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Where is Qatar and why is it important for the world?
Qatar is a country in the middle east whose capital is Doha. It shares its sole land border with Saudi Arabia in the south and the rest of its territory is surrounded by the Persian Gulf.
The total population of Qatar is 2.6 million in which more than 80% is comprised of foreign workers mainly from South Asia(India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan). Qatar is ruled by the House of Thani and is a hereditary monarchy. Its became a British protectorate in 1916 following the Ottoman rule and then gained its independence in 1971. The current emir of Qatar is Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. It has the world's largest natural gas and oil reserves in the world and also is the world's largest exporter of Liquified natural gas. Due to the oil and natural gas reserves Qatar has, it gives them huge revenue. But they know the fact that one day the world will move from fossil fuels and they will face a very huge problem which is of revenue and the soft power they get with the reserves they had. So they are trying to make Qatar a cultural destination around the world. Which brings us to FIFA.
FIFA
FIFA is the international governing body of Football association football, beach football and futsal. It has it's headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland. It was founded in 1904 and comprises of 211 national associations. It consists of six regional confederation as shown below
Its is one of the most powerful sporting organizations in the world as it has the largest audience of around more than a billion people watching it all around the world.
These days countries are willing to pay more and more to get the world cup in their country as this will increase the soft power of their country. The expected spending of this 2022 world cup is projected to be 220 billion dollars which is 10 times higher than of the previous world cup which happened in Russia and they spend 20 billion(approximately).
The issue of Human Rights in Qatar?
The issue of Human Rights is very serious as most countries in the gulf including Qatar uses the kafala system as an employment framework to recruit migrant laborers from abroad to work for low paying jobs. Under this system the migrant have documented a range of abuses, among them, are delayed and unpaid wages, excessive hours of work, confiscation of passports, working in inhumane conditions. This system binds the worker in an exploitable employer-employee relationship. There have been reports of deaths of more than 6500 workers who died making the stadiums in which more than 2500 were from India. Due to these reports the Qatari government promised to make reforms but the situation is still grim and still need attention. The issue will remain in highlights during the world cup but as the world cup will end people will forget about it and the workers in Qatar will continued to be exploited.
Conclusion
The people who were the council members in 2010 when Qatar won the world cup most of them were charged with corruption charges. There were reports that there was heavy corruption in FIFA council member. After retirement the president Sepp Blatter claimed in an interview that "It was a bad choice. And I was responsible for that as president at the time".
The issue of Human Rights is very serious as most countries in the gulf including Qatar uses the kafala system as an employment framework to recruit migrant laborers from abroad to work for low paying jobs. Under this system the migrant have documented a range of abuses, among them, are delayed and unpaid wages, excessive hours of work, confiscation of passports, working in inhumane conditions. This system binds the worker in an exploitable employer-employee relationship. There have been reports of deaths of more than 6500 workers who died making the stadiums in which more than 2500 were from India. Due to these reports the Qatari government promised to make reforms but the situation is still grim and still need attention. The issue will remain in highlights during the world cup but as the world cup will end people will forget about it and the workers in Qatar will continued to be exploited.
Conclusion
The people who were the council members in 2010 when Qatar won the world cup most of them were charged with corruption charges. There were reports that there was heavy corruption in FIFA council member. After retirement the president Sepp Blatter claimed in an interview that "It was a bad choice. And I was responsible for that as president at the time".
Qatar is a great country,congratulation to won a world cup
ReplyDeleteIt is so sad to learn that people are still being treated poorly by people. I hope they open their eyes soon. Good job on the explanation.
ReplyDelete