Qatar 2022: Western deceit, hypocrisy, racism, greed and jealousy

Once again the West has accorded itself a platform to portray its ‘moral superiority.’ It started in 2010 when Qatar was awarded the right to host the quadrennial FIFA senior men’s football World Cup edition of 2022, amidst claims of bribery. Generally controversy has been the wont with most awards of this nature for global sports events, be it the FIFA World Cup or the Olympics. In 2000 Germany was controversially awarded ahead of South Africa for the 2006 edition. Life went on. So it should have done with Qatar, which is the first country in the Middle East to host this prestigious event since 1930 when it all started.

But Qatar is not Germany. It is not a land inhabited by the ‘superior’ White Caucasians. They are Brown Arabs and other, mostly Middle Eastern and Asian ethnic groups. They are not your holy followers of Jesus Christ who form the body of what is portrayed as the correct religion. They are followers of the Prophet Muhammed (PBUH); Muslims held together by Islam.
For years Islam in the West has been portrayed as backward, animist, violent and an affront on human rights and freedoms. These values, the West thinks it cherishes more than others do. They have acted for them as the custodians; ordained by God to set the comportment of how they should be practiced and perceived.

So we have been inundated by miles of embellished and highly flavoured slanted stories in the Western media on the abuse of the rights of migrant workers in Qatar.
That the Qatari government is very intolerant because it does not respect the rights of homosexuals; the LGBTQi (Lesbians Gays Bi-sexuals Transgender Queer and intersex.) So they are not fit to host the World Cup! You would expect that superior people would tolerate, accommodate and respect other cultures and values. In Qatar they frown upon the public display of affection be it from homosexuals or heterosexuals. The West in its parochial stance only talks about the former.

This is coming from countries that have actively participated in most of the evils that have blighted humanity since Adam and Eve, is gross hypocrisy. The slave trade, colonialism, especially the violence and exploitation of the British Empire in India and Africa. The concentrated evil of King Leopold II in Congo. The German-Herero conflict of 1904–07, that led to the genocide that killed 75 percent of the population. 
Supported apartheid in South Africa and did not apologise for it.  Then the World Wars, the cold war and propping up dictators like Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire. The assassination of the leaders who did not tow the Western line like Muammar Gaddafi and the laying to waste of Libya and Iraq. Hitler, Nazi Germany and their hand in the death of six million Jews.
Today the West has challenges with inequality and economic hardships that has fuelled Islamophobia and xenophobia. This has increased hate crime and the rise of far right extremism. Many companies in countries in the West have been complicit in abusing the environment like it happened in the Niger Delta Ogoni land in Nigeria, leaving in its wake untold long term suffering to the local population.  Same happens with the fuelling of conflict in places like Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo with the purchase of blood diamonds. Western institutions such as the World Bank and IMF are behind the push to cut subsidies in developing countries amidst economic hardships that have seen many suffer the consequences of poverty and deprivation.

In light of all this the president of Fifa,  Giovanni Vincenzo Infantino, a Swiss-Italian, said: “What we Europeans have been doing for the last 3,000 years, we should be apologising for the next 3,000 years before starting to give moral lessons.” Like Nicodemus in the Bible who was with the Pharisees in the night and Jesus by day,  Western governments have been forming business alliances with the ‘abusive’ Qatar government. They need gas following the drop in supply of the same due to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
The West has a selfish greedy childish notion that all good things should belong to them at all costs. Where they are incapable of being in the driving seat they pour cold dirty water on the beneficiary.

(That is how they end up shamelessly hording stolen art pieces from all over the world in their museums.)  They vilified South Africa for the 2010 World Cup updating us with the murders that take place in the country every second and the abundance of HIV/Aids in the country. They said the event should never have been rewarded to this African country. Earlier in 2008 they told the world about the pollution in China and how it would adversely affect the athletes attending the Olympics. It turned out to be one of the most successful events held in the history of the Olympics. The West has a particular challenge this time round. The biggest sponsor is China. Wanda Group has invested over $850m for the next 15 years. Vivo another Chinese company has put in $450mfor six years. They are far ahead of US and Western companies like Coca-Cola, McDonalds, Budweiser and Adidas. These countries are ironically benefiting from an event held in a country that ‘abuses the rights of women, migrant workers and gay people.’ If they are serious in their criticism why don’t these doyens of morality pull out and forfeit their profits?

By the way Fifa has earned $7.5 billion in revenue up by $1 billion from the World Cup in Russia in 2018. So imagine what this is doing for Chinese brands and their position in the global economy. Increasingly companies in the West are dealing with the same challenge that the highly courted beautiful girl has on her hands when a new chick arrives on the block. It is jealousy pure and simple! Elsewhere, why don’t the human rights organisations that are asking Fifa to share its profits from the event with affected migrant workers and gays, consider asking Western governments to pay reparations for slave trade and all the wars that the West has incited?

It is quite obvious that the West is threatened that many parts of the globe are doing things with the leadership of China; the emerging economic giant from the East. The table is shaking hence the abundance of ‘bring them down.’ stories. Qatar is not unique. It sins like any other. When the logs in the eyes of the West are removed, they will see the point clearly. Good thing is that they know it.

Twitter: @nsengoba