Last week, ESPN and others applauded Japan fans at the World Cup of football, who stayed to clean up after their shock win over Germany:
According to the New York Times, it is a cultural thing:
The image of spectators calmly assuming janitorial duties during the World Cup has charmed observers from other countries, like the United States, where slaloming around sticky soda spills, toppled bags of popcorn and mini mountains of peanut shells is often accepted as part of the normal sports stadium experience.
But in Japan, tidiness, particularly in public spaces, is widely accepted as a virtue. Japanese people at the game said such habits were taught at home and reinforced at schools, where students from a young age are expected to clean up their classrooms and school facilities on a regular basis.
The cleaning of shared areas, like stadiums, becomes something of an individual responsibility, and there are often not armies of workers hired to do it.
Can you guess the reaction of at least one “pro-palestinian” who went viral?
Old and busted: Where’s Waldo?
New hotness: Where’s Mo?
I assume he refers to the guy as “palestinian” because he seems to be wearing a keffiyeh – although he could very well just be someone who is pro-palestinian/anti-Israel.
And even if he was a palestinian Arab, I think we can agree looking after your surroundings is not really part of the culture.
Be that as it may, this is reminiscent of the “what about us”-ism we witnessed when the world turned its attention to the Ukraine. Heck, it is also reminiscent of their World Cup “what about us” -ism I wrote about yesterday.
