call me cynical but this is the state of things in any non western countries + japan/korea
Because no one dies at work on big infrastructure projects in western countries?
World Cup Daily, Day 25
51–60 of 175 posts
Re: World Cup Daily, Day 25
#52Maybe I am just cynical, but I highly doubt many leaders would actually care about a worker’s death. Most would like have the decorum and PR experience to feign shock, but I doubt you’d get more than an empty “oh that’s terrible“ from most in power. To me the fact that anyone would find this shocking is the most shocking part as it implies people are believing politicians facades.
Maybe it’s all a facade, but in the U.S. such shows of concern have gotten us effective workplace safety regulation. I don’t really care if the politicians’ concern is fake: the avoided deaths are real.
Re: World Cup Daily, Day 25
#53Maybe I am just cynical, but I highly doubt many leaders would actually care about a worker’s death. Most would like have the decorum and PR experience to feign shock, but I doubt you’d get more than an empty “oh that’s terrible“ from most in power. To me the fact that anyone would find this shocking is the most shocking part as it implies people are believing politicians facades.
I don’t think that’s very unreasonable? In a analytical sense it’s bad of course, you don’t want workers to die if you can prevent it, but you cannot really expect me to care about every person that dies.
This person is just very blunt about stating as much, or maybe they don’t care in the first sense either, and they wouldn’t change anything for the better even if they had opportunity to.
Re: World Cup Daily, Day 25
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
What they’re thinking internally isn’t the issue. The statements send a signal to the rest of the organization and impact what gets prioritized. In this case, the signal is “life of workers doesn’t matter”.
You do realize in the us there are thousands of worker deaths. Do we hold a memorial each time?
Working conditions in the US have improved dramatically over the last century because politicians and leaders took action to improve them.
Your position seems to be that it doesn’t matter what leaders and politicians say if they don’t believe it in their heart. I think that’s less relevant than their actions.
(And FWIW, yes, usually when a worker dies on the job in the US the company does sponsor a memorial)
Re: World Cup Daily, Day 25
#55https://grantwahl.substack.com/p/world-cup-daily-day-22 My body finally broke down on me. Three weeks of little sleep, high stress and lots of work can do that to you. What had been a cold over the last 10 days turned into something more severe on the night of the USA-Netherlands game, and I could feel my upper chest take on a new level of pressure and discomfort. I didn’t have Covid (I test regularly here), but I we…
Sounds like a heart attack.
Re: World Cup Daily, Day 25
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe you think that, but I’m sure many people have basic human empathy at the end of the day. Yes statistically many people die on the job in many countries but every one is still a tragedy. You can think that and be running a large organization. I feel like many conservative thinkers believe that it’s all “fake” and just PR. But human empathy is a real thing.
Look at your leaders. What percentage do you think operate from sincere va feigned or politically beneficial empathy? Is it a majority? At what level of government do you think it becomes a majority or minority?
I honestly think my leaders (in the Netherlands) roughly do what they believe is in the best interest of the people. I think there’s few that truly feign empathy.
There’s people that don’t care. I just don’t see them in politics, they’re all business leaders.
I guess politics isn’t lucrative enough here.
Re: World Cup Daily, Day 25
#57call me cynical but this is the state of things in any non western countries + japan/korea
Because no one dies at work on big infrastructure projects in western countries?
Because in most western countries, insurance and workers compensation laws result in safer working conditions.
Re: World Cup Daily, Day 25
#58https://grantwahl.substack.com/p/world-cup-daily-day-22 My body finally broke down on me. Three weeks of little sleep, high stress and lots of work can do that to you. What had been a cold over the last 10 days turned into something more severe on the night of the USA-Netherlands game, and I could feel my upper chest take on a new level of pressure and discomfort. I didn’t have Covid (I test regularly here), but I we…
So the guy writing about people in Qatar being overworked and dying… is overworked and dies.
To some this means that the west and capitalism are just as bad as the “slavery” of the petrochemical state. To others this means that the petrochemical state probably gave him an accident.
I’m sure there are other interpretations, too.
Re: World Cup Daily, Day 25
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Even a single preventable death on a job site is one too many. We are doubling down on safety precautions and training to prevent any further workplace hazards. While complete safety is impossible to achieve on a project of this scale, we are using our massive wealth to ensure our construction sites follow international best practices in this area. We value the lives and wellbeing of our workers and will take every…
What I'm getting at is that even if he had _said_ that, it doesn't actually mean anything about whether it's true or not. In contrast American companies might say something like that and then do nothing once the news cycle moves on.
If you can't even pretend to care, that says a lot. It says even more that he knows he can get away with it.
Re: World Cup Daily, Day 25
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is there a suggested causal link here…?
It just happened, probably too early to come to any conclusions. I think the concern is that Wahl seems to have been a generally healthy person (although recently been feeling sick, according to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33931689 ), wrote a critical article about a famously hard government, received a bunch of death threats and the day after drops dead. Again, too early to reach any conclusions, I guess we…
there will never be any irrefuteable proof of any wrongdoing wherever it was murder or not.
an autopsy report done by them would be as untrustworthy and pointless as you can get and handing over the body would be just as pointless. The regimes publicly kill people which critique even abroads and continue to bribe anyone thats willing to take their money and can give them something they wish.
None of the news can be taken seriously one way or another in a trustless society which we've long since become. While its possible that his death was a coincidence, the fact that remains is that there is a pattern of deaths whenever a person voiced critiques against these dictators.