Persian Journal, Iran
Articles
Apr 5th, 2005 – 20:40:10
“Peace through Sports” – Humane answer to bigotry, intolerance and
prejudice.
Apr 5, 2005, 19:39
Iqbal Latif, Paris
The positive influence of sport on all aspects of human life – its benefits
of instituting mutual understanding across divisions of race, culture and
gender – means that its importance ought to be recognized in peace-building
and global reconciliation initiatives.
“Peace through Sports” is a new frontier opened for humanity. The belated
recognition of the true value of sport in promoting coexistence, however,
means that peace through sports is a relatively new occurrence. Sports in
modern world are helping gel nations together. Suwan and Badir, two Arab
players of the 22 member national Israeli football team with their two
recent goals against Ireland and France, achieved more goodwill, gelling
minds of “people to people,” than any other soothing political event in the
recent past. Who can forget the “Ping pong
diplomacy” contributions to global peace; those games helped opened doors of
China to the US.
Politics in this new globalized world has become a secondary tool for
achieving results. Sporting events help cool inflamed situations; in
contemporary times wars are averted through sports. Cricket diplomacy is an
important tool of foreign policy in South Asia, land of 1.2 billion people.
The combined aggression let out by fans in the grounds of Eden Gardens,
Calcutta, has more firepower than many a big war theater in South Asia. It
soothes nations in a peaceful manner; seeing their opponent being
slaughtered heals a lot of old wounds. What a peaceful way to achieve
satisfaction of victory over hated foes.
Tiger Woods and Agassi have brought more power, prestige and admiration for
the US than many missiles. Ali Daei, Hashemian, Ferydoon Zandi have earned a
lot of good name for Iran and helping calm down a nation torn between
political extremes. They help unite a nation, a role larger than playing
football; little does anyone appreciate that the Iranian football team is
the biggest healer of Iran’s political wounds which helps unite the nation
in unison!
The past hostility between nations is now discharged on the sporting field
rather than battlefields. Imagine the sea change of attitude: Arab players
like Suwan and Badir are hailed as heroes in Israel’s World Cup campaign.
Global sports and global events are helping cure historical
cancers embedded deep within societies. Football is working its miraculous
healing process within the heart of the most fractious of societies.
A lot of bridges of hate and acrimony can be crossed because of these
overnight champions of sports. Palestinian politicians pushed the point home
after the Arab pair, who suffered verbal abuse from Jewish fans in the past,
scored crucial goals in Israel’s two qualifying games last week, leaving
Israel on the brink of World Cup qualification. Abbas Suwan, whose
90th-minute goal against Ireland in Tel Aviv last Saturday secured a 1-1
draw, said afterwards: “I thank everyone who cheered on the national team
and made no distinction between Arabs and Jews. Everyone hugged me in the
dressing room.” Subsequently Walid Badir, a veteran of the Israeli premier
league team Maccabi Haifa, saved the national side from defeat by heading in
a late equalizer against France. Three Arabs in the 22-strong Israeli
national squad have caught the imagination of Palestinians and Israelis.
Their sudden popularity has been hailed as a sign of football’s ability to
bridge the gaps between warring communities – especially after one of the
Arab players dedicated his goal to his “Jewish brothers”.
Responses from fellow Israeli Arabs, has been lukewarm, however, many of
them were sore at the way exultant Israeli fans chanted “He’s Jewish, he’s
Jewish” after Suwan’s goal. Many of these fans have been supporting Israel’s
opponents in the World Cup matches; in protest at what they say is
discrimination against them by the country’s government.
Arguably FIFA is a stronger organization than the UN given the importance
placed on the World Cup, which over 60 percent of the world population
watches. The Olympic committee responsible for awarding 2012 events is
hosted with more pomp and ceremony than any royalty and heads of states or
any other member of the diplomatic corps. Even Head of States privately
frown at the ostentatious generosity towards the Olympic committee and the
way gifts are showered; it is said that Olympic hosting changes the economy
of the city; it saddles the hosting city with loans but uplifts the city a
few notches higher. A pre-Olympic Barcelona is a different city from
Barcelona post Olympics; the same can be safely said about Athens. President
Chirac and Queen Elizabeth are both trying hard to maneuver the hosting of
2012 Olympic in their respective countries.
Sport’s role in nation-building is multi-faceted: a victory in a major
international sporting event is of national importance. One of Africa’s
great statesmen, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah once said, “Sporting success gives
dignity and pride.” In 1960, when the Ghana national football team made a
tour of Europe, Nkrumah instructed them to go and correct the Europeans’
prejudices about Africa. He saw sports as the first step towards building a
formidable team which could contribute to the emancipation of Africa.
Instead of hot wars, sporting events in arenas are modern equivalents of old
wars where natural human embedded belligerence finds a peaceful outlet.
The stirring success of the three Arabs in the 22-strong national squad
reminded me of the heroics of Zinedine Zidane who played splendidly for the
multi-ethnic French team in blasting the conventional styles of
“Frenchness,” and delivered a smashing blow to Le Pen’s political beliefs of
exclusion, segregation, fascism and reaction. Born to an immigrant
proletarian Algerian family in Marseilles, “Zizou” as he is tenderly
identified to the French public has risen to become not only the most
important French footballer of the 1990s, he is now a totemic enlightening
symbol. The French soccer teams with the help of individual players like
“Zizou” destroyed the rising tide of right wing politics within France. One
million people celebrated on Paris’s Champs Elys饳 after Zidane’s two
headers stunned Brazil in the World Cup final in 1999 on home soil.
The role of Algerian-French Zidane along with his teammates that boasted an
Armenian Youri Djorkaeff, the battling West African, Patrick Vieira, and, in
Lilian Thuram, an authoritative French African who saved his nation’s
footballing hopes more than once, from right-back, with a set of wonderfully
struck goals. France had, in addition, two Black strikers in Thierry Henry
and David Trezeguet, a talented Black attacking midfield player, Christian
Karembeu, and a Basque left-back, Biexente Lizarazu — and even captain
Didier Deschamps was half Savoyard. When this extraordinary group of
Frenchmen won the supreme sporting experience in the world on home soil, the
little-France mindset of Le Pen and his breed was savaged by an unbridled
devouring of cheerful sporting energy, producing a blissful national
satisfaction that owed nothing to the hate-filled fantasies of the Right,
and everything to a multi-ethnic patriotism. It is no coincidence that the
triumph of these Frenchmen took place just in advance of the satisfying
implosion of the Front National, and the disastrous decline of the political
fortunes of Le Pen himself.
The bridge-building power of sports linking people to people was amply
demonstrated in the wrestling competition which ended over twenty years of
hostility between the USA and Iran in 1998. Despite uncertainty on both
sides, the Takhti Cup International Wrestling Tournament went ahead in
Tehran. American and Iranian wrestlers entered the ring to the cheers of an
enthusiastic public and the contestants exchanged pleasantries after the
competition.
Some time later America and Iran took a step further in their newfound
affiliation when they were drawn to play in the same group at the 1998 FIFA
World cup Finals in France. Again, media commentary prior to the encounter
was anxious, with many articles predicting that the match would be blemished
by hostilities. Once again, however, the qualms proved unwarranted with fans
of both sides exchanging souvenirs including T-shirts in the national colors
of America and Iran. Before kick-off the players presented each other with
bouquets, posed for group photos, and even embraced. The match itself was
one of the fairest in the entire tournament. The Iranians won 2-1, but the
Americans were sportive in defeat.
In South Africa, politics and sports are intertwined. During the apartheid
years, South Africa was excluded from international sports competitions.
Although European cricket and rugby teams still toured South Africa in
defiance of the international sporting boycott, they encountered a torrent
of criticism. Left without international sports heroes of their own, black
South Africans looked for alternatives abroad. In particular, Dutch
football-player Ruud Gullit became incredibly popular among black South
Africans, not least because he dedicated his prize as European Footballer of
the Year to Nelson Mandela, who at the time was still in prison. The
redemption of post apartheid South Africa has been largely due to the roles
played by the South African sports teams such as in 1994, when a multiracial
South Africa team clinched the rugby World Cup at home in front of a beaming
Nelson Mandela.
Today, nations are judged by the number of gold medals they achieve in
Olympics; GDP/capita is one element of dominance, but Olympics’ success is
not far behind. Nations, economically superior but sportingly weak, are
considered as ill-advanced and ill-equipped to meet the challenges of 21st
century.
Major superpowers and aspirants to the proposed expansion of UN Security
Council, coveting these powerful seats, plan to secure maximum number of
“Golds” in the next Olympics; it privately said those who lead the world
should lead in sports too. Many countries weak on this count fear rejection
of their coveted status and are working hard to bridge the quality gap.
China is planning to upstage US by 2012 in the Olympic Gold aspiring to
emerge as the new global sporting superpower! One of the expressions of
power today is supremacy in the fields of sporting events. Sporting events
can form strong bridges. Politicians should look at the calming effect of
sports that helps blend concord and tranquility within competing segments of
population.
© Iranian.ws
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