Is there a list somewhere of slave owning nations?
I mean, the arab emirates, china, russia, north korea and texas are obvious,
but Iâve heard bad things about shrimp productionâŚ
Itâs not slavery!! Itâs indentured workers!
-1%er.
edit:
forgot to mention how happy the workers are!!
So the situation is still exactly as John Oliver described it two years ago.
(Last Week Tonight, S01E06, June 8, 2014, FIFA segment)
Whatâs to say? the powers-that-be are weak, selfish gods who care only for the offerings paid them.
FIFA doesnât care. The architect doesnât care. The press doesnât care. The viewers donât care. The sponsors donât care.
This entire situation sucks. I love the soccer. I care. I am going to skip watching the 2018 Cup.
âQuite an experience to live in fear, isnât it?â âThatâs what it is to be a slave.â
Roy Batty: Blade Runner
Not just North KoreaâŚ
SPOILER: Itâs depressing!
I am concerned this might put a damper on Americaâs enthusiasm for soccer.
IIRC - this is standard practice in much of the wealthy Middle East.
Not to diminish the seriousness of the subject at hand, but . . . I would be a LOT more horrified if these facilities were being built by ANCIENT slaves. Just sayinâ.
No more world cups for me either. Itâs a bit of a token gesture but I guess itâs not even about protest for me, I just find the idea of watching entertainment that people worked to death for disgusting.
I think Iâll try to avoid the sponsors too. Extricating myself from Visa could be difficult, but looking at the rest of the list it seems like it will be a good idea for my health and my wallet anyway.
The hope is that the new FIFA board care more than the last but I fear the only way anything will change is if people put pressure on the sponsors.
Remember, a silent boycott does nothing. Contact the companies involved and TELL THEM youâre boycotting them, and telling others to do so as well.
Yes. Boycotts are only effective when used a certain way. Just not buying things is imperceptible to the bean counters.
âSales are downâŚâ
âLetâs increase marketing.â
âHey, thereâs a World Cup coming up.â
Unfortunately, itâs not really a binary âyesâ/ânoâ thing; and itâs pervasive enough that almost nobody would be on the âNo, absolutely not.â list(maybe one of the oddball tiny countries that are closer to being towns with sovereignty than actual states).
Youâd really need a multi-axis arrangement with gradations: on one axis, countries vary considerably in official legal position with regard to various slavery and slavery-like arrangements: with âYup, Slaves!â at one extreme and "No slavery, strong antipathy to restrictions on freedom of movement, extreme judicial scepticism toward contracts that tend to reduce workersâ options, like non-competes, etc.) on th eother. On another axis youâd have to examine âestimated effectiveness of law enforcementâ, since even the best laws donât mean much about how many slaves there are if human trafficking gangs operate with minimal interference; and youâd probably need another axis for absolute estimated number of slaves and slave-equivalents, since some countries are subject to particular local conditions that make the formation of slavery-like systems more or less frequent even given the same level of legality and legal enforcement(eg. Thailandâs seriously nasty fishing industry is in part possible because of the steady flow of refugees and the desperate from Cambodia and Myanmar; and would be more difficult and expensive to maintain if nearby countries didnât have substantial refugee outflows, or where themselves more attractive to migrants).
Itâs not a very helpful answer, I know; but the old âas simple as possible but no simplerâ rule bites you in this case.
Qatar is definitely unfavorable on all three axes(âKalifaâ makes H1-B look like a walk in the park, reports are that even the protections that theoretically exist are largely toothless; and the massive wealth disparity between Qatar and the countries they import from makes it relatively easy for large numbers of people to be involved); but there really isnât anywhere far enough toward the right end of all the spectra to say that no slavery exists.
a âstain on the conscience of world footballâ.
Like that time I spilled coffee on my shirt made of mouldering shit?
I donât get how that works. If someone seizes my passport while Iâm abroad, I go to the nearest consulate or embassy, tell them it was stolen, and get a replacement. I assume Nepal and India have some diplomatic and trade relations with Qatar, right? Why are those governments not raising objections? Hell, we went and invaded Grenada on far less of a pretext.
ETA: Obviously Nepal isnât in a position to invade anyone, much less a wealthy Arab country (and U.S. ally) on the opposite side of Asia. But at the very least file a complaint with the U.N.
and the home of the brave.
I donât know how it works either. I am guessing it is a combination of the Qatar authorities having more power, any embassies in the area having less power, the home country not really caring for people so poor they moved to the middle east to work, the people involved having nothing back home to return to, and no one really caring.
