Residents of this tiny Gulf state are asked this loaded question all the time, and there are more than 100 ways to answer it.

In a recent blog post, a relative newcomer to Doha reflects on her experiences here and comes up with this:

Qatar = not sustainable.

Esra Dogramaci writes:

(Consider a) burgeoning consumer culture, an almost invisible recycling culture, a society heavily heavily dependent on cars and you begin to see what I mean.

A trip to the edge of Qatar where a spanse of water divided Qatar from Saudi Arabia was marked by garbage. Indeed even the tour guides would toss drink cans down sand dunes and hills for the magic garbage fairy to pick it up.

These seemingly small acts can add up to become larger problems. This isn’t sustainable…Not for the environment and not for regional or global competitiveness.

That said, Dogramaci, who works for Al Jazeera English, is not knocking her decision to move to Qatar.

At the end of the day, in my circles at least, people move to Doha because they believe in something that is bigger than themselves. When you enter that news room, or walk past the galleries, you feel that collective intelligence and that collective consciousness.

To be surrounded by people from 51 different countries, and a team who are on that journey with you, Doha living doesn’t look so bad.

Read her full blog post here.

And tell us what you think: How would you sum up Qatar in a nutshell? Would you include the good, bad and the ugly?