court dining

it’s been almost a year since i’ve been to doha, and i have had more caviar in the past 3 days than i’ve had in the past 3 years. i had it for three lunches, one dinner, and on two qatar airways flights. this gastronomic decadence was but one example of the vast oil and natural gas wealth that is rapidly transforming this tiny land jutting into the persian gulf like a big thumbs up.

out of a total population of about a million people, only 20% are actual qataris. like other gulf countries, a majority of the workforce are expats from the middle east, north africa, and asia. the stewardesses on my qatar airways flights, for instance, were almost all indonesian.

regardless, the entire peninsula seems to be in the grip of olympicsmania. not the games this summer in beijing, but the 2016 games that qatar had bid on. it’s easy to be cynical about the way sports has now been integrated into public life: giant 2016 bid posters hang from billboards and skyscrapers, gala dinner held on the basketball courts of the humongous aspire stadium, and drivers eagerly chatting me up about archery and judo, sports popular there. who knew?

but the excitement, however loud and extravagant, seemed too genuine and sincere to be dismissed as mere propaganda. there’s a palpable sense of pride that went beyond nationalism. it’s as if by making this bid to host an competitive event steep in symbolisms of peace and friendship, qatar is announcing the emergence of a new arab culture, one that aims to redefine a historical dynamic stretching from the wars of darius and xerxes to dubya's fuck-ups.

Posted by cellpharmer at May 28, 2008 07:46 AM