Beauty and the Blight

A series of construction sites near the Souq Waqif

Doha is undergoing major transformations. Look in any direction along the city skyline and the horizon is marked with tower cranes,  like a seam of jaggged stitches attaching  earth and sky. In the next few years, this country, smaller than the state of Connecticut, will spend, by some estimates, close to $50billion on infrastructure projects. There are hospitals, museums, highways, sports arenas, hotels all under construction.

The contrasts within the city are stark. Signs of great wealth and signs of poverty - especially among the laborers, all foreign workers who have come from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Philippines, and various countries of Africa, just to name a few. Certainly the newly completed skyscrapers are impressive, but there are also neighborhoods where the construction is still raw and the demolished buildings stand waiting for their turn to be wiped away and replaced with something new.

This is a fairly common site in the neighborhood of Al Saad, where Stephen lived the first four months in Doha.

Another scene in Al Saad. Beyond the corrugated sheets is a construction dump.

The contrast between old and new is also striking.

A beautiful new facility is at Katara, where this amphitheater provides a venue for all sorts of cultural events.

The amphitheater faces the sea.

The beach at Katara - no bikinis allowed.