Talk:Qatar

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[edit] Absolute or Constitutional?

Is Qatar actually a absolute or constitutional monarchy? In the infobox says it is a constitutional monarchy, but in Politics of Qatar page says it is a absolute monarchy. 20:50, 5 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Religion

Serious discrepancy : it is said in this article at one point that 10% of Qataris are Shias and in another section that a fifth are... I am no expert on Qatar so maybe someone who is could look into that. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 121.210.89.238 (talk) 07:19, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Pollution

There is no mention of the high rate of carbon emissions per capita. Qatar has ranked no.1 as the worst polluter of carbon dioxide per capita for some fifteen years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita

[edit] American Base

could someone add something about the American Base in qatar?--Arabian soul 07:14, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

I agree, this article is sorely lacking on its information concerning the US military presence in Qatar. The only mention of it is, "Qatar served as the headquarters and one of the main launching sites of the US invasion of Iraq [3] in 2003." Certainly Al Udeid Airbase, serving as the site of the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC), deserves some mention. But then again, those articles are sorely lacking as well. -- Pepsi2786 (talk) 03:59, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Population Error?

I noticed that the 2004 census puts Qatar's population at 1 344 269, while the attached external link totals each municipality population, with a total of only 744 029. Is this a descrepancy in statistics, or did Qatar actually shrink by 500 000 people in two years?

Answer: That is the total population EXCLUDING expats.

the 1st information about Qatar having more than 1 000 000 poeple in the year 2004 is 100% wrong , actually the esti. population is around 880 000 (in the year 2006) with less than 25% of those are Qataris ( locals ) . —Preceding unsigned comment added by Psychiatrist (talk • contribs) 19:07, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Random Question

Is there a reason behind Qatar having a male/female ratio of 2.24? Fephisto 22:32, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

High quantity of (male) immigrant workers. Yes, there are plenty of female immigrant workers, but much much higher male rate --Matt 22:34, 11 July 2006 (UTC)

Qatar keeps on hiring male immigrant workers such as for construction and mowasalat drivers, most of them south asians - insanedrivers

[edit] Major Qatar Article cleanup

This article has potential, but looks like its core has been left to rot for a couple of years (no offense meant) [eg. lack of mention of new parliament], and needs major cleanup. I will adopt the Qatar subcategory, starting with the more specific pages and finishing with the largest one here. Any other people willing to help? Is there somewhere else I should put this? --Arithmomaniac38 04:44, 22 May 2006 (UTC) Join Wikiproject Qatar!

I have no clue how to use this but in the first part of the article someone has added somthing about beer pong wich has no place in the article.

[edit] Infobox

There is a possibility to use template:qatar infobox. But someone doesn't seem to like that.--Jerryseinfeld 23:03, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah ibn Khalifah Al Thani

I think the prime minister is Sheikh Abdullah ibn Khalifah Al Thani.

Zntrip

This appears to be true and the article concurs. Any issues? --Matt 01:12, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

NO , now the current prime minister is Sh. Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jaber Al Thani .

[edit] Cultural information

We want to participate in Doha Cultural Festival.How can you help us?

Tahira, Baku, Azerbaijan

Guessing you might want to try the official DCF page. Of course, it's a little late for 2005, but good luck in 2006 --Matt 01:12, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Section "Qatari Woman"

I removed the section Qatari Woman because it was copyrighted work of the Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs. See the original page and Wikipedia:Copyrights. --Jonnabuz 13:23, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Coat of Arms

Do they have Coat Of Arms? 83.130.116.4 16:27, 29 July 2005 (UTC)

Yes, Image:Qatar coa.png, which is shown in the info box --Matt 01:00, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Neutrality & review of Abdulla Qatar's changes

Could someone with more knowledge than me please review the changes of [the edit from 33257014 to 32630677] and see if neutrality is maintained? It seems that detail has decreased and the text might be biased --Matt 19:33, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

Two points. First, the generalization of warring tribes is correct, but leaving out the British control and the Turkish occupation is a little too close to ignoring history. The ruling family al-Thani in the late 19th century was under Ottoman authority. This conflicted with the rising ambitions of the family. When the Ottomans left in WWI, the al-Thanis signed a pact with the British to become a protectorate.

Second. The ommission of the al-Saud family in the second paragraph is important. As one can see by the existence of Saudia Arabia, the al-Sauds were a major threat. The al-Thanis ended up paying a tribute to the al-Sauds as an alternative to being invaded. More importantly, this is a sensitive issue, as the current dealings between Saudi Arabia and Qatar are not exactly clear. However, the al-Sauds were not, like the al-Khalifa, concerned with the pearl economy or the coast in general (they wanted Mecca and Medina).

In conclusion, I would include the al-Saud family in the second paragraph as a geopolitical threat to Qatar, though a general one. I would also include information about exclusive alliances with the British and Ottomans. If this information is left out the article, it basically removes Qatar from the recent history of the region. Tribal politics are only one side of Qatar's inception.

So revert and edit. This information would also be useful in the history article. --Vector4F 17:34, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

I've decided to revert back Abdulla Qatar's changes on Vector4F's recommendations, though I saved the clarification on Peninsula/Northern Peninsula. --Matt 18:05, 1 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] better choice of words required

"Qatar's national income primarily derives from oil and natural gas exports. The country has oil reserves estimated at 15 billion barrels (2.4 km³). Qataris' wealth and standard of living compare well with those of Western European nations. Qatar has the highest GDP per capita in the developing world ($39,607 as of 2005)."

Using the term "developing world" suggests that Qatar is a "Developing country" - as it is ranked as no. 40 in the UN calculated HDI index it is quite likely that Qatar has not designated itself as a developing country (countries decide on their development status for themselves.) I tried to find out what what status Qatar has given itself - but I could not locate the answer.

The general consensus is that in calculating whether a country is a developing country the main indicators used are GDP per capita, literacy, and life expectancy.

--222.225.1.229 14:25, 10 March 2006 (UTC)stuart macdonald

Note:- The general consensus of opinion suggests that whilst Qatar is a developing country without doubt, this development is happening so incredibly rapidly that in 10 - 20 years this will no longer be the case. And whilst the majority agree it indeed is a developing country, I agree that omitting this statement is the best course of action. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.148.97.69 (talk • contribs) 20:33, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

According to List of countries by GDP (nominal) per capita, published by the International Monetary Fund, in 2006, Qatar led all of Asia in per capita GDP, at 62,914 per capita. No doubt, high fossil fuel prices have something to do with this. In 2007-2010, it will triple natural gas production, sending figures even higher.

In the section on laws it reads: "Qatar has further been liberalized due to the 15th Asian Games, but is cautious of becoming too liberal in their law making the country a viable weekend immigration from their western neighbor." What does it mean to be "a viable weekend immigration from their western neighbor." I would rephrase it, but I am not sure of the writer's point. —Preceding unsigned comment added by HagarJr (talk • contribs) 12:10, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I think that means that Qatar doesn't want to become like Bahrain, a weekend place for Saudis to go and do things that aren't legal in Saudi. It sees like an unverifiable sentence though, so much of it could be lopped off. --Matt 15:26, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Pronunciation

I am editing the pronounciation paragraph so that it is actually helpful to those of us who aren't linguistics professors --68.185.172.206

I agree that the paragraph about the pronunciation is dense. However, "it's COT-ter like welcome back Kotter" is not an encyclopediadic comment. Plus, I've never heard anyone say it like that - I've heard Cutter, Katar, and the proper pronunciation. --Matt 16:49, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

My source is the audio file available at the Merriam Webster online entry for Qatar. --68.185.172.206

I've never heard anyone pronounce it like that. m-w is definitely weird on this one. --Matt 06:18, 30 March 2006 (UTC)

I've only heard 'cutter' from servicepeople coming back from there after a few months deployment. And then I spoke to a recent returnee who called it 'kay TAR' and chastised those who called it 'cutter'. I came to wikipedia for an answer and got IPA crap so I went to m-w and got what I thought was to be the best answer. I know my addition is nothing special, but I think it works until the world makes a decision (which could be sooner rather than later-- remember 'EE rahq' versus 'eye RACK'?)

I know Qataris who say "kuh-TAR" (what I wrote earlier as 'katar') when speaking English. The Arabic doesn't have a direct English transliteration - so it doesn't have an easy answer, and the IPA will be the 'most correct' way to specify how it sounds. --Matt 00:08, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

Well guys... Everybody in Qatar have different accents. Qatar is a multicultural country with so many expats. there are so many pronounciations for that...But i pronounce it as Katar These pronounciations are based on how ive heard them British- Kah-tahr Indian - Kahtr Filipino - Katar - insanedrivers

I'm a Qatari national, I can tell you it's closer to Katr. (with a hard R), however Ka-tar, is the official english way of pronouncing it. :) Hope I helped. -Khalifa

How is IPA "crap"? It is the basis for pronunciation and the only way to help people pronounce a word correctly. If we say things like "pronounce it like the 'a' in bath" then that's just stupid because the letter is pronounced differently in different countries and regions. If you're struggling with the IPA symbols then learn them - they may help you when you come to learning a language in the future. 213.230.130.56 (talk) 22:31, 16 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Removed qatarliving.com

Reason: It is a rant blog. It's not directly directed to the topic Qatar.

hmm. it's one of the few blogs actually written by qataris.

they are not all qataris. And yes, it is a rant blog in my opinion. - Kei

[edit] Wahhabism?ً

Qatar explicitly uses Wahhabi law as the basis of its government

Could somebody post an evidence for this? I'm from Qatar (see my ip) and I'm not aware of such a thing like that.

Ive heard it from a friend about the wahhabism but i dunno what does that mean... Im an expat student in qatar btw. - insanedrivers

[edit] How to add a "section"?

I want to add a section titled "criticism", and put in some info about the use of foreign workers and their lack of rights in Qatar. An example being a Qatari man gettign caught with a Filippina woman, and he is allowed to go free but she spends two years in jail before being deported. How would I go about doing this? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 153.26.176.34 (talk) 16:45, 6 December 2006 (UTC).

Well, you would put in something like:==Criticism== Qatar does x, y, and z. I'd put it after Education, and make sure to cite your sources. Look at the page source on the main article, and click the edit tab. Look at the surrounding sections and you should get an idea of how to format things. Feel free to ask questions on here or my talk page, and if I notice any formatting errors I'll try and clean them up. --Matt 16:52, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Lol... Is there something wrong with Filipinas going out with a Qatari? whats the point of her being deported and jailed... Did they banned the Qataris from marying Filipinas? you really should protest this

I think the crime is fornication (so-called 'inappropriate relations'), rather than dating the wrong nationality. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.148.97.69 (talk) 17:44, 11 January 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Proposed WikiProject

In my ongoing efforts to try to include every country on the planet included in the scope of a WikiProject, I have proposed a new project on Western Asia at Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals#Western Asia whose scope would include Qatar. Any interested parties are more than welcome to add their names there, so we can see if there is enough interest to start such a project. Thank you for your attention. Badbilltucker 16:49, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

See [1].martianlostinspace 14:24, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Country of Qatar blocked from editing Wikipedia

Is this at all true? I had found this at some news site called slashdot. --69.67.229.90 04:49, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Not anymore. There was some minor confusion and everything has been fixed. Thanks Naconkantari 04:50, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

they'll no doubt re-block anonymous posting soon - already there's been some vandalism from the qatar IP address 82.148.97.69 11:47, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

See BBC: [2]. Apparently they can't block individual users, because all of Qatar uses only one IP address.martianlostinspace 14:23, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

All traffic from Qatar is routed through a single IP address? Really? How Bizarre. Jooler 22:19, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Qatar uses a proxy to filter its internet, and that IP is the proxy's IP. So any internet access in Qatar is routed through that IP. thats why our internet's so damn slow! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 82.148.97.69 (talk) 19:58, 3 January 2007 (UTC).

This is a mainstream newspaper article from Australia about the same issue. But it was sourced from Associated Press so it's probably the same as the BBC one...Ga rr ie 23:23, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] ISP & Blocking

It seems that someones added a section about Q-Tel blocking websites... it is untrue that they block sites that are against the interests of Qatar, only pornography is blocked - all political websites & blogs can be accessed easily. Shouldn't this be changed? --Amjra 15:22, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, I'd say that's appropriate to change then. I wouldn't be against leaving the blocking detail in the Qtel article either. --Matt 17:43, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Coat of Arms?

What happened to the coat of arms image? --Amjra 19:54, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Looks like it was deleted due to unknown copyright status... --Matt 20:12, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

To my knowledge it looks like it was changed, cause I remember that the Coat of Arms used to say "Qatar" in english and as of now it says (hope guess right) "Qatar" in Arabic. It's been awhile since I visited this page so maybe I am wrong. Tazz 07:44, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] QatarLiving.com

Qatarliving.com is not an appropriate external link due to number 10: "Links to social networking sites (such as MySpace), discussion forums or USENET". Yes, qatarliving.com is a useful discussion forum, but it is a discussion forum and doesn't add much useful information for people browsing the article. --Matt 20:50, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Of course, the link I provided was "links to normally be avoided" - I'm open to discussion of a compelling reason why qatarliving.com is important enough to be an external link. --Matt 20:54, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

The site is not just a "discussion forum"- it has a forum component to it. It also has has maps, classifieds adverts and news articles.

[edit] Independence question

Hey everybody, I'm in a knot here. Here it says that Qatar gained independence from the Bahrain. Here it says that Qatar gained independence from the United Kingdom. I googled it, and it says here that they signed a protection treaty with the UK after Ottoman rule. I'll do more research but still....

---Qatar did NOT get independence from Bahrain. It was part of Saudi Arabia and was given sovereignty by the United Kingdom which signed an agreement with the ruling family.

When was it part of Saudi Arabia? It was dominated by Bahrain in the early nineteenth century, and Bahrain regarded it as their possession.

no man recently the goverment of qatar said that we gained independance from the ottman empire which was on 18, December, 1878

[edit] GDP

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29_per_capita Qatar is #3 in the world for its GDP. According to this article however it is ranked #7. Any reason why it isn't updated? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 124.179.63.4 (talk) 01:54, 13 November 2007 (UTC)

|cabrón unit|talk|conts| 19:24, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Qatari law

I think the claim that Qatar is '..the first country in the Persian Gulf where women gained the right to vote.' is not completely true. Women's suffrage was introduced in Qatar in 1999, whereas the women of Iran gained this right already in 1962 (and kept it after the 1979 Islamic revolution). 84.85.155.51 (talk) 18:11, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Origin of name

The name "Qatar" may derive from the same Arabic root as qatura which means "to exude." The word Qatura traces to the Arabic qatran meaning "tar" or "resin", which relates to the country's rich resources in petroleum and natural gas. [2]

This seems unlikely to me, given that the discovery of oil in Qatar is so recent. What do others think? 80.175.102.226 (talk) 18:24, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Motor Sports

Something should probably be written (and I may take a stab at it) about the world class racetrack at Losail. It hosts both MotoGP and World Superbike classes, yet remains sparsely unattended. These are races that draw a massive worldwide TV audience (second only the Football and F1) so it seems to be part of the master plan to move the economy away from primarily oil-based long term. Caferace (talk) 07:12, 29 February 2008 (UTC)

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