Q is for Qatar

Fast Facts:

• Named for: Ancient land of Catarhei, according to Pliny the Elder.
• Capital: Doha
• Long/Lat: 25.2 N/51.3 E, 8000 miles and 16 hours east of Castro Valley
• Population: 3.2 million, or 48 CVs. Approx 90% are migrant workers or expatriates.
• Size: 4400 sq mi, 240 CVs. High population density.
• Avg temp in April: 93 F/32 C
• Median household income: $75,000 annually
• Ethnicity: 48% Arab, 43% South Asian
• Main industries: Oil, trade, commerce, tourism

Qatar is the only country that starts with a “Q,” and I never do this challenge if I can’t manage the Q, so there you go. Even though I just wrote of Oman, here we are again at another country right in the middle of the Strait of Hormuz.

In fact, yesterday the NYTimes pointed out that Qatar is between a rock and a hard place. That is, they are friendly with the U.S., meaning strong business ties and a military base, but they are also on good relations with Iran. Neither country is cheerful about dealing with a compromiser. As a result, Qatar has been subject to 700 missile and drone attacks since the Trump War started.

On the other hand, they’re worth a fortune, with a GDP per capita close to the United States. They’re run by a “semi-constitutional monarchy,” which means that Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani occasionally holds elections, but they’re mostly for show. They tried a democratic process a few years ago, but it didn’t work out, sadly. Even so, the vast majority of people in Qatar are migrant workers or expats, who moved to be close to where the money is.

But Qatar has always been fortunate in trade and commerce, from way back. Archaeologists unearthed a site from 2000 B.C.E. that they’ve nicknamed Purple Island. This is because there’s evidence of manufacture of Tyrian or royal purple dye, the very rare coloring made from crushed snail shells.

Back then, or at least back as far as Pliny the Elder in Rome, the region was called Catar or Catara, and labeled on maps. A map from the geographer/astronomer Ptolemy in @170 shows the area near one of the corners of the Arabian peninsula.

The other natural resource that made them sought after in trade was pearls. Throughout the medieval period and even as late as the 20th century, a large proportion of the population was linked to pearl diving and fishing. The pearls acquired by the Ottoman and Indian Empires often came originally from Qatar.

Somehow it doesn’t thus seem odd that they would turn out to have their own large oil reserves, which ave fueled such a large part of the economy of the Arab world since the late 20th century. Tiny little Qatar is sitting on 25 billion barrels of oil, ranking them 13th in the world in oil reserves even though they are 158th in terms of size.

I”m sorry Iran is launching missiles at them. But, otherwise, they do seem to have an embarrassment of riches. Even if cars all go electric, there’s always the pearls.