concerns based mostly on superstition

ALEX GONZALES Staff Writer

Episcopal High School 4650 Bissonnet, Bellaire, TX 77450

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The rise of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has affected a skeptical public in the past decades, specifically its use in foods. Apprehension when considering buying foods with GMOs is prevalent and stems from a psychological bias toward leaving foods in their essence.

Artificial modification of foods between species leads many to believe characteristics of what the food is mixing with will make it taste like the latter, an false preconception; since DNA stays DNA whatever its source, mixing tomato and fish DNA does not make the tomato taste like fish.

One hypothesis to the internal human aversion to GMOs is the supposition of psychological essentialism. According to psychologist Susan Gelman, we conjure a picture of concepts through notions of what the essence of that object is. In other words, as a child, when we develop ideas of what a “lion” is, for example, the lack of a preschooler’s knowledge of scientific concepts leads the child to form clouded ideas about the essence of a “lion.” As a result, humans often carry amorphous judgments about specific concepts that themselves empty and don’t analyze the parts of an object but rather the entity standalone.

Psychological essentialism segues into GMOs because people are biased against the DNA mixing of two species because they believe their broad assessments of these species’ essence carry over. One might consider that mixing the DNA of a scorpion’s DNA and corn might taste like a scorpion, but as highlighted, this doesn’t follow, and instead, this example has its application in making cereal crispier.

Surrounding the GMO discussion is a largely scientifically illiterate population relying on their gut senses of what seems natural to them, but even though this imbues much of the debate, legitimate concerns about the consequences of growing GMOs play a role in the equation.

One concern about GMOs is the excessive use of glyphosate (Roundup). Roundup is liberally sprayed onto fields of crops that are resistant to weed killer, which can create toxic runoff due to overspraying. In addition to the Roundup problem is the monopolization of Roundup-resistant seeds, which creates an unhealthy agricultural market dynamic and disproportionately hurts average farmers, encouraging monopolistic behavior.

These negative aspects of GMOs have less to do with the GMOs themselves and more with the extensions of their use. GMOs are essential in aiding hunger and lack of food and yielding more crops to nutritionally deficient areas.

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Qatar’s kafala labor system exploits workers

JALYNN WOOLLEY Production Editor

On December 2, 2010, the Congress of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) came together to make one of the most important decisions of the decade: the location of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Twelve years later, it can be inferred that this decision is one that should have been made by taking into consideration each nation’s capacity for this international tournament and its previous human rights allegations.

On that day in early December, officials from around the world gathered to finalize the location of the 2022 FIFA World Cup as nations including the United States, South Korea, Japan, Australia, and Qatar were listed on the ballot. Soon after, it was announced that Qatar would be the first Arab nation to host the World Cup, and while this was an amazing feat at the time, as new information has come to light about the Qatari labor system officials are beginning to regret this irreversible choice. At the time of the decision, the nation of Qatar had been labeled as a “high risk” location as it lacked the infrastructure to house such a tournament and the nation’s intense heat would make it difficult for the cup to be held in the summer as it previously has been.

Due to these pressing challenges, both the FIFA Congress and the governing body of Qatar have had to adapt accordingly. It was decided that the 2022 World Cup would be held in the winter months to avoid Qatar’s summer heat and Qatar’s government began to re-construct the country in preparation for the tournament. It is estimated that the Qatari government invested $220 billion in order to build the airports, hotels, and stadiums necessary to host the cup, and mainly relied on foreign labor to complete the construction.

For many years now, Qatar’s economy has become entirely dependent on foreign labor due to their kafala labor system in which the laborer is dependent on their employer for their entry into the country, their residence in the country, their employment, and their eventual exit of the country. According to Vox, 90% of Qatar’s workforce are migrant workers enrolled in the kafala labor system. Under the system workers face abuse, wage theft, uncompensated injuries and deaths, and extremely poor working conditions.

In 2021, Guardian revealed that 6,750 migrant workers in Qatar had died since Qatar’s position as the host country was announced in 2010. Qatar quickly combatted this information claiming that only 37 of those deaths were due to World Cup related projects, and that many of the work- ers died from old age or of natural causes. Although, the International Labor Organization (ILO) claims that this statistic is a vast underestimation as the Qatari government did not include any deaths induced by respiratory failure or heart attacks.

Many of the 32 teams participating in the tournament have decided to speak out against this clear violation of human rights against FIFA’s wishes for the teams to ignore politics and “focus on the football.”

The Danes have gone as far as to wear an all-black uniform to protest Qatar’s human rights record.

In response to the allegations against them, the Qatari government pledged to protect harsh labor in high temperatures, limit working hours, and improve conditions in worker’s camps. Despite being given 12 years to right their wrongs, the Qatari have done nothing more than make false promises for the future and have done nothing to stop the horrible injustice that occurs within the very walls of their nation every day.

The controversy behind Qatar’s position as the host country of the 2022 FIFA World Cup is the perfect example of how far a nation will go to insert itself into an international competition in search of wealth and recognition and how quick the world is to turn a blind eye to the injustice behind the nation’s borders.