Friday, May 16, 2008

Go Qatar....


Not as many of you may have thought, this post is not cheering Qatar because of their recent mediation to end the Lebanese-Lebanese slaughtering simply because I have stopped caring about that `fucked-up` country after I watched this gory footage of Lebanese killing Lebanese, again, based on their affiliations. So my dear Lebanese population....Go to hell!
Or in Arabic "تنباعو بالعزا...سواءا كنتو سنة..شيعة..مسيحية...دروز...او حتى بشر"

I`ve been meaning to post about Qatar for some time but never really got the chance, so I decided to spend my break doing so.

Despite my irrational racism against people of the Gulf region, I cannot help it not to admire, support and applaud the tremendous effort some of them are spending on a global marketing campaign to promote and sell `Arabs` in a better and polished way.

UAE and Qatar in specific have chosen a different path, a very smart one I have to admit, sports. Their campaigns have been basically attracting word-class sports activities so their names as Arabs in general and people of the Gulf in specific will be associated in the mind of the public to things other than camels and bare-footed ugly looking people. Golf, Tennis, horse racing and formula 1 are sports perceived as being on a higher class than say, soccer or basketball. They are more associated with wealth and prestige.

I read in a Canadian Business magazine few weeks ago an article about this issue and they spoke to some Qatari marketing manager who was leading the campaign. He said, when asked if those events are paying off, revenue wise, that their spending exceeds their revenues but that`s not what they are after. People around the world will hear about the Gulf States in a positive context about a topic they love, sports.

Qatar has decided to go further and has bid on hosting one of the world`s most important sport`s event, the Olympic games for the year 2016. They are competing with countries like the USA and Japan to name a few.


I do hope they win and host the Olympic Games. It would be the first Arab state to do so, probably the last during my life time.

Good luck Qatar and from the bottom of my heart....GO DOHA!

3 comments:

مترجم سوري said...

as u said, the Gulf's governemts - away from Saudi Arabia - are building a new "gulf person" totally different from the bedouin person they are known to be.
they are working on this not only internationally, but also on the people themselves.

the educational system, in particualr, is concentrating on earsing slowly this image from the citizens' minds. replacing it with " a civilized, humantirian, intelectual" person.

i think it's a matter of 60 years where the bedioun image will be a history. or they will preserve this image as something to show to the tourists and celebrate it from time to time.

Unknown said...

Hello ayman.
my name is tommy and i live in israel. Following the new peace talks between Syria and Israel, i'm looking for people is Syria to be in touch with, so i can understand better how the Syrian people feel and think .i'm hoping there will be peace as soon as possible and would like to start knowing our neighbors.
What do you think about the idea?

tommy
tommymanos@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

It's unfortunate for Arabs to have such hate and racism among each other and for matters of wealth and the counter argument of: It should be so/they don't deserve it. Nobody will agree upon them.

It's also unfortunate that "Beduin" is said in hate and arrogance by the comment above, as if it's something backwards and ugly instead of something we are proud of and where Islam originated and the prophet's identity.

So, it's sad to have such hate that we (Gulf region) know next to nothing about but makes us feel more distant from you and wonder, "Why make any effort in any matter or anything if it won't be received with cordial feelings AT LEAST?"


Anyway, you've gave me some prespective into what is thought of the Gulf region by Syrians. I appreciate that.