a picture tells it ALL
On Saturday I went to watch the Australian Open women finals between the Belarusian top seeded Aryna Sabalenka and the American tennis player Madison Keys. Watching at the #AO25 ground screens I noticed there is no flag displayed next to #Sabalenka, which made me wonder if this has to do with the #Russia_Ukraine_War. I asked #Google (as usual) and it confirmed that the #AO has banned the Russian and Belarusian flags from the tournament.
It struck me that on the same screen displayed #Emirates, the one of the two UAE flag carriers and the Official Airline of the #AO25.
Why it struck me?
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), the rich Arab state made up of seven emirates with Dubai being the most popular in the western world with its skyscrapers including Burj Khalifa the longest in the world since 2010, is the main ally of Saudi Arabia in the war on Yemen and it has been a major player in fuelling the wars in Libia, Syria and Sudan and in supporting the counter-revolutions against the 2011 Arab spring to maintain the status quo of corruption, dictatorship and suppressing the peoples aspiration to justice and freedom.
Most recently UAE used its monetary power in Lebanon to unlawfully arrest and extradite the Turkish Egyptian poet and political activist Abdul Rahman Yusuf to the UAE, who is a critic of the UAE, Egypt and Saudi regimes.
For over two weeks Abdul Rahman has been in the custody of the UAE, after the official extradition to UAE and there has been no contacts or response for the UAE authorities on his status, wellbeing or case. It is feared that Abdul Rahman has suffered the same fate of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi journalist who was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018 by Saudi government agents.
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Why the picture tells it ALL?
The picture tells the double standards of the so-called Western democracies (including Australia) where the human suffering is not dealt with equally but selectively based on North and South, Us and Them!
The picture tells that the Australian Open is banning two flags because of the Ukraine war but shaking hands with a flag carrier of a state responsible of multiple wars over the past 15 years resulting in millions of civilians being displaced and suffering while tens of thousands killed.
To Australian Open officials if tennis and #AO25 is going to be politicized (and it should be), there must be a transparent and equitable process to assess which states to ban flag and flag carriers.
Please share your opinion and send to Australian Open officials if you have the same concerns.
Transport Market Leader, Digital Services and Innovation - Australia
1 个月Interesting read, Mahmoud. What you've pointed out is surprisingly not evident to most people. I think at least 2 factors are to blame. Trendy agendas have always had a alarming impact on societies position regarding these sort of circumstances, also the unfortunate and frustrating effect on topics becoming trendy is also that the issue becomes distilled and overly simplified for the masses. If principles cannot be universally applied/transferred between topics and situations, then either it isn't a principle or the person is unprincipled. Principles are not fluid. Sadly, this, I believe, is a consequence of political correctness.
My critical view is that such actions create a selective enforcement of political symbolism in sports. For instance, athletes from other countries involved in global conflicts or human rights violations do not face similar restrictions. This inconsistency highlights the subjectivity of Tennis Australia’s stance. This additionally unfairly targets individual athletes who have no direct involvement in their government’s actions. Sabalenka, like other athletes, competes as an individual and has expressed that her focus is solely on her career. Penalizing her by suppressing her national identity contradicts the principles of inclusivity and fairness that global sports claim to uphold.