Leaving Doha

Well, my two weeks at the College of the North Atlantic Qatar Library has just come to an end - it was a great experience and I'm delighted to have had the opportunity to visit this place.

Doing Doha

My friends, Dan and Stephanie, have taken me to a number of places since I got here last week. The other night Dan, a colleague, and I attended the last in this season's series of the Doha Debates, a BBC sponsored broadcast forum for free speech that has been happening here for some time now (you can check out the details and even view past debates at www.dohadebates.com). The proposition was "This House believes that torture is only acceptable under legal supervision." Interesting stuff, given the tensions in the region (and the world). There were two pairs of debaters who had at it - then the audience was invited to question the particpants - in the end, the audience members cast their ballots with electronic voting machines to decide collectively which team it thought best stated its case.

We also went to a performance of Annie put on by the Doha Players last night in the very impressive auditorium at the College of the North Atlantic - Qatar (CNA-Q). All the shows have been sold out and yesterday's matinee was no exception. The cast put on a great performance and the audience (which included heaps of kids) was delighted.

This morning Dan, Steph and their six-year old daughter Kathryn took me out to the buffet brunch at the Marriott downtown. I was my usual reserved self with regard to the food (not!) and we managed to leave without splitting any seams.

The one thing that all these events had in common (a very sobering feature) is some rather stringent security measures. In each instance the approach to the venue involved passing through a security gate. Each place also had guards and airport-type metal detectors used to screen anyone who wanted to partake of the speech, performance or food. We're obviously no longer in Kansas, Dorothy ... (P.S. In 2005 the Doha Players were performing at their own theatre when a suicide bomber drove a car through a wall of the venue, killing the director, injuring several others, and demolishing the building.)

Doha Diaries

Well, here I am in Doha, Qatar. It's my good fortune to be doing my two week library internship at the College of the North Atlantic, a sparkling 5 year-old technical institute managed by the consortium that also runs Newfoundland's public colleges. It's been an eye-opening experience so far.

Between Here 'n There

The photo of the tarsier in the last post represents a very recent trip to the Philippines ... 'been back in Vancouver for two weeks and a bit and tomorrow will be heading off for Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Switzerland and France. It's really (really!) true that the world is shrinking ... (really). I will try to post somewhat regularly on this next journey. The first portion (to Doha, via Frankfurt) will be "trying," I think, as I'll be doing an overnight flight to Europe, spending a day with friends in Bensheim, then another overnight to Qatar Dubai. I will be whacked, I'm sure.

The purpose of the Qatar trip is to visit friends and spend a couple of weeks at the College of the North Atlantic-Qatar, in the library. I will be "job-shadowing" and otherwise making a nuisance of myself (not! I hope!). A few more days in Bensheim, then it's down to Geneva by train and paragliding in Annecy, France. Motoring to a wedding west of Paris, finishing with a couple of nights in La Ville-lumière, will mark the latter part and the end of this trip.

Tarsier on Bohol (Philippines)

This little feller (gal?) on the left resides in a dedicated sanctuary - he/she is not in a cage - in fact, its life is relatively hassle-free ... 'Just to give you some idea of the scale of this creature, the tarsier's body is about 5" (13 cm) long and its eye is apparently bigger than its brain. (It's the world's smallest primate - but its not a monkey and will resent it if you call it that!)

Most of the wildlife we saw on this trip was viewed underwater, as we did 12 dives with Sun Divers (www.sun-divers.net). We stayed at the Sun Apartelle (www.sunapartelle.com) on Panglao Island (near Alona Beach) and very much enjoyed the experience. The other critter here (on the right) is a nudibranch, otherwise known by its less sexy moniker: sea slug.