Life Goes On, despite embargo

To those concerned about our lives in Qatar:

The recent sudden embargo of Qatar has surprised us all. We had no clue that tensions were building; there has been no sign of worry or of increased police or military action. The surprise announcement did produce crowds in the grocery stores -- the only visible consequence was the sell-out of fresh chicken (which comes daily from Saudi Arabia). We see no signs of panic, except for those holding certain airplane tickets to Dubai or Bahrain, common weekend holidays. We hope that the highly intertwined family and business ties will bring the unhappy cousins back to normal relations. We are reassured somewhat by the quiet presence of the US air base some 25 miles west of us, way outside the city.

Our interpretation of the background:

Qatar has long tried to be a neutral talking zone in the region, hosting warring representatives and providing a place for secret or public dialogue. This rankles their cousin countries who would give no quarter to enemies of the state. Evidently a recent leak of diplomatic e-mails was the straw that broke this camel’s back. Earlier a Qatari government website was hacked to display suspiciously undiplomatic statements about their neighbors. ALso, AlJazeera criticized a Saudi TV-drama series about ISIL, fueling suspicions that Qatar was not sufficiently opposed to extremism. We are hoping that Kuwait will help to broker peace among the neighbors.

News these days changes quickly, and the main news channels are busy reporting as they always do.

AlJazeera is our local source. Their Arabic channel irritates Saudi and Egypt, but their English channel seems to be a quick and reliable source of regional news.

The NYTimes published a thorough article today that seems objective.

For views from the countries angry with Qatar, check the Saudi view on Arab News and the Dubai view on Gulf News

We continue to look forward to a new school year in the fall, and all of our plans are on track. We will keep our website up to date with any changes in status or schedules. Again, life continues normally here, except for some worry about weekend holiday travel (and fresh chicken).

Please contact any of us if you have particular concerns.
--J.Thomas, Vision International School, June 6, 2017

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