tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18222047393476159102024-03-19T03:19:29.763+00:00World Cup Human RightsMonitoring 'Fair Play' in Russia and Qatar
ahead of the 2018 and 2022 Fifa World Cups WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-29870180128223167432016-10-05T09:58:00.000+01:002016-10-05T09:58:20.501+01:00Russia unveils mascot finalists for 2018 World CupExciting news from Russia and its utterly incorruptible sports minister Vitaly Mutko - the mascot for Russia 2018 will be announced later this month, and the final contestants are a wolf, a cat and a tiger. Cute! The World Cup Human Rights blog has been granted an exclusive look at the figures that will inject an extra blast of frivolity into what promises to be a month of fun football promoting WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-40029912615064620382016-09-27T09:51:00.002+01:002016-09-27T09:51:30.894+01:00Galina Arapova - defending human rights in Russia
Here are some extracts
from a speech given last week by Russian human rights lawyer Galina Arapova,
who was in Washington DC accepting the 2016 Human Rights Award from the
International Bar Association (IBA).
"Recognition in
one’s profession means a great deal," said Arapova, addressing the IBA's
annual conference. "Needless to say it carries even more weight when
we are dealing with WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-19191029358384458372016-09-15T09:05:00.001+01:002016-09-15T09:05:29.764+01:00Opposition in Russia - like playing blank piano keys
Russian opposition politician Wladimir Kara-Musra, who last year
survived an assassination attempt by poison, is interviewed in today's
Süddeutsche Zeitung about what motivates him to continue campaigning ahead of
Sunday's elections. While state-controlled TV broadcasts ridiculous items
smearing his reputation and his party, Open Russia, he tours around the country
holding meetings and listeningWCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-70171745064752484742016-09-12T12:40:00.000+01:002016-09-12T12:43:11.548+01:00Former Qatar resident hits out at economic slavery
An article in the increasingly daring Doha News has highlighted the problem of dissent in Qatar. Lawyer Kristen Jarvis Johnson, a former
resident of the Gulf state, concedes that she kept quiet about economic slavery
while living there, but has now urged ex-patriot residents still in Qatar to do
the opposite and speak out.
The World Cup - smothered by a nation's flag
and WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-54139299955909687902016-09-07T09:38:00.001+01:002016-09-07T09:38:13.251+01:00Russia: independent pollster named 'foreign agent'
Don't like your showings in the polls? In a
democracy, you have to suck it up and up your game. In Russia, you can just force
the pollster to shut down using the label 'foreign agent'.
Another Russian institution gets punishedfor reporting the truth
The Levada Centre, Russia's main
independent pollster, has made the mistake of reporting that Vladimir Putin's
United Russia party is down in WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-42531489084720395712016-09-02T10:21:00.000+01:002016-09-02T10:21:32.562+01:00Kaepernick puts the right kind of politics into sportAsk an American sports fan why the US national anthem is played before every single sporting event, and you will not receive a satisfactory answer. The truth is, no one knows. "That's just what we've always done" is about the best you can hope for. "Is it in case you forget which country you're living in?" I always ask. In case all those US flags that top so many buildings and that are displayed WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-50364883857545881042016-09-01T09:03:00.002+01:002016-09-01T09:03:38.480+01:00The triumph of Olympic values in China and BrazilThe founder of the modern Olympics, Baron de Coubertin, believed that physical education was a key factor to moral education. The three pillars of Olympian idealism are said to be Excellence, Friendship and Respect. It was reassuring to read in the newspapers this morning how hosting recent Olympics has helped these values become entrenched in China (2008) and Brazil (2016) respectively.
WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-431673555071497392016-08-31T11:01:00.002+01:002016-08-31T11:01:35.526+01:00No room for dissent, human rights in Chechnya
In less than two years
Russia will host the 2018 Fifa World Cup. In less than a year it will host the
2017 Fifa Confederations Cup. In less than three weeks it will stage parliamentary
and presidential elections in the Russian republic of Chechnya, the first time
that its local gangster/governor Ramzan Kadyrov - appointed by the Kremlin in
2007 - will be subject to the democratic will of the WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-86007013862342033212016-08-30T14:30:00.002+01:002016-09-01T08:18:22.687+01:00Polish tourist arrested in Qatar for 'being gay'
Remember when banned ex-Fifa President Sepp Blatter was first asked about Qatar's ban on
homosexuality, and how that would affect gay visitors to the 2022 World Cup?
The feeble-minded bureaucrat speculated that it would surely be fine, just so
long as gay people didn't have gay sex while they were in gay-hating Qatar.
Qatari police - tools at the ready to stop the big gay threat in 2022
WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-75578309483549714152016-08-19T10:43:00.000+01:002016-08-23T20:20:28.037+01:00Book Review: The Race Against the Stasi by Herbie Sykes
The Race Against the Stasi: The Incredible
Story of Dieter Wiedemann, the Iron Curtain and the Greatest Cycling Race on Earth
by Herbie Sykes (Aurum Press, 2016)
This is a compelling book even if read alone
for the story of Dieter Wiedemann. The apolitical East German cyclist fell in
love with a girl from the west and, frustrated by the political decisions that
were hampering his career, WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-67229059010958950522016-08-16T13:23:00.001+01:002016-08-16T13:23:28.406+01:00Quote of the day: Mutko is a happy man"This was a very important day for us. I would like to congratulate all the athletes and sports fans."
The joys of sport in a time of war
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko was content on Monday with the latest haul of Russian medals at the Rio Olympics, despite it being "a pity that we will have no track and field athletes" (though he doesn't mention why). In the meantime, the political WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-57392786491072468972016-08-11T07:31:00.000+01:002016-08-12T08:59:46.129+01:00"I have been so fearful in writing this, but I have had enough"
A future multi-coloured Qatar(image: equaldex.com)
A tiny drop of coloured paint on the black wall of Qatar's draconian attitude towards homosexuality. Doha News last week printed a column on "What it's like to be gay and Qatari." It was prompted by one man's horror at the virulent Qatari reaction to the June mass murder of 49 people at the Pulse night club in Orlando, Florida.
"WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-86817802592156452092016-08-09T10:32:00.000+01:002016-08-19T10:53:57.248+01:00Is it time to abolish the Olympics and the World Cup?
Flags and borders - what are they good for?
"Nation states are the result of wars,
intrigues, marriage, propaganda, blackmail, lies and deception," writes
former German cabinet minister Norbert Blum in the Süddeutsche Zeitung today in a column headed Nationalism Equals
Idiocy.
Blum points out that during the 74 years of
the German Empire (1871-1945), "Germany went to war with France three
WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-11531995941993371282016-08-08T10:06:00.000+01:002016-08-08T10:06:49.114+01:00Infantino verdict: image more important than change at Fifa
Infantino in Russia: "Everything'sgreat!" Picture: Fifa.com
News reports that Fifa President Gianni
Infantino has been cleared of ethical breaches by the Fifa Ethics Committee
have focused on the happy verdict, but not the still very questionable content.
Fifa's PR machine will be delighted. After all, football's governing body has
always stated that its priority is to clean up its image, WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-14783608183829796292016-08-05T09:35:00.000+01:002016-08-08T10:07:21.153+01:00Book Review: Brazil's Dance With the Devil by Dave Zirin
Essential reading matter for the next fortnight.
Brazil's Dance With the Devil - updated
Olympic edition, by Dave Zirin (Haymarket Books, 2016)
I always prepare for a major international
sporting event with some appropriately cheery reading matter. Dave Zirin's
examination of Brazil's back-to-back hosting of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016
Olympics have helped me reach the WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-38298293579625943562016-08-04T14:32:00.000+01:002016-08-04T14:33:09.545+01:00World Press Freedom Rankings 2016 - Qatar 117th, Russia 148th
The 2016 World Press Freedom Index makes
for sober reading ahead of the next two World Cups. Russia is ranked 148th,
while Qatar takes the coveted 117th. slot. In both countries it requires
almighty amounts of courage for independent journalists or news organisations to
report critically, truthfully and accurately on the activities of the ruling autocrats.
While Russia climbed four places WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-27457917429730452802016-08-03T13:38:00.001+01:002016-08-03T14:24:01.499+01:00Boycott the Rio Olympics - it's the very least you can do
A reader's letter in today's Süddeutsche
Zeitung is short and to the point with regard to this coming fortnight's Olympics
in Rio: "There is someone who can undertake action against doping: us.
Only when we refuse to watch this now risible event will something change.
Because nobody's forcing us to watch" (Martin Schüller, Cologne).
Olympics - sick and limp
Last night the French/German WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-29477721052282017462016-08-02T09:45:00.000+01:002016-08-02T09:45:53.393+01:00Fifa - the cuckoo 'foreign agent' that Russia won't expel
Demanding guest - the parasitic cuckoo Fifa hijacks a new nest every four years.
Once again, this blog apologises to a now
possibly distracted readership for its negligence. With qualifying games for
the 2018 World Cup in Russia already under way in several parts of the world,
it's time to recommence monitoring why all football fans should boycott the
next two World Cups, including WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-1382139217548832652013-02-07T17:54:00.003+00:002013-02-07T17:58:26.737+00:00'Fifa and Uefa Cannot Avoid Their Political Duties'
If only Fifa's ethics were at least half decent
Two years is something of a lifetime in internet terms, and presumably most casual visitors passing through have presumed this blog to be long since dead, like millions of other digital diaries and documentations founded upon the best of intentions. Random work and life events quickly caught up with us after an initial burst of righteous WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-65325477691580130782011-02-17T19:44:00.001+00:002011-02-17T19:45:25.969+00:00Blazer Hits Out At FIFA Bidding Process – 3 Months Too Late
Chuck all use: Blazer shows his balls way too late
The FIFA Executive Committee’s hairiest and most huggable member, Chuck ‘All’ Blazer, has slammed the World Cup bidding process in an interview with the worthy but dull monthly football magazine, World Soccer. A mere several months too late, Blazer declared in the magazine’s March issue that “the whole process would probably be better if a WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-15561106099708095872011-02-16T19:14:00.001+00:002011-02-16T19:15:58.249+00:00Tackling Rio's Rotten Cops
Drugs and guns: don't trust Rio police with these items
As Brazil starts clearing its shanty towns of gangsters and drug barons in time to make things look nice and pretty for the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, it’s being forced to tackle another long term internal problem – the corruption and violence of its own police force complicit in the drugs trade. The Associated Press reported WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-9864893834694204802011-02-10T16:25:00.000+00:002011-02-10T16:25:54.489+00:00Quote of the Month - Vaclav Havel
Havel: has experience overcoming dictatorships
"However, most important is that if [Western] relations with Russia are to be friendly, they must be open and sincere, otherwise there can be no friendship at all. That means one should be able to speak openly about everything at meetings and conferences. It shouldn’t be that we can’t discuss the killing of journalists in Russia, or the suppressionWCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-13297760074417156512011-02-09T19:01:00.000+00:002011-02-09T19:01:37.236+00:00Democracy In Qatar by 2022?
Qataris - free to celebrate, but not to demonstrate
Could Qatar be a democracy by the time it stages the 2022 World Cup? With the near-revolution in Egypt, the fall of Tunisian dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, and Gulf state dictatorships being forced by the increasing power of public will to take a long, hard look at how to go about saving their own asses, Gulf pro-democracy activists have WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-31477206888978175952011-02-07T21:39:00.002+00:002011-02-07T21:45:16.346+00:00Quote of the Week - Nemtsov Calls For Sanctions Against Russian Leaders
London knows best, little man...
“I have an idea for you [the West] how to help democracy in Russia. Let you implement sanctions against people who break [the] Russian constitution [and]… agreements on human rights and democracy, like you did with [Belarussian President Alexander] Lukashenko.” Former Russian deputy prime minister Boris Nemtsov, a liberal opposition leader who last month spent WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1822204739347615910.post-15318932816635220702011-02-05T13:15:00.000+00:002011-02-05T13:15:56.792+00:00Russia Narrows Gap Between Church And State“In order to strengthen social stability today …(the state and the Church), probably like never before, need to act together,” Russian President Dimitry Medvedev said on Thursday, welcoming a decision by the Russian Orthodox Church to allow its clergy to stand for political office if it feels that the church's interests are threatened. When might that be? They don't specify.
Soon WCHRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10044328458457779292noreply@blogger.com0