Guinness World Records should focus on positive, innovative, harmless, yet exciting methods of setting records.
KARACHI: The Guinness World Records management, in its eagerness to maximise the number of ‘records’ it has on file, seems to have lost all sense of value. It is time they rethink their inexplicable strategies and decide where to draw the line.
Cases that may possibly lead to any type of physical or mental damage should not be entertained. Recently, some newspapers carried two such news items: an image of a Hungarian in pain as he let a vehicle drive over him; then we read about a Pakistani boy kicking a punching bag 617 times with an injured knee. Both of them were declared "successful record breakers’’.
This also brings to mind the countless ‘eating’ episodes every now and then — the fastest eater, the biggest eater and so on. It is revolting to see them in the act and doctors should object to such life-threatening, unhealthy competitions. I feel these inhuman contests are an insult to the God-given superior intelligence of man. The people at Guinness World Records should focus on positive, innovative, harmless, yet exciting methods of setting records. By raising the bar, their prestige would also be raised. The recent record-breaking displays at the Lahore Youth Festival did Pakistan proud. The youth of Punjab and its government should be applauded for staging such group activities that engender unity and good spirits. The largest human flag, the human mosaic of the Lahore Fort, the singing of the national anthem and the swift setting up of the chess pieces are all commendable feats. Okay fine, even pulling a truck with a moustache!
Fazila Kassim
Published in The Express Tribune, November 9th, 2012.
