My first impression of Doha as a city is that it is a very forward thinking city when it comes to business and economics. They seem to have the art of maximizing the efficiency of their population by ensuring that every person is employed or they are deported, while keeping quality of life high enough for these people that they never want to leave. Many of the people make little money and have harsher conditions than our western standards, but the conditions are exponentially better from whatever country they are coming from. It seems as though the Amir and the Qatari nationals hold the power at the end of the day, which is drastically different than how the United States are run, but so far they seem to be doing what’s relatively in the interest of their population. My perspective on the middle east has changed tremendously through this trip, just in the sense of women being a little more free than I anticipated, and how the western media portrays the conditions to be. In addition, the people here have been incredibly friendly, and I don’t know whether that’s because they fear deportation or are just very thankful, or possibly a combination of both. I’ve met a handful of Americans who have moved here and built lives over here, and have spoken incredibly highly of the conditions here, which I was surprised by. I anticipated it being mostly people from Asia who migrate here, but there are a good bit of immigrants from western countries too. We’re about half way through the trip as I write this, so I’m hoping in the later half of the trip, I can continue to see what the city has to offer from a tourist perspective, but also get a better understanding of the economics and business side of the country. I still don’t quite get how taxes work here or what they’re IRS equivalent looks like, so hopefully I can clear those things up this week, because that is something I’m very curious about.
