There are a few incredibly important events in the world of sports, ones that focus the attention of billions of people and allow national pride to run rampant in a contest that fulfills instead of destroys.
There is also a heck of a lot of money at stake.
The 2008 Olympics cost China more than they will recover, but that like all Olympics is simply money spent to buy a forum for national glory. Every modern Olympic host city has proven to be an incredible money-sink for the host country. But to the sponsors, the advertisers, and to the National Olympic Committees, the Olympics are a boon.
There are other world-wide events of similar impact. Probably the most famous everywhere *except* North America is World Cup, FIFA's national teams contest for soccer (football) supremacy.
The next World Cup finals will be held for a month, starting 11.June, 2010, in...
...South Africa.
South Africa?
The faint shadow of the Republic of South Africa? The one run by Thabo Mbeki (you sir are not Nelson Mandela) and likely soon to be run by Jacob Zuma, and both of them implicated in a wide corruption scandal? The same Thabo Mbeki who is the primary protector of Robert Mugabe's travesty of a regime in Zimbabwe (former Rhodesia)? The same South Africa with awe-inspiring rates of the crimes of Assault, Armed Assault, Murder, and the world's leading rate of Rape?
Tell me again how letting them host the World Cup is a good idea.
Open Ground:
Lots to go after here: Evil Corporate Sponsors of Sports; Euro-blindness to supporting corrupt regimes; The ruin of South Africa; African political nightmares in general; heck, feel free to go after this author for his arrogance of casting damnation on FIFA, the ANC, or the current regime in South Africa.
swing away!
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23 comments:
Just about every international sporting event is going to have this problem. There are just too many friends-of-friends-of-friends to allow any country to be singled out as too dangerous|corrupt|tyranical|insert adjective here for the "honor" of hosting the event.
We managed to make S.A. a pariah during the last several years of apartheid, but I can't imagine something similar happening today.
I have chosen not to watch the Olympics this year for a variety of reasons. Not least of those is my opinion of the current mainland government.
To address the other theme of your post -- to expand it really -- don't forget the sub-saharan Africa HIV/AIDS controversy. Wasn't it Mbeki who was denying the HIV-AIDS link?
I know we recently learned that there was a vast overstatement of the number of AIDS cases in that part of the world, but there is still a problem. When you combine the HIV infection rate with the rape rate you find a very scary scenario.
At least SA has very low gun crime. They have very strict gun laws.
People just beat eachother to death with clubs instead.
S.A. is becoming as corrupt as any other in Africa. Didn't they have to disband the S.A. Special Police unit becayse they found so much corruption of senior A.N.C. opfficials that Zuma lobbied to have the very popular and telegenic force disbanded? At least they were all hired by private security firms or other countries.
But, again with the sports!!
Scott
@will
Yes, T. Mbeki is an HIV-denier. His first Health Minister was even worse...
@karl
Yes, the anti-corruption special police did make the Zuma case. Yes, they were then disbanded.
"No good deed goes..." and all that.
Repost, corrected date:
Ok, now for today's trivia question:
The 2014 Winter Olympics will be held where?
Bonus:
What is the ethnic origin of the name of that city?
shot in the dark-- Sochi, Russia?
diverse ethnic backgrounds
2010- Vancouver- (we were talking about this Sunday at a gathering)
So are the Chinese cheating and lying about the ages of the girls competing in gymnastics?
From the 15th century the coast was controlled by the local mountaineer clans, nominally under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire. It was ceded to Russia in 1829 as a result of the Russo-Turkish War.
In 1838, the fort of Alexandria, renamed Navaginsky a year later, was founded at the mouth of the Sochi River to protect the area from Circassian incursions. During the Crimean War the garrison was evacuated from Navaginsky in order to reinforce active forces.
In 1896, the settlement acquired its present name, derived from the local Sochi River. Town status was granted to Sochi in 1917.
From 1918 to 1919 the town and its environs saw sporadic armed clashes involving the Red Army, White movement forces and the Democratic Republic of Georgia. Sochi was established as a fashionable resort area in the years of the Soviet Union when Joseph Stalin had his favourite dacha built in the city; Stalin's study, complete with a wax statue of the leader, is now open to the public
Yes, 2014 is at Sochi
re: "From the 15th century the coast was controlled by the local mountaineer clans, nominally under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire."
And those "mountaineer clans" were who? Hint: the very name Sochi is a corruption of the original name in what language?
the mountaineer clans were the Ubyykh people-- spoke Ubyx--Northwestern Caucasian--
Greek: Κολχίς, Kolchís)
nope, that sub-group moved in after the Turks took the area, if I recall correctly.
"mountaineer clans" is also a euphamism for the original residents, who were...?
...and don't say the Sadz.
They are an Abkhazian subgroup, never controlled the area.
Georgia
Ancient Georgian Kingdoms of Colchis and Iberia, The kingdom of Colchis, which existed from the sixth to the first centuries B.C.E is presented as the first Georgian state.
Your connecting the dots here-- Russia's Olympics to be held i 2014 and today's conflict?
*Ta-DAH!*
We have a winner. Yes, the name is originally a Georgian name, and yes from Colchis all the way up to the 1000 years of the Western Georgian Kingdom (lasted until the 15th Century), that land was indisputably Georgian.
and yes, it was a connect-the-dots exercise... and an ironic one at that.
Mingrelians
dang--
and to think I figured it out! sort of--now I am reading about the Mingrelians-- that is how far back I have gone--
this is fun!
dang-- one starts reading something and then more comes into play-
Never even heard of these guys-
The first President of an independent Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, was a Mingrelian. After the violent Coup d'etat of December 21, 1991-January 6, 1992, Mingrelia became the centre of a civil war, which ended with the defeat of Gamsakhurdia's Mingrelian supporters. Even so, this region was unmanageable by the central government throughout the presidency of Eduard Shevardnadze (1992-2003). Stability in the region is further deteriorated by the fact that the Georgian refugees from the Abkhazian war zone (who are considered by Georgians as victims of ethnic cleansing) are mostly Mingrelians. After the Rose Revolution of November, 2003, in 2004, newly elected Georgian President, Mikheil Saakashvili, who vowed to resolve the conflict with the breakaway region of Abkhazia solely by peaceful means, disarmed groups of Mingrelians who tried to fight a guerrilla war against the Abkhazians by incursions from Mingrelia.
@Susan
re: "one starts reading something and then more comes into play"
Welcome to Caucasian Regional Studies... it's a mess.
Glad you are enjoying, though.
personal note: you have e-mail.
((departs for now))
talk about step-wise--
started with Sochi--
then to Ubyykh
then Kolchis
to get to Colchis to finally end up in the ancient kingdom!
xxxx
next connect the dots exercise?
Colchis, isn't that where Jason of the Argonauts stole the Golden Fleece and Medea from?
(Visions of harryhausen's Skeletons dancing in my head.)
Scott
@karl
"...isn't that where Jason of the Argonauts stole the Golden Fleece and Medea from?"
that is considered the likely area, yes.
Yes Karl to your question about the Golden Fleece... and Circassian women were prized in harems for their beauty.
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