5:24AM
Doha! Doha! Doha! (sung to the chorus of "Tony! Tony! Tony!" from "The Producers")
Friday, October 13, 2006 at 5:24AM In BFA, I note that hosting an Olympic games is a big sign of moving from Gap to Core. Look at the list of all the hosts of the Summer Games in the modern era: all are now in my Core and only two were "early entrants" (Mexico and the USSR/Russia), meaning they hosted prior to the end of the Cold War.ARTICLE: "Will Doha Get the Gold?" by Nick Summers, Newsweek, 16 October 2006, p. 13.
Now we've got Qatar hosting the 2006 Asian Games and hoping to use that experience to prove a bid to host the 2016 Summer Games.
You put that together with Qatar's cooperation with the CENTCOM, being the namesake of the "Doha Round" of the WTO, being the hometown of Al Jazeera, and its continuing efforts to emerge as the Arab world's financial equivalent of Singapore and pretty soon you're talking a Muslim equivalent of Israel in the region--an island of Core-ness that sets an important precedent (and one obviously Israel can never achieve among Muslims).
Reader Comments (2)
Qatar will always suffer in its ability to provide a model from the simple fact of its size. The old excuses will reassert themselves and Qatar will likely be less influential than it should be because of its size. Iraq would be a better model, if only we can stick it out until the insurgency dies out.
TM, you discount the roles of Singapore and HK in Asia then?
Chin up. No need to go down with just one boat on globalization. That's why it's so powerful.