இஸ்லாமுக்கு மதம் மாறாததால் NBA வீரருக்கு விசா ரத்து

இஸ்லாமுக்கு மதம் மாறாததால் NBA வீரருக்கு சூடான் அரசு விசா ரத்து செய்ததால், அவர் ஐந்து வருடங்கள் சூடானிலேயே தங்க நேரிட்டது.

என்.பி.ஏவில் பெரிய ஸ்டாராக இருந்த மானுட்டே போல் சூடானுக்கு திரும்பினார். அங்கு அவருக்கு விளையாட்டு மந்திரி பதவி தருவார்கள் என்று நினைத்திருந்தார். நடந்ததோ வேறு. அவர் இஸ்லாமுக்கு மதம் மாற வேண்டும் என்று சூடான் அரசாங்கம் அவரை நிர்ப்பந்தித்தது. போல் மறுத்தார். அதனால், அவரது விசா ரத்து செய்யப்பட்டது. இருப்பினும் அவர் இஸ்லாமுக்கு மதம் மாற முடியாது என்று பிடிவாதமாக இருந்திருக்கிறார்.

தற்போது தனது எல்லா செல்வங்களையும் தானமாக கொடுத்துவிட்டதனால், பிறரது தயவில் வாழ்ந்து வருகிறார்.


Former basketball player is still a big man for his people
By CANDACE BUCKNER
The Kansas City Star


Former NBA player Manute Bol has to duck to get through most doorways, and his home in Olathe is no exception. Bol is now living in the Kansas City area because it is the cultural capital for people of southern Sudanese descent in this country.
Manute of Olathe
Manute Bol is used to the stares.

Bol, who once caused a stir in the NBA with his 7-foot-7 frame, walks slowly, almost painfully, through Terminal C at Kansas City International Airport. He is still recovering from a car accident in 2004 that nearly killed him.

Bol is the second one to exit Flight 1751. Because the airport wasn’t made for men this tall, he must duck his head to walk into the busy terminal.

Midwestern manners are abandoned. People follow his every awkward step.

“What’s he doing in town here?” asks Randy Culp, a business traveler.

He lives here.

Manute Bol moved to Olathe because of his people, and all great chiefs take care of their people.

Kansas City is the cultural capital for those of southern Sudanese descent living in America, a place where decisions are made on everything from beauty pageants to ideas to aid their homeland.

“Every time they do something,” Bol says, “they have to do it here, because Kansas City is supportive.”

Bol, 44, has lived here since July 7 and has instantly become an easily recognizable celebrity in the area. Besides his NBA fame, Bol has long been a leading voice for the crisis in southern Sudan. Genocide and civil war have ravaged his home country. And although the charitable cause is popular now, Bol was funding thousands of refugees as far back as the early 1990s. Even after he retired, Bol took part in several publicity stunts — like becoming the world’s tallest jockey, boxer and hockey player — to raise money for Sudan.

Lual Akoon, a member of the expanding Kansas City Sudanese community, says leaders like Bol are called beny, which means “chief.”

His millions may be gone, but Bol still carries the weight of the community on his back. Even if that back can barely carry him.

“Manute is a guy who loves where the people are,” Akoon says. “Manute means a lot to us now. More than ever.”

•••

The big man made a big name for himself in 1985 when he became the tallest player and first African to be drafted into the NBA. During that season, he set a rookie record for 397 blocked shots. Bol was instantly a hit back home and popular among the Sudanese community in America. He carried an entourage before he was even drafted.

“He likes to be surrounded by a lot of people — that’s part of his upbringing,” Bol’s cousin Ed Bona says. “But that has a price.

“Some of them are friends; some of them are hangers-on. That’s the nature of the entourage. Some people care for you, and some people just want to be there.”

Although Bol afforded himself many of the spoils of the American dream, during his offseasons he traveled to Sudanese refugee camps. He donated his own money — reportedly $3.5 million while he was in the NBA.

Bol could have simply retired and been remembered for his towering presence had his homeland not needed him so much.

“A lot of people know me, not because I’m tall or that I’m a basketball player,” Bol says, “but what I did for my country.”

•••

Bol is a long way from his NBA fame and fortune.

In 1995, Bol returned to his country under the belief that he would become the minister of sport, but that position was contingent on Bol, a Christian, converting to Islam. He refused, so the government revoked his visa, and Bol was stranded in Sudan for nearly five years.

When Bol, who has four children from a previous marriage, was released, his NBA fortune was gone. Still, he moved to Connecticut with his second wife, Ajok, and son, Bol, and spent his days as one of the most visible advocates for the Sudanese cause
Then in June 2004, Bol was a passenger in a speeding taxi. The driver was drunk and slammed into a highway guardrail. The impact killed the driver and mangled Bol, who was ejected from his seat. Bol suffered broken bones in his neck, extensive hand and wrist injuries and a dislocated knee. He was hospitalized for more than a month, and until last September needed a cane to walk.

“At first I thought, ‘Why me, God? I thought I helped a lot of people,’ ” Bol says. “But I still made it, because God did it for me. I don’t complain, because I’m alive and I’m walking.”

In a twist of fate, the man who spent so much helping others would need the money he once gave away. However, friends such as former Golden State Warriors teammate Chris Mullin organized a fund-raiser to pay Bol’s medical bills. Bol lives mostly off money from the fund-raiser and his speaking engagements — from people who care about him.

“He’s a generous person,” Bona says. “But the irony with him is the people who help him are not the south Sudanese people. It’s his good friends from America.”

•••

Bol likes everything about the two-story home he is renting in Olathe. The four bedrooms, three baths and finished basement. But especially the quiet cul-de-sac it rests near. The neighborhood keeps his Ajok happy.

The house is already set up and decorated with Ajok’s touch. A framed picture of Bol in a generic NBA uniform, the only open display of his former lifestyle, hangs on the family-room wall. His home is always packed. Just last weekend, many friends and family filled the rooms when Kansas City was host of the Miss South Sudan beauty pageant. Even with his crippled hands, Bol barbecued chicken for the remaining guests later in the week.

He still gets calls for speaking engagements and plans to travel later this summer to Nairobi. There’s little he is able to give these days, but Bol remains a man of the people.

“I have to help my people,” Bol says. “I love my people.”