That is what it feels like and it does that because I looked into these things from a surprise point. You see, in the last two years I looked at the Hajj, not because I am a Muslim, but because of the Saudi responsibility that they took for their pilgrims. A pilgrimage that takes care of over 1.8 million people in 5 days is a huge undertaking and as far as I can tell, they had less health victims then a Taylor swift concert having 500,000 attendees. Consider that 300% more attendees and less victims. They had arranged for cooling spots with water and shade settings. It would still have been hot and there is no denying that. There is just one thing. The attendees must have an official Hajj Pass. It is the only way this is possible, there are just too many people to deal with and that is the directive that the Saudi government gives. You mist be registered and you need to have a Hajj permit. The Guardian gives doubt on this and the story of Zirrar Ali’s story by making it a climate breakdown. My reasoning for this is “If your group hasn’t organised transportation, you have to walk between three places, wearing sandals. They’re quite close to each other, but because of traffic and lack of transportation, half an hour away becomes four hours.” We were all clearly told that there was busses organized for all holders off the Hajj pass. The Hajj pass gave you access to the busses, then we get a debatable setting “You can’t rehydrate or get shade. The heat quickly becomes dangerous. Volunteers give away cold water. I would get a bottle of water and down it in about five seconds, feeling like I’m going to pass out.” That is debatable, because of the two images we are all given:
Where we see that these tents are shaded and even included an organized setting of zircon units.
Then we see a tent setting where people stayed overnight and it is the biggest tent setting I ever beheld (on a picture) but I have never seen anything like this.
But there is one hitch, they are meant for the holders of the Hajj permit. And I saw the website where all the registration could be done, it was by far one of the most impressive sites I ever beheld. It was wholly impressive. The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah had delivered (in my eyes) pure perfection. They had years of experience, but the perfection I witnessed was still overwhelming. So as I see “There’s a fight for any shade. There are people sleeping in the compartments where you put the luggage in buses. People are trying to find one little angle where the truck or the car will give you shade. That’s the difference between getting heatstroke and not. Elderly people are passing out under a tree or near the entrance of the mosques.” I see that the Guardian is claiming pure nonsense, if this happens it is because of people who didn’t want to go the pure way, the Hajj permit way. People who got duped by dodgy tour operators and they should have done a much better job of their journalism, not making it a “This is climate breakdown” story. I reckon that when you get to “You spend that night sleeping outside in the open, on pebbles and dirt with thousands of people. We went from being very individualistic people into one cohesive body. At the start of the hajj, I’d seen people jumping queues to get on to buses and fighting. By the end of the five days, you realise: “No one else is going to help us. We have to help each other.” This is no longer: “I’m from country X, therefore I’m more eligible for this than you are.” You give advice, you give your umbrella, you give water. I realised this is what I came for.” The Hajj gives all kinds of options and busses, so this is utter nonsense. I might accept that Hajj permit owners might want to stay the night at Mount Arafat, I reckon that is a purity feeling of a Muslim, but that feeling would be one of a Muslim, I am not one. But I have seen (wth my own eyes) the extent the Saudi Government went to to make every Hajj a decent experience, from military kitchens that bring more perfection than the kitchens of the United States Army does (not disrespecting the kitchens of the US army) but even YouTube shows how some of the kitchens are managed and it is impressive to see. We see the tents and yes there are volunteers in the field and some might hand water to non pass holders. It is up to them. But this article is all about deflection and misdirection. The one issue we do not see is that “About 83% of the deceased were unregistered pilgrims who lacked official permits.” So 1301 victims, in a Hajj where 1.6 million attended. This means that the Hajj had 221 victims in an event where 1,600,000 attended. I think that this number is unbelievable. It comes down to 0.0138125% fatalities in a setting of almost 2 million. That is almost unheard of and I see it as a clear sign that the Hajj is managed to utmost perfection and the Guardian had no business doing the article they did, especially when they leave out the factors I just mentioned. You don’t have to be a Muslim to admire the achievement the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah delivered here. Just my take on the issue.
Have a great day today
