God bless America

[kentonio]

I think FIFA should care.

Apparently you're not very familiar with FIFA..

[rah]

Hmm logic test.

If they did care, then JR wouldn't need to say he thinks they should care.
So JR must think they don't care.
So JR apparently is familiar with FIFA.

QED

[-Jrabbit]

Or it could be that JR frequents one or more news/pop culture websites that published this news, and/or is a Facebook user.

[kentonio]

Hmm logic test.

If they did care, then JR wouldn't need to say he thinks they should care.
So JR must think they don't care.
So JR apparently is familiar with FIFA.

QED

Secondary logic test..

FIFA mirrors the darkness that dwells at the heart of Mordor
Ergo FIFA is incapable of human emotions such as caring
Ergo JR is wrong, unless he's also Aragorn and is able to once more banish the darkness, this time permanently.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Get a grip, Imran. Over 1200 immigrant workers are dead. About 2800 more are expected to die.

Your attempt to sugarcoat it with moral relativism is repulsive.

Yay, holier-than-thou-ism!

I find it amusing that Americans all of a sudden seem to care about the human cost of what happens in Middle Eastern enclaves like Qatar or Dubai only when it happens in soccer.

And FWIW, the WaPo had to correct the article where the graphic came from by adding:

This story has been updated to reflect the fact that figures include total migrant worker deaths in Qatar, not just World Cup-related deaths.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/05/27/a-body-count-in-qatar-illustrates-the-consequences-of-fifa-corruption/

Which begs the question where is or was this for other projects that benefited Western interests? Why was the outcry far, far less for how Brazil treated its poor in the favelas? Is this stuff merely due to a desire to want the World Cup in 2022 moved to the US (USA2022 is trending on Twitter, btw)? Or desiring to paint soccer in a lesser light (A US past time). I wonder.

[kentonio]

Get a grip, Imran. Over 1200 immigrant workers are dead. About 2800 more are expected to die.

John Oliver reckoned it was 4000 more on top of the 1200 already. Not sure if he's right or not, and its unspeakably horrific either way of course.

[giblets]

Yay, holier-than-thou-ism!

I find it amusing that Americans all of a sudden seem to care about the human cost of what happens in Middle Eastern enclaves like Qatar or Dubai only when it happens in soccer.

Yeah, westerners suddenly care when they're in a situation where they might have some leverage.

[Imran Siddiqui]

You'd think that $5 billion in US exports per year, $10.6 billion in US FDI, and having our major military base in the region in Doha (esp for the Second Iraq War) provides plenty of leverage.

[giblets]

You'd think a military base provides you with leverage, but I guess our troop presence there still isn't high enough to turn them into a colony freedom land.

[giblets]

Also, we should boycott Goldman Sachs:

Goldman Sachs analyst found dead hours after complaining to father of '100 hour weeks'

Officials in San Francisco are investigating the death of a young analyst at Goldman Sachs who complained to his father of working '100 hour weeks', hours before his body was found in the car park next to his apartment.

The authorities have said they believe Sarvshreshth Gupta, 22, killed himself after working through the night and struggling to match the demands he felt under.

The graduate of the University of Pennsylvania who was born in New Delhi, told his father, Sunil: “This job is not for me. Too much work and too little time.”

Mr Gupta wrote about his son’s death in an essay posted on Medium, which has since been removed.

“He calls us and says, ‘It is too much. I have not slept for two days, have a client meeting tomorrow morning, have to complete a presentation, my VP is annoyed and I am working alone in my office’, ” his father wrote.

He added: “I got furious. ‘Take 15 days leave and come home,’ I said. He quipped, ‘They will not allow.’ I said, ‘Tell them to consider this as your resignation letter.’ ”

The New York Times said Ms Gupta’s death in April is one of numerous unexpected deaths or suicides of young bankers over the last year. It said it had sparked a round of reflection by Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms about their work policies.

Last week, Thomas Hughes, a 29-year-old banker at Moelis & Company, was found dead with drugs in his system after falling from a building in Manhattan, the paper said.

Goldman Sachs has not yet responded publicly to claims that Mr Gupta was working such long hours, something that would have required him to spend 14 hours a day, every day of the week, had he kept such a routine.

In a statement, the company said: “We are saddened by Sav’s death and feel deeply for his family. We hope that people will respect the family’s expressed desire for privacy during this difficult time.”

In 2013, it emerged that the company had told staff they should not be working on Saturdays unless there were special circumstances. However, that "weekend off rule" did not include Sundays.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/goldman-sachs-analyst-found-dead-hours-after-complaining-to-father-of-100-hour-weeks-10292977.html

[Dauphin]

Yeah, westerners suddenly care when they're in a situation where they might have some leverage.

Replace leverage with awareness of a hot topic.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Uh oh... Chuck Blazer's guilty plea became unsealed today. He indicates in it that he helped facilitate a bribe for the selection of the 1998 World Cup, which was held in France.

https://twitter.com/thegoalkeeper/status/606184745995784194/photo/1

The head of the 1998 France World Cup Organizing Committee? None other than Michael Platini. Oops..

[Dauphin]

For years I thought Platini and Blatter were in cahoots*. Which is why I was surprised in recent times Platini has been so anti Blatter.

*Based on impression rather than active interest.

[Dauphin]

Interesting, it doesn't say the bribe was for france. It could be a bribe for a failed bid. Unless there is more clarity elsewhere than the quoted part.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Ah wait... I got my hands on the full plea and it appears Blazer was involved in facilitating a bribe by Morocco for the 1998 WC. That's what you get for reading things from Twitter (though that person is fairly respectable)

And interestingly for the 2010 vote, Blazer helped the same guy take a bribe from Morocco AND South Africa.

Though one does wonder how Platini countered...