China is committing a genocide against the Uyghurs. How to effectively oppose that is complex, but we know that it’s going on and are, at least, concerned. The Chinese government was excited to be able to distract the world with the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, sponsored by (among others) Coca-Cola and Visa.
Likewise, the 1936 Berlin Olympics, sponsored by Coca-Cola, were one Jesse Owens away from a complete victory for Nazi sportswashing. Concentration camps were in place, the Nuremberg Laws were enacted, books had been burned and Jews were banned from many jobs — the world knew what was on the docket. But, with the collaboration of bigots like U.S. Olympic leader Avery Brundage, high-ranking Nazi officials were able to make a case for virile Aryan manhood and play down the murderous racism that would see them responsible for tens of millions of deaths over the next 8 years.
This winter, a human rights disaster collides with my second religion: football. That makes the sportswashing sting more for me — and the article I’ve written more personally painful as a consequence. Even if you don’t care about football, though, with a viewing audience of over 3 billion, the World Cup is one of the biggest events in the global calendar. So it’s vital to understand that institutions and brands are collaborators in undermining the ideals that we care about and to which they pay lip service.
In this case, deaths of indentured laborers (aka modern-day slaves), in Qatar have exceeded even the predicted numbers since the international soccer body FIFA granted Qatar the 2022 World Cup (embarrasedly sponsored by Coca-Cola). And, though many FIFA officials have been replaced for corruption since the astonishingly counter-intuitive choice of location, the current crop of administrators have continued their grinning collaboration with Qatar’s human rights abusers.
I don’t think that the government of Qatar is genocidal, but that should not be the bar for making them the honored hosts of a global event. In this article for The Howler I have tried to outline and document the decade of missed opportunities for a noble pastime to avoid deep complicity.
P.S. If you have any more concrete ideas of action than just boycott, please let me know. I set up this page years ago and nothing happened.
Also
What if vampires ate books not blood, but were still pretty gory? Read my review of Sunyi Dean’s Emily Brontë-inspired “The Book Eaters.”
Would you watch a month-long television spectacular a decade in the making if the production company killed 6000 people to make it? How about if people objected and said the company would probably kill thousands if they were assigned it, and then they still were assigned and let thousands die? How about if the production company supported laws explicitly designed to treat women as second class citizens? Read my most recent piece on why I’m boycotting one of my favourite things in the world.