Dream destination

Bayern Munich training at the Aspire Academy ground in Doha.

As the muezzin called out for Isha (evening prayer) from Qatar’s grand mosque, Imam Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab, bang opposite the Qatar Sports Club, Rakhal Chandra Malakar in his taxi waited patiently for passengers till the prayer got over.

Rakhal, 55, who came to Qatar from Boalkhali in Bangladesh’s Chittagong district in 1985 on a ‘free visa’, now owns the used car which he uses as a private taxi. Over the last three decades, he has since seen this tiny Gulf nation undergoing great change.

The country’s revenue comes from its gas and oil exports. But for the first time in more than a decade Qatar experienced its first budget deficit as a result of lower oil prices. There’s also a growing belief that a large portion of the country’s wealth should have been invested in healthcare and education.

Qatar is booming because of the 2022 event. Every day on an average, there’s maddening rush with fresh arrivals of expats at the luxurious Hamad International Airport. Virtually all of them come with a dream — earn tax-free salaries and financial stability.

But ‘all that glitter is no more gold’ as it has become one the costliest cities in the region and, the government too has tightened its budget and adopted measures to control over-spending.

A tax-free salary isn’t too a great thing in the oil and gas-rich nation now as the cost of living rose 1.1 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in the second quarter (Q2) of this year according to Consumer Prices Index (CPI) released by the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS). Housing rents, education, transport and tobacco prices remained above the overall general price levels.

The country is wealthiest in terms of per capita income in the world. Powerful sport officials as well as fading football stars Xavi Hernandez and Gianfranco Zola find a comfort zone here, with the former currently playing for top side Al Sadd while the Italian recently coached Al Arabi.

Qatar has poured money into the World Cup project with a staggering $200bn on infrastructure, including a new rail network, hotels and roads.

Yet, Qatar isn’t taking chances. The government’s austerity measures are done to control over-spending. 

The country wants its citizens to depend less on government jobs, handouts and subsidies and as Emir HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani rightly said, “Qataris need to be a little more progressive and motivated.”

Can 2022 World Cup unite the Muslim world?

Doha is a confluence of people from the conflicting Arab nations — Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Morocco, Syria, Iraq, Algeria and Tunisia.

Come to think of it, the 2022 World Cup hosts provide peace and succour.

At a coffee shop in Souq Waqif, I noticed a group of Arab youth on couches, listening to Middle-East’s popular singer Fairuz Mostly in their early 20s. They nibbled the sugary ‘baklava’ and smoked sisha (water-pipes), billowing it into the air.

The Syrian crisis, civil war in Yemen and the unending tussle in Palestine have turned the Arab region into a veritable fire ball, but it was difficult to spot a Shia, Sunni or Christian in that group.

Former Barcelona star Xavi Hernandez, who now plays for Qatar's
Al Sadd Club, is flanked by QFA officials.

I enquired from my Lebanese friends if Beirut was safe to visit because I’m still hounded by the violence and bombings when I was a child, watching the footages in early 80s.

It was all peace and fine, but suicide attacks in Beirut has upset me. The reverberation was heard in Baghdad too. As the volatile Arab region continue to dodge peace, I wonder if the Gulf’s maiden World Cup can ever unite Islam?

Middle Easterners are waiting for the World Cup to happen so that they can show their region isn’t solely defined by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and frequent violence. The FIFA tournament is an excellent opportunity to unite the warring Arabs, but most non-Arab expats also wonder why the Muslims are always at loggerheads in this part of the world.

Is it all about arrogance being wealthy, intolerance or ideological differences that divide the Muslim world?

“We need to break down those perceptions about what we’re,” said Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy Secretary General Hassan Al Thawadi.

When I went to cover the Gulf Cup in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh last year, I saw what football meant to the Arabs.

Yemen was and still on fire, but their motley population flocked to the King Fahd International Stadium in their open-hooded Nissan pick-up vans and cars. Yemen was playing against the host nation in a group game and they wanted to show solidarity.

Football provides a great social distraction from ongoing violence by creating a sense of harmony amongst traditionally divided groups, and the Gulf Cup was one such occasion.

But the FIFA tournament will see fans in large numbers from the region — there’ll be Sunni and Shiite Muslims as well as Middle-East Christians as well as Arab nations from North Africa.

“For the Arabs, the World Cup is a symbol of pride,” said one Yemeni, who has been working in Doha since 2006. His house in Aden has been blown into pieces by the Houthi rebels, but his family has found peace and shelter in Qatar.

“Hosting the World Cup constitutes a real opportunity to enlighten the future of the region and will contribute to the recovery of its economy and give clear hope for the youth,” he added.

Qatari officials claimed two billion people live within a four-hour flight radius of Doha. This means the World Cup, which has been held 10 times out of 20 in Europe, will have a Middle Eastern flavour.

Cairo, Tehran, Baghdad and Beirut are approximately three hours flight-time away. Istanbul is four hours while Gulf neighbours just a hop away, with Riyadh and Dubai is a six-hour drive from Abu Samra, Qatar’s only land border with Saudi, some is 90km from Doha.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain, Oman — have backed Qatar against the barrage of criticisms by the western media over the alleged vote-buying in the bid process.

Other Arab nations Iraq, Jordan Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt, who all participate in the Arab Games, have shown solidarity with the oil-rich nation, but we’ll have to wait post-2022 to see if the World Cup really diffused the flames in the region.