I first heard Philippe Bogaerts extraordinary story a week ago, after being introduced to him by a mutual friend here in Doha. He was introduced to me as the "Hostage in Qatar", a name that would stick in the days to come.
“Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around.” I'm sat in a generic American coffee shop in downtown Doha sipping on some rather good coffee, nibbling on a tasteless muffin and wondering how I got here. I can still remember when I decided that I'd make the changes that lead to this moment – It was 2.5 years ago on a sunny beach in Abu-Dhabi in December 2006.
It would be an understatement to say that things have been a bit gloomy lately. Just today Bill Gates was in the news predicting that the current financial crisis would last another 4 years. The IMF are predicting that in 2009 we'll see the lowest growth rate in the world economy for the last 60 years. Throw in the fact that many people have been made redundant, (I was one of the early ones last year) with more soon to follow, there really isn't an awful lot to be cheerful about these days.