The call for reform here is not as for some of Qatar's other regional neighbours, it is a more sophisticated call for reform.
In the 1st issue, these activists call for a return to basics of Qatar's roots, culture and heritage, which has been somewhat whittled down by being too accomodating to expat workers.
"Qatar's high proportion of foreign workers a threat to the country’s identity and asks for increased government transparency, citizen involvement and democracy" - They do have a point here but this needs to be balanced out with the need for expat workers to assist in nation building.
The statement on the 1st issue about the worsening population imbalance where the population of citizens in 2010 was only 12% (this some of us knew by the general numbers but not the percentages) and this is indeed alarming.
But the statement that this would "obliterate its identity and culture and its Arabic language, and undermine the role of its citizens” is perhaps too strongly worded but perhaps meant to shake up citizens to some realization of the need to take some action to protect themselves because they have been burned in the past.
For the avoidance of doubt, I'm not saying that expats have not been burned in the past, some very badly, but I'm saying that there is the other reality that locals had also been burned by expats in the past.
I also just read this in the Qatar News column on the right over here - http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/politics/2012/10/how-to-call-for-reform-...
The call for reform here is not as for some of Qatar's other regional neighbours, it is a more sophisticated call for reform.
In the 1st issue, these activists call for a return to basics of Qatar's roots, culture and heritage, which has been somewhat whittled down by being too accomodating to expat workers.
"Qatar's high proportion of foreign workers a threat to the country’s identity and asks for increased government transparency, citizen involvement and democracy" - They do have a point here but this needs to be balanced out with the need for expat workers to assist in nation building.
The statement on the 1st issue about the worsening population imbalance where the population of citizens in 2010 was only 12% (this some of us knew by the general numbers but not the percentages) and this is indeed alarming.
But the statement that this would "obliterate its identity and culture and its Arabic language, and undermine the role of its citizens” is perhaps too strongly worded but perhaps meant to shake up citizens to some realization of the need to take some action to protect themselves because they have been burned in the past.
For the avoidance of doubt, I'm not saying that expats have not been burned in the past, some very badly, but I'm saying that there is the other reality that locals had also been burned by expats in the past.