‘Racism is a state of mind, has no nationality, it flourishes worldwide’
“COINCIDENTALLY, in the UEFA European Football Championship, also commonly known as the UEFA Euros -- the international competition participated by senior men’s national teams of Europe -- final last Sunday between England and Italy was an opportunity to probe England’s racism,” columnist, professor at Kuwait University’s Political Science Department, an advisor to Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the secretary general of the Arab Fund for Human Rights,” Dr Ghanim Al-Najjar wrote for Al-Jarida daily.
“Italy won the championship through penalty shootout and this development was heartbreaking and painful for English fans because England has not won a major trophy since 1966, the year they lifted the FIFA World Cup trophy.
“The recent match was a historical chance for the English team but the team lost when three African-origin players missed to score from the penalty spot, but the fact is the presence of ‘black’ players in the English team is remarkably significant, and of course, this is not because of their color, rather because of their foot-balling skills.
“Anyway, the issue so far seems to be normal, but when the match ended in defeat for England, we saw how the social media reacted hurling vulgar racist phrases against the black English players and the blacks in general, but the question is, what would have happened if the black players, had scored the goals and won the UEFA Cup for England.
“It is needless to say the counter response from Britain reflects the desire for change, but not an evidence towards the bringing of the racism to an end on both the official and popular level starting from the queen, the prime minister, the ministers, the members of the English Parliament, the UEFA chairman, the football teams and legal organizations denounced what happened. Moreover, Facebook deleted racist comments and as such many such racist accounts were closed.
“For his part, the Manchester United Marcus Rashford, who had been exposed to insults, had along with his supporters founded an Anti- Racism Fund aiming at collecting a sum of SP 2000, but they had obtained a sum of SP 20,000 up to Tuesday, let alone that the relevant amount be significantly increased.
“However, Rashford is a British citizen, and when the British government decided recently to stop giving food for poor students, he organized a campaign to establish a fund for this purpose and the response was amazing and the government reluctantly had to cancel the decision.
“Along a similar line, the British government, had earlier declared its intention to reduce its program to assist the poor states, but it was exposed to wide criticism, and this resulted in the major UK charity societies organizing a wide campaign to fill the gap.
“In light of the above, we conclude that racism doesn’t belong either to a specific religion or to a specific nationality, it rather is a state of mind. In other words, racism is with us also as it is with them.
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“Kuwait is a small country in terms of both its area and population, but it has abundant wealth, does not lie in the earthquake belt not it is prone to hurricanes and volcanoes,” columnist and former minister of information Sami Al-Nisf wrote for Annahar daily.
“Consequently, we presume we need tremendous effort to create a single problem only to disturb the population and we have over the past half-a-century created a lot of problems that exceeds the problems of India, China and Nigeria.
“In such a situation we wonder if there is any prescription to follow the example of other countries to get rid of our problems since it is no secret that some of our non-Gulf sisterly states have managed to avoid problems.
“For example, look at Singapore, which became independent four years after Kuwait got its independence. The area of Singapore does not exceed 600 square kilometers, while Kuwait is 30 times bigger than Singapore. Not just that, Singapore was very poor and had no water sources or natural wealth.
“Singapore hosts ethnicities with three different religions -- Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. People embrace three contradictory political ideologies. The citizens are of Chinese origin, and tilts towards communism because China is communist, the Hindus are socialists in line with India’s socialism, while the Muslims embrace the capitalist thought because of Malaysia capitalism.
“In spite of the above, Lee Quan Yew blended Singapore into a unique mix as well as one of the richest states in the world. He transformed it into one of the strongest state in terms of its military might. Not just that, this very small state enjoys at the moment the respect of the international community because of its strong will to fight corruption and has produced geniuses with brilliant minds. Singapore which depends on the latest technology and distinct education has become a global financial and commercial hub.
“Another example is of Rwanda which in 1994 was a victim of mass massacres when the Houthis who represent as much as 80 percent of the population committed genocide against the Tutsis killing millions of people.
“But later the National Front which represents the Tutsis became victorious under the leadership of Paul Kagame after he became the commander-in-chief of the Rwandan army. He represents the Houthis but managed to arrest 150,000 suspects.
“Kagame was in a position to refer these killers to the competent court but the trial would drag on for years but Kagame thorough his strategic vision accepted the apology of the killers and the families of the victims also forgave the killers. In other words, Kagame got to the root of the problem and said everyone belongs to the homeland and the interests of the homeland should be the top priority and not of the tribes.
“Apart from the above, Kagame worked with absolute transparency to fight corruption within the African periphery and adopted the latest technical methods and transformed his country into an international financial, investment and touristic center. This success was unique and Rwanda whose population is 12 million and area of 260,000 square kilometers at the moment is one of the best and richest African states and one of the most advanced nations. This country is an example to be followed by many other states.”
“On July 9, the Minister of Defense, and Chairman of the Supreme Ministerial Committee for COVID-19 Emergencies Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al-Ali addressed the citizens by saying, “Enjoy, travel, and relax” in reference to the return to normal life. His statement pleased many such that 73,000 citizens and residents are preparing so far to travel during the Eid holidays,” columnist Dr Moudhi Abdul Aziz Al-Hamoud wrote for Al-Qabas daily.
“On July 12, the government spokesperson stated that the decision to close commercial activities, restaurants and sports clubs in Kuwait at 8:00 pm will continue. Also, all summer clubs and group activities for children will be suspended from July 25 until further notice. The wish of the Minister of Health for the continuation of the current situation, especially in terms of the strictness in stopping the activities, renders us confused and not knowing whom to believe!
“Meanwhile, the official spokesman of the Ministry of Health stated on July 13 that the ministry has approved combining the types of vaccine for some cases. However, on the same day, we read the news about a statement made by the chief scientist of the World Health Organization Dr. Somya Swaminathan who said no data is available on the effect of combining more than one vaccine. Doesn’t this make the combination of vaccines a ‘wrong trend’, the effects of which are not yet known..?! Between the local declaration and the global reservation, we were confused. Whom do we believe?!
“Recently, the newspapers published news about the meeting of the Parliament’s Education Committee with officials from the Ministry of Education. The head of the committee stated that a conference will be held which will bring together the stakeholders in education to determine the teaching system for the next academic year, and a comparison will be made between the methods of traditional, blended or distance education.
“Here, I present to those interested in the statement issued by the Executive Director of UNICEF “Henrietta Fore” and the Director-General of UNESCO Audrey Azoulay which was published on Tuesday, July 12 on the UNICEF website unicef.org. The two officials said, “The losses incurred by children due to the closure of schools for a period of more than 18 months has exacerbated in the field of education, psychological distress, and delinquency for violence and extremism”.
“This is a matter that can only be met and addressed by the safe opening of schools. The statement indicated that it is not possible to reason or wait for schools to return until everyone - students, teachers, and workers in the educational sector - is immunized, or even waiting for the infection rate to drop to zero. This is because any delay means a disaster for this generation. The future of our children cannot be mortgaged in exchange for unclear benefits for our present. Whom should we believe?!
“Gentlemen, our condition is pitiful. Our affairs fluctuate between denial and affirmation, between reassurance and intimidation, and between boldness and hesitation. With all this, our affairs are complicated and we do not see a breakthrough in our health, economic or social conditions! We are confused, and our thoughts are confused!”