Dickhead number 2

Naughton has a dickhead friend...

Nationalism hijacking sport is a real worryBy Greg BaumDecember 14, 2005

"ONE month, Australians mass with their flags and their anthem at Stadium Australia and howl at those who are not like us. The next, a few kilometres away at Cronulla, Australians mass with their flags and their anthems and howl at those who are not like us. The comparison is unavoidable and disturbing.

Australians in this mood echo to strains of other places and other times. They place outsized store by symbols of their nationhood.

They do not just wave flags, but brandish them. They do not simply sing the anthem, but chant it, and drown out any other with booing. Nowhere is there the suggestion of humour that might suggest a sense of proportion has been kept.

Even Waltzing Matilda becomes a war cry.

These nationalists are obsessed with icons. Do not touch our women, or our beaches, but especially do not touch our surf-lifesavers. Do not claim a God-given right to be at the World Cup; we are, after all, the sporting centre of the universe.

It might be coincidence that the riots in Cronulla followed so soon after the World Cup qualifier, but it might not.

Like other countries in other times, Australia idealises itself through sport. Like other countries in other times, Australia is swaggering about just now, thrusting itself in the world's face, full of sporting braggadocio. Australians are flying the flag for Australia.

Perhaps this climate explains, but does not excuse, yesterday's revelation about a swimming coach in charge of Commonwealth Games hopefuls who, as part of a so-called boot camp, subjected the swimmers to mock executions. Some of them were only 16. The pictures were graphic.

Two issues arise. The first is about how someone in a position of responsibility could be so insular, so blind. Terrorism is still on the agenda, execution was until last week. Even if a coach still thought "bang, bang, you're dead" was a reasonable teaching method, he might have backed off just now. But sport often is its own self-contained world, oblivious to any other.

The second question is about the worth of a boot camp. It might be fine for an army, but is surely a nonsense for amateur swimmers training for a minor carnival.

If it is about team bonding, it is poppytrout. Even football teams, once beloved of ritual humiliation, go about their business in more sophisticated ways now.

Perhaps the theory of boot camp is that by such rigour we will build a super race. But will we distinguish between super race and superior race? Others in other times did not. I don't know the answer to Cronulla. But I do think that sport should be more alert to being hijacked to nationalism's cause. Possibly, we are claiming more than our due any way.

Qualifying for the World Cup was a wonderful boost to morale, but it is by its own definition a qualified achievement. Nothing has been won yet. In the meantime, do not dare to suggest that there was a fortuitous element to the win, or they will come with their anthem and their flags and their howling.

Last month, I was taken to task by readers for suggesting Australia's victory over Uruguay was diminished by the boorishness of the Sydney crowd in booing throughout the visitors' national anthem.

Did I not see, I was repeatedly asked, how Australians of all ethnic backgrounds rejoiced and were at one that night? Did I not see the unification of a nation in sport? I did. I also see now how shallow it was, and how short-lived."

YOUR GONNA DIE CLOWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!