Are you indeed Qatari, Pink Lady? For it is my understanding that Qataris are good at Arabic only. It is not their habit and they are not interested in learning English. You, however, seem altogether different. Yours is such a splendid writing style, and you appear to have such masterful command of rhetoric. I am impressed, I must admit!

As to the payraise, well, I am a non-Qatari, a Pakistani to be specific, but I am just really happy that the locals got a raise. They are muslims and, therefore, our brothers. And they have let us work in their country and we must be grateful. May Allah shower upon them more bounties and may Allah give us too from His limitless generosity.

The day this payraise was announced I had a patient who was too talkative (I am sorry, I did not mention, I am a doctor). He was an old Qatari gentleman admitted with stroke and was complaining of a skin problem for which the drug was not available at the pharmacy. So I asked him to bring it from outside.

In the afternoon when I visited him and asked him if he had been able to get the medicine through his son, he said. "Oh doctor, you just do not know we love our Emir." I was surprised but still knew that the patient was "circumstantial" and would touch the actual topic in a while. So he went on telling me how he loved Emir and how the people were happy and how the local nationals had gotten a payraise of 60 percent. "And because of this happiness, I forgot to buy the medicine, doctor." He told me smilingly.