I’ve promised myself I’m not gonna ridicule in my blog The Company All Expats Love To Hate (read: QTEL). But I can’t help it…. They’re just too easy…

“Let’s Connect” – marketing slogan or shouts heard all over Qatar from people desperately trying to connect their supposedly all-time DSL connections!

Of course, I’m talking about last week’s 2-day outage. Both my home DSL and my office were out…. You would think they’ll apologize? Noooo, they issued some silly little press release blaming unidentified “vendor”.

QTEL – only company in the world that can charge (and overcharge) for the services they’re NOT providing… let’s see… I’m charged 400 QR/month for my (sometimes) 2Mbs at home…. So this month, two days being off, they’ll charge me 371.4 QR, Right? Right???. Ummm, no.

And don’t you just love when they issue their annual figures in Gulf Times boosting about phenomenal profits they’ve made? It’s kinda like sticking their finger in everyone’s eye and going na-na-na-na. Give ME an absolute monopoly over a vital service that everyone has to use and let me charge however much I want, and you’ll see how profitable I’ll make MY company!!!

And just one more thing:

Message to the creative genius who came up with those posters on the roundabouts saying “Internet – the Future of Business” and “Internet – the Future of Entertainment”…
Duuuuuuuuh!

Yeah, yeah, I know. Road safety is a big issue nowadays in Qatar. And rightfully so – driving in Qatar is shockingly bad, especially for newcomers. From time to time you can read funny news on the Internet, like when some tourist websites describe driving in Qatar as “equal to practicing an extreme sport” or the recent interview of the former US ambassador to Qatar where he's saying how Qatar is safe and friendly and he felt safe here all the time, but the only thing that was dangerous while living in Doha were terrifying roundabouts when his wife had to drive by herself...

But, c'mon, these boards??? On almost every traffic light in Doha they've hanged incredibly ugly ridiculous boards with slogans like “Enough” “Brother, where are you” “Father, where are you” etc. Artwork looks as if it is done by a retarded 5-year old who had half day to learn Photoshop.

Boards contributed tremendously to uglyfying Doha, just now in times when it is becoming known and respected worldwide! This makes Qatar look like a third world country – like one of those emails circulating with stupid road signs in Syria or Bangladesh!

And, NO, they will not contribute to road safety either – only thing they CAN do is to make even more accidents as you have to squint to figure out what is meant to be represented on those ugly artworks, or you burst laughing when you see “Enough” sign written in “Rocky Horror Show” font!

ENOUGH! Remove that crap now!

And, if they really really want to improve the road safety, one word – IMPLEMENTATION. Put more police on the roads, put more cameras everywhere and be tough and strict with the implementation of existing laws. No 12-year olds racing in the Land Cruisers, which is, IMHO, the greatest cause of accidents in Doha! Impede daddy's cars! Fine them thousands of ryials! And you'll see.

Ghost of Che Guevara is alive and well in Doha, Qatar.

Almost every day in Doha, one can see stickers with the face of famous “revolutionary” plastered on car windows. Fashion? Ignorance? Lack of cultural sensitivity? I guess the answer is all of the above...

How on Earth did this character became an idol of Doha youth? Who imports and sells these stickers? Do they have any idea who this moron was and what does he represent???

Fashion?

Give me a break.

A leader of a Communist bandit gang, best friend of Castro, person who would enter the village and immediately shoot all people of religion for being “contra-revolution” ??? Granted, he didn't kill many Moslems, but, believe me, he would've had he had a chance! He did attempt to lounch a "revolution" in Algeir if memory serves me well...

Nevertheless, his ideology did both prosecute and kill every person who believed in God, and in Eastern Europe, yes, that includes Moslems!

What do they think?? (youths plastering Che's face on their vehicle's windshields). Do they even bother reading history and finding out who this person was? Or does he, all bearded and filthy, looks to them like some Afghan Fighter? I almost feel like stopping one of them and asking!!!

I saw two cars today that made me write this (although, my hate for Che and everything Communist runs much deeper, of course).

First one, pickup truck, had a big “Allah” sticker on one side, and even bigger “Che Guevara” face on the other side of the back window. So – word of God, and a face of Communist god-denying preast-killing murderer on the same window!!!! It's kinda like having Palestinian flag and a face of Arial Sharon, right???

Other car I saw today was even worse, not Che, although it falls into the same category of ignorant stupidity – ragged car, driven by an Arab expatriate, had a HUGE sign, written all across windshield, “HITLER”. Must've stricken a note for killing all them Jews, right? I can only imagine the horror of German expatriates seeing that one!!!

So, pls. people, can you please do some thinking before you put a sticker on your car? Please? This. Hurts.