Bahrain

[vintly]

Fairplay to Damon Hill for once again publicly viewing his distaste for F1 in Bahrain:

"I would not want to go to Bahrain if people are going to be treated extra bad just so a race can go ahead. What we don't want to have is F1 being responsible for making life worse for people. The question is whether F1, by going to Bahrain, is actually going to enable or further brutal repression."

This article yesterday from the highly reputable Human Rights Watch organisation confirms his fears.

http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/04/10/bahrain-targeted-raids-and-arbitrary-detentions

Hill's quote from this article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2013/apr/11/damon-hill-formula-one-bahrain-grand-prix

[Irisado]

Yes, he's right in my opinion, and the F1 circus should stop turning up there.  It won't though.  Ecclestone's too chummy with the Crown Prince, and he'd lose too much money.

[F1fanaticBD]

Yes Irisado, in the end that is truth we have to live with.

[vintly]

It's not just Bernie:

Mark Stewart Productions produces PR for the Bahrainian regime. Mark is Jackie's son. http://bahrainwatch.org/pr/mark-stewart-productions.php

http://www.redbullmea.com/cs/Satellite/en_MEA/Article/Petr-Kraus-Embarks-on-A-Filmed-Journey-That-021243332300810

And I'm sure you all know that The McLaren Group is 50% owned by The Mumtalakat Holding Company, from Bahrain of all places.

I'm obviously against the race being there at all, mainly for the reasons in my first post, highlighted by Damon Hill. The politics in Bahrain is not straightforward - if there was a successful uprising by pro-democracy reformists, then the Shia party, Al Wefaq, would probably come into power. Problem is that Al Wefaq are mostly in favour of a return to Sharia law, which would be an awful backward step for a country that is on some levels quite forward thinking. I think this is why Western governments are not willing to step in and help, as the alternative to the current staus quo is a potentially worse evil. Anyway, it doesn't change the fact that F1 shouldn't be there.

[F1fanaticBD]

  I knew they had a stake, but 50% 

[Irisado]

The politics of these situations is never as one sided as portrayed by some elements of the media I completely agree.

F1 does itself no favours by being associated with Bahrain in either case though, as you've said.  It does raise the question as to the wisdom of Formula 1 teams doing business there, but that's a separate discussion on business and ethics.

[Alianora La Canta]

Of course, if the FIA had complied with its own regulations concerning Bahrain's advertising scheme and its breach of Article 1 of the FIA Statutes last year, we would not be having this conversation. The Sporting Regulations state that any cancellation not due to force majuere will lead to a 12-month removal from the calendar. That 12 months would have covered this weekend. I seriously doubt anyone could suggest that using a political advertising scheme was an act of force majuere...

I can't exactly boycott the race because I would miss it anyway due to a swimming gala, but I wish I could.

[Warmwater]

Why should political opinion dictate sport involvement?

[vintly]

Why should political opinion dictate sport involvement?

Generally it shouldn't, because sport and politics shouldn't be directly linked. In this case they are, very closely. Like it or not, the sport is being used to convey a false situation in Bahrain.

[Irisado]

Why should political opinion dictate sport involvement?

Because it's the Bahrain government which organises, promotes, and funds the race, and they are using it for political propaganda.

[Alianora La Canta]

Why should political opinion dictate sport involvement?

Compliance with FIA regs should, Bahrain breached them last year in a way that normally results in a 12-month exclusion from international competition, and the FIA ignored it because they wanted the money. Technically, if the FIA had followed its own rules, then the punishment would have included this race not happening.

In this case, I would have to suggest that "discounting political opinion" brings the FIA into disrepute and suggests all its rules are negotiable if rich enough politicians get involved.

I can't boycott Bahrain because I have a swimming gala that clashes with it anyway. But I wish I could...

[vintly]

I can't boycott Bahrain because I have a swimming gala that clashes with it anyway. But I wish I could...

I have no problem watching the race. My boycotting it will do nothing to help anyone there. What I can do is tell people about the situation (as no doubt you also do), try to open their minds up a bit as to what's going on, and generally spread the word about what I think is the nastier side of F1. Information is everything, put the information in front of people so they can make an informed decision. I'm against F1 being in Bahrain, but it's there, so I'll watch it like I watch every race.

I'm only saying this Alianora as I don't want you to miss it!

[Ian]

Ali is in the same boat as me, not on sky.

[Jericoke]

Why should political opinion dictate sport involvement?

Supporting a sport indicates supporting the people involved in it.

If the Bahrain GP was completely funded by private interests, one could certainly suggest that we could separate sports and politics.  But in this case, the government in question is involved in the race itself.

What makes things interesting though, is that the government in question, which would appear to be guilty of torture, censorship, intimidation and generally undemocratic behaviour would seem to be the lesser of two evils.  If Bahrain was a functional democracy, then the majority would favour an interpretation of law that I would personally find distasteful.

The 'evil' regime in question supports freedom of religion, equal rights for women, international cooperation and did establish democracy in Bahrain, before they trampled it.  The 'Freedom fighters' want to ban all religions save their own, eliminate rights for women, close the border to 'foreign devils' and basically legalise all the things the current regime is doing (illegally) to the 'freedom fighters'.

[John S]

Why should political opinion dictate sport involvement?

Supporting a sport indicates supporting the people involved in it.

If the Bahrain GP was completely funded by private interests, one could certainly suggest that we could separate sports and politics.  But in this case, the government in question is involved in the race itself.

What makes things interesting though, is that the government in question, which would appear to be guilty of torture, censorship, intimidation and generally undemocratic behaviour would seem to be the lesser of two evils.  If Bahrain was a functional democracy, then the majority would favour an interpretation of law that I would personally find distasteful.

The 'evil' regime in question supports freedom of religion, equal rights for women, international cooperation and did establish democracy in Bahrain, before they trampled it.  The 'Freedom fighters' want to ban all religions save their own, eliminate rights for women, close the border to 'foreign devils' and basically legalise all the things the current regime is doing (illegally) to the 'freedom fighters'.

Yeah the old conundrum; encourage replacement of a tainted but mostly forward looking regime and risk putting a far more restrictive regime in place.

It's all well and good calling for so called democratic self determination, but how to ensure a truly democratic society is much harder to conjure up.

I think too many people mistake division of wealth for democracy, the two are certainly not the same thing. My government loves to tell me I'm free to do all sorts of things, where as in reality due to my limited resources far far too many things are really not possible or available. Most of us also know our seemingly benign government will react in powerful ways should we wish to have too great a sway on the Status Quo.

Me and probably most of the UK population get very little choice over most laws enacted by our so called democratic system.

The track and race in China are obviously heavily subsidized by the government, the human rights record there is probably worse than in Bahrain.