The arrival of the World Cup brings with it a welcome respite from the war in the Ukraine, spiralling energy prices and the steep rise in the cost of living. But I for one will be glad to have a break from the petty politics that have dominated Uk headlines for over a year. Whether Matt Hancock should be sacked from his role has a MP because of his appearance on; “I’m a celebrity get me out of here” is not a debate worth having by a nation in crisis. His constituents would probably not have noticed had he not had the whip removed .
Question of the Prime Ministers judgement have been raised over the re-appointment of Suella Braverman. The opposition and media spokesperson pointing out that she was forced to resign from the same role two weeks earlier by then Prime Minister Liz Truss, for sending confidential information from her personal e-mail account. Rishi Sunak refused to rise to the bait claiming it didn’t happen on his watch. Crisis averted, Rwanda deportation policy still intact, for now at least.
The instances where a news presenter or member of the opposition have demanded an apology from the Prime Minister for the appointment of a minister, who is then purported to have committed some form of impropriety, or bizarrely, the number of times a minister has been asked to apologise for the failing economy or rises in interest rates are numerous and show no sign of abating.
There seems to be some kind of delusional consensus that we, on our little island nation, can actually insulate our battered currency from the inflationary effects caused, in part, by the billions of dollars printed by the U S federal reserve every week. Compounded by the misguided belief that voting ourselves out of the largest trading partnership in the world will have no damaging effects on our economy. Or incredulously, that the sanctions we imposed on Russia will take effect before we suffer the humiliation of power outages and bills that we cannot pay.
This kind of thinking is at best fanciful and may prove, more likely than not, to be detrimental to our economy as it in no way reflects the reality of our situation and does not prepare us for the inevitable outcome.
We do not endear ourselves to other cultures by taking the moral high ground and lecturing them on human rights especially as our own record has often been called into question. Such double standards does in fact the complete opposite, fostering anger, resentment and ridicule.
Having the World Cup in Qatar may not be ideal but it is an opportunity to bring the prosperous west to an equally prosperous Arab State. Stadiums and infrastructure they have in abundance making it unlikely that Qatar needs the millions that FIFA would normally invest in the World Cup. But the coming together and acceptance of different cultures and beliefs through something as simplistic as sport paves the way for greater understanding and cooperation in future endeavour’s.
Football has become a matter of national pride. Billions of people from every corner of the globe will be watching and cheering on their national teams. Will England win? Probably not but as they say to children on sports day who don’t finish in the first three, “it’s not the winning, it’s the taking part that counts.” Tolerances may be tested, disputes may be testy, but ultimately alliances are formed, trust is built, mutual respect is shared between organisers, managers, players and fans alike.
Freedom of speech, democratic rule, habeas-corpus or the illusion of it, are all wonderful tenets that we should aspire to. But they are not a stick with which to beat culturally diverse nations over the head with. I find myself uncomfortably agreeing to some extent with Gianni Infantino. “The hypocrisy of western countries is staggering.” Those who insist a World Cup should never be hosted by a country with a human rights record like Qatar, should perhaps think of the human rights abuses suffered by; Chris Kaba, Christopher Alder, Cherry Groce, Joy Gardener & Jean Charles De Mendies. No one has ever been held to account for the majority of these human rights abuses and it’s unlikely that anyone ever will.
A Black Perspective 