[Text/Observer Network columnist Wu Maiye's smoked cage essence]
The new Football World Cup has opened and ushered in a carnival for fans all over the world. On the day of the opening ceremony, Qatar was filled with joy and joy on Al Jazeera's screens.
A few hours before the opening ceremony, the peninsula began to broadcast continuously, with the station's most handsome male host sitting in the live broadcast room, constantly talking to the invited guests about the significance of the World Cup, while several reporters were scattered around to randomly interview fans and local people.
The news reported by the male host on weekdays is mostly war and turmoil, so his face is always calm, but at this moment, there is a smile in the corner of his eyebrows. In fact, all the Arabs in Qatar and other countries who appeared on the screen that day really had shining faces, and the most frequent word that appeared on everyone's lips was "Mubarak" - happiness and auspiciousness.
The most handsome male host of the Peninsula Arabic channel
Peninsula male journalists who reported live at the concert in the park before the opening ceremony were full of heartfelt smiles
Outside the Bay Stadium, the reporter interviewed a young Qatari couple, the two were absolutely in place Ecuadorian fans, but they were not really Ecuadorian fans, they just felt that the team came from afar, they wanted to show their friendliness and support.
Qataris dressed as Ecuadorian fans
When asked by reporters which team they wanted to win, the "current" fans generously replied "Inshaallah", which means "as the Lord wishes", that is, everything is according to the Allah's arrangement, and whatever the outcome is good. The reporter then interviewed a Spanish-speaking Ecuadorian fan who wore his national shirt but deliberately put an Arab turban on his head and expressed his affection for the host country.
Spanish-speaking Ecuadorian fans purposely wore an Arab headscarf
During the live interview, a young man took the initiative to break into the camera, interrupted the reporter's words, and confidently expressed a feeling, he emphasized that I am Qatari, but this World Cup is not only about Qatar, but also the entire Arab world, and even the Islamic world.
This is exactly what the country's ruling and opposition thinking, because "this is the first time that a World Cup has been held in Islamic Arab soil" (Al Jazeera headline) has the world's eyes on Qatar and a modern, friendly and enterprising Middle Eastern world.
Al Jazeera has a gold-medal program, "Film Chronicle," and last August, it did an episode of "Desert, Women and Blood: Arabia in Hollywood Movies," which brilliantly shows the stereotypical representation of the Arab world by Western culture. In Hollywood movies, the Middle East is full of deserts and camels, full of poverty, backwardness, barbarism and chaos, men are either terrorists or villains and thieves, and women are beautiful belly dancing witches.
The show cleverly brings together the movie clips of "Arab men intend to rape white women", and the audience will find that many European and American first-line actresses in the last century, such as Brooke Xiaosi and Gotie Han, have faced the danger of being raped by Arab obscenities in the film, of course, at the last moment, there will always be white male protagonists who come to knock the villains over and save the beauty of heroes.
In particular, Lawrence of Arabia was mentioned as the first film to directly depict the Arab world. It is a great work of art, but the ideology is extremely vicious, and through the plot of the film, the Arabs are condemned to eternal ignorance and incapable of modernization. So, this football event in 2022 proved to the world that "what others can do, we can do", and Qataris of course shone with joy.
This is also the mood of most Qataris: for them, this is not just a football event, but an opportunity to show the world what the Middle Eastern country is like. They want the world to see a different Qatar and dispel prejudices in people's minds.
Mainland netizens have become interested in Qatar, but there are some misunderstandings, such as "Qatar is a small country, naturally the original airport is also very small, so for this World Cup to build a big airport", "there are not enough hotels, so a new five-star hotel" and so on. In fact, for two decades, Qatar has been competing with Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to create a magical super-modern city, and in its capital, Doha, not only the majestic Islamic art gallery, but also the Louvre sub-palace, is famous.
Dream Doha at night (Image source: Visual China)
Qatar spent a lot of money for this event also caused a sensation in the world, and ordinary people have the impression that the local tycoons in the Middle East are really arrogant, and the Gulf oil countries live a life of lying down with some money, carefree. In fact, this is not the case, including Qatar, and other Middle East oil countries are anxious day and night: first, oil resources make these countries guilty and face pressure from the West at all times; The second is to complete the transformation of the country before the oil is exhausted.
Chinese are now impressed by Saudi Arabia's post-eighties crown prince, but the current emir of Qatar is also a post-eighties, who is also determined to forge ahead, and is good at maneuvering in the international political environment, and can withstand pressure in the face of adversity without flinching. Like other oil kings, he has adopted a "turn east" strategy, putting the establishment of cooperative relations with China first, and eagerly responding to the Belt and Road Initiative. A pair of giant pandas is proof of this, which is said to make Saudi netizens very unhappy: the first pair of giant pandas to come to the Middle East world is not a country that lives in the "guardians of the two holy places"!
At the opening ceremony, Qatar's Taishang Emir (middle) and current Emir (right) both smiled. (From the official website of The Peninsula)
Therefore, this Wang Ye used the World Cup to build civil engineering, not to burn money to play. Doha, Dubai and Abu Dhabi are racing to build luxurious, comfortable and grand airports with the aim of turning the Gulf into a transit hub for world shipping. Together with the redevelopment of tourism, leisure and high-end communities, at the same time attracting investment from all countries to create modern industries such as biotechnology. In the past, people travelling to all over the world used to transit at Paris' Charles de Gaulle, Amsterdam and Frankfurt airports, but in recent years, the situation has quietly changed, with more and more people choosing Doha and Dubai airports as their transit routes.
To encourage passengers to spend, countries have resorted to a variety of incentives, including a little slippery head: passengers who get off the plane have to go to customs and must pass through long shopping malls, and as a result, many people start buying and buying before they leave the airport. ——A female companion who was traveling with me couldn't help but rush to those world-famous brands, while joking: Is it impossible to buy enough money and not let it out of customs?
Taking the World Cup as an opportunity to lay out infrastructure and promote the country's modernization process, Qatar's ambitions are not limited to the weeks of the World Cup.
Qatar is a country where Shari'a is practiced, so one must be curious about the situation of women in the country. Perhaps it was Wang Ye who was able to accept the new concept after the eighties, or perhaps because the country's population was small, at least in the public sector, a significant proportion of female staff, and a group of female officials at the ministerial level, and there were also female members of Wang Ye's cabinet. Among the princesses, there are many knowledgeable female types, who are actively involved in various work.
So are Qatari women involved in sports? It was rarely reported in the media. However, in Qatar, most of the women seen in public are slim and seem more accepting of modern ideas, in order to stay healthy and in shape, they work out in private and have favorite sports activities. In some Arab countries, the idea that women are fat and beautiful still persists, but it is clear that Qataris have abandoned this tradition. In particular, the female hosts of Al Jazeera look and dress differently than their counterparts on Western television.
A female journalist covering the streets before the opening ceremony
A female presenter of the peninsula who precedes the opening ceremony with current affairs news
In any case, Qatar has demonstrated through the World Cup that it is a vibrant, modern country, repeatedly emphasizing the hospitality and friendliness of Arabs, as well as their time-honored cultural traditions, both at the opening ceremony and on other occasions. May this country, together with the entire Middle Eastern world, succeed in its transformation, fully modernize itself, and achieve long-term happiness and auspiciousness.
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