Doha News

Though Qatari women comprise the majority of local college graduates, only  35 percent of female nationals work.

Faced with a massive shortage of skilled nationals, Qatar has set ambitious targets to increase their participation to 42 percent by 2016.

To do that, researchers are launching an investigation into the ”cultural and social impediments” influencing Qatari women’s education choices, whether they enter the workforce and their career pursuits.

Family appears to play a big role, says Dr. Hanan Abdul Rahim, associate director of Qatar University’s Social and Economic Research Survey Institute, which is conducting a three-year research project called ”Kin Influences on Qatari Women’s Transitions into the Labour Force.”

The Peninsula reports:

Qatari women’s labour force participation rose from 14 percent in 1986 to 34 percent in 2006, but it has been relatively stable since, and it is lower than neighbouring Arab countries like the UAE and Kuwait. Moreover, women who are employed tend to concentrate in certain professions, mainly teaching and clerical jobs…

“The researchers will interview young women at two points in time, which will enable us to track changes in their schooling and employment choices. They will also interview their parents, because that parental attitudes and roles have strong influences on women’s educational and work trajectories,” (Abdul Rahim) said.

The research team will consist of scholars from Qatar, Canada and the United States.

Interesting!

Thoughts?

Credit: Photo by Frederick Noronha

*This article has been corrected to say that 35 percent of Qatari women work. It previously incorrectly stated that Qatari women make up 35 percent of the workforce here.

An increasing number of low-income workers have said they want to leave Qatar after fallouts with their employers, but are finding they have nowhere to stay while the paperwork is sorted out, an official at the Indian embassy said.

That’s because deportation centers are already at capacity, Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa, an Indian ambassador, recently told reporters.

Many of these men decide to go home because they have not been paid for several months or because the work they are assigned was not agreed upon in their contracts, she said.

The Peninsula reports:

It is learned that on average some 20 lowly-paid Indians are approaching the embassy every week over the past few months for help in repatriation.

Such workers were earlier able to stay on with friends or relatives waiting to be eventually let in by the detention centres, but after the Interior Ministry’s recent campaign to fish out illegal workers, no one is willing to risk providing them temporary shelter.

Under Qatari law, it is also illegal for embassies to house the men, Wadhwa said.

Meanwhile, some 41 low-income Indian workers have died of heart attacks this year. Heat stroke was cited as the chief cause behind the heart failure, embassy officials said. 

“When a young man of 25 dies of heart failure here, the cause is mostly heat stroke,” the Peninsula quoted an official as saying.

Indians are Qatar’s largest expat group, comprising more than half a million of the population. Most work in low- and middle-income jobs and many are unhappy with their living and working conditions.

Some hoped that their treatment would improve last month after the Emir made his first state visit to India since 2005, during which labor rights were reportedly discussed.

But it looks like things have not gotten better yet.

Thoughts?

Credit: Photo by Richard Messenger

Complaints over what appear to be extra charges for Hala BlackBerry users have caught the eye of ictQatar and prompted Qtel to refund some customers.

Users may be noticing extra charges for their data usage because Qtel just began enforcing their data limits, the company has said.

In a statement, Qtel said it upgraded its network to provide a new SMS alert service that lets customers know when they have almost and then completely used their 250MB weekly data allowance.

The upgrade caused Qtel to notice that some users were not being charged for their additional data usage. But when the “system error was rectified,” customers who had been going over their data allowance noticed huge charges.

In response to complaints, ictQatar has ordered Qtel to clarify its “confusing and/or incorrect information” about Blackberry service rates and clear up concerns by Thursday.

Qtel said its weekly QR15 rate for BB usage has not changed, but it will refund BlackBerry customers who were charged for excess data consumption over the past week. 

It also won’t start charging users who go over 250MB the QR.55 fee per MB until June 12.

Anyone with questions can call Qtel at 44249033 or contact ictQATAR at 103 or by email, consumervoice@ictqatar.gov.qa.

Thoughts?

Credit: Photo by Henrik Winther Andersen

Despite huge salary hikes for nationals last August, it appears the majority of Qataris remain in debt, an article in the Financial Times has said.

By some measures, Qatar is the world’s richest country. But its citizens have a tendency to spend extravagantly, and three-quarters of Qatari families are in debt because of this, according to the 2011 National Development Strategy.

Most owe an average of QR250,000. Qatar hopes to halve the number of indebted nationals by 2016, the report states.

The competitive spending culture is further fueled by generous bank loans. Qataris can take out up to QR2m in personal loans, with a repayment period of six years.

And the salary hikes haven’t exactly led to prudent spending - one Qatari interviewed by FT said that upon hearing the news, everyone in his office went out and bought cars.

FT reports:

Last year Qatari authorities tried to raise awareness about the depth of the problem, with a campaign titled “Debt is Disgraceful”, during which donations were collected to help pay money owed by debtors in prison or others threatened with criminal charges.

In a 2008 US diplomatic cable, released by WikiLeaks, one prominent Qatari royal is quoted as telling embassy officials that debt is creating “enormous societal pressure” affecting family life and increasing demands on the government, by creating a “welfare syndrome” where citizens think they can spend freely and be bailed out by relatives and the government.

Here’s what’s the NDS has to say about spending and debt:

Qatar ND Strategy - Debt

Thoughts?

Credit: Photo by Christian Senger

Qatar should not sacrifice its culture and traditions for the sake of urban development, a majority of young nationals recently asserted in a survey by the Permanent Population Committee.

As the country develops at a breakneck pace in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup, it is importing a large foreign workforce to fuel its expansion.

But a majority of young Qataris - two-thirds of those surveyed - said it was possible to maintain the current pace of development while reducing the recruitment of foreign workers.

Less than a quarter (22 percent) disagreed with that idea, while the rest (15 percent) surveyed said they did not know.

The survey, which doesn’t state how many people it interviewed, also found that Qataris supported the idea of a knowledge economy as a way to address the imbalance of foreign to national workers here.

That includes rising support for more Qatari women - who far outpace their male colleagues in pursuing higher education - to enter the workforce, the study found.

But Qatar has a long way to go to reduce its dependence on expat labor, no matter the impact this population has on local customs and identity.

In 2010, foreign workers accounted for a whopping 94 percent of the economically active population in the country, according to the Qatar Statistics Authority.

Thoughts?

Credit: Photo by Omar Chatriwala

New equipment being installed at the Doha International Airport will make it harder for travelers to carry liquids and security threats onboard airplanes, a senior security official has said.

The airport will also get tough on baggage allowances, making sure that passengers check bags that weigh no more than 23kg (50lbs) and carry on no more than 7kg (15lbs), Col. Isa Al Rumaihi said in a recent interview with a law enforcement magazine.

Previously, despite signage to the contrary, rigorous security checks were typically done only for passengers flying to select locations, like the United States.

But Rumaihi asserts that all passengers carrying on liquids must make sure the items do not exceed 100ml and are kept in transparent bags.

He added that any unattended baggage would be immediately taken to an inspection point for checks.

Perhaps officials are stepping up enforcement ahead of the opening of the new airport in December. 

Has anyone noticed a difference in security while traveling lately?

Credit: Photo by vobios