Commonwealth Games
Interesting little event on in Melbourne right now called the Commonwealth Games. A few Commonwealth readers might have noticed it. Americans probably won't have. Don't worry, you probably need to be resident of a Commonwealth nation to actually care, anyway.
For all the head-kicking that colonialism receives, it's interesting that the Commonwealth Games still actually exist. Is there another European ex-colonial power that has anything like it? If so, I don't know of it. It's pretty amazing, really, that all the nations formerly a part of, settled by, founded by or conquered by Imperial Britain over the centuries, are still positive enough on the experience to want to come together for something like this. All except the Americans, anyhow... but that'd pretty much kill the event, it's bad enough with Australia dominating everything.
I mean, imagine if the French tried a Francophone Games, or whatever they'd call it? Would Vietnam turn up? To demand reparations, maybe. The Algerians? With explosives strapped to their chests, perhaps. Or how about if Spain had a games? How many South American nations would want to celebrate historical ties to a nation that massacred entire ancient civilisations? Would the Indonesians turn up to a Dutch games? Not bloody likely. The Taiwanese and Koreans to a Japanese games? You're joking.
The point is that the English, for all we like to crap on them, didn't really do a half-bad job, all things considered. Many English colonies prospered -- USA, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa (kinda), whereas there are precious few prosperous ex-territories of other European powers. The English built institutions, attempted some kind of democracy in most places (eventually), and gave many territories enough foundation that continued association with the Commonwealth is valued and even celebrated today. And they gave the Indians cricket, for which a billion people shall be eternally grateful. Yeah, a lot of stuff sucked too, as colonialism always will, but they weren't the worst of the bunch, that's for sure. And in some things, they really did some good.
Oh yeah.. then there's the sport itself. My basketball girls won, but the opposition were about two-foot tall and only learned to play last week. Jana Pittman again proves that Australian sports fans can be the biggest bunch of sh*ts yet to grace the sporting world -- let's get it straight, if you dump on Jana, you can't celebrate when she wins. Anything. Ever. Got it? God I can't stand these hypocrites who profess to love Australia but can't stand Australians. Yeah she's a weirdo. As a total weirdo myself, I resent the discrimination. As for her arch-nemesis Tamsyn Lewis... if Tamsyn was as good at running as she is at flapping her big mouth, I might care what she thinks.
Otherwise, the biggest interest for me is seeing India coming third on the medal tally. Last Games they came fourth. Before that, something like 12th. They are the self-professed worst sporting nation in the world, given successes-per-head-of-population. They also have the next Games, in Delhi in 2010, so they might be finally on their way to turning things around. A little. Not what we can watch any of that on regular Australian TV. Feature sporting events with no Australians in them? Channel Nine's managements heads would explode. But it's a good thing to have lower-standard events like this that still draw big crowds, so that all the developing nations get some incentive to develop some more.
For all the head-kicking that colonialism receives, it's interesting that the Commonwealth Games still actually exist. Is there another European ex-colonial power that has anything like it? If so, I don't know of it. It's pretty amazing, really, that all the nations formerly a part of, settled by, founded by or conquered by Imperial Britain over the centuries, are still positive enough on the experience to want to come together for something like this. All except the Americans, anyhow... but that'd pretty much kill the event, it's bad enough with Australia dominating everything.
I mean, imagine if the French tried a Francophone Games, or whatever they'd call it? Would Vietnam turn up? To demand reparations, maybe. The Algerians? With explosives strapped to their chests, perhaps. Or how about if Spain had a games? How many South American nations would want to celebrate historical ties to a nation that massacred entire ancient civilisations? Would the Indonesians turn up to a Dutch games? Not bloody likely. The Taiwanese and Koreans to a Japanese games? You're joking.
The point is that the English, for all we like to crap on them, didn't really do a half-bad job, all things considered. Many English colonies prospered -- USA, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa (kinda), whereas there are precious few prosperous ex-territories of other European powers. The English built institutions, attempted some kind of democracy in most places (eventually), and gave many territories enough foundation that continued association with the Commonwealth is valued and even celebrated today. And they gave the Indians cricket, for which a billion people shall be eternally grateful. Yeah, a lot of stuff sucked too, as colonialism always will, but they weren't the worst of the bunch, that's for sure. And in some things, they really did some good.
Oh yeah.. then there's the sport itself. My basketball girls won, but the opposition were about two-foot tall and only learned to play last week. Jana Pittman again proves that Australian sports fans can be the biggest bunch of sh*ts yet to grace the sporting world -- let's get it straight, if you dump on Jana, you can't celebrate when she wins. Anything. Ever. Got it? God I can't stand these hypocrites who profess to love Australia but can't stand Australians. Yeah she's a weirdo. As a total weirdo myself, I resent the discrimination. As for her arch-nemesis Tamsyn Lewis... if Tamsyn was as good at running as she is at flapping her big mouth, I might care what she thinks.
Otherwise, the biggest interest for me is seeing India coming third on the medal tally. Last Games they came fourth. Before that, something like 12th. They are the self-professed worst sporting nation in the world, given successes-per-head-of-population. They also have the next Games, in Delhi in 2010, so they might be finally on their way to turning things around. A little. Not what we can watch any of that on regular Australian TV. Feature sporting events with no Australians in them? Channel Nine's managements heads would explode. But it's a good thing to have lower-standard events like this that still draw big crowds, so that all the developing nations get some incentive to develop some more.
1 Comments:
I'm an American who was in the UK for the past couple weeks. Owing to limited transportation I spent more time than usual watching TV in the hotel, and caught some of the games.
I have to say, among my UK coworkers I'm the only who seems to have noticed the games were going on.
Discovered a new sport: Netball?? What the hell is that all about?? I was watching that, thinking, you can't just grab a couple basketballs goals and invent a new sport!
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