Welcome
Main Menu
Online
Hashim Amla and the South African circus
barnacle, Wednesday 16 August 2006 - 17:32:39 // comment: 0
About a week ago, an Australian commentator, Dean Jones was relieved of his duties as commentator, after jokingly commenting about Hashim Amla, a South African Cricketer. He made a comment, while thinking he was off the air, that the “terrorist” got another wicket or something similar. Any thinking individual would of course see it as a joke, a joke in poor taste, but still a joke.
The comment probably also referred to the appearance of Amla, who grew his beard to indicate his devotion to his religion. He is of course a Muslim. Anyone remotely up to date with international politics will of course know where this leads to and how the joke would start.
Enter the head clown...
One of the South African officials, Gerald Majola commented on the incident and called it a “racist remark”. This, dear people, is something that can only happen in South Africa. Make a joke about a religion and suddenly it becomes racism. Never in my life have I seen such a big thing being made from a “nothing” incident. But this is not where it ends...
As absurd as it sounds this is what we deal with on a daily basis in this wonderfully confused country we live in. The moment somebody says something that you don't like you call him/her (let's not be gender biased here ;-P ) a racist. When you argue with someone and you start to lose the argument, you draw the race card... Yes, very much like a real deck of cards, the race card is a “joker”. Or in this specific case, the joker was played by the head clown...
Now, the funny thing about this whole episode was the reaction from Amla himself. His comments amounted to feeling hurt about the comment. Now, if he, as an individual had ANY sense of humour, he would have seen the funny side of it. His reaction actually only further confirmed the perception that Muslims are in fact hyper-sensitive and intolerant towards others. He then tries to indicate how “forgiving” he is and how he accepted Dean Jones' apology and tries to create the impression of how wonderful he is for doing so... Dammit man, it was a joke and nothing more. As I said, it might have been in bad taste, or insensitive, but it still was a joke. Have we now lost all perspective in this country?
The comment probably also referred to the appearance of Amla, who grew his beard to indicate his devotion to his religion. He is of course a Muslim. Anyone remotely up to date with international politics will of course know where this leads to and how the joke would start.
Enter the head clown...
One of the South African officials, Gerald Majola commented on the incident and called it a “racist remark”. This, dear people, is something that can only happen in South Africa. Make a joke about a religion and suddenly it becomes racism. Never in my life have I seen such a big thing being made from a “nothing” incident. But this is not where it ends...
As absurd as it sounds this is what we deal with on a daily basis in this wonderfully confused country we live in. The moment somebody says something that you don't like you call him/her (let's not be gender biased here ;-P ) a racist. When you argue with someone and you start to lose the argument, you draw the race card... Yes, very much like a real deck of cards, the race card is a “joker”. Or in this specific case, the joker was played by the head clown...
Now, the funny thing about this whole episode was the reaction from Amla himself. His comments amounted to feeling hurt about the comment. Now, if he, as an individual had ANY sense of humour, he would have seen the funny side of it. His reaction actually only further confirmed the perception that Muslims are in fact hyper-sensitive and intolerant towards others. He then tries to indicate how “forgiving” he is and how he accepted Dean Jones' apology and tries to create the impression of how wonderful he is for doing so... Dammit man, it was a joke and nothing more. As I said, it might have been in bad taste, or insensitive, but it still was a joke. Have we now lost all perspective in this country?
