I agree with you, John of Arc. The Asian games in my opinion was one of the worst things to happen to Qatar. It brought in a lot more population than the country was ready to handle, shot rents up, cost of living went high and the already bad expat to locals ratio went from bad to worse.

There are far more important changes that have happened for Qatar like allowing women to drive, the increased focus towards education, introduction of mandatory final settlement for all employees, arrival of many international brands etc. Some people think introduction of the bars and pubs was a step forward, I'm neutral towards it.