HX Report
Irishman in the Middle East
It’s the weekend
Qatar is under air and land blockade by certain neighbouring and regional states since 05 June 2017. But Qatar survives and life goes on.
Some would say it actually ‘goes on’ far better in many ways since that date.
The country has started local production of many industrial goods that were previously imported. A big effort at producing dairy products has been hugely successful and the country is now self-sufficient in milk. Locally produced yoghurts are actually very tasty! The tourism industry has struggled somewhat since the early-days blockade-related cancellation of many daily flights from those neighbouring states, but Qatar Airways has managed to open many new routes. Those routes and many new visa-on-arrival initiatives have happened far easier now that Qatar is no longer a member of the GCC political grouping and is beholding and answerable only to itself.
The Qatar International Date Exhibition started last night and is proof positive of life-going-on. No girls, its not a dating or match-making festival!
Date producers from all over the MENA region (Middle East/North Africa) are exhibiting and selling their home-produced dates & date products. Every exhibit has free samples and MB is presently full-to-the-gills of tasty dates from Palestine, Jordan, Oman, Tunisia, Algeria and many more MENA locations, having just spent the last hour visiting and shooting some pics.
The below shots are taken with MB’s Huawei phone. MB will post more pics in a follow-on post taken with his mirrorless camera.
Have a nice weekend all.
HX Report 
Was slightly concerned when booking flights transiting through Doha that things could change very quickly. Hopefully they will just keep on going it alone.
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The risk is long past I think.
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Glad to hear it as I may be routing through there for the foreseeable future as Etihad no longer fly to my ultimate destination.
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I suppose this is the nearest that either of us have had to a hot date in recent years……😂
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Yes. Sadly!
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