The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Human rights, as universal as football

2022-11-18T21:36:02.406Z


Qatar will be filled with soccer nationalism and the cries of goal will not make us forget the situation of women, the labor exploitation of those thousands of workers who built the air-conditioned stadiums


Borussia Dortmund fans protest against the World Cup in Qatar, in Germany, last October. Martin Meissner (AP)

"That the cries of goal do not cover the cry of pain of the tortured", repeated every half hour the Renascensa radio station in Lisbon, where I lived my exile.

It was 1978 and the Argentine military dictatorship, in order to counteract international complaints for the violation of human rights and drown out the cries and groans of the tortured with soccer euphoria, organized the soccer world championship.

A very expensive propaganda strategy under the slogan "Argentines are rights and human", the perverse motto emerged from the creativity of some publicist willing to sell his ingenuity for money or fear.

Now that time has reconstructed historical memory, we know from Peruvians that the match against Peru was bought to make the host country the world champion.

Eduardo Massera, the most political of the three commanders of the Military Junta, who dreamed of being the new Perón, negotiated a truce, money involved, with the leaders of the Peronist armed guerrilla, Montoneros.

The diplomat Elena Homberg paid with her life for having denounced in Buenos Aires that pact made in Paris, where she worked at the Argentine Embassy.

Not all survivors of that tragic time are willing to acknowledge that spurious alliance as historical truth.

At the gates of the World Cup in Qatar, with complaints from both Amnesty International and the International Labor Organization, ILO, about the deaths and labor suffering of the migrants who built the pharaonic stadiums, those of us who received expressions of compassion like those of the portuguese Radio,

As happened in the past, today we must warn and raise our voices about the restrictions in Qatar on human rights as universal as soccer.

The host country of the World Cup will soon be filled with soccer nationalism and the cries of goals will make us forget the situation of women, the labor exploitation of those thousands of workers who built the eight air-conditioned stadiums for which they have also demanded their rights. , the teams from Germany, Belgium and Norway, many of them immigrants from neighboring countries seduced by recruitment agencies that, later, did not fulfill what they promised, deprived them of their freedom of movement since, like modern slaves, their passports were withheld and they did not receive any financial compensation for labor abuses.

Through this same newspaper we learned last April of the suffering of the young Mexican anthropologist Paola Schietekat who worked for the World Cup Organizing Committee, accused by a Court in Qatar of having "an extramarital relationship" with a man who attacked her while she was sleeping.

In reality, she denounced an acquaintance of hers for sexual abuse.

Everything turned against him.

She was sentenced as an adulteress to one hundred lashes and seven years in prison.

The intervention of Mexico saved her from jail, she lost her job, she had to leave the country, but not before the humiliation of being required for a virginity test.

The young Mexican woman arrived in Qatar in 2020 to work as a behavioral economist at the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, the Qatari government body that organized the World Cup.

Even though the Qatari regime adhered to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 2018, it retains legislation that punishes the freedom to say, think and act.

The laws against women are relentless.

In 2016, a tourist from the Netherlands was sentenced to one year in jail and fined $845 after being raped.

The authorities of her country managed to reduce that punishment to three months in prison.

The government maintains strict control over the media.

Sexual and religious minorities are discriminated against and homosexuality is criminalized.

Australian footballer Josh Cavallo confessed to

The Guardian newspaper

that he was afraid to participate in Qatar.

Despite the general indifference of the powerful soccer players who prioritize economic interests over humanitarian ones, and many times their local versions mix business with those of dictatorships, those of us who have ever received international solidarity know the effectiveness of denouncing .

The Cadal Foundation, which promotes international solidarity with human rights, began a campaign in Argentina for the team to incorporate the symbol of human rights in black on the shirt as a sign of mourning and rejection of the violations of universal rights in Qatar.

It is also a way of warning FIFA about the selection of the host countries when choosing the venues for this planetary party that puts the evils and sorrows of the world on pause for a month.

Instead, the World Cup should serve to remind us that we belong to the great family of humanity, today threatened by the war against Ukraine, invaded by Russia, a country that has always known how human rights are violated.

Living in the country of Messi and Maradona, I shouldn't confess my perplexity at what one of the most masculine sports in the world arouses.

Feminine reflections that go beyond this chronicle and expose collective emotions and the times we live in.

However, since the universal philosophy of human rights is as planetary as football, the political use made by many of the countries that offer their stadiums for the great competition cannot be ignored.

The Brazilian military took advantage of the 1970 World Cup in Mexico for their plans.

“Brazil must not lose this championship.

As president, I would like the Brazilian people, still under my tutelage, to celebrate that victory”, the dictator Costa e Silvia ordered the FIFA president, João Havelange, in a meeting.

Brazil came out champion, but it was Garrastazu Médici who enjoyed the soccer euphoria.

They told in Brazil that the dictatorship even sent spies to Mexico to control those who met with the group of exiles who a year earlier had to be released from jail in exchange for the release of the United States ambassador, Charles Burke Elbrick. , kidnapped by a guerrilla group.

but it was Garrastazu Médici who enjoyed the soccer euphoria.

They told in Brazil that the dictatorship even sent spies to Mexico to control those who met with the group of exiles who a year earlier had to be released from jail in exchange for the release of the United States ambassador, Charles Burke Elbrick. , kidnapped by a guerrilla group.

but it was Garrastazu Médici who enjoyed the soccer euphoria.

They told in Brazil that the dictatorship even sent spies to Mexico to control those who met with the group of exiles who a year earlier had to be released from jail in exchange for the release of the United States ambassador, Charles Burke Elbrick. , kidnapped by a guerrilla group.

In Argentina, the euphoria over the ball made many Argentines forget that they were ruled by a military dictatorship and thousands of their compatriots had disappeared.

On the day of the festivities, some prisoners who disappeared in the dark clandestine detention camp of the Navy, the ESMA, were taken out by their captors to the streets to participate in the festivities, as the survivors themselves recounted in the book

Ese infierno .

.

Primo Levi, a survivor of Auschwitz, likewise narrates a match between the deportees and the SS agents with applause that "encourages the players as if the match were being played on a village field."

If someone can see in these two cases some pause, a trait of humanity among so much daily horror, it is worth the reflection of the Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben for whom it is precisely the opposite, therein lies his most sinister trait.

We may think that these killings, far from us, have ended, but those parties have never ended, "from there come the anguish and shame of the survivors."

Also our shame, that of “those of us who did not know the fields but attended that match that is repeated in each of the matches in our stadiums, in each television broadcast.

If we don't manage to understand that game, if we don't get it to end, there will be no hope."

A small symbol of mourning on the players' shirts may seem naive or innocuous, however, it offers us an opportunity to show solidarity with those who suffer, as well as reminding us that the game of cruelty and senselessness of war has not ended and cannot cover up with the screams of the goal.

Norma Morandini

is a journalist and writer.

She was a deputy and senator and directed the Human Rights Observatory of the Argentine Senate.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-11-18

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-14T09:35:25.431Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.