QATARSUCKS and the world needs to know!

Citizens of Qatar appear to have it made. They tend to drive big cars, live in big houses and get big loans to pay for big watches and an outsize lifestyle. They have an army of laborers from the developing world to build a sparkling skyline and to work whatever jobs they feel are beneath them. And their nation has enough oil and gas to keep the good times rolling for decades.

So why do so many people here seem so angry?

When art history professor Lisa Clayton posted a sarcastic rant Friday about Qatari youth on a popular online forum for expatriates in the country, she was not expecting to spark a national cultural war.

A group of workers has slapped a lawsuit on their company since it refused to hand them their passports despite repeated requests.

This is, arguably, the first time such a court case has been filed in the country, as it is the practice with most private sector employers to retain workers’ passports.

A 43-year-old Qatari national who pleaded guilty this year to being an al Qaeda sleeper agent, Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri, was sentenced on Thursday to eight years, nearly half of the time the Justice Department had asked the court for him to serve in prison.

“Marriages between close relatives is increasing. While the number accounted for 11.7% of marriages in 1996, it reached 40% and 43.8% in 2000 and 2007 respectively.”

Earlier, a study, conducted by the Supreme Council for Family Affairs (SCFA), had said that some 60% of those with disabilities were found to be born to “closely-related parents” in Qatar.

It urged for the enforcement of the pre-marital medical test law, saying that 34.5% of disabled people were born to parents of first-degree relatives, while 25.2% were to parents of second-degree relatives.

Residents of Qatar are outraged over media reports that 30 Saudi women have had to work in the same “humiliating” conditions that were formerly deemed acceptable only for foreign migrant workers.

The women, ages 20 to 45, arrived in Qatar to be placed with families as maids, earning about $400 per month, slightly more than their mostly Asian and African counterparts.

One maids agency told newspapers that the demand for Saudi women had gone up sharply due to widespread fears that foreign maids practiced magic.

1) Qataris are unintelligent/ materialistic/ ignorant/ ugly bastards. I find it fucking hilarious that such people have all this wealth, which they only use to buy the most costly of things and live in the most expensive manner.
2) Qataris are racists. They treat Indian and Filipino employees like slaves (underpayment, unjust sponsorship laws, passport seizure ... etc.) just to have more money to spend on their precious Porsches and Lamborghinis.

Qatar's National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) on Sunday condemned the widespread abuse of workers' rights in the Gulf state, highlighting harsh working conditions and a lack of adequate healthcare.

The NHRC said in its annual report the Committee received 1,031 complaints of human rights abuses in 2008, with 263 of them related to sponsorship transfer, 51 related to “deportation verdict cancellations” and 56 related to employer-employee disputes, Qatari daily Gulf Times reported on Monday.

A study conducted jointly by the Supreme Council for Family Affairs and Qatar University revealed that 160 women were exposed to abuse or sexual harassment during their childhood, prompting calls for stringent measures for protecting women.

The study was conducted on 2,787 girls from the Faculty of Literature and Science in Qatar University. Of those studied, 2,365 were nationals.

Many low-income workers in Qatar end up losing their jobs due to psychiatric disorders resulting from work-related problems, according to a senior official of the Psychiatry Department at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC).

Financial problems coupled with poor living conditions and difficult job circumstances have caused a rise in psychiatric disorders among unskilled and semi-skilled workers in the country.

DUBAI: The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries should adopt a common strategy to address problems related to expatriate workers, a top Bahraini labor expert has said.

According to Mohammed Dito, who has held senior posts in Bahrain's labor ministry and its Economic Development Board (EDB) and also serves the International Labor Organisation (ILO), the GCC member states should work in close coordination to work out a common strategy to tackle this complex problem.

Thirty-four-year-old Rina (not her real name) looks like any capable migrant worker who has endured her fair share of hardship while working overseas.

Rina started work as a domestic helper in Qatar in 1992. Since she was only 17 at the time, she had to change her surname and age on her passport to be allowed to work overseas.

The charge has been made by the Nepalese workers' union: 2,000 cases in Qatar, 4,000 in the Arab emirates and Malaysia. The foreign minister has asked his embassies to verify these cases, and stop conversions made by force or external pressure.

More and more Nepalese emigrants who have gone to Muslim majority countries to work - for example, on the Arabian Peninsula - are abandoning their Hindu religion and embracing Islam in order to improve their economic and social situation.

The global recession is causing a heightened sense of job insecurity among millions of migrant workers making them more vulnerable to abuse, say migrant rights advocates.

The slowdown in the global economy has already compelled many companies to retrench workers and stop hiring. The International Labor Organization(ILO) forecasts that the crisis will result in the loss of some 20 million jobs, with migrant workers among the most likely to be retrenched.