Letter of the Day | Christmas came early this year

THE EDITOR, Madam:

Christmas came early this year and brought extra enjoyment to billions of people all over the world. For a magical month from November 20 to December 18, Santa was not the jolly, somewhat overweight white-bearded senior citizen in the red suit directing operations from the North Pole, but a leaner, shaven-headed man directing operations in much warmer climes of the Persian Gulf.

It was the President of FIFA, Swiss-born Gianni Infantino, in charge of staging the 22nd World Cup. Much criticism was levelled when Qatar was chosen to host. The country was never a football powerhouse, although, along with some Gulf neighbours, they had invested huge amounts of petro-dollars to sponsor or own several top teams in European football leagues. Qatar spent well over US$200 billion to transform Doha into a Mecca for football fans from all over the world.

Just prior to the World Cup kick-off, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth concerning Qatar’s human rights records. The magnificent stadiums and infrastructure had all been built by large imported labour forces from South Asian countries. Under the Kafala System, which has been adopted by many Middle Eastern countries, host nations have total rights over imported workers’ employment and immigration status. An English newspaper printed a self-righteous opinion piece about how many construction workers had died in Qatar. Heavy criticism towards the World Cup and Qatar followed from mainly Western European countries, where slave-trading and colonisation were a large part of their own recent history.

Ironically, the newspaper had overlooked that the industrial deaths spread over a 12-year period were about equal to those recorded annually in comparable work-sites in Germany, for example. Social justice warriors became quite obsessed with more virtue-signalling concerning homosexuality, gender issues, and alcohol consumption in Qatar’s Sharia Laws. However, despite their dire warnings of doom and gloom, the World Cup tournament went off virtually without a hitch. Everybody seemed to enjoy being in Qatar and praised the hospitality. Kudos to the 2022’s new Santa, FIFA President Gianni Infantino, with his contingent of 32 international football teams, officials, and supporters from all over the world. Fittingly, Sunday’s final had many magnificent mysterious Messi-Mbappé magical match-up moments, which were truly unforgettable as Christmas came early this year.

Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all in your newsroom. Feliz Navidad, próspero año y felicidad.

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada