"High-technology services across large tracts of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa were crippled Thursday following a widespread Internet failure which brought many businesses to a standstill and left others struggling to cope.
Hi-tech Dubai has been hit hard by an Internet outage apparently caused by a cut undersea cable.
Industry experts are blaming damage to two undersea cables but it is not known what caused the damage.
Reports say that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain Pakistan and India, are all experiencing severe problems."'
Here in Doha the internet was down on Thursday morning, and up (but slow) in the afternoon. It is up today (Friday) but slow. Very Frustrating! And, my laptop is dying. Guess I shouldn't be surprised, it has seen 3 1/2 years of hard use. Occasionally the screen will go screwy and then black out. Need to go laptop shopping!
Another interesting article today about the large number of imported workers in the Gulf countries. There are about 17 million foreign workers in the Gulf - mostly from the sub-Asian continent (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Phillipines and, soon, Vietnam) There are about 1 million people in Qatar, but only about 200,000 are Qatari - rest are imported workers. As the article states (and was written by a Gulf native) there is a " reliance of "lazy" Gulf Arabs on foreign labour to carry out even the simplest tasks." This is true in Qatar - the foreign workers do all the hard work here. I have talked with some people here - who tell me they like to work for "English" people (by "English" they mean American, Australian, European - Westerners) because they are treated much better by the English, and they aren't expected to do all the work - the English don't leave dirty food dishes all over the house and their clothes all over the floor and expect the maid to clean them up, etc; Sad that children here are being raised to expect such royal treatment. Can tell you this - I'm glad I wasn't raised that way!
Speaking of royal treatment I do get some - without asking for it or expecting it. The workers on the compound (all foreign, of course) call me "Madam. " The gate guard salutes as we drive our car in. Yesterday, as I was leaving the clubhouse, the man who was mopping the floor opened the door for me and bowed. What am I to do? I want to say - "Hey guys, take it down a notch will ya? I'm not royalty!" But don't want to offend them, make them think they have offended me, or have them get in trouble when they don't do that to someone else who expects it. Life is complicated.
2 comments:
Sorry about your lap top. our "good" computer is messed up too.
Heck, our maid would quit if we did that! more than that Shirley would spank us. LOL!
If you make it this summer we'll take you to Flyte. I'd use any excuse! The kids stay home and eat pizza though.... LOL!
You're right - don't treat your employees right in the US and they will up and leave! Unfortunately, many people working here are not free to do that.
Flyte it is - and the kids love pizza!
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