Qatar solo?
This topic was discussed on World Have Your Say on 06 December 2010. Listen to the programme.
Last week if we'd asked "what do you know about Qatar" you'd probably all have said "that's where Al Jazeera is." Now the likely answer is Al Jazeera and the . Both subjects have got people asking a lot of questions, and many are hungry to find out more about one of the world's smallest, richest and hottest countries. So what do you want to know about Qatar?
Fifa President Sepp Blatter says the decision is pushing forward the frontiers of football
We go to new lands. Never has the World Cup been in Russia and Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and Arabic world have been waiting for a long time so I'm a happy president when we talk about the development of football.
As the celebrations in Qatar got underway, twitter was bursting with jubilant tweets. Here's a few collated by
@sghazzi 21 degrees in doha but tonight doha is on fire #qatar2022
@Alkhulaiwi Thank you Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al-Thani. You are a true hero for the younger generation. #Qatar2022
rachelannmorris To all those (mainly in dubai) who told me I was nuts moving to #doha all those years ago...don't make me say "I told you so"
But many were baffled by the decision. This blogger says alcohol restictions, expensive accomodation and the fact that unmarried couples can't share a room will of the World Cup:
The cultural differences are still there, and are not likely to change for one month just for staging the World Cup. As a friend of mine said, " It's like having the Circ du soleil at your backyard for one month, when you don't even like stunts and clowns"
Now the latest on Qatar comes from the Wikilileaks US State Department diplomatic cables. They allege that Qatar, who heavily subsidise the Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera, are using the channel as a bargaining chip in foreign policy negotiations. You can examine the detail of these allegations .
Al Jazeera have rejected these claims and you can have a look at what they say
Seeing as Qatar are now firmly in the limelight we're going to bid for a member of the Qatari government to talk to you about their country. We're also going to invite someone from Al-Jazeera to speak about how their editorial guidelines work. If you'd like to join in you can get in touch on the blog, facebook, or twitter. We'll do our best to get your questions answered.
