I can hear it already. There's still most of two years left before the London Olympics, but from the USA it's all whine whine whine, moan moan moan, bitch bitch bitch. 'Why,' they grouse into their Buds, 'did the god damn International Olympic Committee exclude baseball from the Olympics?'
For plenty of reasons, that's why. Here are three:
First, why does baseball need it? For track and field events, and lesser-followed sports such as rowing and shooting, the Olympics is the most esteemed championship, and winning a gold medal is beyond question the pinnacle of a competitor's career. But football has the World Cup, for example, and tennis has its four open tournaments, so for these sports, the Olympics is just a sideshow; a gold medal is nice to have, but it's not what players aspire to. Baseball already has the World Classic, so it doesn't need the Olympics... Strike One!
Second, is it worth the trouble? Baseball stadia are unique in form and function, and baseball can't be played in a different shaped stadium. The cost of adapting existing stadia then refitting them after the games would be huge, but not as high as constructing purpose-build stadia for which there would be no other use after the Olympics. Unless the games are always held in a baseball-playing country, it's more trouble than it's worth... Strike Two!
Third, who cares? The key word is 'International', and there are no criteria by which baseball can be said to be an international sport. None. It's played and followed widely only in the USA, its immediate neighbours, and a couple of hangers-on on the Pacific coast of north-west Asia. In Europe, Africa, most of Central and South America, Australia, Central Asia, Southern Asia and the middle east, it has at best a marginal following. Global popularity stats often place baseball in the top ten, but these stats are based on the number of players or the attendance at games, which will heavily favour sports played several times a week by enormous teams in populous countries such as the USA and Japan; people more cynical even than I might suggest that those criteria were chosen deliberately to boost baseball's ranking. However, stats that account for breadth of popularity rather than depth would likely show very different results, and it's breadth of popularity that counts for the Olympics... Strike Three! Back to the dugout, please.
My question is, why is there so much whingeing? If soccer were dropped from the Olympics, I probably wouldn't notice, and I certainly wouldn't care, and I'm certain most of my English compatriots would feel the same way. So I find it strange that Americans, who usually have such disdain for world opinion on truly weighty issues (starting wars, torturing people and the like), are so exercised over a little thing like sport. My guess is that they just can't accept that, for once, they're not getting their own way. They've taken it as a massive personal affront that the sport that gave us the 'World Series' (the USA and Canada only) and 'The Shot Heard Around the World' (New York only) isn't wanted by the actual world, and they're sulking and throwing their toys out of the pram like babies.
It's not about America, okay? The IOC didn't drop baseball because they're Eurocentric, or because they're anti-American, or because they're wine-bibbing cheese-eating godless pinko commies. They dropped it because it doesn't belong in the Olympics, and that's it.
Kindly get over it.
Monday, 13 September 2010
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
Join the CCP!
Citizens of China! Your country needs you! To advance our revolutionary ideals, the glorious Communist Party, whose historic destiny it is to lead your country into the future, offers you the opportunity to toil with us for the nation's greatness and prosperity! Answer these four questions and join us!
1. A young Shanghainese woman publishes a graphic semi-autobiographical novel about her love life. Do you
a) take no action to respect her freedom of expression;
b) quickly arrange for negative reviews to appear in The Peoples' Daily; or,
c) denounce the book as a decadent threat to the moral wellbeing of the nation, and order that all copies be seized and publicly burnt?
2. You are a county official in Sichuan Province. A powerful earthquake strikes the region, and thousands of schoolchildren die when their schools collapse, while all the surrounding buildings stay upright. Do you
a) order an immediate investigation into the bidding and construction in order to hold to account the incompetent, arrogant and corrupt;
b) quietly arrange for compensation to be paid to the parents, and for the reconstruction to be overseen by Beijing; or,
c) silence the parents with bribes, lies and threats, and harrass any journalists who try to report?
3. You are a senior Party official in Wuhan county. A man dies in police custody after claiming that they covered up the alleged rape and murder of his niece by one of your junior comrades. A large, angry crowd has gathered in protest. Do you
a) order an immediate investigation into the deaths in order to hold to account the incompetent, arrogant and corrupt;
b) quietly arrange for your comrade to be reassigned to a minor post in a remote province; or,
c) send the army in to break up the protests and detain the ringleaders, and harass any journalists who try to report?
4. You are a senior member of the Politburo. A large mass of protesters are occupying Tiananmen Square, tiresomely asking that they be allowed some measure of control over their lives. Do you
a) announce a limited program of reforms;
b) agree to meet the leaders for discussions if the protesters disperse; or,
c) send the tanks in and lie about it forever?
EVALUATION
Mostly (a): you are clearly a subversive reactionary capitalist-roader counter-revolutionary stinking snake ox spirit in severe need of substantial re-education in Maoist thought. We know where you are; expect a knock at the door within half a minute.
Mostly (b): while some of your thinking is orthodox, you are not sufficiantly zealous to join our glorious revolutionary quest. Better luck next time!
Mostly (c): welcome, Comrade! We can clearly rely on you to selflessly serve the Greater Socialist Good! A limousine will arrive soon to whisk you to your new rooftop penthouse, from which you may look down on the proles in every way.
1. A young Shanghainese woman publishes a graphic semi-autobiographical novel about her love life. Do you
a) take no action to respect her freedom of expression;
b) quickly arrange for negative reviews to appear in The Peoples' Daily; or,
c) denounce the book as a decadent threat to the moral wellbeing of the nation, and order that all copies be seized and publicly burnt?
2. You are a county official in Sichuan Province. A powerful earthquake strikes the region, and thousands of schoolchildren die when their schools collapse, while all the surrounding buildings stay upright. Do you
a) order an immediate investigation into the bidding and construction in order to hold to account the incompetent, arrogant and corrupt;
b) quietly arrange for compensation to be paid to the parents, and for the reconstruction to be overseen by Beijing; or,
c) silence the parents with bribes, lies and threats, and harrass any journalists who try to report?
3. You are a senior Party official in Wuhan county. A man dies in police custody after claiming that they covered up the alleged rape and murder of his niece by one of your junior comrades. A large, angry crowd has gathered in protest. Do you
a) order an immediate investigation into the deaths in order to hold to account the incompetent, arrogant and corrupt;
b) quietly arrange for your comrade to be reassigned to a minor post in a remote province; or,
c) send the army in to break up the protests and detain the ringleaders, and harass any journalists who try to report?
4. You are a senior member of the Politburo. A large mass of protesters are occupying Tiananmen Square, tiresomely asking that they be allowed some measure of control over their lives. Do you
a) announce a limited program of reforms;
b) agree to meet the leaders for discussions if the protesters disperse; or,
c) send the tanks in and lie about it forever?
EVALUATION
Mostly (a): you are clearly a subversive reactionary capitalist-roader counter-revolutionary stinking snake ox spirit in severe need of substantial re-education in Maoist thought. We know where you are; expect a knock at the door within half a minute.
Mostly (b): while some of your thinking is orthodox, you are not sufficiantly zealous to join our glorious revolutionary quest. Better luck next time!
Mostly (c): welcome, Comrade! We can clearly rely on you to selflessly serve the Greater Socialist Good! A limousine will arrive soon to whisk you to your new rooftop penthouse, from which you may look down on the proles in every way.
Wednesday, 1 September 2010
No More, Mr Nice Guys
Let’s pretend.
Imagine an acquaintance invites you to stay as a lodger in their house, and you move in forthwith. At first, all seems well: you pay towards the housekeeping costs, keep quiet, clean up after yourself, are a model guest. Then one morning, as you walk into the kitchen for breakfast, your host delivers you a stinging slap in the face.
‘What did you do that for?’ you ask, taken aback.
‘Oh, I just do that sometimes,’ they reply with a nonchalant shrug. ‘It’s a habit.’
Mystified, you ask a friend’s advice, but you don’t get a lot of sympathy. ‘As a guest, you ought to just accept it,’ they say, ‘you should respect their custom of slapping you round the face.’ You suggest that you might ask not to be slapped, but your friend disapproves. ‘It’s their house, so if that’s the way they choose to do things, it’s not your business to question it,’ they chide you. ‘If you don’t like it, you don’t have to live there.’
Seems like bad advice, doesn’t it? High-handed, unsupportive, unhelpful. But here in Japan, there are a small but high-profile number of resident expatriates who sport exactly this attitude. ‘Guests have no right to complain’ appears to be the mantra of these people who, in a transparent ploy to contrive an amusing acronym, I’ll christen Whiny Apologist Nice Guys.
Well, WANGs, please look away now: my experience and observations have led me inexorably to the opinion that Japan suffers from a pernicious, deeply entrenched institutional xenophobia, with examples of which I could fill this page two or three times if that was my point. Individually, Japanese people are overwhelmingly generous, sweet-natured and hospitable, and citizens and companies often go far out of their way to cater to expatriates when there’s really no need for them to do so. But conversely, the government and its agencies seem to go out of their way to make life difficult for us, and the WANGs’ eagerness to kow-tow isn’t likely to persuade them to change their attitude.
To return to the house-guest analogy, it is of course true that guests have duties and responsibilities, and can create a bad impression by shirking them. So, yes, some expatriates behave like idiots, and the rest of us have to bear the burden of the reputation they create. All we can do is behave with respect and consideration and trust the Japanese people to recognize that the troublemakers are, as in any demographic, a tiny minority.
But, whatever the WANGs might say, hosts also have duties and responsibilities to their guests, chiefly the provision of a welcoming, sympathetic environment. When they fail to meet them, the guests are unhappy, the relationship and atmosphere in the house deteriorate, everyone suffers. If nothing else, word will get around that the hosts are bad, and no-one will want to stay with them. Faced with a population that’s both shrinking and aging, Japan will soon need to boost its workforce substantially, and as it’s likely to have to do so with immigrants, it’s very much in the nation’s interest to treat them well.
That’s what the Japanese establishment needs persuading of. Some things are universal - or at least, should be universal - and entitlement to the right not to be treated like crap because of where you come from is one of them. Were there WANGs in the black communities telling people to show due deference and respect in the face of South Africa’s apartheid regime, or segregation in the USA? (‘Just give the man your seat, Rosa, and don’t make a fuss, it’s just their way of doing things.’) I certainly wouldn’t equate what happens in Japan with those extreme examples of inhuman nature, but the underlying attitude is essentially the same: that it’s acceptable to treat some people worse than others according to their origin or skin colour. When this happens, though, those people complain about it, and will continue to do so. The complaining will stop when the discrimination stops, and not before.
And this is what the blithe, misguided WANGs need persuading of. If they’re trying to create harmony, then they’re going about it the wrong way; by accepting and thereby tacitly encouraging discrimination they’re helping to perpetuate it, which will just lead to continued discord as Japan accepts more immigrants. The problem is not that people complain about being discriminated against; the problem is that discrimination occurs in the first place. If, instead of castigating the victims for speaking up, the WANGs focused their energy on tackling discrimination, then perhaps it would help solve the problem for everyone.
Imagine an acquaintance invites you to stay as a lodger in their house, and you move in forthwith. At first, all seems well: you pay towards the housekeeping costs, keep quiet, clean up after yourself, are a model guest. Then one morning, as you walk into the kitchen for breakfast, your host delivers you a stinging slap in the face.
‘What did you do that for?’ you ask, taken aback.
‘Oh, I just do that sometimes,’ they reply with a nonchalant shrug. ‘It’s a habit.’
Mystified, you ask a friend’s advice, but you don’t get a lot of sympathy. ‘As a guest, you ought to just accept it,’ they say, ‘you should respect their custom of slapping you round the face.’ You suggest that you might ask not to be slapped, but your friend disapproves. ‘It’s their house, so if that’s the way they choose to do things, it’s not your business to question it,’ they chide you. ‘If you don’t like it, you don’t have to live there.’
Seems like bad advice, doesn’t it? High-handed, unsupportive, unhelpful. But here in Japan, there are a small but high-profile number of resident expatriates who sport exactly this attitude. ‘Guests have no right to complain’ appears to be the mantra of these people who, in a transparent ploy to contrive an amusing acronym, I’ll christen Whiny Apologist Nice Guys.
Well, WANGs, please look away now: my experience and observations have led me inexorably to the opinion that Japan suffers from a pernicious, deeply entrenched institutional xenophobia, with examples of which I could fill this page two or three times if that was my point. Individually, Japanese people are overwhelmingly generous, sweet-natured and hospitable, and citizens and companies often go far out of their way to cater to expatriates when there’s really no need for them to do so. But conversely, the government and its agencies seem to go out of their way to make life difficult for us, and the WANGs’ eagerness to kow-tow isn’t likely to persuade them to change their attitude.
To return to the house-guest analogy, it is of course true that guests have duties and responsibilities, and can create a bad impression by shirking them. So, yes, some expatriates behave like idiots, and the rest of us have to bear the burden of the reputation they create. All we can do is behave with respect and consideration and trust the Japanese people to recognize that the troublemakers are, as in any demographic, a tiny minority.
But, whatever the WANGs might say, hosts also have duties and responsibilities to their guests, chiefly the provision of a welcoming, sympathetic environment. When they fail to meet them, the guests are unhappy, the relationship and atmosphere in the house deteriorate, everyone suffers. If nothing else, word will get around that the hosts are bad, and no-one will want to stay with them. Faced with a population that’s both shrinking and aging, Japan will soon need to boost its workforce substantially, and as it’s likely to have to do so with immigrants, it’s very much in the nation’s interest to treat them well.
That’s what the Japanese establishment needs persuading of. Some things are universal - or at least, should be universal - and entitlement to the right not to be treated like crap because of where you come from is one of them. Were there WANGs in the black communities telling people to show due deference and respect in the face of South Africa’s apartheid regime, or segregation in the USA? (‘Just give the man your seat, Rosa, and don’t make a fuss, it’s just their way of doing things.’) I certainly wouldn’t equate what happens in Japan with those extreme examples of inhuman nature, but the underlying attitude is essentially the same: that it’s acceptable to treat some people worse than others according to their origin or skin colour. When this happens, though, those people complain about it, and will continue to do so. The complaining will stop when the discrimination stops, and not before.
And this is what the blithe, misguided WANGs need persuading of. If they’re trying to create harmony, then they’re going about it the wrong way; by accepting and thereby tacitly encouraging discrimination they’re helping to perpetuate it, which will just lead to continued discord as Japan accepts more immigrants. The problem is not that people complain about being discriminated against; the problem is that discrimination occurs in the first place. If, instead of castigating the victims for speaking up, the WANGs focused their energy on tackling discrimination, then perhaps it would help solve the problem for everyone.
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