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When the soccer World Cup kicks off in Qatar on Nov. 20, it’s going to accomplish two milestones. It will likely be the primary World Cup performed within the Arab world, bringing the globe’s favourite sport to one of many areas the place it’s most liked. It would even be the primary to be held within the Northern Hemisphere throughout its winter — important in a nation the place in June and July, when the event is often held, the typical day by day excessive is round 107 levels.
Qatar is likely one of the world’s smallest, however richest, international locations: a tiny peninsula of land, barely the scale of Connecticut, jutting into the turquoise waters of the Arabian gulf. It would host all video games inside Doha, the capital, and its satellite tv for pc cities. The nation has seized on the worldwide sporting and cultural occasion as a possibility to announce itself on the world stage. Its brand-new stadiums, inns, roads and metro system — constructed at lots of of billions of {dollars} of expense — are designed to color the image of a futuristic hub of sports activities, tourism and schooling.
But the lead-up to this World Cup has been dominated like no different by unfavourable headlines.
Human rights teams have drawn consideration to unpaid wages, restrictive labor practices and unexplained deaths amongst low-income migrants, a few of whom constructed the air-conditioned stadiums the place the video games will unfold. Soccer followers have criticized the choice to carry the world’s largest occasion in a rustic the place homosexuality is unlawful — and to at least one with too few inns and really costly beer. And an F.B.I. investigation of corruption in international soccer has solid a shadow over Qatar’s internet hosting of the event.
Qatar’s gloss and grit communicate to its broader contradictions. Earlier than the invention of hydrocarbons, it was one of many poorest locations on the planet, its financial system reliant on pearl diving. As we speak it drips with seemingly limitless wealth and ambition. It touts itself as a beacon of free speech and schooling, residence to the media large Al Jazeera and satellite tv for pc campuses of Georgetown, Cornell and Northwestern. However the native information media can’t formally quote the nation’s ruler with out written permission. And for all of the allegations of employee abuses, tens of 1000’s of migrants nonetheless flock there searching for a greater life.
To assist enhance your understanding of the place, listed here are 5 books that make clear a few of its most vital facets.
Al-Jazeera: How Arab TV Information Challenged the World, by Hugh Miles (2005)
This can be a highly-readable account of the satellite tv for pc information service that shot to Western consideration over its protection of the U.S.-led “struggle on terror.” The e-book charts the channel’s start and growth, serving to to demolish myths and misunderstandings in regards to the Arab world alongside the best way.
The Woman Who Fell to Earth: A Memoir, by Sophia Al-Maria (2012)
A transferring and humorous coming-of-age memoir by a Qatari American artist, this is likely one of the uncommon insights into life for Qatari nationals, who make up solely 11 % of the inhabitants of Qatar and are famously reticent within the firm of outsiders.
Qatar and the Gulf Disaster, by Kristian Coates Ulrichsen (2020)
Qatar’s greatest fashionable disaster unfolded from 2017-21 when, with out warning, its neighbors positioned the nation underneath financial and political embargo, in a dramatic escalation of a long-running regional rivalry. This account strikes from origin to (virtually) conclusion, capturing how badly the initiative backfired, strengthening Qatar’s independence and international standing.
Pink Card: FIFA and the Fall of the Most Highly effective Males in Sports activities, by Ken Bensinger (2018)
A number of books cowl FIFA, corruption and the awarding of the internet hosting rights to the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. This one, by a New York Instances reporter, will get the nod for its tempo, readability and unequalled entry to the F.B.I. and I.R.S. — the important thing instigators of the massive (and ongoing) corruption case being introduced towards a lot of those that run the worldwide sport.
Altering Qatar: Tradition, Citizenship, and Speedy Modernization, by Geoff Harkness (2020)
A cleareyed account of Qatar’s many communities by a sociologist beforehand based mostly in Doha. The writer is sympathetic to the nation’s challenges, however doesn’t pull his punches when exploring points round free speech, sexuality, and the remedy of migrant staff.
John McManus is the writer of “Inside Qatar: Hidden Tales from One of many Richest Nations on Earth,” an account of life within the nation advised by way of the eyes of those that name it residence.
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