It was a description that was almost dismissed at the time, but Qatar resonated with it immensely, and it is worth mentioning every day about this World Cup.
“Consultations and reports in Qatar reveal that racial and ethnic stereotypes operate in both public and private spheres, according to which, for example, sub-Saharan African men are perceived as unhealthy, sub-Saharan African women are perceived as sexually available. , and citizens of certain South Asian countries are considered unintelligent. The Special Rapporteur has received credible reports that, in contrast, North Americans, Europeans and Australians are considered superior, and white people in general are considered to be inherently competent in a variety of contexts, such as hiring and promotion decisions.”
This all stems from a report written by Professor Tendayi Achiume, UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism, who is as respected an authority as you will find in this area.
Her work was so sensitive for the state of Qatar that, a week after its initial findings came out, they canceled a planned visit by the UN Special Rapporteur on Slavery.
This reference is meant to reflect another contradiction of this World Cup. The issue of migrant workers is one of the most dominant controversies in development, and is still in the spotlight for people, but the real reality is now rarely mentioned halfway into tournaments.
That in itself is important, and points to the process by which all of this is normalized.
That's why FairSquare commissioned a video on the subject of calling migrant workers “The Invisibles.” You only have to look at the recent urges — mostly of course innocent, though somewhat naive — to describe how great this whole thing is; what an amazing experience people have.
The Independent has seen more than one case of someone admiring how kind “locals” are, only for those locals to become migrant workers. It cannot be emphasized enough how these workers were denied the most basic rights of the local population – such as the ability to change jobs – and were almost never able to become citizens.
And, of course, it's their job to be nice. Be more than good. Any dissent or demeanor will not be tolerated. Migrant workers are often scolded. There was one witnessed case of a man in a 4x4 trying to get into a hotel gym that did not have a proper pass, but then threatening to report the worker for refusing to enter, and taking his picture as a form of leverage.
It is a culture that has evolved from a system. It's a culture that has spawned one of the more unsettling experiences in Doha, but you get to experience it a lot. It is migrant workers who pay great attention to the smallest details, for fear of failing to fulfill their duties. Otherwise, they clearly feel at risk of being criticized.
The blunt truth is that it shouldn't be normal for humans to behave this way. It's condescending. It goes beyond "hospitality". Weird and disgusting, like you're being waited on by the lower class.
Yet it all becomes so normal, an intrinsic but invisible part of the "experience."
There are times when it's hard not to think this is how the American elements were like down south during slavery. This is a lower class of people who are neglected but simultaneously taken for granted, yet truly underpin everything in this state. The place couldn't function without them. For this they received the opposite of gratitude.
Likewise, it cannot be stressed enough how these are all based on “structural racial discrimination” and a “quasi-caste system based on national origin”. That is according to Professor Achiume and echoed by various human rights groups, as well as the workers themselves.
One Ghanaian who worked on this World Cup told The Independent: "Everyone is judged on their passport - and Africans are at the bottom of the category."
This is partly why it's always going to be a "great experience" for relatively wealthy Westerners, especially if they're just spending it in West Bay or expensive suburbs, and why it's completely irrelevant.
You only need to talk to one of the workers you meet everywhere every day, to understand the world that should not exist in 2022, and especially the world that the World Cup should be rewarding.
It's there when you leave in the morning to go to work, and there's a security guard there waving at you, but he's still in the same place waving goodbye when you come back more than eight hours later. That's where another worker tells you he shares a small bedroom with four other people and considers himself lucky that some of his compatriots live with 12 people.
“My salary is paid late every month because it comes from three layers of people, and they all get a cut,” the Ghanaian worker told The Independent. "Wages are also falling, even though Qatar clearly has enough money to pay."
Everyone will have their own story, all driven by some form of desperation, all very different from the glamor of West Bay.
And this, let's not forget, is one of the states in the Gulf where the situation is slightly improving. It remains far worse in the footballer and holiday venues of Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Many of those same workers will of course tell Westerners they love Qatar and point out that wages are much better than back home, enabling them to provide for their families.
There are two important parts to it. One of them, of course, they will say that because many really fear scrutiny and human rights investigators say it takes months to build trust in many cases. Another is that this is still just base exploitation, global inequality taken to an extreme, as the richest take advantage of the most desperate.
The World Cup shouldn't facilitate that.
This of course raises the big question of whether FIFA will match their prize money with a compensation fund, as requested by a coalition of human rights groups as part of FIFA's Pay Up campaign. There is still public silence
FIFA will instead demonstrate how a compensation claims system already exists, which has paid out $350 million to workers since 2018, and that the legacy fund will support the creation of a labor excellence hub after the tournament - financed by a percentage of commercial revenue generated through the competition.
Human rights groups argue that these solutions are not really compensation programs, as they "only give back what workers are entitled to: hiring fees and wages".
The feeling remains that the governing body is not using enough football influence here. The line is still that "opportunity lost".
There is still a belief that FIFA is not following up on compensation due to a reluctance to aggravate Qatar. Such funds implicitly mean the host country has more accountability here than the public accepts. This article was written by EDUKASI CAMPUS.