These pictures came during a happy afternoon, watching the Irish Sailing Championships in Dun Laoghaire Harbour. The 25 seniors all had to sail 1720s – a boat designed by a Cork man and made in Tralee. The name refers to the founding year of the Royal Cork Yacht Club.
On the high-powered rib we were aboad was one of the 1720. He had handed over his boat for the competition and was hoping it would survive without too much damage. It turns out he has spent a lot of time in the Middle East, most recently employed by the firm that built the huge American air base west of Doha in Qatar. That meant he was around just after the current Emir deposed his father and took over. Why had that happened, I asked? No real reason – it was simply time for a new leader. Such things happen.
Although he retains a soft spot for Oman, my new friend is appalled by the rampant materialism in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Saudi and Qatar. Less than 50 years ago, these people were herding camel and now they are attempting to buy a place in the first rank of the world’s nations.
They don’t realise that civilisations develop organically over time; you can’t just buy up everything you need to turn yourself into a proper country.
Even a decade ago, he had noted that the Gulf nations were becoming perilously over dependant on imported brainpower and labour. In Oman, they had attempted an “Omanisation” programme. When this failed because the locals quite simply weren’t up to the job, they had to re-hire all the people they had sent home but this time through one of the many multinational agencies now fleecing the Gulf area. The result was a wages bill two and a half times higher than before.
Like me, he had seen not just the horrific work conditions on the building sites, but also the shoddiness of the work. When you pay people $400 a month, you don’t get quality work; he feels, like me, that anyone investing out there will be throwing their money away.
Yet the big Western advertising agencies and business consultancies are promoting the region with vastly expensive and glossy promotional campaigns – underlining just how disgusting their line of work can be.
If I was the Emir, I would throw out all the multinational jackyls and attempt to make Qatar a small but beautiful desert state for its own citizens first and foremost, using the old ways (wind towers instead of ACs for instance). Then the rest of us might have a reason to come and visit.
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