How we survived 2014

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44 > QATAR TODAY > DECEMBER 2014

A YEAR TO REMEMBER MUCH MOURNING, SOME CHEER... 2014 MIGHT NOT GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS A RELATIVELY HAPPY YEAR BUT WITHIN 365 DAYS THE WORLD HAS CHANGED IN MANY UNRECOGNISABLE WAYS. A LOOK AT THE PEOPLE AND EVENTS THAT DEFINED THE YEAR.

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THE PLAGUE OF AL SHAM The surprise emergence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as a formidable player in the crisis in the Middle East threw a wrench in the world’s plans to let the Syrian crisis run its course. We trace the events that led to ISIS becoming the most feared and hated buzzword of 2014.

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y the end of 2013, ISIS, which had recently been rejected by the Al Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat Al Nusra over incorrigible differences and vicious infighting, was already one of the stronger groups in Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. It had already started poaching control of Ar Raqqah, the Syrian city which would later start functioning as ISIS’s de facto capital, from the Free Syrian Army and Jabhat Al Nusra. Slowly and steadily, it was preparing itself for the big year ahead.

January: ISIS made its first foray into Iraq, starting with the Anbar province where it seized Fallujah, Ramadi and surrounding areas. The population of the Sunni-majority region is assured of protection from and justice against the Shia-led government in Baghdad.

Clockwise from right: Fighters of the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) prepare to battle the Islamic State in Kobane; A Kurdish man sits at the border area close to the southeastern village of Mursitpinar, opposite the Syrian town of Kobane; Demonstrators at a rally protesting ISIS in front of the White House in Washington, DC; An image grab taken from a YouTube video allegedly showing a member of an ISISaffiliated Jihadist group in Iraq's Anbar province AFP PHOTO / ARIS MESSINIS

June: The months preceding ISIS’s June blitzkrieg was just the calm before the storm. In rapid succession, ISIS captured Mosul and Trikit and it was immediately clear that their numbers and resources had been grossly underestimated. The Iraqi army was forced to retreat and ISIS’s march on Baghdad seemed imminent with only the Kurdish Peshmerga fighters offering some kind of resistance. Many months after the first murmurs of an Islamic State, the group declared a caliphate under the leadership of Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi. This time the message was loud and clear.

July: Al Baghdadi made his first public appearance as the self-proclaimed caliph.

Iraqi soldiers were being executed en masse and minorities like the Yazidis and Christian Assyrians are threatened with death unless they convert or flee. By this time, ISIS was reportedly making millions of dollars a day from the oil rigs it had captured both in Syria and Iraq.

August: A few days after sending 300 military advisors to Iraq, the United States’ President Barack Obama announced air strikes on ISIS targets. American journalist James Foley, who had been captured in Syria a few months ago, was executed on camera as retaliation; several other such beheadings followed in the next few weeks.

September onwards: A coalition of countries is announced to tackle the threat of ISIS through a “comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy”. Belatedly named Inherent Resolve, US-led military airstrikes began in Syria which sees participation from Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.

Kurdish and Iraqi forces started to recapture some territories from ISIS. The terror group launched a strategic strike against the border town of Kobane which revealed fractures in the anti-ISIS coalition, with Turkey unwilling to send ground troops to the Kurdish town just across its border (or even allow other Kurdish fighters to join the battle) unless a few of its conditions are met. A stalemate continues over control of the town, under the full view of the world media watching from the Turkish side.

Meanwhile, winter is coming.

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REMEMBER Some 10,000 people sporting coloured rain jackets and brandishing umbrellas form a mosaic representing the Scottish and Catalonian flags on San Sebastian's beach in northern Spain.

AFP PHOTO / RAFA RIVAS

A S TAT E TO C ALL O U R OWN The Scottish independence referendum which was held on September 18 saw an unprecedented turnout. 84.6% of the population of Scotland had made their way to polling stations to decide whether they wanted to secede from the United Kingdom, a decision that was several years, decades and even centuries in the making. The “No” side won with a comfortable 55.3% of the votes and Scotland did not become the newest country in the world, as many expected. But the referendum is expected to have a lasting impact on the politics of the United Kingdom, with a move to decentralise power away from London. The referendum has since inspired the people of Catalonia who have long been demanding freedom from Spain. They held an informal, non-binding referendum on November 9 after the official referendum schedule for that day was deemed illegal by the Spanish Constitutional Court.

A resounding 80% out of the 35% of the population that took the poll favoured the creation of an independent state, an echo of other unofficial independence referendums that took place between 2009 and 2011.

A boy holds a gun under the supervision of Ukrainian serviceman in the town of Soledar in the Donetsk region.

AFP PHOTO/ANATOLII BOIKO

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BATTLE LI NE S DRAWN ACROSS E UROP E The demonstration that began at Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kiev at the end of last year, demanding closer integration with the European Union, spiraled into a full-fledged revolution that led to impeachment of the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych and a call for fresh elections in May, which Petro Poroshenko, running on a pro-EU platform, won. But Ukraine’s troubles were only beginning. Resentment was rife among the pro-Russian populations of the country and armed militias started to emerge in the eastern and southern regions of the country like Donetsk which have traditionally been Russophone, demanding a separatist state. The Ukrainian military has come down on these towns with heavy shelling and gunfire. Overtly backed by Russia, the Crimean parliament declared its intention to hold a referendum to join the Russian Federation on March 16. None of the Western states recognised the referendum because of perceived Russian interference and the presence of Russian forces in the peninsula is being considered an occupation. Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to face flak from world leaders over the situation in Ukraine, most recently in November at the G-20 Summit in Australia, but remains unfazed despite many political commentators calling this the most divisive European situation since the end of the Cold War.

THE CALL IN FOR MEMORIAM FREEDOM

Palestinians flee their destroyed neighbourhood on a horse and cart in the northern Gaza Strip city of Beit Hanun.

AFP PHOTO / THOMAS COEX

T HE CRY OF GA ZA A seven-week firing between the Israeli military and Hamas in Gaza resulted in the death of over 2,200 people, the vast majority of them Palestinians. The conflict ensued after the alleged kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers by Hamas on June 12 and the retaliatory attack by the Israeli Defense Forces on the Gaza Strip, called Operation Protective Edge. Though rockets rained down on both sides, Israel, with its superior technology and the Iron Dome missile defense, managed to keep the death toll of its citizens down, while hundreds of children and women were dying in Gaza. The damage on the Palestinian side was disproportionately higher, drawing global condemnation for Israel and its use of arms against innocent civilians.

Israel defended its actions by claiming Hamas was using the civilians as cover and that it issued warnings to civilians prior to an attack in accordance with international law. Uneasy peace has returned to the Strip after the announcement of an openended ceasefire on August 26 and rehabilitation efforts are underway with the support of international aid. Qatar alone has donated $1 billion to rebuild Gaza.

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affairs > local THE PEOPLE WHO DEFINED THE YEAR

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks at Madison Square Garden in New York.

AFP PHOTO/DON EMMERT

A MAN TO LEAD A B I LLIO N PEO PLE In terms of sheer numbers, it doesn’t get any bigger than the Indian elections. With more than 800 million registered voters, the populous country went to the polls over the summer to choose between a party rife with corruption and a hardliner with a tainted human rights record. Ultimately the hunger for development overpowered the fear over communal politics and Narendra Modi emerged the winner by a wide margin. Since his emphatic win, the new prime minister has made several high-profile visits abroad, most notably to New York City for the United Nations General Assembly where thousands of his supporters gathered to cheer him on at Madison Square Garden.

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BEHIND IN THE MEMORIAM SCREENS A NEW ERA King Juan Carlos of Spain abdicated his throne in favour of his 46-year-old son, Crown Prince Felipe, who was coronated on June 19. The once-popular king stepped down after four decades, and ill-health and recent corruption scandals involving close members of the royal family are implied as some of the reasons for his departure from public life. In his address to the nation, he said it was time for a new generation to “move to the front line” and face the country’s challenges, which include a struggling economy, record unemployment, renewed secession calls from Catalonia among others.

TECTONIC SHIFTS IN THE TECH WORLD Facebook’s purchase of Whatsapp for $19 billion, the biggest technology deal of the year that was announced in February just before the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, was officially concluded in September. The social networking giant began awarding shares and stocks to Whatsapp shareholders and employees to complete the deal. With Facebook’s share prices currently higher than when the deal was announced earlier this year, the deal is now worth close to $22 billion. It remains to be seen how Facebook will choose to monetise this giant investment.

FO R T HE BENE FI T O F HU MANITY This year’s Nobel Prizes threw up few surprises. French economist Jean Tirole was recognised for his work on market power and regulation, and on taming powerful firms. Pakistani teenager and education campaigner Malala Yousafzai shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Kailash Satyarthi, an Indian children’s rights activist. Prolific French author Patrick Modiano won the award for Literature. Stefan Hell of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, William Moerner of Stanford University in California, and Eric Betzig of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Virginia took the grand prize in Chemistry “for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy”. The Nobel Prize in Physics was again shared by Shuji Nakamura of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano of Japan, for “the invention of efficient blue light-emitting diodes which has enabled bright and energy-saving white light sources”. BritishUS scientist John O’Keefe and married couple May-Britt and Edvard Moser from Norway won the prize for Physiology/ Medicine for discovering the brain’s “inner GPS”.

A TOUCHDOWN TEN YEARS IN THE MAKING The Rosetta space probe (specifically its landing module Philae) successfully landed on the comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko on November 12, almost a decade after it was launched. This is the first spacecraft to land on a comet nucleus and the information it transmits from the surface as it orbits around the sun every seven years will give invaluable insights into the origin and evolution of the solar system and how comets change as they are subjected to increasing intensity of the sun’s radiation.

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affairs > local A YEAR OF DESPAIR

Members of the Dutch expert team supervise the recovery of the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 at the crash site, four months after it was shot out of the sky; (right) A Royal New Zealand Airforce aircraft searches off Perth for signs of the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

AFP PHOTO / POOL / Greg WOOD

DO U BLE DI SA STE R I N THE A I R...

2014 was not a good year for flying. Three high-profile aircraft accidents, two involving the ill-fated Malaysian Airlines, prompted International Air Transport Association chief Tony Tyler to come out and assure consumers that safety is the first priority for airline companies and flying was still statistically the most secure mode of transport. On March 8, Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 bound from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared over the South China Sea with 227 passengers and 12 crew members. Weeks of searching involving the resources of several nations yielded no leads, only conspiracy theories. Even before the airline could move on from the incident, Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down by unknown entities whille flying over Eastern Ukraine on July 17. All 238 passengers and 17 crew members have been declared dead and the investigation into the incident has gone nowhere due to continuing violence in the region. Only a few weeks later, Air Algerie flight 5017 crashed en route to Algiers from Burkina Faso, killing all 116 aboard.

. . . AND OVER T HE SE A On April 16, a South Korean ferry carrying 476 people, most of whom were secondary school students, sank en route from Incheon to Jeju. Only 172 of them were picked up by passing fishing boats and commercial vessels while the coast guard and navy were delayed in reaching the site of the shipwreck. A sudden turning of the vessel which dislodged cargo, resulting in its capsizing was ruled as the likely the cause of the accident. On November 11, guilty verdicts were handed down to the captain and the crew for gross negligence. The captain Lee Joon-seok was sentenced to 36 years while many of his crew have to serve up to 20 years in jail for abandoning the ship and violating maritime law. This has displeased many parents who had demanded the death penalty on the charges of homicide. The owner of the ferry operator, Yoo Byung-eun, was never arrested, despite a nationwide manhunt. Instead, his body was found in a field 500 kilometers away from Seoul.

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IN MEMORIAM . . . A N D U NDER T HE G ROUND For two days the underground fire raged in a coal mine in Soma, Turkey, due to an explosion that occurred on May 13. While the cause of the incident is still under investigation, mourning continues for the 301 miners who lost their lives as a result.

Sadly, there have been several mining accidents in Turkey before and since, though not on this scale. Unions had been demanding improved safety measures late in 2013 but this issue had been swept under the rug. While then-Prime Minister (now President) Recep Tayyip Erdogan was criticised for the off-handed way in which he dealt with the tragedy, protests erupted across several cities, renewing fears that this would end the uneasy peace after 2013’s massive anti-government clashes.

GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ The prolific Columbian novelist, affectionately known as Gabo throughout Latin America, died of pneumonia-related complications on April 17 in Mexico City. He was 87. Best known for his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982.

ROBIN WILLIAMS MAYA ANGELOU “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” The American author and poet was respected as a spokesperson for black people and women, and her works, which include seven autobiographies, have been considered a defence of Black culture. She died on May 28, reportedly in the middle of writing another book.

Everyone’s favourite funnyman, actor Robin Williams took his own life at his home on August 11 after having battled clinical depression for most of his adult life. An icon of improvisational comedy, Williams won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Good Will Hunting and is fondly remembered for many movies like Aladdin, Mrs Doubtfire, Good Morning Vietnam and more.

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affairs > local FEAR AND LOATHING IN AFRICA

# BRI NGBACK OURGI RLS

“IT S T RIKES LIKE LIG HT NING ” Before the World Health Organization declared an outbreak of Ebola in Guinea in March, health officials in the country were struggling to identify the disease that was relatively new to the region. To them, it was a mysterious hemorrhagic disease that strikes like lightning. Several months later, Ebola continues to wreck havoc in the west African region and is the largest outbreak of the disease in history, with over 15,000 reported cases and close to 5,500 deaths. Isolated cases have been reported outside the continent and a separate, unrelated outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo killed another 50 people. However, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon most recently expressed hope that the disease will be contained by mid-2015 and that the “curve is bending in enough places” (Senegal, Nigeria and DRC have since been declared free of Ebola transmission and the number of new cases being reported in Liberia and Guinea is decreasing).

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Boko Haram, whose campaign of terror has been gripping Northern Nigeria since 2009, came under the global spotlight after the kidnapping of 276 girls from a school in the northeastern Borno State on April 14. While some have since escaped, the majority of the girls are still missing and have allegedly been forced to convert to Islam, marry Boko Haram members or sold into slavery inside and across Nigerian borders. Since then the group has launched hundreds of attacks that have killed more than 2,000 civilians in just the first half of the year, according to Human Rights Watch. The Nigerian government, and President Goodluck Jonathan in particular, is under criticism for not effectively dealing with the threat, using heavy-handed tactics indiscriminately against civilians and terrorists, turning a blind eye to human rights abuses and corruption amongst military officials selling weapons to Boko Haram. Recently Boko Haram released a video rejecting the government’s claim that a ceasefire deal has been reached and the girls will be released soon. Also, shockingly, millions of dollars have reportedly been spent on an American public relations firm to help shape the narrative around the kidnapping.

OLD WOUNDS AND NEW ONES

A N I CON RI SE S I N NE W YORK

People take part in a march in Mexico City demanding justice for the 43 missing students.

More than a decade after the September 11 attacks, One World Trade Centre (previously known as Freedom Tower) officially opened on November 3 with many companies moving into their new offices. The 104-storey structure, which is billed as the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, was built at a cost of $3.9 billion and was designed by architects David Childs and Daniel Libeskind.

M EX I C O RU NS RED W I T H BLO O D The 43 students who went missing in Mexico on September 26 are yet to be found but with every mass grave that is discovered the chances of finding the young men alive diminishes. Recently law enforcement officials announced that a local drug trafficking gang had confessed to killing the group and testing is ongoing at a mass grave that was supposedly used to bury the victims. The students had travelled to the Mexican city of Iguala that day to hold an anti-government protest where they were reportedly intercepted by the police, fired at and, while in custody, handed over to members of the Guerreros Unidos gang. This incident, and the wide spread protests that followed, brought global media attention on the deep ties between crime, politics and law enforcement in Mexico. The mayor of Iguala, JosĂŠ Luis Abarca, and his wife attempted to abscond but have since been arrested. Several police men and cartel members have also been arrested while the police chief Felipe Flores VelĂĄsquez remains at large.

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HO NG KO NG RIS ES The announcement that the much-awaited electoral reforms in Hong Kong would not come to pass sparked a city-wide protest in the otherwise peaceful and prosperous Chinese Special Administrative Region. The news that the “elected representatives” of Hong Kong's government will continue to be chosen by the Communist Party and civil nominations will remain disallowed angered pro-democracy thinkers and citizens. On September 28, the Occupy Central movement (dubbed the “Umbrella Revolution”) was announced and the initial numbers ballooned after strong-arm tactics by the police. At one point, there were more than 100,000 people on the streets, blocking major arteries of the city. The use of tear gas, physical attacks on the protestors by alleged Triad members and confrontations with the police have marred what was supposed to be a peaceful movement. Meanwhile, as the city came to a grinding halt, many spoke out against the protestors, calling their methods unconstitutional and asking them to free the streets and restore law and order. The last days of November saw the clearing of a number of sites and the arrest of over 100 protestors, including the student leader Joshua Wang. He was granted bail on the condition that he doesn't enter Mong Kong, one of the most popular sit-in sites of the movement.

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COUNTRIES IN TRANSITION

Thai soldiers deploy on a road leading to Victory Monument, the site of recent anti-coup protests AFP PHOTO/CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT

TH E CO UP RET U RNS The military junta is back in power in Thailand as of May 22 and under similar circumstances to the coup in 2006. The military which had taken over to oust the populist leader and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra eight years ago returned immediately in the aftermath of the removal of his sister Yingluck Shinawatra, the prime minister who had presided over the six-month-long protests between pro and anti-government forces. With an interim constitution that granted it extra-judicial powers, the junta has said that "sweeping economic, political and social reforms" are needed before the possibility of elections and it is clear that the Commander of the Royal Thai Army, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, with a royal endorsement in his pocket, has no intention of handing back rule to a civilian government any time soon.

BURK I NA BÉ SE I ZE BACK CONTROL After Burkina Faso’s president of 27 years (who had come to power after a coup in 1987) Blaise Compaoré moved to amend the constitution allowing him to stay longer in office, demonstrations and riots erupted in many parts of the country in October. After the parliament was stormed and burned on October 30, Compaoré dissolved the government and declared a state of emergency before eventually fleeing to Ivory Coast. For a while it looked like a military coup with the little-known Lt Col Isaac Yacouba Zida assuming power and dismissing anti-coup protests and the African Union’s ultimatum to return power to the civilians. However, a transitional government has now been put in place with a civilian interim president to tide the country over till elections are held in November next year, and this is seen as good news even though Lt Col Zida remains in the cabinet as the prime minister and many of the key positions in the government are being held by military leaders.

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HISTORY IN PERSPECTIVE Poppies are placed at the base of a statue in the Armed Forces Memorial in Staffordshire, central England.

A WA L L C O MES DO W N Germany observed the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, which for nearly three decades divided the country into East and West Germany, each governed by different political ideologies.

Celebrations included the release of 8,000 white balloons, each perched on 3.6 m poles (matching the height of the wall) that stretched for 15 km. The balloons were released one by one to symbolize the breaching of the wall by protesters back in 1989.

A CE NTURY LATE R Europe remembered its fallen from the Great War on November 11. More than 16 million combatants and civilians died during World War 1 which involved much of Europe, the colonies and, later, the United States. Advanced technology and the birth of trench warfare had prolonged the conflict in the continent for over four years, at the end of which Germany was defeated and the Russian, Ottoman and Austria-Hungarian empires ceased to exist. But these turned out to set the stage for another, more disastrous, world war barely two decades later. 2014 was also the 75th anniversary of the Second World War.

Balloons of the light installation "Lichtgrenze" sail into the night from the former route of the Berlin Wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate.

AFP PHOTO / ODD ANDERSEN

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FOR THE LOVE OF THE SPORT CHILLS AND T H RILLS T HIS W INT ER Costing an estimated $51 billion, the two-week Winter Olympics in Sochi surpassed the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing as the most expensive Olympics in history. A total of 98 events in 15 winter sport disciplines were held, which included a number of new competitions.

VIVA LA FUTBOL For one whole month, the world put aside everything else to enjoy some world-class football. Passions ran high in Brazil which hadn’t hosted the football world cup since 1950. The highly-disciplined and talented German team, of course, deservedly took home the cup. Who could ever forget their 7-1 semifinal victory over the home team which left spectators at the stadium and elsewhere numb with disbelief.

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READY FOR TAKEOFF Hamad International Airport, home of the national carrier, became fully functional on May 27 with a capacity to serve 28 million passengers annually during its initial years, growing to 50 million in the future. In another big day for Qatar Airways, the world’s largest aircraft, A380-800, was delivered from Germany on September 18.

An exterior view of the arrivals terminal at the Hamad International Airport. (right) The new and improved Business Class seats on the A380.

ON THE BACKFOOT This year, Qatar has had to field several different sorts of accusations – of being a slave-driving country, winning the FIFA World Cup on the back of corruption and, most recently, covertly supporting ISIS. This last accusation has stung the most, considering the government has played a crucial role in negotiating for the release of several hostages, recently that of American journalist Peter Theo Curtis who had been captured in Syria two years ago.

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THE ROAD TO FIFA 2022 The Under-19 team from Qatar lifted its first-ever Asian Football Confederation Trophy in Myanmar on October 23 after defeating North Korea 0-1. This automatically qualifies the team to compete in the FIFA U-20 to be held in New Zealand next summer.

QATAR IN SPOTLIGHT THE EMIR ABROAD In his first television interview as the Emir of Qatar, HH Sheikh Tamim spoke to CNN’s Christiane Amanpour about Qatar’s foreign policy, laws enacted to protect migrant workers and Qatar’s readiness to host a great World Cup in 2022.

Qatar Museum Authority also got a identity makeover with a new name – Qatar Museums – and an interesting, fun logo.

NEW IDENTITIES

The National Health Insurance Scheme, currently under Phase 2 of its operations, was launched under a new brand – Seha – meaning health in Arabic.

REPORTS AND RIGHTS Faced with a constant stream of criticism on how low-income migrant workers were being treated in the country, Qatar issued a new 50-page workers’ charter on February 11, just before the expiry of FIFA’s deadline before which the country had to submit a concrete plan on how it planned to improve conditions on the ground. A few months later, a study commissioned by Qatar Foundation looked at how exploitation of migrant workers began at home with unscrupulous practices by recruitment agencies.

U-19 Team Arrival at Hamad International Airport.

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THE SPACE AGE BEGINS Some of the biggest satellite players in the region, along with Es’hailSat’s partners, came together to congratulate the home-grown satellite operator on its success with its first satellite, as the operator celebrated the commencement of operations of Es’hail1 on February 9.

THE LAW OF CHANGE

40-PLUS YEARS OF QP

While residents awaited the long-expected change in the labour laws, all they got was the new Cybercrime Law. Officials from the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Interior held a joint press conference on May 14 to reveal that several crucial changes could be expected in the coming months. No deadline was given and it wasn’t entirely clear how much of the changes mentioned (like transfer of sponsorship from employer to state, a one-time exit permit system, etc) would be incorporated. Several weeks later, a controversial Cyberbrime law with very ambiguous terms that would potentially stifle free speech online was silently ratified.

Qatar celebrated the 40th anniversary of the issuance of an Emiri Decree on July 4, 1974, establishing what was then known as the “Qatar General Petroleum Corportation”. Today it is simply known as Qatar Petroleum.

This year also marked the 75th anniversary of the discovery of oil in Qatar.

BOOTS ON THE GROUND The National Service came into force this year, requiring all Qatari men between the ages of 18 and 35 to undertake three months of military training. Several batches of recruits have already completed the programme.

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QATAR IN SPOTLIGHT

FROM COAST TO COAST Sculptor Richard Serra unveiled his iconic public art structure, tucked away in a remote corner of the desert in the Brouq nature reserve. Spanning over a kilometre and comprising four steel plates, each over fourteen metres in height, the sculpture is in perfect alignment with the topography of the land, enhancing the vast, desolate space.

AN IPO AFTER AGES Qatar Petroleum’s Initial Public Offering of shares representing 25.725% (comprising 323,187,677 shares) of the issued share capital of Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding Company Q.S.C. (MPHC) was fully issued on January 22.

Al Bayt Stadum

THE FIRST OF MANY The Supreme Committee of Delivery and Legacy unveiled designs of three stadiums for the FIFA World Cup in 2022. The Zaha Hadid-designed Al Wakrah Stadium which was revealed earlier in the year was followed by the desert-tent shaped Al Bayt Stadum in al Khor and, most recently, the new and improved Khalifa International Stadium at Aspire.

Al Wakrah Stadium

Khalifa International Stadium

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