Today, President Barack Obama has said that he is still weeks away from a decision on a new military strategy in Afghanistan. Americans are hopeful that a well-considered and properly executed plan will bring stability to the Middle-East, but many (myself included) are even more concerned with ending the loss of American lives and exorbitant Military spending.
In this display created for Veteran's Day in my hometown of Toms River, N.J., there is a miniature flag in the ground for each of the 5,000+soldiers killed in Iraq or Afghanistan since U.S. military action began in those countries at the beginning of the decade.
Many critics are skeptical, however, because of the president's track record in other recent efforts. Certain 'pet projects' may well have distracted Mr. Obama from with dealing truly pressing issues like loss of life overseas and our much-needed but difficult-to-pass health care overhaul.
First it was the Olympics that got Obama distracted. Our president wanted the games to come through his hometown of Chicago in 2016, so he took a trip to Denmark in an effort to convince voting members of the International Olympic Committee that Chicago was the place to be in 2016... but it didn't work out. Meanwhile, the issue of an exit strategy in our Middle Eastern engagements has been left hanging for nearly a year.
Losing the Olympic bid for Chicago might be a blessing in disguise-- the need to build facilities and prepare for a swell in tourism often distracts host cities and nations from tending to the needs of their people. And we have plenty of issues to take care of right now...
Round two of such criticism came over the past two weeks, when the president very publicly endorsed democratic candidates for governor in hotly contested New Jersey and Virginia elections. Both of Mr. Obama's favored candidates were defeated by Republicans, and the revised military strategies failed to materialize.
Today, Barack Obama told American reporters that is "very close" to a decision on the next step in his strategy for the war in Afghanistan, a war that he hopes "...not to hand off ... to the next president".
It's great to finally have a president who is even considering an exit strategy, but I still wonder if Mr. Obama may have have already left our servicemen out to dry a few months longer than neccesary.
When the wars are over and soldiers are home, that's when we can worry about hosting another set of Olympic games. Till then, we've got bigger fish to fry.
I think it's fair to say that during the last week or so, society has had to check it's gender politics at the door. We've had to question our ideas about what makes a male athlete, a man, and what makes a female athlete, a woman. Some of us even toiled with the idea that perhaps body make up determine how athletes compete. On Facebook, I even entertained the idea that it shouldn't matter what's between (or not between) an athlete's legs that determine where s/he fit in competition, but it's how the athlete identifies that should determine how s/he competes.
But of course, these ideas would completely change the face of sport. Sports agents and executives would have to readjust their PR strategies, sports marketing companies and sports industry giants like NIKE would have to figure out new and alternatives ways to use athletes to advertise their products, and the next time some dude hollered "you throw like a girl!" he'd be forced to contemplate what the hell "girl" means in the context of throwing.
Way too much for one generation to handle. Perhaps.
Picture this:
The year is . . . well, sometime in the future. Under a blistering hot August sun, competitors from all around the world gather for the opening ceremony for what will be the first ever gender neutral Olympics. World leaders, world class athletes, and foreign press all eagerly anticipate an historical two weeks of world class competition.
Athletes who identify as gender neutral, despite biological hormone tests, will chose to compete in traditionally sex-segregated sports like gymnastics, basketball, and track & field. Reaching this level of competition is no walk in the park, all athletes would have to compete with other athletes (men, women, and otherwise) to qualify for this level of competion in their given sport.
Gender categories will finally be suspended for the Olympic games.
If you recall back in 2009, South African track & field athlete, Caster Semenya, garnered world wide media attention from sports industry officials who believed she had an abnormal hormone deficiency that allowed her to unfairly benefit as a female competitor. Even though Semenya's birth certificate clearly indicates she was born female, but her hormone tests indicate her levels were well within the normal rangeshe is both a woman and a man, folks still couldn't leave well enough alone. Unfortunately, Semenya found herself amidst even more controversy in her home country while having to confront its gender policing issues.
You see, at that time, the entire world couldn't get over itself and its rules about who we are as people, and how we ought to 'perform' our gender. Though I wouldn't wish Semenya's ordeal on anyone, it was because of her experience that leaders around the world urged people to once and for all reevalute our social and cultural rules about who wo/men are and how wo/men perform as athletes and otherwise.
Okay, back to 2009. The reality.
Will we ever see the day when the way athletes identify determine how they compete? If so, how will this shift our understanding of supposed gender-based inequities of athletic ability, strength, and stamina in adult athletes? (Because the idea of nuetralizing the playing field seems to be an issue with adult male/female athletes, and not necessarily child athletes. Growing up, I always competitively ran and played basketbal with boys and girls together but the older I got, the more segregated the field became.)
Will society ever surrender it's hangups about gender construction, and free itself from this sporting sexual aparteid in which we find ourselves? Will Caster Semenya wake up one morning and not have to read about her 'looking like a man,' taking a 'sex verification test,' or 'proving her femininity' with a birth certificate her father had to provide to the press?
No one knows, for certain. And while I understand the issue of gender neutral sports is as complicated as the issue of gender politics itself, I still can help but wonder what if.
Tom Daley the young cheeky chap from Plymouth has made headlines this
week by winning Gold at the World Diving Championship. Tom was tipped
for great things before the Olympics last year and when he failed to
deliver a medal many people saw this as a let down. Don’t get me wrong
there was still a strong contingent backing Daley but some people
started to questions his ability after all the hype that had surrounded
him but hopefully now he had put some of those criticisms to rest.
Now
To may not have a cult like following like some young pop stars or have
the paparazzi chasing him wherever he goes but he is a poster child for
UK sporting stars. If it had been someone say in there twenties that
had won the gold at The World Diving Championships I don’t think they
would have got the coverage that Tom has this week and if Tom hadn’t
competed in it I don’ think many of us in the UK would have known that
it was taking place.
Earlier this year Tom was making headlines
for non-sporting reasons when a story of the bullying he was receiving
at school made the national press. He was subsequently moved schools
because of it but this brought up a whole range of opinions from the
general public. Some saying he shouldn’t get special treatment and that
it was part of life from some asking why in today’s society do we have
to pick on someone just because they are successful. If this had been
any Olympic star accept Tom Daley this wouldn’t have made press or if
it had been any child on your own street that this was happening to it
wouldn’t have made press.
If the pressure that was on him to
bring home the Gold in 2012 before wasn’t enough now after winning Gold
at the World Diving Championship people will now be expecting him to do
it at the Olympics. The fact that the Olympics are three years away and
people are already bigging him up shows the pressure that is on.
Anything could happen in those three years, Tom could get injured, a
new face may come on the seen, Tom may stop diving, who knows. All I
know is that I don’t think we have seen the last of the press interest
in his life which I think is only going to get worse the closer we get
to the Olympics.
Adam Sibley
Founder of the Talented Young People organisation www.talentedyoungpeople.com
"Envisage it, Believe it, Achieve it!"
”Shaking up the Youth of Today”
The 2016 Olympic "Green Bid" has a lot to offer to the city of Chicago, but some lingering concerns leave residents wary of massive development proposals. I decided to ask some locals for their opinions on Chicago's Olympic bid. This is what the people on the street have to say:
Mayor Daley and his crew have been fanning out their public relations peacock feathers to attract the attention of the International Olympic Committee. If they play their cards right, Chicago could win the bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games—a lucrative opportunity that will shine an international spotlight on the city, bringing in spectators (a.k.a. tourist dollars) from around the globe.
The city has already hosted a number of 2016 events to pump up Chicagoans for the coming tide of Olympic investment and excitement. They've even developed a nonprofit organization known as Chicago 2016 to promote the games. The overall strategy seems to focus on the "Green Bid." If chosen as the 2016 host, Chicago promises to implement sustainable city-wide developments in preparation for the games.
All of the major bidders are leaning heavily on the environmental angle; it's a race to compose the cleanest-and-greenest Olympic proposal. The Associated Press says that "Madrid promises to promote bicycle use and Rio De Janeiro says 3 million trees would be planted in nearby rain forests to offset carbon emissions. Tokyo plans a zero-waste Olympics."
Perhaps they're compensating for the nasty publicity regarding China's air quality (or lack thereof) during the Beijing Olympics last summer. While I applaud efforts to green up urban centers, the environment is not the only factor to consider when talking about 2016.
In Chicago, concerns about gentrification fuel a different kind of conversation. Some people are asking what sort of effect the 2016 Olympics will have on low-income residents and communities of color in Chicago. Many of Daley's new Olympic building proposals involve plowing over old buildings in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Cathy Weatherspoon, an 88-year-old resident in Bronzeville, expressed her concerns to New America Media:
I am afraid that if the city wins their Olympic bid, it would displace many of us poor, Black folks. My building is three blocks from the Olympic Village site, and I can’t see the city spending all that money to build the darn thing knowing that welfare folks live a few blocks away.
The Organization of Black Students at the University of Chicago also discussed housing affordability in the context of the 2016 games. They note that Olympic development doesn't have to be organized in such a manner that harms marginalized groups. The city could take the 2016 bid as an opportunity to restructure the Olympic cities' bad habits of displacing poor people and ignoring human rights.
As Chicago pushes forward with its Olympic bid, planners and politicians alike should take human rights into account. Proclaiming lofty goals of "green infrastructure and sustainable development" says little about who's benefitting from said development. In many cases, the flowery language puts a cute spin on what I would term "environmentalism to serve the rich and white." Yes, it'd be great to reduce Chicago's environmental impact and bring additional revenue into the city, but not at the expense of communities that are already struggling.
However, the 2016 bid could be the City of Chicago's opportunity to show the people that they care about equitable, sustainable, and citizen-friendly development.
Mayor Daley and his crew have been fanning out their public relations peacock feathers to attract the attention of the International Olympic Committee. If they play their cards right, Chicago could win the bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games—a lucrative opportunity that will shine an international spotlight on the city, bringing in spectators (a.k.a. tourist dollars) from around the globe. 
