King on a Wing - If you kept your nose clean under Josef Stalin, his henchmen left you alone. The problem was that you did not always know if you had upset him or not! That did not make the USSR a pleasant place to live or work. Qatar is clearly the rock bottom job of the Middle East, but sadly some people have to do it. Mercifully, I do not and therefore will not be going there.
I have a mate there and he would back every single statement made by the original poster. Like China, you will always be a foreigner in these countries. I am told that even Emirates is going the same way. I heard some informed rumour recently that that have a number of aspiring Arab managers coming up through the ranks and have therefore decided to get key western managers to re-apply for their jobs. Surprise - after a 'fair and balanced' recruitment process, the Arabs are going to get the jobs. That is the harsh reality of working for overtly racist companies like that - it does not matter how incompetent the guy is as long as he is local. You imagine giving up a good career in the UK to pursue the sandpit dream - then you find yourself sacked or demoted because some joke local fancies your job. That is the harsh reality of life out there. Anyone who thinks otherwise is going to be sadly disappointed.