Monday, June 05, 2006

Racism Threatens 2006 World Cup Safety

With only days left for the FIFA World Cup taking place in Germany, security is the biggest concern of the German authorities. BBC reports:

Thousands of police, surveillance aircraft, and soldiers trained in anti-chemical warfare are all on duty in Germany this month, making sure the World Cup is remembered only as a sporting spectacle.

No freebies for guessing the usual suspects: terrorists and soccer hooligans if you are familiar with the long traditions of the European soccer fans but there is one more suspect you might have missed:

Neo-Nazis.

According to Uwe-Karsten Heye, a former government spokesman, the situation is a bleak one:
"There are small and medium-sized towns in Brandenburg and elsewhere which I would advise a visitor of another skin colour to avoid,"

And he continued:
It is possible he wouldn't get out alive.


Sad.

Mr. Heye was later forced to back down from his comments following an uproar from other politicians who obviously found his comments detrimental to the efforts of the German authorities doing their best to make the stay of the foreign guests as comfortable and safe as possible.

As a man of color myself, I have had my own share of experiences. None of them were life threatening or otherwise harmful but those chides and remarks from passing cars, or water balloons thrown at while I waited at bus stops in Los Angeles ruined my days. But then I was young and immature and the reality was Hollywood. Thankfully such incidents were few and far between.

Couple of years ago, I was addressed by the dreaded N-word. I didn't react. I simply ignored. To my surprise, it didn't leave a lingering sour for days to come. I realized, I have grown up.

Racially motivated attacks are not new, not in Europe and not in this part of the world either.
The far right exists, and they bring a different kind of hatred to the table. This only makes matters worse as our hands are already full with the perverted actions of Islamic Jihadists.

The world might as well be black and white but color blindness is a disease and love is in the rainbow.

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posted by QbiT @ 16:14

from QbiT