Australia should clean up its backyard before hosting major sporting events

The Crowd Says (21) | Page 1 of Comments

• NUFCMVFC said | May 31st 2008 @ 8:21am | Report comment

  No problems with the Rugby or Cricket World Cups or Commonwelath Games eh Paul? Just the football World Cup….So now it has morphed from Rudd being bad for giving money to football and not throwing money into AFL in indiginous communities into Australia being bad for hosting the World Cup because there may still be challenges regarding trying to improve the situation regarding parts of the indigious population….I wonder what rubbish yand blackmailing tactic ou are going to try and come up with next in trying to discourage/stop investment in football and initiatives to host major football tournaments?

  In all seriousness it would be an issue if we were trying to orchestrate their plight but even if it is slightly misguided or misaligned policy in some peoples views, at least we are trying to do something about it.

  And besides, if there are issues still, it isn’t so bad having our imperfections shown, will prevent a “out of sight out of mind type attitude” and motivate the country to try and deal with it more

  If anything, having someone like Jade North not only taking part ion a World Cup, but in a World Cup in Australia it can be argued could be a big motivational force for the indigionus population and a moment of reconciliation like Freeman winning was for many people

  This is more about you not wanting there to be recognition and embracing of Football in this country, about you not wanting Football in Australia and the Australian Football community to flourish. THis happening would not be the death of AFL or anything. Deal with it.

  Reply

• Paul said | May 31st 2008 @ 9:24am | Report comment

  NUFCMVFC

  “Australian Football” is the name of a game codified in 1859. Your sport is called Soccer in this country. You may be able to get away with calling football, but you can not call it “Australian Football”, the name is already taken.

  Who said I was ok with the Commonwealth Games or Rugby World Cup?

  It is correct of the Rudd government to make strong steps towards healing indigenous communities. But remember the Rudd government came in with a large surplus, so even $718 millions is not very much money, and money itself is not the solution, actual policy and law changes, such as promoting indigenous language programs, promoting indigenous sporting programs etc will make a bigger difference.

  It was all very convenient for the Federal government to come out with a big number and not actually tell us what they would do to solve the problems. The current Federal government are all talk and no solid action.

  Kevin Rudd did not even know who Harry Kewell was, he just wants Australia to have a world cup, so that we will be noticed by the world, how despicable. So I argue that if we really want to be noticed by the world, it should be for reconciliation with Indigenous Australia, not for yet another major sporting tournament. How have any of the previous sporting tournaments helped indigenous Australia?

  It seems to me that you spend too much time worshipping your precious football, and you would be in despair if Australia doesn’t get the world cup.

  Is that all you care about?

  Reply

• Trevor said | May 31st 2008 @ 10:14am | Report comment

  Sporting events and politics have always been odd bedfellows. Politicians always seem to align themselves with a prticular sporting club or code, for obvious reasons.
  Personally I feel major sporting events show what can be achieved between races. You only have to look locally at our AFL and notice the respect our Indiginous players receive on and off the field, carrying themselves as well and in many cases better than any other player. Sure there are still racial slurs thrown around but when brought to the attention of the governing bodies are dealt with in a very public manner showing the disdain we hold for this kind of behaviour.
  Surely any spotlight on this country, with the huge fan bases many international sporting events provide, can only be good for all.
  “We Are One” and the sooner we all realise this the better off we’ll all be in sports and in everyday life.

  Reply

• Cpaaa said | May 31st 2008 @ 10:21am | Report comment

  http://www.motherteresa.org/layout.html

  dear paul,

  i feel you have touched on something close to all our hearts and something we all think about regulary and not just when football is discussed. so i have attached a few links for you in order to help you decide for which charity or programm best suits you in order to get involved. After all, we can not always rely on gvernment funding to get what we want.
  Great things are normally started by ordinary people that echo their voice thru others. Please refer to the motherteresa link above, I hope this lady gives you the inspiration for your humanitarian mission.
  Cheers and glad to help
  (you also have the name of a saint)

  Cpaaa

  http://www.footballnsw.com.au/index.php?id=92
  http://www.rugbyleague.com.au/arl/community/indigenous.php
  http://www.theage.com.au/news/Soccer/Game-woos-Aborigines/2004/12/18/1103312785145.html?from=moreStories

  http://www.reconciliation.org.au/donate/

  http://www.wunan.org.au

  http://www.sistersofcharity.org.au/ministries/aboriginal.html

  http://www.kirinari-acas.com.au/

  http://www.aboriginalfund.riotinto.com/youth.aspx?ID=2-0&SID=2-3

  Reply

• Paul said | May 31st 2008 @ 10:29am | Report comment

  Trevor,

  I would surely hope that we can be One, as you say, so I agree with your sentiment. But until the facts line up and agree we have a lot of hard work to do. I don’t believe that pouring that effort into bidding for world cups is where Kevin Rudd should be placing his attention. He should be out visiting indigenous communities, without the media in tow, just like he said he would do. I get the impression that he just wants a media circus. Would he do anything if a camera wasn’t watching?

  Once we have cleaned up our act and sought true reconciliation then we can truly aim higher for such goals as World Cups and Olympics together as One. But I can’t see how we can honestly do this before hand. It is time to be serious and stop the inequity.

  Reply

• Dave said | May 31st 2008 @ 12:25pm | Report comment

  Paul

  “I don’t believe that pouring that effort into bidding for world cups is where Kevin Rudd should be placing his attention. He should be out visiting indigenous communities, without the media in tow”
  So a Federal Govt has time to deal with one issue at a time only?? Err dont they deal with a myriad of issues on a daily basis? You may argue how well do they deal with them but surely a country that espouses to be a world player can have more than one issue on its plate.
  A WC in Australia may well be the vehicle where Indigenous Australians receive greater acknowledgement in a sporting sense with one (Jade North) and perhaps others in the squad. I think that is your real problem with having the WC in Oz. It may take some of the attention away from the indigenous game and show Indigenous Australians that there are opportunities to play a different brand of football, one which is played around the world. To highlight the world game to them in a way they have never seen (in person). Some may actually like what they see.

  Reply

• Joe O'Sullivan said | May 31st 2008 @ 12:49pm | Report comment

  Paul I suspect you more than most understand that sin has entered the world & none of us are immune from it. Australia like every other country must wrestle with injustice & inequality. However this should never prevent us from seeking to host the world whether it be a sporting, cultural or humanties event. As someone once said to me – we are never going to think our way into a new way of living, we must live our way into a new way of thinking.

  Reply

• Paul said | May 31st 2008 @ 1:10pm | Report comment

  Dave,

  You talk like indigenous Australians have somehow had less opportunity to hear about soccer than you have. Why would that be?

  Aboriginal people have tvs too, they know about the world. It sounds a little like you are saying “if only Aboriginal people were educated properly, then they would have the choice to play soccer too, it’s only fair, they deserve the chance.”

  I am arguing that white Australia has allowed Aboriginal cultures to be oppressed for 200 years now, and that it should be the HIGHEST priority on all governments’ agendas to work hand in hand with Aboriginal community leaders to bring about reconciliation, spiritual and physical healing.

  And yes I am saying, no to a cricket world cup, no to any new international sporting events that require bidding, until the solutions have been found and worked through. I have given up my desire for a cricket world cup, will you give up your desire for a football world cup?

  The effort needed to bid for a world cup will be immense, Kevin Rudd has said as much, “we need to put our shoulder to the wheel”….. “This will be a marathon of all marathons, it is going to be tough as hell”….. “We’ve got a huge challenge ahead which is to get behind soccer for the 2018 World Cup.”

  We don’t hear the same sentiment from Kevin Rudd on the issues facing Aboriginal communities, “this will be the marathon of marathons”. If Kevin Rudd had called the “Close the Gap” policy program the “marathon of marathons” and the bid for the world cup a “very long race” then perhaps I might agree with you more. But Rudd has used superlatives to talk about his desire to see soccer succeed (i.e “to take this code through the roof”) but never done the same for Indigenous communities. He has simply thrown money at the situation and walked away.

  A Prime Minister needs to be working on the MOST important of issues. If he left the world cup to the sports ministers that would be one thing, but instead he is putting his personal efforts into the world cup and leaving Indigenous Affairs to Jenny Macklin. It should be the other way around, he should be working hand in hand with Jenny Macklin and contributing the baulk of his attention to Indigenous Affairs whilst leaving soccer to cabinet ministers such as Simon Crean, the minister for Trade or Stephen Smith, minister of foreign affairs, or a committee of sports ministers from the states.

  Rudd’s sentiments speak of the world cup being far too high on his list of priorities and Indigenous affairs too low.

  Reply

• Paul said | May 31st 2008 @ 1:44pm | Report comment

  Cpaaa and Joe Sullivan,

  Thanks for both of your comments, I really appreciate them. As I have spent time on this website I have debated with lots of people and come to see other’s perspectives more and more. I have had to acknowledge to myself that of course people have as much right to enjoy soccer or Aussie rules or cricket or any other sport. In many ways, sporting activities are neutral. I have enjoyed some of the debating and detested some of it. Some people are more willing to open their minds up than others.

  I guess I paint a black and white picture at times, and of course there are often greys. But I like to shock people by pointing out the contrast and problems that exist.

  I ask myself, would I prefer my government to spend hundreds of millions or indeed billions on hosting another sporting event that the world will forget about a few weeks after it happens? Am I happy that my Prime Minister is spending so much of his time on another major event? We all know that Australia has hosted way more than its share of major sporting events in the world. We also know that we probably spend too much money on Olympic sporting events so that we can have lots of gold medals to be proud of. But all of these sporting accolades are temporal and secondary to the very real needs of the roughly 200 indigenous nations of Australia.

  I would like to put aside my own desires for these major events. (It’s a little late in that we have recently hosted the Olympics, Commonwealth Games and a Rugby World Cup.) It seems that the FIFA World Cup is the last event that we have not hosted- and that as we are so sporting mad in Australia we want to have our cake and eat it too. But this is all a little greedy. Perhaps as Australians we are placing our love for “spectating sport” over far more important priorities.

  I am not suggesting that we give up sport. In fact, we would probably all do better if we played a little more sport than watched.

  I am suggesting that we as a nation take a “cultural fast” from bidding for major sporting events, especially considering that we have had more than our fair share in the last ten years, even to a gluttunous level.

  “Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen:
  to loose the chains of injustice
  and untie the cords of yoke,
  to set the oppressed free
  and break every yoke?
  Is it not to share your food with the hungry
  and to provide the wanderer with shelter-
  when you see the naked, to clothe them
  and not turn away from your own flesh and blood?

  ….
  If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
  with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
  and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
  and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
  then your light will rise in the darkness,
  and your night will become like the noon day.

  The Lord will guide you always;
  he will satisfy your needs in a sun scorched land
  and will strengthen your frame.
  You will be like a well watered garden,
  like a spring whose waters never fail.”

  -the prophet Isaiah

  This text above is not a threat, that if we do the wrong thing, that calamity will befall us. It is the opposite. It is a promise, that if we do the right thing, then our “sun scorched land” of Australia will become “like a well watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”

  If I have to choose between a world cup and setting the oppressed free, I know what I will choose.

  Some may not see this as a choice at all, fair enough. I guess I see things a little differently. I do see it as a choice. Why? Because, our country in many ways is still behaving the way we always have. Sport is our god in Australia.

  It’s time for a change.

  Reply

• NUFCMVFC said | May 31st 2008 @ 1:48pm | Report comment

  Paul

  No of course it isn’t the only thing I care about, Governments often have to do many things, putting everything down just to focus on one issue is not practical, best case scenario is that they continue to find effective solutions helping the inigenous population overcome their current challenges while facilitating the interests of Australia in other regards as well

  I think, as your repeated articles trying to find excuses not to host the FOOTBALL World Cup is more reflective of the fact that one of the only things you seem to care about is Australia NOT hosting the World Cup because of a despicable attitude you have where Australia remains isolationist and there can continue to be a xenophobic disregard to our sport, you are even willing to stopp towards using the unfortunate plight of the indigenous population towards this argument

  It is called Football in the world, including other countries and teams who we are in the same competitive competitions as and you have to respect that, if you want to distinguish use Association or International Rules football and Australian Rules football

  The first thing that Rudd did was the apology, that to me obviously signifies that Aboriginal Affaris is a high priority, this is more about you wanting “Soccer” to continue to be some kind of minority sport or after thought which is usually delegated off to some minor Minister at best and continues to be ignored because of your prejudice, it is more about the fact that you can’t hack the fact it is now mainstream and now an importance facet for the nation, as symbolised by the Prime Ministers involvement in significant announcements and initiatives etc because you want it to be like the old days and you see Football emergence as some kind of threat to AFL, oh of course, putting all thes AFL facilities will be the big saviour of the indiginous population and the Govt shoudl be doing this instead of putting money into a World Cup. World Cup and Football is important for the local community as much abotu international recognition. Funny how you have somehow said you are against all international comps, yet it is the FIFA World CUp bid that has got you writing articles, if it was an AFL World Cup you wouldn’t be writing about it, if AFL was able to hold such things…

  Reply