mikesiva wrote:gollygosh wrote:Mike
The corruption is endemic - the last disaster in pakistan (the earthquake) - Ive heard that only $1 in ever $6 donated by the international community actually got where it was intended. The rest lined pockets of officials and paid for false invoices etc. Why do you think the UN has had such a problem in getting the international community to donate this time?
These cricketers are simply applying the same approach - if you can make a dollar, do so. "Honour of Pakistan" - "Love of Country" - what a joke! why should these cricketers behave any better than their politicians and their administrators?
I still think it's unfair to draw a correlation between some Pakistani cricketers succumbing to greed, and a corrupt government....
We didn't make overall generalisations about Saffer society when Hansie Cronje and a few other SOuth African cricketers were found out doing much worse - match-fixing. To me, they're two separate issues:
1) spot-fixing in cricket;
2) governmental corruption.
There are so many other unfair comparisons we could make about other countries....
1) Is the number of American athletes, including Justin Gatlin, testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs linked to the poor, incompetent response of the Bush administration to the Katrina disaster?
2) Is the incident of the black West Indian pace bowler, Marlon Black, being beaten up on a WI tour of Australia linked to Australia's poor treatment of black aborigines in the past?
3) Is the non-selection of players like Michael Carberry, Ravi Bopara and Ajmal Shahzad linked to Britain's colonial past in the subcontinent and the Caribbean?
4) Is the death of Bob Woolmer in Jamaica linked to that island's high murder rate?
My answer to all of the above would be 'no', because those are unfair comparisons to make. We also need to consider that while most of those implicated in spot-fixing are Pakistanis, other players from other coutnires have been implicated in the past, including Marlon Samuels from Jamaica and Australians Shane Warne and Mark Waugh. Does this also raise questions about the social and political cultures of Jamaica and Australia?
And as for donations to Pakistan following the floods, Pakistan governmental corruption has little to do with the poor response. As in the case of Haiti, most donations would go thru UN agencies and charities, and little of it would actually be controlled by the Pakistan government. No, the reason why the UN has had such a problem in getting the international community to donate this time has more to do with Pakistan being Muslim, and being demonised in the world press, as the US tries to find an excuse why their campaign is failing in Afghanistan....