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Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Jiminy "Cricket"

Jiminy Cricket... One of the cutest little insects in all of Disney's Universe.

However,
Jiminy Cricket is no ordinary cricket. He is not merely one of those crickets outside your bedroom window keeping you up all night!

No!

Jiminy Cricket is "Lord High Keeper of the Knowledge of Right and Wrong, Counselor in Moments of Temptation, and Guide along the Straight and Narrow Path." This is the elaborate title given to Jiminy by the Blue Fairy when she chose him as Pinocchio's conscience.

Speaking of another cricket... That is "cricket," the game. You know! The one with the bat and ball, and 22 players fighting to control the bat and ball while 2 other guys called umpires try to keep order...

Well, it seems that the ICC (International Cricket Council) and the CSA (Cricket South Africa) would like to play Jiminy Cricket in the game of cricket!

Herschelle Gibbs, batsman for the South African national cricket team (Proteas), made a comment about some unruly spectators in the first cricket test between South Africa and Pakistan.

Apparently, and correct me if I am wrong, he called them a "bunch of animals."

Now, to the ICC and the CSA, that was a racist remark! If it was Australia playing here and Gibbs made those remarks about Australian supporters that were white, then no-one would even have flinched! But, unfortunately, the spectators in question are non-white. Therefore, almost any comment made in anger about such non-white spectators may be seen as racial slurs!

The fact is that I have called some people a "bunch of animals" too! And, lo and behold, they were non-whites too! But, then some of them were whites!

It is quite common to say that people are like animals when they act like
animals. We see this animal-like behaviour especially in soccer. I know of no sport except soccer, where the supporters of clubs have been banned from games in Europe when their clubs are playing other clubs in Europe. It has happened with regard to English clubs playing in Europe. And, if I am not mistaken, it happened to more than one English club, more than once.

When Muslim militants in the Middle East capture people and behead them on video for worldwide distribution, you bet I am going to call them a "bunch of animals."

The point is, a comment like Gibbs' might not have been racial at all! Such a comment may or may not have been racist. The fact is that the ICC and the CSA claim to read a person's mind and know the condition of that person's heart! Oh
my! How godlike they claim to be!

Are they now going to become the "thought" police too?! It is one thing to castigate a cricket player for what he says, but to claim to know what he meant when saying it is altogether a different matter!

Further, what a person says in a private conversation has absolutely nothing to do with anyone else. That again brings back the idea of the
"thought" police!

What Gibbs said to his team mates was picked up by the stumps microphone.
His conversation was not meant for the microphone and neither was it meant to be part of the broadcast. That means that it was an intrusion into a private conversation Gibbs had with his team mates! It was simply unfortunate that the microphone was so close!

Now, had he meant it as a racial slur, then it certainly was wrong to do so!

Yet, the fact of the matter is that it was said in a private conversation overheard by a bunch of overzealous teeny-bopper-like tattle-tails; and, unless Gibbs admits to the racist quality of the statement he made, the ICC, nor the CSA could punish him for making a racist comment, since they have no proof that it was racist!

It simply amazes me how political parties and other bodies such as the ICC and the CSA try through political means to rid the planet of racism.

They create endless laws to prevent racism, but to many people those laws mean nothing. Sure, these laws are good, and we need some artificial way to at least create obstacles against the advancement of racism. Many people will not climb over these obstacles in the obvious way, and so, in a sense, it would seem that there is racial harmony.

However, the problem with many laws against racism, is that they become racist themselves! What usually happens is that laws are passed that now simply advance the previously disadvantaged. Thus, racism all over again!

Racism cannot be done away with politically! It is a moral matter of the heart, and unless people have changed hearts, the racism will continue!


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