Bob Simon: I think Americans are going to be shocked about a few things here: That there are no taxes. That electricity is free. Health care is free. Education is free. Sounds like a paradise.
The work is being done by a million man army of immigrants: 94 percent of Qatar's labor force is foreign; Filipinos, Indians, Nepalese mainly - creating a home for a mere 250,000 Qataris. Paying for it? No problem. Qatar sits on top of the third largest natural gas reserves on the planet.
Sheik Hamid bin Jasim: Everything is free. That become, like, a part of our culture.
Sheik Hamid bin Jasim is Qatar's prime minister.
Bin Jasim: Even when the-- people died, they were-- we take care of them.
Simon: Free funerals.
Bin Jasim: Yes.
Simon: From cradle to grave--
Bin Jasim: Yes, yes.
Simon:--everything's taken care of.
Those "problems" - the chaos, violence and killings throughout the Middle East are not cooling down at all - and many Arab leaders say, to a large extent, it is the emir's fault.
That's because of the television network he created 15 years ago. It's called Al Jazeera and it does something unprecedented in the Arab world. It covers the news. It's on the air 24 hours a day, broadcasts in Arabic and English and is widely considered to be the engine of the Arab Spring.
Simon: This was the first and the only network in the Arab world that was independent. Everyone else was just doing what their government told them to do.
Bin Khalifa: Of course, it caused us a lot of problem with the top people in the Arab countries.
Simon: You say that Al Jazeera created problems for some leaders in the Middle East. It created big problems. It got them overthrown.
Faisal al Qasim: We Arabs have been fond over the years of hiding our dirt under the carpet.
Faisal al Qasim is the host of one of Al Jazeera's most popular talk shows.
Al Qasim: We are here to reveal everything, to cover everything. That's why they don't like us. We are talking here about Arab governments, Arab regimes. I'm not talking about the Arab people. The Arab people love Al Jazeera.
Egyptians sure loved it last year. Thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square watched themselves and their own revolution "live" on Al Jazeera.
Al Qasim: And nobody can negate the fact that Al Jazeera played a big role in what happened in Egypt at the time.
Simon: Here at Al Jazeera, are you covering the news or do you have an agenda?
Al Qasim: What is wrong with transforming the Arab world from tyranny and despotism into a democracy? What's wrong with that? If there is an agenda, it's a very good agenda.
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