Tiktukno: summary of the day's events in sports, 1.12 (Sport1)
The beautiful tower in front of my hotel is about 40 stories tall.
In the upper part is emblazoned the inscription "Qatar Energy", one of the most important companies in the country.
It is of course spectacular, decorated in the best modern motifs, with colorful neon lights that twinkle in the distance and a spectacular pointed finish, but the offices in front of my window are always empty.
Always.
Every time I look at them, there is no living soul in them.
A room, chairs, a table, no life.
There is no movement of people under the building.
You hardly see cars going in and out.
A magnificent and empty tower.
A tower just for the sake of the tower.
This is Qatar.
Spectacular, purposeless construction.
Here is another wide bridge with a meaningless grandiose structure, another huge and tasteless statue on the Corones promenade, here is another chain of ghostly towers whose reason for their construction is unclear and who works in them, everything is exaggerated and far-fetched, Las Vegas is only a desert without people.
This is how, for example, the city of Losail was built, where the stadium where the finals will be held was built, a city with skyscrapers, a busy pedestrian street, shops and restaurants, and zero people.
Exaggerated buildings in a deserted city (Photo: Paz Hasdai)
For what?
This extravagance is evident in every corner.
Along one of the roads, for example, wonderful, beautiful and well-kept vegetation blooms, which continues along a long kilometer drive.
You can recognize the investment in the flowers and their pruning, as if a whole team of gardeners were solely responsible for it.
Those who know the costs of flowers, know that the monthly maintenance of such vegetation is enormous.
For what?
The feeling is one of pomposity, boasting, bordering on arrogance.
It is customary to say that money does not grow on trees, in Qatar it simply flows from the ground.
The feeling in Doha is not of wealth, but of corruption.
There are of course advantages.
The city is sickly clean, there is not a crumb on the floor.
The metro is modern and efficient (and free), I never waited more than 2 minutes for a train.
The roads are wide and tidy.
There are universities, museums, a million malls here.
But at least in the eye of a visitor, there is no soul in the place, only a feeling of alienation.
A man walks in the setting of a fictional film, searching for meaning.
The fact that the Qataris are a minority makes the country a deformed island, where 90 percent are poor foreigners serving as slaves.
Jimmy, for example, one of the FIFA volunteers, works during the World Cup as a traffic director. His whole job is to hold a bright flashlight and direct people at traffic lights. He came from Ghana especially, given the attractive job offer. He lives on the outskirts of the city, with four others in a room, in my apartment The volunteers. He receives accommodation, food and travel, plus a salary of NIS 1,800 per month. He boasts that he does not work every day, but only 6 days a week, 10 hours at a time, or "as many as are requested." "Yes, these are great conditions, I wish I could to stay," he says, as a convoy of 5 black Mercedes drives past us, taking one of the sheikhs to the game.
Panaj, a taxi driver from Pakistan, has been in Doha for 13 years.
He drives a Hyundai, which he says is "worth as much as my family's whole house."
In all this time, he saw his children only once, during a three-month visit to his homeland.
This.
He also believes that "the work is perfectly fine", because he only works 60 hours a week.
He manages to save NIS 3,000 every month, which he sends to his wife.
"I wish everyone could come here, but it's expensive," he says, pausing for a moment, and muttering "Yes, I miss them."
(I later regretted haggling with him for 10 shekels).
Rani, a hotel cleaner, came here from Nepal.
Satisfied with work, too.
"It must be better than the work building the stadiums, eh?", I tell him.
He does not understand.
"You know, all the elves from Nepal died in their construction," I point out.
"What?" he asks, "I haven't heard of that," and went back to work.
I also continued my work,
It is a country of excessive contrasts.
Rich and luxurious, and still third world.
Corrupt wealth versus cynical poverty.
Magnificence next to the smell of an armpit.
An organization worth billions of dollars, and still an Indian driver (on an official bus) who doesn't know where to go.
On one occasion, the driver entered a residential neighborhood, and fans had to get off the bus to help him direct it late at night.
It was entertaining and frustrating.
We laughed, we were outraged, we were amazed.
More in Walla!
A selfie on a coffee bag and a special suit: what happens to the winner of Bake of Israel?
In collaboration with Cafe Landover
A combination of a sense of security and fear at the same time.
The police in Qatar (photo: Walla! system, Paz Hasdai)
The contrast was also felt in security.
Dozens of policemen are scattered everywhere, creating a combination of a sense of security and fear at the same time.
You know that no one will riot (the crime rate here is one of the lowest in the world), but you also know that they have no pretense of being a good administrator.
If you filmed something they didn't like, freedom of speech and the press be damned.
Stop taking pictures, bring the camera, delete the videos.
In general, the feeling of security here was a key element.
The Israeli reporters complained about a "hostile attitude", the other critics didn't know what they were talking about, and that's fine.
The majority of course were kind, including the Saudis and Iranians, almost all of them are welcoming and smiling in the World Cup atmosphere, but as Woody Allen said in the past, a Democrat is a Republican who hasn't been robbed yet.
One incident is enough to disrupt and instill fear.
It only takes one time to see a huge Saudi shouting at you "Get out of here you Zionist, nobody wants you here", to really feel unwelcome.
As they say in football, it may only be a handful.
But that's how it works, 100 hooligans leave a stronger impression than 100 thousand peace seekers.
At some point it becomes unpleasant.
From game to game more Palestinian flags were seen.
But over time we got used to it.
Palestinian protesters interfered with the broadcast, and we stopped getting excited.
"Are you done? Great. Can we continue?".
From the country they mocked us, they said that we were naive, what we expected, that we were whiners, provocative, which is what we were looking for.
But all in all we wanted to see football.
We will not forgive the damned who made us want to run away.
free Palestine everywhere (photo: Paz Hasdai)
Because all in all, it was a pleasure.
Pleasant atmosphere, most of the time amused.
football.
We go from game to game, from stadium to stadium, all day on the road, in traffic jams, in endless queues, but voila, we discovered that there are more difficult things.
We will miss the interaction with the official from FIFA who arranged the tickets for us, entering the beautiful stadiums with a shawarma burrito in hand, the ridiculous ceremonies before the game, meeting fans from all over the world, the rare feeling of luxury (once in 10 years it's nice to be a sports journalist), and the recognition and understanding that now is fun , we are in the center of the world. All in all, we have fulfilled a dream.
We will miss meeting the Arab world, in all its complexity.
For the girl I saw in the metro car, her hijab flew off, and her smile was revealed.
To the Iranian fan who approached me begging me to tell the world the pain and betrayal she felt from the authorities in her homeland.
To the Saudi fan who recognized that I'm Israeli and approached me to apologize on behalf of "all the idiots" who bully us.
And yes, also to Said, from the shawarma below the hotel, there are few people I was so happy to see back from the games at 2:30 in the morning (NIS 18 for a fine lamb burrito).
The painful problem was and remains FIFA. Qatar is a distorted place, which screams injustice and inequality. The scandals have not ended. Protests, bans, gagging. The more beautiful the stadium was, the more the injustice stood out. Forever.
The complete broadcast schedule of the World Cup 2022
World Cup 2022 in Walla! Sports
FIFA World Cup
the magazine
Tags
World Cup 2022
