Sunday, December 24, 2006
Qatar visitor
Camel racing
The
camels were held back by green netting. Their handlers stood tense in front of
them, holding onto their ropes. Arab riders on large camels jostled by their
robot counterparts on smaller camels. Then, with a crack, the netting shot up
and the handlers went scampering out of the way as the camels galloped off,
closely followed by their beeping and hollering owners.
The Place: Shahhaniya. Head out of Doha along Al Rayyan road. Follow
the signs to Dukhan. A few kilometres after passing Al Rayya football stadium,
you’ll come to a roundabout. Take the first exit, and turn left about a
kilometre further on, just after the Oryx sign.
The Jockeys: Chili jockeys Until
recently, children as young as four were purchased from their parents or
kidnapped and sold into use as jockeys. While this was already illegal,
Qatar has now introduced severe punishments for anyone caught using child
jockeys, and is going to greater lengths to enforce these laws, in contrast to
some other countries in the area. They have also established an orphanage for
children whose parents cannot be found. Happily, when we were at the track we
saw no child jockeys, and there were plenty of police to make sure everyone
was obeying the law.
Robot jockeys Replacing the children are robot jockeys. These are controlled
by the camels’ owners who are following in the four wheel drive vehicles. Not
only can the owners control the robots’ arms to whip the camels and pull the
reins, they can also hurl abuse at the camels through speakers. The robot
jockeys weigh about 26 kilos and cost about five and a half thousand dollars,
which compares to about two thousand for a child.
The race:At the start of the race the camels are accompanied by older
camels and their jockeys. At a certain point they are released, and only
followed by their owners. When the owners press the whip, the whip hand of the
jockeys whirs round with an electric sound that can be heard clearly from the
side of the race track, cracking the camel with a series of whacks on its rear
end. You can get up close for the start and finish of the camel race, or watch
it safely from the stadium.
Racing
