Why Qatar?
Every four years the world gathers in some country to participate in the Football World Cup. This year it is being held in the country of Qatar. This tournament has been blackened for years already for the human rights abuses inflicted on an imported workforce to build stadiums and support structures such as hotels for the upcoming event. Add to this, the drama surrounding the team representing Iran and an ignorant attitude towards homosexuality and you have another failure in the eyes of humanity.
Qatar is a small country made up of mostly low-lying desert. The capital city of Doha is home to over 80% of its residents. So how was this small country able to secure the hosting of arguably one of the world’s biggest sporting events? Well, they certainly have a lot of money to throw around. I wonder if that had anything to do it?
An astounding 300,000 workers were hired and brought to Qatar to help build 7 soccer stadiums, a new airport, a metro system and 100 new hotels. But that is only where the problems began. Workers were promised wages that in many cases were upwards of $300/month. When paychecks arrived, workers were only paid about $190/month. The results of punitive and illegal wage reductions. Not the wages the men in Nepal and other countries signed up for when they were recruited. Add to that the fact that many people were not paid for months and you have the beginnings of a crisis. How could they send money home to their families if they did not have it in the first place?
But it gets worse. The workers had their passports confiscated so they were unable to quit and return home. After that, the workers had to face the brutal and unsafe work conditions each day. One appalling statistic from the Daily Mail puts the death toll at 6500 people. The official number of fatalities building Hoover Dam is listed as 96. This number represents work done in 1931. In 2022, many died from what is known as “slipping away”. Workers return home from a day of laboring in brutal heat and conditions only to “slip away” into death as they fell into an exhaustive slumber. Victims of exploitation.
Another injustice displayed in Qatar, is its ignorance in categorizing homosexuality as a crime. It is so sad that in 2022 we still fight these battles. When will we ever become the “all inclusive” human race? Today it seems like it is an impossible dream. But I have my hopes.
Qatar World Cup ambassador, Khalid Salman call homosexuality “damage in the mind”. He describes homosexuality as “haram” in the Muslim world. In other words, forbidden. He goes on to state that gay people are more than welcome to come to Qatar for the games but that “they will have to accept our rules”.
FIFA, the world governing body for soccer has a very poor response to the world’s criticism of this entire mess. The human rights abuses of workers and the LGBTQ community seemed to weigh very little on their minds. They released this statement, “FIFA has written to the 32 teams competing telling them to “now focus on football”. They said the sport should not be “dragged” into ideological or political “battles” or “hand out moral lessons”.
This is the same cowardly thinking that perpetuates so many of these problems. I do not mean to suggest that athletes are responsible to handle the problems of the world. But as they are looked upon with so much respect, they have the voice and platform to be heard so much more loudly than say someone like myself. Professional athletes make obscene amounts of money simply because they are able to play a game better than the rest of us. I would argue that they have a moral imperative to help stand up for others who are unable to do so on their own. After all, they are playing in stadiums and staying in hotels where thousands have died toiling in brutal and unsafe working conditions.
In a meek response 10 European football associations have said that “human rights are universal and apply everywhere”. But each time they come up with a suitable form of protest, FIFA says no and they meekly walk away. As I’ve said before, the almighty dollar is more important than anything else. Even our humanity.
