Gaining Qatari citizenship is near impossible - Doha Notebook 20
A football fan wave Qatar flags as she arrives at Hayya Fan Zone to watch a live broadcast of the 2022 World Cup opening match between Qatar and Ecuador in Lusail, north of Doha, on November 20, 2022, ahead of the Qatar 2022 World Cup football tournament.
What you need to know:
- To even be considered for citizenship one needs to have lived and worked in Qatar for at least 25 uninterrupted years
- Here in Qatar, online purchases of similar products are delivered by a company called Talabat via their version of boda boda
- Rwanda President Paul Kagame has congratuled Qatar for successfully hosting the World Cup
Gaining Qatari citizenship is near impossible
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Becoming a Qatari citizen is as hard as a camel passing through the eye of a needle, I tell you. There seems to be no legal way to be naturalised as a local here. To even be considered for citizenship one needs to have lived and worked in Qatar for at least 25 uninterrupted years. Being born in Qatar does not confer you any form of citizenship. Marrying a Qatari or getting married to one, similarly, is no grounds to apply for citizenship. Either you are born a Qatari or you are not a Qatari. This may explain why there are only 300,000 Qataris on earth.
Kenya has Glovo, Qatar has Talabat
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In Kenya, after making an online purchase of food, grocery and pharmaceuticals for example, chances are that delivery will be made by a company called Glovo and will be via a boda boda (motorcycle). Glovo’s prominent brand colour is green. Here in Qatar, online purchases of similar products are delivered by a company called Talabat via their version of boda boda. The company’s riders are conspicuous on the roads of Doha speeding away in their bright orange uniform. You can’t fail to see them hanging around fast food joints waiting for orders to deliver to presumably hungry clients around town. Many of the riders are Indians and Africans.
President Kagame praises Qatar World Cup
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Rwanda President Paul Kagame has congratuled Qatar for successfully hosting the World Cup. Speaking during the Qatari leader's Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad al-Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award ceremony held in Doha this week, the Rwandan leader said Fifa was right to select Qatar as host of the 2022 tournament. He criticised the smear campaign against Qatar saying the tournament was not the sole preserve of a chosen few. He hailed the way Qatar responded to the criticism through the achievements it had made on the ground. The tiny Gulf state has built impressive infrastructure including a new metro railway, seven brand new stadiums, and a network of roads and hotels.
