‘I Can’t Breathe’ T-shirts see high-school basketball team disinvited from event

Phoenix Suns’ Markieff Morris, left, and his brother, Marcus, warm up prior to an NBA basketball game against the Milwaukee Bucks | Matt York/AP

• Mendocino High School teams out of Fort Bragg, California tournament
• Too few members of girls team promised not to wear the shirts

NFL players wear ‘I Can’t Breathe’ shirts to warm-up

AP (Dec. 27) – A high school basketball tournament on the Northern California coast has become the latest flashpoint in nationwide protests over police killings of unarmed black men.

US annexation: ‘The Principality of Outer Baldonia’ in Nova Scotia

By LACHLAN MACKINNON*

Last year, I was contacted by Phillip Hayward of Southern Cross University to write an article on a “micronation” that had been established on an island off the south shore of Nova Scotia in 1949. Micronations, generally defined as territories declared independent by persons or groups despite the unlikelihood of receiving any official form of recognition, have cropped up around the world since the 1960s. Having been unfamiliar with the concept, I was excited to explore the history of “The Principality of Outer Baldonia.”

Cuban baseball beyond domestic stadiums

(October, 2014) – The magic of Cuban baseball keeps gaining ground in the world’s major leagues as Cuba has allowed its players to take part in top foreign tournaments under a policy that is being improved constantly.

Ecuador: Soccer leads to peace in Quito’s Pisuli neighbourhood

On the slopes of the northwest corner of Quito, is the neighbourhood of Pisuli.

Incidents of racism and fascism in European football

A banner on display of the SS Galicia Division of the Nazi German army during the Sept. 6, 2013 World Cup qualifier between Ukraine and San Marino in Lviv | Mark Rachkevych, Kiev Post

Incidents reported to Fare during October 2014

(21 November 2014)  – The following incidents of racism, xenophobia, extreme nationalism or homophobia have been reported to Fare during October 2014. This list is only likely to reflect a proportion of the incidents that occurred.

All reports have been brought to Fare’s attention through eye-witness or media accounts. A Fare observer scheme is also currently at place at UEFA club competitions to monitor discriminatory behaviour.

Qatar hires ‘$8 fake fans’ to fill empty stadiums

Jassim Bin Hamad stadium in Doha, Qatar | Reuters/Fadi Al-Assaad

Migrant workers in Qatar get one dollar an hour for sitting in the stadiums and pretending to have fun, to applaud and to do the wave, AP reports. Sometimes they even were asked to dress like Qataris in white robes and head-scarves.

Legendary Olympian puts Charles Barkley in his place

John Carlos | New York Daily News / HERMANN, MARC, A.

A comment by TONY SEED

John Carlos and Charles Barkley are both “mavericks”, but only one ever put his life and livelihood on the line. Both have political opinions, one progressive and the other crude and self-serving. The former are little known, the latter are widely propagated. One champions popular resistance to state-sanctioned murder, the other police impunity. One gets by, the other is a big property owner and businessman, who enriched himself by capitalizing on his considerable skills through professional sport and TV, with an estimated net worth of $30 million. One website says he pulled in an obscene $46 million between November 2013 and November 2014, a nearly $20 million lead over his closest competition amongst pro athletes:

An open letter to Charles Barkley

“Once you were not afraid to ask that all-important question: ‘Who’s afraid of a large black man?’ Tragically, it now seems like the answer might be you.” ETAN THOMAS, a former professional basketball player who played nine seasons in the NBA, an author and radio host. While playing with the Washington Wizards, he spoke out against the Anglo-American war in Iraq at anti-war rallies as well as through his poetry.

Charles Barkley, former NBA player and current TNT studio analyst, on horseback, accompanied by friend | AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki

December 3, 2014

Dear Charles,

Let me say first that you are among the basketball greats. I remember rooting for you in the ’93 Championship Series against the Bulls along with one of my hometown heroes Richard Dumas. You have achieved a level of success on the court that will be cemented in the basketball history books permanently. Eleven NBA All-Star Game appearances, twice All-Star MVP, once voted NBA MVP, one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. Dream Team, two-time inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. You are basketball royalty.

Your book Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man? is sitting on my bookshelf right now. It’s a powerful book that takes on the issue of race and racism in a way that many would’ve shied away from.

“Racism,” you said, “is the biggest cancer of my lifetime. And I know I can’t cure the cancer, but doesn’t somebody have to attack it?”

Flames owner readying arena demand

By Neil deMause

(Nov. 26) – The owners of the Calgary Flames haven’t been too aggressive with their hopes for a new arena, beyond occasionally griping about their old one. That all changed yesterday, though, thanks to a major package of articles in the Calgary Herald describing how:

• Flames CEO Ken King “could be within weeks of announcing their vision” for a new arena
• The arena will almost certainly require, in King’s words, “some sort of public-private” funding scheme.
• Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi and the city council are vehemently opposed to giving King any cash, though some on the council may be open to providing free land.

According to the Herald, the arena talks have been going on for three years, if by “talks” you mean “the Flames owner asking for money, and city officials telling him to get lost.” More

Source: Field of Schemes

 

A dysfunctional sports system: amateur athletes forced to juggle jobs and training

The following story inadvertently raises the questions of priorities facing society. Toronto Blue Jays, owned by the Rogers monopoly, forked out $82 million to repatriate Canadian catcher Russell Martin in a five-year contract. Toronto City Council quietly handed over $500,000 to one of the richest sports monopolies in North America, MLSE, for stadium expansion. The Hamilton Tiger Cats received a basically free $145.7-million stadium from Ontario in a neo-liberal scheme. Meanwhile, athletes training for events like the 2015 Pan Am Games often work full- or part-time jobs to fund their training and struggle to make ends meet without a thin dime from the government. Youth participation in sport and recreation is declining. Yet Harper has a billion dollars for another war in Iraq and Syria. 

Canadian pentathlon athlete Kelly Fitzsimmmons is rarely caught standing still, as she juggles training and work seven days a week as she prepares for the Pan Am Games | VINCE TALOTTA / TORONTO STAR

LAUREN PELLY in Toronto Star

(Nov. 25) – Over lunch on a brisk Thursday in downtown Toronto, pentathlon competitor Kelly Fitzsimmons describes her day.

In between bites of steak, the 29-year-old Calgarian says she started with two hours of swim practice at 8:30 a.m., then went right into client meetings for her consulting business. Next came her interview with the Star, a timeslot doubling as Fitzsimmons’ lunch break. After that, she’d be working on consulting projects until the early evening, then heading to back-to-back training sessions — first a track workout, then fencing training, which wouldn’t end until around 10 p.m.