27/02/2022
FEATURE BY MAX NOBLE
Oh no! I love it! So sang 10cc on their chipper reggae number Dreadlock Holiday from the 1978 album Bloody Tourists. Simple times dear reader! Back when being stereotypical and generally overly homogeneous was just fine for humans as well as milk. We did not over think so, way back in the misty-eyed days of 1978.
Dreadlock Holiday went to number 1 in the UK, Belgium, New Zealand, and The Netherlands, showing a rather global appeal. While staggering to number 2 in Ireland, and Australia, and reaching various top 20 positions in Norway, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, and Austria. Yet it only jogged to 30 in the US, and 44 in Canada, a fact 10cc co song writer Graham Gouldman attributed to the reality that many American radio stations at the time refused to play reggae of any sort, even that generated by white chaps from Blighty. They must have missed the memo on diversity training I guess.
It's two opening paragraphs like that which force me to pray that people other than my dear mother, long may her Sunday Roast be supreme, and Esteemed Editor Balfe, long may he never infinitives split, continue reading... out of curiosity is fine by me, but please, join the journey once more dear reader! As a side note "my" cats (that is, I'm their human...) stare at the screen while I type, and often sit on the keyboard, but I think they only like the pictures, and do not actually read the articles...
Oh yes, my point. Here we are post a remarkable, enthralling, "best ever" (until the next one) Winter Olympics. Post some journalists no longer being with us due to some geographically bounded concepts having them removed. And now, as I type, post Russia going to help some mates who told them someone else's older brother was mean to them while waiting at the bus stop, or some such.
And yet. And yet, dear reader. We are supposed to say "Do not worry. Sport is above, outside, not related, to politics. No connection. All good here. Thanks. Can I sell you a corporate sponsorship deal?"
Everything. Yes, everything that transpires on this planet that we read about, care about, get impassioned about, is generated by, and for humans.
I'm sure a few F1 people are already getting nervous about the first open press sessions this season. How were your sponsorship dollars generated? How does your team operate with people on differing sides of a European ground war? Given that a geo-political region you support has irritating people vanish, how do you feel right now?
Oh, don't blame me. I'm sport, and that is politics. Without humans, and human interaction there is no politics. Without politics, there are still humans.
We are all suffering personal Pontius Pilot moments. It is as if we are each the fifth Roman governor of Judaea, calling for a basin of fresh water, and washing our hands of the matter. Yet the matter continues to develop regardless. No country, or people, is without blame. Human history is stained with the blood of millions of exhausted souls. Yet what is within our power to control? What can we, just like the selection to place that fork in our mouth and eat as we elect, what can we do about sports-washing, as opposed to; "Let sport be sport?"
History claims the tribes of Greece would call a truce during the original Olympics. The differing tribes would travel in peace, compete (in an all-male, no women setting), and then return home, have a good night's sleep, and resume battles, wars, and annihilations in the morning after the games.
It should be noted that our latest political move by force has been executed once the games finished, so I guess historic protocol has been preserved.
Will we, dear reader, or the wider Formula One community act, and speak, and care about increasingly concerning acts around the globe? Or will we, from the safety of our well run countries (by which I mean we have significant civil liberties, not that our governments actually known what they are doing), continue to love, and follow sport because we like it, while letting those less fortunate than us die, while we live to watch sport another day?
I await with sad anticipation Haas F1's press releases over the coming weeks.
While I personally like cricket rather than loving it, I love humanity. I love each of us having the chance to live our best possible life, and I love the sport of Formula One. I'm not in love (and don't forget it) with the increasing blindness of sporting bodies around the globe to crisis, after crisis of a very human nature.
If the FIA, and all those in Formula One consider "Masi-gate" as the biggest issue on the planet right now, or if they elect to focus only on "Masi-gate" while sticking their fingers in their ears and singing "la-la-la-la-Lola" loudly... well they have failed first and foremost as humans dear reader. (See what I did there Max? - Ed)
And without humans what is our sport? What are our lives? What do we think we are doing to leave this planet a fraction better than it was when we arrived?
I only like cricket, but damn, I'm so happy that many people love it.
Long may we all do the right thing at the right time, so that diversity may ever be celebrated.
Are we as a Formula One community going to mean something dear reader, or are we all just Bloody Tourists?
Max Noble
Learn more about Max and check out his previous features, here