An Ideal Game Plan

This week, we read and discussed Franklin Foer’s How Soccer Explains the World: An [Unlikely] Theory of Globalization. Although rather unmoved by the text itself, the discussion made me think about the effects international sports have on international relations.

During the discussion, I looked up which countries are currently at war. The countries that stood out to me as countries I’ve recently heard in the news were: China, Colombia, India, Pakistan and the United States. Of the countries listed on the Global Security website as at war with another nation, the United States was the only country that participated in the World Cup, and unenthusiastically at that.

It seems like soccer, cricket and any other international sports have become a replacement for war. Because countries like France, Spain and Italy have the opportunity to interact with other countries on a competitive, non-war battlefield, they are able to focus all the nationalist energy that would have been exhausted during a lengthy, brutal war on a nice, friendly, but competitive sports game.

They way I see it is the purpose of war is to assert a country’s authority over another, proving that the said country is indeed more powerful than the other. At sporting conventions like the Olympics, the FIFA’s World Cup, and the Cricket World Cup countries join together to prove their superiority to other countries. The sporting field or arena is the equivalent of a battlefield and the team players are the country’s warriors. The entire event reinforces nationalism and patriotism and unties countries’ citizens.

I know that there are other reasons for war like territorial expansion and getting a pretty girl back to her rightful home, but why can’t sports just replace war? Make the bet before the game and the winning team reaps the benefits, neither team facing mass mortality. But I guess that’s just my ideal game plan… maybe I’ve been watching Merlin too much…

keep in mind that dueling was considered a sport in this era :)

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/index.html

http://www.cup2010.info/countries/countries.html

http://www.cricketworld.com/countries/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9nELdkADD0&feature=related

The Effects of Poverty

Poverty is one of the most important issues in world politics. When observing global issues, it seems that almost every thing that we are fighting are a result of poverty or most common in impoverished regions, like terrorist groups, like Al-Qaeda, and child abuse.

Al-Qaeda was able to grow in Afghanistan using poverty to their advantage. Afghanis were desperate to have basic necessities and embraced any group that promised to improve their standard of living. Al-Qaeda promised food and shelter in return for their loyalty. However, when the heads of these families make alliances with Al-Qaeda, they are putting their families’ and friends’ lives at greater risk, but these patriarchs believe that the risk is worth the few benefits that they reap for their family.

Child abuse is also found more frequently in under privileged households. Stress is omnipresent in homes where parents are trying to make ends meet in order to provide for their families. However, the tricky thing about stress its symptoms are difficult to control. When the load of responsibilities begins to become a burden, the slightest incident can trigger a violent reaction. These observations are explained in ESCAPE Family Resource Center’s “Building Confident Families” course, a court-ordered course that families take with their children to learn how to communicate as a family and deal with stress and stressful situations. Child abuse is not only prevalent in Houston, where ESCAPE is located, but in Africa, India, and all over the United States, to name a few countries. Child abuse also tends to be a cyclic habit, meaning that children who have been abused tend to abuse because that’s how they were taught to handle stress.

Unfortunately, there is no sure-fire way to prevent poverty and re-build regions in which poverty is prevalent, but with the help of proactive groups that fight global poverty and related issues, people are becoming more aware of the outcomes of poverty and are joining relief efforts around the world.