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Does FIFA have blood on its hands?

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The 2022 FIFA World Cup is being held in stadiums built by forced labour

In Qatar, the 2022 Men’s FIFA World Cup is hosted in stadiums that have been built by millions of migrant workers.

Most of the workers have never been paid for their work or lost their lives in the process.

Undeniably, the men’s football championship is an event that dominates headlines and excites fans right around the world.

It’s meant to be a celebration of the sport, designed to bring communities together.

While the World Cup creates indisputable excitement, this cup carries an horrific weight of human cost.

Minky Worden, the Director of Global Initiatives at Human Rights Watch told TICKER NEWS FIFA has accrued billions of dollars in revenue.

It comes at a significant human cost to the migrant workers who have made it all possible.

“This world cup was built with the toil and sweat of migrant workers… This is entirely preventable because Qatar is such a wealthy country, and because FIFA sits on $2bn in reserves and will make an estimated $7bn from this world cup.”

minky worden, human rights watch

Human rights abuses masked by sport

However, this world cup in Qatar has a dark cloud looming over it. Qatar is the first country in the Middle East to host the FIFA World Cup.

Concerns have been raised about the safety and wellbeing of fans travelling to a country that does not support equal rights.

The cup raises triggering questions about the migrant workers who have made the world cup possible.

During the cup, FIFA will host approximately 1.2 million visitors, in stadiums built by forced labor.

Many of the migrant workers completed the stadiums, but have never been paid.

Workers walk towards the construction site of the Lusail stadium which will be build for the upcoming 2022 Fifa soccer World Cup during a stadium tour in Doha, Qatar, December 20, 2019. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

Others died during the build after working excessive hours in extreme heat and with little access to basic necessities.

So should such prominent events be held in countries like Qatar?

Worden believes FIFA and the Qatari government are using sport to mask human rights abuses.

“We all love soccer but this really qualifies to what we would call sports washing… Using fireworks and celebration and a sport that we all love to cover up human rights abuses.”

minky worden, human rights watch

“This is the most expensive world cup in the history of the world, but sadly it’s also the highest cost of human lives…

These glamorous stadiums, the highways and new metros, the lavish hotels
…Have been built by migrant workers…

The population of migrant workers is more than two million.

minky worden, human rights watch

The Qatari government has adopted labour reforms more recently, but many say it’s too little too late.

“The families of workers who died have had no way to claim compensation for the deaths of their loved ones… And many of these deaths occurred in the decade before these labour reforms happened.”

minky worden, human rights watch

While it may look glitz and glam on the exterior, it raises questions whether FIFA has blood on their hands.

The 2022 Qatar World Cup has been plagued with controversy from the get-go.

From the moment the hosting rights were handed to Qatar, concerns about the legitimacy of the voting process escalated.

FIFA’s President at the time Sepp Blatter has since admitted awarding a country that doesn’t respect basic human rights for everyone was a ‘mistake.’

Blatter also echoed claims that the decision was made out of political pressure.

While Blatter has been condemned for his part in the deal, it raises concerns about FIFA’s role in honouring the hosting deal now.

Current FIFA President Gianni Infantino said the west should not be giving “moral lessons” to anyone.

However, as one of the world’s largest sporting organisations, FIFA bare ultimate responsibility of who they do business with.

They’re turning a blind eye to obvious human rights violations, masked by the roar of a football game.

“It’s fully FIFA’s responsibility because FIFA awarded the world cup to Qatar in 2010, without doing human rights due diligence.”

minky worden, human rights watch

It comes as people all around the world call out Qatar and FIFA for their collective role in human rights abuses.

German national team before World Cup qualifier

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Trump’s campaign tactic – debase and disgrace the legal process

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Donald Trump, former president of the United States, hated Arraignment Day I in Manhattan two months ago, the first time a former president had been criminally charged. 

Trump was being forced against his will into a proceeding he had utter contempt for.  He was being arrested and fingerprinted and photographed under an indictment under the jurisdiction of Manhattan in New York City for allegations of hush money payments and fraudulent bookkeeping practices to conceal criminal activity. Trump heard the charges read out against him and he entered a plea of not guilty.

Trump had a terrible day. Trump wore a scowl throughout. His countenance was fearsome.  What Trump hated most about his arraignment in New York is that he had to sit at a table with his counsel side by side with him — equal to him — and with the judge above him looking down on him. Trump could not control the discussion and could not interrupt to make his points.

Trump was subordinate to the judge. He was subordinate to no one as president.

Arraignment Day II

Arraignment Day II in Miami will be worse from Trump, even more stressful.  The charges are substantially more serious:  the alleged violation of federal criminal statutes involving the alleged mishandling and illegal possession of classified documents, lying to legal authorities, and obstruction of justice.  Potential penalties run to years in prison and millions of dollars in fines.

Trump throughout his business life had always crafted his affairs to avoid being a defendant. But in his term in office, he was caught up in it big time. He was a defendant in two impeachment trials – again, unprecedented events – and left office in disgrace.

But Trump does not feel disgraced. He never does.  Trump does not have a reverse gear.  He never retreats.  Never admits. Never concedes. Never yields.  Trump is never embarrassed. Trump never feels ashamed. When something goes wrong, it is always the fault of someone else.

And Trump never repents.

Trump can feel this way because Trump is waging war on behalf of his armies in “the final battle” for the future of the county. In his first, fiery post-indictment speech in Georgia, Trump said, “They’ve launched one witch hunt after another to try and stop our movement, to thwart the will of the American people.  In the end, they’re not coming after me. They’re coming after you … “Either we have a Deep State, or we have a Democracy…Either the Deep State destroys America, or WE destroy the Deep State.”

It is a powerful formulation, and his true believers love it.

Hours later, In North Carolina, Trump mainlined his distilled message for the Republican crowd:

“We are a failing nation. We are a nation in decline. And now these radical left lunatics want to interfere with our elections by using law enforcement.

It’s totally corrupt and we cannot let it happen.

This is the final battle.

With you at my side we will demolish the Deep State.

We will expel the warmongers from our government.

We will drive out the globalists.

We will cast out the communists.

We will throw off the sick political class that hates our country.

We will roll out the fake news media.

We will defeat Joe Bide and we will liberate America from those villains once and for all.”

Any lesser mortal would be staggered by these events.  Any other presidential candidate would be driven from the race.  But not Trump.

Debase and disgrace

Trump is using the same playbook today as he successfully triggered after being charged in New York:  debase and disgrace the legal process by terming it completely political.  Trump said the federal indictment is “election interference at the highest level.”

Almost every other Republican running for president has adopted this line, insulating Trump from pressure to leave the field.

Trump’s chief opponent, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said after these indictments: “The weaponization of federal law enforcement represents a mortal threat to a free society. We have for years witnessed an uneven application of the law depending upon political affiliation.”

Republican congressperson Nancy Mace: “This is a banana republic. I can’t believe this is happening.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene: “Democrats are arresting their political enemies. and they work together in their corrupt ways to get it done.”

Trump is using his affliction to raise millions of dollars from his base.

Trump will likely face Arraignment Day III in Georgia in August.  A state prosecutor is expected to charge Trump with criminal interference in the certification of Georgia’s vote for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election.

As of now, there is no sign of cracks in Trump’s support among Republican voters.  There is no surge to another candidate.  What remains to be seen is whether Republican voters, as they see Trump spend his days in courtrooms and his evenings at rallies around the country, reach a conclusion that this is a spectacle too far, too much to bear, and that they want to turn to another conservative populist who stands for them in the political trials— and not the criminal trials – of 2024.

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Donald Trump’s legal woes will serve him well

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It’s not often that a U.S. President faces federal indictment, but if it’s going to happen to anyone, it might as well be Donald Trump first.

The news that Donald Trump is facing a federal investigation over the removal of secret documents from the White House in 2021 came as no surprise.

Keen watches of the Washington soap opera have seen this playbook before, albeit in a different form.

There is no doubt that Donald Trump is a Washington outsider. But as seriously damaged as he may be (thanks to the events of January 6), his support base has only grown whenever he faces scrutiny.

For his supporters, his legal woes mirror their own relationship with the government – a giant, unfair beast that picks and chooses its fights.

Trump is accused of storing sensitive documents—including those concerning matters of national security—in boxes, some even in a shower.

The documents were seized last August when investigators from the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago.

The Department of Justice has historically avoided charging people who are running for public office. Whether they should do that is a debate for another day. But it’s happening now. And it’s making it all too easy for Trump to claim there is a concerted campaign to get him away from the White House.

Trump exposed the deep state. IF they exist, they probably don’t want him back in power. Whether they exist doesn’t matter really, because plenty of Trump’s supporters agree with him, and believe the secret state is working against them. Call it QAnon, call it a conspiracy – it doesn’t matter in a democracy.

The DoJ now has to go all in. Failing to secure a conviction would be a serious embarrassment for the department.

This is the second time Trump has been indicted in recent months, yet the opinion polls show he only increases his popularity among MAGA and Republican voters. It leaves the Republican party in a difficult position. Support their leading candidate or support the law?

As other Republicans rallied around the embattled candidate, Trump held on to his loyal base of supporters.

For the Democrats, and for Biden, another reality will soon sink in – if Trump becomes President, and they lose office next year, how will a Trump-run DoJ deal with them?

Broadly, the tit-for-tat one-up-manship of U.S. politics is breaking tradition and potentially breaking the country.

 

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