Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Thursday 23rd November
I'm writing from the Accomodation's business centre as I'm having the morning off. Lorraine asked us all to find a way to take half a day off when we could manage it. What a luxury. I've been for a run, I've done my laundry, I've had breakfast in the hotel dining room (I usually now have my three meals at the Main Press Centre), I've spent about an hour in the gym and now I'm leisurely checking emails and writing my blog.
The weather has become absolutely wonderful now. Summer or winter it always remains humid despite the absence of precipitation here. The Berlitz pocket guide to Qatar which the Qatar Tourism office is giving at the venue says this of Qatar: 'In a recent ranking of the Arabian Gulf's top 10 business cities, the region's leading monthly business magazine, Gulf Business, listed Qatar's capital Doha as second only to Dubai, replacing Bahrain's capital, Manama, in the number two spot. 'There is a real buzz surrounding Doha', said Gulf Business. 'Courted by multinationals, international banks and regional investors, Qatar and Doha City are suddenly the flavour of the month. Or, if its assured gas-revenue streams are anything to go by, the flavour of the decade.'
Qatar (the guide continues) has huge reserves of natural gas. A major oil producer since 'black gold' was first produced in quantity in 1949, the country also contains the world's largest single gas field, and is currently its third-biggest gas producer. With global multi-billion-dollar gas deals filling the national coffers, Qatar has the fastest-growing economy in the region, and is the richest country in the world in terms of GNP per head of population. '
Further along I can read:' Doha itself, located halfway up the east coast of the Qatar Peninsula, is a fascinating destination that's at a turning point in its history. Shaking off its formerly sleepy, provincial air and unwelcome status as poor cousin to Dubai and Manama, the city is rapidly emerging as a vibrant international capital. '...'Slightly smaller than the US state of Connecticut, Qatar is no longer than 200km north to south and 100km east to west and can be covered easily in a series of day trips from Doha.
In terms of safety and security, crime in Qatar is virtually non-existent and the country is largely untroubled by the tensions that affect others in the region. The only problem visitors are likely to encounter is 'Qatar time': paradoxically, while Qatar is amassing great wealth and undergoing dynamic improvements to its infrastructrure, it's still very laid back- the country virtually shuts down during the afternoon siesta. '
Since moving into this accommodation on the 15th we've been given a meal voucher per day for the restaurant at the MPC. It's buffet style and amazingly good. So we are all enjoying this wonderful food at lunchtime and it virtually makes our day. The other cafeteria food has become insipid in comparison.
The live feed from the Host Broadcaster starts today on our CATV (close-circuit TVs) with the feed from Basketball. Three sport start competition before the opening ceremony. Football (soccer) started on the 18th and Basketball starts today. These are pool games. Each channel on the TV will broadcast (eventually) what is happening live at each venue. These are what we call clean feeds as they are neutral broadcast and at each games they are produced by the company contracted to be the host broadcaster. Here the company is called Dagbs, probably short for Doha Asian Games broadcast services. They have set cameras in the best location so the feed they produce is of high quality. The broadcasters pay for the right to use this feed and then mix this feed with the camera shots of their own camera crews on the field to be able to use for example crowd shots and interviews with athletes or reactions of family members etc and in doing so produce a program with the flavor of the country they broadcast for. CCTV will be doing this for China. Al Jazzera will be doing this for Doha. And so on.
I'm worried about my volunteers so I'll say "maa salaama" (goodbye) for now.
I'm writing from the Accomodation's business centre as I'm having the morning off. Lorraine asked us all to find a way to take half a day off when we could manage it. What a luxury. I've been for a run, I've done my laundry, I've had breakfast in the hotel dining room (I usually now have my three meals at the Main Press Centre), I've spent about an hour in the gym and now I'm leisurely checking emails and writing my blog.
The weather has become absolutely wonderful now. Summer or winter it always remains humid despite the absence of precipitation here. The Berlitz pocket guide to Qatar which the Qatar Tourism office is giving at the venue says this of Qatar: 'In a recent ranking of the Arabian Gulf's top 10 business cities, the region's leading monthly business magazine, Gulf Business, listed Qatar's capital Doha as second only to Dubai, replacing Bahrain's capital, Manama, in the number two spot. 'There is a real buzz surrounding Doha', said Gulf Business. 'Courted by multinationals, international banks and regional investors, Qatar and Doha City are suddenly the flavour of the month. Or, if its assured gas-revenue streams are anything to go by, the flavour of the decade.'
Qatar (the guide continues) has huge reserves of natural gas. A major oil producer since 'black gold' was first produced in quantity in 1949, the country also contains the world's largest single gas field, and is currently its third-biggest gas producer. With global multi-billion-dollar gas deals filling the national coffers, Qatar has the fastest-growing economy in the region, and is the richest country in the world in terms of GNP per head of population. '
Further along I can read:' Doha itself, located halfway up the east coast of the Qatar Peninsula, is a fascinating destination that's at a turning point in its history. Shaking off its formerly sleepy, provincial air and unwelcome status as poor cousin to Dubai and Manama, the city is rapidly emerging as a vibrant international capital. '...'Slightly smaller than the US state of Connecticut, Qatar is no longer than 200km north to south and 100km east to west and can be covered easily in a series of day trips from Doha.
In terms of safety and security, crime in Qatar is virtually non-existent and the country is largely untroubled by the tensions that affect others in the region. The only problem visitors are likely to encounter is 'Qatar time': paradoxically, while Qatar is amassing great wealth and undergoing dynamic improvements to its infrastructrure, it's still very laid back- the country virtually shuts down during the afternoon siesta. '
Since moving into this accommodation on the 15th we've been given a meal voucher per day for the restaurant at the MPC. It's buffet style and amazingly good. So we are all enjoying this wonderful food at lunchtime and it virtually makes our day. The other cafeteria food has become insipid in comparison.
The live feed from the Host Broadcaster starts today on our CATV (close-circuit TVs) with the feed from Basketball. Three sport start competition before the opening ceremony. Football (soccer) started on the 18th and Basketball starts today. These are pool games. Each channel on the TV will broadcast (eventually) what is happening live at each venue. These are what we call clean feeds as they are neutral broadcast and at each games they are produced by the company contracted to be the host broadcaster. Here the company is called Dagbs, probably short for Doha Asian Games broadcast services. They have set cameras in the best location so the feed they produce is of high quality. The broadcasters pay for the right to use this feed and then mix this feed with the camera shots of their own camera crews on the field to be able to use for example crowd shots and interviews with athletes or reactions of family members etc and in doing so produce a program with the flavor of the country they broadcast for. CCTV will be doing this for China. Al Jazzera will be doing this for Doha. And so on.
I'm worried about my volunteers so I'll say "maa salaama" (goodbye) for now.
# posted by AdeC @ 11:29 PM 
