2. Deaths are not investigated as rigourously as in other countries, ergo cause of death more often than not appears as natural causes, cardiac or respiratory arrest which are meaningless without digging into the why of them. According to Amnesty (via The Guardian), as many as 70% of deaths may be unexplained. “In a well resourced health system, it should be possible to identify the exact cause of death in all but 1% of cases,” Do you see the problem here? Also, when you say that the death rate is not abnormal for such a large population this ignores the fact that migrant workers are not elderly and infirm and have to pass health checks for underlying diseases before gaining entry to Qatar. So while it may not be abnormal for a population that spans the young and the old as well as the healthy and sick, it begins to look a little suspicious when set against the fact that migrant workers are healthy and by and large not elderly when entering Qatar. This is all without even getting into the shady practices around refusing some workers the right to leave the country. But yeh, you're right, they're unimpeachable morally...guess it's my islamaphobia acting up again.
3. I think you'll find a lot of people had issues with the Russian world cup. But to be clear, you are actually arguing that people who didn't complain about that one shouldn't be allowed to protest human rights abuses elsewhere?
- Your points above are more specific. That's what I was talking about. Compare that to the reason for the anti-qatar sentiment surrounding the WC - the notion that 'thousands' died in constructing stadiums, created by the hyperbolic lie in the newspaper headline.
- Rigorous investigation maybe useful - but that is not connected to whether there are excessive deaths relative to what can be perceived as normal. "Migrant workers are healthy and by and large are not elderly" - is just an assumption in the absence of data. The fact is, immigrants from South Asia stay and work in the Middle East as long as they can, mostly around 55-60 years. For almost all of them, the job in the 'Gulf' is their lifeline and they don't leave it it until they are absolutely forced to. I know, because I come from such a place and have hundreds of friends and family residing in the Middle East. The 'health checks' you say about is just a formality - almost anyone without STDs or similar diseases are guaranteed entry. The 'checks' are carried out by namesake firms and clinics or branches and their primary goal is collecting the fee - it's just the way it is.
-Qatar is just like most Asian countries - far from perfect. I am absolutely not disputing it. All I am against is the malicious hyperbolic lies created by supposedly 'good' media. I have given enough proof of this in the previous post - the failure to distinguish between deaths in construction and elsewhere the most obvious one. There is corruption and labor issues like anywhere else - needs to be addressed properly - and is being done without hyperbole. Of the Gulf countries, Qatar is probably the one with the most progressive and non-problematic laws and practices. The 'refusal to leave' issue doesn't exist anymore afaik, and companies keeping hold of workers' passports attracts penalty.
- The comparison with Russia was for context. Russia is objectively far more problematic - their military and geopolitical interventions alone are proof - but the hyperbole around Qatar is exponentially more. There has to be a reason for this, right? This is where I saw Islamophobia. I mean, look at the case of Norway threatening boycott. Will the same Norway threaten a boycott of the Beijing winter olympics, seeing as China is torturing millions in concentration camps? Why the unwarranted focus on Islamic countries?
