Qatar Airways Pricing Policies

Wednesday, 22 June 2011 14:06 Last Updated on Wednesday, 22 June 2011 19:02 Written by Mark Whitworth

Qatar Airways: Five Star Service, Five Star Prices?

The information in this article was originally put together for a Business Studies lesson. The students were somewhat astonished by the findings so I polished it up a little and turned it into an article. Prior to posting on this website I attempted to contact Qatar Airways on two occasions; on the first they were uninformative and on the second did not reply. It would have been interesting to hear what they had to say.

I will of course await with bated breath for comments from any source, which can be made on the last page of this article.

In defence of Qatar Airways they are not the only carrier that pursues the policies outlined in the article below. My Business Studies students identified similar hub pricing patterns with Etihad, Thai, Emirates and Middle Eastern airlines, although none were quite as ludicrous as Qatar Airways Johannesburg prices.

At the very least this might give some potential purchasers, in the Middle East and for routes passing through it, pause for thought and quite possibly might save them some money. I hope so!

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The Curious History of the Hakka and the Tulou

Tuesday, 12 January 2010 15:10 Last Updated on Tuesday, 20 September 2011 21:53 Written by Mark Whitworth

The Curious History of the Hakka and the Tulou

If you are interested in the Hakka and the tulous you may also be interested in my selection of photos from Fujian or the blog I wrote on our trip to Fujian. Please click these links to enter either piece.

Much of the content of this article, on the Hakka and the Tulous, can be regarded as a hypothesis rather than an entirely factual piece. There is far too much contradictory information, of variable quality, to form many concrete conclusions. It has been written with reference to papers that would probably be best read in Chinese, by someone with a better grasp of Chinese history than I, and a couple of days field work. However, it would be interesting to have a series of unbiased people research sections of this work, to draw their own conclusions and to present their agreement or disagreement. I had hoped that the National Geographic/IBM Genographic Project would shed some more conclusive light on the subject of Hakka migration and origins, but as far as I can see it does not. At the end of the article are my private conclusions, made quite subjectively, I hope no one finds offence in them.

You can hover your pointer over the pictures and diagram in this article and it will show a full description and details.

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The Magna Carta

Friday, 28 August 2009 10:32 Last Updated on Tuesday, 23 February 2010 10:51 Written by Mark Whitworth

King John, the Barons and the Magna Carta

King John was not very popular. His brother King Richard I was a great warrior, but he had spent a lot of the country’s money on fighting the crusades against the Islamic Empire and was hardly ever in England. While Richard was doing this John tried to become King; he wasn’t being very nice to his brother but no one else was running the country. King Richard came back and sorted things out but then died leaving John as King (for real this time!). John had three big problems;

1)   He had no money and had to raise taxes a lot.

2)   He had to fight a war against France and lost the lands of Normandy to them.

3)   Everyone hated him because he was horrible (except perhaps his wife)!

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Marco Polo and His Big Journey

Friday, 28 August 2009 10:23 Last Updated on Tuesday, 23 February 2010 10:51 Written by Mark Whitworth

Marco Polo - Born 1254 (probably in Venice) Died 1324 (definitely in Venice)

Marco Polo is famous as the first “westerner” to travel to China; the trouble was he wasn’t! There were two people who travelled towards China: Giovanni Carpini in 1245 and then Guillaume de Rubrouck in 1253 had gone as far as the Karakorum Pass. But more significantly, in 1266, Marco Polo’s Father and Uncle had arrived in Beijing after six years away from home; they stayed there for a year and then took another three to get back.

This tells you why it is important to write a good book about your adventures; Signore de Rubrouck, Signore Carpini, Papa Polo and Uncle Polo didn’t do this. The result; Marco is famous and they are not! Marco Polo also reckoned he missed out half the stuff he saw, if he’d put it all in it would have been a huge book and maybe not so many people would have bothered to read it!

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