RACIAL ATTACKS AND VIOLENCE FOLLOW ENGLAND EURO DEFEAT
We enthusiastically supported England throughout the just concluded European football tournament and we prayed fervently that after more than a century football would finally go home but it didn’t happen. Southgate had a good team but tactics went wrong on that day and some of the England stars of the competition just didn’t put in the performance we’re used to seeing from them both in the EPL and the Euro.
For some reason England didn’t push hard enough to finish off the Italians who were clearly very nervous after conceding that early goal. They allowed the Italians to slowly regain their shape and halfway through the first half all England players were behind the ball with Veratti in particular playing all the football in midfield allowing Italian attackers to pile on the pressure. Decclan Rice, a fantastic young player, found it difficult to settle in with the pace. Mason Mount was unable to make those dangerous moves he is so reputed for in the EPL. We wonder why it took Southgate so long to replace those guys.
Anyway, we will be with England again for the World Cup but we have to join the millions of people in England and around the world who are appalled at the street violence and racist attacks directed at those BLACK England players who missed their spot kicks causing England to lose the trophy. We are satisfied with the way the world has responded to those racist attacks and we are waiting to see how many of those racists will be put on trial to teach them a very serious lesson.
Racism in football is not an English problem. In fact throughout the rich leagues of Europe BLACK players are being insulted because of their skin colour daily. Unfortunately they have to continue playing in those leagues because that’s where world football really is and there’s a lot of money to be made. The second factor is a huge one because we have seen what some of those players have done to help their home countries with schools, hospitals, transport and scholarships for whole communities. So racist attacks or not they are going to close their eyes and bang in the goals. It’s another UNUSUAL NORMAL.
Fighting racism in football takes more than condemnations on social media. Let’s have some BLACK managers. There are many competent ones idling around. Let’s have some BLACK referees. Come on!
OUR TRANSPORT MINISTER AND THE CRAWLING URBAN RESILIENCE PROJECT
Moba Kabineh is quietly hoping we will move away from this matter while they continue with elaborate preparatory work for a project that means so much for the welfare of our people. We repeat that we are scandalized at the unnecessarily slow pace of the World Bank and GOSL supported so-called Urban Resilience Project. We are yet to see a single brick being laid in any part of Freetown urban or even the rural area where some aspects of this project will be implemented. In fact we are beginning to forget what is contained in that package.
Naturally as journalists we should run to Moba Kabineh to ask the necessary questions but we have done that before and we are tired of telling our readers the same thing. We want to see action on the ground right now.
Here’s why we are calling Moba Kabineh’s attention to what should clearly be his concern:
1. Ordinary people are suffering, commuting to and from work. From the look of things the transport ministry is missing in action. The people are left in the hands of a group of wicked and greedy commercial transport operators not seen anywhere in West Africa.
2. We understand there is already a Project Implementation Unit in your ministry with consultants writing this and that paper and collecting cool cash at the end of the month. We can’t see the result of their work so what is really happening?
3. We call on the New Direction to cut the spin and get this project going right now. In journalism we ask people to show and not tell. Telling us about the project is not bad but we want to see it on the ground. Stop the telling. Do the job.
IS THE CYBERCRIME BILL NOW PART OF OUR LAWS?
Can the Minister of Information and Communication please tell us whether the cybercrime bill is now law? We were told that the final steps were being taken to ensure the enactment of this bill is completed - and that includes the Principal signing the final version of the bill into law. We don’t know if there will be a public ceremony to sign the bill or whether it will slip quietly into our body of laws.
Our MPs from all sides of the house are congratulating themselves for “doing a good job” in safeguarding civil liberties in cyberspace. We’ll see how that plays out when people start taking action in our courts. We know that powers were shifted from the hands of the police and politicians into the hands of judges in some crucial areas. That’s not strange because people have always turned to the courts to defend themselves against arbitrary arrests or frivolous prosecutions. Let our judges do their jobs.
This is a country in which many people at home and abroad think anything goes on social media – they publish outright lies, use unprintable words against decent citizens, they distribute gory pornographic materials and openly incite violence against the state and individual citizens. The evidence is all over the place. This bill will not kill all of that but we must warn that while the state may not necessarily prosecute people for making critical comments about how they run the country, we will hold them accountable if they allow people to incite violence leading to the destruction of life and property even with that bill in place. Why was it necessary to fight all the battles to put this law in place only to allow the same criminal behavior to continue?
Now individuals, whether in government or not, can go to court and defend their reputation and the government has NO CONTROL over that.
We congratulate the information minister and his staff for this effort but they should now ensure the following:
1. No unregistered SIM cards should be in operation as from now on. NATCOM should compel the mobile phone companies to switch them off. Those are the numbers people use for prank calls and criminal enterprises.
2. The Ministry of Information and their allies should be on the road again to explain this bill to people throughout this country. It’s very important to do so. They should NEVER assume that people know the new situation created by this bill.
WHY NOT CANCEL THE TOKYO OLYMPICS GUYS?
The IOC and their Japanese hosts are pressing ahead with the games with a lot of restrictions as a consequence of the raging coronavirus pandemic. They clearly don’t want to have cause to postpone the games again. We like the Olympics but the restrictions are taking some of the fun side of things out of the games this time. We understand athletes will only be allowed into the village FIVE days before the start of the tournament and should leave TWO days after competing and that the village would look like some prison yard because movement would be severely restricted there. We cannot even begin to imagine the testing regime in place for the games.
It’s always good for humans to stand up to whatever adversity life throws at us and get on with things and with living with coronavirus now part of what people call the new normal, maybe the IOC are right to insist on getting this over and done with. Our concern is the prison-like condition under which athletes have to perform. How will that affect their performance on the field or even their mental health overall?
Please let’s not wake up on the morning of the crucial track and field to the news that the great runners, including members of the Jamaican and American relay teams have tested positive for coronavirus and would be isolated because the whole games would become a farce and many wouldn’t like to be associated with it.
Copyright © Politico Online (14/07/21)
