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-   -   Would you still move to Qatar? (https://britishexpats.com/forum/middle-east-60/would-you-still-move-qatar-901304/)

Millhouse Aug 9th 2017 5:05 am

Re: Would you still move to Qatar?
 

Originally Posted by Miss Ann Thrope (Post 12312686)
Is that a euphemism? If it isn't, I think it should be (as an avid explorer of Omani wadis myself)...

I feel sorry for you guys being restricted to exploring dry river beds. I've always swam in lots of water (except on holiday of course).

DXBtoDOH Aug 9th 2017 6:10 am

Re: Would you still move to Qatar?
 
Someone should do a remake of Priscilla and set it in Oman.

Actually, not a bad movie concept. A group of drags in Dubai for a performance and they set off for Muscat and they take the wrong turn and their caravan breaks down in the mountains and they set off for the local village via a wadi and get stuck in the wadi due to impenetrable rocks/pools of water and squabble and are rescued by Omani boys and later at the village they're placed with the Omani women because the elders think they're women, and they give fashion tips, and the truth comes out and...well...I'll let you create your own ending.


Originally Posted by Miss Ann Thrope (Post 12312686)
Is that a euphemism? If it isn't, I think it should be (as an avid explorer of Omani wadis myself)...


mission Aug 9th 2017 7:34 am

Re: Would you still move to Qatar?
 

Originally Posted by Millhouse (Post 12311955)
or they could offer you a 1/3 more and just tell you they doubled it. :lol:


Originally Posted by Scamp (Post 12311970)
:rofl::rofl::rofl:


Originally Posted by jam25mack (Post 12312003)
:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Bad man!


Originally Posted by Dubaiexile (Post 12312677)
Mission is still thinking about that one!!!!!:rofl::rofl:

I HATE YOU ALL!!

carcajou Aug 9th 2017 9:35 am

Re: Would you still move to Qatar?
 

Originally Posted by DXBtoDOH (Post 12311862)
Only if you must.

Day to day life is fine. No real changes other than the disappearance of diet coke in cans (but can still get them in glass bottles, on and off). Dairy products are now mostly Turkish and tends to go off quickly. And no direct flights to the UAE, going via Muscat is usually 8-10 hours door to door.

The real reason for not moving to Qatar is the quality of life is below the UAE. It's fine, but it's boring, dusty and shitty. If the money is fantastic, go for it but accept the realities of the tradeoffs. The UAE, especially Dubai, has a certain je ne sais quoi that justifies being there and which does not exist in Qatar, a country that feels more like a purgatory where life and people go nowhere.


I would concur with that - if the position is really $$$, go for it. But Doha is a lot smaller than both Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and Qatar is a lot smaller than the UAE - Qatar/Doha are basically a city-state without many outlets.

It's for that reason I think the World Cup is going to be a fiasco. People plan these things with vacations of a lifetime - you go to South Africa to see your team but also go to the parks, you go to Germany to see your team and also all the other sites. What will they do in Qatar? That's even if the blockade has ended, because getting to the UAE or Bahrain is not convenient regardless.

DXBtoDOH Aug 9th 2017 9:51 am

Re: Would you still move to Qatar?
 
The other thing to keep in mind is that Qatari clients are even more obtuse and difficult than UAE clients. It's all public sector clients here and they do what they want to do, regardless of contractual t's and c's. Well, UAE government agencies do, too, but they're a bit better.



Originally Posted by carcajou (Post 12312819)
It's for that reason I think the World Cup is going to be a fiasco. People plan these things with vacations of a lifetime - you go to South Africa to see your team but also go to the parks, you go to Germany to see your team and also all the other sites. What will they do in Qatar? That's even if the blockade has ended, because getting to the UAE or Bahrain is not convenient regardless.

Ironically Dubai will have the last laugh as the party will always be in Dubai and people will fly over to Doha on the day they have tickets for but spend the rest of the time in Dubai. But if the embargo is still in place, then Qatar's lost a huge portion of their valid market - other GCC nationals. Europeans won't be flocking to Qatar.

CountingStars Aug 21st 2017 4:41 pm

Re: Would you still move to Qatar?
 

Originally Posted by eastrunner (Post 12311386)
Despite the blockade and changes would you still move to Qatar from within the GCC?

Thanks

ER

Qatar is every bit still as attractive to me as an expat city to live and work in. I visit Doha every so often and each time it gets better. They are investing big in the city and the last I heard no infrastructure projects have been effected by the blockade and life for the expats goes on as normal.

DXBtoDOH Aug 21st 2017 5:36 pm

Re: Would you still move to Qatar?
 
It's improved from being a shithole to a marginally better shithole, I'll grant you that.

Or should it be a slightly less of a shithole?




Originally Posted by CountingStars (Post 12321427)
Qatar is every bit still as attractive to me as an expat city to live and work in. I visit Doha every so often and each time it gets better. They are investing big in the city and the last I heard no infrastructure projects have been effected by the blockade and life for the expats goes on as normal.


jam25mack Aug 22nd 2017 4:44 am

Re: Would you still move to Qatar?
 

Originally Posted by CountingStars (Post 12321427)
Qatar is every bit still as attractive to me as an expat city to live and work in. I visit Doha every so often and each time it gets better. They are investing big in the city and the last I heard no infrastructure projects have been effected by the blockade and life for the expats goes on as normal.

Maybe not effected by the blockade but Doha has been on a downward spiral since the oil price dropped. Several of the large construction projects have been dropped like a hot potato. The amount of work we did on the bay crossing only to have it never mentioned again is a prime example.

Also, the WC will be a disaster.

co durham boy Aug 22nd 2017 4:48 am

Re: Would you still move to Qatar?
 

Originally Posted by CountingStars (Post 12321427)
Qatar is every bit still as attractive to me as an expat city to live and work in. I visit Doha every so often and each time it gets better. They are investing big in the city and the last I heard no infrastructure projects have been effected by the blockade and life for the expats goes on as normal.

Have you been reading the Gulf Times ? Qatar is one trick pony and the trick is well and truly played out. The blockade is having a major effect , just ask the residents buying day to day items and the availability of those.

Construction materials are also dwindling especially as most of the rock and aggregate comes from the UAE. Qatari's couldn't organise a piss up in brewery and that's why the country is such a shithole.

ASK THE LAW Aug 22nd 2017 7:08 am

Re: Would you still move to Qatar?
 
For expatriates, a right job means just to move anywhere in the world. Qatar is revising the immigration policies like No Visa for few countries' expatriates etc. So an expatriate can moves to Qatar from UAE if he or she is offered a good opportunity there, despite few facts when someone is in love with UAE like me :)
Comment totally based on personal opinion.

DXBtoDOH Aug 22nd 2017 11:34 am

Re: Would you still move to Qatar?
 
FYI I just discovered that Qatar stops selling booze ten days before Eid. :unsure:

Tells you all you need to know.

co durham boy Aug 22nd 2017 12:11 pm

Re: Would you still move to Qatar?
 

Originally Posted by DXBtoDOH (Post 12321923)
FYI I just discovered that Qatar stops selling booze ten days before Eid. :unsure:

Tells you all you need to know.

That's been law for over 3 years now. Plus it will be dry the first two days of Eid:lol: :lol:

CountingStars Aug 22nd 2017 7:48 pm

Re: Would you still move to Qatar?
 

Originally Posted by co durham boy (Post 12321727)
Have you been reading the Gulf Times ? Qatar is one trick pony and the trick is well and truly played out. The blockade is having a major effect , just ask the residents buying day to day items and the availability of those.

Construction materials are also dwindling especially as most of the rock and aggregate comes from the UAE. Qatari's couldn't organise a piss up in brewery and that's why the country is such a shithole.

We all have different networks with different perspectives but according to my network of friends in Doha the biggest change on the ground has been in dairy and chicken suppliers! Qatar stands out as the best performing economy in the GCC and that is projected to continue. Read Bloomberg news on Qatar for the latest analysis.

carcajou Aug 23rd 2017 12:15 am

Re: Would you still move to Qatar?
 
Here is the thing that has to be understood with the blockade: Qataris (and other Gulf peoples) do not live like Westerners do, and they are not an urban people even if they may spend their weekdays at a crash pad in Dubai, Doha etc.

The first chance they get, they abandon Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai and go out to their desert camps and farms.

Once at the desert camp, their Subcontinent staff kill off one of their goats/camels etc or gets some fish (fresh caught or, unlike the livestock, bought from a shop), serves it to them with rice, and they drink milk from their own herds of camels.

That was largely how MERS was spreading a few years ago, and why it predominantly affected locals - unpasteurized camel milk.

So, the blockade on foodstuffs etc - this impacts Westerners and people from the Subcontinent and Levant/MENA, but not so much on locals, who largely have their own food stocks.

To be successful the blockade must impact LOCALS. They don't care about Westerners, people from the Subcontinent or even people from the other Arab countries.

Where it might start to impact them, is if the locals get tired of not being able to have their long weekends in Dubai, Riyadh and Bahrain. Istanbul is a poor substitute and the locals consider it exotic; Muscat, too far away and the Gulf Arabs there are quite different (in social caste) from the ones in the UAE/Qatar/KSA.

More to the point, Qatar is still a tiny country and if Qatari Citizens got barred from investments in other Gulf countries, that would bite. Ca$h is king and nowhere is that understood better than in the Gulf.

But, they are not going to back down just because foreigners can't get their choice of milk or chicken at the supermarket.

DXBtoDOH Aug 23rd 2017 7:30 am

Re: Would you still move to Qatar?
 
And diet coke. Don't forget that too.

There's been massive redundancies across the board since the beginning of the year (last year actually). Ever since the oil price collapse economy has been crappy in Qatar. Rent prices have declined noticeably. Fewer people around. Few new people coming in.

Who cares of Qatar can play with the numbers to look better in some regards than much bigger economies but on the street it ain't rosy.


Originally Posted by CountingStars (Post 12322273)
We all have different networks with different perspectives but according to my network of friends in Doha the biggest change on the ground has been in dairy and chicken suppliers! Qatar stands out as the best performing economy in the GCC and that is projected to continue. Read Bloomberg news on Qatar for the latest analysis.



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