Paraguay scored an upset win over Germany in the round of 32 match between the two nations on Monday. The game was tied at one goal apiece at the end of regulation and after extra time. Paraguay went on to win the match on penalties, sending the team and its fans into delirium.

It is completely natural to expect that kind of ecstasy when a country like Paraguay defeats a soccer powerhouse such as Germany, which has won the World Cup four times. But I was quite surprised to learn that the president of Paraguay declared a national holiday the day after for the country’s population to celebrate the victory. He wanted citizens to “come together and celebrate a day that united millions of compatriots under a single flag and renewed the hopes of an entire people.”

The declaration of a national holiday would be understandable if it were a case of Paraguay winning the World Cup final. Doing so after a round of 32 match struck me as quite odd.

I later learned something else that was even more baffling. I found out that in Ghana, the government procured tickets for Ghanaians in the diaspora to attend matches and cheer on the national team. When I first saw references to it on social media, I thought it was fake news. But it turned out it was real. The national daily newspaper reported that the government purchased approximately 1,000 tickets, handed out by lottery, for each of Ghana’s three matches in the group stage. The government is said to have originally planned to fly fans from Ghana to support the team but found that to be too expensive since it would have involved accommodation, meals, and local transportation.

Paraguay and Ghana are both poor countries so it is crucially important for their governments to set their priorities right. In Ghana, my native country, there are millions of people who struggle to afford meals and the most basic necessities of life. Children attend classes in stark, empty rooms—if you can even call them classrooms. Why should the government of such a country spend its scarce resources so frivolously?

African immigrants like me who live in America are a lot more comfortable financially than those who reside in Africa. We may not be wealthy, but we are treated like kings when we visit our native countries, simply because the vast majority of people there are dirt poor. We certainly do not need the government of that impoverished country paying for us to attend matches.

My family and I attended Ghana’s last group game against Croatia in Philadelphia on Saturday. We gladly paid for our tickets. I saw thousands of other Ghanaians in the stadium and the overwhelming majority of them must have purchased their own tickets as well. That means there were already enough people here to cheer on the national team, without the government having to assume that unnecessary burden.

Across the world today, there is too much economic strife. There are millions of desperate people who need their governments to demonstrate a lot more seriousness than they do currently.