Where's the Harm?

The Australian media is aghast over what has been called the "blackest day in Australian sport.” Half a length behind the Lance Armstrong doping scandle comes the news from the Australian Crime Commission of widespread drug use in professional Australian sport.

Worse than a conclave of Catholic bishops pontificating about the evils of artificial contraception, politicians past and present, sporting administrators and commentators have been calling for names to be named, rules to be strengthened and civil penalties for those who don’t co-operate.

What is all the fuss about? It’s only sport, for God’s sake. You know, that spectacle designed to entertain, divert and sell more beer during the commercial breaks.  

The integrity of sporting prowess is almost as antiquated as competing in the nude.  Science has long been a handmaiden to sporting success. You can wear it, ride it, drive it but you can’t inject it. Why the hell not?

It only makes for an unlevel playing field when the practice is outlawed. And with only winners being grinners the pressure to perform is immense. Even “clean” professional athletes have a lifestyle that is seriously removed from that of a normal citizen. Swimming star Michael Phelps daily food intake when in training would have kept 6 normal people well away from anorexia. 

Like the”highly successful” war on drugs this sporting prohibition encourages the bad guys to become involved. It’s just a short hop, step and a jump for them to use the blackmail that supply offers for other nefarious deeds which may well have deleterious effects on the beloved spectacle. 

This report suggests that it is the good apples not the bad that are in short supply. Perhaps the smart move is to allow athletes to choose their poison as they and their coaches see fit. After all it is the spectacle that fans come to see and if a jab in the bum can make for higher, faster, stronger performances where’s the harm?

I’m Sorry – Yeah, Right

So Lance Armstrong has been interviewed by Oprah and sorta said sorry for being the bad boy of international cycling. The sadist in me did enjoy watching an alpha male squirm as he tried to sound contrite. But let’s face it,  the only thing Lance Armstrong is really sorry about is being caught.

And I really can’t see what all the fuss is about. It is completely permissible for science to be used to enhance sports equipment for any advantage it may give. Why can’t the athletes stick stuff in their veins for any advantage the cocktails they consume may give? Surely advancing their use by date by a decade or two compared to their contemporaries is their decision. 

Jackson Pollock was a drunkard, Dash Snow was a junkie but their value to society is predicated on the work they produced not the stimulants they took. Why can’t athletes be given the same leeway?

Perhaps it is because athletes don’t really produce anything of lasting value. But that is the subject of another post.

What's in a name?

“What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet;” So mused Juliet about her Romeo in the William Shakespeare’s best known play. And we all know how badly that ended for the heroine and her beau. 

The importance of names came home to me recently from the naming of the tropical cyclones that ravage the Philippines in general and Bopha/Pablo in particular. For some reason that I have been unable to fathom the Philippines has their own list of names for these oft devastating events that are applied once they come under auspices of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.  The international name is scrapped and a new name applied and used locally whilst the rest of the world continues to use the original name.

For my sister, who lives in Australia, the Philippines has come onto her radar since her baby brother became a resident. She heard about the devastation wrought by Tropical Cyclone Bopha and she decided she would like to help out. Her visit to the Philippine Red Cross website was unhelpful as there was no mention of Tropical Cyclone Bopha although there were quite a few mentions of a Tropical Cyclone Pablo, about which she knew nothing. 

One cannot help but wonder if the same confusion could be hampering the United Nations $65 million global appeal which was recently reported as struggling with only $12 million odd having been raised. With the Philippines having a world wide reputation for corruption, having two names for the same event does little to instill confidence.

The Shakespearean phrase, in its misquoted version, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet", is often used to argue for the lack of importance in the naming of things whereas the original, when read in context, is a rhetorical device used to argue for their importance. For the sake of clarity it may well behoove the Philippines to swallow its national pride and join the rest of world for tropical cyclone nomenclature.

Only in The Philippines

The Christmas season in general and New Years in particular is a noisy affair in the Philippines, supposedly all the noise is to keep evil spirits at bay. (Catholic Church eat your heart out)  I wrote about it a few years ago after my first year’s experience here.

The plastic cannon featured back then has been abandoned. It’s been replaced by black market sales of the piccolo, the judas belt, the pillbox, the big bawang, the goodbye earth and the goodbye Philippines, all of which provide a powerful bang for your buck and all of which have been banned by The Department of Trade and Industry and Department of Health.  

Al Jazeera English’s “World welcomes 2013 with wave of fireworks” reported on the celebrations from Sydney to London, from Thailand to North Korea and their pyrotechnic exuberance. (Global warming anyone?) The Philippines mention in the article related to hospital’s being put on high alert to deal with injuries from home made (illegal) fireworks.

With 413 injuries that required hospitalization and one death in Metro Manila alone it was what the MSM daily, The Inquirer, described as “typically rowdy New Year celebrations”.

A Christmas Present, Indeed

Filipino politicians have given their country a Christmas present of major significance this year. Its giving may well have involved some arm twisting by President Aquino which media spin indicates worked because a significant number of the Philippine’s elected representatives consider the dollar to be mightier than the Cross.

Spin aside, after some 13 years of inaction the Reproduction Health Bill has been passed by both the Senate and the Congress. In essence it encourages the dispensation of free contraceptives to the poor and fact based sex education in the schools.

It is this later element that has the Catholic Church knickers in a knot. It has brought the Philippine Chapter of the Rome based institution kicking and screaming into the 21^st Century. Filipino children will now be given knowledge about all the means of contraception available not just the convoluted method favored by the Pope and his Vatican advisers. And if overseas studies are anything to go by there will be a reduction in the number of that horrific contraception method of last resort, the abortion.

Filipinos are now entrusted and assisted to manage the number and the spacing of the children they beget. For individuals, especially those on the lower economic runs of society, they can now escape the one step forward, two steps backwards shuffle an unplanned bundle of joy enforces. For the country the specter of rampant over population has been mitigated. For the world the pressure on Global Warming that each new body entails has been reduced.

For this Aussie, who now makes his home in these islands, the most encouraging aspect has been to see the political system make a far reaching decision for Filipinos by Filipinos. And this in the face of the intense pressure brought to bear by foreign entities. For make no mistake about it, with only three Cardinals, the Philippine’s influence at the Vatican is minimal.

Whether it was the pork barrel or the well-being of their constituents that the President used to motivate his colleagues to support this legislation it is destined to become a Christmas present that keeps on giving.