Estimated is the key word here.rigger wrote:https://www.smithslawyers.com.au/post/t ... ld-cup-yetsgt_pooly wrote: I live in the Middle East and don't really get the anger towards Qatar, this talk of dirty money etc is a little wide of the mark.
As estimated 1200-4000 deaths of migrant construction worked might be one reason ..
I'm not saying things are fine, because they are not, but this is quite a vague report. Without a real investigation from a credible source it's hard to know exactly is going on.
Since my time here, I've seen a huge improvement in human rights and it's slowly getting up to the standard it should be. They've got rid of these open back buses/transporters that used to be extremely dangerous and replaced them with buses and mini vans and the accommodation/conditions have improved too. Just a few points that I'd like to add though:
- Many of these workers come from very poor backrounds in Bangladesh, India, Nepal etc. They earn much more than they could in their home countries and live in similar conditions to what they would at home. What is shocking for us, is quite often the norm for these guys.
- I've seen this myself - most of the cash they earn is sent back to the families and the workers often leave themselves short month by month. This results in begging and in some cases malnutrition. To counter this, there is usually at least one meal put on a day in the camps.
- Working in heat - Not a chance I could do what they do, but again, they are often somewhat used to this. You generally don't see any outside work being done between the peak hours too, say 11-3pm.
- Suicides - Not a savory topic but this is something I hear about a lot. The main culprit out here is the workers getting into alcohol or getting a girlfriend of some sorts and then getting caught. Things like this bring great shame onto individuals and it's not the same as our culture.
"women stoned to death together today more or less an everyday occurrence in KSA ...a reality of Arab / Muslim culture."
Not at all isrodger, this is a very poor example which I see a lot.
Do not mention Saudi and then blanket the whole Arab/Muslim (2 very different things I might add) world with these things. There's almost 2 billion Muslims in the world, pretty much a 1/3 of the worlds population, this doesn't happen in 99% of countries. Saudi is a completely different topic altogether and one I know little about if I'm honest.
Sorry for the rant, I'm not having a go at anyone. I just want to try and balance the argument a little, I'm not expecting to change anyone's opinion etc. I just find a lot of the reporting in the Western world as sensationalist and often wide of the mark. In contract, you'll never see a bad word written about things in Qatar!
