Doha

Once in a while, work and travel mix and when it happens, it generally turns out to be a great experience. This time our international commitments took us to Doha. I think this city tries to become the "conference capital" of the world as it attempts to grab every opportunity at hosting conferences. Good for them, as we wonder how they manage to fill up all these hotels. But they still need to improve on their performance: my swiss colleague was tagged on his conference pass as representing Swaziland!

Anyway this conference was a little "who is who" in international politics. It is probably better that i do not name the presidents that attended, but among them was a short and excited one who bulldozed the agenda so that he could speak first, a few hysteric ones shouting at Israel, England or imperialistic forces and a few anxious ones who came surrounded by bodyguards and yes-man. Still, the majority of them did try their best to reach a compromise acceptable to all parties. What surprised me the most in this conference is how its different sub-elements did not interact with each other. On the main stage, there were the presidents' and ministers' declarations. Further, negociations on the final document took place in the open or behind closed doors depending on the stage of the process. And finally, there were many side events. During a lunch break, we managed to escape the conference so that we could finally discover a little bit of Doha. We chose to head to the newly opened Museum of Islamic Art. It is a real gem. From outside already, it is one of the few building with a modernised version of the traditional Qatari architecture. It is certainly the only building that is less than 10 years old that is not a skyscraper... And inside, a great variety of quality objects from all over the islamic world is very well presented.