I saw this article on www.ArabianBusiness.com and I thought it was a great read. The website is quite brave to publish articles on issues like this one.
And what about this gem? "So we've had Media City, Internet City and Knowledge Village, I've had a little thought about what the city needs next. What do you think about spending tens of millions on Chess City, where each building is a chess piece? People would love it don't you think?" a now-redundant architect who is today serving up BigMacs in a drive-thru once proposed to a distinctly unimpressed town planner. It happens all the time. Sadly money talks but quite often it seems to talk far louder than common sense.
This week, however, has seen the phrase ‘shocking business decisions' taken to an all-time low. In an astonishing move where I had to do a triple take after reading the story on ArabianBusiness.com, a company run by a member of Qatar's ruling family is investing US$1.5bn in Zimbabwe to build an oil refinery and a five-star hotel.
And even more incredibly, it has openly admitted to not being concerned about the country's political and economic crisis. The West meanwhile, despite sitting back and just watching a human crisis unfold from the comfort of their governmental leather armchairs, has at least shunned and imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe for his alleged crimes against humanity and driving his country and his people into what will be seen in future years as the most rapid disintegration yet of a modern nation-state.
He faces charges of torture, brutality, violent land seizures and the murder and disappearance of opposition. I can think of someone else who faced similar charges, and he was dragged to the hangman's noose.
None of this seems to have bothered the member of the Qatari Royal Family happy to do business with the monster that is Mugabe.
I suggest the rest of Qatar - particularly its more level-headed rulers - put a stop to this deal. Otherwise, Qatar's attempt to be seen as a serious international financial player, with designs on buying global supermarket giants and prime real estate, could become politically charged.
Like it or not, whoever is behind the deal, it reflects badly on the whole of Qatar. Basic common sense says you do not build a luxury hotel in Harare, where people lie starving in the streets due to chronic food shortages, and the rate of inflation stands at a world-topping 6600%. It is sickeningly unethical.
Quite how anyone can blatantly ignore Mugabe's years of deliberate disregard for human nature and his own people, and instead swap dignity for dollars, is beyond comprehension.
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