces. According to information received by Amnesty International, al-Khalaifi had told his wife earlier that day that state security had contacted him, asking him to report to them, but that he did not know why.
Amnesty: Qatari blogger detained - Middle East
Hugh Eakin Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art Inji Efflatoun: Title unknown, 1951
