I was on BBC Radio Ulster/ Raidio Uladh’s ‘Sunday
Sequence’ this morning with David Vance. I’d never met him before but as often
happens, I found him thoroughly likeable. Maybe I should see a head-doctor – I keep meeting and liking people whose views, political and
otherwise, I vigorously reject.
Anyroad, our topic for
discussion this morning was the wearing of the hijab/headscarf by a young woman from Saudi Arabia in
the judo section of the Olympic Games. David figured that allowing her to wear
it was to cave in to Islam’s demands yet again. Cheesh. You
might as well say the Olympic authorities caved in to the nutters who pushed
for protective head-gear for boxers, to Oscar Pistorius the double-amputee who insisted
on wearing artificial limbs when running, or to international
male lust by including beach volleyball on the list of Olympic competitions.
David’s argument – it wasn’t
always easy to follow – was that allowing the hijab was somehow a display of weakness by the International Olympic Council. Eh? The IOC weak? Try that with the sports authorities in
Istanbul. It’s a mainly-Muslim city with a 75,000-seater stadium that has
applied five times to host the Olympic games and has been
five times rejected. Other big
Muslim cities like Cairo and Kuala Lumpur get a similar brush-off. On the other
hand London has hosted the games three times, ditto Tokyo, Madrid twice. Cave
in? You surely jest.
The IOC is too busy caving into
commercialism. Watch for fifteen minutes on telly and you’ll see what I mean - athletes sporting advertisements for Speedo, Asics, Nike and
Adidas. Then there’s Omega and Coca-cola. Rule 50 of the Olympic charter prohibits any
kind of “demonstration of
political, religious or racial propaganda in any Olympic sites, venues or other
areas”. Yet you regularly see athletes blessing themselves, pointing to heaven
when they win, draping themselves in their national flag, and the league-table
for medals-by-nation is regularly flashed on our screens. And I seem to remember national anthems sounding at the medal awards ceremonies. But maybe
that isn’t seen as propaganda.
Finally, does the name Damian
Hooper ring a bell? He’s an Aborigine man boxing for Australia, and he made the
mistake of entering the ring wearing a t-shirt with the Aborigine flag on
it. The Australian Olympic
Committee rapped his knuckles for him: how dare he bring politics into the Olympics?
Right. And yet last night, Jessica
Ennis, Greg Rutherford and Mo Farah were draped in their national flag
immediately on winning gold medals. Justified cheers rather than knuckle-raps.
A bit inconsistent, wouldn't you say? Compared to all that, it seems hardly worthwhile getting your knickers in a twist over a headscarf,
does it David?
You can hear our discussion at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/b01lbhb1 Start at 15mins 40 secs into the programme.
You can hear our discussion at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/b01lbhb1 Start at 15mins 40 secs into the programme.
Good points Jude. You don't need a head doctor. You need to keep working on your self-imposed encounter group therapy sessions. You're not starting to warn to multi-cultural Olympic winning Britain are you? You'd be entitled to. Ennis is an Irish town after all.
ReplyDeleteI stopped watching the Olympics many years ago,when they allowed professionals to compete. The whole spirit of the Olympics went out the window when that happened.
ReplyDeleteNow it's all commercialized and politicized. The greedy corporate psychopaths have no shame and the politicians are falling all over themselves to cash in on the sweat and pain of "their" athletes. That is of course, if "there" athletes win .
The naval gazing and disgusting narcissism of the top nations turns me off.
The modern day Olympics and the TV coverage are sickening. And no matter which country, the bile that spews out of your TV is so phony and superficial, it creates a false sense of national pride.
No sir I do not watch this circus they call the Olympics. Especially here in North America. American and Canadian TV coverage of the games is like one big soap opera. In other words, it's a joke.
Jude,
ReplyDeleteVance consistently mocks and abuses those who appear with him on air (on what he calls the *biased BBC* and who engage with his hate-site. You should look at what he and an American blogger *Troll* post there - racial hatred, pure and simple. Don't dignify him with your presence and check out his site for his mockery of you and your reasonableness.