Qatar may win the bid (but I doubt it). More worrying is what happens if Qatar does host the world cup. Can anyone seriously imagine it being a great success as people around the world flood into this place?
The traffic sprawl will be horrendous. Tens of thousands suffer heatstroke and overwhelm the already overwhelmed Hamad. Tens of thousands more break the various pedantic laws governing social behavior--no alcohol, dress codes for women, and the crazy idea that single non-white males should be able to use malls on Fridays. Their aren't enough police to arrest everyone and not enough jails to hold them. Then when a bunch of tourists get frustrated with the place and say something bad about Islamic Arabic countries they will get his with seven-year blasphemy sentences. And for how long to you think European football hooligans will tolerate some idiot in a thobe treating them like second-class human beings before they cause him serious physical harm? And the world comes with serious exposure. Is Qatar prepared for the international scrutiny of its laws and institutions that comes with the extensive media coverage? The human trafficking, mistreatment of workers, obscene rich-poor gap, etc. is going to get a lot of attention from journalists while they are here and there is nothing the government can do to stop the bad publicity.
Qatar may win the bid (but I doubt it). More worrying is what happens if Qatar does host the world cup. Can anyone seriously imagine it being a great success as people around the world flood into this place?
The traffic sprawl will be horrendous. Tens of thousands suffer heatstroke and overwhelm the already overwhelmed Hamad. Tens of thousands more break the various pedantic laws governing social behavior--no alcohol, dress codes for women, and the crazy idea that single non-white males should be able to use malls on Fridays. Their aren't enough police to arrest everyone and not enough jails to hold them. Then when a bunch of tourists get frustrated with the place and say something bad about Islamic Arabic countries they will get his with seven-year blasphemy sentences. And for how long to you think European football hooligans will tolerate some idiot in a thobe treating them like second-class human beings before they cause him serious physical harm? And the world comes with serious exposure. Is Qatar prepared for the international scrutiny of its laws and institutions that comes with the extensive media coverage? The human trafficking, mistreatment of workers, obscene rich-poor gap, etc. is going to get a lot of attention from journalists while they are here and there is nothing the government can do to stop the bad publicity.