It’s a few weeks from the World Cup. In other circumstances I’d be getting pretty excited; buying the sticker book and getting a mini England kit for my dog (and carefully calculating the players who are most likely to get their tops off at full time). But this year, I don’t think I’ll be watching and I definitely won’t be going.
Why? Because Qatar is a human rights dead-zone. It’s a place where your gender and sexuality determine how free the state will allow you to be. Put simply, they’re brutal to the LGBTQ+ community, and girls aged over 12 wishing to continue their education need permission from a male relative. Add to that the barbaric treatment of the workers who built their stadiums and, as a cherry on top, the fact of them winning the right to host in the first place. I just can’t accept that.
We can’t avoid imperfect regimes, nor should we. In fact, I’ve stayed in a lot of them. I’ve travelled the world — from six stars to no stars (and everything in between) — and many places I’ve visited had less than dazzling records on human rights. Just before lockdown, I journeyed in rackety luxury on the Trans-Mongolian Railway — a herring-fuelled, snow-slathered dash from Moscow (in Putin’s Russia) to Beijing (in Xi’s China) — and I was in no way oblivious to the fact that there were people enduring appalling treatment in both countries. Not only did I go, but I felt it was important I did. The same is true of any number of other places I’ve been.
Some might say “if you can take those holidays, what’s wrong with Fifa picking Qatar?” Well, there’s a crucial difference. When individuals go somewhere, they send no message and fly no flag. Personal tourism lets a traveller engage mindfully with the people there, discuss their real lives and trigger conversations. It can let you get past the official government line.
Not only that, but leisure industries can often empower local communities and lift people out of poverty, especially if you’re at a resort that pays a living wage and is focused on proper sustainability. So long as you’re not just clicking your fingers for more sparklers in your Mai Tai or snugglier towels on your lounger, but really speaking to the people there, it can genuinely shift minds (including your own). It can be good for everyone.
But when a global organisation chooses one country over another, it gives its heartiest thumbs up to the winning government, and that is intensely different. It bolsters the reputation of the men in control (it’s nearly always men) and gives these states a massive credibility bump. They can shout out to international media (and down to their citizens): “Look how cool we are! Fifa certainly thinks so.” If you want any more evidence that it doesn’t improve things, look at the Olympics in Beijing or Sochi. They didn’t improve the lives of their citizens one iota.
We should none of us shut ourselves away from the world — the joy of learning from people in different countries is too important to abandon. But I’ll be damned if I support something that gives such a conspicuous pat on the back to a regime like Qatar. It’s just plain wrong.
In other news…
Please may I suggest you ditch whatever book you’re currently reading, run to your local bookshop and get yourself the new biography by former BBC Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw. It’s utterly and totally brilliant. The title is Soft Lad, but in my experience of Nick, he’s the very opposite of “soft”. He’s hard as nails, glazed with concrete and cooked for several hours.
When we crossed the Namib desert for Comic Relief, he very nearly died in furtherance of raising money for the charity and mental health awareness. He could’ve left, no one would’ve blamed him, but through sheer force of will he kept going. He’s incredible.
He’s just one of life’s splendid people, and someone who doesn’t just love what he does but delights in it. Soft Lad is a total joy (and, most importantly, yours truly pops up on its pages). Grab yourself a copy ASAP.
