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Turn me out and I'll wander, baby
Aug. 17th, 2005 09:21 amThe latest hubbub in the Peninsula is about the new guidelines for eateries about to be implemented by the Ministry of Municiple and Affairs and Agricultures. The new guidelines include stricter rules not only for refrigeration and worker safety, but also for everything from acceptable placement of ovens to the number of doors in the kitchen. These new guidelines are going to be impossible to follow for most of the countless small cafeterias and juice stalls that cater to low-income immigrant laborers.
Peninsula articles so far:
Stricter guidelines in the offing for small eateries
New rules for eateries likely to make thousands jobless
Muslims from northern Kerala worried about future in Qatar
Many residents welcome stricter rules for eateries
Today they are reporting that Eateries older than 20 years likely to escape new rules. But really, 20 years is ancient history in Qatar; I have no idea how many eatieres are that old. (Also, I'm glad to learn from this article that they're cracking down on "big nails and hair" and making sure restaurants "have proper refrigeration facilities to store food items and steel chairs." God forbid your steel chairs be room temperature!)
Seriously, though, I think this is another symptom of Qatar's weird economic dislocation. Although it's one of the wealthiest countries in the world, Qatar is kept functioning by hordes of grossly low-paid immigrant laborers from the Indian subcontinent, Indonesia, the Philippines and Africa. These workers rely on the substandard eateries because they're the only places you can eat for $50 a month, and a lot of people don't make enough to eat anywhere else. Now Qatar is trying to implement standards like the ones we have in the West, and I really don't know how they're going to make it work. I'm certainly not saying that the poor deserve to eat in unclean and unsafe facilities, but how is the society going to ensure that there are better options?
Peninsula articles so far:
Stricter guidelines in the offing for small eateries
New rules for eateries likely to make thousands jobless
Muslims from northern Kerala worried about future in Qatar
Many residents welcome stricter rules for eateries
Today they are reporting that Eateries older than 20 years likely to escape new rules. But really, 20 years is ancient history in Qatar; I have no idea how many eatieres are that old. (Also, I'm glad to learn from this article that they're cracking down on "big nails and hair" and making sure restaurants "have proper refrigeration facilities to store food items and steel chairs." God forbid your steel chairs be room temperature!)
Seriously, though, I think this is another symptom of Qatar's weird economic dislocation. Although it's one of the wealthiest countries in the world, Qatar is kept functioning by hordes of grossly low-paid immigrant laborers from the Indian subcontinent, Indonesia, the Philippines and Africa. These workers rely on the substandard eateries because they're the only places you can eat for $50 a month, and a lot of people don't make enough to eat anywhere else. Now Qatar is trying to implement standards like the ones we have in the West, and I really don't know how they're going to make it work. I'm certainly not saying that the poor deserve to eat in unclean and unsafe facilities, but how is the society going to ensure that there are better options?
