I have met some nice, kind and respectful Qataris. It would be unfair to generalize Qataris as being racist. Unfortunately this is the widespread perception because of the rude, racist personnel manning frontline services who are not properly trained in customer service. These kind of people should not even be promoted to higher positions, much less hired. Qatarization policy is not an excuse to hire or promote incompetent people.
The common perception -- and my acquaintances' experience -- is also that the police would hesitate to act on complaints about Qataris, particularly in regard to traffic violations.
exiledsaint, I sympathize with you on the "racist Friday" thing. My man experienced this same treatment only last Friday. He left me inside the mall to have a smoke outside, and when he went back he was prevented by the Indian guard from entering. This would be fine if the same guard did not also allow another unaccompanied Indian from entering, which he did, making up some excuse about the latter carrying a basket.
Pitstop, I think it is the duty of the Qatari government to do something about the widespread racism in Qatar, not only by Qataris but also by people of other nationalities. I think it boils down to education and training. I believe that people are the same everywhere; racism is strongest among those who are not properly educated.
As for complaining to the mall owner, do you really think this is practicable for the average customer? What the government can and should do in this case is to ban the Family Day policy altogether, because not only does discrimination happen in connection with this policy, but it also causes inconvenience for working people, particularly single workers whose day off happens to fall on a Friday. Single workers have to come from places as far away as Ras Laffan Industrial City to spend their only holiday in Doha, only to be prevented from entering the malls because of this irrational policy.
shoeaddict, perhaps it would not solve the problem but this is a forum which IS intended for discussions. Here we communicate to each other our thoughts and experiences. I believe that even if we don't automatically solve the problem, we could at least promote awareness of the situation through this medium. Awareness of the problem of racism is the first step towards eliminating it. If we are all aware of what is racist or not in our mentality and behavior then we can take steps to change it and encourage others to do so too.
mmyke, Caucasians are not as frequent targets of racism as we non-Arab Asians are.
johnpur, unfortunately that is how many of us feel the way things are at present.
I have met some nice, kind and respectful Qataris. It would be unfair to generalize Qataris as being racist. Unfortunately this is the widespread perception because of the rude, racist personnel manning frontline services who are not properly trained in customer service. These kind of people should not even be promoted to higher positions, much less hired. Qatarization policy is not an excuse to hire or promote incompetent people.
The common perception -- and my acquaintances' experience -- is also that the police would hesitate to act on complaints about Qataris, particularly in regard to traffic violations.
exiledsaint, I sympathize with you on the "racist Friday" thing. My man experienced this same treatment only last Friday. He left me inside the mall to have a smoke outside, and when he went back he was prevented by the Indian guard from entering. This would be fine if the same guard did not also allow another unaccompanied Indian from entering, which he did, making up some excuse about the latter carrying a basket.
Pitstop, I think it is the duty of the Qatari government to do something about the widespread racism in Qatar, not only by Qataris but also by people of other nationalities. I think it boils down to education and training. I believe that people are the same everywhere; racism is strongest among those who are not properly educated.
As for complaining to the mall owner, do you really think this is practicable for the average customer? What the government can and should do in this case is to ban the Family Day policy altogether, because not only does discrimination happen in connection with this policy, but it also causes inconvenience for working people, particularly single workers whose day off happens to fall on a Friday. Single workers have to come from places as far away as Ras Laffan Industrial City to spend their only holiday in Doha, only to be prevented from entering the malls because of this irrational policy.
shoeaddict, perhaps it would not solve the problem but this is a forum which IS intended for discussions. Here we communicate to each other our thoughts and experiences. I believe that even if we don't automatically solve the problem, we could at least promote awareness of the situation through this medium. Awareness of the problem of racism is the first step towards eliminating it. If we are all aware of what is racist or not in our mentality and behavior then we can take steps to change it and encourage others to do so too.
mmyke, Caucasians are not as frequent targets of racism as we non-Arab Asians are.
johnpur, unfortunately that is how many of us feel the way things are at present.