Cultural Voice

It was while wondering through "Katara", Qatar's cultural city that I happened upon a concert of the Qatar Philharmonic Opera. Their music filled the air, slightly chilled by the winds from the sea just beyond the amphitheatre. I decided to indulge in the sweetness of the musical vibrations from the Orchestra consisting 101 musicians who complemented the soloists Angela Gheorghiou and Roberto Alagna.  The Qatar Philharmonic Opera was commissioned by H.H. Sheika Mozah: “The mission of the Qatar Philharmonic Opera is to enhance community and culture within Qatar and throughout the region, bringing a message of peace to the world via the union of Arabic and Western Music.” “We will lead the way for children and adults to appreciate classic music and inspire those throughout the music field including composers, conductors and soloists. We share the Qatar foundation’s principle belief that a nation’s greatest resource is the potential of its people.” ...

In Doha, Qatar, one of the most constant things these days is a changing cityscape. It is rumored that 1 in 6 supercranes in the world are currently in Doha! As the city expands, there is chalky dust, roads lined with construction workers, construction matterials and off limit zones marked by advertisments in beautiful arabic and english everywhere. With plans for a super renovated airport to be completed within he next two years; and plans to create a man-made island; also for the development of the North Beach, which is to include 10 resort hotels, golf courses, 3000 villas, 300,000 sq meters of retail shopping, 6,000,000 sq meters of commercial sace and 12,000 apartments, there is no stopping the transformation that is happening in this city centre. But as the cityscape changes what of the cultural landscape, in a country where less that 20% of those resident are Qatari Citizens. The building boom started in the 1960s and attention is paid to integrate isla...

PEACE, I strongly believe you WILL COME!!! Contributed By: Arevik Hayrapetyan Having been living for 18 years in a forgotten conflict zone, I have always had a dream. A dream to contribute somehow to the peace building process in the South-Caucasus region, which will be a place for mutual understanding and respect, love and tolerance, cooperation and prosperity for all, where young people will look at the map to plan their traveling, where youth synergy projects will bloom and people will enjoy their lives. Now that I am an adult I go back to 1990s and recall the sweet and pure memories of my childhood. Meanwhile I remember people whose eyes were full of pain, fear and sorrow. That time I was a child for whom it was inexplicable why people had to suffer, why instead of smile they had unhappiness on their faces. That time I was not able to understand the meaning of very frequently used words, like “war” or “violence” . I was only able to realize that the...