Robbie Williams defends decision to perform in Qatar

[NightStar 313]

Not just the western governments, but also the consumers of western countries indulge, directly or indirectly, in trade with China and Saudi Arabia worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Without bringing human rights conditions in Qatar under question, I can't help but notice that there is a sense of hypocrisy of Qatar human rights criticism against a backdrop of EU sending billions euros to Russia for their oil and gas in 2022 or the USA importing more than $500 bn. of goods from China in 2022 alone. It may produce the impression that the West only cares about the human rights when it suits their foreign affairs agenda and doesn't hurt their own consumers, although I hope the impression is wrong. 

[VOLANTIS 16,406]

As much as this reeks of BS this is the most sensible defense any of the World cup associated artists have given so far. That being said, this is such a cop out. 

[Guillaume Hamon 6,529]

1 hour ago, xoxojohnwayne said:

lol slaves? the people are literally saved by Qatar, by offering them the job. Otherwise they would die in countries like Pakistan, Banghladesh, India and others. already

It's not adversarial. You can save them then turn them into slaves.

They know some folks have nothing to lose so they'll more easily abuse them. Of course they're famous for doing it with folks from India, not with Luxembourg.

[tylerjs 5,884]

Literally never heard of this person

[Wolf Boy 3,260]

3 hours ago, Teletubby said:

Robbie Williams has defended his decision to perform in Qatar during the World Cup, arguing that it would be “hypocritical” not to go.

“Of course, I don’t condone any abuses of human rights anywhere.

“But, that being said, if we’re not condoning human rights abuses anywhere, then it would be the shortest tour the world has ever known: I wouldn’t even be able to perform in my own kitchen.”

He added: “Anybody leaving messages saying ‘no to Qatar’ are doing so on Chinese technology. It would be hypocritical of me to not go [to Qatar] because of the places that I do go to.”

Williams is scheduled to perform at Doha Golf Club in Qatar on 8 December.

He said: “You get this microscope that goes ‘OK, these are the baddies, and we need to rally against them’. I think that the hypocrisy there is that if we take that case in this place, we need to apply that unilaterally to the world.

“Then if we apply that unilaterally to the world, nobody can go anywhere.”

source

He also forgot to add “I love money”. 

[Ployd 856]

Although I understand why everyone is being very critical of the celebrities aligning themselves with this World Cup, I do somewhat understand his point that there are human rights violations in many countries and if celebrities were to be held to the standard of never supporting those countries, it would limit their career. I mean you guys love Gaga and she's done numerous ad campaigns for Tiffany Co. Where do you think those Diamonds come from? No celebrities are completely ethically correct including your faves. 

[ANVEEROY 61,253]

17 hours ago, xoxojohnwayne said:

Banghladesh

This is my country, and sadly there isn't a big rage about this.