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SPORT IN A SICK SOCIETY
"To amuse or recreate oneself, by active
exercise in the open air; to take part in
some game or play; to frolic or gambol."
The Shorter Oxford English
Dictionary. That is an
adequate
description of sport
before the advent of capitalism, it is wholly
inappropriate today. Jose Canseco the
former batsman of the Oakland Athletics
tells all in his expose of modern baseball,
Juiced. "Why did I take steroids? The
answer is simple. Because myself and
others had no choice if we wanted to
continue playing. Because Major League
Baseball did nothing to take it out of
sport," he wrote. "Before they were sworn
in, the committee heard emotional
testimonies from parents of promising
young baseball stars who had killed
themselves while taking steroids. Health
officials say that suicidal tendencies are
one of the side-effects of steroid use" The
Times (18 March). Just another example
of capitalism destroying everything it
touches, even baseball. (Image) >>>
BLESSED ARE THE POOR
"A bishop in eastern Spain has cut his
parish priests' stipend by 30 per cent after
his dioceses lost up to €10 million (£6.8
million) on the stock market. He advised
them to find the difference by putting
collection boxes in their churches"
The Times (1 April).
Really good thinking,
Bishop. But how does that fit up with the
usual homilies you give the poor about
"do not thirst after the material things of
life". It seems that it is a good idea for
priests to tell punters but not necessarily a
good one for the punters to tell the priests.
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WELCOME TO THESE REFUGEES
A great deal of publicity is given to
desperate workers travelling half the world
to get a job in the UK but little is said of
another group of immigrants who are
welcomed with open arms to these
shores. "Seven of the top richest
billionaires in Britain come from overseas,
according to the Sunday Times Rich List
out tonight. The survey reveals that
foreigners outnumber Britons at the top of
the list, with steel tycoon Lakshmi
Mittal topping the table with an
estimated wealth of £14.8 billion.
Chelsea Football Club owner and
oil magnate Roman Abramovich
drops to second place, but his
wealth has held steady over the
year at £7.5 billion" The
Scotsman (3 April). Why do we
never hear about restrictions of
movement or of the introduction
of Identity Cards for these
people?
A NICE LITTLE EARNER
The death of the Pope was supposed
to fill the world with grief according to
the newspapers, but there was one group
of entrepreneurs that were rubbing their
hands in glee. "With Pope John Paul II's
funeral expected to draw up to 2 million
people, at least one consumer group is
accusing cafes, restaurants, grocery
stores and hotels near St Peter's Square
of boosting prices to gouge tourists and
pilgrims. ... Orlando Salvio, a waiter at a
restaurant near St Peter's. said
businesses are eager to cash in.
'Here everyone is happy - they're sad in a
way, but happy in another,'he said. 'Obviously,
the business owners are the happy one'"
Yahoo News 4 April).
A papal death can be good business for
some.
Vioxx: what’s your poison? (Image) >>>
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NOW HE TELLS US
Former UN chief weapons inspector
Hans Blix said Wednesday that oil was
one of the reasons for the US-led invasion
Iraq, a Swedish news agency reported.
did not think so at first. But the US is
incredibly dependent on oil,' news agency
quoted Blix as saying at a security
seminar in Stockholm. 'They wanted to
secure oil in case competition on the
world market became too hard'" Canoe
network: Cnews (6 April). So eventually a
spokesman for the capitalist class gets
round to saying what socialists have been
saying all along.
DYING FOR PROFIT
"The drug industry received
a pasting this week and it
wasn't entirely undeserved.
MPs accused it of
cultivating a reliance on
medicine in the UK by overpromoting
products and
trying to find new markets by
categorising more and more
people as in need of
treatment. ... we have been
sold the idea that a drug is
miraculous, only to be scared
silly months later and told that
might kill us. The recent withdrawal of
anti-arthritis drug Vioxx, once hailed
doctors as safe and now linked to
thousands of deaths, is a case in point"
The Times (9 April). "Over-promoting" and
finding new markets" is looked upon as
good marketing strategy inside capitalism.
few deaths is hardly going to stop the
drive for bigger and
bigger profits. Sorry
about your mother, by
the way.
The only cure for the capitalist headache
(Image) >>>
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