As a long time resident of Qatar myself, I second Ralph Rau's views about the treatment of expatriates by the local citizens.
Today, the per capita income of Qataris is the highest in the world not only in monetary terms but also in PPP (purchasing power parity). In 1992 when I left the country, Qatar was an oil rich country but had not discovered that they were sitting on the world's greatest proven reserves of natural gas. At that time, the Qataris were somewhere in between the socially well developed peoples of Dubai and Bahrain on one side and the utterly bedouin Saudi Arabs on the other. Yet, despite the odd occurrences of exploitation, they were very kind, generous and well behaved towards the expats. Of course they were much better behaved towards the educated expats then the labor class, but which society does not make that distinction? My 17 years spent in Qatar with frequent business trips to Dubai, Bahrain, and Muscat have left me with a lot of respect for the Arabs. I used to think that in the Western world human relationships being governed by advance laws and policies would be better than the Arab world, but I have discovered that they have the edge in compassion and softness. Roland. Roland Francis http://roland-torontogoan.blogspot.com +1 (416) 453.3371 On Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 1:46 PM, ralph rau <[email protected]> wrote: > "When you get to Dubai you are treated worse than dirt by the natives" - Tim > Dmello > > Dear Tim, > > You are ill informed about Dubai. > > It is arrogant Kuwaitis who, being the wealthiest per capita, despise > all foreigners, even their relatively poorer GCC neighbours. Likewise many > Saudis, the poorly educated, do often behave rudely with Asians.
