Last night, as Jennifer and I were watching the news, we noted that all of the big stories were about totalitarian states and the havoc that they are wreaking around the world. There was a story on how millions of people in Ukraine were without power and heat as the first snow fell in Kyiv. The report showed photo after photo of power stations that had been hit by Russian missiles. That story was followed up with a report on children who had died in the crackdown by the Iranian government against protests. There was a clip of a protest on a subway platform where people had gathered and were chanting against the leaders of the regime, “You are the perverts! You are the whores!” It’s a better protest chant than most, and betrays the tendency of totalitarian regimes to claim legitimacy in the name of public morality and order. It’s almost always a false and manipulative claim.
The next story was about a missile test conducted by North Korea and then came a couple of stories about the World Cup in Qatar. World Cup starts this Sunday and there has been much coverage in the press on how the stadiums and infrastructure in Doha and around the country have been built almost entirely by migrant workers who have had next to no rights. There have apparently been some improvements that no doubt Qatar will use in their public relations sportswashing campaign, but the bar was depressingly low to start with. There are reports that the migrant workers in Qatar are treated basically as slave labour. Human rights advocates have been trying to get the stories out, but the regime has worked hard to prevent the truth from being heard.
German players staging protest ahead of kickoff in the World Cup qualifier [Tobias Schwarz/Reuters]
The World Cup is taking place in November and December this year because any other time of the year would mean that it would be impossibly hot in the host country. Such oppressive heat, however, was not considered an issue for the migrant workers as images of some of them trying to find any rest, entirely without shade, have been circulating. Clearly, they are being treated as sub-human. Their role in the sportswashing World Cup is to be sacrificed on behalf of the regime’s intent to present Qatar as open and welcoming and a great place to do business.
It brings to mind one of the promises in the book of Isaiah to people who had suffered calamity and exile and subjugation:
(Isaiah 65:21-23)
They will build houses and dwell in them;
they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
No longer will they build houses and others live in them,
or plant and others eat.
For as the days of a tree,
so will be the days of my people;
my chosen ones will long enjoy
the work of their hands.
They will not labor in vain,
nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune;
for they will be a people blessed by the Lord,
they and their descendants with them.
That promise sounds too good to be true even in Vancouver, let alone in Doha.
I am guessing that the people who built the stadiums won’t be buying tickets to any of the matches.
Then, just this morning, an announcement from the “Supreme Committee” in Qatar. There will be no beer sales in and around the stadiums during World Cup. There had been an agreement with FIFA that there would be beer sales, and Anheuser-Busch had paid big money to be the the official brand. At the last minute, the regime has exercised its authority over the venues and determined otherwise.
Here is how FIFA conveyed the decision:
“Following discussions between host country authorities and Fifa, a decision has been made to focus the sale of alcoholic beverages on the Fifa Fan Festival, other fan destinations and licensed venues, removing sales points of beer from Qatar’s World Cup 2022 stadium perimeters.”
The next line in the announcement was perhaps the best:
“There is no impact to the sale of Bud Zero which will remain available at all Qatar’s World Cup Stadiums.” Phew!
Good to know. If you go to a World Cup match in the upcoming month you will still be able to get zero alcohol beer, zero alcohol Budweiser beer.
There is an exception. Actual Budweiser will still be available in some parts of the stadium. These parts are the hospitality boxes which are at their lowest price $32,000 (CAD) per match. That’s the cost to gain the right to pay over $20 (CAD) per Budweiser. Interesting that those who will be in the hospitality boxes are not considered to present risks to morality worth consideration by the regime.
As Louis Armstrong sang, “And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.”
Blessings to you as in this part of the world the days get shorter and shorter and Christmas comes closer and closer. This can be a tough time of year for many people.
Perhaps World Cup will provide a distraction for those who love what they call the “beautiful game”. Having been a pastor for decades I do offer you assurance of my prayers for those of you who find yourselves emotionally under the dark grey of this season. I often reminded myself, in years of working in the church, that November and February could be brutal months for people. Perhaps this is even more the case after this past couple of years.
At least there’s World Cup this time around.
"Sportswashing," what a great term. LOL, I've oddly been drinking a good bit of beer zero lately, as I try to give up alcohol in the long-term. It's an odd concept, but it might just work for all those social situations (like a soccer game!) where people are drinking, and I don't want to leave myself out. One of those situations in life, I think, where faking it almost as good as the real thing (but I don't *love* beer anyway, so much as it is a social routine of mine)? Ha, but I have different motivations/goals here than will most of the fans in stadiums. What an astonishing decision; wonder how much money will stay in people's pockets as a result!