Many, if not the overwhelming majority, in Pakistan don’t know much about Liberia. We are in South Asia, they are in West Africa. We are associated with the Arabian Sea, they have Atlantic Ocean. We are accustomed to a sprinkling of controlled democratic periods with regular “peaceful interruptions”. The successful and unsuccessful coups in Liberia were bloody and the country has suffered long, bloody civil wars too. We are famous of cotton and mangoes, they are known for blood diamonds. We mostly have dry weather with rains limited to winter and monsoons, they have tropical rainforests.
So why waste time when nothing is common between the two countries? Wait please! There are two things – football and cricket. But what are the commonalities between the two? Ball albeit the size is different. And you can perceive the balls used in football and cricket as the people.
Still confused? No more ambiguities. Liberia has a former footballer George Weah as the elected president and we have Imran Khan as selected – oops, sorry, pardon my language, it was just a slip of tongue – as elected prime minister. And most importantly, both made great promises to their voters.
So what? That’s nothing extraordinary. What? Did Brazil have Pele and Zico as presidents? Did France opt for Platini and England for Botham or Boycott and Australia for Bradman? Where are Nadia Comăneci and Martina Navratilova? And Ukraine is a great example. They recently preferred Zelensky and didn’t even bother to consider Bubka.
So, having a sportsman at the helm of affairs is itself a great, if not the greatest, political achievement just like a Revolution. Hence, both Liberia and Pakistan have executed their Revolutions.
Coming back to football and cricket, Weah faced currency scandal. Billions freshly-printed Liberian dollars went missing. And who was blamed for this episode? It was former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Well! We didn’t have to go through the trauma of missing currency. One has to thankful to Almighty Allah for this. Nothing goes missing in Pakistan except the people.
However, we have a little problem with our currency too. Although we have our rupee firmly in our hands, and, in fact, we, the commoners, are now holding our rupees even more firmly, because it is losing its value. We can even argue that the guests (dollars) are respected in our country. In short, currency too is a common feature of new Liberia and new Pakistan.
When it comes to overall economic situation, things aren’t that like some glorious football or cricket match.
“It’s hard to pinpoint who’s in control or responsible for Liberia’s current economic collapse, but the economy from all indications is in shambles,” said a media report about Liberia.
“Hard to pinpoint who’s in control or responsible”? Does it sound familiar? Was Liberia once part of South Asia but later separated and floated far away?
Wait a minute! What people are saying about Pakistan?
“Hence, it must be realised that it isn’t the PTI which is to be blamed for this economic turmoil. In fact, it is the powers which engineered the political discourse to pave the way for the PTI to come into power. And it is now the best time to point out that why Pakistan is facing the grave economic and political crisis.”
Okay! I am tired of this football-cricket, sorry, Liberia-Pakistan similarities episode. Do you want to read more? Click this link. It is this blog by Farzana Rasheed, that triggered this write-up.
https://potatogreens.blogspot.com/2019/07/letter-from-pakistan-to-liberia.html?spref=tw
So why waste time when nothing is common between the two countries? Wait please! There are two things – football and cricket. But what are the commonalities between the two? Ball albeit the size is different. And you can perceive the balls used in football and cricket as the people.
Still confused? No more ambiguities. Liberia has a former footballer George Weah as the elected president and we have Imran Khan as selected – oops, sorry, pardon my language, it was just a slip of tongue – as elected prime minister. And most importantly, both made great promises to their voters.
So what? That’s nothing extraordinary. What? Did Brazil have Pele and Zico as presidents? Did France opt for Platini and England for Botham or Boycott and Australia for Bradman? Where are Nadia Comăneci and Martina Navratilova? And Ukraine is a great example. They recently preferred Zelensky and didn’t even bother to consider Bubka.
So, having a sportsman at the helm of affairs is itself a great, if not the greatest, political achievement just like a Revolution. Hence, both Liberia and Pakistan have executed their Revolutions.
Coming back to football and cricket, Weah faced currency scandal. Billions freshly-printed Liberian dollars went missing. And who was blamed for this episode? It was former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Well! We didn’t have to go through the trauma of missing currency. One has to thankful to Almighty Allah for this. Nothing goes missing in Pakistan except the people.
However, we have a little problem with our currency too. Although we have our rupee firmly in our hands, and, in fact, we, the commoners, are now holding our rupees even more firmly, because it is losing its value. We can even argue that the guests (dollars) are respected in our country. In short, currency too is a common feature of new Liberia and new Pakistan.
When it comes to overall economic situation, things aren’t that like some glorious football or cricket match.
“It’s hard to pinpoint who’s in control or responsible for Liberia’s current economic collapse, but the economy from all indications is in shambles,” said a media report about Liberia.
“Hard to pinpoint who’s in control or responsible”? Does it sound familiar? Was Liberia once part of South Asia but later separated and floated far away?
Wait a minute! What people are saying about Pakistan?
“Hence, it must be realised that it isn’t the PTI which is to be blamed for this economic turmoil. In fact, it is the powers which engineered the political discourse to pave the way for the PTI to come into power. And it is now the best time to point out that why Pakistan is facing the grave economic and political crisis.”
Okay! I am tired of this football-cricket, sorry, Liberia-Pakistan similarities episode. Do you want to read more? Click this link. It is this blog by Farzana Rasheed, that triggered this write-up.
https://potatogreens.blogspot.com/2019/07/letter-from-pakistan-to-liberia.html?spref=tw