With the winning of World Cup by France, the immigration debate has entered the world of soccer with a force. In this World Cup France was the team most of whose players had roots outside the country i.e. they were descendants of immigrants to France; mostly from countries which were once colonized by France.
All this has led to the often used reference of the World Cup being won by Africa, which got a bit more serious with the French ambassador replying to an American comedian and talk show host.
Indians must be pretty familiar with this scenario. We have a large diaspora scattered all through the world who continue to achieve great success and glory for their adopted countries. However we in India also boast about the Indian origin of the greats and the achievers do not themselves shy away from such accolades. After all who would not want to loved and respected in the country from where they or their parents hailed.
Starting with astronauts Kalpana Chawla, Sunita Williams, many Nobel Laureates, Governors of US states, to small kids winning Spelling Bee contests and other distinguished Indian Americans all are mostly proud of their Indian origins without discarding the fact that they are essentially Americans.
As the French ambassador has rightly pointed that players are basically French, being born and brought up in France, but they shouldn't deny the opportunity to Africa from basking in their glory. The ambassador's reference to 'hyphenated identity' would have mostly referred to African American or Indian American classifications used in the United States. To me there is nothing wrong in such hyphenated identities as long there is no systematic discrimination based on that.
So on one side we have a winning team whose player's identities are protected by their country and association, on the other side we have the case of Mesit Ozil coming up. Germany had a disastrous exit from the World Cup and now Mesut Ozil has called for a retirement from German service citing racist attacks to malign him by the German media and association. The reasons for the racist rants were rooted in his Turkish origin and triggered by his meeting with Turkish President Erdogan just before the World Cup. Ozil made some serious racism allegations against the German association and it's head.
It is unfortunate that Ozil is being sacrificed as the scapegoat in the ensuing blame game following Germany's disastrous title defense. However this attitude of the German media and association just vindicates a statement Lukaku, a member of the Belgian team having immigrant origin, had made: when Belgium is winning Lukaku is the Belgian striker who scores, when Belgium is loosing Lukaku is the Belgian striker of Congolese decent who didn't score.
Ozil who had been the poster boy of national integration because of his immigrant origin, is being considered unworthy of wearing the German colors. The fall has swift. Ozil has been pretty clear in his admissions related to retirement and his sense of identity is well articulated.
Who knows what fate would befallen the French footballers had the result been any difference!
Immigration has been a widely discussed topic around the world and is one of the additional dividing line that human beings have added to their demographics along with the existing ones based on religion, color, language etc. Now even if you are born and brought up in a country you may still be considered an outsider because your forefathers may have belonged to a different land.
In the recently concluded World Cup FIFA campaigned against racism with it's 'Say No To Racism' tagline. However it is sad to see racism striking both winners and losers alike after the competition is done. While on one side diversity is celebrated, on the other side just across the border ethnicity is abhorred.
Passion for sports is a great unifying factor for any nation and sportsmen can play a greater role in binding the nation. Nothing can be better example than a diverse nation like India which used to have their heartbeats in sync when Sachin Tendulkar used to bat. Countries should seize the opportunity presented by sports and sportsmen to further harmony and integration and fight back division.
Below are the Tweets from Ozil announcing his retirement:
All this has led to the often used reference of the World Cup being won by Africa, which got a bit more serious with the French ambassador replying to an American comedian and talk show host.
Indians must be pretty familiar with this scenario. We have a large diaspora scattered all through the world who continue to achieve great success and glory for their adopted countries. However we in India also boast about the Indian origin of the greats and the achievers do not themselves shy away from such accolades. After all who would not want to loved and respected in the country from where they or their parents hailed.
Starting with astronauts Kalpana Chawla, Sunita Williams, many Nobel Laureates, Governors of US states, to small kids winning Spelling Bee contests and other distinguished Indian Americans all are mostly proud of their Indian origins without discarding the fact that they are essentially Americans.
So on one side we have a winning team whose player's identities are protected by their country and association, on the other side we have the case of Mesit Ozil coming up. Germany had a disastrous exit from the World Cup and now Mesut Ozil has called for a retirement from German service citing racist attacks to malign him by the German media and association. The reasons for the racist rants were rooted in his Turkish origin and triggered by his meeting with Turkish President Erdogan just before the World Cup. Ozil made some serious racism allegations against the German association and it's head.
It is unfortunate that Ozil is being sacrificed as the scapegoat in the ensuing blame game following Germany's disastrous title defense. However this attitude of the German media and association just vindicates a statement Lukaku, a member of the Belgian team having immigrant origin, had made: when Belgium is winning Lukaku is the Belgian striker who scores, when Belgium is loosing Lukaku is the Belgian striker of Congolese decent who didn't score.
Ozil who had been the poster boy of national integration because of his immigrant origin, is being considered unworthy of wearing the German colors. The fall has swift. Ozil has been pretty clear in his admissions related to retirement and his sense of identity is well articulated.
Who knows what fate would befallen the French footballers had the result been any difference!
Immigration has been a widely discussed topic around the world and is one of the additional dividing line that human beings have added to their demographics along with the existing ones based on religion, color, language etc. Now even if you are born and brought up in a country you may still be considered an outsider because your forefathers may have belonged to a different land.
In the recently concluded World Cup FIFA campaigned against racism with it's 'Say No To Racism' tagline. However it is sad to see racism striking both winners and losers alike after the competition is done. While on one side diversity is celebrated, on the other side just across the border ethnicity is abhorred.
Passion for sports is a great unifying factor for any nation and sportsmen can play a greater role in binding the nation. Nothing can be better example than a diverse nation like India which used to have their heartbeats in sync when Sachin Tendulkar used to bat. Countries should seize the opportunity presented by sports and sportsmen to further harmony and integration and fight back division.
Below are the Tweets from Ozil announcing his retirement:
The past couple of weeks have given me time to reflect, and time to think over the events of the last few months. Consequently, I want to share my thoughts and feelings about what has happened. pic.twitter.com/WpWrlHxx74— Mesut Özil (@MesutOzil1088) July 22, 2018
The past couple of weeks have given me time to reflect, and time to think over the events of the last few months. Consequently, I want to share my thoughts and feelings about what has happened. pic.twitter.com/WpWrlHxx74— Mesut Özil (@MesutOzil1088) July 22, 2018
II / III pic.twitter.com/Jwqv76jkmd— Mesut Özil (@MesutOzil1088) July 22, 2018
No comments:
Post a Comment