Adebayor's started so well for Man City
Shld Britain Ban Zimbabwean Sportsmen/women?
Really interesting this one: what difference will it make to Robert Mugabe if we ban his sportsmen and women from competing in this country? Does it hurt him one iota? What about when it comes to 2012 - will we ban them then? Wil weban Chinese athletes in 2012 because of their oppressive regime? Where does it end? Not to defend Mugabe but there are loads of horrible dictators around the world, so if we ban the sportsmen and women fron one horrid regime we ban them all don't we?
have u got any adverbs
The politics of gimmicks has not left us. There are elections in Zimbabwe on March 29, and there has been no visible political input from the British government. Is this an attempt at that?
What we have are sportsmen who are struggling to make a living in a hyperinflation society. Playing cricket is what these sportspeople do. Taking away their livelihood will do nothing to change things.
Should the Zimbabwean team make a stance against the UK for their role in Iraq? Politics has failed to work and I am tired of megaphone diplomacy.
Any and all debate about such issues is vital for democracy.
Why is considered necessary to tell viewers of ´óÏó´«Ã½4 what channel they are watching? You do not do this with ´óÏó´«Ã½2 or ´óÏó´«Ã½1 so why with ´óÏó´«Ã½4?
Victoria, the policy of the UK government leaves a lot to be desired. One has to ask the questions why the bilateral ties have collapsed. We have for the first time a real opportunity of change where Mugabe is facing a real challenge from within his own party. What this will do will give him ammunition to rig the elections and make sure the ballot stuffers work overtime. The timing of it is rather unfortunate. I think the best of solutions is for the UK government to stay out of the whole affair.
Sanctions of any kind are not the answer to helping change a regime, they never effect the leaders and always pour depravation on the masses. They have not worked in Iraq, Libya and Cuba to name a few. Sanctions generally provide strong propaganda messages for the likes of Saddam and Mugabe.
The real way to change a situation is to mobilise the population, and the only effective way is through economics. This happened in Russia and Eastern Europe, you have to show the people what they are missing, engage figure-heads in advocating that the grass is greener if their country was run properly. This will change the regime from the inside.
To do this you put goods on the shelves that are out of the reach of the masses, you bring sports people and other influential leaders to your country and you show them what it is like to live in a balanced society. They will then advocate change and there will be a desire for change from the inside. This is the only way – banning cricketers will only prolong the pain!!
Absolutely true. The only possible reason to ban Zimbabwean competitors from the UK would be to embarrass Mugabe. It certainly will do him no financial harm.
Here we have a man who is excoriated the world over for the oppression of his regime, state sanctioned murder, ruining his country’s economy etc etc. In the eyes of the world he already has a zero rated PR quotient; so banning his country’s sportsmen from competing in the UK cannot worsen his position on that score.
Mugabe will just use it as propaganda within his own borders to bolster his own position as the wronged leader. Worse still is that it will hurt the ordinary folk of Zimbabwe, for whom the joy of watching their own people compete might relieve for a while the awfulness of their lives.
What damage will it do to Mugabe if we ban his sportspeople? Well, Mugabe was the most vical of supporters for a sporting ban on South Africa during the apartheid years. He has gone much further than China when it comes to human rights abuses. We should give him a taste of his own medicine.
Of course the entire Zimbabwean team could arive and apply for refugee staus; we could hardly refuse them could we?
I think its unfair to ban Zimbabwe crikecters from coming here, Mugabe doesn't really care. Mr Brown is just avoiding dealing with the problems in Zimbabwe directly and is using sports for this. France and other powers look after their former colonies well, Britain has failed to do this for Zimbabwe and its a shame because there are a vast amount of british-Zimbabwe people still in Zimbabwe.
No one holds British or American citizens for the Iraq war although it was known to be one of the most controversial issues really against human rights. Mr Brown should just get rid of Mugabe , Zimbabwean people have suffered enough!! There is lots of platinum so Brown and Bush may have a reason to go help now!!
I remember arguing this one in the Eighties over South African apartheid. My answer is yes: it will hurt. He's very sensitive about losing face, and so this will hurt. He should lose his honorary degrees too, for the same reason.
As for all the other awful regimes, well, I won't be having anything to do with the Chinese communist Olympics - unless it's to help the dispossessed poor who've had their homes or livelihoods demolished by the totalitarian regime there.
I have little patience with the "Sports shouldn't be mixed with politics" ideal. Politics is about power, and professional sports are also about power, albeit a different sort. You can't unmix something that is already intertwined, so you may as well use it productively.
Dear Victoria
I am very disappointed by the way the British government has handled the situation in Zimbabwe. Mr Brown should tackle this once and for all and not use sport!! other nations like France look after their former colonies well. Britain has let Zimbabwe down.
Mugabe doesn't really care about the ordinary Zimbabwean he is actually punishing them for not voting for him in the previous elections and Mr Brown is just helping him do so by taking away the only good thing these sportman can do!!
Noone holds the British or American citizens against the Iraq war.
Zimbabwe is very rich in Platinum so Mr Brown and Bush have a reason to go and get rid of Mugabe. These politicians do not care about the ordinary person!!!!!!!!
Our athletes are not allowed to get embroiled in politics when they go to Beijing. Yet government is willing to use athletes for political leverage. Ridiculous.
Based on that argument, perhaps we should ban the United State's athletes too on the grounds of the utter violation of human rights in Guantanamo.
Perhaps we should ban our own british athletes due to this governments appalling permission to allow torture by turning a little blind eye to extraordinary renditions through our country.
The scales may be different, but are we not all guilty of monstrous violation of human rights?
Mugabe might be a tyrant, but sadly, people in glass houses shouldnt throw stones; if we ban his athletes, we should be noble enough to ban our own.
In all these discussions, no one eve seems to discuss the effects that 'economic and political sanctions' have on the common person in Zimbabwe? It seems the West has simply forgotten them and focused its energies on one man - Robert Mugabe.Why so?
How is banning all sports men and women in the UK going to achieve their desired goal?
The simple answer to this is issue is that this does not even make Mugabe wink or lose sleep at all. In fact Gordon Brown is again setting himself up for a spectacular embarassing failure, well judging from recent events he seems to be getting used to these spectacular failures and perhaps may be starting to enjoy them.
I think one thing is beyond debate, that is Mugabe is undemocratic, dictatorial and has directly or indirectly contributed to the mass suffering of many Zimbabweans in the past decade. Needless to say he is WAY past his sell by date for Zimbabwe. NOW THAT ASIDE.
I would like to just highlight a few issues:
I think Gordon has run out of ideas on how to press Mugabe or at least on trying to make him see reason; Why punish the sportsmen of Zimbabwe who are victims of Mugabes rule, especially when we know economic and personal sanctions have not worked on Mugabes govt, let alone sports sanctions.
This is not going to make Mugabe change but will only add to more suffering to the many Zimbabwean sportsman who have tried to earn a living through sports in the difficult environment in Zimbabwe. Examples of some sportsman who are in UK who are earning a living and have contributed to helping ameliorate the suffering of some Zimbabweans are there for all to see; Benjani at Man city - he has done quite a lot for the national team recently with his personal money.
The second and perhaps worrying bit for me as an individual is I think this move smacks of hippocrisy. PM Brown, wants to sanction sports to make his point, well why sports only and not the many Zimbabweans who are working and supporting in the british economy in vital sectors, NHS- there are lots of Zim Doctors in the NHS, Engineering field to name but a few. I suppose its more convenient to sanction sports because its not benefiting the British economy, and perhaps its good cheap publicity to salvage ones fledging political rating, hmmm? that really is double standards.
Of course there are many dictators and undemocratic leaders world over some of whom are "Allies" to PM Brown but no one has ever discussed banning their sportsmen and women. Moral high grounds regardless of how genuine one is will not be effective as long as you have double standards - thats why the British and the Americans are struggling to solve the world problems despite the feeling that they have the moral high ground on so many world issues - food for thought.
PM Gordon, please rethink some of these ideas before breaking them for debate.
Many thanks