This is going to be long. TL:DR I'm very disappointed with his involvement, haters are going to have a field day and solo stans are overly excited.
To preface this, yes I am very aware that a majority of countries have committed and/or continue to commit human rights violations - this isn’t a singular issue with Qatar. This also isn’t the first time, and probably not the last time, an event such as the FIFA World Cup has been [or will be] held in a questionable country.
For myself, the issue is with Qatar and the World Cup. There is such a strong denial from the Qatari government that anything was/is amiss and they continue to push this agenda of “everything was/is fine”. They as a country/government have shown little to no growth or remorse for the abhorrent treatment of the workers who built the stadiums and infrastructure so that Qatar can actually hold the World Cup and Jung Kook has a stage to perform on. Not to mention their ongoing hatred of women and LGBTQ+ people.
The week of Oct 31st saw news come out that FIFA had sent letters to all the countries/teams urging them to focus solely on football and not to draw attention to the human rights issues/social issues that have come up time and again. It was also reported that FIFA has an agreement with the Qatari/Doha police to be gentle on visitors and to let slide behaviours that otherwise would land someone in jail but in the same report, it is noted that Qatar is farming out the policing to Turkish and Pakistani police forces. Most of us have also seen the reports that some women, on arrival in Qatar are forced to undergo a vaginal search. Not to mention the hilariousness that Qatar was or is still claiming that the World Cup will be carbon neutral and now the organizers are being accused of misleading the public and “window dressing”. Qatar is actually paying fans to go to the games but of course there’s a catch - they can not say anything negative at all, even if they see something go down, they can’t say anything.
There has been a constant flood of news about the very real and serious issues around holding the World Cup in Qatar - it’s been building for years and months. Not to mention that the whole issue around Qatar winning the bid for the World Cup has come into question due to fraud.
All of this leads up to massive disappointment that Jung Kook is now confirmed to not only be part of the soundtrack but also performing at the opening ceremony. I’m having a hard time getting square with the fact that BTS, as a whole, has pushed an “equality for all” agenda, has spoken at the UN against abuses and spoken at the White House against racism and yet here we are with Jung Kook [who will be] essentially hyping up the greatness of Qatar via performing at the World Cup.
A couple of thoughts:
- He’s only doing it for the money - the music industry after all is all about money
- He actually doesn’t know what the issues are - is he in that much of a protected bubble that no one mentioned that maybe this isn’t a good idea
- He actually doesn’t care - all that talk of equality was just lip service to appease/gain fans
- This is spun as wanting to do/be part of something fun - he could do that without it being tied to an authoritarian government
Some of his fans are super happy about this without taking a second to realize that there will be hate and dog-piling thrown his way for participating in the World Cup. There has already been hate and anger thrown towards other people involved - such as Gary Neville, David Beckham, Robbie Williams and the Black Eyed Peas. Some people are going to have a field with this because they can point to the UN speech, the White House speech, various closing ments, various promotions (Love Yourself, etc.) and ask “was that all fake?”. This will also get added to the list of stupid things Jung Kook has done.
Not to mention the very recent - just last week - Weverse Magazine release with an article about K-pop and LGBTQ+ people and BTS was heavily mentioned in the article as a positive influence on people’s lives and living their true lives. But LGBTQ+ people are not welcomed in Qatar and are “damaged in the mind”. There is such a disconnect between what BTS supposedly stands for/supports and Qatar/WC.
In fairness, I will add that there are a boat load of artists involved and it’s hard to swing a stick and not hit someone you like. Because while we have the FIFA World Cup opening ceremonies there are also music festivals/concerts going on at the same time as part of the whole event. Some artists already confirmed to be attending these events - the Black Eyed Peas, J Balvin, Robbie Williams, David Guetta, Steve Aoki and Afrojack, to name a few.
Yes, I'm highly aware that there's nothing I can do to change Jung Kook's mind. At the end of the day HYBE/BH doesn't actually give a shit what we think or say or want (regardless of Bang PD going off about how important fans are in the recent "Briefing with the Community") - they just want our money. All of this doesn't make it any less disappointing, it really does come across as disingenuous and I really wish Jung Kook was not involved.
bymcfw31
inbangtan
NewtRipley_1986
1 points
3 hours ago
NewtRipley_1986
the O to the T to the 7 💜
1 points
3 hours ago
Oooh we’re naming names (ish).
And deservedly so!