- anteontem
For three decades, Qatar, the small desert kingdom, has been making people talk about it. Due to their financial power and the secrecy that surrounds them, the royal family who run it fascinate people as much as they frighten them.
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00:00A country that might never have existed.
00:08A monarchy that could have remained among the poorest on the planet.
00:13After the discovery of gas three decades ago,
00:29Qatar, a secretive state and emirate with only 300,000 citizens,
00:33embarked on the conquest of the planet.
00:38We are a small country, don't deny our size,
00:41but the ambition was always big.
00:43The phrase that pundits always used in the 90s and early 2000s
00:46is Qatar punching above its weight.
00:48It ended up becoming the subject of conversation in the media world,
00:52in the art world, in the diplomatic world, in the sports world.
00:59The winner to organize the 2022 FIFA World Cup is Qatar.
01:13This moment, we're waiting for the envelope.
01:16When it says Qatar, I think this is, I mean,
01:19it's an unforgettable moment for us.
01:22Behind this ascension, as fascinating as it is frightening,
01:29is a dynasty and absolute monarchy, the House of Tani.
01:35Khalifa, the grandfather, declared the independence of Qatar.
01:39His son, Hamad, turned the country into the wealthiest in the world for inhabitant.
01:43The grandson, Tamim, wants to impose his emirate at the center of the world stage.
01:48I don't think what Qatar is doing is because of vanity.
01:53It's not that the countries, they require that global attention.
01:57It's more about the fundamental understanding of where Qatar is situated
02:01in this part of the world.
02:03With its capital, Doua, the peninsula state about the size of Corsica
02:07has been swept up into the tensions of the Persian Gulf,
02:10between the two great rivals of the Muslim world, Iran and Saudi Arabia.
02:15I mean, the reality, it's, geopolitically, it's a small state.
02:20The fact that you are wedged between powers,
02:23and you have to navigate your way all the time.
02:31We look into the paradoxes of this tiny emirate,
02:34seemingly schizophrenic, torn between opening up to the West
02:37and the religious conservatism of Bedouin society.
02:42To understand the small emirates' contradictions, we must go back to the nomadic caravans that crisscrossed each other for centuries.
03:02Today, the inhospitable tracks are the playground of powerful four-wheel drives.
03:12This pack is chasing a falcon which, in turn, has been trained to hunt pigeons.
03:20The competition, aired live on TV, rewards the best falcon trainers in Qatar.
03:44Until the middle of the 20th century, this form of hunting helped to feed the people who lived in one of the most hostile deserts on the planet.
03:56It has become a prestigious sport, and the winners go home with mind-boggling prizes.
04:02The rewards are offered by the royal family, which supports the traditions of the Bedouins, the nomadic herders of the Arabian Peninsula.
04:24The official commentator, Hamad al-Jamil, is one of the fiercest upholders of this heritage.
04:43The falconer has even become a star of Qatari's social networks.
04:53Do you like a set like this?
04:57Huh?
04:59I don't want to be seen as just having oil or just having energy, just having assets.
05:09They want to show that there is this this primordial Badou identity.
05:17So it's a sort of combination of old and ancient and modern.
05:37You've got the old harking back to the days of Bedouin in the desert, but with all the mod cons attached to it.
05:53In this folkloric version of Bedouin society, women are not to be seen.
05:59The Qatari's have inherited a strict Muslim culture, Wahhabism, an ultra-conservative religious branch that was born in Saudi Arabia in the 18th century.
06:13Still today, many Qatari laws are inspired by Sharia, or Quranic law.
06:21Them New York and their Malaysians are connected up to Duneways itself in Saudi Arabia as well.
06:25The Qatari population is mainly made up of large Sunni Muslim tribes, which have forged a strong sense of kinship between them.
06:28Please allow the Qatari Estamos to be seen as aRA official parties, and their careers as well.
06:33foreign
06:40foreign
06:51foreign
07:01In just 30 years, hydrocarbon billions have transformed this society at a speed and scale
07:11rarely seen in human history.
07:19In Doha, social life is arranged around luxurious air-conditioned malls, temples of consumption.
07:29As an influencer, Hamad has been invited this morning to do a social network promotion for
07:39some perfumes, a passion in the Gulf states.
07:46These are often described as the richest citizens in the world.
08:03So you can see that.
08:05No, no.
08:07I hope that you will see what you will see.
08:11You are old,
08:13and there are a number of good society in Qatar.
08:18Qatar, it's not the state of Providence.
08:21It's the state of confusion.
08:23You don't have any savings.
08:25If you want to go to the United States
08:27to get to work in the best American hospital
08:29and it will cost 50.000 dollars a day,
08:31I mean, the country offers education,
08:33and it offers health,
08:35and it also offers the public services,
08:38the electricity, the water, the water.
08:40These services,
08:42are all offered to Qataris.
08:4680% of Qataris work as state functionaries
08:49and employ numerous servants.
08:54It's a monarchy in which the subjects of the royal family
08:57thank their leaders whenever they get the chance.
08:59it's a way of showing their loyalty.
09:02The land is also known
09:04and the best of the esquerda.
09:05I would not have any thought.
09:08But the people of the sergeant,
09:10who call the commander and the commander,
09:12the commander,
09:13who have become a former emperor.
09:15They are creating a new Qataris.
09:19This accelerated modernization has been achieved in just one generation.
09:29On the 23rd floor of this tower, which belongs to him, Faisal bin Qasim al-Tani is considered
09:34to be one of the builders of modern Qatar.
09:38The prince belongs to one of the branches of the impressive al-Tani dynasty.
09:46Islam allows men to have several wives, and they all have a large number of children.
10:16They are the largest Arab communities.
10:24The Altanis came to power in the late 19th century.
10:32Back then, the emirate was a far-flung province of the Ottoman Empire.
10:37In one of his palaces, the billionaire Faisal bin Qasim opened a museum that bears his name
10:42to preserve and promote his cultural heritage.
11:09Most of the 300,000 Qataris descend from these nine original tribes.
11:16Nationality is passed on through rite of blood, and in this patriarchal society, solely through
11:21that of the father.
11:25At the end of World War I, the Ottoman Empire was disbanded, and Qatar became a British protectorate.
11:31At the time, here's what one of the Al-Tani tribe houses looked like.
11:38Here's what the
12:06This almost timeless existence was turned on its head in the 1930s and 40s with the
12:19arrival of foreign engineers in search of oil.
12:24With members of the royal family, the British founded the first oil company.
12:29My father was an emir of the company of the Petrol.
12:35When I came to the Petrol, this was a miracle.
12:42I was an emir of the children of the Petrol, and I was a child.
12:46I was with the petrol, and I was with the petrol.
12:49The first time I came to the Petrol, I was with the baby, and the first time I was with the petrol.
12:59In the 1950s, Qataris discovered Western consumer society.
13:18But oil reserves turned out to be fewer than in neighboring countries, which were enjoying more rapid growth.
13:33In the late 1960s, the British, in the full throes of decolonization, no longer wanted to ensure the security of the Gulf principalities.
13:41In 1971, Qatar, like its neighboring Emirate Bahrain, had to choose between independence or joining the Federation of the United Arab Emirates, which was being created by the ruling families of Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
13:56For fear of falling under the rule of its neighbors, Qatar chose to go it alone.
14:21Qatar chose to go it alone.
14:26It was Khalifa, the current emir's grandfather, who announced independence on TV.
14:34This announcement was seen as a betrayal by the other Gulf monarchies and has never been forgiven.
15:03Especially when, in the 1970s, a vast undersea gas field was discovered.
15:10At the time, the Emir Khalifa was wary of over-rapid growth and did not believe too much in the future of gas.
15:18He preferred spending his oil money on long trips overseas while he left his ambitious son Hamad in charge.
15:25in charge.
15:26in charge.
15:27in charge.
15:28in charge.
15:32the
15:45He is always described as a character that was larger than life.
15:52Also, someone with an incredible personality,
15:57who automatically takes attention to his attention in a room.
16:02Someone who had a very clear idea of what he wanted.
16:06In reality, it's him who will very quickly meet with the charge of the control of Qatar.
16:12His father is always right, left, left, less interested.
16:17It was quite clear that, as long as his father is in power,
16:20nothing will happen.
16:22And then, in 1995, he used the chance,
16:27as his father was outside of the country,
16:31to take power in a bloodless coup.
16:36But it's not the case of the country and people,
16:41which is the goal of his father,
16:44after Allah's father,
16:45which has led you to,
16:47in order for everyone who can do this country
16:50to take care of this country
16:52and to take care of the country.
16:55But it's not to reverse his father to acquire power.
16:58It's to reverse his father with a real idea
17:02of what the Qatar can and what the Qatar should be.
17:05So there is this anecdote that Sheikh Hamad arrived,
17:08I don't know whether it was in the UK or in France,
17:11looking at the passport and the immigration officer was saying,
17:14where's this passport from, what is Qatar actually?
17:17And that kind of is an anecdote to illustrate after that Qatar was,
17:21Sheikh Hamad was really pressured to transform Qatar
17:24and put Qatar on the map.
17:26To realize his ambition,
17:29Hamad launched drilling for natural gas in Northfield,
17:32which straddles the territorial waters of Qatar and Iran.
17:39This economic relationship between the great Shiite power
17:42and the small Sunni monarchy drew suspicion on Qatar
17:45from the other states of the Arabian Peninsula.
17:47But Hamad didn't care.
17:53The new emir borrowed heavily from Western banks
17:56and invested billions of dollars
17:58to construct floating gas terminals,
18:01ships that store gas in giant domes
18:04at a temperature of minus 167 degrees Celsius.
18:08It's what is called liquefied natural gas, or LNG.
18:14There were, at that time, fears that there wouldn't be
18:20a massive market for gas,
18:22that this could all be, you know, a bubble that would burst
18:26and it would be money that was wasted.
18:28The demand for gas exploded in the late 1990s.
18:34Thanks to its earlier investments,
18:36the small emirate was years ahead of its competitors
18:39and started playing with the Russian and American big boys.
18:42With the United States,
18:46the first country in the Arabian Peninsula
18:47was the first country to the natural gas industry
18:50in the world
18:52and brought it to the international markets
18:54on the political and economic markets,
18:57to Asia,
18:59to Korea,
19:01Japan,
19:03and to Asia,
19:05and to Europe.
19:07The country's economy became the fastest
19:11I mean, the face of Doha changed very drastically.
19:41There was just the Sheraton that was built, the tower that had the form of a pyramid, but there was no tour.
19:48And so, between 2003 and 2008, they had already built, I don't know, nearly 30 tours.
19:55And then, it was an explosion.
19:59It was part of the miracles of the desert.
20:02With unlimited funds now available, Hamad Al Thani brought in companies and labor from across the globe.
20:13He launched his country into a series of pharaoh-like construction sites, like the Pearl.
20:22This complex of buildings was constructed on artificial islands, symbolizing shelves with pearls at their center, luxury hotels.
20:31A specialist with more than 40 years' experience in public works, Christian Dumont has taken part in the development of several of these huge projects.
20:54From the signing of the construction contract to the inauguration, fewer than 10 years passed.
21:00Something unprecedented in underground transport.
21:06French, German, and Japanese companies shared the dizzying contract to build the world's most luxurious subway.
21:13They all have a net motive.
21:15They had to do what is best.
21:18There aren't any equivalent.
21:19They were well here.
21:21They have arrived.
21:22Here's the golden class.
21:27C'est un genre de boulot, oui, avec du cuir sur les appuis-têtes.
21:36Le coût du billet est cinq fois plus élevé ici que dans la zone économique derrière du train.
21:43Il y a trois classes. Il y a la golden class, la family class et puis la classe normale.
21:49C'est un peu à l'image du Qatar ?
21:51C'est encore à l'image du Qatar, oui.
21:57La société de Qatar est très compartmentalisée.
22:04Sur la base, vous avez les Qatariens. C'est une société parallèle. C'est autre chose. C'est une bulle au-dessus.
22:10Vous allez pas aller dans un commerce et trouver un commerçant ou un caissier Qatariens. Ça, ça n'existe pas.
22:15Vous allez être hard-pressed quand vous allez à Doha et rencontrer un Qatari.
22:21Avec l'arrivée des travailleurs étudiants, le pays a maintenant environ 3 millions d'inhabitants.
22:27Mais les Qatariens forment une minorité, en comptant à peu près 10% de la population.
22:34Aurélien Colli a travaillé comme journaliste à Doha dans les années 2000.
22:40En dessous des Qatariens, vous avez les cadres supérieurs.
22:44Les cadres supérieurs, essentiellement, c'est vrai, c'est souvent des Occidentaux.
22:48Ils ont des salaires très conséquents, une qualité de vie très conséquente.
22:53Généralement, il y a un package. Vous avez le salaire, mais vous avez l'école pour les enfants qui est prise en charge.
22:58Vous avez la voiture, vous avez la maison. C'est des conditions vraiment idylliques.
23:03Et puis ensuite, vous avez le bas de l'échelle.
23:05Qatar est une des sociétés plus non-égaliques dans le monde.
23:13Les travailleurs de les pays pauvres portent tous les tâches pauvres.
23:22Comme tous les étudiants, ils ont un permis de résidence que c'est seulement validé si ils travaillent,
23:27et qui peut être expulsé à chaque moment.
23:29In the capital's souk, the vendors wear traditional Bedouin clothes.
23:42In appearance, they might pass for Qataris,
23:46but they come in fact from other Arab-speaking countries,
23:49often at war, like Iraq, Yemen, and Syria.
23:52This Muslim man speaks Arabic
24:09and has a very sought-after job,
24:12that of a falconer.
24:13And yet, he will never be accorded a Qatari nationality.
24:22To live and work in Qatar,
24:40Khalid must have a local sponsor.
24:44It's what is called kafala,
24:47a system of social control
24:49which foreigners cannot criticise in front of a camera.
25:08Yeah, and that's the argument that actually the Qatari government
25:11or Qatari officials will speak openly about it,
25:14is that we are a minority in our country
25:16because they fear of being taken over
25:19by the foreign nationalists in the country.
25:21And the kafala system is a way
25:23to control this workforce.
25:25The kafala system is a system
25:27for finding and retaining expatriate labor.
25:30It is common throughout the Gulf.
25:32It often also has meant
25:33that it's very difficult
25:36for workers to leave the country
25:37without their employer's consent.
25:42In the early 2000s,
25:44whatever the plight of these foreign workers,
25:47the royal family underwent a cultural revolution.
25:53Hamad took as his second wife,
25:55Sheikah Moza,
25:56the daughter of a former political rival.
26:00For the first time in a Gulf-Monarchy,
26:02a woman became a frontline political figure.
26:04Sheikah Moza was visible in terms of traveling
26:21with her husband on state visits.
26:23Not just that she was visible,
26:24but also that she had power.
26:27She did have power through Qatari Foundation,
26:29she had a vision.
26:32The Emir entrusted her
26:34with running Qatar Foundation,
26:36making her the de facto education minister.
26:39With the gas money,
26:40Sheikah Moza opened branches
26:42of the world's top universities in Qatar.
26:44There is a description of one of the opening ceremonies
27:00of a new campus in Doha.
27:02And instead of Sheikah Moza
27:04taking a leading role
27:07by giving the speech,
27:08the opening speech,
27:09it's his wife
27:10who steps up to the podium
27:12and gives the speech.
27:38On their overseas visits,
27:40This emancipation is reflected in the couple's dress.
27:45Sheikha Mouza wears glamorous outfits while respecting Islamic dress codes,
27:50not showing her hair or wearing anything low-cut.
28:03It's still quite a fashionable figure and tended to wear on state visits
28:09some of the best, kind of newest designers.
28:15There are several Instagram pages dedicated to Sheikha Mouza's fashion.
28:24Sheikha Mouza va énormément faciliter, finalement,
28:27l'émancipation et l'ouverture d'une société qatarienne ultra-conservatrice à l'époque.
28:32Some of her daughters have become pretty visible figures in qatar as well.
28:40Among the couple's seven children,
28:42the one who seems to be following most in her mother's footsteps is Princess Mayasa.
28:47Okay, we can start.
28:53Both of our parents, they empowered their daughters like their sons.
29:00Sometimes they pushed us even further and more
29:02because it was very important that every person in society
29:06participated in the economy.
29:08When she completed her studies, Mayasa was appointed head of qatar museums.
29:15In the middle of Doha Bay stands the most emblematic building,
29:19the Museum of Islamic Art, designed by the Chinese-American architect You Ming Pei,
29:25who was responsible for the glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris.
29:29Just next to it, Mayasa oversaw the construction of the new National Museum of Qatar.
29:38This desert rose is the work of French architect Jean Nouvel.
29:44With an estimated budget of a billion dollars a year,
29:47American magazines regularly place the princess among the most influential women in the art world.
29:54With its investment fund, the Qatari monarchy functions like a family business
29:59with a name that sells like a brand.
30:02And the emirate dreams of becoming a tourist destination.
30:07We're not the only hydrocarbon country in the world,
30:10but we decided to invest it in developing our economy.
30:14Cultural tourism is expected to bring over 1.25 billion dollars to Qatar a year.
30:21And it's just the beginning.
30:28At ease with artists and sports stars like David Beckham,
30:32Mayasa embodies this new globalized qatar.
30:38In public in Doha, she combines sneakers, veil and abaya,
30:42the traditional long robe of the Gulf.
30:44But as her Facebook page shows, she abandons this dress code when overseas.
30:54Mayasa, who studied in Paris and New York, sees no contradiction in this.
31:02I think that's a Western perception, because women in Qatar, at least,
31:07I can only speak about Qatar.
31:09Women in Qatar have had leading roles from the very beginning.
31:12I remember when I was studying in Paris in 2004,
31:16I did a year at Sciences Po,
31:18and one of our teachers who was French at that time,
31:21they had introduced the laïcité law,
31:23and she was saying how poor she feels and helpless she feels
31:27that women have to wear the hijab.
31:29And I said to her, that's actually not the case.
31:31There are some women who are forced to wear it,
31:34but the majority choose to wear it.
31:36And that choice is really important.
31:38We like to define ourselves by ourselves
31:40and not to be defined by others.
31:48In the 2000s, the royal family has introduced reforms to Islamic law,
31:53notably to phase out men's guardianship of women.
31:56But within a still strictly religious society,
32:01this wave of liberalism is faced with fierce opposition.
32:05On paper, sexual relations outside marriage and homosexuality
32:09are still punishable with prison sentences.
32:12But in reality, the authorities turn a blind eye,
32:15especially for foreigners.
32:17These paradoxes are laid bare in sports.
32:29Improving a nation's image through sport
32:31is an age-old propaganda technique.
32:34To increase the atmosphere in stadiums, most often empty,
32:37the emirate has encouraged the forming of supporters' clubs.
32:40Hardly any of them are Qatari.
32:55Most are just foreign residents.
33:00And on the field, it's the same.
33:02For its national sports teams to hold their own,
33:05the emirate naturalizes foreign players as teenagers,
33:08often from poor Arab countries.
33:12Today, it's one of the rare ways to earn a Qatari passport.
33:15In the race for recognition through sport,
33:24the Altani clan is far from alone.
33:27Since the late 2010s,
33:29the monarchies of the Gulf have been in an ownership battle
33:32in European soccer.
33:38The United Arab Emirates treated itself to Manchester City.
33:42Saudi Arabia has recently purchased Newcastle,
33:47while Qatar has banked on Paris Saint-Germain.
33:54The Gulf countries' investment into sports
33:56is always seen as somewhat a means of sport washing,
33:59where you're creating an appeal around a brand
34:01that has already existed to kind of distract from criticism
34:05over these countries, creating a more positive brand.
34:09Qatar wants to be a global influence player.
34:12And part of that is obviously branding,
34:14and Paris Saint-Germain and other sport investments
34:17are a way of showing to the world how important Qatar is.
34:26In this war of influence, in 2010,
34:29Qatar stood as a candidate to organize the Soccer World Cup.
34:32Its competitors, the United States, Australia and South Korea,
34:37appeared the big favorites.
34:39But the hydrocarbon monarchy deployed considerable financial means
34:42to convince the members of FIFA.
34:45Until today, no legal action has proved that Qatar bought the World Cup.
34:49But in an internal investigation,
34:51FIFA itself admitted to what it called shady dealings.
34:55Within an hour of Doha citizens,
34:58this is the biggest chance to attend more than one game per day.
35:03That's pretty special.
35:04At the time, it was so important,
35:06it was almost existential for them.
35:08So there was no limit.
35:09It had to absolutely exist, exist everywhere,
35:12put money, and no matter if it's going to win.
35:15On December 2nd, 2010,
35:20the small emirate was chosen amid widespread surprise.
35:25Flanked by their children,
35:26Hamad and Sheikh Hamoza savored victory.
35:32Qatar was now definitively on the world map.
35:40Thank you for giving Qatar a chance.
35:42And we will not let you down.
35:45You will be proud of us.
35:47You will be proud of the Middle East.
35:48And I promise you this.
36:03Consecration was global.
36:06But the moment of grace would not last.
36:08Two weeks later, the Arab Spring began.
36:14Very, very fast,
36:15the winds of revolt sweeping through the Middle East
36:17were used to settle scores between the monarchies of the Gulf.
36:24This has come after a decade of the early 2000s
36:28of Qatar going from victory to victory,
36:30in terms of influence, soft power,
36:32potentially even hard power.
36:33It is achievable with the financial power that Qatar had,
36:36with the networks that Qatar had developed,
36:39and also, you know, a bit of hubris of thinking,
36:42you know, we can, wherever we start,
36:45we will finish and we will do so successfully.
36:49In late December 2010,
36:51Tunisian protesters demanded the resignation of the dictator Ben Ali.
36:55In the weeks that followed, rebellion spread from Tunisia,
37:04to Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen,
37:10and even Qatar's small emirate neighbor, Bahrain.
37:14For a few days, the Qatari monarchy held its breath.
37:25As a caution, the authorities raised the salaries of civil servants.
37:30As the country bans all form of political opposition,
37:33nobody knew what might happen.
37:36So I was here during the Arab Spring,
37:38and I remember every day watching Al Tazeera
37:40to see what would happen next in Tunis and in Cairo,
37:43and the question was really whether there would be protests here.
37:48And I remember there was one Facebook page saying there would be a protest,
37:52because it seemed, you know, like protests were just everywhere in the region
37:55and would erupt everywhere.
37:57And I remember a friend and I went there to where this protest was meant to happen,
38:02and no one was there.
38:10The first reason is the level of redistribution of riches.
38:13We have great riches for 300,000 Qatariens.
38:17300,000 Qatariens who have the third reserve of gas in the world.
38:21So the money is flowing, the Qatariens are what they want.
38:24Reassured at home and convinced it was an enlightened monarchy,
38:32the royal family seized on the occasion to shake up the authoritarian regimes of the Arab world.
38:38Qatar wanted to be a history maker and decided to support the Muslim brothers.
38:42This Islamist movement, conservative but non-violent,
38:48is the best organized party in the Middle East,
38:51and often a winner in the region's elections.
39:00In opposition to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and its allies supported the return of military rule whenever possible.
39:06Egypt soon became the main battlefield.
39:16In 2012, the Muslim brother Mohamed Morsi, backed by Qatar, won Egypt's first free election.
39:26One year later, the Egyptian army, financed by Saudi Arabia,
39:29and the United Arab Emirates retook power with a coup d'etat.
39:36The West, terrified of rising Islamism, merely stood by and watched.
39:43Qatar found itself totally isolated on the world stage.
39:49Seeing how the counter-revolutionaries, in particular the United Arab Emirates,
39:54were able to kind of push back and reverse some of the achievements of the Arab Spring,
39:58and Qatar being unable to do anything against it.
40:01And since then, the Qataris realized in 2013, summer 2013,
40:05that their policy in the Arab Spring was failing or had failed.
40:10Between 2011 and 2013, the Syrian and Libyan revolutions evolved into civil wars.
40:17In the two countries, Qatar lost control of the movements it had armed and financed,
40:21and Islamist groups became increasingly radical as the wars wore on.
40:28The episode fed accusations of financing terrorism,
40:31and this argument would be used for years against the Al Thani family.
40:34Did this international tension contribute to the Emir's diabetes?
40:50Or was his illness a pretext for an honorable way out?
40:53On June 25, 2013, Hamad abdicated in favor of Tamim, his fourth son of the 24 children he'd had with his three wives.
41:06He came to power in an unusual way, and he stepped down in an unusual way.
41:13So I think he had in his mind things that he wanted to achieve,
41:18and once he achieved it, he was happy to transfer to the future, the next generation, which is my brother.
41:24It was a really surprising decision, because this is, in this part of the world, mostly power is passed after the Emir dies.
41:35He wanted Qatar to have somewhat of a fresh start under his son.
41:41Tamim was not first in line to the throne, but he was a graduate of the same military academy as his father,
41:48and had proven his worth with success in Qatar's sporting diplomacy, notably the purchase of Paris Saint-Germain.
41:56With his ideal son-in-law's smile, his fluency in foreign languages, and his very thick checkbook,
42:03he soon won over his western partners.
42:05He was born here when he was 30 years old.
42:12He was the youngest state chief in the Middle East, and probably one of the youngest in the world.
42:20This is the first time, when I express myself in front of people in French.
42:26So, Sheikh Tamim, I think when he came to power, the words that everyone said were that he was a technocrat.
42:48His first speech really focused a lot on domestic issues.
42:52His first task was to make the World Cup a success.
43:16Doha became a vast construction site, fueled by delusions of grandeur.
43:24On the outskirts of the capital, new towns sprang up to host the teams and their fans.
43:33The Emirate has invested $200 billion.
43:37That's 150 times more than for recent World Cups in France and Germany.
43:41Six brand new stadiums have been inaugurated, like this immense Bedouin tent, which can seat 60,000 spectators.
43:53After the awarding of the event to Qatar, the searing summer temperatures became a heated topic of debate.
43:59Images of laborers toiling away in scorching sunlight for hours on end spread across the world.
44:06To obtain reforms, human rights defense groups and even certain soccer players began calling for a boycott of the World Cup.
44:13The Emirates' response to criticism was to organize visits for journalists to model laborers' camps.
44:22So, for my opinion, this is the best camp in ever Qatar.
44:29The location-wise, cleaning, everything, very good maintenance here.
44:33So, I am very happy and very satisfied for this management.
44:36There is a toilet.
44:39Do you pay for housing or...?
44:43No, no, no. Our company. Our company is paying everything.
44:47It means accommodation, fooding, transportation, laundry, everything.
44:54To silence accusations of mistreatment, the Qatari authorities even constructed a wall of gratitude.
45:05This mosaic made up of photos of each employee who contributed to the construction of the stadium where the final will be held.
45:11The final will be held.
45:14So, there are all professions. It goes to the menuisiers, to the maçons, to the engineers, etc., etc.
45:22Of course, when we know the polémiques that surround the construction of the Stades of the World Cup,
45:27this wall of gratitude sounds a bit false.
45:30It's true that it's a bit bizarre.
45:31Because when you arrive at the Stade and you see these faces, the first question you ask is
45:34is the number of people who died on the road.
45:38Since 2010, a war of figures has been ongoing between the Qatari government and the international NGOs.
45:50In the emirate, there are no trade unions or right to strike.
45:57During this decade of large-scale construction, no independent organization has been able to defend the workers' rights
46:04or officially record the number of deaths.
46:08The only figures available are those from the Qatari authorities, from their statistics agency and the World Cup organizing committee.
46:20Qatar do publish the data, and according to their data, there are over 15,000 migrant workers who died in Qatar in the past 10 years.
46:27But they died from all range of causes. The data available does not give you the real reason.
46:39Fatma Al-Nuaymi is the Qatari government spokesperson for everything concerning the World Cup.
46:44It's like here or is showing,
46:47it's not only workers. I mean like this number is actually include all of different professions.
46:57You might find, like, kids, or, like, let's say, doctors, teachers, and so when you see,
47:05I mean, like, this number over the period of 10 years, so it has been taken out of context.
47:20Fatma and her team only count the deaths on the stadium work sites overseen by the organizing
47:25committee. At the peak of construction, this only represented one to two percent of all workers employed.
47:37For us, when it comes to fatality that we have in our project,
47:44unfortunately, we had three deaths in our project.
47:48That is work-related. And we have 36, sorry, 36 or 37.
47:58But this is for the non-work, non-work...
48:01What is non-work-related?
48:02Non-work-related means people, like, actually, maybe they were at their homes or they're
48:10outside, or it's outside they're working. It wasn't, they were not working on the project.
48:14If you look at these deaths, half of them are young men who died from either cardiac arrest,
48:21or natural deaths, or respiratory failure, which are not cause of death. There must be an underlying
48:27cause of death.
48:30Sunstroke, dehydration, exhaustion. Many men in their prime even died of heart failure in their sleep.
48:37The exact number will never be known. Perhaps 37 for the stadiums. Without doubt,
48:49thousands when you count every work site in Qatar.
48:56To discover the living conditions of the laborers, we must head to the outskirts of the capital at nightfall.
49:01It is in these buildings on the edge of the desert that most of the foreign workers live.
49:13They're not employed by the World Cup organizing committee,
49:16but by private highway, hotel, and shopping mall construction companies.
49:22And all of them have stories to tell of co-workers who have fallen on the work site.
49:26This Nepalese worker has agreed to testify with his face revealed,
49:33as long as we don't give his name or that of his employer.
49:37His story illustrates the fate of hundreds of thousands of nameless forced laborers.
49:41to be aathon of shivers who have fallen on the land,
49:57which is the case.
49:58I mean, if someone works out, they don't get water.
50:02So that's the problem.
50:03If someone comes to school, they don't work.
50:06If someone doesn't work with it, they don't work.
50:10That's why the people die.
50:15In Nepal, it's not a problem.
50:18If it's not a problem, it's not a problem.
50:21If it's not a problem, it's not a problem.
50:24There's a kitchen here.
50:29There's a kitchen here.
50:38This is chicken.
50:41It's chicken.
50:42We keep the vegetables.
50:43It's empty.
50:47We eat the vegetables.
50:49In this apartment without air conditioning, 40 men cram in
51:08then cram in and share the rent.
51:39The exploitation of these men earns good money for Qatari companies,
51:43but also for foreign middlemen, often from the same countries as the workers.
51:51So the argument sometimes used is that these are the employers,
51:54so these are not the Qatari government, these are not our problem.
51:58But I think the issue is that the government allow this culture of impunity to take place.
52:04Under pressure from the international community, Qatar announced reforms.
52:10The introduction of a minimum wage of $250,
52:14and the opening of an ILO, International Labour Organization.
52:19And in 2020, the authorities abolished kafala, compulsory sponsorship for foreign workers.
52:25But in reality, these laws have come late and are rarely applied.
52:29The problem is that we're finding is that the reality is not matching these promises.
52:35The progress hasn't been as promising as the laws itself,
52:40and their implementation was weak and fragmented.
52:44But also, I mean, like if you look at the rest of the world,
52:47there is no country that have a perfect labour system.
52:50So if you see Qatar and what we have developed,
52:52or what we have actually progressed across the ten years, it is a lot.
52:57No country is perfect, there's a lot of work to be done yet.
53:00But I think progress takes time, and it takes time for somebody to experience it.
53:08In the end, none of the qualified teams have announced their intention to boycott the World Cup,
53:14which is already a form of success for the Qatari monarchy.
53:18The Emirates' gas reserves are estimated to last for another hundred years.
53:23For the Altani dynasty, it's a guarantee of remaining at the centre of world diplomacy for a long time to come.
53:30.
53:37.
53:43.
53:45.
53:49.
53:51Transcription by CastingWords
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