Pablo

Why does the role model for a black child have to be black?

Pablo

6000

Good question.

I would say it is because of the insecurity, paranoia, resentment, disillusionment and distrust that are rife in this country. There are still a million miles to travel before this "rainbow nation" is anywhere close to being integrated.
Why would any black child have any hope of becoming a Jean de Villiers or a Percy Montgomery?

1. There's no connection there. Those players are in that team because they had advantages in education etc that the black child still doesn't have.
2. Every time they see a Springbok side run onto the pitch (if they're even watching for the same reasons as given above) they see what? 1, maybe 2 players of colour - where's the inspiration there?

It's far from an ideal situation when one must rely on someone from one's own culture to inspire you. But then, where are we now in terms of racial integration in SA? A far from ideal situation. More players of colour in the national side will at least provide some sort of spark, a catalyst, to kick-start transformation.

kiwibok

Well maybe you have not heard of thenew sports bill in South Africa that goes to Parliament...

Chairman of South African sports committee puts race over sporting abilities
http://www.playthegame.org/News/Up_T...abilities.aspx

Transformation issue rocks Boks
http://www.news24.com/News24/Sport/R...093365,00.html

OK, we made it this time to the world cup , but after this world cup it looks like this are going to seriously change..

kiwibok

Come on, you know it and we all know it. White players are not maiking the team because there race quotas that need to be met. Read my previous link

Pablo

Your answer begs the question. Your words about inspiration also beg the question.

It seems to me that a child knows excellence for what it is, and a lie for what it is, far better than some of the trendy politicoes who think they can "transform" society from the top down.

If racial discrimination is the problem, it is not cured by more racial discrimination.

Pablo

kiwibok

OK, well I don't know what happened to my previous post, it said it needs to be approved or something.

Anyhow here is the link
http://www.playthegame.org/News/Up_T...abilities.aspx

I hope my other post appears because I wrote down quiet a bit in there

Mitzyboy

Its simply a mechanism to avoid spammers, now approved

6000

Absolutely. But if an innocent child's mind is what you're after, you're going to be disappointed. Nature may have provided that, nurture will have certainly polluted it before said child is aware of rugby or any other sport.

Interesting theory, but I guess it depends on your definition of "racial discrimination" - positive or negative. Certainly, if negative racial discrimination is the problem, then negative racial discrimination is not the cure. Positive discrimination - in so much as that can exist outside an oxymoronic form - may well be an answer to the current situation though.

Yes. I know. It said that already.

Pablo

I disagree that, merely because any given occupation or passtime does not reflect the racial or skin-colour make-up of a given country, that this is evidence of injustice. Furthermore, your use of "cultures" in the plural seems to suggest that you believe that different racial groups have different interests, aims and aspirations. Well you can't have it both ways.

Why not just leave it at that, rather than try to engineer e.g., rugby to be a political/advertising tool for the current fashionable ideology?

Social engineers in the UK are similarly exercised at the moment that, according to them, not enough blacks are choosing to go and visit the Lake District. And so the Lake District needs to be changed, somehow, in order to make it, somehow or other, more attractive to blacks.

Pablo.

Juggernaut

Kiwi , did you even read your own link ? or did you do the selective reading that happens so often.
firstly the dept of home affairs doesnt have the power to withhold passports .Its not a privilege but a right protected by the constitution.

Secondly that article was written on the 7th of May. The Bill was to be discussed in the National Assembly on 16 May after which it was sent to the NCOP, upon whose approval it would have been signed by the President by mid-June. Has that happened ? NO.

The SA rugby squad was announced in July, no quotas enforced. In a squad of 30 player not even six non white players. That is the squad that will be going to the world Cup in France. I personally wish them well.

6000

Your analogy really doesn't work, although it conjures up some wonderful memories of trips to Keswick, Buttermere and the like. And for that, at least, I thank you.

Attempting to make a holiday destination more attractive to a certain group of people is entirely different to trying to make sure that a country's national rugby team is more representative of that country.

I do indeed believe that "different racial groups have different interests, aims and aspirations". Why is that? Because those are the stereotypes that have been forced upon them. And while a percentage of any given group may be apathetic to change, that does not mean that it should be denied to those who desire it.

This isn't the "current fashionable ideology" - it's one way making amends for the inequalities which still plague South African society. Wrongs must be righted - simple as - however difficult that process may be.

Yes, yes. We know.

Pablo

Yes, the analogy does work. It is another example of politicians trying to force nature into an ideological bottle of their own making.

As for your comments about stereotypes having been forced on different racial groups, that is merely an assumption you make in order to provide an explanation for the different outcomes you observe, and different aspirations you observe.

I think you've laboured the point about my signing my name far too long. You've made the point. I sign my name. Can't you just drop that rather silly refrain now?

Pablo

6000

I'm not entirely sure you can rightly argue that it was the current government that started that process.

So why then, in the Pablo scheme of things do "whites play rugby and blacks play football"?


That is merely an assumption you make in order to provide an explanation for the different replies you observe, and different replies you aspire to observe.

Who?

Pablo

Once again you descend into childishness. Goodbye.

Pablo

6000

And once again, you find a petty excuse to duck out of an argument you're losing.


Quitter.