Where is Doha? 25, October 2009
Posted by thegulfblog.com in Qatar.Tags: Doha sport, Qatar, Qatar sport, Qatar tennis, Serena Williams, Song Ericsson tennis, Unknown Qatar, Where is Qatar
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…was Serena Williams’ tweet as she boarded a flight to Qatar to take part in the season finale Doha Sony Ericsson Women’s Tennis tournament. One must feel somewhat sorry for the little thumb-shaped country, jutting out of Saudi Arabia into the Persian Gulf. They have hosted staggering amounts of international sporting events, prestigious conferences and exhibitions; founded the in/famously iconoclastic Al Jazeera news network with their ‘and now live from Doha’ strapline; paid hundreds of millions of dollars in international aid to actors ranging from the victims of hurricane Katrina to Libya; contributed to solving international crises notably in Lebanon in 2008; created a world-spanning, world-beating airline in Qatar Airways; hosted thousands upon thousands of US troops and the command center for the war in Iraq; have surprisingly good relations with Israel, Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah and America; sell huge amounts of gas to the UK, Japan, India and South Korea; invest and prop up some of the Western world’s bluest of blue chip companies such as Barclay’s Bank and have, with a $10 billion endowment, set up, among other projects, several American Universities in their aspirational Education City.
Yet still Serena can’t quite place poor Qatar despite having played at this exact event in the past. On second thought, maybe the problem is not so much with Qatar but…
The Gulf blog 
I can confirm that Serena’s ignorance regarding Qatar’s location is shared by the vast majority of Americans. You’d think that the massive public relations campaigns, being named as New York Times ‘Cultural Destination of the Year’, Al Jazeera, etc would help. Unfortunately, if you can’t place the Arabian Peninsula on a world map, you most certainly can’t find its thumb.
I would hope that if you visit a place once, you actually remember…. saw Serena at last year’s event in Doha (in the audience).