Showing posts with label Olympics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Olympics. Show all posts
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Arabs Unite for the 2012 Olympics; a Solution
Well, the last week has been a week of many hours of watching TV and following the internet to see the results of the Olympics. This fortnight turns me into an armchair sports fanatic and it is quite amazing that I want to find out more about what the different competitions are and their rules and whether I should give it a go. It is also a time to catch the commentary and become a little more updated about sports that I do not follow.I flip the remote control between the 7 TV channels that are showing the Olympics. Whenever there is an Arab athlete competing, my attention is focused as I would like them to succeed and make us proud. Well, what is the outcome so far; after 8 days of competition, the Arabs can boast of a total of 3 medals (1 silver by Algeria, and 2 bronze by Algeria and Egypt). Hooray, we should all be proud! I hope that with the athletics, the Arab drought will finally end and we will have an Arab athlete win the gold medal.Many Arab sports commentators have been as frustrated with the draught as I am. They are blaming it on the National Olympic Committees and the lack of planning. Their main argument is that we (as Arabs) need to provide the full support for our athletes in order for them to fulfill their role and bring us the medals with the bragging rights that go with it. We should not be there just to participate for our national flags to fly within the Olympic Village and in the Parade of Nations. This got me thinking and I want to share a solution with you; have ALL of the 22 Arab countries contribute half of their budgets to a collective consolidated budget that will be used as a Regional Trial to choose the BEST ARAB ATHLETES and train them to bring us gold.There are several reasons for this; 1) the Arab common person is united in their support of Arabs in the Olympics as it reflects on all of us (where we are really united), 2) it allows the countries to still have their symbolic participation in the Olympics (with half their budget), and 3) it will derive the athletes of the poor excuse that I did not perform because I did not have the support, especially financial from my National Olympic Committee.After all, the Arab countries combined have the same population of the United States. And we never hear complaints from them that on there are too many Californians with their Olympic athletes and not a single Alaskan!So, will this be an ideal or can the League of Arab States seriously work on achieving it from 2009? As a corporate person, I would place 12 gold medals as our target for 2012 London Olympics!
Saturday, August 9, 2008
The Olympic Jihad being Led by Arab Women
Yesterday, I, along with about 25% of the world’s population, watched the Opening Ceremony of the Bejing Olympics. There was nothing unusual during the ceremony except for the irony that the Chinese alphabet allowed the Syrian contingent be followed by the United States delegation. From the athletes’ perspective, George W. Bush seemed to be cheering the Syrian athletes which probably astonished and amused them.
The other unusual thing from my perspective was the number of women who were selected and honored to be their own countries’ flag bearers. An interesting thing, which led me to have pen and paper and re-watch the Parade of National Athletes till late in the morning, was the number of women who were given the honor to carry their countries’ flags. It was 29% which is not bad at all. Well how did the Arab countries fare?!? We had 4 female flag-bearers (3 of them were veiled) and two of those were from the conservative Gulf Cooperation Council.
That is correct! Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and the Comoros Islands had a woman representative honored by her carrying her country’s flag. As the Arab countries number 22, that is 18% of Arab countries. Although this is symbolic, I cannot but help wonder whether why this story is not being told. Most of the European countries had male flag carriers (their female participation was exactly 20%). The best continent according to me was Africa which had 22 female flag bearers to 29 male bearers. The only thing I have heard about the Olympics by the Western press is the criticism that Saudi Arabia refuses to have any female athlete in its Olympic delegation. That is fair, but it also fair to point out the positives from the Arab and Muslim worlds.
Isn’t it ironic that ultra-conservative Iran also had a woman carry their ISLAMIC flag? Add to that list, the Muslim nation of Eriteria and we have an “Islamic Jihad” at the Olympics led by women. How will the Western mainstream media and liberal feminists handle it!
It has gotten me thinking about the Arab Olympic movement and the positive effect women have had upon it. I still remember Nawal Al Mutawkel’s (from Morocco) gold medal in Los Angeles ’84 Olympics in addition to Ghada Shuaa’s giving Syria its first ever Olympic medal. In fact, I was heartened to learn that the former has been recently elected to the International Olympic Committee’s Board recently. In fact (and I will have to check on that) but I would be willing to wager that the number of Arab medals between females and males is 40-60 and not something skewed like 10-90. Can the Western countries boast of a similarly based proportion within their Olympic records?
So, why do is this not a story to tell? We, Arabs and Muslims, have provided women with opportunities to shine and these women have done us proud. However, we have not utilized this information to counter other’s whose motives are more sinister and aim to paint us out as “woman-haters.” Please note that I am not stating that all of woman issues have been handled correctly in the Arab world. That is still an ideal and we need to improve our record on other woman’s issues, but we need to have an acknowledgment of our Olympic efforts in promoting Arab women first.
I wish all the Arab countries great success in the Olympics and may we get more medals than in previous Olympics. These wishes are specially placed to our female athletes. Make us proud and let the world take notice of your ethnicity and gender.
The other unusual thing from my perspective was the number of women who were selected and honored to be their own countries’ flag bearers. An interesting thing, which led me to have pen and paper and re-watch the Parade of National Athletes till late in the morning, was the number of women who were given the honor to carry their countries’ flags. It was 29% which is not bad at all. Well how did the Arab countries fare?!? We had 4 female flag-bearers (3 of them were veiled) and two of those were from the conservative Gulf Cooperation Council.
That is correct! Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and the Comoros Islands had a woman representative honored by her carrying her country’s flag. As the Arab countries number 22, that is 18% of Arab countries. Although this is symbolic, I cannot but help wonder whether why this story is not being told. Most of the European countries had male flag carriers (their female participation was exactly 20%). The best continent according to me was Africa which had 22 female flag bearers to 29 male bearers. The only thing I have heard about the Olympics by the Western press is the criticism that Saudi Arabia refuses to have any female athlete in its Olympic delegation. That is fair, but it also fair to point out the positives from the Arab and Muslim worlds.
Isn’t it ironic that ultra-conservative Iran also had a woman carry their ISLAMIC flag? Add to that list, the Muslim nation of Eriteria and we have an “Islamic Jihad” at the Olympics led by women. How will the Western mainstream media and liberal feminists handle it!
It has gotten me thinking about the Arab Olympic movement and the positive effect women have had upon it. I still remember Nawal Al Mutawkel’s (from Morocco) gold medal in Los Angeles ’84 Olympics in addition to Ghada Shuaa’s giving Syria its first ever Olympic medal. In fact, I was heartened to learn that the former has been recently elected to the International Olympic Committee’s Board recently. In fact (and I will have to check on that) but I would be willing to wager that the number of Arab medals between females and males is 40-60 and not something skewed like 10-90. Can the Western countries boast of a similarly based proportion within their Olympic records?
So, why do is this not a story to tell? We, Arabs and Muslims, have provided women with opportunities to shine and these women have done us proud. However, we have not utilized this information to counter other’s whose motives are more sinister and aim to paint us out as “woman-haters.” Please note that I am not stating that all of woman issues have been handled correctly in the Arab world. That is still an ideal and we need to improve our record on other woman’s issues, but we need to have an acknowledgment of our Olympic efforts in promoting Arab women first.
I wish all the Arab countries great success in the Olympics and may we get more medals than in previous Olympics. These wishes are specially placed to our female athletes. Make us proud and let the world take notice of your ethnicity and gender.
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