Sporting infrastructure or an $11 million statue?
What happened here? Well let’s see.
On a central square, in a city of the sun rose a palace.
It was high and handsome gleaming like the crown of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/A-King-c41197.
Where would that be? Where is that?
In the tower, a warning bell would ring.
What kind of warning?
For a fire, or a river overflowing.
Oh.
Firenze
On a central square, the end of a kingdom republic.
These words resonate, the turmoil that is presented by Pakistan as a state. Not because of its failure as a nation, neither because of the absolute beauty of the landscape or the generosity of the people that inhabit the land, but rather this turbulence reflects the absolute apathy of the mighty politicians of this land, who have time and again let this country down. With corruption and nepotism, and the core of everything, and feudalism fanning the fire amongst the proletariat, this nation is headed into the footsteps of disaster.
Some might ask, why this tirade against the country and the politicians, especially so in such tumultuous times where more than a million people have been displaced in the worst humanitarian disaster witnessed by the world. Well my rebuttal to all those apologists would be to take a look at the shameless indifference, apathy and arrogance of the leaders of this state, who find it in themselves to approve an $11 million statue in remembrance of their martyred wives with state funds.
The tax – payers of the godforsaken land might just as well shoot themselves in the head, since the leaders of this ‘land of the pure’ seem bent upon satisfying their unending urge for self glorification. While the people of this land die of hunger, disease with millions spending their ‘eid’ celebration following the end of the holy month of Ramadan under the open skies. All Mr. Zardari could fathom was to get a monument of his martyred wife approved that would cost a preposterous 11 million dollars. As people all around the world, gather funds to help the flood victims, Mr. Zardari who has donated $ 58,000 for the flood affectees, (Angelina Jolie gave $100,000) is eager to exploit the poor masses of their hardly earned money once again.
“Nations are born in the hearts of poets, they prosper and die in the hands of politicians”, Allama Iqbal a famous poet from the country once wrote. These words could not be more applicable than today.
Many of us would be familiar with Easter Islands, and it’s peculiar statues. It is said, that these very statues ultimately resulted in the downfall of those that inhabited those lands by depleting their resources. Pakistan seems to be heading in a similar direction.
Many would be wondering, what this has to do with sports? Well, if the country that has 11 million dollars to spare in the face of the worst ever floods in the history of the nation, might it then not be fair to ask, that these very same funds could instead be utilized to build much needed sporting infra-structure in the country. This might be a callous thought, as many would argue that these funds are deserved by the millions displaced and rightly so. But in the very likely scenario, that these funds would not be given to those deserving of this money, the least that can be done by the government is to utilize these funds to promote sport in the country that has time and again produced great talent.
With the likes of Aisam ul Haq, Mohammad Amir, Sohail http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Pakistan-c755 made it to the finals of the US Open in men’s doubles and mixed doubles without support from the government or the tennis federation during the early years of his career. Imagine what they could have done with World class facilities.
As for statues, Saddam Hussain’s famously constructed a statue in a square in Baghdad that is famously known for being brought down by the American army. A statue of Benazir in a country, that is suffering so much, would be like a splash of blood on the grave of the martyred politician famously quoted for saying the resonating words, “Democracy is the best revenge”.
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