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Doha: Explain Yourself.
After 14.5 magical hours of flight via Abu Dhabi, Katie and I finally arrived in Doha, Qatar – a place known to have the world’s fastest growing GDP, as well as, increasingly, some of the world’s fattest people (just not as fat as Australia).
Whilst we haven’t quite started focusing on the Conference of Youth (COY) that starts in three days or the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP18) that starts in 6 days, we did get a chance yesterday to start exploring our new home for the next three and a half weeks. And Doha, you have a lot of explaining to do.
And here is why:
After arriving in Doha, we met with the New Zealand Youth Delegation (all of whom are passionate young people who are really going to make an impact at this conference) and then we decided together it was time to go see this city.
First observation of Doha: there is NO public transport! A handful of buses, no trains, no trams- just lots and lots of cars. Oil is 30 cents per litre here, and as a result Doha is about 50% freeway. We actually saw people taking afternoon naps in their cars with the engine on. And a truck driver pulled over at the side of the road for afternoon prayer (again with the engine on). Another truck tried to run me over (there was no driver in it). There are no walking paths, bike paths or pedestrian crossings. This city is not human-friendly. It is built for gas-guzzling Hummers, Dodge ‘Power Wagons’, and Porsche Cayennes.
After having a delicious lunch of falafel and hummus, we ventured to the waterfront. From a distance this city looks intriguing; the skyline is full of high-rise buildings, each of which is unique. Individually, the buildings look extravagant, and amazingly they are all built right next to each other. But as we got closer to them, we realised something else: the city is empty and the buildings are only half finished. The buildings are made to look eye-catching from the outside, but up close they are vacant. More to the point, there are no people. This city is a ghost town. It feels as if we have walked into a city where all the local inhabitants have recently evacuated ahead of the big scary thing that’s coming; only we didn’t get the memo.
Next we visited the supermarket. Now I don’t know my stats on supermarkets, but it felt like the biggest supermarket in the world. It had 43 cash registers. In a row. Each cash register was occupied by one cashier, one plastic bag-filler, and one plastic bag-knot-tier person.
The sheer volume of Halogen lighting was enough to blind a baby. I wandered around the supermarket completely disoriented for about half an hour. Nearly everything in it was imported. There were literally no locally grown foods (which sort of makes sense, because, you know, the desert).
Katie and the New Zealand crew bought some goods for the week. They got avocados from Australia, mangos from South Africa and grapes from the United States. Nothing was from within a radius of at least 1000km. The other issue was the massive amounts of everything. Doha has a population of 1,500,000. It made us wonder who in Doha was going to buy and consume all the food by the time it reaches its expiration date?
After wandering the city, we finally stumbled across a more vibrant area for dinner, where we enjoyed a Filipino/Turkish/Lebanese feast. It was a strange combination, but cheap and cheerful.
All up, it was an interesting day.
This is the first time the UNFCCC negotiations are being held in the Persian Gulf region and the first time a major energy-producing nation has ever held the UN climate talks. It will also be the largest event ever held by Qatar (probably until the 2022 FIFA World Cup of air-conditioned stadium football (soccer)). Although I hear the 2011 Arab Games were pretty cool.
I guess my biggest question is how did a country that is built on oil and gas, and which has seemingly little to no intention of becoming environmentally sustainable, come to hold the largest annual climate change conference in the world?
Doha, I am a little confused by you, and about how the conference is going to work. But I am yet to really explore your culture or see how you hold an event. I guess the next few weeks will tell.
If anyone needs more information on the conference or has a question, feel free to email me at [email protected] or on facebook
Written by AYCC Vic Volunteer Max Smith
The AYCC is building a generation-wide movement to solve the climate crisis
www.aycc.org.au
2012-11-21 03:20:10
Source: http://aycc.org.au/2012/11/21/doha-explain-yourself/
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