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qatarperegrineIt's been a fun weekend; yesterday we went to see the Doha Player's production of Oliver, and today was the Botball tournament. I actually missed the entire tournament; I was going to come for the final rounds, but traffic was illogically diverted away from City Center, apparently because there was a fire nearby. Alas. But I am hardly the person most inconvenienced by the fire, so I shouldn't complain.
Fires seem pretty common on construction sites here. On Tuesday, six construction workers died in a construction site fire near West Bay. And Leslie tells me that the tower burning this afternoon is the twin tower to another that burned back in November. Weird. I hope everyone was safely evacuated this time, too.
[UPDATE next morning -- everyone was evacuated safely, alhamdulillah.]
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I don't think I've ever written about it, but almost since we arrived in Doha I've been following a shocking situation in the papers. Back in October 2004, an Indonesian girl in a coma was dumped at Hamad Hospital. After much sleuthing, the embassy and police discovered that she was a 21-year-old maid named Arbaiya bint Suluri, who was working here in order to support her parents and siblings back in West Java. She worked for a year for a couple named Mubarak and Metha Al Hasni, who in that period of time never once paid her. It appears likely that the Al Hasnis assaulted Arbaiya with a blunt object after discovering her stealing money.
The Al Hasnis dispute this, of course. Mubarak maintains that she hit her head while falling in the kitchen. Later on, he also alleged that she intentionally fell, and also that she had just robbed him of QR7500 ($2000).
After 19 months, Arbaiya is still in a coma; it seems unlikely she'll recover.
So here's the latest: on Thursday, the Al Hasnis were both sentenced to 5 years in jail. Reactions to this are mixed; the Indonesian embassy says it sends a good message, while the Indonesian Women's Assocation says the sentence was too light. I don't know what to think.
Fires seem pretty common on construction sites here. On Tuesday, six construction workers died in a construction site fire near West Bay. And Leslie tells me that the tower burning this afternoon is the twin tower to another that burned back in November. Weird. I hope everyone was safely evacuated this time, too.
[UPDATE next morning -- everyone was evacuated safely, alhamdulillah.]
---
I don't think I've ever written about it, but almost since we arrived in Doha I've been following a shocking situation in the papers. Back in October 2004, an Indonesian girl in a coma was dumped at Hamad Hospital. After much sleuthing, the embassy and police discovered that she was a 21-year-old maid named Arbaiya bint Suluri, who was working here in order to support her parents and siblings back in West Java. She worked for a year for a couple named Mubarak and Metha Al Hasni, who in that period of time never once paid her. It appears likely that the Al Hasnis assaulted Arbaiya with a blunt object after discovering her stealing money.
The Al Hasnis dispute this, of course. Mubarak maintains that she hit her head while falling in the kitchen. Later on, he also alleged that she intentionally fell, and also that she had just robbed him of QR7500 ($2000).
After 19 months, Arbaiya is still in a coma; it seems unlikely she'll recover.
So here's the latest: on Thursday, the Al Hasnis were both sentenced to 5 years in jail. Reactions to this are mixed; the Indonesian embassy says it sends a good message, while the Indonesian Women's Assocation says the sentence was too light. I don't know what to think.
Fire Photos
Date: 2006-05-28 09:13 am (UTC)And it was first reported on Qatar Living (http://www.qatarliving.com/node/1188) which is pretty cool...maybe this whole citizen journalism thing can take off in Qatar!
no subject
Date: 2006-05-29 07:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-05-29 08:23 am (UTC)That is good news, then.
Industrial hell
Date: 2006-06-06 05:30 am (UTC)Re:poster of Industrial hell
Date: 2006-06-06 05:31 am (UTC)www.rockinhejabi.blogspot.com
Re: Industrial hell
Date: 2006-06-06 06:22 am (UTC)I don't know that being forced to go in is the only possible explanation, but it's also not hard for me to imagine that happening.