spagaat
Qatar zit in een spagaat. Dat is geen makkelijke positie. Maar ook lastig om, in een thawb al shadd (lange witte jurk met lange mouwen en een boordje)weer uit te geraken.
Zo moet er aan de ene kant goedkoop gebouwd worden maar dat kan alleen met goedkope krachten. Dus zijn er veel bouwprojecten en nog meer barakkenkampen.
Door de hoge olieprijs, de koppeling van de Qatar Riyal aan de dollar, en stijgende kosten van levensonderhoud is er een sterke inflatie aan de ene kant. Door het ontbreken van belasting, de vergoeding die x-keer hoger is dan in het thuisland en de relatief goedkope kosten in het dagelijks leven aan de andere kant kunnen de expats geld sparen en naar huis sturen.
Maar de Qatari zijn traditioneel sterk gericht op het gezin/familie in de samenleving dus zijn al die alleenstaande mannen een bedreiging voor het familiegevoel.
Dus zijn er speciale familieplaatsen in restaurants, zijn er familieparken en speciale openingstijden voor families. En die alleenstaande mannen?
Ja die mogen daar dus niet komen. Sinds kort niet meer op vrijdag op de Corniche en in de laatste weken ook niet meer bij de marktplaatsen. Plekken waar het vaak letterlijk en figuurlijk zwart ziet van de mannen.
Dus je haalt mannen binnen, je wilt dat ze hard werken maar ze mogen niet op hun rustdag zichtbaar met landgenoten/vrienden afspreken en vertier hebben. Een spagaat die wel een lang zou kunnen duren: kramp!
uit de krant Gulf times van vandaag:
WORRIED shopkeepers have reported an 80% drop in business since police began restricting the movement of bachelors in Doha’s Al Fardan Exchange area on Fridays.
As Gulf Times reported last Friday, single men are being barred from entering the souq area on their day off.
And yesterday, the situation was no different with hundreds of bachelors being denied access to the popular meeting place.
One shopkeeper, who sells electrical goods and mobile phones, said the ban had been a disaster for local stores.
He said: “We are losing about 80% of our business on a Friday. This has hit us very hard and is really terrible for us.”
Contrary to previous claims that the ban had been in force for a year or more, local businesses said the bachelors had only been prohibited from the area in the past few weeks.
However, stores are already feeling the pinch – and fear that should the ban continue it will have a crippling effect on their profits.
A tailor said the once busy weekend was now “very difficult for business”. And he pointed out that although ‘family day’ is being cited for the restrictions “there are no families here on a Friday afternoon; they come during the week”.
Another general store manager described how the ban had seriously affected his business.
“We used to take in around QR18,000 on a Friday on average,” he said, “but since the new regulations we have been taking around only QR6,000.”
Last Friday, Gulf Times revealed that hundreds of bachelors were being turned away from the souq area by a 20-strong police presence, causing frayed tempers and confusion.
Some officers shouted at the male-only crowds to stop them accessing the area – and in some cases pushed them back.
For many single men, Fridays are a day to meet up with friends and compatriots to share information and problems. With limited facilities within the city – and because of their financial limitations – many men gather in the heart of the city, including the souq next to the Al Najada Shopping Centre, across the road from Al Fardan Exchange.
And Qataris interviewed the next day by Gulf Times dismissed the idea of no-go zones for bachelors on Fridays as “discriminatory”.
However, yesterday the ban was once again enforced, with one of the outlets most badly hit being a money exchange shop.
Although the Al Fardan Exchange Company was open and heaving with customers, another less prominent exchange was distinctly less busy.
A senior representative explained that if the ban continued it would be “very bad news for us”.
“Bachelors are our main clients as they are here working to send their money back home to their families. Without them our business is going to experience a lot of problems,” he said.
Zo moet er aan de ene kant goedkoop gebouwd worden maar dat kan alleen met goedkope krachten. Dus zijn er veel bouwprojecten en nog meer barakkenkampen.
Door de hoge olieprijs, de koppeling van de Qatar Riyal aan de dollar, en stijgende kosten van levensonderhoud is er een sterke inflatie aan de ene kant. Door het ontbreken van belasting, de vergoeding die x-keer hoger is dan in het thuisland en de relatief goedkope kosten in het dagelijks leven aan de andere kant kunnen de expats geld sparen en naar huis sturen.
Maar de Qatari zijn traditioneel sterk gericht op het gezin/familie in de samenleving dus zijn al die alleenstaande mannen een bedreiging voor het familiegevoel.
Dus zijn er speciale familieplaatsen in restaurants, zijn er familieparken en speciale openingstijden voor families. En die alleenstaande mannen?
Ja die mogen daar dus niet komen. Sinds kort niet meer op vrijdag op de Corniche en in de laatste weken ook niet meer bij de marktplaatsen. Plekken waar het vaak letterlijk en figuurlijk zwart ziet van de mannen.
Dus je haalt mannen binnen, je wilt dat ze hard werken maar ze mogen niet op hun rustdag zichtbaar met landgenoten/vrienden afspreken en vertier hebben. Een spagaat die wel een lang zou kunnen duren: kramp!
uit de krant Gulf times van vandaag:
WORRIED shopkeepers have reported an 80% drop in business since police began restricting the movement of bachelors in Doha’s Al Fardan Exchange area on Fridays.
As Gulf Times reported last Friday, single men are being barred from entering the souq area on their day off.
And yesterday, the situation was no different with hundreds of bachelors being denied access to the popular meeting place.
One shopkeeper, who sells electrical goods and mobile phones, said the ban had been a disaster for local stores.
He said: “We are losing about 80% of our business on a Friday. This has hit us very hard and is really terrible for us.”
Contrary to previous claims that the ban had been in force for a year or more, local businesses said the bachelors had only been prohibited from the area in the past few weeks.
However, stores are already feeling the pinch – and fear that should the ban continue it will have a crippling effect on their profits.
A tailor said the once busy weekend was now “very difficult for business”. And he pointed out that although ‘family day’ is being cited for the restrictions “there are no families here on a Friday afternoon; they come during the week”.
Another general store manager described how the ban had seriously affected his business.
“We used to take in around QR18,000 on a Friday on average,” he said, “but since the new regulations we have been taking around only QR6,000.”
Last Friday, Gulf Times revealed that hundreds of bachelors were being turned away from the souq area by a 20-strong police presence, causing frayed tempers and confusion.
Some officers shouted at the male-only crowds to stop them accessing the area – and in some cases pushed them back.
For many single men, Fridays are a day to meet up with friends and compatriots to share information and problems. With limited facilities within the city – and because of their financial limitations – many men gather in the heart of the city, including the souq next to the Al Najada Shopping Centre, across the road from Al Fardan Exchange.
And Qataris interviewed the next day by Gulf Times dismissed the idea of no-go zones for bachelors on Fridays as “discriminatory”.
However, yesterday the ban was once again enforced, with one of the outlets most badly hit being a money exchange shop.
Although the Al Fardan Exchange Company was open and heaving with customers, another less prominent exchange was distinctly less busy.
A senior representative explained that if the ban continued it would be “very bad news for us”.
“Bachelors are our main clients as they are here working to send their money back home to their families. Without them our business is going to experience a lot of problems,” he said.
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