https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2020/n...in-bahrain
Shortly after winning his seventh Formula One world championship last week in Turkey, Lewis Hamilton issued a warning to the sport he loves. It was time it faced up to its responsibilities, to confront and deal with the human rights issues that blight some of the countries it visits, and do it now, he said.
He would have been more than aware that F1’s next two races would be held in Bahrain, with the first on Sunday. Hamilton has been strident in pushing F1 towards embracing anti-racism, human rights and diversity this season. He is the sport’s most globally recognised figure, which makes him impossible to ignore. In Turkey his words were unequivocal. “We realise we’ve got to face and not ignore the human rights issues in the countries that we go to, not just 20 years, 30 years from now, but now,” he said.
With the pandemic rewriting the F1 calendar, Bahrain is hosting two races back to back. The regime is doubtless pleased, but human rights groups maintain F1’s presence is nothing but sportswashing to disguise oppression.
I understand their point here, and I myself feel uncomfortable about F1 racing in places with awful human rights records (such as Bahrain and China). However, it's very difficult, because once you stop racing in one country, you open the floodgates, and it's very easy to end up on a slippery slope. No country has a perfect human rights record - so, if they go down this path, then they'll have to spend a great deal of time defending every country they don't pull out of.
What's needed (to avoid a slippery-slope situation) is a clear line in the sand - and, here's the one I'm proposing: countries should have no human rights issues that directly impact the running of the sport. Apartheid-era South Africa, for example, crossed this line (by picking teams based on skin colour rather than talent) - and, the sporting world quite rightly ostracised them for it. On the other hand, China's numerous human rights abuses have nothing to do with the racing (as far as I'm aware) - and therefore, they haven't crossed this line. As for Bahrain, they probably haven't crossed the line either - although, their F1 race has become a focal point for anti-government protesters (and the government has been cracking down on these protests), so it's not 100% clear.
Of course, it'll probably be possible to think of a hypothetical scenario (or even find an example of a real one) in which the above system would produce a stupid result. I'm not proposing it as the be-all and end-all: I'm proposing it as the starting point !
Shortly after winning his seventh Formula One world championship last week in Turkey, Lewis Hamilton issued a warning to the sport he loves. It was time it faced up to its responsibilities, to confront and deal with the human rights issues that blight some of the countries it visits, and do it now, he said.
He would have been more than aware that F1’s next two races would be held in Bahrain, with the first on Sunday. Hamilton has been strident in pushing F1 towards embracing anti-racism, human rights and diversity this season. He is the sport’s most globally recognised figure, which makes him impossible to ignore. In Turkey his words were unequivocal. “We realise we’ve got to face and not ignore the human rights issues in the countries that we go to, not just 20 years, 30 years from now, but now,” he said.
With the pandemic rewriting the F1 calendar, Bahrain is hosting two races back to back. The regime is doubtless pleased, but human rights groups maintain F1’s presence is nothing but sportswashing to disguise oppression.
I understand their point here, and I myself feel uncomfortable about F1 racing in places with awful human rights records (such as Bahrain and China). However, it's very difficult, because once you stop racing in one country, you open the floodgates, and it's very easy to end up on a slippery slope. No country has a perfect human rights record - so, if they go down this path, then they'll have to spend a great deal of time defending every country they don't pull out of.
What's needed (to avoid a slippery-slope situation) is a clear line in the sand - and, here's the one I'm proposing: countries should have no human rights issues that directly impact the running of the sport. Apartheid-era South Africa, for example, crossed this line (by picking teams based on skin colour rather than talent) - and, the sporting world quite rightly ostracised them for it. On the other hand, China's numerous human rights abuses have nothing to do with the racing (as far as I'm aware) - and therefore, they haven't crossed this line. As for Bahrain, they probably haven't crossed the line either - although, their F1 race has become a focal point for anti-government protesters (and the government has been cracking down on these protests), so it's not 100% clear.
Of course, it'll probably be possible to think of a hypothetical scenario (or even find an example of a real one) in which the above system would produce a stupid result. I'm not proposing it as the be-all and end-all: I'm proposing it as the starting point !
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