MIDDLE EAST NEWS

We reconvened at noon, to learn that the promised 18 holes at a luxury golf club had also been cancelled. TUPNews was secretly relieved, as despite some proficiency with the putting iron, I am overall a poor golfer. Instead, we were carted off to the Qatari Financial Centre for the launch of a new energy exchange.

Imex will be the centrepiece of Energy City Qatar, the financial district that will be the centrepiece of Lusail, a whole new extra city the Qataris are whacking up in a bid to become the new Dubai.

The press release claimed that Imex was the first energy exchange in the Middle East, which is a straightforward lie, given that the Dubai Mercantile Exchange launched last year. Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, as they say.

The Imex officials were pretty non-committal about such details as what type of futures contracts might be traded, who might trade them, etc. After an hour of half-Arabic, half-English Q&A with the Qatari economics minister that went nowhere and revealed nothing, proceedings were brought to a close – and then rapidly re-opened after the Arab press went apeshit and demanded to be allowed to ask more pointless questions. I love the Arab press.



A light buffet lunch later and we were treated to our third schedule change of the day: a trip to the Qatari Hotels Association – not, as listed, the Four Seasons, where the British, Bahrain-based TV producer had already sent his crew - to watch a presentation about the development of Lusail, the brand-spanking new city we were all so looking forward to seeing.

I was in the car with the TV producer, and we broke away from the main convoy to swing by the Four Seasons to pick up his crew. It was not his usual crew, he explained: his usual crew had been denied visas for being “insufficiently managerial.” It is remarkably difficult to get around the Middle East, even if you are a local. A Bahraini must be a manager to come to Qatar on business, and despite receiving an on-the-spot promotion in Bahrain International Airport, the poor lad was grounded. Instead, we were joined in the car by his makeshift, Doha-based crew: a silent Indian and a chipper Dutchman.

The producer was pretty stressed at this point, musing dolefully about what an incredible amount of effort it took to produce a vapid 15-second news clip. Little did he know that, thanks to a misunderstanding with our driver, we were about to land a scoop – the first viewing by Western journalists of the actual Lusail development itself.