Reporter: Qatar is an 1)absolute monarchy. The AlThani family are the rulers and there’s no parliament. Qatar is the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas and on a 2)per capita basis, Qataris are immensely rich because there are so few of them, just 260,000. They’re a small minority in a population of just over two million. Here’s a 3)contradiction they’ve created in their race to modernity. They’ve shown no interest in political reform, but they’ve shown a huge interest in educating their young. For now, Qatar has solved an apparent contradiction with money.
Dr. Sheikha Aisha Bin Faleh Bin Nasser Al-Thani is a member of the ruling family. Sheikha Aisha sits on the Supreme Education Council and she owns a few independent schools. For her own children, she wanted a top-flight college education.
Sheikha Aisha: I have two daughters. They’re the youngest and then, my sons, they got educated in Britain. But when it came to my daughters, I was worried. Where will I send them? I can’t send them to England. I can’t send them to the States. And one of them was—she wanted to go to the States.
Reporter: In the end, Sheikha Aisha’s daughter went to Northwestern, but not in Evanston, Illinois. She went to Northwestern’s branch in Education City, EC for short, right in Doha. Rather than have to choose between a U.S. education and keeping their kids at home, the Qataris opted to have it both ways. EC is home to degree-granting departments from Northwestern, Texas AM, Carnegie Mellon, Virginia Commonwealth, Cornell Medical School and the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.
Mehran Kamrava: We’re in the Georgetown building which was 4)inaugurated in 2010, one of the biggest buildings in all of Education City.
Reporter: Professor Mehran Kamrava, an American, teaches political science at Georgetown-Doha. It is a splendidly equipped, 5)coeducational institution. Seven of Professor Kamrava’s Georgetown students sat down to talk with me. I asked them about foreign migrant workers who are building infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup and the criticism Qatar has received about them.
6)Allegations of unsafe working conditions, misleading contracts and a system of 7)sponsorship by which migrants are bound to their employers, they typically hand over their passports to the boss and can’t leave the job or the country without permission. In the face of this criticism, the government and the World Cup committee said they’re shocked and they’ll fix things. Well, the Georgetown students were 8)skeptical. We’ll hear first from Noor, a freshman who is Qatari.
Noor: There should be a great feeling of responsibility, and I think often the government is investigating the problem, right? But the government knows exactly why the problem—I mean the government is...
Reporter: When they read the story in The Guardian a few weeks ago and said we’re shocked, we’re going to do something about this, you don’t believe them? You don’t think they...
Noor: No, I don’t. I don’t think it’s possible to not have known about the problem. I really don’t think it’s possible. And I think that a lot of the problems arise from government policy and giving all the power to, you know, one person who is, I don’t know, your brother or your brother’s friend or whatever and letting him have all the power and then him doing whatever he can to maximize his profit and...
Reporter: The two Qatari students were 9)outspoken about the conditions migrants face in their country and the government’s response. You heard Noor. Here’s her fellow Qatari, 19-year-old Mohammed.
Mohammed: When we’re talking about the migration issue, there was some basis—I’m, I do not agree with the sponsorship program. I must make this clear. I do believe that it is restricting them with, from basic rights; they should have the right—any right that I have that he is deprived from is some kind of class 10)differentiation, which should not exist.
Reporter: A right, for example, to return home and then come back?
Mohammed: To return home, for example. This is, this is the main concern. This is, if the worker does not feel that he is content with the place that he is working, then he should have the right to leave.
記者:卡塔爾是一個君主專制的國家,由阿勒薩尼家族統(tǒng)治,并未設(shè)有國會??ㄋ栆彩侨澜缱畲蟮囊夯烊粴廨敵鰢娜司嵌葋碚f,卡塔爾人非常富有,因為他們的人數(shù)實在太少了——全國只有26萬本地人,在僅僅超過兩百萬的總?cè)丝谥兄徽剂艘恍〔糠?。該國在向現(xiàn)代化邁進(jìn)的過程中產(chǎn)生了一個矛盾:他們對政治改革毫無興趣,卻對年輕人的教育非常重視。就目前而言,卡塔爾用錢解決了這個鮮明的矛盾。
作為王室成員之一,謝哈·艾莎·本·法萊·本·納賽爾·阿勒薩尼博士是高等教育委員會的一員,其名下?lián)碛泻脦姿搅W(xué)校。她希望自己的孩子能接受第一流的高等教育。
謝哈·艾莎:我有兩個女兒,她倆是最小的孩子。我的幾個兒子當(dāng)年是在英國接受教育的,不過輪到女兒的時候,我特別擔(dān)心。我該將她們送去哪里好呢?不能送去英國,美國也不好。而姐妹倆其中的一個——她很想去美國念書。
記者:結(jié)果,謝哈·艾莎的女兒進(jìn)了(美國)西北大學(xué),但不是在伊利諾伊州的埃文斯頓,而是在教育城(簡稱EC)里的西北大學(xué)分校,該教育城就設(shè)在多哈。是讓孩子出去接受美式教育,還是將他們留在國內(nèi)上大學(xué)——卡塔爾人并無需二者擇一,他們要的是兩全其美。教育城內(nèi)設(shè)有西北大學(xué)、德克薩斯AM大學(xué)、卡內(nèi)基梅隆大學(xué)、弗吉尼亞聯(lián)邦大學(xué)、康奈爾大學(xué)醫(yī)學(xué)院,以及喬治城大學(xué)外交學(xué)院等分機(jī)構(gòu),它們都是可授予學(xué)位的院系。
邁赫蘭·卡姆拉瓦:我們所在的喬治城大樓在2010年正式落成,這是教育城里最宏偉的建筑物之一。
記者:邁赫蘭·卡姆拉瓦教授是一名美國人,他在喬治城大學(xué)多哈分校教政治學(xué)。這所學(xué)院設(shè)備豪華,實行男女同校??防呓淌诘钠呙麊讨纬谴髮W(xué)的學(xué)生坐下來和我聊天。眼下,眾多外籍勞工正在卡塔爾為2022年世界杯修建基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施,而卡塔爾在外籍勞工問題上正飽受批評,我就此詢問學(xué)生們的看法。
針對外籍勞工,各種指責(zé)包括不安全的工作環(huán)境,帶有誤導(dǎo)性的合同,以及讓外籍勞工受控于雇主的保證人制度。保證人制度通常要求工人將護(hù)照交給老板保管,未經(jīng)允許不得離職,也不能離開卡塔爾。面對這一指責(zé),當(dāng)?shù)卣约笆澜绫M委會表示震驚,承諾會作出改善。喬治城大學(xué)的學(xué)生們則對此表示懷疑。大一的努爾是卡塔爾人,我們先來聽聽她怎么看。
努爾:他們應(yīng)該深感其責(zé),政府經(jīng)常說問題仍在調(diào)查當(dāng)中,對吧?但政府其實很清楚為什么這個問題……我的意思是,政府在……
記者:英國《衛(wèi)報》幾周前刊登了這個報道,政府看到消息后感到震驚,并表示將會采取行動。你不相信這個說法嗎?你認(rèn)為他們不會……
努爾:是的,我不相信。我認(rèn)為他們不可能對這個問題一無所知。我覺得這根本不可能。我認(rèn)為許多問題的根源在于政府的政策措施,還源自于政府將所有權(quán)力歸于一個人,而他……我也不好說,就是你的兄弟或者兄弟的朋友之類,讓他大權(quán)在握,可以為所欲為,盡可能地謀取私利……
記者:這兩名卡塔爾學(xué)生對外籍勞工在這個國家所面臨的處境以及政府的回應(yīng)直言不諱。你剛聽到的是努爾的看法。以下是她19歲的卡塔爾同胞穆罕默德的看法。
穆罕默德:談到外勞問題時,很基本的一條就是——我并不認(rèn)同保證人措施,我要首先聲明這一點(diǎn)。我認(rèn)為這個做法限制了工人們最基本的權(quán)利,他們理應(yīng)擁有這個權(quán)利——他們理應(yīng)擁有和我一樣的權(quán)利,剝奪這個權(quán)利就是階級分化的表現(xiàn),這是不應(yīng)該存在的現(xiàn)象。
記者:比如說,回國再回來(工作)的權(quán)利?穆罕默德:比如說回國的權(quán)利,這是主要問題。如果工人對他所工作的地方并不滿意,他應(yīng)該擁有離職的權(quán)利。
翻譯:思葦
2010年12月2日,國際足聯(lián)主席布拉特在蘇黎世宣布,卡塔爾獲得2022年世界杯舉辦權(quán)。這屆被稱為史上最奢華的世界杯,預(yù)算高達(dá)2200億美元。2013年9月,英國《衛(wèi)報》經(jīng)過調(diào)查揭露,在卡塔爾世界杯基礎(chǔ)工程的建設(shè)過程中,已有近600名勞工死亡,大量來自尼泊爾的勞工死于事故、心臟病和心力衰竭,遭受著難以忍受的侮辱、謾罵與剝削,有相當(dāng)多的人甚至拿不到酬勞,其生存狀況之惡劣讓外媒稱他們?yōu)椤笆澜绫`”。
作為外來勞工使用率最高的國家,卡塔爾90%的工作崗位由外籍勞工擔(dān)任,而在修建世界杯需要的球場、道路、港口的過程中,可能會使用超過150萬的勞工。