Just when you thought it was safe to consign Qatar to the dustbin of history, the Middle Eastern country turns up all over the place. Here are two items from The Week, December 23, 2022:
The country, which spent over 300 billion dollars bribing and constructing its way into World Cup hosting, may be dismantling some of the bespoke stadia, but the greater building projects remain. And for what? The Qataris are determined to make their plot of land a tourist destination.
But what can attract tourists to visit Qatar? They are not going to see the Taj Mahal or Machu Picchu there. The natural wonder of a Grand Canyon or a Victoria Falls is absent. The major natural element is sand. And staring at sand gets old very quickly.
Advertising at the World Cup stadia claimed that Doha was the world’s best airport. So the visitor perhaps can feel enraptured by the tarmac and the boarding gates. But he should be warned—after that, it’s only sand.
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The great Calvin Trillin once came to my college to give a speech. Among his remarks (and I’m wildly paraphrasing here) he said that God must be a joker, having placed so much of the world’s petrochemical reserves under Middle Eastern sands instead of underneath the soil of a sane country like Denmark.
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