*BREAKING NEWS* GAZA DEATH TOLL REACHES 1800
*BREAKING NEWS* EBOLA VIRUS CLAIMS 900 LIVES
*BREAKING NEWS* 250 UKRAINIAN CIVILIANS KILLED
and it breaks your fucking heart every time doesn't it? It breaks mine. And even though it crushes me every time I hear about it, I am glad I know about it. We are blessed to live in an information age where we can hear the screams, cries, and explosions from around the world because they deserve to be heard.
But some voices are not as loud as others and cannot reach all of us. I hadn't heard about this until a couple of days ago, but since then my heart and my head has been aching. So, before you call me sadistic for bringing up yet another devastating news story, just hear me out. Every time I hear stories like this, yes, I become restless and my eyes well up and I get angry. But I would rather be all of those things than be someone who lives in a world she knows nothing about. So, thanks to my brother and my cousin who lit a fire in my belly, I did some research on Qatar. For those soccer fans out there, you may recognize the name as the host of the 2022 World Cup.
However, what Qatar should be known for is it's exploitation of foreign workers which is really just in plain terms slave labor. So basically what Qatar has been doing for about 4 years, is promising mostly uneducated, poor, foreign workers from India, Pakistan, Egypt, Philippines, Nepal and a few other countries a chance at success, but these poor workers must first pay a middle man a large sum for a contract to work. Then, once these workers come to Qatar to help build the glorified World Cup arena, their passports are taken, and they are forced to work for about $6/day. Some are reported to make less than that, and some have simply not been paid. On top of that these workers must live in cramped quarters, living shoulder to shoulder with other workers, with barely enough room to extend their arms. On top of that, it is not unheard of for these workers to be beaten senselessly or to face other forms of cruelty.
But the focus of my post is not just on Qatar. Yes, the situation is heinous as it is, but ah my dear friends, it gets worse. Our good old favorite American brand Coca-Cola has stepped in. You see, these laborers cannot afford to call their families, because the cost to make international calls is about $1/minute and when you're taking in $6/day (fees charged by contractors is unknown but is speculated that there are charges for staying in these rooms and for meals. However, not enough time/research has been allocated or this information simply has not been made public) talking on the phone for $1/minute is not just a luxury, but an unobtainable one at that.
So what our dear kind friends at Coca-Cola have done is set up *cue drum roll* A PHONE BOOTH! *Cue scattered and unenthusiastic applause* So Coca-Cola has set up some phone booths that instead of taking money, accepts Coca-Cola bottle caps. One bottle cap will give a worker 3 minutes of international calling. Hooray!....? The cost of a bottle of Coke over in Qatar is about 55 cents, so workers are saving some money on phone calls. How awesome! Except not.
Because what Coca-Cola is essentially doing by placing these machines in Qatar is condoning slave labor. They are condoning exploitation and they are saying it can all be made right with a 3 minute phone call? Under the circumstances you buy a bottle of Coke first of course. They are not only condoning this behavior, but exploiting the situation themselves. They see thousands of desperate workers just dying to talk to the people they love, and they swoop in. It's about as humanitarian as me finding a child lost in the mall and telling him/her that they can call their parents from my phone but only if they give me their lunch money. What do I lose by letting the kid make a phone call? Nothing. But, I have everything to gain because I am in the position of power and there is someone who is desperate and willing. But we all know the multinational corporation worth $168.7 billion dollars can't afford to give those calls for free right? Or make the phone calls last 10 minutes? Or maybe even 5 minutes? But I mean, it would probably be too much for someone who hasn't heard or seen his family in months, sometimes years and does not have the ability to go home in the foreseeable future, to talk to his wife and kids for longer than 3 minutes right? Right...
Here's the Coca-Cola commercial advertising these phone booths.
Yay! So in the middle of working of working 10-12 hour days in the 100+ degree Qatar heat, you can have a 3 minute phone call!!! Man, isn't Coca-Cola great?
Sarcasm aside, it is really heart-wrenching to watch this video. What's even more heart-wrenching are all the articles and comments praising Coke for doing this. Yes, maybe in the smallest of ways it's a kind act because some workers got to talk to their wives and kids. But in a much bigger way, Coke is supporting the people who stole these people's passports and are essentially holding them as hostage slave laborers. A hundred phone calls couldn't make up for it. If Coca-Cola was really about bringing people happiness, don't you think they'd be at the Qatari government's throats trying to free these men? Or creating awareness ads around the world so that maybe we could send in our Coke bottle caps to these guys? An "act of kindness" like this one begs the question, is Coke doing this for exploited workers or is Coke doing this for Coke?
Your thoughts/comments/critiques are always welcome.
Good vibes and lots of love always,
Priya
*Here are some sources for those of you interested in the subject or just doubting some facets of the post. Either way, great information.*
http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/coca-colas-happiness-machines
http://www.businessinsider.com/qatar-world-cup-workers-dead-2014-3
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/jul/29/qatar-world-cup-migrant-workers-fifa-chief
http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/soccer/international/qatar-construction-workers-earn-55c-an-hour-1.1881868
http://www.forbes.com/companies/coca-cola/
And this is the link to the Coke commercial in case you want it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlA9tXYxD8g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlA9tXYxD8g
