• About

From letters to words…

~ every word tells a story.

From letters to words…

Tag Archives: football

United Thrash Arsenal 8-2!

28 Sunday Aug 2011

Posted by ramshaali286 in Amidst the Words

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

8-2, Arsen, Arsene Wenger, Barclays Premier League, champions, City, Ferguson, football, manch, manchester city, premier league, Sir Ale, United, Wenger

A sequel to my previous post on the match between Manchester United and Arsenal. 

Brilliant. Brutal. Annihilation. Outstanding. No words would do justice to United’s 8-2 drubbing of Arsenal at Old Trafford.

Here’s the catch: This post is just to gloat =p

At 3-0, I thought the job was done. Game over. 3 points to United. Even at 3-1, my thoughts didn’t change much.

And then they started scoring for fun. And scored. And scored some more, finishing the game with 8 goals scored and 2 conceded. Many of us had predicted a Manchester United victory, but none of us could have fathomed the simply marvelous way in which it was executed, and definitely would not have expected 8 goals to have been scored.

Since Arsene Wenger talks about how his team can ‘mathematically’ still win the League (even though, realistically, they stand no chance of winning the League), here’s a simple mathematical result for him. Mathematically, United beat Arsenal four times over in a single match. Realistically, United annihilated Arsenal and proved to everyone why they are the reigning Premier League champions. More than half a dozen reasons why United are the champions.

Three games into the League, and United’s youngsters are playing like pros. Arsenal’s youngsters, meanwhile, are still in transition, as Mr. Wenger likes to often remind us.

Many comments surfaced before the start of this season about how Manchester City will be the team to watch this season, and how they will threaten Manchester United’s hold on the League crown. True, given City’s flying start, they indeed are the team to watch this season. But, given United’s game and the fact that they are the defending champions, they are still the team to catch. And if there was still some doubt regarding any team threatening United’s dominance, the destruction of Arsenal probably sent out a clear message about who’s the Premier League boss. Rest in peace, Gunners.

What a magnificent YOUNG (pun intended) bunch Sir Alex Ferguson has gathered. Respect.

City sent out a clear message when they beat Tottenham Hotspur 5-1. If City can score 5, United can score 8. Whatever City can do, United can do better.

Also, since after such a match reports will carry phrases of how United simply raped Arsenal in this match, here’s a quote for laughs:

Arsenal: United, why you bang me like a prostitute? (courtesy: A Manchester United fan page on Facebook)

Arsene Wenger should seriously stop relying on both his lifetime contract and his young team. But then, some people never learn.

For all those United fans who hate Arsenal with a passion, here‘s the match report to keep rubbing in their faces for years to come. Not that we need a report, since the scoreline is enough.

– Cheers!

Advertisements

What Arsenal Could Learn From Manchester United

26 Friday Aug 2011

Posted by ramshaali286 in Amidst the Words

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Anderson, Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, Ashley Young, Cleverley, De Gea, energy, enthusiasm, Fabregas, Ferguson, football, Man Utd, manchester united, Nasri, Phil Jones, Red Devils, Rooney, Sir Alex Ferguson, team, Tottenham, Welbeck, Wenger, writing, young, youth

Welbeck celebrates his goal against Tottenham

Disclaimer: A biased fan’s views. No brownie points for discovering where the biasness lies. Also, no apologies for stepping on the nerves of Arsenal fans.

On the back of two wins for Manchester United and a draw and loss for Arsenal in their first two league games of the season, the buildup to the match between the two teams (scheduled for Sunday, the 28th of August) appears to be quite one-sided. Arsenal has yet to register a win in the Barclay’s Premier League, whereas Manchester United will be going into the game having scored 5 goals in their previous two games.

The reigning champions have started the season without some of their veteran players; Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and Edwin Van Der Sar have all hung up their boots after last season. With some big names no longer at his disposal, Sir Alex Ferguson has deployed the likes Phil Jones, David De Gea and Tom Cleverley to fill up this chasm. The new Manchester United crop coming up this season is a young side; in fact, the team that Sir Alex put out against Tottenham was the second youngest side he has ever fielded in the Premier League.

Ah, ‘young’ seems to be the running joke of the Premier League.

This does not point towards Ashley Young.

“We are a young team, still in transition”. We may not be fortune tellers, but most football fans can predict this to be one of the first few sentences that Arsene Wenger will say if his team loses (as expected?). What Arsenal could learn from Manchester United, perhaps, is how a young team plays.

What we saw by United against Tottenham was nothing short of brilliant; alacrity, pace and beauty were all present, as well as brilliant passing and defending. It was a young united side, inspired by the likes of Cleverley, Anderson and of course, Young himself. With Welbeck, Anderson and Rooney getting the goals, the talk would still be about how well the young players gelled together.

So either Sir Alex Ferguson possesses some superhuman powers to skip the transition phase for his young team and make them brilliant in a single go, or – and more realistic – is the fact that Arsene Wenger perhaps has only one excuse for his team’s performance, or lack thereof.

If the excuse about the young team gets redundant in any way (which it has, but Mr. Wenger has to reiterate the fact that his team is still young), we can always expect a couple of other remarks. Referees will always be blamed for poor decisions, and the fans will be criticized for turning against their team (good choice, by the way). When that, too, gets boring, perhaps Arsene Wenger will then blame the sale of Fabregas and Nasri.

Perhaps Arsene Wenger needs to spend less time thinking up excuses and more time thinking up tactics. Let us, for a change, believe that Arsenal does have a young team in transition. Youngsters possess the pace and energy much needed for a football game; but then, Arsenal’s youngsters are still in the tedious process of getting acquainted with each other, the key to a happy Arsenal family.

It usually takes teams around four to five games to master the kind of coordination that United’s kids displayed in a single match. It usually takes Arsenal countless years to prepare its kids for a winning match.

This weekend, United fans will be rooting for a Red Devils victory. If, somehow, Arsenal does come out the winner in the weekend clash, we will never hear the end of it. Then again, Arsenal’s ‘young team’ may be intimidated in the remaining league fixtures by the sheer age of their opponents’ playing 11, and hence the ball will be in United’s court again (metaphorically speaking, of course).

Fans will look forward to a CLEVERLEY played game by United once again, whereas Mr. Wenger will probably be finding new excuses for the conspiracy against his Arsenal side that keeps them trophy-less, making them age backwards and more inexperienced. Perhaps that is why Arsene Wenger always claims to have a lack of age in his ARSENAL.

It is too early to predict how the season goes. But, at the end of the season, here is a ‘spot the difference’ puzzle for the fans.

“We have a young side, but full of energy and enthusiasm”.

“We are a young team, still in transition”.

See, it has gotten redundant already. But when will Arsenal learn?

How life is like a football game.

15 Friday Apr 2011

Posted by ramshaali286 in Amidst the Words

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

aggressive, assignments, best, determinationm, exams, football, formation, game, game in hand, life, man on, match, opposing, perform, play, player, quizzes, random, tackle, team, teammate, teamwork, university, vigor, writing

Ever wondered what the similarities between life and a football game is? Or if there can even be any similarities? Let us explore.

The formation: A football game deals with proper formation of the team, and not abiding by that formation can result in a lost match. The key here is proper organization in advance. In life as well, organization plays a key role. Proper and effective planning beforehand brings about positive results.

The tackle: During a football match, the tackle can result in a player losing possession of the ball to a member of the opposing team. The tackle is the obstacle that catches the player unaware, and quite often as soon as he thinks he can chance a breather. Nothing is certain in life either. Just when we think we’ve made it, an unknown obstacle may appear. Relaxation is premature until the task is complete (the passing of the 90 minutes, in terms of football). Ominous.

The ‘man on’: A phrase often heard on the football field is that of ‘man on’. This is called out by a player to a teammate in possession of the ball, who is about to be tackled by a player of the opposing team. The man on is somewhat similar to the tackle, in the sense that there will always be someone wanting to creep up unawares on you to take away your prize. Need I elaborate on how this applies to life?

The aggressiveness: The best football teams are those that play the most aggressively. They use every aggressive tactic in the book to make victory theirs. To ensure that we stay ahead of the competition, the rules of life are the same. Determination and vigor are what persist in the winners.

The game in hand: The game in hand, in football, means that a certain team has played one game less with respect to all others, enabling them to have a ‘game in hand’. This leaves them with a chance of catching up to the others or moving ahead of the pack. Its application in life applies mostly to university students, who may be unable to perform well on quizzes and assignments in a course but have exam ‘in hand’ to make up for their mediocre performance before.

The teamwork: The most important bit of football is teamwork. Football is a team game, and while individual moments of brilliance are not unheard of, what can guarantee victory is a dearth of selfishness on the players’ part and marvelous displays of teamwork. When going through life, teamwork is equally important. A person should have the ability to work with a team, both because it is essential to be able to work with others and because teamwork usually lays the ground for a person to outshine others, in a positive sense of course.

Football – indeed having many applications in our everyday life.

How to talk football (BPL) ‘intelligently’

20 Sunday Mar 2011

Posted by ramshaali286 in Amidst the Words

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

7-1, A-list, aahs, amount, Anfield, Arsenal, ball, barclays, Beckham, bicycle kick, blonde, blondes, BPL, cap, Champions League, cheap, Chelsea, choices, club, copy, crossed, date, ecstatic, eight, Emirates, Europa League, Europe, Fabregas, fanatics, fiction, fingers, fool, football, football jersey, foul, game, Gerrard, Giggs, hair, handsome, help, Highbury, how, intelligent, intelligently, jersey, jock, kits, Lampard, league, Liverpool, manchester united, match, money, Mourinho, net, Nike, offside, Old Trafford, oohs, passes, piggy bank, play, players, premier, premier league, random, ref, referee, respect, Roma, Rooney, save, savings, scout, scream, seasons, shirt, shoot, short passes, sleeves, spend, stadiums, stalk, Stamford Bridge, support, Theatre of Dreams, watch, whistle, woman

Break your piggy bank and pool all your savings. You’re going to need the money later on. Keep checking your watch and dropping casual statements about the “match at eight” that you don’t want to miss. Answer queries regarding the details of the match with a shrug and a vague remark such as “Oh, just football”. When needed to be more explicit, say “Barclay’s Premier League. Anything that’s on is good”. Just the fact that you know the entire name of the league would work in your favour.

Act like a confident all-knowing woman, even if you don’t feel that way. Convince yourself that the people around you don’t know any better, that they will be impressed simply by your use of club names and player names. This bunch of blondes will hold you in high esteem if you take David Beckham’s name, and make a few statements about how he made his mark on the League. Just a few sentences in English – nothing technical, no expertise required. If you spot the handsome jock who not only plays football but also watches it devoutly, raise your voice a little and upgrade your vague statements from talking about who the players are to how these players play. Since you aren’t too aware about the game, drop in random statements such as “Wayne Rooney’s excellent bicycle kick”, “Mourinho being excellent at Chelsea but unable to win a Champion’s League”, “Arsenal’s beautiful short passes” and “Liverpool’s sale of Torres”. These four statements alone ought to make him look at you not as the other blondes you associate with, but as someone he could engage in a football conversation with. Walk away before you run the risk of making a fool of yourself.

Scout him to find out what club he supports. Stalk him if necessary, but know when to retreat. Put the money you took out of piggy bank to good use. Use it to get yourself a shirt of the club he supports. Your choices will be easy: Giggs, Lampard, Fabregas and Gerrard. Do not go to a Nike outlet and get bilked out of all your money. Get a cheap copy and then talk about how you don’t want to spend that entire amount on an original shirt because the kits usually change every season, or every few seasons. Make sure you look good in the jersey you buy. Since club football jerseys aren’t usually made for women, get a small size and roll up your sleeves. Wear it with a pair of skinny jeans for the added ambience, and top it off with a club cap if possible, your bangs obviously flowing out from under the cap and your hair untied. The cap is to be worn tilted; it is a must.

Talk about the stadiums. Mention “Old Trafford” often and just as often replace it with “Theatre of Dreams”. You are not with the crème de la crème if you use Theatre of Dreams as part of your vocabulary, but you are going to get a free pass into a little bit of their insights. Drop in comments on how “Emirates is much better than Highbury” and how “Stamford Bridge is no longer the unbeatable fortress it was”. If you want to carry on, make a snide remark that “Anfield sucks”. That alone ought to win you a lot of popularity from fans of three clubs. You’re not too concerned regarding which clubs those are.

If you hear words such as ‘Europe’ or ‘Champions League’ in a football conversation, exclaim passionately about how “Manchester United’s 7-1 win over Roma” filled you with inner contentment. Laugh at how “Liverpool is playing the Europa League” and “Chelsea haven’t won the Champions League at all”.

When sitting with a group of football fanatics who are engrossed in the match being telecast live, your best strategy is to scream along with everyone else, even if it’s just ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’. If the ball doesn’t hit the net but is instead blocked by the person standing in front of the net, just shout out “good save” and let others take over. When the whistle blows, just say “Oh come on ref, that wasn’t really a foul” – but take special care to not say this when the time running on the screen has stopped. Scream words such as “shoot” and “offside” when everyone else does; you need not bother with what they mean. When everyone around you claps or shouts ecstatically, put your fingers in your mouth and let out a whistle.

Convince yourself you’ve done enough to be inscribed in the A-list of football fanatics. Even if not the list of everyone, he will be eyeing you a bit – shocking, yes – respectfully now. Throw a sly smile or two towards him every once in a while. Wearing your football jersey when doing that is a plus point. He will notice, he will approach.

You’re the hot one who’s smart enough to know football. Agree to a date to watch a match with him. During the match, keep your fingers crossed at all times.

Halfway?

06 Sunday Mar 2011

Posted by ramshaali286 in Amidst the Words

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

cats, cigarettes, coffee, deviation, exams, foosball, football, freshies, freshmen, hostelite, khoka, lums, mean, nocturnal, pdc, pepsi, rec, refrigerators, rickshaw, survive, tea

The midterm exams of my fourth semester at LUMS are just around the corner, marking the termination of almost three quarters of my sophomore year and fast approaching the halfway mark in my quest for an undergrad degree.

I’ve seen people get nostalgic over how quickly time passed and reminiscing about the ‘good old days’, but the single thought running through my head is related to wanting this semester to end as soon as possible. But then again, I’ll attribute it to the fact that exams are quite close by and the only reason I’m blogging at 11:30 on a Sunday morning is to give myself a break after yet another all-nighter.

So, what have I learned in these (almost) four semesters here?

– The adages of LUMS being a party school are all fake; the real story lies within the campus walls. But then, that was sort of a given even before I came here.

– Tea is the staple diet, especially during the exams.

– The foosball table in the rec room is the scene for a lot of budding friendships. And also inevitable enmities.

– Top Pops are the drug of choice for an all-nighter, coupled with tea/coffee/Pepsi.

– LUMS never sleeps. Most profound during ‘dead’ week before exams. The only thing dead during dead week is sleep.

– Student events is the forum for whining over petty issues or venting or just needing an excuse to start a senseless debate. Makes for a pretty good read if you’re bored. PDAs, laundry, PDC prices, parking stickers, concerts – you get all sorts of variety. Kudos to everyone for contributing and flooding our campus mail inbox though.

– Befriending people having their personal refrigerators in their dorm rooms will get you a long way as far as ‘ghar ka khana‘ is concerned.

– The library is much revered only twice a semester.

– Freshies will always be, well, freshies. And you will always hate them because of this freshie-ness. And no, you will not call them freshmen.

– Carrying a pack of cigarettes is the surest way of getting into people’s good books.

– If you are a hostelite, you will make sure you befriend a Lahori having a car. It will help if the Lahori is cute.

– SS courses are exactly the breather one needs.

– Befriending the guards at the gates and the rickshaw drivers outside helps in the long run.

– Mean and standard deviation take on a new meaning. Truly, never before had stats been given so much importance.

– Girls graduating a year early are more often than not those who are getting married. What a distinction.

– You will give new meaning to the term ‘nocturnal’.

– Khoka will be the best thing to have happened to LUMS.

– Watching a football match in rec can be the best experience of your life. The same holds true when you’re watching said match in Lab 2 – in fact, anywhere with a bunch of equally crazed fans.

– You will curse like a sailour.

– PDC will make your appreciate mummy’s cooking like you’ve never appreciated it before.

– You will develop either deep love or intense hatred for cats. Either way, the emotion will be extreme.

– You will miss your 8 am classes – sometimes; quite a bit of times.

– You will applaud yourself for surviving – yes, surviving.

The point of this post? Musings of a person trying to get a Shah Rukh Khan song and a Contemporary Short Stories reading out of her head to be able to sleep. The above did not make sense I’m sure. But oh well, will get back to it some other time. For now, back to either studying or sleeping. Time flies. As is evident by the fact that it still feels like yesterday that we were arriving on campus for O-Week.

Good luck for the mids!

“Sports do not build character. They reveal it” — Heywood Hale Broun, sportscaster

18 Tuesday Jan 2011

Posted by ramshaali286 in Amidst the Words

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

benfica, byu, character, chicago bulls, cristiano ronaldo, drug abuse, elizabeth lambert, fifa, football, manchester united, materazzi, nba, new mexico, roger federer, ron artest, serena williams, sports, venus williams, zidane

(Informative essay – LUMS)

The Spirit Of The Game And The Spirit Within

Many people believe that sports build character. If this was true, every sportsman would be tough, strong and a winner in every respect. This, however, is not the case. The world of sports today still sees the toughest break down and the underdogs win. This is because a person’s character has already been developed; sports only help bring it out. Sports do not help develop an athlete’s character, but rather, help bring out the innate characteristics of a person.

One way sports help reveal a person’s character is by how a certain sportsman will react to a loss. A sullen loser shows how he is incapable of handling defeat and any setbacks both on and off the field. On the other hand, a sportsman who accepts defeat gracefully proves the magnanimity of his character through his game, thus showing his capability to react to any failures in life. An example of a morose player who was unable to accept loss was seen in a football game between the clubs Manchester United and Benfica FC. A victory by Benfica knocked Manchester United out of the competition, resulting in then Manchester United player Cristiano Ronaldo to make an obscene hand gesture to the winning team’s fans. Consequently, this led to fans worldwide casting aspersions on Ronaldo’s character, the true side of which was revealed due to one game which was lost.

Another way sports reveal a person’s character is by way of victory. Victory can reveal whether a person can be humble and thankful achieving what they want to, or whether they will be vain and arrogant about it. Current world number one in tennis, Roger Federer, has broken and created numerous records on his way to stardom. Yet, he always acknowledges his opponent, is thankful for his victories and accordingly portrays the perfect example of humility.

In addition to wins and losses, a game itself is a true test of how a person will conduct themselves in a pressurized situation. It is a trial for one’s nerves, and how a sportsman conducts himself when under pressure in a game can reveal how they will react to real life stressful situations. A lot of matches lead to altercations amongst opposing team members in the ‘heat’ of the moment, since the will from both sides is equally big. However, the one who acts like the bigger person and steps away from the arguments, letting their game do the talking, shows the dignity of their character. In a women’s college soccer game between New Mexico and BYU, New Mexico player Elizabeth Lambert pulled a BYU player by her ponytail to the ground. She was suspended for the game, and later suspended by the University of New Mexico. Even though Lambert stated that her acts can in no way be representative of her character in general, a common notion that develops is that she lacked the self-control required for a high profile game (Barnes). Not just Lambert, but a number of pro athletes lose their cool in high profile games, leading to brawls on the field, and thus giving an insight of what the person is like off the field too.

Sports are a test of patience and of overcoming challenges, and hence show a person’s tolerance levels. A five day test cricket match can provide a proper judgment of a cricketer’s character, as it helps reveal his endurance and perseverance. The famous Williams sisters in tennis, Serena and Venus Williams, have proven to the world how sports can reveal a person’s character. Born in a poverty stricken family, their road to fame has been an enthusiastic father to coach the two to become leading tennis stars today. Accordingly, how they overcame numerous hurdles to reach the pinnacle of success today highlights the toughness of their character and their will to succeed (Bresnahan and Turner).

While sports may help reveal the positives of a person’s character, they also let slip the negative aspects. Drug abuse in sports has been a long standing issue, and athletes who resort to the use of drugs to help enhance their performance show the extent to which they can go for a win. NBA basketball player Ron Artest, during his time as a player of the Chicago Bulls, confessed to alcohol abuse at halftime of games because his team used to lose so often (Clark). This example proves that sports reveal character, because a player may be willing to resort to all means to avoid losing, however erroneous they may be.

The 2006 FIFA World Cup football final saw French player Zinedine Zidane headbutt opposing Italian player Marco Materazzi on the grounds that Materazzi had insulted his mother and sister. This incident shows how even the greatest sportsmen of all time can lose their cool if provoked, and further supports the claim that sports reveal character.

It has always been said that participating in sports is one of the most effective ways of developing our character. To learn — in the spirit of healthy competition — the art of teamwork, of co-operation, of accepting defeat gracefully and displaying humility within victory, is what was taken to be the meaning of sports. Nevertheless, sports are not about this, but rather about bringing forth a person’s character. The spirit is already present within a sportsman, the game helps display it.

***************

Works Cited

Barnes, Simon. “Mystery of a champion in the making”. Times Online. Times

Newspapers Ltd., 2010Web. 22 Feb. 2010.

<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/simon_barnes/article7010460

.ece>

Bresnahan, Mike and Turner, Broderick. “More controversy for Ron Artest.” Los

Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 03 Dec. 2009. Web. 22 Feb. 2010.

<http://articles.latimes.com/2009/dec/03/sports/la-sp-lakers3-2009dec03&gt;

Clark. Play Like A Champion Today. Play Like A Champion Today Educational

Series, 2009. Web. 22 Feb. 2009. <http://www.playlikeachampion.org/blog/2009/11/elizabeth-

lamberts-apology-does-sport.html>

 

 

Wikileaks, cartoon pictures on facebook, FIFA World Cup, Obama’s tax cuts, blasphemy laws and Hajj scam in Pakistan

20 Monday Dec 2010

Posted by ramshaali286 in Amidst the Words

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

aasia bibi, assange, awareness, blasphemy laws, child abuse, commentary, education, england, equality, extremism, facebook, fifa, football, hajj scam, minorities, obama, pakistan, qatar, rationality, russia, taxes, usa, wikileaks, world cup

Wikileaks, facebook cartoon pictures, football world cup, Obama’s tax cuts, Aasia Bibi case, Hajj scam. Just some things I’ve been wanting to blog about for quite some time.

Wikileaks. The ‘hot’ story these days. Now whether the motives of leaking whatever was (and still is) being leaked was to make people aware of what was going on, or to disrupt world peace (yeah right, because there is any) or, for lack of a better word, to screw over the U.S. diplomats, since the majority of the leaks revolve around them, the fact still remains that what Julian Assange was arrested for is just a cover up to get back at him for releasing things that showed the diplomats in a bad light. Fat lot of good that did, because despite the arrest, the website is still functional and will probably continue to be considering how efforts to shut it down have failed. So ultimately, when attempts at extradition of Assange and shutting the site down failed, Assange was arrested on accusations of sexual assault. To spell it out properly, he was arrested for having sexual relations with a woman without a condom. This obscure law might hold true, but there is no denying the fact that the lawsuit seems like a last ditch effort to get him behind bars and shut him up when everything else seemed to fail. It just goes to show you the rationality of governance in the world, because the timing of this arrest isn’t just coincidental. There is also running speculation that the woman accusing Assnage of sexually assaulting her is in fact an undercover CIA agent. It truly makes one wonder whether traits such as honesty and rationality exist in world politics anymore, or is it just a game now of putting behind bars anyone the big guns see as a threat to their image or as someone who’s trying to disrupt world peace.

World peace, in itself, is quite utopian concept. If, courtesy Wikileaks only, we know that Middle Eastern countries are asking the U.S. to invade Iran, then we are far from achieving world peace. In fact, it is only a delusion that we have, and that’d be quite a minority too considering people know they are far from achieving world peace.

I’m not too good on the subject of Wikileaks; maybe I’ll have something better to say when I’ve read more on this.

Not too long ago, facebook saw a plethora of pictures of cartoon characters replacing the profile pictures of people. This was done supposedly to raise awareness regarding child abuse and child molestation and the likes. The aim was to replace all human faces on facebook with cartoons. Now someone who’s messed up enough to go about molesting children will do it whether you put up a cartoon picture or not. Granted facebook is great for raising awareness considering the overwhelming number of people who use it, but is this seriously the right way of going about it? This isn’t even like an online protest. In fact, a lot of people who were putting up the pictures were just doing so because everyone else was – the bandwagon approach. This just goes to show you how much ‘awareness’ was raised. A pedophile won’t stop because the entire population of a social networking site has put up cartoon pictures. I may be sounding like a misanthrope but seriously, where has common sense gone? There was speculation surrounding these pictures which said that this was actually a ploy by Disney to get so many pictures of cartoon characters up on facebook that it would be able to sue the latter. Frankly, this would have been a better reason than that of raising child awareness via those means.

This emergence of cartoon pictures out of the blue brings out new avenues of thoughts regarding what facebook is regarded as. Facebook, it seems, is the ultimate judge of everything no? We won’t tell people we hate them, in fact, we will carry on a proper conversation with them, but we will make sure we take them off our friend list on facebook to send a message. Because our lives clearly revolve around keeping tabs on people we hate through facebook. What stalkers all of us are. Geez. This one word sums it all up.

FIFA World Cup 2014, Brazil, ought to be something to look forward to. Especially since the tournament is being played at a place with a rich football heritage and generally good conditions for both the players and the travelling fans. The 2018 and 2022 tournaments will be played in Russia and Qatar respectively, which brings new perspectives to light regarding what the World Cup’s underlying messages might be. The Russians may be superpower, but this does not deny the fact that racism is quite a big issue there. How, then, are they going to put forward a fair World Cup? Qatar also has a variety of problems attached to it as far as the World Cup goes, some of which will be elaborated on a bit later. The two sour grapes coming out of the bidding war would be England and the United States of America. In a nutshell, this is the FIFA World Cup until 2022, minus the obvious part about the football matches.

Qatar, it seems, is looking at the World Cup more as a means of improving its infrastructure and promoting its culture than as a means of promoting football in that region, which ultimately is what FIFA is about. While hosting a major tournament gives you the opportunity of improving domestically, it doesn’t make sense taking the World Cup to Qatar then. The 2010 tournament was held in South Africa, a nation that improved its infrastructure because of the fact that it was hosting a major tournament. Hosting it in Qatar goes against the principles behind the 2010 World Cup in South Africa – the principles that FIFA said will be used to decide which country gets to host the tournament – because Qatar is already quite well developed as a nation. In fact, there are a quite a few problems associated with having the event there. The hot and dry climate of the place will create a problem for both travelling fans and players, as it will take out the element of pace and energy from the players’ game, probably leaving the fans wanting more out of a game than what they were getting. After all, they didn’t travel so much for a boring, mediocre tournament. The weather is indeed an issue, but then football is supposed to transcend meager things such as heat and dryness right? An added problem to that is the small size of Qatar as a country. If the projected estimated figures are correct, then the number if fans travelling to Qatar will double its population! It’ll be ‘interesting’ to observe how the place will cope with that.

England may whine about how it didn’t get to host the FIFA World Cup and how Qatar as a nation has not qualified enough times for a major tournament and gets a free pass. However, what the English fail to realize is that by this logic, even they shouldn’t be just handed over the hosting of the World Cup because granted while they have the ability to qualify, their national team still isn’t too good at a sport they pride themselves to be the powerhouses of. And England can surprise on any day, and not in a good way. Remember Euro 2008 qualifiers anyone? Their domestic league may help provide good stadiums and the proper infrastructure for the World Cup, but isn’t that going against the principles behind the 2010 World Cup in South Africa about taking the tournament to less developed areas? And as far as the free pass goes, then by those standards only the ‘big’ teams of world football should get to host the events. So if we go by that, then we can see why the 2014 World Cup in Brazil fits that criterion perfectly. However, if this becomes the case, then we can point out exactly the monopoly of the countries that’ll keep on getting to host the World Cup. And so the discussion will come back to that of the event going to places already developed enough. This is indeed a very circular argument.

The United States were another of the sour grapes as far as the bidding goes, since they lost the hosting rights to Qatar. The debate on development does not hold here given how Qatar is a developed nation too; in fact, if we look at the logic behind having the 2010 World Cup in South Africa as an isolated entity, then what better place to have the tournament in than the U.S., one of the most developed nations of all time. However, they need to play more ‘soccer’ (as they call it) in order to have a more substantial claim in hosting the FIFA World Cup. The tournament in USA will have minimal support from the indigenous population as far as the matches themselves go. This is because ‘soccer’ in the United States gets sidelined because of other sports present there, such as American football, basketball and baseball. In hindsight, USA does not deserve the hosting simply because of the low level of interest in football there.

That’s a lot of talk about football.

Moving on to an issue closer to home, and I mean literally closer to home, we will now turn our attention to the Aasia Bibi case in Pakistan. This is case that revolves around blasphemy laws in Pakistan and raises serious questions regarding its education, rationality and selected sense of persecution. In a nutshell, the case against her is present because, if we take the accounts available online to be true, she was provoked by Muslim women after being labeled as unclean because she was a Christian and her religion was termed as being a religion of infidels. She retaliated by supposedly making some allegations against Islam and its Prophet and hence is facing death penalty according to blasphemy laws of Pakistan which forbid anyone from demeaning the religion of Islam and everything associated with it. We pride ourselves for being a Muslim nation, yet we do not adhere to what Islam teaches us. We can sentence Aasia Bibi to death because she said things against the Prophet of Islam, but doesn’t Islam teach us to not belittle someone else’s religion too? Where are we applying those teachings then? Our ‘Islamic’ mindset is actually quite selective, because we choose to commit certain preposterous acts in the name of Islam but are unwilling to look at ourselves first and how committed we are to our religion before making outrageous claims.

We can’t point out the right and wrong in the Aasia Bibi case, but we can use it to question the beliefs we pride ourselves on as a nation.

This debate, however, is not even entirely about religion. A group of women refused to accept a glass of water from Aasia Bibi because she was a Christian and hence, in their eyes, she was unclean. This raises serious questions about the level of education in Pakistan. With education comes an openness of mind and a sense of rationality and common sense, all of which seem to be lacking in this particular case. Politely denying a glass of water is one thing, going all out on a person and attacking their religion is another; the difference between the two is what education teaches us. That, and the fact that we aren’t educated enough as a nation to realize how our selective persecution of minorities is just proof of how ‘barbaric’ we are.

When Mohammed Ali Jinnah founded Pakistan, he mentioned how we are not various sects or various religions, but instead one nation united under the name Pakistan. Funny how sixty three years later, that ideology seems to have completely disappeared. Pakistan has a dwindling number of minorities, decreasing even more so with the failure to protect them adequately. We can enforce our obscure blasphemy laws – and while they may be right, we refuse to look at all facts present before passing judgement – but cannot adhere to the very principles behind the formation of our country.  Pakistan, being under a democratic government, allows every citizen a freedom of speech. In Aasia Bibi’s case, her freedom of speech may have been misused if we look at the blasphemy laws, but according to Islamic rulings then, the freedom of speech was also abused by the Muslim women when they chose to disparage another religion.

Islamic extremists in Pakistan today look at religion as the answer to everything that they do. What we fail to realize, however, is that religion is not a blind set of rules to justify everything we do. In fact, the religion of Islam also speaks about Ijma (consensus) and Qiyas (analytical deduction) as means of deciphering what the Islamic text says to fit in accordance to what is acceptable by society also. Those principles seem to be disappearing as Islamic extremism creeps in, and the perfect example of this is how a ‘mullah’ in Peshawar had ordered a reward of fifty thousand rupees to anyone who kills Aasia Bibi. It’s not the law, but instead the death penalty that is blasphemous.

Interesting how both the cases against Aasia Bibi and Julian Assange lack an approach of common sense. The world is getting dumber it seems.

Looking at Pakistan only, now that the Hajj (annual pilgrimage for Muslims) season is over, the annoyed pilgrims are asking for their money back. This is because those who undertook the pilgrimage with the government scheme offered by the government (duh) of Pakistan were promised residence close to Mecca and all sorts of privileges. That, however, did not happen, since they were given residences far away and some even did not have proper bedding or sanitation facilities. Under the guise of Hajj, this turned out to be a means by religious politicians in Pakistan to scam people out of a lot of money. It is probably shameful to call it the ‘Islamic’ Republic of Pakistan now, considering how honesty is lacking even in matters of great Islamic importance such as Hajj now. The people who portray themselves as being truly Islamic on the basis of their big beards and attire and their general appearance are indeed the ones quite far away from the principles of the very religion they claim themselves to be the experts of. It is disgraceful, to say the least.

President Barack Obama’s recent speech on taxes mainly spoke about lesser taxes on the rich and more taxes on the poor. The United States today is facing perhaps the biggest economics crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s, ultimately affecting the entire world economy. However, all their President wants is tax cuts for the millionaires and billionaires. So ultimately, it doesn’t really matter what slogans you come up with before you get elected or what promises you make while you campaign. The end result is the same as has always been  – the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.

I need to read up more on this.

So far, that’s 2,481 words of things I felt I was smart enough to write about. Clearly I have nothing better to do than write an amateur commentary on stuff I think I know, but am probably wrong. Oh well, there isn’t a whole lot to do after exams ending, but I’m excited about LUMUN starting. Happy reading!

Advertisements

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • November 2012
  • June 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • October 2010

Categories

  • Amidst the Words
  • Behind the Verses
  • Through the Lens
  • Uncategorized

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in

The Words

art beautiful beauty birthday boyfriend camera career character coffee college commentary convention conversation country crazy Creative Nonfiction darkness dating death education emotions facebook family fiction football friend future game generation girlfriend hair heart history how humanities job karachi kids lahore lens literary literature love lums male manchester united match munni murder Nonfiction pakistan Pakistani parents philosophy photography pictures poetry random read red relationship sheila short short story skype social sciences society status stereotype story tea tears woman write writing

What are you looking for?

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel