Qatar Demonstrating It Is Modernizing

[steve_bank]

Saudi Arabia and the region has been trying for years to paint a modern face on their cultures. The Saudi golf martinets. Auto racing.

They think they can buy their way to an image.

The Iranian team shows a lot of courage in their protests, Some may face jail at home.

Even people simply wearing a symbolic arm band.

Adding Qatar to my list of places you can not pay me enough to go to.

How about an email campaign to the Qatar embassy in DC.

Exclusive: World Cup soccer fans stopped by security officials for wearing rainbow-colored items | CNN

The World Cup is well underway in Qatar, but issues surrounding LGBTQ+ rights for the Gulf state, world soccer governing body FIFA, teams and fans just won't go away.

www.cnn.com

On Saturday, two German soccer fans told CNN that they were asked by security officials at Qatar 2022 to remove the rainbow-colored items that they were wearing as they made their way to watch the World Cup match between France and Denmark on Saturday.

CNN witnessed the conclusion to the incident at the Msheireb Metro Station, in Doha, as Bengt Kunkel, who was wearing a rainbow-colored sweatband and his friend – sporting a similarly colored armband – refused to hand over the items. The rainbow is a symbol of LGBTQ+ pride.

After taking the Germans to one side, a group of security guards eventually let them go – on condition that they put the rainbow-colored items in their pockets, according to Kunkel.

“Out of nowhere. They took my friend quite aggressively on the arm and pushed him away from the crowd and told him to take it [the armband] off,” Kunkel told CNN, as he recounted details of the incident shortly after it happened.


“Then they took me with him. They said: ‘You’re going to take it off and throw it in the bin or we’ll call the police.’”

The pair refused to throw their items in the bin and said they told security they could call the police.

“We had a little discussion, we were being respectful and said: ‘We’re not going to throw it away but we’re going to put it in our pockets’,” added Kunkel, who travelled to the World Cup to enjoy the soccer tournament, but also to use his social media platform to talk about LGBTQ+ issues and Qatar 2022.

Earlier this week, American journalist Grant Wahl and former Wales captain Laura McAllister both said they were told by security staff to remove clothing with rainbow-colored patterns.

 

[TV and credit cards]

Someone should teach these kids how to streak. Or does my generation have to do everything? Trust me, when I say I’m getting too old for this, in this context, it has a much weightier meaning.

 

[Swammerdami]

Adding Qatar to my list of places you can not pay me enough to go to.

A dear friend with passport from a poorish African country came to visit me in Chiang Mai. Best routing is via Qatar, but he could not get a visa just to pass it in transit. The resulting schedule added dozens of hours to the round-trip total time.

Both Qatar and the friend's country are Islamic, but rich Qatar still denied transit rights to nationals of a non-oil Arab country. I've also blacklisted Qatar . . . though will probably fly direct via Qatar when I visit my friend, to save the many hours of delay — Does this make me a hypocrite?

 

[Derec]

Someone should teach these kids how to streak. Or does my generation have to do everything? Trust me, when I say I’m getting too old for this, in this context, it has a much weightier meaning.

TV, have you ever been in a Qatari prison?

 

[steve_bank]

Someone should teach these kids how to streak. Or does my generation have to do everything? Trust me, when I say I’m getting too old for this, in this context, it has a much weightier meaning.

'Don't trust anyone over thirty'.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Steel and glass isn’t modernizing.

 

[steve_bank]

Adding Qatar to my list of places you can not pay me enough to go to.

A dear friend with passport from a poorish African country came to visit me in Chiang Mai. Best routing is via Qatar, but he could not get a visa just to pass it in transit. The resulting schedule added dozens of hours to the round-trip total time.

Both Qatar and the friend's country are Islamic, but rich Qatar still denied transit rights to nationals of a non-oil Arab country. I've also blacklisted Qatar . . . though will probably fly direct via Qatar when I visit my friend, to save the many hours of delay — Does this make me a hypocrite?

Not at all IMO.

Avoiding a stopover in Qatar changes and affects nothing.

In the news we are negotiating with Venezuela to begin taking their oil again. Realpolitik. There used to be a steady stream of tankers coming to the USA.

In the long run Saudi Arabia and Qatar will loose their power based in oil.

 

[Jarhyn]

Someone should teach these kids how to streak. Or does my generation have to do everything? Trust me, when I say I’m getting too old for this, in this context, it has a much weightier meaning.

Weight as in "deformed by excessive consumption" or more simply more "deformed by gravity"?

(I'm sorry in advance the joke was just too good)

 

[senor boogie woogie]

Qatar might be somewhat interesting, since I like going to different countries and experiencing different cultures. I don't know, but Qatar probably wouldnt be that interesting to me. Doha is probably nothing but high rise apartments, houses, shopping malls and restaurants. If it is like Saudi Arabia, there are lots of different American fast food venues. I would be open to trying some of their local cuisine, I have eaten Halal food and it is delicious. Maybe go see the Arabian/Persian gulf. Islamic bazzars are fascinating. This is a safe country and would not worry about "terrorism" or being harmed. I would not drink alcohol there unless it is in a private setting, and not walk the streets drinking, since unlike the west, it is not acceptable to be intoxicated in public there. In the end, Qatar would probably be too boring for me to consider going. Dubai would probably be the only place in the region worth seeing, and even there, not so much except the tallest building on Earth.

I am not homosexual and wouldnt care less what the laws on them are. If they cannot conform to their behavior of the nation and culture, dont go there. I am not going to go to another country and tell these people how to live or govern themselves, I am a foreigner, I dont have that right. It is Western and foreign arrogance to go to this country and make protests. Dont like it, dont go. Stay home.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Someone should teach these kids how to streak. Or does my generation have to do everything? Trust me, when I say I’m getting too old for this, in this context, it has a much weightier meaning.

'Don't trust anyone over thirty'.

Are we talking waist size?

 

[Politesse]

I am not homosexual and wouldnt care less what the laws on them are. If they cannot conform to their behavior of the nation and culture, dont go there. I am not going to go to another country and tell these people how to live or govern themselves, I am a foreigner, I dont have that right. It is Western and foreign arrogance to go to this country and make protests. Dont like it, dont go. Stay home

Goddamn hero of tolerance, we got here.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Qatar might be somewhat interesting, since I like going to different countries and experiencing different cultures. I don't know, but Qatar probably wouldnt be that interesting to me. Doha is probably nothing but high rise apartments, houses, shopping malls and restaurants. If it is like Saudi Arabia, there are lots of different American fast food venues. I would be open to trying some of their local cuisine, I have eaten Halal food and it is delicious. Maybe go see the Arabian/Persian gulf. Islamic bazzars are fascinating. This is a safe country and would not worry about "terrorism" or being harmed. I would not drink alcohol there unless it is in a private setting, and not walk the streets drinking, since unlike the west, it is not acceptable to be intoxicated in public there. In the end, Qatar would probably be too boring for me to consider going. Dubai would probably be the only place in the region worth seeing, and even there, not so much except the tallest building on Earth.

I am not homosexual and wouldnt care less what the laws on them are. If they cannot conform to their behavior of the nation and culture, dont go there. I am not going to go to another country and tell these people how to live or govern themselves, I am a foreigner, I dont have that right. It is Western and foreign arrogance to go to this country and make protests. Dont like it, dont go. Stay home.

Dubai might be interesting to visit but I'm married and there's no way I'm taking my wife there.

Our most common way to walk is with my hand on her shoulder. That's an illegal level of public affection in Qatar.

And, realistically, you don't report rape in Qatar without ironclad proof. If you claim rape but can't prove it (or can't identify your rapist) you just admitted to sex with someone you're not married to--a crime for which you'll be punished. It's not a safe place for a woman.

 

[bilby]

I am not homosexual and wouldnt care less what the laws on them are. If they cannot conform to their behavior of the nation and culture, dont go there. I am not going to go to another country and tell these people how to live or govern themselves, I am a foreigner, I dont have that right. It is Western and foreign arrogance to go to this country and make protests. Dont like it, dont go. Stay home.

Add 'Jewish' to 'homosexual', and you have a perfectly encapsulated argument as to why the allies should have left Germany alone in WWII.

When your argument about what should and shouldn't be done puts you on the wrong side of the most morally justified conflict in human history, you ought to take a very long hard look in the mirror.

Lots of very ordinary, boring, and mild-mannered people had the exact same attitude as you have just expressed; And it proved to be the most despicable attitude in history. Don't make the mistake of believing that the fact that you are tedious and boring, means that you are not evil.

 

[senor boogie woogie]

People cannot change who they are. They can change their behavior.

Many nations are against homosexuality for the very reasons that the West has allowed it. What has ended up in America and Europe is the mainstreaming of unnatural "same sex" intercourse, the "grooming" of youth, pedophilia, and mentally ill men cutting off their sexual organ, wearing makeup and a dress and demand normalcy.

Most people do not care what two people do in the privacy of their homes, but homosexuals have this need to make their lives completely public and above ground and those of us who go "I dont want or my children to see this...." and being forced into seeing it. Countries like Russia and the Middle East dont tolerate it. They want to protect their children and the dignity of their society.

 

[Patooka]

Yeah all that random butt-fucking in the streets is so off-putting. There isn't enough roll eyes in the world for this imaginary pearl clutching.

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Yeah all that random butt-fucking in the streets is so off-putting. There isn't enough roll eyes in the world for this imaginary pearl clutching.

Agreed. It isn't that "butt fuckers" are in your face. It's just the opposite. Stop persecuting people because of your own infantile insecurities and prejudices. If you stop the dumbassery you won't need to do any projecting.

 

[Politesse]

I would be more worried about children who aspire to bigotry, than about children who aspire to have sex some day.

 

[bilby]

I would be more worried about children who aspire to bigotry, than about children who aspire to have sex some day.

In my experience, most children not only do not aspire to have sex one day, they find the whole idea both icky and hilarious.

Then they reach puberty, and suddenly it's neither.

The idea that their sexuality could somehow be corrupted before it even starts to exist, merely by seeing adults expressing affection for each other, is absurd; An obsession of over-sexually obsessed adults, that has little to do with any kind of reality.

 

[steve_bank]

I heard this from two people who spent time in the mid east, one an engineer I worked with.

An open secret is homosexual sex among hetero Muslim Arabs. Culture restricts unmarried male female fraternization. Young unmarred men have no outlet for sexual impulse. Other than masturbation.

I may have posted this before. I knew a woman who crewed on the 747 of a Saudi minister. As she put it they loaded up the jet wih toys like jet skis, flew somewhere like Barzil, had a week or two of sex and drinking, then flew back home and put on te Arb conservative dress and played the role.

I doubt upscale wealthy Qararians conform to conservative norms.

 

[Toni]

I would be more worried about children who aspire to bigotry, than about children who aspire to have sex some day.

In my experience, most children not only do not aspire to have sex one day, they find the whole idea both icky and hilarious.

Then they reach puberty, and suddenly it's neither.

The idea that their sexuality could somehow be corrupted before it even starts to exist, merely by seeing adults expressing affection for each other, is absurd; An obsession of over-sexually obsessed adults, that has little to do with any kind of reality.

OTOH bigotry is readily picked up, well before adolescence.