Lost in the Desert

A few women from the ward and I headed out into the desert today in search of some of Qatar's hieroglyphics. It turned out to be a sort of "three hour tour" into the dessert. We spent the whole morning lost, trying to find the location. By the time we found the site, it was 12:30, 110 degrees F, and at least 90% humidity. We wandered around the hills searching for the hieroglyphics until we were thoroughly dehydrated. Luckily Lena had some water in the car. After all that, this is all we found:

It was still a fun adventure and we found a cool abandoned village along the way:

In the Paper Today--Hope from Qatar

Qatar is striving to be a leader in the region. Here are two articles from the paper today--highlighting a speech that Sheikha Mozah gave in Los Angeles and one the Minister of Foreign Affairs gave in Islamabad.

‘Idealism the only antidote to cynicism’

Source ::: QNA

5/17/2007

Terrorism alien to our culture, minister tells meet

Source ::: QNA

5/17/2007

Doggy Date

For FHE tonight we went over to the Weir's house for dinner and a doggy date. They recently got a dog named Judo (a Saluki mix like Charly) so we thought it would be fun to get the dogs together and socialize them a little. (For Jon's California friends--The Weirs are a family in our ward that are the uncle, aunt and cousins of Jason Weir. It's a small world!) The dogs seemed to like each other--in fact, I think that Judo wants Charly for a girlfriend!

In the Paper Today--Driving is our biggest risk...

I have been telling people for a while that it is totally safe to live here....except for the driving. As the population increases, it seems like it is getting worse. This article appeared in the paper today:

Road Accidents Claim 92 Lives
Doha--The death toll in road accidents in the country so far this year has been high at 92, a senior official from the Department of Traffic and Patrol Police told an emergency health care conference being held by Hamad Medical Corporation.

The average works out at 20 deaths a month since not even four and a half month have lapsed this year, Lt. Jabor Adeema told the health convention.

He said that it is expected that the death toll in road mishaps would be high this year as compared to 2006. "We can say this based on the high figure now," he said.

Some 270 people had perished in road accidents last year and this accounted for 30 percent of total number of deaths in the country. This is a big percentage. At least 86 of the deceased were Qatari nationals. The figure was up from 69 in 2005.

Most of those who have died this year were young people. This suggests that despite the road safety awareness campaign launched by the traffic department, the youth continue to indulge in reckless driving, Adeema said.

The death toll had almost double last year since 2003 when it was 150 and it could be because of the increasing population.

OK--270 might not seem like a lot to you compared to 44,000+ that die in the United States each year, but consider this: If you compare the rates per 100,000 population, the US has 14.66 per 100,000 and Qatar has 23 per 100,000 (for 2006--The projected rate for 2007 is 26.66 per 100,000.) Add to this that Qatar has no proper freeway/highways, no canyons, no snow or ice, and no drunk driving. Now you start to get a picture of why I say my number 1 goal is to leave this place without ever having an accident! I am just glad that they are starting to publicly acknowledge the problem.

In the Paper Today--What a life...

There was a small article in the paper today about a license plate auction in Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi is the largest Emirate in the United Arab Emirates (Dubai, the second largest, is the one you always hear about in the news.)

Car Number Plate Sold for $6.8M
Abu Dhabi--A single-digit car registration plate was auctioned off for more than $6.8m here yesterday. The number plate "5" was bought for Dh25.2m ($6.86 Million). Wam said businessman Talal Khouri placed the highest bid in the first auction of its kind in the UAE, with the proceeds going to charitable projects for people with special needs. The price beat a previous world record set last July in Yorkshire, northern England, where the number plate "M1" was knocked down for 331,500 GBP ($657,160) at current exchange rates.

OK--so granted the money went to charity...but can you even imagine having almost 7 MILLION DOLLARS to spend on a license plate!

In the Paper Today--One perspective from this side...

My Grandmother is always asking me what the news in Qatar is saying about the United States and the Iraq war. It is hard to tell her anything original because most of the English papers here carry the same stories in US from the Associated Press. When I saw this article, I immediately thought of her. It is an interesting article if you have the time.

Scholar laments loss of spiritual values in West
Doha ::: The Peninsula
Web posted at: 5/8/2007

In the Paper Today--Proud to be a mom

Sheikha Mozah is married to the Emir and is essentially Qatar's "First Lady." She is an amazing woman and is really doing a lot to develop Qatari people--especially women and children.

Sheikha Mozah ‘proud of being a mother’

doha • H H Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned is proud of being a mother and raising children, she says, is among her basic priorities. “I supervise my children’s homework on a daily basis. It is part of my daily routine,” she told Al Jazeera TV Channel in an interview yesterday.

In a half-an-hour interview telecast late yesterday evening, she said: “I am basically a housewife and trying to raise my children and inculcate in them humanitarian and Islamic values.”

“I am an ordinary woman and do not want to get saddled with impressive titles such as the First Lady and the like,” she said when asked by the interviewer as to what she thought of her role as the wife of the Emir and mother of the Heir Apparent.

She told Khadija bint Ginna, the interviewer, that she decided to enter public life only when her children had grown up and could take care of themselves. “I still spend a lot of time every day talking to them and supervising their homework.”

Knowledge is the best and the wisest investment. Whatever the environment, knowledge flourishes and is not affected when things are not conducive as is the case with investment in a business, for instance. No one can take knowledge away.

The Emir has set up a fund for health and education and the objective is to attain a high level of education. The accent of Qatar Foundation and the country’s education sector as a whole is to provide quality education by adopting excellent syllabi and by giving teachers the best training.

Children are a precious investment of a nation and a family and we have to actively involve the families not only in the matter of their children’s education but also in their extra-curricular activities, she said. “Education is a must if we want to talk in the language of business and finance.”

Asked about the condition of women in Qatar, she said pointblank: “I feel embarrassed whenever I am asked this question. My first concern is the human beings. ... Women’s status in a society reflects its overall condition. It is the mirror of the society.”

Women in Qatar enjoy equal rights with men. “I don’t want to put pressure on women with talk of liberation.”

The interviewer asked Sheikha Mozah if she agreed that children in Qatar and the rest of the GCC were getting spoilt due to the immense wealth. “Yes, it is a disease and a serious one at that. It is more serious than the diseases caused by poverty in a backward country.”

Asked how she felt when her son, H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Hamad Al Thani, rode a horse in a rare show of daredevilry to take the flame to the cauldron during the opening of the Asian Games, she said: “At that particular moment, I was concentrating on what he was doing and wanted him to succeed.”

“However, the mother in me cried the next day when I saw the footage of this daredevil act on TV,” she confessed.

Water Skiing in Doha

We went water skiing today with some friends here. Doha has a small bay that it surrounds. We had a great time, but came home with some pretty good sunburns. I also collected some great shells from a beach we went to.

Here is the picture to prove I actually water-skiied! If I don't look comfortable or natural, that is because I spent most of my time like this:

In my defence, this was my first time skiing since I was 15 or so. But check out Jon...

This one (below) is our Bishop. He is a great guy. Besides, I have to give him credit because it was his boat :)

Some views of the city:

In the Paper Today--Growing Pains...

Women’s financial independence blamed for high divorce rate
Doha. Women taking up jobs and becoming financially independent is one of the major reasons for the high divorce rate, says a senior employee of the Qatar General Youth Authority.

"Women walking shoulder to should with men in public life and gaining financial independence is something new to our society and I think this is the main cause of the high divorce rate," Abdullah Al Hammadi, said in remarks to The Peninsula yesterday.

Speaking on the sidelines of a debate on the Human Development Report on Qatar, he said: "Life here has changed and with it have emerged new social problems. The high divorce rate is one of them."

Women were earlier financially dependent on their husbands, so they thought hundreds of times before seeking divorce. They are financially secure now, so even if there is a fight with the husband on a trivial issue, they ask for divorce, he said.

Congrats Les and Jeremy!!!

Congrats to Les and Jeremy on the long awaited arrival of:

Emma Elizabeth Rachelle Casper

8 lbs 7 oz

19.5 inches long

2 May 2007