Why Expats Become Racist

The Qatar Visitor Blog produced a list of 10 reasons to stay in Qatar. Interestingly it came up with 14 reasons to leave. One of those reasons was this:

5. You are becoming racist. It's a strange thing, a thing which my wife pointed out to me, but many people seem to become racist here. Perhaps its human nature that a melting pot of human culture can lead more often to mutual disrespect than to mutual understanding.

So why would a person who has traveled the world, met interesting people, caught interesting diseases (oops old joke sorry), worked with some great "foreign" colleagues, become racist?

Here's a few examples.

In Europe and the USA there are concepts of courtesy. Courtesy extends to road use and care for your fellow human being.

I drove into the City Centre shopping mall car park in Doha a few weeks ago and saw a spot conveniently located near to the entrance. The only problem was a shopping trolley parked across the space. I stopped the car, noted that there was a petrol camel (Landcruiser) in the space behind but failed to note that the engine was running and there was a Qatari behind the wheel. I moved the trolley and returned to my car, when I attempted to enter the space I found a Landcruiser moving into it. The Qatari got out gave me a disdainful look and walked away. I admit I found it funny and was laughing to myself. The fact that this guy considered his actions to be a) polite and b) legitimate made me think he was and probably is a complete lowlife. A sense of humour would have saved his reputation.

Then there's the reception in my apartment building. I have a problem with my floor tiles, they are marble and are lifting from the substrate. Not unusual in this part of the world. Anyway I asked for a maintenance man to survey the problem and report back. Tonight I approached the desk and had the following conversation:

Me. "Good evening how are you?" Filipino receptionist "Hi sir can I help you?".

Me. "Hi how are you?" Her. "Yes sir what can I do for you?"

Okay I decided to change my tack. "I have a problem with my floor ti............... " "yes sir I'll ask the maintenance manager to come to your apartment" she picks up the phone.

"Er no I asked yesterday for someone to come to my apartment to survey the floor tiles. I asked for them to come in today, did it happen?"

"I'll phone the maintenance manager and ask him to come up right away."

By now I'm running out of options and thinking how satisfying it would be to throttle the stupid tart and get a replacement who could a) comprehend English and b) tell me the news even if it was bad.

I walked away. for the record my tiles are popping as I type!

Other situations are just plain rude.

There is a tendancy to ignore road signs here. I've never experienced this anywhere else because the slightest wrongdoing leads to a bribe at the police bank, but here? I had occasion to confront a local who was driving north in a one way street that was south pointing. When I suggested he might consider other road users he turned to his girlfriend then back to me and said "when you are a policeman you can make me change, until then piss off.".

So you see there's every reason to dislike the locals in this part of the world. There is no courtesy and definitely no honour. Just a creed.

That said I was waiting to exit a junction recently and a Qatari in a Tahoe who had right of way, stopped, flashed his lights and waved me out.

Just that one act of courtesy made my day.