Asian games tickets and short rant about getting info in Qatar

Voted Bush too I suppose.

Anyway I seem to be getting away from the issue. I have always found that you get the best out of people when you allow them to excel and when you have faith in their abilities - that's why I need to keep reminding myself to stop generalising based on physical attributes. Some people have sacrificed a lot to be here just to give their children a better chance at life - and this deserves respect.

Dude, after a certain point below the equator, I stop caring.

And Scooby, sorry for getting one word wrong - I will book my ticket immediately.

And well done to DAGOC - it was a great show.

PS: I know it is hard for some to understand - But New Zealand has never been a part of Australia.

yorkie, I am talking about my field, which is technical, I have absolutely no knowledge of event organizers, neither I try to judge them.

TG, The work of yawning customer service rep at the desk is organized by his manager, who is supposed to be a specialist in customer service and who is responsible for the work of his team. This is where the source of the problem is.

You yourself said that "Its always the enabling enviroment, professional satisfaction ( a much abused term), responsibility and appreciation" - that exactly what the manager's task is.

Middle management in Qatar is 80% contracted from the people who were useless in their home countries, and who brought all the experience or lack of it along to Qatar. Blame them, don't blame the boy in uniform who simply was not properly trained neither is properly managed.

My experiences are different than yours. I was talking about the service industry where bored front office staff sit yawning and giving you a stare the moment you approach them. So it was about "customer" service not specialists.

My expriences of specialists is - those from the third world (its a term out of circulation after the stunning rise of China in manufacturing and India in Services) are equally well paid now with all companies where human resources are a critical requirement and all "western specialist" whom we deal with as our sub-contractors turn out to be "monkeys" in lala land (with due respect to a miniscule hard working/capable minority in the same groups we deal with).Its the third world which is "actually doing the job".

Here I am not talking about "first world" companies building labour accomodations in Industrial cities of qatar. I have little trust or respect for such "first world specialists". If you are really talking about genuine specialists then money alone is never a criteria of "career advance". Its always the enabling enviroment, professional satisfaction ( a much abused term), responsibility and appreciation, along with comfortable living. Something which is alien to middle east.

By the way I liked the opening ceremony and I feel DAGOC did a good job of what was assigned to them so I have nothing to add to your colourful remarks.

Not simply access to education, but the education that I actually accessed. There's a difference between having an opportunity and seizing it.

That education gave me a considerable amount of knowledge and skills--much of which is highly marketable. Applications of it include identifying that you spelt the word 'privileged' incorrectly. Maybe the Arab people won't miss one less linguistically deficient Australian in the Middle East:-)

I think they really did a good job in the opening ... Everything really come together and went well. Can't comment about mother of nature (the rain). You can't control that.

As road not finish on time ... i think thats would be different thread and don't get me start on that one. Hehe ...

Yorkie ... well done for your hubby and his colleques.:-)

REALLY take exception to that comment about DAGOC employees.

I know lots of them, my husband being one of them. Some may have been unemployed before they came here 'cos they're freelancers duh! That means they go from one big event to the next on contract basis, so no safety net for us except for 25 years media experience.

Tg - Qatar simply can't attract high quality specialists. For the price they pay (at least in Qtel) they get middle layer from the third world (India, Egypt) or those who have been fired after 20 years of work somewhere in NZ, and simply have nowhere to go.

The high quality specialists are already employed elsewhere, and to incentivate them to move they have to pay substantially more, and they don't. I am talking about Qtel, but the trend is the same throughout Qatar.

As the result, they get mediocre specialists who build the services up to their mediocre standards. Same applies to DAGOC - which is in a nutshell a bunch of unemployed Australians, who will be unemployed again, once the games are over.

Did you mean access to education has put you in a priviledged position? Or was it something else...

double post

I think I gave you guys an excellent opportunity to gang up on an American:-) It's all good -- we deserve much of the scorn heaped upon us.

I appreciate many, though not all, of the comments and criticisms.

I do speak slowly. Very slowly. I try to enunciate every syllable and use very basic English. I also have varying speaking skills in Arabic and Urdu/Hindi, and I use them. But I guess that means little for Southeast Asianers. I do try the Socratic method to get through the BS answers, because language isn't a factor often. Sometimes people just quite simply BS their way through the day.

It's not only these people's faults. I think it's a structural problem. This country is just a mish-mash of people and for most of them Arabic and English are not their mother tongues. When I have to speak another language, sometimes I avoid expressing complex ideas and settle for brief and possibility not so accurate statements.

But people who work with certain services should be prepared to provide accurate answers. It's not simply with shoes and stuff in department stores. It happens with business calls as well, when I have to deal with service providers. Instead of speaking to someone once and getting the right info, I have to speak to several people multiple times. It's utterly uneconomical. I guess employers tend to look simply for cheap labor that can do the job minimally, rather than either putting some money toward better training, making intelligent management structures, and hiring better workers.

With that said, I do sympathize with the underpaid workers at some of these stores. As an American, I am in a privileged position in this country's caste system. There is **some** logical merit to the system--depending on the field and type of work--but its exploitative elements do not encourage diligence in labor.

I guess I should be resigned toward how things work. Maybe I'll pull a Flannery O'Conner and write a story, "A Correct Answer is Hard to Find."

If we talk "SERVICE" in Doha, even those being paid by a truck load hardly respond better than monkeys. There is no excuse to the quality of service we receive at Banks, QTEL etc. We can't attribute it to poor pay.

To the original poster, the excuse of this being an Arabic country hardly flies. Asian games are a Pan-Asian event which Qatar won after a competition from many cities, promising multi-lingual signage and service. If its missing even before the crowd has gathered, the DAGOC bunch need to show a bit of movement.I could hardly find ANY signage on the road other than Villagio and Hyatt Plaza (Obviously put up by the Malls).

I find complete absence of accountability in every sphere of service industry. If you are not happy with something, you dont know whom to complain, where to get redressal. If you take all the trouble and find some, he/she will shrug off with an "Inshallah"(Operational meaning: Forget about it)

I agree that service can be lousy sometimes here, but If you try to be friendly and patient normally you get what you are looking for.

If you make an efford to be understood, usually you will.

And again, I would look pretty miserable myself if I was getting paid less than 1000QR for a 9 hour shift, six days a week!

I'm having a hard time with Jarir, though. Ordered a book over two months ago and everytime I ask if it has arrived they tell me that it will arrive in one or two weeks, inshallah. Last time I lost my nervs and shout to the guy: DONT YOU INSHALLAH ME, WILL I HAVE THE BOOK NEXT WEEK OR NOT!

I regretted it inmediately, poot guy...

You pay peanuts you get monkeys.

I would blame it on their training as well as a language barriers. I don't think they're lazy. I just think that they don't understand you but are trained to sort of just nod and be polite rather than take a few seconds to tell the customer that they don't understand and to please explain. I think they are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Meaning, they are stuck between pleasing the customer as well as their supervisor. Also, I agree on the fact that you get what you pay for.

Lulu cashiers always look like someone just ran over their puppy. I always tell them to smile and get them to laugh. Yup, my husband thinks Im an idiot. I've always believed that one great customer can help you to get through dealing with the other bad ones. The Megamart chain stores are awesome. They're so friendly. I think the nicest I have dealt with have been Crepeway and the shoe store Ninewest. The absolute worst, rudest place I have dealt with was Zara.

Do you know how much the pay of the cashier in Lulu and The Centre. I have no idea :-), but they know how much the would be getting before they come to Doha to work.

I used to have a girlfriend who work as a waiter in Bateel Cafe. I know she earn QR 1.000 a month. 9 hours shift a day. And she have to pay her own food too. She did not last long here ... go home to Indo after about 1 yr.

I agree with you the service better than the UK in filling your fuel. Here you don't even have to come out from your car. In the UK u have to fill it y our self and have to walk to the shop to pay.

Service from Qtel? Don't get me start on that one please... lol.

How would you act if you were doing their job for their pay? As my old man always said - you get what you pay for. Having said that - service here is much better than in the UK so we are in general very happy with the service we get from the cashiers - Service from QTel, well that is another story

"But Lulu Centre cashier always looks miserable..."

Definitely not as miserably incompetent as Carrefours'

Check out Amrs post - he has two

If anyone has any extra openeing ceremony tickets they want to sell please call me on 5949577. I really want go!

So Scooby - missing home then... could say that there is an easy answer to that - maybe the arab people won't miss one less american in the Middle East.

Seriously - Liana Banana is right - Chill, slow down, practice a few greetings in Arabic, Tagalog and dont let things get to you personaly.

The games site worked well enough for me (buying tickets to the cultural events) and the guy at the City Centre outlet had a great sense of humour despite the fact I did not have my purchase order...

Make the most of being here - sometimes it is easier and more productive to use the system than to fight it.

I won't blame the staff incompetency ... i would blame they don't have enough training. Either security guard or shopkeeper.

I do find places like Starbucks are nice to visit. All the staffs there always very polite and greet you accordingly.

Cashier in megamart landmark and The Centre and Qmart in The Mall always nice and friendly.

But Lulu Centre cashier always looks miserable...

While we are at it... anybody heard of official days off during the Games? Also - they are going to close the Corniche, how people who work on Corniche are going to get to the offices? Al Istiqlal street is not a solution, since you can get in but can't get out.

Scooby,

have you forgotten where you are? This is not America, my friend. Here, Arabic is the official language and these people are kind and intelligent enough to have made english widely spoken so our lives are a little easier.

Do you speak any arabic? I don't. And I'm grateful that the english that most people speak here helps me to get by. Even if sometimes this english is far from perfect.

thats a shame scoobydooby. dont mean to be patronising but are you slowing down when you speak to these people, and giving them the impression that you will not blow up in their faces if they tell you "we dont sell shoes"? American accents can be difficult to understand for people who have learned to read and write proper English. ha! just kidding. and i'm sure these people have had experience with westerners from your area of the world taking out their frustrations on the messenger.

my advice is to leave a small gap between each word and try to speak with a neutral accent, i.e. like a swiss or dutch person. my natural aussie accent can be difficult to understand too, and this makes a world of difference.