Russian troops land in Venzuela

[Dill]

(03-25-2019, 09:50 PM)TheLeonardLeap Wrote: Unless you were an immigrant that composed of 90% of their labor force, trapped under the kafala system where you literally couldn't leave the country without your employer's permission while you worked in the 110+ degree sun and hoped they decided to pay you anything, living in crowded rooms together with large amounts of other immigrant laborers. Oh, and about 500 of you die a year from heart attacks, sun stroke, and unsafe work conditions.

But as a citizen, sure, I imagine it's fairly nice since none of the hard work isn't done by you.  

(There was a whole lot of coverage on this matter a few years back when Qatar totally-didn't-bribe their way into winning the FIFA 2022 bid, and the workers building the stadiums were dying at a rate of about 1 a day. Brought a lot of global outcry.)

Well, actually, I once was an immigrant trapped under their Kafala system there. I still found the quality of life rather decent. In many ways higher than my life in the US when it comes to fine dining and access to consumer goods. I didn't have to work in the sun, but I played in it a lot, driving atvs all over the desert (in winter). I've posted before of the white privilege given white British and Americans in the Gulf (but not black or brown).

But I do thank you for your reminder of how Gulf luxury rides on the backs of an immigrant labor force.  I have been in those rooms crowded with laborers (and observed closely other ascending gradations in living quarters of foreign residents). When I was there, laws were changed to forbid working outdoors in the summer between 11-2. The rate of heatstroke admissions at the central Doha hospital dropped from an average of 60 to 30 a day.  I also saw lots of spiffy new housing going up for workers--outside the city so Qataris and rich foreigners do not have to encounter them on the streets. 

The class distinctions created by capitalism are much starker in places where unions are forbidden. And no "Dreamers" there--deportation is quick and easy for raped housemaids and other troublesome workers. At the same time, no getting out till you paid landlords and traffic tickets. Qatar is rather like the UK in 1800, as the industrial revolution was surging before social legislation could catch up to it. On the positive side, international oversight of the UN and NGOs have done much improve the situations of workers and address human rights violations. E.g., robots have replaced boys as jockeys for the superbowl of camel races there. Qatar is certainly the most progressive of the Gulf states--perhaps one of the reasons it has run afoul of Saudi Arabia. But winning that World Cup bid has, I believe, set back many of the recent advances in labor laws.

While we are on the subject, though, we should remember that these kinds of class distinctions between employers and employed aren't simply intranational, they are also international, which makes them harder to see. Millions of workers around the world labor in difficult conditions, out of our sight (like those workers banned to worker cities outside Doha) so that we 1st-worlders can have our stuff.