Soccer great Cristiano Ronaldo is on target again for Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr. The Saudi government has invested billions of its oil revenues in recent years in sport, including tennis, golf, boxing and, above all, football. Credit: Shutterstock

By Paul Virgo
ROME, Feb 5 2024 – Argentina forward Lautaro Martinez scores as Inter Milan beat Napoli in the Saudi capital Riyadh to win the Italian Super Cup for the third consecutive time.

Soccer great Cristiano Ronaldo is on target again for Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr.

England’s Tyrrell Hatton becomes the latest golf star to sign up for the rebel Saudi-backed LIV circuit.

The World Snooker Tour announces a first TV event in Saudi Arabia in March, featuring seven-time world champion Ronnie O’Sullivan and current world title-holder Luca Brecel and a rule change that will make it possible for players to notch a maximum score of 167, instead of the traditional 147.

Human Rights Watch says the policy is primarily designed to “sportswash” Saudi Arabia’s reputation, hosting major sporting events that attract widespread, positive media attention to divert it away from the hosts’ abuses

If you have seen a news headline about Saudi Arabia recently, there is a good chance that the story is related to sport.

The Saudi government has invested billions of its oil revenues in recent years in sport, including tennis, golf, boxing and, above all, football.

Taken at face value, it is a way for the kingdom to splash its vast wealth on laying on lavish entertainment and boost its GDP in the process.

Critics, however, see something more sinister at play.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says the policy is primarily designed to “sportswash” Saudi Arabia’s reputation, hosting major sporting events that attract widespread, positive media attention to divert it away from the hosts’ abuses.

It says that, by becoming the country where Ronaldo and Neymar ply their trade, and hosting events like Real Madrid versus Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup, it becomes easier to forget Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist brutally murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, and his colleagues jailed, censored or harassed in Saudi Arabia, to not think about women’s and LGBT rights in the kingdom; and ignore the mass killings of migrants along the Saudi border with Yemen.

“Sports unite fans across the political spectrum, and – with due exceptions, such as when national teams of ‘rival’ countries compete against each other – are generally non-political territory,” Claudio Francavilla, HRW Associate Director, EU Advocacy, told IPS.

“They are seen as part of the entertainment industry, and attract media, sponsors, tourists and potential investments.

“When an abusive government hosts a major sporting event for sportswashing purposes, its goal is that media, sponsors and the general public focus on the game, often preceded and followed by flashy opening/closing ceremonies, appreciate the organization and hospitality provided by the host, and promote the hosting government as an open, advanced, great-to-visit-and-make-business-with country – everything but its human rights abuses, to be hidden from the public sphere and debate.

“In other words: look at the ball, look at the fireworks, forget the abuses”.

In May, Saudi human rights activists, and intellectuals released “A People’s Vision for Reform in Saudi Arabia”, a document calling for the release of all political prisoners, the respect of the rights to freedom of expression and of association, the upholding of the rights of women, migrants, and religious minorities, the abolition of torture and the death penalty, reform of the justice system, and a redistribution of the country’s wealth.

HRW says that, instead of complying with their human rights obligations and starting a dialogue with these civil society actors, the Saudi authorities have continued to repress dissent and invest in campaigns and events that whitewash or sportswash their reputation.

Indeed, having already secured the rights to host EXPO 2030 and the 2034 Asian Games, the Saudi government may soon secure the rights to host the 2034 men’s football World Cup and – gallingly, considering the country’s treatment of women – it is bidding for the 2035 women’s World Cup too.

Saudi Arabia is not the only country to indulge in sportwashing.

“The most prominent recent cases include Russia’s 2018 World Cup and China’s 2022 Winter Olympics,” said Francavilla.

“The UAE buying Manchester City FC has been characterized as sportswashing, as well as Bahrain’s Formula 1 Grand Prix and the Saudi acquisition of English Premier League club Newcastle United FC”.

Sportswashing does not always have the desired effect mind.

Before the recent Spanish Super Cup in Riyadh, Barcelona warned their fans of potential “severe penalties” regarding same-sex relations and “open displays of support for LGBTI causes, even on social media”, thus drawing attention to the issue.

The 2022 soccer World Cup in Qatar highlighted serious abuses against migrant workers there.

It could be argued that Saudi Arabia is only using sport in the same way that competitions like NBA basketball and Premier League soccer have long been part of the soft power of the United States and Britain, neither of which have unblemished human-rights records.

That said, while Human Rights Watch doesn’t rank countries in its annual report on abuses worldwide, other organizations, such as RSF with its press freedom index, do and States like China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and India, rank considerably below the UK and the USA.

“The deliberate use of sports events by governments with abysmal human rights records as a tool to sportswash their reputations, instead of enacting human rights reforms that would do the same job, much more effectively and impactfully, and likely at a much lower economic cost, is particularly despicable,” said Francavilla.

He calls on sports federations, especially world soccer’s governing body FIFA, to take the lead on curtailing this phenomenon, whoever is guilty of it.

“In June 2017, FIFA adopted and published its Human Rights Policy stating that human rights commitments are binding on all FIFA bodies and officials,” he said.

“Human Rights Watch has long called on FIFA to apply clear, objective human rights criteria to all states for hosting both the men’s and women’s World Cup and other tournaments, and for any major commercial sponsorships, including labour protections, press freedom, non-discrimination and inclusion.

“Given past corruption and serious human rights abuses, including discrimination against LGBT people and the unexplained deaths of thousands of migrant workers who built the infrastructure for the 2022 World Cup, Human Rights Watch has requested FIFA to apply a series of measures for the 2030 and 2034 World Cup bids.

“Those measures would apply to any bidder, be it the US, UK, China or Saudi Arabia”.

 

Passengers board a public bus in Havana. In recent years, some 40 hybrid buses (alternating diesel and electricity), a technology that saves 25 to 30 percent of fuel and generates less pollution, have been added to public transport in the Cuban capital. CREDIT: Jorge Luis Baños / IPS

By Luis Brizuela
HAVANA, Feb 5 2024 – Jorge Sarmientos said he made a good investment when he bought an electric motorcycle to get around and avoid the anxiety suffered by the users of Cuba’s deficient public transportation system or the high prices of private alternatives.

“It was expensive, but I gained independence,” Sarmientos, a Havana-based accountant, told IPS. “Transportation has never been good here. When there is no shortage of buses, there are shortages of spare parts or fuel. Prices should be lowered or there should be facilities for more people to acquire electric vehicles.””Transportation has never been good here. When there is no shortage of buses, there are shortages of spare parts or fuel. Prices should be lowered or there should be facilities for more people to acquire electric vehicles.” — Jorge Sarmientos

Official data indicate that half a million electric motorcycles are on the roads in this Caribbean island nation of 11 million inhabitants, a form of transportation that helps people and families get around.

Over the last decade, the use of electric vehicles has increased in Cuba, based on customs authorizations for their importation.

More recently, the domestic industry has begun to assemble different models, including electric bicycles and three-wheelers, using parts imported largely from China.

But the fact that they are mainly sold in foreign currency is a hurdle to expanding sales.

The cheapest models in state-owned stores exceed 1,000 dollars, while others go for as much as 6,000 dollars.

In Cuba, the average monthly salary is equivalent to about 35 dollars according to the official exchange rate, or about 16 dollars in the informal market.

According to reports, almost 40 hybrid buses (alternating diesel and electricity) have been added to Havana’s deteriorated fleet of public buses in recent years, a technology that saves 25 to 30 percent of fuel and is less polluting.

But the severe internal economic crisis and the shortage of foreign currency are hindering actions to increase the number of 100 percent electric vehicles in order to gradually decarbonize public transportation.

Some companies and institutions have acquired electric cars, which bring reductions in maintenance costs.

 

Local solutions

In the case of Havana, from 2019 to 2023 the Neomovilidad project was implemented, which among its objectives aimed to strengthen the regulatory framework for an efficient transition to a low-emission urban transportation system.

In addition to prioritizing variables such as a gender approach and the inclusion of different age groups, the project provided a pilot public bicycle rental station, run by a local development project led by young people.

It also created three routes of three-wheeled electric ecotaxis driven mainly by women in outlying neighborhoods of Boyeros, one of the 15 municipalities that make up Havana.

The three-wheelers are light, motorized vehicles with a capacity for six passengers in the back, similar to the autorickshaws or tuktuks that are common in Asia. Here they are also called motocarros or mototaxis.

“I think they are a great option for getting around quickly over short distances, and at affordable prices,” retiree Gloria Almaguer, a resident of the Fontanar neighborhood in Boyeros, told IPS. “The bad thing is that there are not enough to cover demand, they can carry only a few people, and there are certain times of day when they ‘vanish’.”

The Neomovilidad project was executed by Havana’s General Directorate of Transportation, implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) office in Cuba and financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Other fleets of ecotaxis provide service in the capital’s municipalities of Old Havana, Central Havana, Guanabacoa, Playa and Plaza de la Revolución, also with UNDP support. These are all initiatives that contribute to the national commitment to mitigate climate change.

With routes ranging from two to four kilometers and low prices, a little more than a hundred of these vehicles help provide a solution for sustainable micro-mobility in urban areas.

In other Cuban cities, similar three wheelers with internal combustion engines are in service.

One challenge is that the vast majority of ecotaxis and electric vehicles depend on the national electric grid to recharge their batteries. The ecotaxis recharge during the night at their terminals in the parking lots of public entities, and privately owned vehicles do so at their owners’ homes.

This is because so far there is no infrastructure that would allow electric vehicles to be recharged in a network of service stations.

Around 95 percent of Cuba’s electricity generation relies on fossil fuels.

The government considers it a matter of national security to transform the energy mix, and aims for more than 30 percent of electricity to come from clean energies by 2030, a goal that will be difficult to achieve due to the need for a high level of investment.

 

New fuel prices

A majority of the Cuban population depends on the public transportation system, based mainly on buses and other fossil fuel-consuming vehicles.

In Havana, home to 2.1 million inhabitants, “less than 300 buses are working, a city that in the 1980s had 2,500 buses and only four years ago had 600,” said Transport Minister Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila during a television appearance in October 2023.

The greatest impact falls on those with the lowest purchasing power, since buses are the most affordable means of transportation.

The panorama is similar in Cuba’s other 14 provinces. Alternative transport in urban, suburban and rural settlements includes modified trucks, traditional horse-drawn carriages and bicycle cabs which carry one or two passengers and are pedaled by the driver.

In Havana, estimates place the total number of passengers who use private transport at around 25 percent, generally in old U.S.-made cars, the so-called “almendrones” – private cabs with fixed routes – which run on gasoline or diesel and are not affordable for everyone.

Together with the deterioration of the vehicle fleet, the chronic shortage of spare parts, lubricants and other supplies, and the migration of drivers to sectors with greater economic benefits, the fuel shortage has been one of the main causes of the irregular public transportation service, which has been accentuated in the last five years.

“You can spend an hour waiting, or more. A lot of times I’m late for class, even though I get up very early. I can’t afford a private car every day. It’s increasingly difficult to get anywhere,” stressed architecture student Yenia Hernández in an interview with IPS, as she waited at a bus stop with dozens of other people in the Central Havana municipality.

 

 

Energy crises have become more recurrent since 2019, in parallel with the decline of the domestic economic situation and the lack of foreign currency.

According to the authorities, this situation has multiple causes, from breach of contract by suppliers to U.S. government sanctions that hinder access to credit and services from international banks.

In 2021 Cuba imported 126,000 tons of gasoline, in 2022 some 192,000 tons, and in 2023 around 203,000 tons. Despite the increase, the figure remains below the demand of about 360,000 tons, Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy said in a televised statement on Jan. 8.

On the other hand, this island nation needs 1.8 billion dollars to cover its annual diesel needs.

“In 2023, 609,000 tons of diesel could be imported, for about 600 million dollars (one third),” added the Energy and Mines Minister.

As of Feb. 1, an increase in the price of gasoline and diesel was planned, in order to bring the selling price in Cuban pesos in line with the official rate of the dollar, regulate sales and sell a portion only through dollar-backed cards, in order to guarantee resupply with the foreign currency, according to the government.

But the measure was postponed until further notice due to a “cybersecurity incident” caused by “a virus from abroad” that affected the system of fuel sales, which is being investigated, official information said.

The strategy to eliminate subsidies projects, as of Mar. 1, an increase in interprovincial transportation fares, with hikes of almost three times the cost of bus fares and six to seven times the cost of train tickets.

While the fares for part of the public transport service will remain unchanged, in the case of Havana, the fare for electric three wheelers will rise from four to 10 pesos (0.03 to 0.08 dollars).

The increases in fuel prices and transportation fares are in addition to the package of provisions that includes tax and tariff modifications as of Jan. 1 and which, according to government officials, are aimed at “rectifying distortions” in the economy and boosting its recovery.

“The only thing I see is that some transportation will be more expensive, but there won’t necessarily be more vehicles, or more modern vehicles with better service,” Reynaldo Martín, an electrical engineer living in Old Havana, told IPS. “Wages remain the same and that means I can’t even dream of buying a bicycle.”