Life on the Spot! Life and Leisure in Doha, Qatar

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Earlier, the judges heard that the victim, a 24-year-old Filipina, had suffered horrendous abuse at the hands of her employer over a period of six months. A forensic report presented to the court showed that when the young woman’s body was recovered it was heavily bruised, some of her teeth were missing and it was clear that she had been starved.

The maid, who came to Qatar 14 months before her death, was also denied food and her weight at the time of her tragic end was a pitiful 39kg.

 The appeals court said the case in question was “beating that led to death”, ruling out the charges of premeditated murder. 

It might not be "premeditated"  but they should have looked into those 6 months of torture she suffered from that Egyptian. To make matters worse, they basically nullified and discredited the testimony of the 5 year old kid, who I'm sure witnessed all the abuse her mother gave to their maid!

In our country, we also have a "maid". But we don't call them "maid" but "household help" or "Katulong" in Filipino. Literally, "Katulong" means "helper". Even at that, we don't usually call them as such. We call them "kasamang bahay" or someone who helps you in the house. And that's how we see and treat them. You need help maintaining your house as you want to spend more time with your kids, you need help to cook food as you're at work, you need help to look after your kid because you have work. And if she needs help with matters than you think you can help her, you extend your hand to do so. I might be mistaken but I never have heard of any news in the Philippines of somebody killing their "katulong".

In Qatar, typical salaries for "maids" would be between 500-800 QR at best. And that means waking up early and sleeping very late (or very early if you consider 1 AM to be early), doing the chores at home as well as looking after the kids, the needs of the wife and husband, and probably their pet cat. Still, they get treated badly by their employers. You usually get news like this every couple of weeks and more which aren't covered by news. (Here's another abused maid story this week).

Giving somebody  payment for the work she's doing for you doesn't give you any right to abuse and hurt that person.

Read the News story after the cut.

Gulf Times - A Doha Appeals Court has commuted the death sentence given to an Egyptian woman, accused of murdering her Filipina maid, to three years imprisonment. The woman’s husband, who was sentenced to three years in jail, was acquitted by the second-degree court for lack of evidence.

The appeals court said the case in question was “beating that led to death”, ruling out the charges of premeditated murder. The court upheld the deportation of the convict (31) after she serves the jail term.

Legal sources said the family of the victim chose to accept a compensation of QR150,000 and they had dropped the claim for execution of the convict. The upper court found no evidence to support the public prosecution’s claim that the husband (41) was aware of the torture of the maid and that he had simply ignored it.

The court ruled that the testimony of the couple’s five-year-old son against his mother was not reliable, considering his tender age. The appeals court said that a testimony for or against a close relative could not be reckoned.

Court attendants said that following the pronunciation of the appeal court’s decision, the Egyptian family “celebrated” the woman’s escape from death penalty.

Earlier, the judges heard that the victim, a 24-year-old Filipina, had suffered horrendous abuse at the hands of her employer over a period of six months. A forensic report presented to the court showed that when the young woman’s body was recovered it was heavily bruised, some of her teeth were missing and it was clear that she had been starved.

The crime came to light on June 22, 2007, when the maid’s body was discovered in the bathroom of her employer’s house in Doha’s Hilal area.

According to sources, the Egyptian housewife began to physically assault her maid after her five-year-old son complained that he had been mistreated.

According to the child’s testimony, given to police officers investigating the crime, his mother used to regularly assault the maid, sometimes tying her to a chair to prevent her escape.

The maid, who came to Qatar 14 months before her death, was also denied food and her weight at the time of her tragic end was a pitiful 39kg. The child said that his father, the general manager of a private construction company, had witnessed the abuse but had never intervened to save the maid. However, his testimony was not considered.

A source, who saw Melissa’s body, said it was likely that she had been battered with a hot iron. “There were bruises on the arm and some of her teeth were also missing,” he said. A spokesman for the Philippine embassy said they would comment on the new verdict only after receiving a copy of the verdict following the Eid break.

The Public Prosecution can appeal against the decision to the Supreme Court of Justice.

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 It seems somebody heard me when I commented about the Qatar Telecom German Open being held in Germany even though it is sponsored by Qatar as they have canceled the event. However, it seems that Josef Minderjahn, President of the LTTC Rot-Weiss Berlin club hosting the tournament is pissed at Qatar for the move. Well, since they're already putting down one WTA tournament, why not just have the Qatar Total Open again next year along with the other 2 Tennis events (Men's Open and Sony Ericsson WTA year-end event).

See the story after the cut

Gulf Times - The German Open women's tournament in Berlin has been cancelled, the WTA said yesterday.
"The tournament won't be on the 2009 calendar but the tournament being scrapped has nothing to do with the global credit crunch," a WTA spokeswoman said.

"The Qatar Tennis Federation, owner of the Berlin tournament membership, has made the decision that they no longer wish to operate the German Open in Berlin and to sell the membership back to the Tour."

The claycourt event usually takes place in May and has been one of the traditional warm-up tournaments for the French Open. The German Open was bought by the Qatar Tennis Federation (QTF) to boost the image of the country in Europe.

During the tournament, programmes and exhibitions used to take place to promote sports tourism in Qatar.
Although the deal was supposed to run until 2009, a change in administration at the QTF meant the new management team chose to end the agreement immediately.

"The new committee... feel that all our efforts should be focused on the two tournaments we host in Doha," said a source close to the QTF administration."It has nothing to do with the global economic crisis or the falling oil prices."

Following the restructuring of the WTA calendar this year, the tournament had been classed as one of the tour's 'premier' events with a $600,000 prize fund but was pushed back from its usual slot by two weeks. As a result of  yesterday's announcement, the WTA has to plug a hole in its schedule in the week before the start of the season's second grand slam.

"Negotiations are on going to see if another tournament will fill in the gap left on the WTA calendar for the week beginning 18 May," the spokeswoman added.

Since most of the top professionals opt not to play competitively in the week leading up to a major, the cancellation may have been prompted by the tournament's difficulty in attracting the big names.

"This is indeed a very sad fact. I have the confirmation by the WTA," Josef Minderjahn, President of the LTTC Rot-Weiss Berlin club hosting the tournament, told German sports news service Sid of the tournament's cancellation.

"I am deeply disappointed. You can not go about it like that, without informing your contractual partner," he said. "This is a very strange way. I have asked the Qatari federation for a discussion."

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Remember our Readers from Wales who loved Xiane's Happy Pizza photo ? They're back!

Hello again, From Wales.

We wanted to share out Christmas photo with you! This was taken at the company christmas party.

"HAPPY Christmas"

It's always a delight to hear from our readers...HAPPY Reading!

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As 2008 comes to a close, we give you, our families and friends the San Juan Year End letter.  As you know, it has been an ongoing "tradition" of ours since 2002.  And although year after year, Tian and I always push each other into writing the Year Ender, it has always been him who ended up writing it anyway.  But this year, just a few hours away from 2009 and not having written anything yet, I've decided to take the reins and give it a shot. So here it goes…

The highlight of this year would definitely be our annual holiday in the Philippines in June-August.  It is the most awaited time of the year that all three of us look forward to.  Being away from home for the most part of the year only makes us really excited to go back home and be with family again.  As they say, "absence makes the heart grow fonder".  Of course once we're home we take the chance to spend time with our loved ones.

This year, we were fortunate enough to go to Palawan.  Our visit to Palawan would have to be one of the most memorable trips we've ever had to date, next to our Hong Kong trip in 2007 of course.  We all had a blast seeing all the breath-taking sights of Puerto Princesa.  I will never forget that creepy yet exciting trip to the underground river and I'm sure Xiane will always remember holding a baby alligator, feeding the colorful fishes in the sea and being stung by a jellyfish on the ear.  What a brave girl she was for being able to snorkel in the middle of the ocean with her dad!   All in all the Palawan experience is something that we will remember for a very long time.
 
You can view our photos and blogs about our trip here:

Palawan Trip 2008
Palawan Photo Gallery

Aside from Palawan, we were also able to do visit the Ark of Avilon in Pasig, Camp John Hay Butterfly Sanctuary in Baguio, Batangas where we got lost and never got to the town where we intended to be for swimming, thus ending up going straight to Tagaytay instead; and Fontana Leisure Park where we swam at the Water Park where the pool generates waves every 30 minutes.
Sadly, we had to leave home once again and come back to Doha in September.

Once we got back, everything became so busy.  Xiane started going to school and I started working too.  After being a stay-at-home wife and mother for 7 long years, I've finally decided to join the work force.  The timing and opportunity just into fell into the right place somehow as I'm working in the same school Xiane is in. It is great to do something else which is as productive as being a wife and mother.  Now, my daily challenge would have to be trying to juggle both work and family life.  But of course there's no doubt that family always comes first.

However, we have made several adjustments to our daily routine. During weekdays, Tian helps Xiane complete her homework, study her lessons and do her exercises after he comes home from work.  I, on the other hand, have to catch up with the other chores needed while they're busy with school work. We now take naps after our lunch (usually at 3 PM) just to energize ourselves.
Sometimes we just couldn't believe how time flies.  Xianelle is now 5 years old and in Year 1 at Doha Montessori and British School. Every time we see her, we are always amazed at how much she has grown.  She is no longer this tiny tot who amused us with her antics and utter cuteness.  Now she is this clever, smart and talkative little lady who continues to amuse us every single day.  She is doing very well in school and received her Merit Award before school went on break this December.

Ever since she got to watch Pokemon while we were staying at a hotel in Manila, she became engrossed with them! She'll be talking about Pokemons the whole day and keeps on reading about them on her Pokemon books; memorizing their abilities, moves, evolutions and such. Arghhhh... She just can't stop talking about Pokemons that we made a rule that she cannot talk about Pokemons while eating and while doing her lessons. Her dad actually acts as the "enabler" as he downloaded all episodes and movies of Pokemon and help her catch and trade Pokemons on the DS. We don't know whether enabling her is a good thing or not but come to think of it, she only gets to be a child once so why not let her enjoy the things that she loves the most.  I guess we just have to keep in mind that instead of Barbie dolls or Bratz, our daughter just took fancy on Pokemons instead. Here is Xiane opening her Pokemon Gifts for Christmas.

All in all, 2008 has been a good year for us and our loved ones as well.  It's good not only because of the material blessings but most of all because our families are well and in good health.  
For 2009, our prayer is that God will continue to bless us and to give the same wonderful blessings to all our families, relatives and loved ones.  And most of all that we all stay healthy and safe from harm the whole year through and always.  Here's wishing that 2009 will bring all the best to everyone, more happy memories and wonderful life experiences.  So dear family and friends cheers to a Happy and Prosperous New Year to us all! Till our next Year End Letter!
 
Much love,
The San Juan's of Doha, Qatar
Mavis, Christian and Xianelle

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