THE GULF STATE’S ‘GAYDAR’
Unedited version of column for Scottish Sun on Sunday 13th October
The Director of Public Health in Kuwait- Yousouf Mindkar announced that his country may begin stricter medical screenings to “detect” homosexuals trying to enter Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC).
The GCC includes Dubai, UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and of course Qatar which will be hosting the Word Cup in 2022.
Routine tests are already conducted to assess the health of those wishing to enter the GCC but under these proposals anyone identified through a ‘clinical test’ as gay would be refused entry.
Being ‘Gay’ is a crime in all the GCC countries punishable by death in Saudi Arabia and sentences of up to ten years in Kuwait if you are under 21.
But considering that Saudi is so obsessed with policing everyone’s sexuality, it was remarkably lenient when a ‘celebrity’ preacher found guilty of raping, torturing, burning and murdering his 5 year old daughter was sentenced to only 8 years in prison.
Meanwhile four Saudi men who danced naked on the roof of a car and posted the video online were sentenced to 2000 lashes and 10 years in prison.
I’m still not sure how the ‘GayDar’ will actually detect Homosexuality, or whether they would propose to test footballers and supporters arriving for the World Cup in Qatar?
One ‘insane’ proposal is the use of an ‘anal probe’ used in Lebanon to investigate the sexual behaviour of alleged criminals.
But where will it happen? As you get off the plane? The arrival lounge? When you apply for your Visa in the UK? Will ‘spot checks’ be based on the way you walk, talk, dress or the size of your moustache?
No wonder Gay Rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has described it as ‘medieval quackery’.
When FIFA awarded the World Cup 2022 to Qatar they promised that ‘everyone would be welcome and there would be no discrimination.’
Used to issuing grandiose statements on the elimination of discrimination, racism and bigotry from football, FIFA appeared somewhat muted declaring they were ‘not aware about the specific matter’ of the proposed ‘Gaydar’ laws.
There should be no surprise over a spineless and rotten FIFA which this week refused to action this week over ‘modern day’ slaves being used to build Qatar’s World Cup 2022.
Hundreds of thousands of labourers shipped in from the ‘Third World’ living in squalid conditions, passports confiscated unable to leave, no trade union rights will be expected to work in desert temperatures of 111 Fahrenheit (44 c) without sufficient drinking water.
The International Trade Unions Confederation estimates that over the next 8 years, 4000 of these ‘slaves’ will die on building sites.
Their blood will be erased from the marble palaces and futuristic stadiums by the time the world’s greatest celebration of football begins.
The UK equivalent would have been 4 workers had dying every day for five years it took to build London’s Olympic Stadium.
I suppose with so much money to be made why rock the boat over ‘slaves’ and ‘gays’?
After all even Obama leader of the ‘Free World’ praised for outlawing discrimination against gays in the military, with 16,000 US troops stationed in the Persian Gulf to keep its regimes ‘free’ and oil flowing, hasn’t actually said a single word in protest.
Can you imagine the uproar if Qatar banned blacks or women from entering the Gulf. The irony is that back in 1991 Kuwait was the country we fought the first Gulf War over.
Liberating Kuwait from Iraq, George Bush Snr. boasting of a ‘New World Order’ stated:-
“The principles of justice and fair play protect the weak against the strong …The Gulf War put this new world to its first test, and my fellow Americans, we passed that test. For the sake of our principles, for the sake of the Kuwaiti people, we stood our ground. Because the world would not look the other way, to-night, Kuwait is free.”
Oh aye George it’s great to see how that freedom is being upheld today.
UKIP- GENTLEMEN?
Strathclyde University Students Association as part of ‘Black History Month’ organised a panel debate on whether ‘Scotland is a Racist Nation’.
I for one don’t think it is, I love this country but that doesn’t mean there is room for complacency.
We are fortunate that our Politicians have not pandered to the politics of racism unlike their English counter-parts.
The fun part was when a UKIP member opened the debate by playing a violin for his party claiming it was misunderstood.
I touched a raw nerve when I said his party was a revolving door for Nazis, the far right and Fruit Cakes.
He then wanted to lecture me on what he calls ‘racialism’, all from a party where some members have claimed women ‘don’t clean behind fridges enough’, ‘posted links to white supremacist websites’, or are repeatedly exposed as ex-BNP/NF.
Nice country gentleman types who like to pose with a pint of beer and talk of ‘fair play’ but scratch the surface …….
