That’s a good point. The criticisms leveled at Qatar before the start of the World Cup were often justified, especially when it came to foreign workers. In this country, there is not a building, not a road, which has not been built without these little hands from Southeast Asia, often badly paid and little considered. But in the avalanche of criticism that we witnessed before the World Cup, there was a form of problematic relentlessness, in my opinion. As small as it is, Qatar is a country, with its complexity, its nuances, and to reduce it to its flaws does not seem fair to me. In the anti-Qatar media discourse, there is sometimes a form of essentialization, which I am wary of. Seen from France, Qatar has two original flaws: for a part of the right (and a part of the left too) it is too Muslim; and for part of the left, he is too rich. But the reality of Qatar is not only bearded men and bling-bling skyscrapers. For example, in the media and research centers in Qatar, there are many representatives of progressive Arab youth, the castaways of the “Arab Spring” of 2011, who are persona non grata in their own country. In Qatar, there is also a middle class, which too often goes under the radar of the media. We hear a lot regarding the very rich or the very poor, but it must be understood that among foreign workers, there is a whole category of white collar workers, Indians, Pakistanis, Palestinians, Egyptians, who work in offices, as architects, accountants, etc. Qatar is more complex than the rhetoric of the superlative – dazzled or indignant – so often used in the media suggests.
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