Future Steps - a thought provoking video of Qatar
Have you watched this video? It's been on Youtube since February 14 and shows a young athlete running through Doha.
The description of the video says this:
"A hybrid Documentary/Advert style text highlighting the contemporary issues of Doha through the eyes of a young athlete."
The issues it raises range from air pollution, to garbage collection, road accidents and many more.
Watch the video here and share your thoughts.
Aoun, I agree with you categorically , There is definitely a big room for improvement ....
Hope we take the hint ............ !
Mon, 17.02.2014, 05.52 hrs .....
Jake everybody is relieved after you admitted your falsehood ... lol ....
'' we did use certain ways to exaggerate the impact, . We did not rig anything but in fact found a bottle on the side of the street filled with a little bit of sand. But not all documentaries are fully truthful and do contain exaggerated scenes as well as bias views.''
Mon, 17.02.2014, 05.43 hrs .....
Well there is always room for improvement but comparing Qatar to other countries ,well the places i have visited or lived in Qatar is far much cleaner,peaceful and better expect the Dust which is natural as it is a desert .
I lived in Qatar for 18 months. I saw a man hit by a taxi and die while my husband and two other men tried to save him. I saw the garbage on the beaches and in the sand dunes. I saw the building that Holly was running in. I have been back in my country for a month and it still is there. The drivers in Doha get crazier everyday. They don't respect the pedestrian or any other car on the road. Doha us a very beautiful city but it has a long way to go in its growth. This video is spot on. Also when my husband would drink the tap water he would always get sick for a day or two. Good job guys.
Hi, my name is Jake, one of the co-producers of this video. My partner and I are pleased with the way that this has opened up peoples minds about Qatar and how it has caused debates as this is the reason we made this short documentary. However, we feel like we need to give some background information about ourselves and the making of the film.
1) My partner and I have a combined history in Qatar of 22 years, with me being here for 15 years (I am 17) and my partner being here for 7 (he is 18). We have both grown up here and love Qatar for what it is as it is part of our childhood, we are merely showing that there is room for improvement in certain areas as shown by the research, especially leading up to the 2022 World Cup and how FIFA have forced a large amount of rules on Qatar, especially on human labour.
2) In the making up this film we did use certain ways to exaggerate the impact, opening up peoples minds to the facts shown by the research, for example the water. We did not rig anything but in fact found a bottle on the side of the street filled with a little bit of sand. But not all documentaries are fully truthful and do contain exaggerated scenes as well as bias views. Furthermore, we did not film after a storm, in fact we had only filmed last week and the week before that, did any of you encounter a storm? No, in fact there was rain which would of cleared away the dust. Where Hollie rubbed her finger on the bus route board and dirt came off, that was 100% real and we did not expect that to happen, in fact we were going to touch on the public transport in Qatar but felt the short would be better for a dirty community. Furthermore, the scene where we see waste being dumped was not cleaned up the night after. We filmed that last week, and I was there two weeks ago location scouting and it was there. You can even go now and see that it is still there.
Finally, just because the water here is safe to drink does not mean that it isn't pure. It is only safe to drink because of all the chemicals put in during desalination of the salty water that surrounds Qatar making it impure.
Once again we are glad that this video has caused such a discussion with two minds on the video, one saying it is bias the others agreeing with the fact that Qatar does need to think about its 'future steps' especially with it being a large distributer of natural gas. This video was in now way intended to be bias, just to show people that yes, Qatar do need to think about its environment and workforce, even if one scene in the film, the water, was exaggerated. We hope you all enjoy it.
I really liked this vdeo. I think you guys are being a little too harsh you have to be open minded about this. Just because the vedeo shows the negative parts of Doha it doesnt mean it is insulting Doha. It simply just means we should try fixing these as one community. And also people should appreciate the effort tht went into thee cinematogrphy and editing part. Its not easy to make something like this.
MM bhai: Thanks. The truth must be told!
Agree with Accha's through analysis , I salute .......
Sun, 16.02.2014 hrs , 13.09 hrs ...
This video has been produced to present a negative picture of a lovely country. It shows garbage lying uncollected in the city. Frankly, there is more garbage to be seen littering the streets of other cities in several countries including mine, than Doha. The video shows construction waste getting dumped. With Qatar going through a phase of rapid expansion, to get such shots on camera is not very difficult. What the producer of the video has deliberately avoided showing is how quickly the waste get removed from the sites in a professional way. The video shows dust on seats at bus stops and on billboards. With Qatar being a country which regularly faces high winds, dust, and sandstorms, one is bound to find dust everywhere. It appears the video was recorded after one such storm had taken place. The recorder of the video is probably unaware that billboards get wiped regularly usually late at night and for that he would need to stay awake. Lastly, regarding the water flowing in taps in Qatar. Couple of years back The Peninsula had printed a report showing the chemical composition of water flowing in the taps of homes in Qatar. The report showed that the tap water was better for human consumption than bottled water that is available in the market. I think muddy water was deliberately put in the water cooler to allow for the filming of this video. The entire video shows totally a biased version of life in Doha purposely made to leave a wrong impact on the minds of viewers.
A real thought provoking video...Qatar really need to think very seriously about the issues of scrap, garbage disposals, road accidents, labour safety. Air pollution, i dont think can be controlled due to many of the industries and vehicles and difficulties in growth of the trees due to heat. And yes as Erasmus said, not all the public drinking sources are as clean and gives out the pure water. Some of them are as shown in the videos while some are safer to drink . I have experienced it.
Nice video, but the statistics are a bit confusing.
For some of the stats (read: not all), I went to the numbeo.com site (referenced as the source of some of the statistics) and was surprised that all of the "statistics" are not scientifically quantified and are just merely people's opinions with no scientific testing or research of any kind backing up the figures. However, while I watch the video it "feels" like they're backed up by an internationally accredited/approved organization.
Case in point, a personal friend of mine drinks the tap water here, but more importantly, before doing that, he had it tested at a lab in Europe and the results showed that it was 100% safe to drink and meets WHO standards
Nice TFS.. Everyone should have to take step..