Small rant about the worldcup

[abyss_valkyrie]

Now see, I'm not a football watcher, but I do sometimes watch the worldcup because of the men...but like also because the matches are actually fun to watch sometimes lol. I was a lot more invested this time because Jungkook of BTS sang during the opening ceremony and he gave us such a meaningful, beautiful song!LOVE HIM!!
Saudi Arabia also went quite far this time and they won their first match against Argentina!MAAAN!That was wild. The King literally declared a holiday in celebration and you know what?I'm here for any unexpected holidays so that's probably what got me into watching more of the matches. I watched mainly the ones of Saudi Arabia, Japan, Morocco. It felt nice to see more Asian and Arab countries qualify for further rounds.

So so, if you didn't watch the final match yesterday (Argentina vs. France) it was an intense game!They had to take extra time and penalty shots because they kept tying.

Now everything was great but you know what?!THE MEDIA!! MY GOD!Why does the western media have to have so much beef with like everybody?

After winning the cup, the emir placed this cloak on Messi (it's called a bisht and many arabs wear it on special occasion like weddings, official programs etc. Think of it as a formal wear.) So obviously to us who know it was completely normal and just showed their respect towards Messi. So imagine my surprise when I saw all these headlines talking about how they're 'covering up' Messi! Headlines like 'Lionel Messi forced to cover Argentina shirt' and so on. People going on how they ruined Messi's moment by making him wear the bisht,looking like he's going for a haircut etc. etc. And here's an example of what kind of articles came out about this moment.

Y'all, I can't even. The ignorance just makes me speechless. Bro looks cool in it, whatever the media says.



Okay, so if anybody is interested, here's an article about bisht.

And leaving you guys with this MV of Jungkook and Fahad's worldcup song because I LOVE IT!!

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[twelvthdoctor]

I'm so sorry the media sucks so much. I don't know if this was US media, or elsewhere, but ours certainly is awful. I'm not really into most sports except baseball and hockey, but I can say that the guy looks regal, and it seems pretty clear to me that they're just bestowing a nice little gesture/honor on him, nothing more. I would have taken it as such, and been proud to wear it, as I'm sure he was. I wonder if he cleared it up with the media outlets that were saying the negative commentary, or if it even would have made a difference. People shouldn't comment/report on events taking place in another country and culture unless they're sure to understand a few basic things first and verify their facts.

[abyss_valkyrie]

Oh,I am also not even into watching sports even though I'd happily participate in them probably.
But for many reasons I was more interested in this year's one since it took place so close to where I live. :D
Apparently Messi himself hasn't said anything which is...you know,totally cool. Because at this point it feels like Western Media is always gonna come for the Arabs no matter what. *shrug*
But it's definitely nice to see that a lot of people aren't just falling for these trollish headlines.

[twelvthdoctor]

Oh for sure, it's a big deal to host it in your country! I've got a friend who's big into soccer (sorry, football... I don't know why America does that either with the soccer/football thing lol) and FIFA. It's really a shame that Western media is so racist. I just don't buy it. There are bad people anywhere in the world of any race or nationality, including politicians, but I'm just not buying it in generalities, or because they're a certain race or nationality. I grew up and went to school in Dearborn, MI, a place with a very large Arab population, and many of them went to my schools throughout the years. They were just like the rest of us. They had their own beliefs, some wore the hijabs, and they were very sweet and polite people. There was a family of 5 kids that lived a street away from me that I loved hanging out with, and was sad when they moved. I'll never forget the polite discussion the two oldest, one in my grade and one the grade below in school, and I had about Christianity and Islam, and they were teaching me about Mohammed the profit and such. We just asked each other questions about why one religion believed this or that, and would just nod and be like ohhhh okay, I see what you're saying. Like why can't everyone be that way and just try to understand different religions and cultures?? Maybe they could prevent misunderstandings like this in the media where people aren't being disrespectful to their guest, but actually honoring them a little. How humbling! *gets off soapbox* But I'm preaching to the choir. I get fired up about this kind of stuff because it just feels inescapable in America these days. Stupid Trump supporters running their mouths and saying awful things everywhere, even though he's been out of office for 2 years. It will just never end. It was always there, but it got so much worse after he ran for office and was elected.

[trobadora]

Wow! I pay zero attention to the world cup so all of this passed me by entirely, but WTF. You'd think you could expect better from the media, but supposedly serious outlets flapping their mouths about stuff they have no clue about and don't bother looking into either is so fucking common these days. *sighs*

[abyss_valkyrie]

AAHHHH!I know right?!They just need to latch on to something. *shrug*

[magicrubbish]

I am so so sorry that you'd to hear and read such bullshits. Urgh! Western media and their ignorance and lack of sensitivity and reluctance to research before barking off their mouths will never not be my problem. They have done it quite a few times with my country and it's customs.
I was thinking it's an incredible act of honoring Messi when the Bisht was put on him , in our culture also extremely similar customs are there , we call it " Uttoriyo" and it is given and wrapped around a person to felicitate / honor / award ceremonies as a gesture of basically showering the person with respect and adoration.

[abyss_valkyrie]

OOHH!I just googled uttoriyo,I had no idea it had a name or that significance, since I assumed it to be like a normal scarf. THANK YOU for telling me. :D
Also, did you see Deepika Padukone unveiling the trophy?!I had no idea of it but I was on tiktok and people were talking about it.

[magicrubbish]

I didn't know about that either , about Deepika unveiling the trophy. I actually don't like her at all. Anyways, yeah, it's absolutely normal and expected that one wouldn't know the cultural and religious significance of a certain attire in a community , but not knowing one thing and publishing an insensitive article based on not knowing and not researching is whole another thing.
Yeah, here is an article how Uttoriyo is part of honoring.

https://twitter.com/Patton_IntLtd/status/1378008335912300544

It's actually going on since the Vaidik era .

[abyss_valkyrie]

LOL!I'm also not a fan or anything of Deepika, but like apparently she's the ambassador for Louis Vuitton and the trophy came in a LV box so she was there to open it. So it was all over desi people tiktok!XD

[libitina]

The biggest thing I'll miss about Twitter is the very good set of people I had found to follow to bring me international news.

Here's the only headline I've seen about it - https://mobile.twitter.com/kshaheen/status/1604964455418417180

[abyss_valkyrie]

WOW!Thank you for sharing this because it definitely made my day!:D
I think I only found some good set of people when I was in the Untamed section of twitter in 2020,lol.

[lirazel]

So imagine my surprise when I saw all these headlines talking about how they're 'covering up' Messi! Headlines like 'Lionel Messi forced to cover Argentina shirt' and so on.

I literally do not understand people who decide to write articles about things they clearly do not understand and didn't bother to research for 30 seconds.

[sakana17]

Ugh, the western media are awful! There's no excuse for that level of ignorance and disrespect! But I suspect sportswriters aren't expected to do any kind of research like that, since it's "only sports." :(

[abyss_valkyrie]

Yeah,it must be so hard to google things for them,lol!Media people are sometimes unbelievably awful!!

[breyzyyin]

That is so awful about the western media spin on what happened. I haven't been following the news as much since I am just getting over being sick, but it...sadly doesn't shock me that has happened (and continues to happen). You'd think someone out there would do a little research before posting "news" online...but, sadly, that doesn't happen nearly as often as it should. I'm sorry.

Thank you for the informative article too! :)

Awesome MV as well! ♥

[abyss_valkyrie]

That MV is soooo totally one of my favourite things ever!:D every time it comes up on my playlist I just can't skip it!XD

[sunshine304]

I've been very reluctant about this World Cup though I did semi-watch some games (like. it was running in the background and if the reporter got loud I looked XD). There was a lot of negative press in my country about it beforehand and AFAIK at least some of it was legitimate criticism (working conditions of the workers that built stadiums/cities or the very questionable way Qatar was chosen back then). But some of it was just plain racist because haha, an easy target! Everyone's hating on the WC anyway!

Mostly, I wasn't really in the mood for it since it's just this typical summer thing where we have public viewings in the streets etc., which isn't done in cold and rainy November/December. XD Also, our team wasn't supported much by the public this year and fucked up royally in the group phase, so there wasn't even the chance to get excited about them moving on! XD

When I saw those headlines about how "Messi's moment was ruined" I was like, WTF are you talking about now?! I#d only watched the ceremony after the game with half an eye, I had other stuff to do (but I was happy for Argentina and thought they deserved the win; also it was a really good, intense game!). I saw the emir placing the bisht (I didn't know the actual term for it, so I've learned something!) on Messi and it took Messi a bit to get his hands in the right place, which I found a bit awkward but what can you do, the man is tiny! XD But the emir was wearing one as well so I immediately filed it under, "It's a show of respect and adding some of their tradition to the ceremony, that's cool" and that was it. The headlines were so confusinga and off-putting, like, please just... research a tiny bit? For once?

I'd wished for Morocco to make it to the final, but alas, it didn't work out.

[abyss_valkyrie]

Yes,there was a lot of bad press about a lot of things and probably it is true to an extent considering the working conditions of labourers in arab countries in general.But yes, since I was just focusing on the sport part,I guess I could dissociate. Oh and I so am not into football normally but this time we saw so many teams like Saudi Arabia, Japan, Morocco(OMG!) and all getting to play. Gosh, arabs and other expats were all also pretty excited about Morocco in Saudi Arabia here. They didn't win win but they still made a big name and that makes me so very happy!:D