We found something in our reporting something happening here in the one big city in Qatar a place the whole world is looking at right now. an invisible border drawn to trap human beings to make them work to make them build. I Want to show this to you so let me take you back to show you how we ended up sending a camera to someone and teaching them how to shoot undercover in Qatar Capturing interviews in rural Nepal and how I ended up here staring for hours at Maps drawn by the Qatari government All of this to shine a light on something that Qatar doesn't want the world to see guys. a lot of people say, um, once you did the other video first should we do that guys. this looks really good in the chat because I did World Cup guys I'm telling you guys I'm what I'm judging about I'm judging about the topic um and I feel like yeah, let's watch both guys, it's it's like an ongoing issue everybody talking about World Cup and I think it's a good time to watch it I'll give this one a shout out. goes: this is just a game, right? No, nothing, it's not. It's just it's really not. It's so much more than that. I Want to show you a story that feels unique to our time in history. It's a story of how the organization that controls the sport that humans love most was hijacked. tiny country that controls the resource that I misclicked and I just timed out our bot I think I just I just literally broke everything in holy oh my God natural gas resulting in this a World Cup held in the desert in a country built off fossil fuels and foreign labor with a citizen population the size of Honolulu Hawaii it's important Yeah I Want to show you how this happened? How Qatar this tiny country beat out the US Australia Japan and South Korea by convincing 14 of the 22 most powerful men in football to vote for them to become the host of the 2020. insane the winner to organize. Felix I'm sorry the US does the same to us. This is a big story and I'm excited to dive in. but before we do I need to thank the sponsored. One of the most unique I've ever been a part of thank you established titles for sponsoring today's video. So this is custom in Scotland that if you own land in Scotland We've been deep in this trying to make a web, trying to make a visual that will help us understand FIFA and why this World cup is being held where it's being held I Want to show it to you and I've been yeah I Want to watch only they did the video. Maybe we'll watch them I think it is better it's down and I think both just three major things that we need to understand. If we want to understand how Qatar bought the World Cup Check this out. I don't know three major things you have to understand to make sense of this story, they are: FIFA You have to understand the World Cup and you have to understand Qatar All right, this is our list. If you understand these three things independently, you can put them together to determine what really happened here and how this tiny desert country ended up with the World Cup. So let's start with FIFA That's the People Who People was started by seven European nations in 1904. the original goal here was to help organize matches for association football, which is football. It's the thing we all know. it's the game where two teams of 11 players try to kick a ball into a goal. Football with no means invented here. At this time at this place people have been kicking a ball around for like a million years, but it was here in Europe in the early 90s when the modern Authority for football was born and born in pretty humble beginnings. but FIFA quickly grew into a transnational, quasi-political Authority that spans the whole globe. This is soccer. We have a map for that FIFA Global structure. What are the colors like? So this is Fifa Today it is massive. It represents 211 countries or associations that all belong to this one giant sporting organization. It's the most powerful, the most powerful sporting organization in the world. And it's got these six major regions or confederations. And it was the leaders from these Regional confederations. who in 2010 sat on FIFA's executive committee based here in Zurich in this bunker-like headquarters. I was actually there just a few weeks ago. actually I'm in Zurich This is where the FIFA headquarters the FIFA Museum are. This is where the votes. What is this? What does FIFA stand for? It's Um. Football International Sports Association Okay, let's get back to back too. the 24 Most Powerful Men in Football. The ones who would go on to decide who would be the host of the 2022 World Cup Here they are just hanging out on our diagram sorted by their Confederation Oh, it makes sense. Okay, I get it now here at the top: Swiss Guy: I'm gonna cross it off I'm going to cross it off the list FIFA We didn't go over all of it. There's obviously way more to FIFA than what. I Just talked about. the corruption, the scandals, all of it. So it's But for the purposes, it's like NATO which is trying to answer the question. How did Qatar end up with the World Cup What we need to know is the Executive 24 Most Powerful Men In Football next on our list, the World Cup So. Eventually FIFA got big enough to where they could put on a big International Tournament and people would actually come. They held it in. Uruguay. In 1930, 13 teams participated and they called it the World Cup. It quickly became the most prestigious tournament in football and eventually would become the most viewed sports event on the planet. That's cool though. I Like that beating out even the Olympics If you consider that 1.1 billion people like a decent chunk of the entire global population were simultaneously watching in 2018 when France beat Croatia in the World Cup Final in Moscow 1.1 billion people. That's insane watching the same thing I Mean that's that's insane. but it's also kind of amazing. That's crazy. What other thing brings that many? Nothing. Ever. Literally nothing A thing. What? Global Football has become and that is basically thanks to FIFA That means that people people care more about about soccer. That means people care more about some leather ass ball being kicking some linen net. Okay then almost 40. Anything else in the world sport has the power to inspire and unite people. I mean you and me I'm immediately like actually almost crying like this is this is beautiful stuff. Look at this. Look at this guy. Look at this. these moments of like amazing. 220 billions to Performance of the entire global population watching at one time it will quickly become less about the beauty of this game. or about I mean you know what? I'm gonna say more about money with so much attention. Corporations pay endless money to get their logos anywhere near this stuff. here Or here or here. Okay, that's not that surprising. What blows my mind is how far governments will go to also pay endless money to get anywhere near the World Cup Not because they make money in return like the corporations, they always end up losing tons of money, but because there's a power in having the entire world focused on your country for a few weeks together. You've given the American people an extraordinary opportunity. True welcome the world to to our shores as host of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Do you guys think that that country expensive are playing the importance of that and what it impacted it has over their tourism issue like that? Or did I mean it's a good exchange? Look at this. We plotted this. Actually, we found this data. No, every four years is a World Cup and this is how much each of these countries have spent on their World Cup These are again taxpayer money here. This is government money I Don't think it's Gonna Change Throw this sucker onto a bar chart and you get something like this like it's getting out of hand. Like every year they spend more and more and more. Oh and spoiler alert. Wait till I show you this graph with Qatar in the mix. Minds will be blown I Can promise you that the point is that blown I Can promise you that wait 200, 220 billion. The point is that countries are willing to pay more and more to get the World Cup in their country a moment for them to put their best foot forward on a global stage. This is inflation I Like to call soft Power Okay I am crossing the World Cup off of our list. Not because I covered every angle of it, but because for the purposes of this story, this is what matters. Countries are more and more willing to pay unlimited amounts of money to try to get this event in their country because a billion people are going to watch it. It makes them look good. Okay, we're crossing. It Off What's wrong with that? We have the bag. Yeah. On to the last piece of our puzzle. Qatar A country that should be pronounced. but I'm not going to be that pretentious guy who shows up trying to like say it in the local pronunciation because it makes me sound cultured and cool I am that guy I'm trying to not be that guy. So for now I'm just gonna say it like a Texas oilman says it. Qatar Okay, okay let me give the night again. you can do something. It's not doing it right right? So whenever you get the it's sending up the infrastructure for to do it right then that's usually what I The thought behind it if you give charity like 500 million overnight. Okay, it's gonna that dumb because they can't they're not the manpower to use that. now it's it's it's bad. I'm gonna be really quick on this history. I'm not going into the full thing. Okay this because oh my God it just doesn't get into it. Oh I Just forget it. Oh my god. Do a whole video. Okay, I'm gonna give you the Sparks which is that. Qatar for most of its history was populated by nomadic tribes and fishing villages whose biggest industry was Pearl diving which is like a pretty gnarly thing to do. like do you like tie a rock around your ankle and go under to find clams and then open the clams and see if there's pearls? It was like hard work. The British eventually swooped in because the Industrial Revolution was happening and they smelled oil over here. Qatar becomes a British protectorate until 1971 when they became an independent country an Islamic constitutional monarchy. It's always my walking British Dynasty So by the 70s the British were gone, but crucially the oil was not and because of said oil, Qatar quickly transitioned from a poor tribal Society to a globally connected energy Hub with unlimited money. This accelerated in the 70s when Qatar won the fossil fuel Lottery and discovered that they just have happened to be sitting on the largest known natural gas field on the planet. This guy. they share a bit of it with the territorial Waters of Iran but it's not fair enough. Oh, and by the way, all this fossil fuel and the revenue coming from it belongs to this teeny country. Which this is a very teeny country. Like we're talking about, a country that fits inside of the soul of the boot of Italy. Okay, okay, the world map is an accurate is that we're talking about a few hundred thousand Qataris here. This isn't a big population and yet they're all getting in on this unbelievable amount. It's not. It's not. It's not. It's not that okay. like we can't. You have to get an adjusted math though. Oh, you didn't use one. How rich this teeny little thumb shaped country is. They could not say good job fast enough. They didn't have enough labor to build all the stuff that they had money for whatever. So they started to import labor from other countries. 95 of the people who live and work here are not Qataris. they're expats from other places 95. Meanwhile, the Teeny population that are actually Qatari citizens live very good lives. They're some of the richest people on the planet. Most of them work very cushy government jobs that pay really well. They live in a welfare state where their needs are met because there is just unlimited money for everyone in this country. Okay, that's Qatar. So this is the moment where the three pieces of our puzzle come together because in the 90s Qatar starts to read the tea leaves, they start to realize that the world is going to move away from fossil fuels. The one thing that they have their gravy train is going to come to an end in a few decades. It's time to prepare for the future Said: Guitar By investing their billions and billions hundreds of billions of extra dollars into anything and everything that is not fossil fuels diversify so they start to go nuts. Everything from Real Estate in Singapore and New York City to buying the St Petersburg airport in Russia to bind Miramax films and the Italian luxury brand Valentino like boy should I just make an entire video on guitar because that would be juicy. In 2017, the BBC noted that Qatar owns more land in the UK than the Queen does and as a part of this big diversifying Strategic investment effort Qatar focused on turning their country into a global hub for prestigious international events. You see where I'm going with this. Lucky for them, buying things out is not a good thing. Overall, it's rarely or whatever prestigious event in my opinion. Anyway, the World Cup Oh, and this event happens to be run by an organization that speaks a language that they're very familiar with. The language of money and power and influence. Okay, here's where we are going to retire and never go anywhere ever again. These Gatekeepers Educational football. The people who voted on. is that a good thing? It's gonna host the 2022 World Cup 14 of these guys voted Qatar and I Want to know why? Qatar A country that FIFA itself when they were evaluating all the bidders for the hosting, decided was not super suited for this. There's all these parameters that come: Oh, Sim Construction Medium Risk medium Risk High Risk Low Risk medium decided was not super suited for this. There's all these parameters that countries should have to be a good host. Qatar Didn't really have a lot of them and in fact they had the opposite: super hot weather, no widespread football infrastructure, and perhaps most strikingly not a huge tradition of football or even a significant local population to spread football to. In their place. they have a couple hundred thousand people. The World Cup is supposed to bring football to new regions. Well, there's not a lot of grass throughout a country. It's a desert. really going to do that in a hot Desert Oasis with like 300 000 people. So let's do this. We're done with our list. Let's move on to the next part of this video, which is probably the part we put the most effort into. And I want you to stick with me here because the point isn't to go into every single detail of how some of this corruption went down. No one's going to remember every little detail. That's not the point. The point is to give you a sampling of the mechanics of how influence and power works, not just in FIFA in the International System Generally how powerful people get what they want, we'll never know for certain because this vote was secret, but we know Qatar got 14 of these guys and I think I have a pretty good idea of how for most of us they just bought them out, they just bought them out. We're going to start with this guy. this is Muhammad Binham. He's one of the executive committee members and he's from Qatar Okay, we can safely assume that he probably voted for his own country, but more importantly, it was him a big wig International Football guy who helped pull the strings on everyone else on this web starting with this guy I Mean it doesn't even get complicated to just buy them Jack Warner he's an executive committee member from Trinidad and Tobago leaked emails and bank records obtained by the Sunday Times revealed that before the vote, Bin Hamam deposited 450 thousand dollars directly into Warner's account and that's it. That's it. Later, even more, 500k, 6 million dollars. Just like literally like he just paid him like that. This is the simplest version. Just like I will pay you money too guys. He just bought a key piece uh, one one of the few Keepers that he needs to buy in order to create a project where 220 billion dollars for five hundred thousand dollars. Let's see if I did it. That's insane. but I want you to YouTube It's like so straightforward. No wonder a month after the vote in an email Warner called his Qatari colleague Ben Hamam quote the only brother I have in football Okay, one guy down. who else? Next we have the three Executive committee. Oh my. God Oh my God Two Mills U.S Department of Justice has gotten involved with these guys. They recently released an unsealed indictment against all three of them alleging that these three were quote offered and received bribes. Um yo. the ADHD he added 1.2 million dollars. It could have been one billion dollars. It still wouldn't have been enough. What are you talking about? Some votes I mean it's pretty unsatisfying. We don't have the evidence that the Doj is using for this case. Oh my. God They're building a case. Oh and by the way, two of these guys just died in like the past couple of years. The project is worth 220 billion dollars in order to acquire it, then okay, if you had to spend 1 billion per piece which is 14 billion dollars, it's still not even a lot. That's still that's still a 10x project. That's the 10x folder These three guys from the Africa Confederation A year before the vote, the African Confederation was having their annual meeting in Angola which by the way was paid for by the Qatar bin and the people who were like trying to convince people to vote for the World Cup Okay, I get it. trying to like Lobby for your team? That's fine, but here's where it gets: Shady While they're at this meeting, the Qatar bid team met with these three executive committee members and according to a former employee who was in the room translating the Qataris, offered 1.5 million dollars each to these guys in exchange for their promise that they would vote for Qatar. A year later, this employee turned whistleblower actually went back on her statement saying that she actually lied about it and that there were no bribes. Kind of fishy. what's your incentive to lie? But then the FBI showed up at her front door and she admitted that she was pressured to say that she had lied about it and that actually the bribes happened I Don't know Man, we don't like I I side with the Whistleblower. You can decide how you feel and now her life is basically ruined. She said in an interview that quote I will always look over my shoulder for the rest of my life. Oh okay, and while we're talking about this, one of those three guys that apparently got 1.5 million dollars was later filmed by undercover reporters negotiating an 800 000 bribe in exchange for his vote. like Smoking Gun evidence. Same thing happened to this guy, the executive committee member from the Oceania region and they actually got disqualified from voting so these two guys didn't actually vote. Nope. Chat guys, these are like World altering events that are happening for one mill 800k. What? the down to 22 x co-members Let's keep. That's insane. Okay So we've gone over the instances where there was direct money given in exchange for the promise to vote the next phase of this I could have bought the whole thing. Subtle versions, less overt, less smoking gunish like this guy from Thailand he's the executive committee member from Thailand Four months before the vote, Thailand and Qatar were renegotiating an energy deal Thailand was trying to get a better price for their natural gas is a lot of. but for some reason this guy a FIFA executive committee voting member was at the meeting. Wait, what? Why is this football guy in the room while there's these big gas negotiations going on? Yes, I'm being koi. We know where this is going. I Mean you got to read these leaked emails. They're so juicy. You've got a FIFA guy emailing a guitar gas guy from Qatar Petroleum. They're talking about the development of their two football associations from their different countries and then saying that they're going to liaise with the CEO of the gas company to follow up about a liquid natural gas sale. I Mean it's just so clear what's going on here. Favorable terms of the deal in exchange for hey dude, make sure to vote for our country. Oh, and who was this meeting between the gas guy and the FIFA guy arranged by you guessed it, this guy. Muhammad Bin Hamam, the executive committee member from Qatar who's pulling all these strings? Oh, by the way, just a little side note here. going through these leaked emails I Couldn't help but notice that the FIFA guy's email was sourpiggy at redacted sour Piggy Sour Piggy Sour Piggies Doing a lot of corruption? Okay, so oh okay. okay okay. and then there's a few. Just like sort of circumstances describes the flavor of how this works. Like this guy who sold his family's land to Qatar a year after the vote for 27 million pounds which was like way over asking price and this executive committee member whose son was given a job at a private Qatari Hospital shortly after the World Cup vote. Both of these guys, of course, like everyone else on this list, denies any connection that this was influenced. But now we're at the most significant moment in all of this. The thing that really tipped the scales for the vote and it has to do with this confederation the most powerful the European Confederation Michelle Platini. a former friendship. Yes, this is. This isn't the elections dude guys. If I say chat, vote for me for streamies I'll give you one dollar. Okay, I'm not gonna go jump forward player turned FIFA guy. He was the president of this confederation, which inevitably meant that he has sway over these other dudes. Just one week before the vote, like crunch time, Platini got an invitation that he couldn't refuse a luncheon with the French President at his Palace Platini later said that before this meeting, he was planning on voting for the U.S to host the World Cup in 2022. but he goes to this luncheon and who else is there? No, no big deal, just these two guys the most powerful dudes in Qatar, one of them the prime minister of Qatar and the other the current Emir of Qatar from like the old Dynasty family. it's important to remember the context here, like what's happening. This is 2010. The world has just been rattled by a Global Financial meltdown. Jesus The president of France Sarkozy is stressed and he's in the room with the leaders of Qatar who were not nearly in the same time. see the section before about unlimited amounts of money things and it's clear that these Qataris want something something that the Frenchman in the room can deliver them a vote for their country to host the World Cup something they really want. according to sources close to this meeting. Sarkozy Flat out told Platini to vote for Qatar Why? Well, we'll never know, but it's clear that he wanted a few things from Qatar. In this same, Sarkozy told the Qataris that he wanted Qatar to buy the French football team Paris Saint German which happens to be Sarkozy's favorite football team and at the time was in financial ruin. After this meeting, a few important things happen. Number one: Qatar did end up buying that football team for 60 million pounds just like Sarkozy wanted. Wait, that's it around and soon it became a star-studded team with merch that's worn by the world's most popular celebrities. And then we suddenly see an uptick in big trade deals between why is things so cheap? how is everything so cheap and Qatar in France Qatar Airways buys 50 giant planes from Airbus the giant French airplane maker 60 mil 2010 times it by 50. we're looking at 18 billion dollars, a massive deal and in the end, Platini in this room with his President telling him to do what the Qataris want. we need them right now and it worked. Michelle Patini flipped his vote from the USA okay guitar. Okay, it's good again. Chat guys who's the best player on on PSG isn't it? Uh, and PayPal how much is this his contracts worth? He admitted it later that's not even the president of the executive committee said bladder was pissed about this and later said that um influenced Michelle Platini at that time to vote for Qatar because remember Confederation With eight executive committee members, eight votes and he almost certainly influenced others. Okay, is worth 110 mil over the life of three year deal? 110 million his Squad entirely. The club is what they bought it for 60.

one book I read claims that he took four votes with him, but we'll never know. and then on a cold day in December of 2010, the day of the vote came the 22. FIFA World Cup Day In the winter of 2010 in Zurich all the guests arrive because it was Voting day I Think we had absolutely offended. Why is Morganford in there? It's why and why is it Boris Johnson there Fantastic! Well we got a great bid so we just got to go in there and give it everything that we've got these 22. Men Cast their votes in multiple rounds until a majority Victor emerged. At least 11 of them voted from Qatar since round one and finally 14 votes were delivered to Qatar a majority close. So yeah, that's how it went down. That's how it went down. Well boys look, we'll never know exactly what happened in four years. We know because it leaked out and we were able to the whole Squad is going to Lavala. but or Montreal the fact is everyone pounds I'm buying that ship and involved in some corruption investigation. I Mean it's no surprise that this stuff happened and probably so much more. FIFA is corrupt to the core Qatar Didn't make this happen Qatar Just saw an organization that spoke their language, the language of unlimited money and they used that to get what they wanted to prepare for the future, to diversify to get the world to look at them. This video is the biggest event in the world So no, this isn't just a game. The reason why all of this matters is because football can be a beautiful thing no matter what language someone speaks. Whether politics or their God or whatever, they have this universal language. this game. a global culture full of screaming and cheering and crying and pride and identity. It's ridiculous, yet so beautiful. So uniquely human and in a very real way. Football is a mirror to the world. Oh, it's acceptable. Here in this most revered sport is what's acceptable everywhere. So by using money and influence to get the bid for the World Cup Qatar showed us just how power Works in our world. They showed us who really matters and who doesn't and validated an old idea that the rules of fair play don't really matter. If you have enough money foreign, it's bad, but it doesn't. It doesn't look really, it always. Oh, why is it bad? And part two is why is that bad And I think they're they're gonna tell you. Okay, because he's like oh yeah, they bought it, they're the money. Cool man. that and and some people trying to send it yo dude. I mean give the money and they can buy it. What's the problem? Here's the problem. Let's watch it. Hey, it's a good shot. We found something in our reporting something happening here in the one big city in Qatar place the whole world is looking at right now. an invisible border drawn to trap human beings to make them work to make them build I Want to show this to you so let me take you back to show you how we ended up sending you just saying again, teaching them how to show undercover information I'd love to talk about it from a citizen point of view I don't think I don't think I don't think it doesn't matter, doesn't matter rural Nepal I don't know the guy but staring for hours at Maps drawn by the way government. all of this to shine a light on something that Qatar doesn't want the world to see. All of these have been emptied very recently. Hey I need to show you something I've been looking at maps of Qatar because the World Cup is going there when the world is going to be fixated on one place. You got to look at all the maps I've been on the government website of Qatar looking at their zoning Maps this is the city of Doha the capital of Qatar but look at this. the whole city is yellow and there's this one little shape of blue Industrial Area I know we're talking about zoning I think something's up here I've been trying to map this like throw it on like my other tools to map it and see if it's like what this could be and it's not totally making sense. It's kind of cut off from the rest of the city. There's another municipality kind of in between it and Doha but it's a part of Doha Usually when you have weird zoning like this, there's something going on. since Guitar got awarded the World Cup in 2010, there's been all sorts of issues with their labor conditions and all of that. I Think this has to do with that, but I don't totally know the World Cup is happening in a few weeks I Want to go to this place I Need to reach out to Cami one of our research producers. We're going to dive into this. We're going to figure it out or go in to Doha folks. Hey Cami I Want to go to Qatar before the World Cup to look at this one part of the city that's completely zoned differently. I Think it has to do with like the labor situation there I can't not print it I'm going interesting there. We have to find a fixer local producer someone on the ground who can help us not get arrested I Will follow up tomorrow with more details. This guy's got balls for sure though. I Feel like yes, let's do it. This sounds like a really great story. I'll happily get a Doha with you I'll start researching right now I'm going to Qatar Congratulations I Just want you to be smart I'm doing some research and I Don't know how easy it's going to be for us to film places, especially in the industrial area. From what I've read: They're notoriously not very kind to journalists. The best part about the golf is that these cities are like so like cartoonish. This is a hotel in freaking Doha Look at this opening later this year when I stay in this hotel that looks like a freaking hey yo, what's a sick do this I've never had an excuse. still have Fixer Number One referred me to someone else so fingers crossed that it's double yes man, what is on this chat man? Drones: Yes! Do you think they'll let me fly my drone? and uh, why? NATO Countries are helping out during anti-drunks because they're afraid of, you know? oh damn, they're sending out entire drone. Holy wait, what? Yeah yeah. great news. Excer hasn't found anybody in the industrial area who wants to talk with us. It's not looking likely that they're going to find anybody. I'm gonna keep trying to connect with anyone on the ground. I Think it's a hentai drums but I'm trying to find a fixer to help me get in there. What did you join his emting their drama? It's not like some secret you're supposed to be living in a week and we haven't found any fixers. We haven't found any people on the ground who can help us. I'm just a bit concerned of our timeline right now. I Think we found someone a fixer who is deeply connected with The worker population in Doha and is potentially going to help us to get into it. No, he doesn't. On a call in a few minutes, nice to meet you. how are you doing? Ryan Let me switch off the did you get the proposal that we sent over. We're not trying to get any secretive footage, it's more just about life in the industrial area. I Guess my question for you is like if I went into an industrial area with my camera. Not a big crew but just my camera to go film. What camera like this? If I went into the industrial area with this camera and film. Yeah, Explain that. What do you mean? Yeah, It will make you know you will get undue attention from. Who do you think I would get under attention? So it's not very smart for me to go filming around in that area. Yum. Okay and I think that's why we want to figure out a way. It's my first time. What do you think this guy's like Not okay. um he didn't go. This is not happening I knew it I called it. This is not happening. If we can't do the shots, then this story doesn't work. meaning I won't go to Doha So it's pretty important for us to know soon. if this is feasible or if it's not feasible is. Well, it's really nice to meet you. Thank you so much for chatting! I Can't safely go into this Industrial Area Like it's now clear to me like every fixer has just been like no, this guy's just set up my blankets. Dude with a camera like this is, this is not safe. It feels like if you go you're just gonna what get shots of shiny buildings and not actually gain access. Yeah, which I guess could be cool. No. I mean there's an option here where you try to find someone that could go in a different camera person in Nepal or Bangladesh or somewhere where workers have been and gone home. We could totally tell this story. The World Cup is literally a few weeks away I Got some work to do the new plan. Find someone on the ground in Guitar who will go into the industrial area and tell me why the hell the government is so afraid of of me going in with my camera? Why? Why One guy though? Why don't you get five of them before we continue I need to tell you about something? Uh, which is that today's video is not sponsored by any brand. Sometimes we do really deep dives into. Yeah yeah it doesn't want to be monetized because it says I get it but I'm gonna keep doing it. That's where you all come in for those who are supporting over at The Newsroom You allow us to do this kind of Journey one of my scripts every month and you get access to some exclusive Tom Fox group here on you. Back into this story and Pac-Man is a tiny super rich country and it sits on the largest known natural gas field on. Earth since they're Independence in 1970 Qatar Got really rich really fast leapfrogging the normal Economic Development process that countries go through as they grow usually as a country gets. Rich Immigrants are a poor. neighboring countries migrate in to take lower paying jobs required to keep the economy growing. construction Hospitality Manual labor caretaking Food Services You know what I mean Every rich country experiences this, but in Qatar all of their neighbors were also getting super rich super fast. So they started looking elsewhere for cheap labor and soon there was a flow of people taking these jobs. but there's a connection here. Thanks to all this abundant oil and gas money, the Qatari government provides a luxurious welfare state to their citizens, free health care, education, guaranteed jobs, subsidized housing, and literally they just get my body checks for being Qatari for winning the fossil fuel jackpot. So Qatar needed labor from other countries, but they didn't want to let these immigrants in on the Sumptuous benefits of their welfare state. So they started using this system where employers could sponsor workers to come to Qatar to work. They wouldn't be citizens or anything close to it, they would be totally at the mercy of their employer. This was called the Kafala system and it. was the foundation upon which Qatar built its country foreign. The winner to organize the two 22 FIFA World Cup is Qatar. So this is giant moment. But the fact is that as soon as Qatar won the World Cup they had a lot of work to do because their country didn't have a lot of infrastructure. basically any infrastructure at all. That's why it needs to be laws. It's what it needs to be regulations or whatever the right technically on paper. What if I did it. What What if I hired somebody, a guy or a girl and make them sit in the corner there without a break for 10 hours a day? Boom hey yo do that right thing. So wait, no people do that right. I'll pay you 160 an hour. Why were they chosen to host the World Cup If they didn't have an infrastructure, it's a long story again. I made an entire video about it. The fact is, and in their country a bunch of stuff. they make like 10. So what they basically did is just ramp up the system that they already had importing tons of Labor from. South. Look at this chat, look at the chat. who's gonna do it? Look at that. I'll do it. I'll do it. Everybody will do it. Oh my God Oh my God What the is that to come build their country? In this case, to build infrastructure for the World Cup So yeah I've been deep in the context in the history and the data for all of this. the stuff I can do from the office, but the fact is time is running out I need to get back around someone in Doha someone in Bangladesh or Nepal who can help me capture what is actually happening in these places? talk to the people there I've been planting lots of seeds and some of them are starting to sprout so we're getting closer. we're getting closer dromedaries I Like those I've been talking with a journalist in Nepal who's really great and can connect us with workers who've returned home. He's done a lot of work on this and he can go out and channels. I Finally just settling into the fact that I'm not going to Doha and I'm disappointed in that because I wanted to be on the ground I wanted to see this issue, but the right choice is to use those resources to engage camera people to go capture the right stories in different parts of the world and that's what we're going to do. Luckily I've got Instagram I also have miso soup and as always a bunch of people responded just for things and they're such a supportive Community Who wants to help with these stories which is just an amazing reality. Probably 15-20 hours over the next two weeks getting some shots can I Officially you know hire you as a contractor to do this and again all of this is 100 Anonymous We will make sure that you everyone is safe. Bingo Yes Yes Yes! I am talking to somebody in Qatar who is a journalist who wants to help me out is excited Oh my God I Feel so much better there was someone in Doha in those camera skills with language skills, his journalism skills who's excited to help and is just ready to go. Oh my gosh, nice to meet you hello how you doing Yeah everything is great. Really appreciate it. Just like harnessing the the energy on this and just being super down and they have access to the industrial area? Yes! I Want you to tell me how comfortable you feel about this process in terms of Safety and Security What's sensitive? What's not? just give me an overview of where some red lines are here. I Found someone in Doha who I could give a camera to to film. We're gonna call him Raj We won't be showing his face. We'll change his voice because he could get in deep trouble for this. First things first, everything is monitored or like obedience works everywhere in this country no matter where. I film I'm also being filmed specifically traditional area. There are a few layers to what we can do and what we cannot do and over the next several weeks of talking to Raj I realized that my fixation on this one blue Square isn't actually the full story. it it's just the beginning. I Plan to go on every street and film from inside the car and I think that's the safest way to film and get like the value of what is it like to get inside the city? We have someone on the ground with a camera that we bought them I've lined them out on how to shoot undercover I actually wanted to ask you like, how do you get along shooting footages without getting loaded? Well, the key to filming without being seen is to look elsewhere. You're holding this thing like you're holding a an ice cream cone, you're walking around and you're looking elsewhere and then you just smoothly. you know, put it away and you just get really comfortable with turning on and off they're going. What the they are. Very wait. Why wouldn't you wait? wait I Wanted to modify the car or have some Contraption right? Why do they make him do it manually? Brushes for a very good reason I Would like you to shoot in 60 frames a second. I'd like you to shoot in 4k. This is going to be an amazing story if we can pull it off. The government of Qatar is way more insane than I expected and we're going to take a lot of precautions to keep everyone safe. We're going to show the world what Qatar doesn't want the world to see. So I'm taking them over here. Raj Was finally heading to the industrial area to show us exactly what this place was. but it wasn't until we heard from the people who had worked there and lived there that we began to see how deep this trap really was. Huh? Today is the day in Nepal A Million Miles Away They have been shooting interviews. Look, these are people who actually worked on the World Cup stadiums and are now back home in. Nepal You start to get to the human side of it and it becomes way less theoretical. It's way less about these zoning maps and stuff and it becomes about real humans. It starts to get heavy foreign as we've been setting up all these Logistics and figuring all of this outcome. We've also been reporting and investigating the bigger context here. the industrial area. This little blue shape on the map is actually just one of several mechanisms that the Qatari government uses to bring people over to their country to trap them there, all to exploit them to work to build all the things they want them to build. Sometimes they have a Zone where things and laws are different than the main country. It's like something that is. It's different for this part of something like that. Okay, so it's 2010. Guitar just won the World Cup Yeah, yeah yeah yeah. Unfathomable amount structure. In a very short time, They do this by paying a bunch of people to go to these countries to small villages in places like Bangladesh and Paul to recruit a bunch of workers to come to Qatar to build. And this is the first phase of what I'm calling the Guitar Trap because it is here where these workers were told they had to pay a recruitment fee. Yeah Boom! Here Comes One to four thousand dollars just to like get recruited to go to Qatar and work. These people don't have one to four thousand dollars lying around, so they often would borrow money from family or take out a loan with really high interest rates. So even before they start working, they start their relationship with work and Qatar with debt. So now you have workers from Bangladesh India Nepal all over this region flooding into Qatar to start building as this is happening. Qatar implements a law. This is a law that's meant to protect families. Okay, the law says that if you replace certain data. isn't that how it is though with even in other countries like if you have to pay a lot to uh, you have to take loans out for education to get a job and then you get a job and you start with debts. Oops. I have to live within quote family areas in the city of Doha. It's a little ambiguous. Well, the government later clarified that what they're referring to is Bachelors People in the guitar that are single men. Okay, so these Bachelors can't live in family zones. Where are these family zones that Bachelors can't live in? Is it just like one little part of the city? No. To clarify, they released a map that looks like this: everything in yellow is a family Zone a place where Bachelor workers are not allowed to live. If you project it onto like a real map, you will see that this is the entire city basically. And then they reserved one little plot of land a city away still zoned for Doha this little blue shape where these Bachelor workers can live. Oh but they made a few exceptions. Anyone who works at like markets and barber shops, restaurants. oh and white collar professionals who are Bachelors can also stay in the family zones. So really these working Bachelors is just a euphemism for guys who look like this. guys who are there doing construction who Qatar does not want to see in their shiny downtown area. So they reserved them a spot out here in the desert next to the sewage. Pond This is the map that sent me down the rabbit hole and now I see it for what it is I knew something was up I looked at a bunch of these zoning Maps They're using this to put the people that they don't want to see in the places that will never be seen. So now these guys are already Laden with debt because of the recruiting fees and now they're relegated and trapped into this part of the city. the part of the city that I was not allowed to go to without our listening. Basically these guys okay, they're coming from other countries are literally paying money they don't have right in order to get a job to make money for their families without getting arrested. This is where Raj is on his way to. This is where we're getting footage. I'm just doing a chat man relax. I'm starting to see kind of accommodations where workers live. This is one of those buses Friday and it's at leisure. D For a lot of as you can see a lot of clothes that have been washed and left in the sun to be dry. this is the industrial area. It's the thing I've been thinking about for a very long time and I'm finally seeing the footage from inside and I have to say it's not anything super surprising. This is kind of anticlimactic in the sense that I'm just looking at like a kind of Dusty dilapidated part of town with a bunch of buildings that look the same and yet I Now know a lot more about what this place represents. Look at this the industrial area is it's completely cut off. Here's the Metro System brand new that they were planning to build for the World Cup this is the whole system connects all of the stadiums in the city. You can see that they planned a couple of these lines to go out to the industrial area. This would connect the industrial area to the city and yet these lines aren't actually built. They're going to start on these right after the World Cup is over. So yeah, this place is just like completely disconnected I think I Now see that and it's not just disconnected unintentionally, this very systematically intentionally disconnected from the rest of the city. Our interviews in Nepal gave us some clarity on what it's like to live out there. Poor Mouse is getting clicked on so hard. The next phase of the Qatar trap has to do with how these people were exploited, how their rights were taken away from them to force them to work to build the World Cup These workers were forced to work in very horrible conditions. Look at the temperatures in Doha in the summer getting close to 50 degrees Celsius Close to 120 degrees Fahrenheit Would they literally have air-conditioned outdoor spaces? Look at that air conditioning outside on Wheels The stadiums themselves will have air conditioning and if these workers are out there doing like manual labor in this heat foreign, A lot of workers report being treated like animals, being yelled at and bossed around in totally these Guys Behind These Walls The conditions that these people were made to live in and really given no choice on where they could live are horrendous. Journalists and human rights organizations have actually gotten cameras back here to actually show what that looks like. Holy Conditions got so bad for some workers that they never returned home. Foreign, Foreign. Thousands of totally healthy young men died while working in these conditions. Wait How many? Well likely never know. Wait how many thousands of thousandsly healthy young men died while working in these conditions. We'll likely never know the true cause of death, because instead of a real investigation, the Qatari authorities come out and use these vague classifications like heart failure and natural causes as the cause of death. Doing this robs the family of answers on why their loved one came home in a box. So if these employers are so bad, why don't these employees just change jobs? The answer is, they can't for a long time. Legally, they couldn't because the next part of this trap has to do with paperwork. Oh my. God Oftentimes this paperwork would stipulate that these workers can't change jobs without the permission of their employers. So the status of these workers who were trapped in their little blue box on the outskirts of the city was completely at the mercy of their employers. If they left their job, they would be considered a foreign immigrant illegally there and could be arrested and put into jail. Just one more layer of the Trap. And then there was the fact that these employers would often not pay their workers for months at a time withholding wages from them and thus increasing their leverage and power over them. And with no recourse, these workers couldn't do anything about it. So yes, we are now talking about forced labor with no compensation, a euphemism for modern day slavery. I Know that sounds dramatic, but that's literally what is happening here. Not to all workers. There were workers who had great conditions and got paid on time. But this system enabled firms to so deeply exploit workers because it gave them so much power over them and so little recourse for these workers to complain or do anything without being punished or arrested. So with no other options, some workers turned to their last resort, protesting foreign. But don't be fooled here, this wasn't some worker. Uprising This type of thing is illegal in Qatar An authoritarian police state where assembly like this is totally not okay. So what happened is the police would show up, Squashy's protests, tell them that everything was going to be okay and they would get paid and then deported. A huge number of these people got them out of the system so that the status quo could remain Just dehumanizing. People that belong to a certain race and are brought here for certain purposes is not justified by any means. thanks to International Scrutiny Qatar Started to make some reforms I Realized this wasn't going to fly if they were going to host the World Cup So they started instituting things like worker hours that were not in the heat of the day, mandatory water on site so these people could stay hydrated, a minimum wage, changing the law so that people could technically change jobs without permission, compensating families for people who died working. All of this looked great on paper, but Human rights organizations like Amnesty International actually have looked to see if those policies have trickled into reality. And you know what? I'm going to say, they haven't Well, it's not only greed I mean they can't afford it though. that's a problem walls. and don't people live here as well? I I'm to the the people, the the people that that are doing all this. they're making all this. they can't afford to make things better. but it wouldn't be that much. So yeah, I Really understand now what this little blue box is for what it represents. The authorities in Doha are getting ready for this World Cup and as the event approaches, they are making sure that anyone who belongs stays in that box. You can. This is insane. The timing of this. This is literally happening right now. I'm wiped out by some weird phenomenon message from Raj that um, they are evicting workers from the city. People who are living in the yellow area illegally because of the law are being evicted. It's a couple weeks before the World Cup and so the timing is not surprising that they are are cracking down most everywhere. Everything looks like it has been done really quickly, visually catching people and putting them into Shanaya which is the initial area. I'm trying to get footages of them being evicted because a lot of them are being evicted. like just with two hours of notice that this is so clear to me what's happening. They're clearly starting to really enforce this like family zoning thing to get anyone who they don't want to be 26 months to Center the city. I've never done a story like this before. This is developing like day by day and all of this reporting that we've done I'm now seeing it play out in in real time as the city prepares for the World Cup. Using all of these laws to hide these people to get them out of view as all of these International visits I told you this was crazy of a story man. I Feel so empty and it's only the small houses that have been evacuated. Okay, well, we got to the bottom of it. We know why this exists, the way it's drawn, what it means, who it's for, what it's meant to do. I Did not expect that I Know what's happening behind those walls, how those people are trapped, how their families miss them, and how some of them might never come home foreign. how much is that in terms of money 14 times? If you like 18 mil, 18 mil for 18 mil damage for 18 mil dollars, that's that much damage that they could cause it. That's insane a comparison. The gravity of the damage for 21 mil is crazy. Now let's be clear. this happened well before the World Cup ever came to Qatar And what I fear is that once we all move on, once these few weeks of playing football are over, we'll forget about everything we saw, the guitar will have no incentive to actually do anything about this and they'll go back to what they've been doing for decades, deceiving these workers, trapping them in their country, exploiting them, and then hiding them from. View. So there you go that that wasn't like I mean it was very, very depressing. but I think it is a good video.