Millennium Development Goooooooooooooooool

Dhaka transformed by World Cup Fever

Football* is powerful.  I've watched the streets of San Jose, Costa Rica transform into raucous parades of celebration of a World Cup qualifier, and toasted with free champagne in Paris when France won.  There's no escaping the football love.

I was not expecting Bangladesh to be quite so football crazed.  Yet the whole country has become nocturnal to follow the action.  Brazil and Argentina flags fly across the country, and in many places people have painted huge flags on open walls.  Messi is a national hero.

During the political demonstrations that crippled Bangladesh late in 2013, my friends said, "During the World Cup, there will be no political movements.  Everyone will be busy watching the games."

I suspect that this is true in many places, excepting of course the host country, where activists (rightly) use the limelight to call attention to urgent social issues.

Reading Gloria Steinem has gotten me thinking about the big "what if's"?  What if we weren't satisfied with the incremental progress of development in the world?

What if FIFA had development components in its admission criteria?  As in, in order to participate, countries would need to recognize certain human rights (for both men and women), and actually enforce?  Countries that stone women to death for adultery would perhaps not make the cut?  Anywhere with documented government sanction (including inaction) of human rights violations, like genocide, sexual slavery, child soldiers?

What if FIFA and the UN worked together on the Millennium Development Goals, and whatever follows them?  What if making education accessible to all children in your country was required to participate in the 2018 world cup?  What if access to clean water and a sewer system was a prerequisite for consideration?

What if countries had to face their citizens publicly, on a global stage, when they failed to make social progress?  What if all avid football fans suddenly started holding politicians accountable for transparency, social protections, and equity issues?  What if development achievements and failures got as much air time as coca cola?

What if companies had to pass a social impact screen in order to qualify to run ads, or sponsor the games?  What if workers' safety codes and sexual harassment policy were actually scrutinized regularly across the world?

What if everyone in the world had to, at least for one month, face the massive scale of inequity in our world today?  What if no political leader could hide?  And all the development agencies were also scrutinized by football fans at home, for not implementing policies that actually build local capacity and foster growth?

What if the world's superpowers actually wanted to see the end of poverty, as soon as possible?  Wouldn't we all get more involved?

The truth is, it's all possible, and we should make it happen.

*Soccer is an American creation.  Football is the globally accepted term.