Free Press HoustonTag Archive » Free Press Houston http://freepresshouston.com FREE PRESS HOUSTON IS NOT ANOTHER NEWSPAPER about arts and music but rather a newspaper put out by artists and musicians. We do not cover it, we are it. Wed, 26 Mar 2024 17:53:42 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.8.1 A Rad Tribute to Nelson Mandela http://freepresshouston.com/a-rad-tribute-to-nelson-mandela/ http://freepresshouston.com/a-rad-tribute-to-nelson-mandela/#comments Tue, 10 Dec 2024 05:07:15 +0000 http://freepresshouston.com/?p=23395

nelly_mandellyBy Rad Rich

Well, in a sad remembrance of Nelson Mandela who died this week at the age of 95, I will give you my thoughts on him as it came to sport. If anything Mr. Mandela brought the country together after becoming the first black president of South Africa in 1994.  That was four years after leaving prison, as he refused the apartheid system that was in place in the country for 46 years. Instead of vengeance, he worked with the same people who were his enemies to bring the country together.

South Africa then won the rights to hold the Rugby Union World Cup in 1995.  He used his influence to bring a sport that was considered for white afrikaans in the country and brought the whole country together to support the team. I remember this tournament because nobody thought anyone would beat New Zealand who were the odds on favorite to win.( They had defeated teams by 20 points or more) Mandela made sure to where the Springbok jersey and with his support he brought a racially divided South Africa together as they went on to win the tournament defeating New Zealand 15-12 in the final. South Africa’s star of that tournament Francois Pienaar released this statement. Nelson Mandela was the most extraordinary and incredible human being, not only because he united his country when such a task seemed impossible but also because, through his unique humanity, he inspired hundreds of millions of people across the globe. “I will always be profoundly grateful for the personal role Nelson Mandela has played in my life, as my President and my example.”

After the rugby world cup, he played a role in transforming sports in South Africa to be racially diverse and inclusive to all.  His influence was on hand as the country won soccer’s Africa Nations Cup then the right to hold soccer’s (football) 2024 FIFA World Cup. He used sport to unify a nation and improve the international image of the country. Mandela’s view of sport has never seemed more fitting,

“Sport has the power to change the world…it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.”

 

Catching up with things in the soccer (football) world.  The world cup draws was announced on Friday.

Group  A

Brazil, Mexico, Cameroon, Croatia

Group B

Spain, Netherlands, Chile, Australia

Group C

Colombia, Greece, Ivory Coast, Japan

Group D

Uruguay, Costa Rica, England, Italy

Group E

Switzerland, Ecuador, France, Honduras

Group F

Argentina, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Iran, Nigeria

Group G

Germany, Portugal, Ghana, United States

Group H

Belgium, Algeria, Russia, South Korea

The toughest group, or the group of death, may be group G where the United States lie. Number one former footballer of the year Cristiano Ronaldo plays for Portugal. Former world Cup champions Germany are also in that group. Also Ghana  who are always tough to play against and have surprised many including the past. U.S. Men’s National Team Head Coach Jurgen Klinsmann had this to say on the tough group. “I’m not worried at all. I’ll just take it the way it is and we’re going to prepare the best way and we’re going to be well prepared for the World Cup. We’ll build up confidence and believe that we can get good results to get into the next round. We’ll do our homework on Portugal, Germany and Ghana. We’re excited about this, big time. That’s where you want to be in a World Cup. It’s a difficult draw but we’ll find a way to go through it.” Forward Eddie Johnson looked at it the same way, when they say the Group of Death; we have to look at ourselves, as well. We’re the U.S. National Team and if it’s considered the Group of Death [because we are a part of it], it shows how far the country has come and how big football is in America. We have a lot of experience within our team with a lot of players who have proven they can play in the big leagues in Europe and can play against these players who will represent their countries. We have an unbelievable coaching staff, and I can assure you that when it comes time for the coach to pick the team, it’s going to be a good team that goes to Brazil.

In Major League Soccer, Sporting Kansas City are the new 2024 champions of MLS as they defeated Real Salt Lake Saturday in the MLS Cup. It took penalties to decide the winner as the two teams were tied at the end of play and extra time.  Real Salt Lake scored first in the match with a goal in the 52 minute of play by Alvaro Saborio making it 1-0. But that score was not to last as Sporting KC came back with a goal in the 76th minute by Aurélien Collin. Real Salt Lake had a chance to end the shootout with their eighth shot of the night, but the 36-year-old Jimmy  Nielsen took out the shot by Real Salt Lake midfielder Sebastian Velasquez. Sporting K.C defender Aurelien Collin followed with a goal on Sporting K.C.’s ninth shot, and Real Salt Lake backup defender Lovel Palmer blasted his ensuing shot off the crossbar to hand Sporting K.C. the title. This is their second MLS Cup and the fifth team to win multiple titles in MLS.

 

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Joining the Struggle Against Apartheid After It’s Already Over http://freepresshouston.com/joining-the-struggle-against-apartheid-after-its-already-over/ http://freepresshouston.com/joining-the-struggle-against-apartheid-after-its-already-over/#comments Thu, 04 Jul 2024 15:08:05 +0000 http://freepresshouston.com/?p=21154 barbara

By Nick Cooper
Illustration by John Forse

From Twitter death hoaxes to health updates to pre-obituaries, Nelson Mandela has been in the headlines constantly for the last few months (as of the print deadline, he’s still alive). However, when Mandela, South Africa, and the world most needed the media spotlight, it was conspicuously absent. The first decade of Mandela’s 27-year imprisonment was the most miserable– he spent it breaking rocks into gravel and quarrying lime on Robben Island. He was harassed, cut off from the world, and forbidden to wear sunglasses, permanently damaging his eyesight. He slept in a damp concrete cell and contracted tuberculosis, the source of his current suffering. The same newspapers that have eloquent words for him now were silent.

The mid-’60s were what Larry Shore, a South African American anti-apartheid activist and professor at Hunter College, refers to as “the worst years, when apartheid wasn’t on the radar.”  In the U.S., Martin Luther King, Jr. broke the media silence, calling for sanctions against South Africa in his speeches. Then came Robert F. Kennedy’s trip to South Africa, where he met black leaders and called apartheid evil (this trip is the subject of Shore’s film RFK in the Land of Apartheid).

By the ‘70s and ‘80s, black solidarity movements, radicals, students, and musicians built pressure for sanctions and divestment. Eventually, institutions and politicians in wealthy countries were pressured to impose sanctions and apartheid fell. Suddenly the people of the world loved Mandela and felt that they shared his victory, regardless of whether they had previously been anti-apartheid, pro-apartheid, or had never heard of apartheid. Many seemed to think they themselves, or their group, had somehow helped. Barbra Streisand gives the credit to liberals, saying:

I am also very proud to be a liberal. Why is that so terrible these days? The liberals were liberators. They fought slavery, fought for women to have the right to vote, fought against Hitler, Stalin, fought to end segregation, fought to end apartheid. Liberals put an end to child labor and they gave us the five-day workweek! What’s to be ashamed of?

There is apartheid today in Israel/Palestine and liberals such as Streisand are not fighting it. Instead, she played a benefit concert for Friends of the Israel Defense Forces. Activists of color, radicals, communists, anarchists, socialists, and union members roll their eyes (and the dead ones roll over in their graves) when liberals try to take credit for winning rights for women, workers, or non-whites. With a few exceptions, such as RFK, liberals were not the ones being executed, imprisoned, blacklisted, and oppressed for their efforts.

Republicans and conservatives in the Global North had close ties to the apartheid government, including such allies as Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and Pat Buchanan. Larry Shore had moved to the U.S. in 1973 and saw them slamming Mandela and the ANC, “Many Republicans called Mandela a terrorist… With some very rare exceptions, no Republican ever supported Mandela.”  Nonetheless, after apartheid fell, the Republicans weren’t going to let the liberals be the only ones to steal credit.

So, when Mandela spoke at Rice University in 1999, the Republicans were out in force, each trying to outdo the others as Mandela’s closest friend (watch the video). The event was sponsored by Shell Oil, which started things off on a bizarre note as Shell was the single corporation anti-apartheid activists had boycotted the most. Shell not only violated a U.N. embargo by providing fuel to the apartheid regime, but also hired a Washington-based firm called ‘Pagan International’ to conduct an international spying and subversion program (named the ‘Neptune Strategy’) against anti-apartheid activists. However, at Rice that day, Shell was trying to rebrand itself.  According to Larry Shore, when the sanctions against South Africa ended, “Shell wanted to get back into South Africa and donated money to the ANC.  They were sucking up to Mandela.”

Shell’s sponsorship was just the beginning of the absurdities. James Baker III, a Reagan and Bush White House official, who now lauded Mandela as the greatest among the important figures of the second half of the 20th century, introduced the program. His Royal Highness Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, the Ambassador of Saudi Arabia (aka “Bandar Bush” from Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 911), introduced Nelson Mandela.  And finally, Ken Lay presented Mandela with the “Enron Prize for Distinguished Public Service.”

Sharing the stage with these oil mafiosos, Mandela thanked the American students who had helped hasten the end of apartheid and the audience of Rice students applauded themselves.  However, even during the ‘80s when other universities had protests and some divested from South Africa, the Rice students who were part of the anti-apartheid movement could have been counted on one hand.

For South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the anti-apartheid struggle has never ended, it has only moved to Israel. Tutu said, “I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about. Many South Africans are beginning to recognize the parallels to what we went through.”

Activists struggling against apartheid in Israel are lobbying, making films, organizing protests, marches, boycotts, and concerts, etc. — the same type of things they did in response to South Africa. Folks such as Barbra Streisand, James Baker, and Bandar Bush are not helping out, but it seems likely that after Israel/Palestine has been transformed into a multiethnic democracy, they will show up to take credit.

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