Re: I Can't Believe Its Not Qatar!: Neighboring Countries may host matches Oh, and will any of these other games end up being played in front of all-male audiences?
Am I the only one who doesn't give a flying fkcu how impressive the respective countries can render 3d stadiums in cga? honestly, who cares about how pretty the stadiums are if the fans are miserably hot and can't find a beer?
Or are busy cooped up in hotel bars the entire time because there is absolutely nothing to do in host country X? Nevermind actually having to walk outside mid-day through an interesting neighborhood in the heat if one actually existed? No, you're pretty much in the majority of people who actually entertain the idea of attending a cup every 4 years.
Guys the South Asians who are going to build the infrastructure are NOT slaves... They will be paid etc etc.... Most of those guys would have no job if they stayed in their country...
The problem is they will be beaten, raped, and won't be allowed to leave the country. If you're gonna pay these guys crap wages at least respect their rights as human beings.
Just run a google search. http://www.amnestyusa.org/all-countries/qatar/page.do?id=1011226 http://qatar.livejournal.com/172134.html
It's not sour grapes. There is a lot of shady sh&t out there that is not being explained and/or investigated. If there were allegations of ANY nations colluding there would be an issue. I certainly could have understood Australia getting the Cup, or even a joint bid by some of the Middle Eastern nations. Something is rotten in Qatar...
I suggest you read this: http://humantrafficking.change.org/...selling_beer_will_get_same_penalty_as_slavery and this: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html They lure the poor to their countries with promises of jobs with lucrative pay, and when they arrive they take away their passports and make them work for years to get it back. They keep them in slave quarters outside the city limits so tourists don't have to see them. You are kidding yourself if you don't think this actually goes on, or will go on, to make the World cup happen.
They seem to be flexible on racism these days too as long as its out of the stadium and in a mall: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VluY5SWfjSI"]YouTube - UNDERCOVER JIM GOES SHOPPING IN DOHA QATAR[/ame]
Surely you know what the difference is between the situation here and there, but in case you don't, I'll spell it out for you. Here: people are smuggled in and exploited the same way they are in Europe. The government actually tries to crack down on these things...paperwork, documentation, minimum wage protection, the ability to leave when you want, that sort of thing. There is even a path to citizenship for many. There: the government actually allows multinational developers the right to import workers, pay them next to nothing, and makes no guarantee of their rights. There is also no path to citizenship/permanent residence. Put differently: when a road or hotel or condo gets built here, you can bet that the government will inspect and verify employment credentials, workplace conditions (OSHA), wages, etc. Undocumented workers are exploited here, no doubt, but that is because they are undocumented and therefore fall outside of the legal framework..yet at least some attempt is made to protect those individuals when they are discovered. When the same thing gets built there, those workers don't get any of that. It's not a case where the undocumented get exploited. It's a case where the documented do due to a poor legal protection system.
That is an astounding story. If only half of it is true ... shudder. Here are a few relatively modest quotes with applicability to Qatar's World Cup plans (rather than the revolting quotes about slave labor, duplicity of the authorities, and indifference from the local and Western rich): Sound like the Qatar stadium plans? Insane use of resources. Monuments of waste to the egos and fantacies of the massively rich rulers. And built by forced, slave labor.
Absolutely ignorant and ridicluious. Ten plaintiff side lawyers in the US probably have a greater effect on protecting guest workers rights here than the entire political apparatus of qatar there.
Sour GRAPES... Elaborate explanations to weigh wrongs and add exceptions when they fit your argument/narrative...
It's time to put away the "sour grapes" line. It's beginning to look like you're just trying to provoke people. ---------------------- Folks, this thread has very little to do, even indirectly, with soccer anymore. If you want to discuss the nature of society in Qatar, there is a thread in the Politics forum that's dedicated to it.
Re: I Can't Believe Its Not Qatar!: Neighboring Countries may host matches I'd be all for doing this with a combined Gulf States team, in fact. Each of the national teams has only 3-4 quality players, but a combined squad could make some noise. (For that matter, Qatar + Ali Al-Habsi would have a decent shot at advancing. Al-Habsi alone is worth at least 200 of Oman's Elo rating points.)
Re: I Can't Believe Its Not Qatar!: Neighboring Countries may host matches Actually this is a good idea. They should include this in their bid. (Wait, this is 2008, right?)
I think we're missing a big part of the recent voting trend for Olympics/World Cups/etc., and one that Blazer alluded to here http://www.socceramerica.com/article/40716/chuck-blazer-on-the-us-loss.html: the US's status on the world stage is an undeniable factor in our failure to garner enough votes. No matter how some of us want to view the US soccer community as multi-cultural and outward-looking, the fact is that the US's cultural status has plummeted since the 1990s (if it ever was really that big anyway). As a poster on Big Soccer wrote just after the 2022 vote, no one likes us except us (and, well, maybe England). No matter what your politics, did we really think that England and the US -- countries that engineered a hugely unpopular war -- would get enough votes to host consecutive World Cups? Or that we could secure the votes of France or the South American countries? Child please. The fact that we ended up just 3 votes shy of a tie-breaker that likely would have gone in our favor is to be commended.