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The FINA World Masters Championships are being held in Montreal from August 2-9th and there was something that caught my attention while I reviewed the schedule, and could be an indicator that FINA is against Russian aggression in Ukraine. This is not the first time that an international sports governing body has made, or what seems to have been a decision that will not affect the participants in their sport, but does clearly send a message of disapproval of some political events in the world. FINA or the Fédération Internationale de Natation oversees the sports of swimming, open water swimming, synchronized swimming, water-polo and diving.
Some of us can remember the boycott of the Moscow Olympic in 1980 shortly after the Soviet Union sent troops into Afghanistan. In total sixty-five countries did not take part in the Moscow games that summer in protest. The following Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles were boycotted in a kind of knee-jerk reaction to the previous Summer Olympic Games, led by the USSR and their friends, totalling either sixteen or eighteen nations boycotting the Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games in 1984, depending on the source you want to believe.
As a volunteer for this international competition in one of the sports I dedicated a good part of my young adult life to, I decided to explore the schedule. Everything seemed pretty normal. With competition of Synchronized Swimming and Waterpolo beginning as early as tomorrow Sunday July 27th. A few days for swimmers to train and acclimatize before a competition at such a level starts on Sunday August 3, 2014, and with the official Opening Ceremonies taking place on Saturday, August 2, 2014.
As I scrolled down the page what hit me were the words which followed the words Closing Ceremony was followed with the following: There will be no Closing Ceremony on Aug 9th as requested by FINA and because of the presence of the mayor of Kazan, Russia, at the Opening Ceremony. When I first read it I had to think twice. In fact it was a similar knee-jerk reactions as the Soviets had had in 1984. Why couldn't have his presence been refused in the first place for the Opening Ceremony. Hostilities, towards Ukraine from the part of Putin's Puppet army have been going on for some time now, but now in retrospect it must have been the downing of Malaysia Airlines MH 17 on July 17, 2014 which would have been the last straw and drew FINA's attention to what is really going on in Ukraine.
Schedule of the 15th FINA World Masters Championships, july 27th to August 10, 2014
While all sports can be very political, FINA isn't the big money-maker that FIFA though seems to have in this move at least made a minor statement. It is time that the international communities pressure FIFA from taking away the World Cup in Russian in 2018. Please visit http://boycottputinnow.com to put pressure on the World Cup's sponsors and join other such efforts on social media to take away the WC-2018 from the evil empire of pariah Putin.
Whether we can consider this as a vote against Russian aggression in Ukraine can not be certain, but I'm sure many are asking why did it have to take the lives of 298 innocent victims for the world to wake up. I know I will have to treat anyone I meet at this competition fairly, as a volunteer of the organizing committee, but so help me if I meet anyone who watches and believes the blatant propaganda being spewed out by Putin's Propaganda Prostitutes. I may just have to direct them to someone who doesn't know better of what is going on in the world, after politely telling them what I think.
Vasyl Pawlowsky Independent Consultant
The commentary of this was first published on the WPawlowsky.com site.
So how did such a question come up. I read a lot for starters and for the most part it takes a lot to get under my skin. But then I saw some guy with a name of Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey, writing for the English version of Pravda I said great, at least they have some native speakers writing for them, so we won't get something like Nadsat from A Clockwork Orange, but in this case it didn't really matter much. Not only could the guy not write, he was doing a couple of other things that would warrant a good rattling of his gulliver for doing so. While I do not condone violence this has got me pissed and the reasons for this guy to experience some ultraviolence are:
Bad mouthing my country, without substantiated cause!
Hence, no logic in any of his arguments!
Should be ashamed of himself for selling out to Russian chauvinists!
If he is a native speaker of English, he should go back to school.
Why am I writing this on my blog because in the past I have had my commentary that rebuts arguments by others removed, and Pravda.ru would be just the type of publication to do so. So here goes my response to this guy's article entitled Vancouver: Mutton dressed as lamb
Timothy, wake up and smell the coffee. You grovelling little panderer of Russian drivel.
First of all the fact that Russian athletes were asked for urine samples is no big deal. There were hundreds of other athletes who were also asked for urine samples as well as blood samples, in total 407 urine and 147 blood samples. Russia's athletes were not the only ones who were singled out so stop crying. WADA or the World Anti-Doping Association has its rules as does the IOC. National sporting bodies were to submit lists of their athletes that were tested and in fact ban the athletes themselves. Maybe Russia, which as usual never likes to owe up to anything it has done wrong and didn't submit a list thus drawing attention to its athletes. That wouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
Now let me address the second point our little droog Timothy makes. "The death of a Georgian athlete on a corner which miraculously was elevated the following day..." Firstly, that athlete has a name! Oh I forgot, Georgians are no one in your opinion... And if Moscow had it there way they would have gone all the way to Tsibisi in the Summer of 2008. His name is Nodar Kumaritashvili! Why did I use "is" - because I will remember him, as if he were still alive. The evil part of you really wanted to write, "one less Georgian to worry about!"
His death was an accident. Athletes knew the track was fast had been on it earlier, and were stating they were having troubles with the section of the track called 50-50, why didn't they seriously complain about it. Because athletes who compete in such a sport know their sport is dangerous and really don't overburden themselves with thinking of such matters. Besides, just because the track was in Canada, it had to be sanctioned by the International Luge Federation and other bodies. So cut out with the first cheap shot at my country. Athletes expected to compete on that track were not Mr. Bean types, they are elite athletes, accidents do happen in such sports and this is not the first time someone has died. It just happened at an international event.
Yvonne Cernota died in a bobsled training accident on March 12, 2004 and was the 42nd to die in that sport since 1924 according to an article in Stern. Our droog Timothy the babbles about some Lobby, and Russian commentators. But who those commentators are and what qualifications they have the world will never know. Regarding Koresteleva's request for a urine sample, big deal. Read what I said above about doping.
Regarding the far north. We know your government with its continued imperialistic ambitions has its eye on our north and the treasures that lie below the ice. Yes, Canada does have its problems but that is our business and we are dealing with it and our people will hold our government to task on them. Don't you wish that your people could actually gather in front of the Kremlin and protest wrong doing of your so called 'elected' officials, who send out their agents to muzzle people who have a legitimate cause to be pissed off a their government.
Regarding your disparaging remarks about our so called inferiority complex, who to hell are you with such a name commenting on Canada and who we are. You must be a Labour Party member who now lives in Moscow. Do you not know who burnt down the White House? Who won the Battle of Vimy Ridge? They were Canadians... who had more balls than the stinking little pinkos who overthrew a Tsar and became despots. Stalin was equally as bad as Hitler... He had his own plans for Europe, and continued incarcerating people and killing them, millions of them. Are you are proud of that?
Figure skating does not belong in the Olympics! Nor do other sports which are judged by people and therefore subjective. Your little poor loser Plushenko should maybe be thankful that he has sponsors to support him. Your government is too busy keeping its Generals happy! What better way to ensure more money the military. Blame things on the Chechens! Russia received what it got from so called 'terrorists' because of its actions in the past.
Regarding the one unfortunate incident which you cite does not in any way prove that conditions were dangerous. I don't think that your athletes had any problems with our law enforcement officials, which almost everyone visiting your does. Yes it was unfortunate that a young Georgian athlete lost his life, but life, freedom and democracy are things that Canadians and its Government values. It is also unfortunate that Russia, is no longer the powerhouse in sports that the Soviet Union was, but I am sure Nodar and his compatriots would rather compete under their own flag, just like the Armenians, Azerbaijani, Belorussians, Estonians, Kazakhs, Latvians, Lithuanians, Ukrainians and all others that were imprisoned by Moscow.
Please do tell me why there are people in your wonderful country still applying to emigrate to Canada? I don't think that your claims of danger in Canada will cause the citizen of the Russian Federation who has submitted immigration papers to Canada to withdraw their applications. Some of them have tasted true freedom, and they know it is not where they live now.
Oh besides all that, couldn't your people compose a more original national anthem? And regarding your analogy of mutton and sheep. There is no logic to it at all! If you are a native speaker of English with a name like yours, you really must learn how to write! If not good on you mate for making up such a pseudonym. I hope they pay you a lot of money, so that if and when you ever set foot on Canadian soil, our border control people will refuse you entry, and then you have to spend all of your money in no-mans-land in one of our ports of entry and spend all your hard earned money. Who am I kidding, you wouldn't have the balls to visit Canada after the vitriolic crap you spewed out about my country in your article.
