By Niza Shimi
Now that World Cup fever has passed and both winners and losers are learning to live with the outcome, the world of reality that has been pushed to the back burner is once again upon us.
Although I’m not a sports fan I do what writers do, I read about it. I love the sportswriters' use of prose in reporting the action on the field using English words that is not often used except in sports. Sportswriters are in a class of their own.
An interesting new thing I, a non-sports fan, now know is that GOAT, which means “greatest player of all time”, is not an animal. For the FIFA World Cup 2022, the GOAT is Lionel Messi from champion Argentina.
Even in the world of sports, there’s controversy when the Emir of Qatar, just before handing over the coveted World Cup golden trophy, helped Messi don the bisht, a traditional Arab cloak of honour for heroes.
As images of Messi in a bisht covering his Argentina football jersey lifting the trophy flashed around the world, there was a flurry of accusations that Qatar was trying to capture a share of the limelight. Then there were counter accusations that Western media were racist.
Isn’t it really about perception? You read from it what your prejudices want to see. Perhaps that’s normal when the adrenaline is pumping and emotions are running high. It boils down to intention. Did Qatar try to exploit Messi or were they trying to honour him? You be the judge.
But the real heroes of the moment in Malaysia are the search and rescue tracker dogs tirelessly working to recover the bodies of the victims of a landslide at the Father’s Organic Farm campsite in Batang Kali, Selangor.
My sincere condolences to the families for the loss of their loved ones. The entire country is united I grief. Let’s hope there will be closure for the families still waiting for news.
My hats off to the many frontliners from the Fire and Rescue Department and all involved in helping the survivors and finding remains of the victims. This time the rescue dogs captured headlines for their tireless work.
It was when Blake, one of several tracker dogs, collapsed out of exhaustion did we realise how hard the work was in trying to recover the victims. To date, eight victims have still not been found.
Since then, several of the rescue crew have also suffered injury and exhaustion. We are indebted to these men and women for their tireless effort.
The thing about dogs is they can be trained. These animals are known to be loyal to their handlers. Animals don’t ask for much. They need food, shelter and love. They will do their master’s bidding without pay or much persuasion.
Human beings are more complicated. No matter what you do, someone will still find something to fault. A cloak for a GOAT is just one example. Maybe human beings need a chill pill.
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