I don't think we're actually disagreeing here, I think you're just reading my words to mean something other than what they intend.
In my mind, saying that Qatar on the whole is not respectful of low-skilled immigrants is simply a FACT. To give one example illustrating this, Qatar is one of a very tiny number of countries that does not permit immigrants to leave the country at will; this is a violation of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, and it is disrespectful of immigrants.
In saying this I am not saying that Qataris are bad people or this is a terrible place. I'm saying, as you say, that Qatar isn't perfect. I don't EXPECT Qatar to be perfect -- my country isn't perfect either! Our government thinks it can wiretap people without judicial review, it thinks it can violate the human rights of detainees as long as it does so in Guantanamo, it thinks it has the right to waltz into Iraq and tell Iraqis how to run their government. These are all egregious human rights abuses, too. (And they affect a lot more people than Qatar's failings!) But when I say those things I'm not saying that the US is the worst country in the world or that Americans are bad people!
My impression when I was involved in the debates on Facebook about Lisa Clayton's article is that this is a fundamental difference between how I view things and how many Qataris seem to: I don't think there's anything wrong or offensive with talking openly about a country's failings. It's not disrespectful or unpatriotic. How can we help Qatar become a better Qatar if we pretend that there aren't social problems here?
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timeasmymeasure
Re: Infantile NY Times
Date: 2010-05-17 06:56 am (UTC)In my mind, saying that Qatar on the whole is not respectful of low-skilled immigrants is simply a FACT. To give one example illustrating this, Qatar is one of a very tiny number of countries that does not permit immigrants to leave the country at will; this is a violation of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, and it is disrespectful of immigrants.
In saying this I am not saying that Qataris are bad people or this is a terrible place. I'm saying, as you say, that Qatar isn't perfect. I don't EXPECT Qatar to be perfect -- my country isn't perfect either! Our government thinks it can wiretap people without judicial review, it thinks it can violate the human rights of detainees as long as it does so in Guantanamo, it thinks it has the right to waltz into Iraq and tell Iraqis how to run their government. These are all egregious human rights abuses, too. (And they affect a lot more people than Qatar's failings!) But when I say those things I'm not saying that the US is the worst country in the world or that Americans are bad people!
My impression when I was involved in the debates on Facebook about Lisa Clayton's article is that this is a fundamental difference between how I view things and how many Qataris seem to: I don't think there's anything wrong or offensive with talking openly about a country's failings. It's not disrespectful or unpatriotic. How can we help Qatar become a better Qatar if we pretend that there aren't social problems here?