They may live in a country pronounced "gutter," but that doesn't describe how they live. In fact, they will soon be among the richest people in the world.
Qatar is not a country most Americans have heard of. It is a peninsular state about the size of Connecticut that juts north into the Persian Gulf, where the borders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates meet. It has a population of 600,000, only one-fourth of whom are Qataris.The present ruler of the small oil state is Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. He's been the Emir of Qatar for two years, ever since he quietly overthrew his father in a bloodless coup.
He is the most dynamic, interesting ruler in the Persian Gulf. And he's setting his citizens up to be as rich as Croesus in the next decade - if he can hold onto power.
Sheik Hamad had two primary reasons for tossing out his father, Sheik Khalifa. The first was his sire's unbridled greed, which ticked off the majority of the ruling al-Thani family. Sheik Khalifa took a big cut of every oil and natural gas contract.
The fortune Khalifa amassed in foreign banks was "somewhere around $5 billion," said a knowledgeable Central Intelligence Agency source. The dutiful, hard-working son was tired of what he believed was daddy's theft of the native Qataris' national treasure.
A second reason for tossing Sheik Khalifa out, his son has made clear, was to begin democratizing Qatar in a way no other gulf state has approached. He made this clear in a speech last June to Georgetown University students in which, speaking fluent English, he quoted President John F. Kennedy warning dictatorships that if they didn't peacefully transform into democracies, they would be violently overthrown.
Many regional eyes are on Sheik Hamad for this reason, and because the 47-year-old represents a younger generation of leaders that's still waiting power in the other gulf states, where the average age of the rulers is 69.
No Arab country is a true democracy today. Some are fiddling with aspects of democracy, but no true relinquishment of power. The most rigid royal dictatorship is still Saudi Arabia, which doesn't like any of its smaller neighboring states to act like upstarts.
So Sheik Hamad said he feels his democratic moves must be cautious. He's been calling for local elections by way of building up to true national elections. The leading Qatari families have been told not to take such high percentages of the oil and gas revenue as his father did.
Most important, he's lifted press censorship - to a point. While the Qatari newspapers are more rambunctious now, he did shut one down for two months when it offended the neighboring Saudi leadership.
Sheik Hamad's hold on power is not 100 percent secure. For one thing, the al-Thanis are not universally beloved by other indigenous Qataris.
So far, he's survived three coup attempts instigated by his father from exile in France, according to CIA sources.
What's at stake for the ruler of Qatar in the next few years is the first real take from a natural gas field in Qatari territory under the gulf that is believed to be among the largest in the world - half as large as Qatar itself. The only natural gas reserves known to be greater are the combined fields in Russia and Iran.
Even before he pushed his father off the throne, Sheik Hamad was starting to develop the fields by securing huge new loans. As oil supplies dwindle and become more expensive, and the environmental consequences of oil production become amplified, clean-burning natural gas will become one of the most valuable commodities in the world.
A total of $21 billion will be needed to develop the northern fields for maximum production - a pretty huge sum for a country which made a total of only $3.6 billion in oil revenue last year. Yet creditors have been lining up to loan the money. They figure it's one of the best bets in the world.
What this really means is that Qatar is sitting particularly pretty vis-a-vis its neighbors. At a time when other gulf states are facing dwindling oil reserves and revenue, Qatar will be booming.
And under Sheik Hamad, all the native Qataris will benefit.