"If you believe in freedom of speech, you believe in freedom of speech for views you don't like. Stalin and Hitler, for example, were dictators in favor of freedom of speech for views they liked only. If you're in favor of freedom of speech, that means you're in favor of freedom of speech precisely for views you despise."

-Noam Chomsky

Although ( Read more... )

Insulting email, SMS can land you in prisonWeb posted at: 1/31/2010 6:53:32 ( Read more... )

Mr. Q over at ILoveQatar.net posted an Al Jazeera story on some local workers not getting paid:

Click to view

It's cheering to see Al Jazeera pointing out injustices here in Qatar, and not just in neighboring states (even if they do it in an appalling surfer dude accent).

In more chilling news, the Shura Council just called for more stringent punishment for ( Read more... )

Amnesty International just released their 2009 human rights report. Their writeup of Qatar is hereTheir slant is odd to me. The report devotes more room to specific citizenship issues than to worker rights, when workers rights abuses affect many more people much more severely. (And if they want to talk about citizenship, why not mention unfair ( Read more... )

While I was in Oman this weekend (more on that later), Qatar passed a new sponsorship law! It is Law No. 4 of 2009, ratified on Thursday by the Heir Apparent. It goes into effect immediately ( Read more... )

The spokesman for the Ministry of Labor just announced that, during surprise labor camp inspections, his own company was found to have some labor law minor violations ( Read more... )

There was a crackdown on single men in public places during the Eid holiday, including the use of police violence to keep Asian workers out of public areas. Eid mubarak, Indian laborers! So much for Ramadan reminding us of the brotherhood of man ( Read more... )

According to today's Pensinsula headline -- Housewives quiver as blue-collar workforce pitches tents in al Wakra -- local women are reporting they are unable to leave the house because there are poor people out there. Oh noes ( Read more... )

A new sponsorship law has been kicking around for some months. Apparently, this week the Advisory Council sent the draft back to committee for some changes ( Read more... )

Police officers physically barred workers from entering souqs and the Corniche on Friday, citing that it was "family day." Normally Doha maintains the polite fiction that "family day" at a mall means that no single men are allowed, but one policeman interviewed was more forthright: "Every Friday we come here to stop the labourers accessing this ( Read more... )