Pride Assuaged
The magical elixir of victory. Nothing like it, to bring people together in an excited excess of celebration. Excitement that elicits pride in one's collective excellence in producing prime athletes reflecting the entire country's love of a particular sport.
Excitement sufficient to temporarily expunge the grief and the misery visited upon that country by internecine warfare, and viciously jihadist interlopers determined to wreak further disruption in a country gone beyond its ability to endure tragedy.
The intensity of games played by athletes representing their countries of origin can restore pride that has been washed away in a sea of unrelenting bloodshed. The elite athletes and sport professionals express to these beleaguered people an outlet for their emotions.
Such sport events between competing countries, after all, can confer great status and repute on a country. If any country needed that kind of uplift at this particular time, surely it is Iraq. Sport events like this can be likened to proxy wars.
Iraq has been spectacularly unsuccessful in joining its sects in a common purpose to rescue the country from collapse in the face of Islamic jihadists whose sole purpose in infiltrating the country is to further destabilize it beyond the redemption of a country intent on saving itself.
Yet here, a sport team whose members comprise those very solitudes at war with one another; its Kurdish and Christian minorities, its Sunni and Shia Muslims have demonstrated the ability to leave differences behind and to muster their collective skills and strengths to achieve victory.
Isn't that the kind of inspiration the country needs? It's only a game, after all, not to be confused with rescuing the country from the oblivion of total disintegration. But if a team of dedicated athletes can achieve an agreement to work together for a common purpose, it's possible their example could infuse the population as a whole with the realization that such a thing is possible on behalf of the country's existence and future.
"Now we are facing all this terror and violence - Iraq is bleeding", according to a policeman in the southern city of Hilla. The police and army recruits have been particularly singled out for violence and mass suicide bombings by Islamists. But then both Sunni and Shia militias have excelled in night-time raiding-and-hunting expeditions through the hushed and frightened streets of Baghdad and elsewhere, visiting death on one another.
This is reflective of a kind of Arab culture of tribalism, of a historical disruption in belief in the hierarchy of descent and authority of the Last Messenger, the Prophet Mohammad. This is human nature at its rawest, most primitive, most unforgiving, most dementedly righteous. This is a reflection of a culture and a tradition and a society that sees nothing amiss in the ownership and public use of firearms and the exercise of short fuses.
While patriotic music played over radio and television, and neighbourhoods celebrated, families planning feasts and children painting their faces with the nation's and the team's colours, other young celebrants fired off their firearms in their excess of joy. Accidentally and most unfortunately killing at least two people, and injuring more than 40, according to police.
Yet: "The win is a bandage, healing those wounds. It's a lesson to politicians that Iraqis can be one. We were all supporting our team, none of us was saying this player is a Sunni, a Shiite or Kurd." according to one Iraqi. "People are chanting and shouting" said another. "I heard them yelling, 'No, no to terrorism!"
Excitement sufficient to temporarily expunge the grief and the misery visited upon that country by internecine warfare, and viciously jihadist interlopers determined to wreak further disruption in a country gone beyond its ability to endure tragedy.
The intensity of games played by athletes representing their countries of origin can restore pride that has been washed away in a sea of unrelenting bloodshed. The elite athletes and sport professionals express to these beleaguered people an outlet for their emotions.
Such sport events between competing countries, after all, can confer great status and repute on a country. If any country needed that kind of uplift at this particular time, surely it is Iraq. Sport events like this can be likened to proxy wars.
Iraq has been spectacularly unsuccessful in joining its sects in a common purpose to rescue the country from collapse in the face of Islamic jihadists whose sole purpose in infiltrating the country is to further destabilize it beyond the redemption of a country intent on saving itself.
Yet here, a sport team whose members comprise those very solitudes at war with one another; its Kurdish and Christian minorities, its Sunni and Shia Muslims have demonstrated the ability to leave differences behind and to muster their collective skills and strengths to achieve victory.
Isn't that the kind of inspiration the country needs? It's only a game, after all, not to be confused with rescuing the country from the oblivion of total disintegration. But if a team of dedicated athletes can achieve an agreement to work together for a common purpose, it's possible their example could infuse the population as a whole with the realization that such a thing is possible on behalf of the country's existence and future.
"Now we are facing all this terror and violence - Iraq is bleeding", according to a policeman in the southern city of Hilla. The police and army recruits have been particularly singled out for violence and mass suicide bombings by Islamists. But then both Sunni and Shia militias have excelled in night-time raiding-and-hunting expeditions through the hushed and frightened streets of Baghdad and elsewhere, visiting death on one another.
This is reflective of a kind of Arab culture of tribalism, of a historical disruption in belief in the hierarchy of descent and authority of the Last Messenger, the Prophet Mohammad. This is human nature at its rawest, most primitive, most unforgiving, most dementedly righteous. This is a reflection of a culture and a tradition and a society that sees nothing amiss in the ownership and public use of firearms and the exercise of short fuses.
While patriotic music played over radio and television, and neighbourhoods celebrated, families planning feasts and children painting their faces with the nation's and the team's colours, other young celebrants fired off their firearms in their excess of joy. Accidentally and most unfortunately killing at least two people, and injuring more than 40, according to police.
Yet: "The win is a bandage, healing those wounds. It's a lesson to politicians that Iraqis can be one. We were all supporting our team, none of us was saying this player is a Sunni, a Shiite or Kurd." according to one Iraqi. "People are chanting and shouting" said another. "I heard them yelling, 'No, no to terrorism!"
Labels: Middle East, Realities
posted by Pieface | 6:38 PM
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