A lot of criticism has been directed towards Qatar in the midst of them being World Cup hosts. Chief amongst these criticisms would be their human rights abuses in terms of how they’ve treated migrant workers, homosexuals and women. Like most people I abhor discrimination and mistreatment of other humans on any basis. With that in mind, perhaps I should be on the side of those speaking up against Qatar. However, something just does not feel right about the approach many in the mainstream have taken.
When the introduction of the World Cup had Gary Lineker lecturing us about Qatar’s morality in place of an excellent opening ceremony featuring Morgan Freeman, I was somewhat dumbfounded. This raised many questions, prime among them was when did Gary Lineker, the BBC or indeed the British (insofar as the BBC being the national broadcaster of the UK) become Qatar’s moral arbiters. One could not help but get a large whiff of imperialist arrogance that the BBC – and others – felt they were in a position to impose their values onto another nation. For all of Qatar’s faults – and I’m sure they have many, just like any other country – I almost felt sympathetic towards them.
In an interview with John Motson back in 1979, the legendary football manager Brian Clough said (in reference to MOTD pundits), ‘You’re treating us y’know as though we’re in a classroom and a school teacher standing up there’. How appalled would he be today, that they also treat us as schoolkids on non-football related matters too.
Why just lecture Qatar too? How about complaining about the UK continuing to occupy a part of Ireland on the next edition of MOTD? Or would that require too much introspection into their own country and the moral depravity seen throughout their history? After all it’s much easier to lecture others. Where were these supposed agents of all things good during ‘The Troubles’ or indeed when James McClean received a torrent of abuse for failing to wear the blood-stained poppy?
In Ireland, and in many other countries that have suffered from colonialism we’ve experienced other cultures encroaching onto ours. We’ve had the English language, their governance and partition inflicted upon us on top of many other horrors. Many English people seem painfully ignorant of their arrogance and seem to have little respect of other countries’ boundaries. One of these boundaries is another country’s sovereignty and their right to have their own laws and culture. We may not like Qatar’s values or culture, that is fine, but the UK is no position to lecture them. In fact, Qatar only won their independence as recently as 1971, from none other than the UK. You can be rest assured that whatever problems Qatar currently has will have at least been partially the blame of the British.
How would the UK feel if Qatar lectured them on some of their values? Qatar doesn’t suffer from the same alcohol problems that UK does and I’m sure many Qataris would be repulsed at the British binge drinking culture. Not that I’m arguing that Qatar should lecture the UK, I’m just suggesting maybe we should accept that different countries have different cultures and values. When the BBC criticises Qatar, you don’t get the sense it’s coming from a place of respect or goodwill, instead it very much feels like it’s derived from a sense of moral superiority.
There is of course an easy solution on how one should approach countries that they’re repulsed by – boycott them. The BDS movement that is firmly anti-Israel due to Palestinian mistreatment doesn’t enter business relationships with them. They don’t take Israeli money whilst simultaneously lecturing them about how immoral their country is. Instead, they boycott them which is a much more principled stance. If they had any integrity, the people who profit from Qatar hosting the World Cup would concede their entitlement to complain. Gary Neville, Gary Lineker and others instead want to have their cake and eat it.
So, is there a solution to Qatar’s problems? Personally, I don’t know. Across the Persian Gulf from Qatar, there’s a country that has some similar societal problems, namely Iran. Perhaps the people who actually live in the Middle-East can improve their own countries without unhelpful and often unbelievably cruel foreign interference. With the Mahsa Amini protests currently taking place there – which if successful should empower women – one can’t help but feel hopeful. Who’s to say this can’t have a knock-on effect and perhaps initiate a similarly progressive movement in Qatar or in other countries nearby? Iran was once a democratic country, until none other than the UK (alongside the US) aided a coup that overthrew Iranian democracy, and helped replace it with an autocratic monarchical form of Government. Perhaps, given the UK’s horrific record in the Middle East (Iraq war also springs to mind), it would be wise they don’t try to force their values- or anything else- onto countries in this region.
History tells us that it’s incredibly unlikely any institutions of the UK will enforce a positive change in Qatar and the BBC are not the paragons of virtue they like to present themselves as. To refute this unearned status, we only need to look at how they covered and continue to cover politics in the North of Ireland. So, how about the BBC climbs down from their unjustifiably self-appointed position of being moral adjudicators and instead focus on what the license fee payer wants I.e., football. Because in a world of division, it would be nice to focus on something that unites us – even if that’s just football. Their largely performative show of moral superiority has zero place in the World Cup coverage, and instead just instructs us that there is something very ugly in the BBC’s psyche which is thinly covered by a deceptive appearance of moral virtue.
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