"The country also needed an entire network of roads and rails to transport fans between the arenas and dozens upon dozens of hotels to house them — nothing less than an entirely redrawn country, rising from the sand in a $220 billion nation-building project. To achieve it, Qatar recruited hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from some of the poorest corners of the planet, swelling the country’s population — which grew by 13.2 percent in the last year alone — and drawing intense focus on the laborers’ treatment, their rights and their living conditions. How many have died over the last decade or more is not known, and may never be. Many thousands more have returned home sick or injured or deprived of the pay they were promised...."
"A new wave of migrant workers has arrived, meanwhile, to staff the hotels, man the stadiums and serve the food.... Qatar shocked FIFA and fans alike on Friday by deciding, only days before the tournament’s opening match, to go back on its promise to allow the sale of beer at its eight World Cup stadiums..... The about-face raised new questions about whether everyone — particularly LGBTQ+ fans — will face the kind of welcome that Qatar’s organizing committee and FIFA have consistently guaranteed. This month, Khalid Salman, a former Qatari national team player now deployed as an ambassador for the World Cup, did not seem to have heard the organizers’ messaging. 'Homosexuality is haram here,' he told a German documentary, using an Arabic word that roughly translates as forbidden. 'It is haram because it is damage in the mind.'"
ADDED: Is $220 billion really that much? It's just 5 Twitters.
AND: Imagine forbidding everything that is "damage in the mind"? What would escape forbidding?
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54 comments:
How would Qatar know if a soccer fan was gay? Are there any gays in the world interested in traveling to Qatar as openly homosexual couples? Seems like an unlikely occurrence.
Nice but silly hand-wringing by NYT. What did they think was going to happen? Don't they follow the news? FIFA is as crooked as the International Olympic Committee.
Those Gulf States are really something. If fans want beer, they need to go to Bahrain, not Qatar.
No one who watched the whole thing get to this point is surprised.
FIFA officials got compensated when they voted for it. As a lifelong fan of soccer, I learned long ago that FIFA exists for the benefit of its executives and the board.
Qatar seems to be run much the same way, as long as the Emir and his people are happy then things are fine.
The fools who bought tickets to attend were living a pipe dream. I am sorry they were hoodwinked, but they were pretty naive to think this would resemble European futbol matches.
Muslims lied to non-Muslims? That has to be a first.
See if the "workers" get their passports back.
Qatar red-cards queers.
I'm trying to think of a group of people I care less about than LGBTQ+ soccer fans.
Nope, can't think of any.
Beer, women, homosexuals, and foreign labor hit hardest.
raised new questions about whether everyone — particularly LGBTQ+ fans — will face the kind of welcome
so, serious questions..
Proper people, will NOT got to backward evil places like Alabama.. 'cause it's not LGBTQI+ supporting
Proper people, will NOT got to backward evil places like Georgia.. 'cause it not 'democracy friendly'
Proper people, think that white americans should pay reparations for SLAVERY.. 'cause it's BAD!
But!! LGBTQI+ people will risk their lives, to go to Qatar? Because, WHY?
"Imagine forbidding everything that is "damage in the mind"? What would escape forbidding?"
Our Progressive would-be overlords would like to see how far they can go with that. I think that's one thing they admire about Islam.
My shocked face is worn out. If you take your "pride" to Qatar, you are as dumb as the people on "Locked up Abroad."
No beer at the World cup? Maybe the soccer hooligans will stay home.
IMHO, soccer is as dull as watching paint dry. Like two mules fighting over a turnip.
Thats the problem of awarding the world cup to winning briber.
Now, tell me how the Davos crew differs from the FIFA crew.
I'm waiting.
a $220 billion nation-building project
Imagine how much it would've cost if they had paid the workers a decent wage!
I'm interpreting "damage in the mind" as he meant it was mental illness.
Deciding not to serve beer isn't a surprise. Although, technically, they are just refusing to allow the common people to have alcohol. It's still being served (beer, wine, liquor) to the VIP ticket holders.
This makes me think a gay couple will probably be fine if they have the $3000 tickets and have booked a top-tier room at one of the new hotels. They may want to rethink the trip if they've got the "cheap" seats. In Qatar, "damage in the mind" appears to be less of a threat if you are among the wealthy.
and the people who fund the taliban hamas and boko haram,
If FIFA's reputation has truly been battered, it is long overdue.
The US can't complain much about anything Qatar does, either. They're a close ally of Iran and this important to winning a deal.
What happens to somebody who says “Islam is damage to the mind”?
Asking for a friend.
This was Qatar's reward for bailing out 666 5th Avenue
https://www.justsecurity.org/69094/timeline-on-jared-kushner-qatar-666-fifth-avenue-and-white-house-policy/
And the ML All Star Game was taken away from Atlanta because Georgia wasn't seen fit to host it.
What would escape forbidding?
Ab, Donald Trump?
Pro tip... when in Qatar, leave the rainbow flag at home. Problem solved.
What happens to somebody who says “Islam is damage to the mind”?
Cancelled and beheaded.
FIFA is the International Olympic Committee of corruption in international sports organizations.....oh fuck it already.
Looking forward to the world cup. Ordinarily, I find soccer boring, but the world cup is different. The real problem with having Qatar host, is no alcohol in the stands. I can't imagine sitting through a soccer game without a drink.
And they're hosting at the right time. November to February is when the Persian Gulf has good weather. High temps in the 70s, not a lot of humidity. Its hell on earth in August.
In addition to the world cup, I hope FIFA will give out some acting awards this year.
I read the article. I have mixed feelings. It's not as bad as the White Sea Canal. That's when hundreds of thousands of Russians were sent out in their street clothes in a Russian winter to dig a canal with garden instruments. Thousands died. There were Nobel Prize winners who witnessed this and thought it was a good thing....I believe that thousands of workers were mistreated during these Qatar construction projects, but many thousands more picked up what they considered a substantial paycheck. It's not like construction projects in their own countries offered more OSHA protections or a better paychecks.....The jury is still out on whether they have built the Panama or a White Sea Canal. If they did build something substantial and worthwhile, the sacrifices will have been worth it......Gays and beer drinkers hardest hit, but love will find a way. The Qataris seem to be sufficiently corrupt to accommodate most sins.....All of this provides substance and reason to my abiding principle that soccer and Middle Eastern countries should be studiously ignored.
"Imagine forbidding everything that is "damage in the mind"? What would escape forbidding?"
Things permitted by Allah via the sharia.
But until the day before yesterday just about all cultures considered homosexuality damaging.
I'd like Mr. Salman to open a cakeshop in the U.S.
Did they really think that political congruence ("=") would provided the answer? Transgender tribbles.
ADDED: Is $220 billion really that much? It's just 5 Twitters.
I was just thinking yesterday about how funny we are about money. I’ll think nothing of spending $50 on lunch knowing I’ll be hungry again in a few hours, but I’ll agonize over spending $50 on a shirt I’ll wear for years.
Don't worry, the LGBTQI+ community will still hate Israel.
As long as they don't throw any gay people off any buildings, it will be considered a success I think. As to no gays, no alcohol in a Muslim land, that's a laugh. There won't be any shortage of deceit and hypocrisy at least.
Central Command is based there, I wonder how the Biden administration justifies that to its LGBTQ supporters.
We should come up with a drinking game here based on the likely rhetorical tactics Inga and Howard will utilize to blame all this on Western Christians in the same way they transfer responsibility for islamic supremacist atrocities onto Western Christians.
Should be fun!
And no booze allowed.
With women required to be appropriately covered.
The Shariah in force.
When in a Muslim country, we must conform to Muslim culture and sensibilities.
And, as the weak-kneed Western leaders tell us, when Muslims are in our country we must conform to Muslim culture and sensibilities.
Soccer isn't yet Rollerball, as in the James Caan movie. But it isn't that far from that dystopian work of fiction.
Maybe the English game got there early, got drunk, and started trashing the place. When I lived in a small central European country, that's what the English fans did when one of their teams came to play. The bars and restaurants reacted by banning all English speakers from their premises.
well it would obviate the salary cap, yes that building has at&t nike and dc comics,
Central Command is based there, I wonder how the Biden administration justifies that to its LGBTQ supporters.
With political congruence ("=") or opportunity under the Pro-Choice ethical religion, every choice is a viable propellant of diversity, inequity, and exclusion that underlies Western social progress.
Everyone knows that FIFA was paid off to put the World Cup in Qatar, a locale otherwise completely unsuited. Good luck, I guess?
Pro tip... when in Qatar, leave the rainbow flag at home. Problem solved.
Tell that to the USMNT. They changed the red, white and blue on their logo to that rainbow shit.
It would be frowned upon just about everywhere were it not for people's better nature.
And they're hosting at the right time. November to February is when the Persian Gulf has good weather. High temps in the 70s, not a lot of humidity. Its hell on earth in August.
Having both lived in south east GA for three years and visited Qatar in August, I can confirm that Qatar at that time of year makes South East GA feel like spring in Halifax. Not only will the heat shock the breath out of you, the humidity will make it even harder to get it back. And it only gets worse when the sun goes down...
A bunch of people got very rich on this World Cup. Mission accomplished.
Oh Howard, there are just as many if not more Democrat politicians, and also businessmen, tech companies, Hollywood stars, and elite money-grubbing leftist academic institutions with their heads firmly embedded in the landscape of oppressors' hindsides. And, good riddance to that pathetic grifter Kushner.
When you produce proof that either Trump or Kushner influence FIFA, do get back to us.
ADDED: Is $220 billion really that much? It's just 5 Twitters.
It is also less than we'll send to Ukraine if the war lasts two years. I suspect that war has killed fewer than the construction for the World Cup did.
@Howard, how is this "Qatar's reward for bailing out 666 5th Avenue", when FIFA awarded the WC to them in 2010? Also, that website you linked to regarding the Kushners relies quite a bit on hearsay/opinion and "news" organizations that are known to be heavily biased and/or corrupted. While I think there were problems with the Trump administration, they appear to have been less problematic than most of the recent administrations.
It is a mistake to identify a single issue as being behind everything bad--theree are always multiple reasons.
But, really, if you just assume that EVERYTHING the "establishment" does is about THE GRIFT, you are always on the right track.There may be some other things going on, but the grift is alwasy at or near the core.
Climate alarmism? Check.
Trans rights and affirmative care for confused pubescent adolescents? Check.
ESG investing? Check.
Affirmative action, as actually practiced? Check.
BLM? Check.
"Effective altruism"? Check.
Trump hatred? Double Check.
Obamacare? Check.
Destroying a decent K-12 education system and then saying it needs "reform"? Check.
Provoking a war between Russia and Ukraine? Check.
The way our side has prosecuted that war? Triple check.
I try to find a counter-example, and can't.
The great Eric Hoffer wrote ca. 1966 that "every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." At this date, everything has become a racket.
Selling beer is banned in Brazilian sport parks to avoid violence. FIFA forced them to allow beer sales in 2014
Selling beer is banned in Brazilian sport parks. FIFA forced to allow beer sales in 2014
Selling beer is banned in Brazilian sport parks. FIFA forced to allow beer sales in 2014
Maybe the English game got there early, got drunk.. English fans have been surpasses in violence and danger by German, Russian, Dutch, Argentinian fans
Maybe the English game got there early, got drunk.. English fans have been surpasses in violence and danger by German, Russian, Dutch, Argentinian fans
https://youtu.be/DfbxRtqoQJQ Minister Qatar Ali bin Ahmed Al-Kuwari LGBTQ
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