Oh, stop your bleeding hearts. Speaking as an Indian who has lived in the Gulf (and has family who has worked in these construction sites you speak of), I find it immensely ironic that a bunch of former colonial white-majority countries (the biggest benificiaries of slavery) are lecturing Qataris on slavery and human rights.
Yes, the labour laws there suck and are in much need of reform, but the levels of criticism this has reached crosses into downright racism.
Since we are on the topic of slavery. What about the millions of undocumented workers in the US, who work below minimum wage, have no rights, and no protections afforded by the law- They are effectively slaves working under the threat of deportation. The idea that US government cannot do anything to stem the flow of illegal immigration is ridiculous. We are talking about a country with military/police capabilities larger than the remaining top 5 countries combined. The fact of the matter is the US economy benefits from having a low-cost, migrant population with no rights, just like Qatar, and the government isn't in a hurry to fix it.
I would rather a World Cup be hosted somewhere in middle-east,Asia or Africa instead of yet another country in Europe or the Americas . India would make a great host if it could afford it. But we can't, and neither can many Asian/African countries. If the Qataris can and are willing to do it, give them a chance.
Edit: It's also amusing to find everyone on this thread and the internet up in arms against Qatar/Russia for all the bribery and corruption, when the indictments so far actually relate to corruption going back 24 years for matches in the US, South America (according to BBC) and the previous World cup in South Africa. I don't remember anyone complaining about corruption back then.
>Thousands of people have died building soccer stadiums and people are saying that is wrong.
Over 1100 people have died in a span of a few weeks from the heat wave currently happening in India. This sort of thing happens. Obviously, the Qataris could be doing a lot more to reduce deaths and improve condition of workers, but this is not exactly news, nor is it due to slavery.
I still think that a lot of the hate haslittle to do with slavery and more to do with the fact that :-
1. Football fans from England/Europe/America pissed off that they couldn't host the world cup and are annoyed that the Qataris were able to buy their way into the world cup. This group has been running an effective smear campaign ever since the selection happened.
2. Undercurrent racism from football fans and non-fans (Why is this article even in Hacker News? Are there that many football, sorry soccer fans here?)
Yes, the labour laws there suck and are in much need of reform, but the levels of criticism this has reached crosses into downright racism.
Since we are on the topic of slavery. What about the millions of undocumented workers in the US, who work below minimum wage, have no rights, and no protections afforded by the law- They are effectively slaves working under the threat of deportation. The idea that US government cannot do anything to stem the flow of illegal immigration is ridiculous. We are talking about a country with military/police capabilities larger than the remaining top 5 countries combined. The fact of the matter is the US economy benefits from having a low-cost, migrant population with no rights, just like Qatar, and the government isn't in a hurry to fix it.
I would rather a World Cup be hosted somewhere in middle-east,Asia or Africa instead of yet another country in Europe or the Americas . India would make a great host if it could afford it. But we can't, and neither can many Asian/African countries. If the Qataris can and are willing to do it, give them a chance.
Edit: It's also amusing to find everyone on this thread and the internet up in arms against Qatar/Russia for all the bribery and corruption, when the indictments so far actually relate to corruption going back 24 years for matches in the US, South America (according to BBC) and the previous World cup in South Africa. I don't remember anyone complaining about corruption back then.