Quote 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 suppression of human rights, or all the warning signs surfacing in Russia because of oil and gas or other economic reasons. It's a big problem, but it's the same in Western relations with Arab states. There's a dilemma over how to balance concrete economic interests with critical opinions on the state of human rights. It's the human rights that suffer, and that's a great price to pay."

Czech playwright and former President Vaclav Havel, interviewed by Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe ahead of his first feature film, due out next month.

‘Tired’ England Ditches Thai Bribe

Joke team to skip joke fixture

The English Football Association has officially cancelled its national team’s friendly in Thailand this June because it has belatedly realised that its players need to rest, apparently. In fact the game was doomed the moment that England failed to win hosting rights to the 2018 World Cup, and they realised that their pledge to play in Thailand had failed to secure the vote of Thailand FA President and FIFA ExCom member Worawi Makudi.

This was one of multiple dubious promises (otherwise known as ‘bribes’) made during the farcical World Cup bidding process in the run-up to last month’s announcements in Zürich, and we cite it here because it’s just one blatant example illustrating the urgent need for outright reform of both FIFA and the way it awards its tournaments. Without a strong ethical code of its own, FIFA has no right to demand strong ethical practices in its host nations. And ultimately, that is the only way that the self-proclaimed world game can aim to play a worthwhile global role and genuinely become ‘more than a game.’ (And that’s why, in case you’re wondering, we’re bothering with this micro-protest in blog form. Yes, we’re starting at the bottom because, as with FIFA’s morals, the only way from here is up.)

Quote of the Month – Ban Ki-Moon Sets Sepp An Example

"Violence will end only when we confront prejudice. Stigma and discrimination will end only when we agree to speak out. That requires all of us to do our part; to speak out at home, at work, in our schools and communities." United Nations Secretary General Ban  Ki-moon calls for an end to violence and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons on Human Rights Day (Dec. 10).

FIFA President Sepp Blatter may like to read the quote and write it out 50 times as an example of Enlightenment 101, and the kind of considered, statesmanlike leadership he seems to be lacking at present. Then send a copy to each of the 70-odd FIFA nations where homosexuality is criminalised.