Is there racism in international sport?
Ask any Indian, Sri Lankan, West Indian or Pakistani cricketer – or any
black footballer playing in continental Europe – and the short answer
you will get is: yes.
The alleged abuse and physical intimidation of Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja by England fast bowler James Anderson during the first Test at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, is the latest example.
Anderson will have to answer the charge leveled against him by the ICC. He could be banned for up to four Test matches if found guilty.
Racism is intimately connected with economic and political power. As I wrote in my book, The New Clash Of Civilizations: How the Contest Between America, China, India and Islam Will Shape Our Century, till the 1800s, when the Ottoman empire straddled Eurasia in a crescent-shaped arc from the former Yugoslavia and Kazakhstan to the entire Middle-East and North Africa, European diplomats were seen as supplicants.
Ottoman caliphs rarely gave an audience to white emissaries. European monarchs were treated with mild disdain. The same was true of China of the time. The Qing dynasty Chinese treated Europeans and their kings and queens with thinly veiled contempt.
Then came colonialism and the industrial revolution. The balance of political and economic power shifted rapidly from East to West. China went into isolation and decline. The Ottomans sided with Germany in World War I and by 1918 their empire had crumbled. The caliphate was abolished in 1924.
Between the 1920s and 1960s, Europe and America controlled world economic, military, financial and geopolitical power. The reversal of fortune began, first, with the rise of Japan as an economic power in the late-1960s, followed by China and now India.
Americans and Europeans now queue up for business opportunities in China and India. Indian and Chinese companies are acquiring global corporations. The trend will accelerate as the economic balance of power shifts back to Asia.
The creation of the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) is an inflection point in this shift. In itself the bank, with a start-up capital of $50 billion (Rs. 3 lakh crore) and a contingency reserve arrangement (CRA) of $100 billion may seem symbolic.
The global financial system will continue to be managed by London, Brussels and New York. The NDB will, however, provide for the first time in a century an alternative to Anglo-Saxon financial architecture. It will act as a counter to the post-Bretton Woods financial system dominated by Western-run institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
According to the IMF, the combined GDP of the five BRICS nations by purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2013 was $24.04 trillion – China ($13.39 trillion), India ($5.07 trillion), Russia ($2.56 trillion), Brazil ($2.42 trillion) and South Africa ($0.60 trillion).
This is nearly 50% higher than the GDP of the US ($16.79 trillion).
Headquartered in Shanghai. India will have the presidency of the BRICS Bank for the first six years. The bank will in time draw in more emerging economies such as the group of nations dubbed MIST (Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey). The NDB will enable intra-BRICS payments in local currencies, providing a cushion against volatility.
Geopolitically, India’s voice will carry more weight. China has invited India to take part, for the first time, in the powerful Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) trade forum, which includes the US, at its summit in November. Chinese President Xi Jinping has said he will back India for full membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a Eurasian political, economic and military grouping.
The fear meanwhile that the BRICS Bank will be dominated by China is misplaced. India’s new government is no pushover. Indeed, the more India integrates with the world, security cooperation and intelligence sharing will expand. This will hand India a valuable asset in neutralising potential threats in Afghanistan and Pakistan following the withdrawal of US and NATO forces in 2016.
Closer ties with China in BRICS and SCO will moreover help India during tough future negotiations in its border dispute with Beijing in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.
The Modi government has yet to articulate its strategic doctrine. But as the Prime Minister prepares for back-to-back summit meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President Barack Obama over the next two months, an outline of that doctrine is beginning to take shape.
Source: http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/headon/brics-sport-racism-and-the-shift-in-the-balance-of-global-power/
The alleged abuse and physical intimidation of Indian all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja by England fast bowler James Anderson during the first Test at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, is the latest example.
Anderson will have to answer the charge leveled against him by the ICC. He could be banned for up to four Test matches if found guilty.
Racism is intimately connected with economic and political power. As I wrote in my book, The New Clash Of Civilizations: How the Contest Between America, China, India and Islam Will Shape Our Century, till the 1800s, when the Ottoman empire straddled Eurasia in a crescent-shaped arc from the former Yugoslavia and Kazakhstan to the entire Middle-East and North Africa, European diplomats were seen as supplicants.
Ottoman caliphs rarely gave an audience to white emissaries. European monarchs were treated with mild disdain. The same was true of China of the time. The Qing dynasty Chinese treated Europeans and their kings and queens with thinly veiled contempt.
Then came colonialism and the industrial revolution. The balance of political and economic power shifted rapidly from East to West. China went into isolation and decline. The Ottomans sided with Germany in World War I and by 1918 their empire had crumbled. The caliphate was abolished in 1924.
Between the 1920s and 1960s, Europe and America controlled world economic, military, financial and geopolitical power. The reversal of fortune began, first, with the rise of Japan as an economic power in the late-1960s, followed by China and now India.
Americans and Europeans now queue up for business opportunities in China and India. Indian and Chinese companies are acquiring global corporations. The trend will accelerate as the economic balance of power shifts back to Asia.
The creation of the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) is an inflection point in this shift. In itself the bank, with a start-up capital of $50 billion (Rs. 3 lakh crore) and a contingency reserve arrangement (CRA) of $100 billion may seem symbolic.
The global financial system will continue to be managed by London, Brussels and New York. The NDB will, however, provide for the first time in a century an alternative to Anglo-Saxon financial architecture. It will act as a counter to the post-Bretton Woods financial system dominated by Western-run institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
According to the IMF, the combined GDP of the five BRICS nations by purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2013 was $24.04 trillion – China ($13.39 trillion), India ($5.07 trillion), Russia ($2.56 trillion), Brazil ($2.42 trillion) and South Africa ($0.60 trillion).
This is nearly 50% higher than the GDP of the US ($16.79 trillion).
Headquartered in Shanghai. India will have the presidency of the BRICS Bank for the first six years. The bank will in time draw in more emerging economies such as the group of nations dubbed MIST (Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey). The NDB will enable intra-BRICS payments in local currencies, providing a cushion against volatility.
Geopolitically, India’s voice will carry more weight. China has invited India to take part, for the first time, in the powerful Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) trade forum, which includes the US, at its summit in November. Chinese President Xi Jinping has said he will back India for full membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a Eurasian political, economic and military grouping.
The fear meanwhile that the BRICS Bank will be dominated by China is misplaced. India’s new government is no pushover. Indeed, the more India integrates with the world, security cooperation and intelligence sharing will expand. This will hand India a valuable asset in neutralising potential threats in Afghanistan and Pakistan following the withdrawal of US and NATO forces in 2016.
Closer ties with China in BRICS and SCO will moreover help India during tough future negotiations in its border dispute with Beijing in Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh.
The Modi government has yet to articulate its strategic doctrine. But as the Prime Minister prepares for back-to-back summit meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President Barack Obama over the next two months, an outline of that doctrine is beginning to take shape.
Source: http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/headon/brics-sport-racism-and-the-shift-in-the-balance-of-global-power/
No comments:
Post a Comment