A corrupt FIFA is a reflection of a larger problem

Today I went to the IRS office to obtain some information. I was asked to wait outside. After a few minutes, before ushering me into the office, the security guard read a few disclosures to me basically saying that I was about to enter a federal facility and that I cannot be carrying a gun, drugs and so forth. Once inside, I was greeted by the customer support agent very coldly; and frankly speaking, the behavior of the entire team was borderline rude. I was watching all this and thinking how sweet and nice the behaviour of customer support agents would be if I walked into any store where I would be spending money to buy something.

And that is when I remembered the line from the movie Pretty Woman where Richard Gere tells Julia Roberts, "Stores are never nice to people, they are nice to credit cards." But my mind was still not at ease with this thought. The IRS is a public office and these people working there were servants of the people, serving their specific needs. The employees in a Verizon store, for example, are not paid with citizens' tax money. Yet, they are very nice to people who walk in the store. In a nutshell, people respond to money more favourably than to their job description where no sale has to be made and mere duty has to be performed.

FIFA world cup is ongoing and the only way people are perceiving its image is that of extreme corruption where they bend backwards to favour Argentina and Leonel Messi. It is no longer a matter of opinion, people can see right through the noise and fog. The rules are flexible and especially after President Trump took pride in reversing a red card decision by the president of FIFA, the people have completely lost any faith in the impartiality of FIFA.

Some people allege that FIFA has to support Messi because both are sponsored by a famous brand. Others, myself included, believe that Cristiano Ronaldo is being punished because he famously removed the bottles of an American beverage company from the view of the camera in that interview with the media and advised everyone to drink water instead. That caused the company to lose about $4 billion by seeing its stock value getting tanked. Messi also kissed the wall in Israel. Argentina is a very pro-Israel country. That particular beverage company and Israel both have strong lobbies inside the United States working to protect their respective interests. It wouldn't be a conspiracy theory to believe that perhaps both these strong lobbies worked in the shadows, using their influence, cash, power and access to undermine Ronaldo and support Messi. Remember, Israel prevented Michael Jackson from recording a song he wrote in support of Palestine.

Whichever opinion may be right, it is about money either way. And FIFA is responding to money. People watch this obviously corrupt FIFA that doesn't respond to football fans but rather to money, power and Trump. This has caused the people to lose faith not only in FIFA but in the role of any public institutions to do their job justly and honestly.

I always have trouble driving a vehicle in Pakistan because let's be honest, people drive like it is a jungle. No rules, no lane discipline, no traffic signals, no turn indicators, no stop signs, and so forth. People in America practise all those things mentioned above while driving, not because they are civilised but because they know someone is watching all the time and they will get a ticket if they made any violation. People in Pakistan drive like animals because they know nobody is watching. Once that realisation occurs in America and everywhere that nobody is watching and nobody cares, the world will become a jungle. The belief that government agencies are following rules in doing their duties prevents the people from being at each other's throats.

I must confess it was exactly this scenario that helped me understand what I had read in a book by Noam Chomsky where he had talked about the erosion of democracy as one of the leading threats of humanity's survival.