Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Sport, violence, ethnics.

Q.What do you get when you mix these elements?
-sport, culture, deep seated hatred of other nationalities...

The answer to this question is below, but first let me explain the significance of sport in Australia.
Sport is the obsession that preoccupies the typical Australian's mind. Forget about war in the Middle East, forget about the starving millions in Africa, forget about the threat of Islamists. These are trivial and insignificant matter in relation to sport. Our six o'clock news on TV starts with sport, then the rest of the news for maybe ten minutes then followed by sport for another twenty minutes. The newspapers are ranked according to how many pages they dedicate to sport. It's an national tradition to read the paper backward, that is starting with the sports section at the back.
News stories lead with sport on Mondays following an active weekend of activities. Analysis follows on Tuesdays. Wednesdays are relatively free of sports news. Thursdays it's the buildup of excitement for the weekend. Fridays it's nothing but talk of sport. Weekends are nothing but sport.
I might be taking all this too seriously except that ex-olympic athletes turn to a career in politics because they have the advantage of a high profile. Other ex sports people become television presenters andTV personalties. The highest rating TV show is called the Footy Show, with skits and mindless chatter by ex footballers and other sports enthusiasts.

Ok, so it comes as no surprise when I read the news this morning to learn that ethnic prejudices have erupted in violence at the Australian Tennis Open Championships.
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4 comments:

none said...

I had no idea. Even with as wacky we are about sports here in the states it's usually about celebratory burning of cars and looting of businesses out of happiness.

10:16 am
southfield_2001 said...

I have been to Australia about 15 times over the past five years and find the sports obsession there far surpasses anything in North America.
The funniest was when Channel 9 (I think it was) ran every second of the Australian National Swim Championships and promoted it like it was the Olympics and World Cup rolled into one gigantic super event. My second favourite is the way the entire country shuts down for the Melbourne Cup.
On the other hand, I have become a huge NRL fan and frequently go to games when I'm there. There's something refreshing about athletes who will beat the crap out of each other for about $50,000 a year and then go drink beer with their fans afterwards. Go the Tigers!

2:22 pm
Lexcen said...

southfield_2001, yep, and when the olympics are broadcast, we only get to see events that include Australians competing.

8:54 pm
southfield_2001 said...

"when the olympics are broadcast, we only get to see events that include Australians competing. "


lol...well, look on the bright side, lexcen...it means you only have about one hour's coverage of the Winter Olympics every four years!

BTW, I saw you tag everyone on the meme from wino. He got me, too: http://blogses-michael.blogspot.com/
it was an amusing exercise.

2:37 pm

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