11-Jul-13: Football and barefaced hypocrisy

When you next hear or read about the desperate lack of resources in bankrupt Egypt, the cost of reinstating the devastated facilities of civil war-ravaged Syria and Libya, and (especially) the perennial budget shortfall of UNRWA which means yet another generation of Palestinian Arab children have to go barefoot and textbook-less and their parents and siblings must endure mediocre to horrible healthcare because their two governments - the PA and Hamas - are unable to find the money to pay the bills... pause.

Pause, and remind yourself about the perennial bloodcurdling exhortations to Arab brotherhood, solidarity and ultimate victory over the infidel enemies and especially over you-know-who...

And then read this from Associated Press:

Deloitte: Qatar to spend $200 billion for World Cup| 11:29 a.m. EDT July 9, 2013 | DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) | A report from Deloitte says the oil-and-gas rich nation of Qatar plans to spend $200 billion over the next decade as it prepares to host the 2022 World Cup. The report, released on Tuesday, said $140 billion of that will be for transportation infrastructure including a new airport, roads and a metro system to deal with the 400,000 fans expected for the month-long tournament. Another $20 billion will go to tourism infrastructure as the Persian Gulf nation expects the number of tourists to reach 3.7 million annually by 2022. Qatar was awarded the World Cup in December 2010, beating out the United States, Australia, Japan and South Korea. It was a surprise choice considering the summer heat exceeds 40 degrees (104 F) in the desert country. | Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 

UNRWA's total annual budget is about six-tenths of one percent of what Qatar is going to spend on football facilities. To say that another way, Qatar could pay for the entire cost of UNRWA's works, something it and the entire brotherhood of Arab states claims to deeply encourage and support, 167 times over - and that's just from its football budget.

In the 2012 overall official list of donors to UNRWA, and in the 2012 official published table of governments who give to UNRWA, Qatar does not appear at all. Go figure. Either they are offside or we are.