Word: qatar
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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When he was eight, Ashong moved to Saudi Arabia and later on, Qatar, while his parents ran pediatric emergency care centers. There, Ashong went to international schools and spent his days among students who spoke four or five languages. His parents made an effort to expose Ashong and his sister to different cultures, and the family traveled all over the globe, from Canada to Thailand...
Change is stealing into all the desert kingdoms of the Persian Gulf, but nowhere else has it proved as beneficial--though fraught with palace intrigue--as in tiny, thumb-shaped Qatar (pop. 500,000). Eighteen months ago, Hamad, trained at Britain's Sandhurst Military Academy, was merely an heir apparent. Then he staged a bloodless coup that ended the 23-year reign of his father Sheik Khalifa bin Hamad al-Thani, 64, who had developed an unseemly fondness for liquor and opulent palaces. Since then, Qataris have witnessed one of the bitterest Arabian family spats in memory, involving cash...
...trouble in Qatar and the other oil sheikdoms, of course, goes far deeper. Quite apart from perennial fears about Iraq and Iran, the region faces a potentially fatal combination of declining economic growth, rising democratic opposition and mounting Islamic extremism. The gulf is the West's economic lifeline, and a serious threat to the flow of oil would jeopardize millions of jobs in industrialized countries. While Hamad's cautious reforms, like his cool handling of his family feud, have proved generally popular at home, they are eyed with nervousness and suspicion in the tradition-bound region, which includes Saudi Arabia...
...other five Arab oil rulers, average age 69, are concerned that Qatar's policies may fan a desire for change within their own realms. Some of the friction comes from the new Emir's refusal to follow the lead of Saudi Arabia--by custom, elder brother to the small oil sheikdoms. And, sniffs a neighboring prince, "overthrowing his father in this way...Let's just say it was not well received...
...even a modest reformer prevail in a deeply conservative region? Qatar has a defense agreement with Washington, but the U.S. may not protect an Emir who is cozy with Iran and Iraq. Qatari traditionalists and some Western analysts believe it is naive to push democratic values in a society where many customs have remained unchanged since the Middle Ages. Over lunch, Hamad did something that still seems unthinkable to many. He introduced one of his three wives, Jassem's mother, who was modestly dressed in an ankle-length suit rather than in the customary robe. As she spoke of improving...