The World Cup imposed a special rhythm on all of us in our daily lives. We wake up to sleep to the impact of the matches, and what happens in the vicinity of the stadiums and in the streets and markets of the movement and activity of the fans. Indeed, the Qatar World Cup has changed my personal habits.
It was not correct to say that the World Cup is just a spectacle or sports competition that raises the fans' diet or just an engine for different economies, because in this game what really changes individuals and societies.
Perhaps we did not realize that during the decades of our follow-up to this event while we were in front of the television set, we only deal with it as a visual image that stirs our imagination and pleasure.
The circle of cultural and community initiatives expanded to make this edition of the World Cup truly exceptional (Al-Jazeera)
While the matter is different, and we live inside the event and close to the details, scenes and phenomena that raise it.
The matter seemed different, but rather another realization similar to a kind of emotional and mental involvement in what is happening, not in the stadiums but even outside them in the streets, public places, commercial centers, markets, means of transportation, and even in the virtual spaces that our digital age offers from Facebook walls, Twitter tweets, Instagram worlds and other things. Applications.
Can anyone today in Qatar say that the World Cup passed from here without arousing something in it, or moving an idea in it, or pushing it to do something noble and the world to host it?
The circle of cultural and societal initiatives has expanded to make this edition of the World Cup truly exceptional.
Cultural institutions hastened to furnish various programs and events for the benefit of the fans. Doha has become a real beehive that does not rest, and every day that I follow developments, I have the feeling that the World Cup has turned into a cultural event. its deep.
And what I stood on in a very important book issued by Al-Araby Al-Jadeed under the title “The Magic of Football: Writers from the East and West Talk about Passion for the Most Joyful Game.” It was prepared and edited by Professor Maan Al-Bayari, and the book really included the experiences of writers in their relationship with football, and I found It contains important revelations and confessions of creators from all continents about the status of football in their lives, some of whom were involved in the game, and some of them continued to follow and encourage it. The funny thing about all of these testimonies is their participation in acknowledging the "magic" practiced by the most popular sport in the world.
From that, what the Greek poet Dimitris Angelis said, "Football is an expression of a passion that still unites or divides us. In other words, it excites us, enchants us, and makes us feel alive, even if our physical participation is minimal, and we are unable to do anything except jump and shout." Because of anxiety, while we were watching a football match from the sofa or the stands of the stadium, we inevitably got involved in this game with varying degrees and felt that we had become part of the event, and suddenly the “consumers of spectacle” turned into “producers of spectacle”. What only changes is the subject of spectacle, and the rules of play. !
And if the book expresses the transformation of "football" into a part of a writer's story, and part of his life's journey, with varying effects, then football did not account for the formation of a certain identity for the players, but was able to contribute in each session to raising the issue of "identities" and the difference of cultures, In this World Cup, Qatar succeeded in imposing a "cultural style" that transcends the principles that have long been raised by international institutions, and we have no doubt that the cultural events that were organized in many spaces reflected cultural diversity to the extent that many of them expressed the "cultural identity" of the host country. With its back to the issue of identity and its components, it was one of the bets of the World Cup that the Qataris present their culture and convince the world of their ability to interact with those who respect them.
Cultural institutions sought to spread awareness of national culture and express interaction with other cultures, such as what was done by the General Foundation for the Cultural Village "Katara", where it organized hundreds of events, in various creative genres, and also organized the twelfth edition of the Katara International Festival of Traditional Bearings, In addition to the street arts festival that takes place in all its halls, and brings together artists, actors and musicians from all over the world to freely and responsibly present their creativity individually or collectively.
Qatar Museums organized the "Qatar Creates" initiative by holding art exhibitions, and placed more than 80 models across Qatar.
Qatari institutions sought in the "Katara" neighborhood to spread awareness of national culture (Al-Jazeera)
Qatar National Library also implemented the “Sports Information Challenge” activity, which requires children to read short articles about sports and answer questions related to it, in addition to the documentary exhibition “Gooool! Kick-off for Football in Qatar”, which sheds light on the journey of football, its history and its prosperity in the State of Qatar from its beginnings to the present time.
The Ministry of Culture inaugurated the new and permanent headquarters of “Darb Al-Saai” in Umm Salal Muhammad, which is a heritage area. Rather, all social groups rushed to express this, so each individual turned into an ambassador for his country, and an interpreter of the culture of grandparents and fathers.
The Ministry of Culture inaugurated "Darb Al-Saai" in the "Umm Salal Muhammad" heritage area to present a new vision of Qatari culture (Al-Jazeera)
The Qataris welcomed the guests of their country, despite what was propagated in the western media of falsehoods, and the citizens near Al-Thumama stadium received the fans, carrying water, fruits and sweets to be presented to them as a sign of good hospitality, and children in many places gave the fans roses.
As for the councils, a large number of them received the visitors of the World Cup, and they had an opportunity to get acquainted with the Qatari culture, sit with the Qataris and exchange views. He wants to get to know the different, in the context of the generosity that the Qataris did not skimp on offering every day of the World Cup.
Providing hot drinks and sweets to the fans of the World Cup "Qatar 2022" (communication sites)
I often spoke, lectured, wrote articles and wrote books about the importance of "building bridges" between cultures, and in this great World Cup I found my letters turned into facts, and I believed more that my case was not just desperate attempts to achieve some of humanity's dreams of rapprochement between peoples. By adhering to their national identity and culture, the Qataris were able to build that bridge that did not require - as Westerners imagined - that the people of local cultures give up their culture and identity, or that they adopt those great principles of respect for others and human rights, provided that they give up the national identity and accept everything in the name of "prostration and dependence." Western culturally.
This is a new lesson presented by Qataris, Arabs, and fans from all countries of the world who lived through the World Cup experience, to declare that coexistence is possible without conditions imposed by a perverted vision of principles and the dominance of narrow marginal and factional issues in order to confuse the event. Therefore, questions of identity and the cultural relationship between Arabs and the West have returned once again. The World Cup stirred the "collective memory" of peoples. Arabs and Muslims found specialization in the impressive organizational success of the World Cup as a kind of restoring the Arab-Islamic glories when we were leading the way of civilization. New and draws the horizon of hope to resume what our civilization was.
The World Cup was not only an opportunity to promote our Arab-Islamic culture, but also contributed to creating a popular platform to remind the Palestinian cause as a humanitarian issue before it was political. Fans are from all over the world, and this is evidence of the legitimacy of this issue, and that sport does not obscure the human depth of issues, given that it involves humanitarian ideals above all.
The fans used to raise the flag of Palestine during the "Qatar 2022" World Cup (Reuters)
What the World Cup has done is deeper than what some imagine in terms of statistics and achievements in buildings because it is related to what I call “motivating” the historical memory, because this memory is one of the engines for the progress of peoples, and Western powers worked in the past to undermine it, but the mirror of the World Cup proved It is not possible to manipulate this memory, so the cultural aspects of the World Cup are considered the pillars of this memory, and if some parts of the memory fell into oblivion for many reasons, the World Cup also revitalized what is in oblivion to come out to life again, and so we see the World Cup as a bridge A new way towards the world and progress, and a new bridge towards our civilized memory so that “the scourge of our neighborhood will not remain forgetfulness,” as Naguib Mahfouz once said.
Qataris were able to "build bridges" between cultures by adhering to their national identity (Al-Jazeera)