It was interesting that
I saw the news in the Qatari owned Al Jazeera web site of the two HR activists
who had gone missing and now in detention in Qatar.
The issue at hand are the harsh
conditions in which the construction work force and in this case the Nepalese,
who come in search of some means to support their families return in body bags
from construction related accidents!
For example it is estimated that 2,500
Nepalese WILL die in the Construction of the sites for the 2022 FIFA World Cup,
but there is nothing that will stop the problem due to the country unwilling to
impose the strict standards of construction that places like the US adopt.
It is the ease of finding the people in
desperate Nepal that prevents any change to their livelihood and it will just
go on. I believe at least a state compensation of US$150,000 MUST be paid for
each death in Qatar to reduce the impact, and a similar amount for those permanently
disabled. In this method either the safety levels will improve or it can be
shown that people went knowing the dangers that lurk in the job.
As long as there are people willing to
go there, the Middle East has benefited from foreigners. Qataris are in a
small minority in their land, that is run by others for them, and they have the
highest GNP on earth, no one can stop the shift!
It is a cruel world out there, and the Western Nations are complicit in this
whole scam, as they benefit from Qatari investment in the West, as they own
Harrods in Knightsbridge and invest heavily in UK industry, so no one is willing
to rock the boat.
In this game of chess, the Queen is held
by the west and Qatar just a knight or castle, the pawns being the unskilled
workers who are exploited to the hilt, to satisfy the greed of the other two
classes. No country wants their labor practices investigated and it is up to
the UN Conventions to be enforced, and when no one does that too, then the
whole UN value is called into ridicule.
Let us hope for the sake of the workers
some acceptable compromise on the lines of my suggestions are adopted so that
FIFA is NOT tainted with HR violations, as a world cup that was made possible over
the dead bodies of those who built it!
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