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Week 5 [13-19.11.17] A country with no water

Have you ever had a day without water? I think that everyone faced such trouble when a water pipe was damaged. Imagine that almost one billion people do not have free access to water and, generally, the issue concerns Africa and the Middle East. However, this tiny Arabic state, whose total area is 3 times smaller than the area of the Masovian Voivodeship, managed to survive and make its own oasis in the desert. The situation in the country extremely changed after the Second World War and nowadays the average growth rate of its GDP has been 15% a year for the last 5 years. Actually, I skipped one very important feature- oil. This valuable raw material provides them with a source of money, which means they are able to build and buy everything. After watching this video you will know which country is so successful. Therefore, I encourage you to watch this TED video and to comment on it!


Questions:

  1.  Have you ever been to Qatar or to other countries of the Arabian Peninsula? Try to   share your   experience with us.
  2.  Do you believe that oil is nowadays an instrument of foreign policy? Try to give some   examples.
  3.  What do you think about the future of Qatar, whose economy is mainly based on oil     extraction ?

Comments

Such a tough theme to discuss. I've never been to Qata or other countries of Arabian Peninsula,but know a lot about them and their culture from my friends,who are working there.
Oil nowadays is an instrument of foreign policy - definitely, but after 100 years it won't be. For instance, there are a huge amount of companies that are creating cars. 90+% cars now are working on oil,right? And other +-10% are working on electricity. This ratio is changing every year when amount of oil on Earth is decreasing.
If they will take money which they earned on oil and make them work (improving infrastructure, finding new ideas in tourism), the country will live, otherwise, they will not be able to take a part in a world economy after 50 years, when everything will be out of this world.
Unknown said…
I have never been to Qatar or any other Arabian Peninsula countries. For me, until they extract the rope, they will be one of the richest countries in the world. I would like to visit this city one day and it is all rich :)
Unknown said…
yeah, I agree with you if they invest in a profitable project, they would be able to keep pace.
And that is not only for country mentioned above,for all other that are providing limited resources for export
I never had the pleasure to travel to Qatar or other countries of the Arabian Penisula. By far closest I get there (geographically) was Turkey, on my holidays when I was in primary school.
Nowadays oil is starting to fell by the wayside. Still it is an instrument of foreign policy, but not for long. When it comes to car market, soon combustion engines will be banned (untill 2020 there would be prohibition to move with a car that have diesel engine in big cities like Paris or London).
If Qatar would not find a way to earn money, besides oil extraction, it could lead it to economic crisis.
Foodocado said…
I have never been to Qatar or any of the Arabian Penisula countries. Oil for sure is an instrument of foreign policy, but it's going to change sooner or later. Nowadays it's being replaced with electric engines etc. Such solutions are more profitable for customers. Future of Qatar depends on the infrastucture which will be built.
Unknown said…
I've never been to Qata or other countries of Arabian Peninsula.About oil. Yes it is an instrument of foreign policy.Consider this. Somecountry finds oil on their terrain. USA want's to sign tradeagreement with them. Country disagrees. USA say "This country needs democracy!" andhere we have a war. Qatar's economy which centers on oil will haveafew years of peace and then it will crumble.
I have never been to Qatar or other Arabian Peninsula countries but I want to visit Jordan in order to see desert castles.
I belive that oil plays a great role in foreign policy but I wonder what will happen when the oil become less important due to higher popularity of electric cars and others factors.
When economy of country is based on only one thing there is high possibility that it can lead to big problems for a country. It's not a good idead to put all eggs in one basket.
Qatar probably has enough money to create other perspectives for their market so I belive that Qatar can prosper pretty good after oil crisis (if this happens).
Unknown said…
even if developled countries reject buying oil from Qatar, the rest of the world like Asia or Africa will do it. Yes, it's very pitty that we may probably face the destruction of nature but nowadays people don't care
Thankfully I've never had a chance to visit oil and slave driven nations of Arabian peninsula. That's the thing that oil does. It's a drug of our civilisation. When we extract all economically feasible deposits of it, we are done and back to the old days, and only if we manage to survive the withdrawal. Oil driven economies will collapse first, because it's not possible to live in the desert the way we live now without constant supply of dense energy. Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, who was the ruler of Dubai, put it in a really nice way: "My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover, his son will drive a Land Rover, but his son will ride a camel".

Oil is not only the instrument of foreign policy, it's the most important aspect of it nowadays. Even before the fall of the Soviet Union, USA diverted its actions from fighting commies towards securing the remaining deposits of oil. Those who decided not to become their vassals got invaded by Uncle Sam. I would rather say they got raped and pillaged, given that US has killed more than 20 million people in 37 nations since World War II. Not bad... Now we ask ourselves, why are there more and more terrorist attacks. Maybe because it's beneficial for some people to have it that way. Imagine all the possibilities of selling weapons and lobbying for more mass surveillance so the rich can get richer and the poor can .................................
have fun watching netflix and memes.
Anonymous said…
Unfortunately I have never been there, but I would love to visit Dubai or Abu Dhabi.
Of course olis is an instrument of policy. As long as they have it, they can rule the word in some kind of meaning.
Their power won't last forever. In some years many cars would use electricity and of course amount of oil isn't infinite.
Nope, i have never been in any of Arabian Peninsula.
In some strange way, yes. Every country needs oil which is one of the most wanted resource on earth. problem behind oil that doesn't suits for example gold is that we can't reuse it. So the biggest problem is that, what will happens when Arabic peninsula runs out of it? Every car that runs on oil will be just piece of garbage and normal fuel will be too expensive to use it on every day.
I think Qatars wealth will drop sooner than we think. I won't be surprised if it will happen in next 15 years. More and more people have a car so more and more fuel is used. The day when oil become rare resource Qatar will be done.
Marcin Górski said…
I have never been to Qatar or any of the Arabian Peninsula countries. In my opinion, oil plays a very important role on the world and that’s why others have to pay them a lot. Until they have the rope, they will be rich.
Nowadays, companies from Arabian Peninsula are buying the biggest football clubs on the world because they don’t know what to do with money.
On the other hand, countries want to change this situation. They are trying to introduce electric engines and use other natural resources. It can be problem for Qatar whose economy mainly based on oil.
The only arabian-like country I were in was Egypt. I don't know if oil nowadays is an instrument of foreign policy but for sure I know that oil is equal to money. Qatar power has been build because of oil and amount of oil on our planet is a finite source so i think that when oil will end up - Qatar power will end up in some way too for sure.
Unknown said…
Not interested intensely in the issues of the Qatari people (nothing against them, it's just far away) , but I think it's a brilliantly methodical solution to a serious problem. The rest of the arid world needs this kind of infrastructure implemented.
Oil is a huge influence point for our world, its like ball bearing and our economy is a fan around it. Every part of our lives is powered by oil, from getting your coffee in the morning to getting your toiler paper, all of those things are dependant on shipping. Shipping the vocal point of our world is impossible without oil as we speak (Hopefully Tesla Semi will change that). So having big oil source is like having equally big political influence source. Qatar has also other possibility when it comes to power sources, we are talking great amount of solar field capabilities and wind turbines, so will end of Quatar's oil is not even close to being its economical end.
Unknown said…

I have never been in Katar and Arabian Peninsula but I realy want to. Oil will end faster than we think. Everything what was built in Arabian Peninsula was biult by foreign companies. In my opinion they are able to be rich and spend money. Maybe I sm wrong but it looks like that. They have money from oil. It's possible that when oil ends they won't know what they can do . I think that when someone who has so much money can save in other busines. I saw that in Warsaw buildings built by Arabs
Unknown said…
I've never travelled to Arabian Peninsula, but maybe I will another day.

Any valuable resource could be the tool of foreign policy. People around the world are getting closer because of Internet and easier ways to travel on long distances. That is why such wars as First and Second World War are quite impossible nowadays, unless somebody pushes the wrong button. So the only way to spread your influence on other countries is do it by the distribution of your goods through their economy. Oil is a very popular source of energy, so the one, who controls the oil is "in charge" of the world.

Nevertheless, No way any country could survive relying only on the one kind of resources. If other possible industries will be less developped for global market's competitions, when oil industry will suffer crisises, and it will be as any other industry, your economy will be too weak to survive.
Unknown said…
I have never been to Qatar or any other country in the area but I would like to in the future. Main reason why is because their culture is so different from ours and I believe that the more of world you see the better person you are because it gets easier to understand motivations of others.
Of course oil is an instrument of foreign policy. The thing is - this resource has its limits. You cannot sustain a country on just oil for longer period of time and it scares me because I am not sure what the future is for developed middle eastern countries that depend on this natural resource. I hope they won't collapse.
Tomasz Morawski said…
I've never been to Qatar or any country in Arabian Peninsula but I hope I'll have chance to visit it. It's very interesting country their rapid growth is quite fascinating.
Oil is certainly the instrument of foreign policy. The most known example is probably the USA and it's peacekeeping missions e.g. Iraq. Also, a lot of dictatorships in third world' countries are supported by western countries due to their oil reserves.
It's hard to say what Qatar future will be like but basing on the video, I think they are aware of their situation and how fragile their economy is. It also seems like they have solid plans for the future, I root for them despite the diplomatic crisis they go through.
Unknown said…
I agree with you. There is a threat about future for those countries. What will happen when the oil source will end? Do they have got some plan B? Some other source of money?
Unknown said…
No, I’ve never been there, but I’m sure someday I will. Is oil nowadays an instrument of foreign policy? For now of course, but as everyone is saying - the popularity of electric cars is growing rapidly every day. You know, their economy is based on one thing and that’s not that good. There is a high risk it may causes a big problems. On the other hand they’ve got A LOT of money, so I’m sure they will create some other possibilities.

I was able to visit Doha. This is a big city in the king at every turn you can see the wealth of this state. With gasoline they have their own airlines that can refuel with fuel from their home country. I believe that it can contribute to the influence of foreign policy. They will have oil reserves with certainty, they will have something to say in foreign policy.
Unknown said…
Unfortunately I've never been there but I hope that some day I will be able to visit Dubai. When I am thinking of Dubai I see two things: Oil and sport cars. Nowadays oil is very imporant and ofcourse its instrument of foreign policy. I think that Qatar will be rich as long as people wont start to use electiry cars.
sasha | s14611 said…
I think that their plans for future are great. They care not only about nowadays situation, they cares about their children's needs a lot. This strategy of transforming sun energy in future to water and increasing also education level for future improvements of their system is really impresive.
Andrzej Gulak said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said…
I have never been to Qatar. I belive that oil is an instrument of foreign policy. Countrys are using oil to be the reason of many wars. I think Qatar will be rich country as long as it has oil and cars are running on oil and not on electricity.
Unknown said…
I have been in many countries and I have tasted a lot from different cultures, but unfortunately I have never been to Qatar or other countries of the Arabian Peninsula, therefore I can't share this experience with you. I do believe that oil is nowadays an instrument of foreign policy and the prefect examples are most Middle East countries. In my opinion, it is vague and uncertain future of Qatar, which economy is mainly based on oil extraction, because world is moving towards green power, electricity and reusable resources.
Magdalena Popek said…
I've never been to Qatar nor to any other Arabian country. I was never interested in going South so much.
Oil is a difficult topic nowadays. It definitely is an instrument of foreign policy. But oil is not a never ending resource and one day we will use up all of it. It is so precious people even consider extracting it from oil sands, even though it takes more resources to do it than it eventually "produces". I believe Qatar is rich enough to introduce other solutions to keep its economy on high level.
Unknown said…
I have never been in Qatar and other countries of the Arabian Peninsula so unfortunately I can't share my experience with you. I think that an oil and other fossil fuel is an instrument of foreign policy. It is easy to find such an example - e.g situation between Poland and Russia which extorts very height price of gas which we had to buying for many years. I think that now oil market are really strong but it doesn't has a future. In my opinion in nearly future we will use only electonic cars and then we will have to focus on developing atomic power stations which provide energy for such solutions.
Unknown said…
I go on holidays abroad every year. Unfortunately I have never been to the Arabian Peninsula. I usually travel in Europe. However, in the future I would like very much to visit Dubai. Dubai in the pictures and videos featured on the show is great.
It looks stunning, especially the Palm Islands. They are unbelievable.

Of course, oil is a key foreign policy in Qatar. It is thanks to her that this small country means so much in the world. It is one of the richest countries in the world. However, their size is based on rope.

Before the discovery of oil in this country was nothing. If oil ends Qatar would be in trouble. However, it seems to me that important people already have plan B for such an event. Qatar will continue to be great in the future.
Patryk Pohnke said…
I have never been to Qatar or anywhere near of it. Countries like Qatar, which get most of their income from oil have to invest them wisely. Once oil deposits will be depleted they have to have different sources of income developed already to prevent country from going bankrupt. So they invest money from oil for example in new technologies.
Unknown said…
This is the main reason why we now need to think about our future and about our planet. I've been to the Arab countries, but only as a tourist, so I have never experienced it. But that's why we need to help them anyway we can.

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