Gold medal for freedom - not awarded

Something tells me I should have learned by now, but I’m always surprised by the hypocrisy of the Left. I mean come on guys, have your cake or eat it.

With no real competition allowed to face Australia at the Commonwealth Games, poorer nations are acting as poor substitutes. Without the Americans and Continental Europeans, we’re winning buckets of medals in athletics, and without the Chinese and Russians we’re dominating gymnastics. We’ve even won a silver medal in table tennis. There seems to be an unprecedented number of black swimmers in the pool, and an equally unprecedented number of white guys on the basketball court.

But who cares? The Australian anthem is played (and sung) 30 times a day, there are Australian flags everywhere and “proud Aussie” back slaps everywhere you go. It’s like the Cronulla riots against Kiwis with referees and medals awarded. (Mind you, if it were a case of screaming “F@#$ OFF KIWIS” instead of “F@#$ OFF LEBS” there probably would have been medals awarded.)

By brining in competitors from the undeveloped world, it really hits home the differences between the rich and poor.

This past week we’ve seen the disappearance of nine athletes, who’ve used their state sponsored trip to Melbourne to do a runner (pardon the pun). Seven athletes from war ravaged Sierra Leone, a boxer from Tanzania and a sprinter from Bangladesh are now officially missing. The Sierra Leoneans lost 3 of 4 members of a relay team that was subsequently unable to compete. The Victorian Police have launched Taskforce Diamond to track them down.

This is not a new phenomenon, and was certainly not an unexpected outcome. The Manchester games saw the disappearance of 21 athletes from Sierra Leone, a number of Bangladeshis and a Pakistani swimmer (not a typo). The Sydney Olympics misplaced a Tunisian weightlifter and a Gabonese boxer. Atlanta lost a Pakistani hockey player. The 2002 British Open lost an amazing 40 Nigerian golfers.

To combat the repeat of such controversy, the Sierra Leonean team officials held the passports of all athletes, and the Bangladeshis passed a law that can retain an athletes family if a member of their team deliberately overstays.

The response has also been predictable: of course they’ve done a runner, you would too, they’ve come from places like Sierra Leone. Tim Costello: “There is not an Australian who, if they were in that situation wouldn’t make a run for freedom too.” Incorrectly accused sex offender and former guest of the Sierra Leone judicial system Peter Halloran: “If you had ever been there you would immediately understand why anyone who had the chance would endeavor never to return.” Commonwealth Games Federation President, Mike Fennell: “We are talking about an issue that is broader than sport.” I say this response is predictable as after all Sierra Leone has just emerged from a civil war that lasted 11 years, has a life expectancy of less than 40 years, nearly 10 per cent AIDS infection rate, and a GDP per capita less than my (small) weekly salary. Its war ravaged, rife with ethnic conflict, extremely poor and has a government more corrupt than Saddam.

Hang on. As I read the CIA profile of Sierra Leone, it did read vaguely familiar. It read like every other third world country run by a despot. (In 2000, Sierra Leone held elections and returned to a civilian government- but something tells me it’d still be safer to visit Beirut in an I HEART NY t shirt).

I genuinely feel sorry for those who live under the tyranny and oppression of regimes, as I am sure so does Tim Costello, the Greens, the French and the other Leftist power houses. But the way I see it we have two options? The first is open our borders, and let anyone with a sore toe to walk on in: invite them in and enjoy the cheap labour along with the Jihad. That is, we accept the problems of sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, and the Middle East under the guise of harm minimization.

Alternatively, we could, visa vie Iraq and Afghanistan, go to the source of the problem and do something about it. Why are these would-be national icons were free press available fleeing their homes? Its not because of too much cotton candy. We’ve got it so damn good in Australia, the US, Britain, France, and Germany. But we sit idly by while people suffer in silence. We even shun those efforts to do the right thing. Neocon is a dirty word.

This brings me back to opening point. What is it that the bleeding hearts want? Is it just to observe that government and militia induced death at 40 is a fact for so many, but not do anything about it? I’m amazed.