The world is being subjected to a strident, arrogant communications war, in which double standards dictate the agenda. For example, in covering the Ukraine-Russia conflict, self-proclaimed defenders of freedom of expression censor others and go so far as to insist that it is for the good of the people. Facebook, Instagram and Telegram, subsidiaries of the vaunted Meta, shut down Russia Today and Sputnik. But the double talk does not stop there. When a similar action is taken by the other side, no red card is waved, it is decreed a goal.
FIFA has suspended Russia from all soccer competitions, including the World Cup in Qatar, not because it has defended itself from the siege imposed by the United States and NATO, which are using Ukraine as a human and political shield, but because it considers Russia the invader.
But why hasn't Ukraine been penalized, for regularly shelling and killing the young and old in Lugansk and Donetsk since 2014? Nor was anything said when Saudi Arabia invaded Yemen. When the just demands of Palestine are ignored - their soccer players unable to leave because of Israeli hostility - Israel is never sanctioned. Much less is the United States, an invader by trade which has intervened militarily in more than 60 nations since 1776. Thus far in the first decades of 21st century, more than ten.
Last Sunday, Aykut Demir, captain of the Turkish team Erzurumspor, refused to wear a T-shirt calling for an end to the war in Ukraine, saying, "The same thing is happening in the Middle East, but nobody cares." Speaking to Football Anatolia, he explained, "Thousands of people die every day in the Middle East. I feel sad, too. Those who ignore the persecution there are doing these things when it comes to Europe. I did not wear the T-shirt because it was not made for those countries. I share the pain of innocent people," he said.
"What a dirty policy. When Israel commits massacres against our people in Palestine and bombs homes, they tell us: Don't mix politics with sports," commentator for Bein Sports Khalil Al Balushi stated on Twitter.
Peace is the most beautiful goal and the only one that is truly worthy of human beings. Let's score this goal, the world deserves it.
