In the First Year

Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani passed away last Sunday morning, and Qatar declared a four-day period of mourning. The newspapers wrote about gas, mediation, and the World Cup, but none of that came to mind for me, having spent years working on educational quality. What did come to mind was a single date: 1995.

In that year, Sheikh Hamad assumed power, and in the same year—not ten years later, and not after the state coffers had filled up—he established Qatar Foundation by emir decree. …