The return to France… one last look over Qatar

Tuesday, February 10, 2009 at 10:30 am · Filed under Living... and tagged: baby, child, expatriate, expatriation, heritage, traffic accident

Almost one year has passed since my arriving to Doha, Qatar. After a 6 months’ assessment, i would like to look again over the passed year, the country, the expatriation, all the more since our return is definitive, for professional reasons. Tomorrow, we will take our plane to Paris.

I have written before about the climatic conditions and the general environment of Qatar, i must say i was relieved and nicely surprised when autumn showed up, at the end of october. The temperatures have come down under 30°C and the wind has made the sun and the heat bearable. It was the ideal moment to enjoy the few shaded places of the city (park, corniche, hotel’s terrace at night…) and go for one-day hikes in the country.

This was the occasion to discover the few qatari heritage attractions. I work in the heritage and cultural area and appreciate personally to discover and visit the places and buildings of a country’s or city’s history, i threw myself after the few listed places on the Heritage of Qatar‘s website. They are well indicated on the website (GPS coordinates, useful to locate the exact place, on Google Earth in particular) but not on the spot where there is no signpost. Some places are well preserved and restored (the Zubarah Fort, the Barzan Towers) but all lack a cruel highlighting – except for the very crowded places (the Souq Waqif, the Doha museum of islamic arts). The money somehow is not missing but it is not used to highlight the few heritage pieces that, even if they are recent or seem a little bit cheaper than projects such as the artificial island of The Pearl or the West Bay area, constitue for ever pieces of the collective memory of the Qataris. In France, in the small towns, we learn to preserve these places and buildings even if they do not look like Versailles or Vaux-le-Vicomte.

One thing among others struck me particularly – probably more than before because i have become a mother, it is the fact that, in cars, children are not seated in child seat nor have fastened their seat belts. Somehow there are a lot of equipment for young children shops. In matter of precaution and safety, we do not miss information, with the internet, the television, the radio and the newspapers or mobile phones, but children go back and forth in cars at full speed on the city’s main roads, or sit on adults’ lap – who did fasten their seat belts. I must admit i do not understand this, knowing that there are a lot of traffic accident here.

During this year, i have had many times the occasion to watch certains things about the expatriates, women and men, from Asia (India, Philippines, Malaysia) or Esat Africa and their consideration by the Qataris or expatriates from Middle East or Western countries. I cannot describe all that is happening, only what i saw and heard. I saw, several times, an Asian man, alone, turned away from the Villaggio mall entrance, on a Friday, while a Qatari man, alone, was coming inside without a problem, people whistle to Asian employees to call them, Asian women employed by Qatari famillies, dressed in stripes pyjamas – compulsory clothes given by the family, or carrying around the big bags of shopping, or an Indian married couple not living together because the husband was the firm’s general manager’s employee while his wife was the firm’s general manager’s wife’s personal employee, Asian salesmen or women to whom people speaks with contempt and condescension. While visiting apartments, we noticed that certain flats had a room for the house keeper or the maid or sometimes a room without windows which could hardly have a bed, located behind the kitchen and before the laundry. Last November, a draft law about domestic workers was discussed to allow them, among other things, a monthly salary, a contribution to their health expenses and the right to not be imposed a work against their dignity. And i do not write about the working and living conditions of the building sites’ workers, outside with 45-50°C and 90% of humidity rate, in summer, breathing the dust…

I leave Qatar thinking that this year of expatriation made me learn a lot of things, on myself and up to which point i can adapt to another country and another way of living. I know the chance i have to be born and to live in France. I know that nothing is perfect there, i just feel better there.

The road to the Zubarah Fort

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