Media Thread 2020/21

[KPXBLN]

Right and there are issues, but they undermine their own credibility and therefore the causes they're purporting to represent when they claim that 6,500 migrant workers have died on WC building sites when the actual figure is 37 or so. That's not even exaggeration, it's straight up dishonesty.
Rather than make up shite for hysterical articles, they could try honestly campaigning on the many issues that do exist in that part of the world.

Hmmm. I mean, the headline is "Revealed: 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since World Cup awarded," and the first sentence is "More than 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have died in Qatar since it won the right to host the World Cup 10 years ago, the Guardian can reveal." They're clearly not saying it was all in WC stadia building sites, though I appreciate that the connection is implied to a certain extent. Also I think the figure of 6,500+ deaths is just from workers from South Asia, so it excludes a British expat financial adviser who dies of a heart attack or whatever.

 

[aguero93:20]

Hmmm. I mean, the headline is "Revealed: 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since World Cup awarded," and the first sentence is "More than 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have died in Qatar since it won the right to host the World Cup 10 years ago, the Guardian can reveal." They're clearly not saying it was all in WC stadia building sites, though I appreciate that the connection is implied to a certain extent. Also I think the figure of 6,500+ deaths is just from workers from South Asia, so it excludes a British expat financial adviser who dies of a heart attack or whatever.

It's implied and inferred by the article, which is about the WC building sites. Without the world cup, that figure is of zero public interest. Does anyone really give a shit how many migrant workers died in Australia of natural causes this year? No? Why do they care about migrant workers in Qatar? The controversy over the world cup award. Will we put the actual figure that died on site in the headline? Nah it's a bit underwhelming, lets stick in all the heart attacks, cancer patients, covid sufferers, RTAs etc, it makes it look a lot worse than it really is and carries that 'shock' value that gets clicks and sells papers. They knew exactly what they were doing. As a result of that article, I'm personally never going to trust anything written by the Guardian about that region again. I'm probably not the only one.

 

[KPXBLN]

It's implied and inferred by the article, which is about the WC building sites. Without the world cup, that figure is of zero public interest. Does anyone really give a shit how many migrant workers died in Australia of natural causes this year? No? Why do they care about migrant workers in Qatar? The controversy over the world cup award. Will we put the actual figure that died on site in the headline? Nah it's a bit underwhelming, lets stick in all the heart attacks, cancer patients, covid sufferers, RTAs etc, it makes it look a lot worse than it really is and carries that 'shock' value that gets clicks and sells papers. They knew exactly what they were doing. As a result of that article, I'm personally never going to trust anything written by the Guardian about that region again. I'm probably not the only one.

It's well known that conditions for migrant workers in the Gulf region are especially poor in comparison to many parts of the world. Certainly a lot worse than a country like Australia. People who "give a shit", to use your words, about workers from poor parts of the world have been discussing these issues for a very long time. To be honest since this is about Qatar, a country that has nothing to do with City, I'm surprised it's controversial to observe that they should improve their labour rights situation.

 

[aguero93:20]

It's well known that conditions for migrant workers in the Gulf region are especially poor in comparison to many parts of the world. Certainly a lot worse than a country like Australia. People who "give a shit", to use your words, about workers from poor parts of the world have been discussing these issues for a very long time. To be honest since this is about Qatar, a country that has nothing to do with City, I'm surprised it's controversial to observe that they should improve their labour rights situation.

They should talk about the actual conditions then rather than bullshitting. If I want to improve the lot of asylum seekers in direct provision here, I don't start off by falsely claiming 5,000 of them have died in DP centres, it's easily disproved and paints me as unreliable.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

It's not just the Guardian though is it. Human Rights Watch, the ILO, and many other local and international organisations have raised concerns about the human rights and labour rights record of Qatar and other gulf states. (And the same organisations are also publishing and campaigning on similar issues in other regions of the world.)

And the ILO and other reputable organisations in this field have said that Qatar has made huge strides in eliminating the worst abuses.

Don't include HRW & The Gused ian in that category of 'reputable organisations' though. HRW were discredited when it was revealed they touted for cash for projects and would say whatever their paymasters wanted them to say. The Guardian has been the uncritical mouthpiece of HRW for a while.

HRW displayed demonstrable double standards in its reporting on the UAE and on Qatar. It was vicious about the human rights situation in the UAE but tiptoed around simolar issues in Qatar, merely focusing on the WC stadiums.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

I think it counted things like car accidents (not work related) and one murder.

It certainly wasn't purely deaths on WC sites.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

It's racist and it's cultural colonialism. They don't apply the same standards to European countries like Poland, Hungary and particularly Russia that they apply to the Gulf countries. Most of the Gulf states are just 50 years old as independent nations yet we expect them to be just as advanced as us. Frankly, to have got to where they've got in just 50 years is an astonishing achievement.

I was listening to the Price of Football podcast that Kieran Maguire does with Kevin Day and Kieran mentioned he'd spent time working in Russia and that the outlook for LGBT people there was very grim, with physical violence against them common. Yet it's the Gulf countries that get criticised for their approach.

The Guardian is also guilty of using the death numbers for migrant workers very misleadingly, by including any migrant (i.e. non-citizen) worker who dies of any condition, while giving the impression these deaths are all WC related. If you're an Indian doctor, Egyptian lawyer or Palestinian accountant (or a British expat financial adviser) who dies from a heart attack, other natural cause or a. boating accident, those deaths are included in the total figure trumpeted by Guardian headlines.

Spot-on. There are over 2m migrant workers in Qatar, 95 per cent of its workforce. The 6,500 deaths are in all settings and mostly natural causes and were recorded over the last 10 years. They are mostly heart attacks. So that is 650 deaths a year out of two million. I wouldn't be surprised if the pro rata figure for deaths is just as bad in this country. There have been numerous very public scandals involving slave labour in my area of Lancashire alone involving people trafficking, abuse of farm workers, the sex industry, and the Cockle Picking disaster in Morecambe Bay.
The Guardian is a very dishonest newspaper. In its own way just as bad as The Sun and the Daily Mail. I am sure conditions are dreadful for construction workers in Qatar and it's a legitimate story but why can't our press just report the truth?

 

[KPXBLN]

Spot-on. There are over 2m migrant workers in Qatar, 95 per cent of its workforce. The 6,500 deaths are in all settings and mostly natural causes and were recorded over the last 10 years. They are mostly heart attacks. So that is 650 deaths a year out of two million. I wouldn't be surprised if the pro rata figure for deaths is just as bad in this country. There have been numerous very public scandals involving slave labour in my area of Lancashire alone involving people trafficking, abuse of farm workers, the sex industry, and the Cockle Picking disaster in Morecambe Bay.
The Guardian is a very dishonest newspaper. In its own way just as bad as The Sun and the Daily Mail. I am sure conditions are dreadful for construction workers in Qatar and it's a legitimate story but why can't our press just report the truth?

Those death figures are just for workers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal FYI, not the whole migrant workforce. And they clearly explain in the article that the reported causes of death are highly suspect. Around 80% are attributed to 'natural causes.' If 80% of deaths in Lancashire were purportedly heart attacks, to use your example, I think you'd agree that there was something iffy about the stats the authorities were providing, and/or it would suggest that the working conditions were dangerously hard.

 

[JGL07]

It's egregious misrepresentation by these people. Of course one person dying on these sites is one too many, particularly if it's preventable. But my understanding is that these 6500 deaths haven't all occurred on World Cup building sites.

It doesn't matter, there are far far too many. The vast majority of migrant workers in the Gulf are fairly young and are not dropping dead of old age. Heat exaustion through working in tempertures of 40 to 43 degree centigrade is not

I doubt you will find (m)any Qataris working on local building sites. It is a problem shared with much of the Middle East. The UAE were put under pressure 15 years ago to improve the appalling conditions that migrant workers were subjected to. There have been suggestions that conditions have improved in the UAE since then.

The real problem was the allocation of the World Cup to a state with a population of under 3 million, of whom 300,000 are citizens and little football culture. They had no stadia to speak of. They won the rights through passing brown envelopes to the right people. Probably not Sepp Blatter in this case but Michel Platini was no doubt involved. The corrupt ones (or some of them) have been forced out but the legacy remains.

Can anyone name ANY country with a population of this size being seriously considered to host a 32-team World Cup? It is a total farce. Even before you get on to the issues in the stadia construction. What the fuck is a country of that size going to do with eight 40,000+ capacity stadiums after the World Cup?

 

[Shirley]

......Can anyone name ANY country with a population of this size being seriously considered to host a 32-team World Cup? It is a total farce. Even before you get on to the issues in the stadia construction. What the fuck is a country of that size going to do with eight 40,000+ capacity stadiums after the World Cup?

Apparently they will be dismantled and donated to African countries.

Totally agree it's a farce, world class sports washing!