Dear Doha Diary

2 weeks have passed since Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic ties with Qatar and began blocking air and sea routes and closed the only land border between Saudi Arabia and Qatar.  The participating countries closed their air space to Qatar Airways and their national airlines are no longer flying into Qatar.  With the land border closed, all deliveries of food and other materials through Saudi Arabia have been halted so other arrangements were quickly made, including flying in produce from Turkey, Iran and India and sea shipping via Oman rather than UAE. The effect on Gulf families is the biggest impact and today marks the 14 day deadline for Saudi, UAE and Bahraini nationals to leave Qatar and for Qataris to leave those countries.  There are harsh penalties for those who do not comply, including threats of jail sentences, travel bans of up to 3 years and possibly revoking citizenship permanently.  Amnesty International has accused these coun...

Well, what a week!!  Ive been in Qatar now for 4 years and we've had some ups and downs and one or two troubled times, especially back in 2014 when diplomatic ties with our neighbours took a step back for a few months but on the whole, I've always had the view and the feeling that Qatar is pretty much one of the safest and most stable nations in the Middle East. Then last Monday the ground shook beneath our feet and we suffered what can only be described as a geopolitical earthquake.  Sudden and severe, with instant impact, initially causing panic among the people, had us holding our breath for a few days waiting for the aftershocks and leaving long term consequences which we are still yet to truly grasp. On Monday 5 June, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar, recalling their citizens and putting the country under an air, land and sea blockade.  Qatar imports 90% of its food, much of that overland t...

Now one wouldn't necessarily think of the Middle East region as a salad garden, given the lack of rainfall throughout the year, so the plans for Qatar to achieve self-sufficiency in vegetable production over the next 5 years may seem ambitious. But this is indeed the aim, as stated by the Minister of Municipality and Environment, Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Rumaihi at an event for Qatari farmers held back in January this year. This came to my attention after I started to notice more local produce in the Carrefour supermarket where I do my weekly shop.  I've been impressed by the supermarket's policy of labelling the country of origin of all fresh produce, which gives consumers the choice to support local farmers in Qatar and other producers from the region. The issue of 'food miles' has been on the minds of western consumers for some years now,  as we learn more about the impact of food transportation on the environment.   Being from the U...

 26th March marks the beginning of the 3rd year of the war in Yemen - the day on which Saudi Arabia and a coalition of Gulf and African nations, intervened in a civil war in the country between the Iranian backed Houthi rebels (a tribal faction from the North of the country) and the rest (an amalgamation of government troops under President Hadi and young men allied to the Southern Movement). This war with seemingly no end in sight, has disappeared from view to the outside world.  Out-miseried by the atrocities in Syria and Iraq and of course outranked by events in Europe of late, most recently the attack on Westminster Bridge in London. But what many don't seem to understand or want to discuss is that these events are all interrelated.  Considering Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East, it might be a surprise to know that the UK and US are making a nice tidy sum out of it. A recent Amnesty International report states "the USA and UK combined have mad...