Over several decades and it has gotten worse in recent years, with 2019 being the worst in the past decade, football (soccer) authorities have stood by, done very little to combat racist abuse of players by some sections of fans at matches. With every new incident there were ready-made excuses and the usual ineffectual attempts to ban the offenders. Well, we have just completed a season and started the 2020/21 season without fans in the stadiums and it has been an effective end to racist chants at matches. Covid-19 has essentially done what footballing authorities failed to address for nearly a century. It has allowed for an environment where footballers can go to their jobs, get it done without exposure to abuse (which they are surely entitled to) and go home happy. This makes it quite clear that the solution has always been there: zero tolerance of racist behaviour. Banning all fans from any stadium where racist chants are heard, for a few weeks will ensure that the next time a fan standing next to you decides he/she wants to shout out racist slurs, other fans desperate to avoid a closure of their stadium will step-in to remind that fan to behave. It is a very simple and obvious solution that has always been available but instead, footballing authorities repeatedly choose to do nothing year on year.
One can just imagine how those who have never been able to afford jet-setting, expensive restaurants etc. feel about the past 7 months of Covid-forced equality?
Ok, long term impact and detriment will still hit the poor worse and the usual affluent excuse of: “well, if we don’t let you clean our hotel rooms and carry our bags you won’t have jobs and will starve” still applies and that age-old mechanism used to keep the poor in check and dependent will be back thriving soon enough. Nothing is going to change (just like the football analogy above) because those with the authority to make real change choose repeatedly to do nothing and that will always be the state of affairs because we are all complicit. We each want our holidays in exotic countries and we want them to serve us and fetch & carry for us and we have our pre-prepared reasons why it is ok (afterall we are paying for such service and have worked hard to deserve such pampering, so, surely it is our entitlement?). Well, it is one big mechanism and change is never an isolated matter that others should sort out for us all. Hence, nothing will change, BUT for the moment, the poor can have a momentary laugh and witness a world where rich or poor have had to bow to Covid-19 to an extent!
We want to visit Machu Picchu, the Himalayas and various places but we don’t want to see those local people over here; BUT WAIT, we have the usual excuse: well, we don’t go to those places as economic migrants, we go there to give them a chance to survive off our tourism spend on their country. OK. But what is wrong with trying to fix the rest of the world so that nobody has to depend solely on tourism earnings to survive? Oh, that’s going to spoil our fun and make those holidays too expensive for us? EXACTLY. After all we have made the $, €, £ so strong to ensure we can saunter off to those countries and enjoy ourselves right? (this is the reason the rich world is terrified of the concept of cryptocurrency – imagine a global currency where people get similar value for their hard work! Of course we don’t want that!) I ask again: what is so wrong with trying to fix the world’s problems, create an equitable society for all, so that nobody needs to be an economic migrant and Africans, Latin Americans or South-East Asians can choose whether or not they wish to visit England or the US as tourists on holiday, without the desperation of seeking economic benefit or safety (or whatever reasons currently lead migrants to put up with the trials & pain of attempting to migrate)?? When politicians ask this question they are immediately called SOCIALISTS, DO-GOODERS or LEFTIST. Well, if capitalism and the current form of toxic democracy is now the virtuous or RIGHT, then we need more LEFTIES! The world belongs to no-one, none of us own it. We will all depart with nothing in the end. So, why not try to do something useful with our lives? Making the whole world great is what our collective aspiration should be. And the solutions are there to be had, BUT will we ever have leaders who will decide (similar to my football analogy above) to take action? UNLIKELY
If only we can learn some real lessons from this?
Knowledge can improve the world we live in 