Sports, Politics, and Animal Cruelty, my post Olympics bitch…

Former PM John Howard walking with former Australian Wallabies Captain George Gregan

Who is using Who with sport?

Recently we witnessed the London Olympics, and whilst the games village was certainly flooded with competitors and officials, it was also flooded with politicians. Is sport an effective tool for politicians to win popularity, and should it be? It appears so obvious that is their aim? Are we so gullible to fall for it?

And are sports administrators any better? They cry foul and demand more money for their precious sports, while billions of people world-wide live without clean drinking water and quality health care.

Should all this money goes to sports instead of those in need?

Plus do we the masses, who seem totally addicted to sport, care? Or would we rather fund sporting events, athletes, players, etc., than shell out money to support charities and those in need?

Here are my classic examples of sport being used for political ends.

I think we need to be careful about investing too much in sports or those politicians who use sports as a way to earn favouritism. Sport has also been used as a weapon to terror and horror, as was the case with the slaughter of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich games, sport should be about sport, not making athletes rich, and I think that since so much is invested in it, then some of the funding should be used to support those less fortunate.

My top 5 examples of Politics and Sports

No.1 – The 1936 Berlin Olympic Games

Jesse Owens on the podium after winning the long jump, notice the Hitler salutes (Source Wikipedia)

Adolf Hitler used these games to promote Aryan superiority for Germany and his ideological of racial supremacy. The Olympics were used as a method of instilling unity among German youth. It was also believed that sport was a “way to weed out the weak, Jewish, and other undesirables.” As a result, many Jews and Gypsies were banned from participating. While Germany did top the medal table, the depiction of ethnic Africans as inferior was dispelled by Jesse Owens Gold Medals in the 100m, 200m, 4 x 100m relay and long jump events. There were questions as to whether Hitler acknowledged Owens’ victories. On the first day of competition, Hitler left the stadium after only shaking hands with the German victors.

No.2 – Cricket as a weapon against the apartheid regime of South Africa

Following the Basil D’Oliveira affair in 1968, where the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) refused to allow Basil D’Oliveira to play for England against South Africa for fear of upsetting the apartheid regime. Feeling against South Africa’s application of apartheid to sport grew to the extent that by 1971 the country was isolated in sporting terms. Its last Test series for 22 years had taken place against Australia in 1969-70. Nelson Mandela was released from Victor Verster Prison in Paarl on 11 February 1990. This event and date effectively marked the end of apartheid and the way was soon clear for the South African team to return to the international arena.

3. The Massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics

A member of the Arab Commando group which seized members of the Israeli Olympic Team at their quarters at the Munich Olympic Village

During the second week of the Munich Games, eight members of the Black September militant group penetrated the poorly secured Olympic Village and took Israeli team members hostage. A day later, all 11 were dead. German police killed five of the eight assassins during a failed rescue attempt and Israeli agents tracked down and killed the others.

4. The imprisonment of Muhammad Ali (aka Cassius Marcellus Clay)

Muhammad Ali took up political causes in his refusal to be drafted for the Vietnam War amid the civil rights era during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson. Already a rising star since high school, after earning the championship, Clay converted his religion to Islam, which instigated conflict with his boxing career. He also abandoned his name that was given to his slave ancestors and adopted Muhammad Ali. On April 28, 1967, he refused to serve in the Army during the Vietnam War, stating religious reasons that it goes against the Qur’an’s teaching.

He then became an icon of not only the civil rights struggle, but also the anti-Vietnam War movement. However he was convicted of draft evasion, sentenced to five years in prison, fined $10,000 and stripped off his championship. It was not until a lawsuit in 1970 that Ali redeemed his title. He would continue in historical boxing matches now known as the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ in 1974 and the ‘Thrilla in Manila’ in 1975, defeating George Foreman and Joe Frazier, respectively.

5. Ping Pong Diplomacy

In the 1970s an exchange of table tennis players from the United States and the People’s Republic of China led to a thaw in Sino-American relations that eventually led to U.S. President Richard Nixon’s rapprochement with China. It all began when the Chinese table tennis team invited their U.S. counterparts to their country on an all-expense paid trip during the 31st World Table Tennis Championship in Japan. Time magazine termed it: “The ping heard ’round the world.”

On April 10, 1971, the team, and accompanying journalists, became the first U.S. sports delegation to enter and break the information blockade since 1949. Although the U.S. team was defeated by their hosts, in return to Premier Chou En-lai’s invitation to more U.S. journalists, the United States government announced that it would lift its 20-year embargo on trade with China. A reporter for Time noted that table tennis was “an apt metaphor for the relations between Washington and Peking” and that both states showed a willingness to adapt to the new initiative.

But some Sports are just plain cruel and promote the use and abuse animals

However, what we do with or around our athletes doesn’t sicken me nearly as much as those sports that use, or are built around animal cruelty. It’s bad enough really when sport is just abusing people, but why in this day and age do we continue to hunt, kill, and maim animals for our amusement?

Fox Hunting

Dog Fighting

Bull Fighting

Duck Hunting

Cock Fighting

Steeplechases in horse racing (also dangerous for the riders too)

Capt. Savage

(Against all animal cruelty, and the use of sport for politics)

Except for…

Squashing Cane Toads…