The Tangent Topic

(Tangents are fun, and if you say them often enough, they start to sound really strange.
Do it! Tangent, tangent, tangent, tangent…)

Originally, I had planned a different topic for today’s blog post, but babbler that I am, I found myself going off on a tangent as I was actually writing it and found that I wrote more about the tangent subject rather than the main topic for the day. So, here is today’s blog post, a.k.a the tangent topic.

These days, I’ve been going through videos about Qatar’s history and development that Safya, the curator, and I got from Qatar TV. A major theme through most of them has been the progress of Qatar and heavily relies on stock clips of the Asian Games and Education City and the obligatory introductory sepia toned clips of people on boats or diving for pearls. There are a couple though, that are amazing in that they feature clips of everyday life in Qatar back in the day, including a game played by boys where they bury their heads in the sand. The narrative was in Arabic so I’m not exactly sure if I interpreted what was going on correctly but it really did seem like they were playing ostrich. Another CD documents the start of the petroleum industry, including the very first oil-related fire that took 15 days to put out.

As I watched and listened to the narratives talking about how Qatar progressed through the years, and the investments made by the Emir in health, education, culture, and economics, I remembered a presentation I worked on with a group from my Mapping Urbanism class about New York’s development. We learned about how the roads evolved from the winding paths that were formed based on the topography, until they were eventually replaced in the 1800s with the grid design we see today, with the exception of some of the original streets like Broadway, which deviate from the grid pattern.

(The plan for the grids to replace the original squiggly-er, topography-based tracks, called "cattle tracks." I think, or maybe it was "cow tracks?")

A few decades after the grid design was implemented, the population of New York exploded because of the wave of immigrants that came to America through New York. Apartments filled up the grids and often, they were cramped full of people, leaving them to seek cemeteries as open spaces to spend time in.  Around this time, due to the economic progress enjoyed by the elite families in New York, they wanted an open space that they believed would liken New York to the major cities like London and Paris that had gorgeous public parks. This proposal led to Central Park.

 (The Gates, an art installation by Christo and Jean-Claude in February 2005. The "gates" were saffron coloured fabric that hung throughout the lanes in Central Park, and were met with both admiration and ridicule.)

I kept fighting the urge to insert  “sound familiar?” after every phrase in that previous paragraph. I don’t really know how to end this post, because a few similarities don’t merit a conclusion of “Doha is totally gonna be the NYC of the future!” I do think Qatar has enough vision to not desire to be just another major destination, to not be famous just for the sake of being famous. If Qatar reaches the heights it aspires for, it won’t be to become the New York, or the Paris, or the London of the Middle East, I think it will be its own icon.