Milo and Otis
redefined the whole feline/canine relationship movie. At least to a child, it
did. It featured a beautiful ginger kitten and his buddy, a Pug, heading off on
an incredible journey. It was one of the most successful kid’s movies of 1986 and
had even the most grizzled, Star-Wars-obsessed seven-year-olds transfixed by its
simple beauty.
Until we found out that that adorable ginger kitten was probably
at least 20 adorable ginger kittens that just happened to look the same. Numerous
reports have the animal cruelty budget on the project far
exceeding the monies devoted to Dudley Moore’s voiceovers; those of us who
experienced wholesome joy on first viewing now cleanse ourselves occasionally
with scouring pads at once innocent memories.
 |
| via en.wikipedia.org |
Two recent news reports over the past week have thrown yet
further doubt over the qualifications of Qatar to host the 2022 World Cup. The
first, filed last week, has FIFA “seriously
considering” moving football’s flagship event from the successful bidder due
to concerns about possible human rights violations inflicted upon Nepalese
workers involved in the construction of the tournament’s stadia.
This was followed on Tuesday by The Guardian reporting that
over 500
Indian workers had died in Qatar since 2012. While totals are of course
vague, this suggests that nearly 1000 underprivileged migrant workers have been
effectively sacrificed in the past two years to construct state-of-the-art
arenas for a country that boasts the world’s highest per-capita income.
The Indian consulate have confirmed that 717 Indian
nationals have died in Qatar since the World Cup was awarded to the Gulf nation
in December 2010, with some estimates of the death toll before 2022 stretching
north of 4000. In the article by the Guardian, the Qatari Labor and Social
affairs ministry were quoted as “clarifying” the numbers.
Precisely what that clarification involves is still to be
determined.
Even yesterday, FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter has suggested
that Qatar’s host status is not under threat.
It’s time for football fans to say that the 2022 World Cup
has no place in football. While it’s logical to assume that not all of these
fatalities relate to World Cup construction, part of the tournament’s mission
is to advance FIFA’s mission, which is to “develop the
game, touch the world, build a better future”*.
FIFA’s better future obviously doesn’t extend to the
families of the deceased workers.
On FIFA’s website, Joseph S. Blatter personally signs off on
a phrase that should doom the Qatar World Cup, but seemingly hasn’t: “We see it
as our duty to take on the social responsibility that comes hand in hand with
our position at the helm of the world’s most loved sport”. That a member state works
employees in such conditions as the Guardian and other sources describe so as to
run a sanctioned tournament is comment enough on how seriously FIFA take their
own mission statement.
Football fans must announce loudly to FIFA that they care
more about the thousand-plus unfortunate workers – and the many more that
continue to work under harsh Qatari conditions – than they do about watching an
event tarnished by blood of this magnitude. In selling the event to Qatar, FIFA
have embraced a nation whose ethic on immigrant rights is not only outdated, it does not reflect that of
much of the world and deserves only the loudest and most strident condemnation.
Given FIFA’s (and Qatar’s) governance,
the only way to effect change is to ignore the Cup. This might be a hardship, but
a necessary one that protests the blind eye that the game’s governing body has
turned to the plight of immigrant workers in FIFA’s tiniest powerhouse nation. As
a football populace, we can’t ignore those deaths either and the responsibility
rests with us to become agents of change – and the only way we can catalyse
this is making ourselves heard, and by refusing to invest financially or
ethically in a broken and self-centered institution.
It asks much of football fans to boycott a World Cup, but
there are more important matters at stake than pride in a national sporting
ability.
*(FIFA also suggests
on its homepage that it stands for “authenticity, unity, performance and
integrity. Make of this what you will).
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