Interviews in the coulisses of the Festival

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Q: Your Excellency Secretary General, what are the objectives you plan to reach through this year’s sessions of Doha Cultural Festival?

A: Our first target is our audience and those who follow the events of the Festival; we want their numbers to increase continuously. When the public is present and follows, it shows its interest in the Festival. Therefore, the most important for us is that citizens attend the symposiums, the special evenings and the other events; we have planned and organized these events with the objective of satisfying the audience. On the other hand, we try to let culture in Qatar walk side by side with the important renaissance led by His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of the Country, and His Heir Apparent. This renaissance is very visible in the various political, social and economic sectors, as well as in sports. Qatar is today a leader in international congresses and meetings and welcomes the most important world sports events. From our position, we are preparing citizens and residents to welcome 2010 when Qatar will be – God willing – the Capital of the Culture. We want citizens and residents to be our partners in all works and we want them to express their opinions and build the culture of their country. We want to walk hand by hand with the citizens towards the highest steps of culture. It is one of the objectives we work to implement, if we succeed, it will be thanks to God’s blessing, if we fail, we apologize. We believe that whatever humans do, it will always lack perfection, and we just hope that deficiencies will be small and few in the eyes of our public.

Q: Your Excellency Secretary General, we note that Doha Cultural Festival occupies an important share of NCCAH’s events. Where would you classify it compared to the National Council other activities?

A: It is evident that Doha Cultural festival along with the Book Fair is among the most important NCCAH’s activities. But the events are permanent, be it outside the country as our exhibitions in Paris, our participation through a Cultural Week in Algeria, in Sharjah UAE, and in Morocco, in all book fairs and in plastic arts exhibitions; or in Qatar where the Cultural Café started its programs a month ago in its new seat at al-Bida’a Garden. We don’t want that people consider the Festival as a seasonal activity, we prefer the continuity in cultural events and we want Qatar to be a Cultural Flagship. That explains the presence of permanent activities as the Book Fair, poetry symposia, theater plays, plastic arts exhibitions and cultural gatherings… We aspire to have these events all along the year. In a given period, we focus during one week, as in this Festival, on the country landmarks and the various cultural happenings in all sectors. The same principle may be seen during the Book Fair when we try to attract the major publishers, organizing simultaneously cultural events. All this doesn’t constitute anyhow our main objective; what we want is that the visitor to Qatar finds miscellaneous cultural activities in almost all sectors. We can add that the Cultural Festival has a special place in NCCAH since it attracts guests and media representatives from abroad and also because it includes so many different cultural aspects. Children for example have special movies and theater plays program; we invited a Chinese Dress Show; folklore is present with groups from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. There are also local groups who perform in the Heritage Village, in Souq Waqef, al-Khour, al-Wakrah. What’s attractive in these events is that they allow the visitor to appreciate many shows and get acquainted with the Qatari people and the landmarks of the country. Our main concern is to show our culture and our civilization to the visitor, but this doesn’t mean that other activities are inexistent out of the Festival. Qatar will live, God willing, permanent festivals all along the year.

Q: Your Excellency Secretary General, out of the Festival frame, to which extent NCCAH sponsors and supports Qatari artists and writers?

A: We support permanently Qatari artists and writers. We have asked a group of artists to dedicate themselves to their works and their creations, and we have founded a special committee of studies and research that publishes selected books about Qatari and residents writers. We have a Translation Centre that translates significant books that enrich the cultural movement in Qatar. In addition, there’s an important participation during the cultural weeks of the different artistic categories. We care about the poet, the comedian, the plastic artist, the artisan… All Qataris men and women are invited to participate with us in the cultural field. We want also to add that on the sports level, we participate in the German Tennis Championship; Labor Ministry also is active in Sharjah and we’ll co-participate in the events it sponsors in the UAE. As you can see, we support all the social categories even if we have to provide huge efforts. We do not favor one category in particular, and we feel that we have duties towards all categories; we are ready to coordinate our efforts with all the institutions that are present in Qatar in order to promote culture.

Q: You said some time ago that the disabled would have their share in this year’s events as it was the case last year. How important is the charitable side in the Festival?

A: God willing, the charitable side will always be present in the Festival. I believe that the disabled need more attention from our part; I wish that we give them a more significant part in next Book’s Fair, so that books may be at their reach. We will try to support any activities they wish to present. Concerning the elders, we will try also to invite groups that will sing for them and create an atmosphere of joy and happiness. We have a permanent contact with Sheikha Hissa Bint Khalifa who supervises this side. We are absolutely ready to strengthen further our support so that they have more presence in NCCAH’s events.

Q: Your Excellency Secretary General, a last word in these times of Festival!

A: We hope that the efforts we provided during this Festival are appreciated by citizens and residents as well. We wish that critics of our deficiencies won’t be too tough, since we’ve done our best!