Racism in professional sports

Three weeks ago Donald Sterling, owner of the NBA team Los Angeles Clippers, caused a stir with racist remarks. Sterling told a female friend who had posted an Instagram picture of herself with former Los Angeles Lakers player Magic Johnson that it bothered him “that she associated with black people” and that he didn’t want her to bring any to his games. The taped conversation received wide public backlash as not only well known basketball players stepped up to criticize Sterling, but also sponsors of the basketball team distanced themselves from him. The players of the Los Angeles Clippers staged a silent protest in their next game, wearing their warm-up gear inside out to obscure their team logo.

Clippers players wearing their warm-up gear inside out

A few days after the incident, on April 29, the NBA issued a life-time ban and a $2.5 million fine (the highest allowable fine in the league) on Sterling. The ban prohibits Sterling from attending any NBA games, entering the Clippers facilities or being involved in any business decisions of the organization. Further it is discussed if Sterling’s wife Rochelle, who has served as a co-owner of the team since Sterling bought it in 1981, should take over the ownership and management of the Clippers. 

The Los Angeles Times columnist Sandy Banks also attracted public attention when she suggested in her column that Sterling might want to buy an NHL team since he won’t have to worry about black players in hockey. Hockey is still considered a traditional white sport with few black players making it to the big show. 

P. K. Subban

The players with a minority background that actually make it to the NHL are often targeted by racial slurs. Popular example is P. K. Subban, defenseman for Team Canada and the Montreal Canadiens, a team that currently plays their arch-rival, the Boston Bruins, in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Granted the fact that the rivalry between the two teams is one of the longest and most passionate in the whole league, it’s still disgusting to see that a lot of Bruins fans choose to focus on attacking Subban for his racial background. Hateful chants against a rival team come natural in a playoff-series, but booing a black player on the opposing team simply for the fact that he is black is unnecessary and distasteful.

However, racism is of course not only a problem in American sports. It has been a big issue in European sports, especially in football, as well. Monkey chants and other racial abuse occur more often than not in the top leagues in football in Europe. The most recent incident happened during a football game in Spain, when FC Barcelona player Dani Alves was targeted by a fan of Villareal who threw a banana at him. Alves reacted to the attack in a way that earned him praise from all around the world: he peeled the banana and took a bite. His teammate Neymar consequently posted a picture of himself eating a banana after the game, a move that was followed by many other footballers and went viral on social networks.   The man who had thrown the banana was later found and fined €12,000 as well as withdrawn his season ticket by Villareal. 

 

Footballers supporting Dani Alves

In my opinion it’s shocking that in the modern time we live in there are still people who continue being irrationally hateful against others based on their racial background. Professional sports organizations are something that should bring entertainment and joy in people’s lives and that should unite fans all around the world. However, instead of just cheering on their teams, some people seem to feel the need to discriminate against others even while watching their favorite sport. I think it’s sad that we live in a world where racism is still such a persistent issue that doesn’t seem likely to disappear in the near future.  

Sources: Donald Sterling's racist remarks

Clippers players stage silent protest 

Sandy Bank's suggests Sterling buying a NHL team 

Footballers support Dani Alves 

Roadtrip through Slovenia

Easter holidays are usually filled with visits of relatives and homework, but my friend Linda and I took the opportunity of having a bit free time to do a small road trip. We both didn’t want to spend three whole weeks at home and Linda had the idea that we could travel through Slovenia. Even though we both live very close to the Slovenian border we’ve never really been to the country aside from short trips to Dravograd or driving through on the way to Croatia. In addition to that it’s a very small country, so you can actually visit the most important places in a few days. We sat together, planned a route, organized a car and searched for accommodation on couchsurfing. 

Our planned route through Slovenia

We started our trip on Saturday morning and our first destination was the city of Bled. It’s a small town in the northwest of Slovenia and it is known for its beautiful lake. The weather was great that morning, so we walked around the lake, took a stroll through the town and relaxed a bit in the grass. Unfortunately the water was a bit too cold to take a quick bath. When we went back to our car we faced the first obstacle of our short trip: we wanted to set up our GPS system, but discovered that it didn’t work in Slovenia. Luckily Linda and I are both fans of the old fashioned way of navigating with a map while traveling, so we had bought one at home before we started our trip. We reached our second destination the city of Ljubliana without any problems, but finding the apartment of our host Jaka was a bit more difficult. However, after driving around for a bit and with his directions we eventually arrived there. Our host Jaka was a friendly guy who showed us a bit around the city center before we went to get some dinner. Afterwards he took us to his favorite spot on the banks of the river Ljubljanica. We had a beautiful view on the water and sat there and talked for a while until it got too cold and he decided to take us to his favorite bar close to his apartment. Tired from driving the whole day we only stayed for one drink and went to bed quite early. The next morning Jaka showed us the flea market that takes place every Sunday in Ljubljana and we had lunch before we moved on to our next destination, Koper. 

 

View on the Tromostovje (Triple Bridge) in Ljubljana and the river Ljubljanica

Koper is a small seaside town in the southwest of Slovenia. While it was still sunny when we departed in Ljubljana, it started to pour down during our drive to Koper. We met outside the town in a parking lot with our host Anja, who took us to her house from there. Although it was still raining outside Linda and I wanted to go to the sea and Anja had the crazy idea to go swimming, so we drove to her favorite beach and jumped into the water. The first dive was freezing cold, but after staying in the water for a minute it wasn’t as terrible anymore. The water actually wasn’t as cold as I had assumed it would be before jumping in. After our icy bath we returned home, took a shower and went out for a drink with Anja and her friend Katja.  Even though we had planned to only stay for one or two hours, the evening eventually ended around midnight, because we had so much fun. The next morning we said our goodbyes and drove to Piran, a small town only twenty minutes from Koper. It’s probably the most beautiful seaside town of Slovenia, but unfortunately it was still raining, so we didn’t stay too long. 

Piran

After Piran we set off to Škocjan to visit the caves there. We were a bit early, because we originally had thought we would spend more time in Piran, so we relaxed a bit in the car, before going on the tour though the caves. The first part of the caves wasn’t too exciting, especially because our tour guide stopped every few meters to explain something – in Slovenian and English – but the second part of the caves, where the underground river Reka flows through was great. All in all the whole experience took us two hours, so we were a bit late at our next destination, the city Novo mesto. The whole day had been so exhausting that we decided to stay at the house of our host, Christian, cook something and watch a movie.

We actually didn’t see much of Novo mesto, because the next morning we immediately took off to Celje. For the first time on our trip we didn’t take the highway, but chose a route on smaller roads. In Celje we met with Klemen, a guy we knew from couchsurfing as well, and he showed us a bit around the city. He took us to the castle of Celje from where we had a breathtaking view on Celje and its suburbs and told us about the history of the town. Fortunately the weather was a lot better that afternoon, so we were able to relax a bit in the sun before moving on to our last destination Maribor.

The castle of Celje with the city in the background

We arrived in Maribor late in the afternoon, strolled through the city, went to the river banks of the Drau and had a coffee in a small, charming café. After that we went back to our car and started driving towards Austria. We came to Dravograd on our way to Carinthia, where we originally had planned to stop for some ice cream, but it was quite late when we got there and the weather was rainy again, so we just passed through. 

All in all, the entire trip was as great as both of us imagined it to be. We had some troubles in the beginning with the broken GPS system and the weather wasn’t as perfect as we would have hoped, but we met an awful lot of new people and saw some incredible places. It’s funny that you can actually travel through a whole country in just four days – although you could probably spend more time in some of the cities we only spend a few hours in. I learned a lot new stuff about Slovenia and realized how little I had known about it although I spent my whole life living only about twenty minutes away from the Slovenian border. I really hope Linda and I manage to visit some other neighbor countries of Austria in the summer.

What good bloggers do

After two months of being lazy and not blogging at all it’s pretty hard to get motivated and start working again. In order to feel a bit more inspired I decided to check out some other blogs and I also went through my own old posts. Afterwards I came up with a short list of things that in my opinion are important for blogging in general and what I want to improve about my own blog.

• a good first impression
  To catch the attention of potential readers it’s important that your blog is aesthetically pleasing. Posts should be easy to read, which means choosing complementing colors and the right size of the text is a crucial point when you’re creating the layout of your blog. And don’t forget to add a few relatable pictures to your posts – don’t overdo it of course, but a few well-placed images make reading more compelling.  

• content
  After catching the attention of a reader it’s important to maintain their interest in your blog. If you don’t have a specific topic to blog about, choose things that you are interested in or that are important to you. Posts about something you’re passionate about are most likely more entertaining to read than posts about stuff that bores you. Be yourself, be funny, be relatable. Don’t sell yourself short – if you think a story is intriguing and worth sharing then share it. It’s your own personal blog after all and in most cases authentic posts are the most enjoyable to read.

• check your facts
  If you happen to not write about a personal topic or something you already know much about, you need to do some research. Take your time, don’t rush and end up with wrong facts. It doesn’t matter how interesting the topic you’re blogging about might be if half the stuff you’re saying is actually wrong.

There are probably many more things you need to consider when you want to create a successful blog, but these were the ones I came up with while looking through some other blogs. I also realized which elements of my own blog need some serious improvement.

My biggest and most noticing weakness when it comes to blogging is the regularity (or rather irregularity) of my posts. If you look at the dates of my posts you will see that I didn't post them very regularly. It’s very clear that in beginning I was lazy and only did my assignments. I didn’t have creative ideas and wasn’t motivated. That’s definitely an area where I need to step up this semester. I’ll try and start gathering some ideas in the beginning and make myself notes whenever I come across a topic that might be worth blogging about.

Other than regularity I also think that my blog lacks creativity. Most of my posts are about generic topics: I reviewed TV-series or wrote about holiday traditions. Not that these can’t be entertaining subjects to read about, but you can find similar posts on other blogs. I need to try and come up with more unique and fascinating issues that actually leave an impression on people – or at least are a bit more exciting than a movie review.  

All in all I think I improved my writing skills over the last few months and I think blogging was very helpful. I hope I continue making progress and my blog will get better with time! 

Make a Wish...

Maybe some of you are familiar with the video of a small boy dressed up as Batman ‘saving’ San Francisco? If not, you can take a look here:

5-year-old Miles Scott has been battling leukemia for nearly all his life and the Make-A-Wish-Foundation granted his biggest wish: To be Batman for one day. Hundreds of people came out to cheer on ‘Batkid’ who could forget his illness for one day and even President Obama sent a message of support. 

This is only one of many wishes the Make-A-Wish-Foundation grants ill children all across the world every day. The non-profit-organization was founded in the US in 1980 and has granted over 300,000 wishes until today. The first kid whose wish was fulfilled was 7-year-old Christopher James Greicius with leukemia, who wanted to be a police officer for one day. 

The criteria to get a wish fulfilled are that the child has to have a life-threatening medical condition and be between the ages two and a half and eighteen. Potential wish kids, medical professionals treating the kid or parents, legal guardians or family members with detailed knowledge of the child’s medical condition can refer a child to the foundation. Most wishes fall into five categories:

I wish to go… children who wish to go somewhere, e.g. a theme park, the beach, a concert,…

I wish to be… children who want to be someone for one day, e.g. a police officer, or in the case of Miles Batman

I wish to meet… children who want to meet their favorite athlete, musician, actor, etc.

I wish to have… children who are given special presents, e.g. a computer, a tree house, a digital camera,…

I wish to give… children who use their wish to make the world better and raise funds or celebrate a holiday for their family, etc. 

Though the organization was founded in the US, it now operates in 47 countries around the world (since 1997 also in Austria!) through 36 affiliate offices. 

I personally think the organization is great, because it gives ill children hope and they can forget their illness for one day. Especially for those children who have battled an illness for nearly all of their lives it’s amazing, because they can catch a break for once. Of course there are always critics, even for such a compassionate organization. Some people for example thought that the story of Batkid, which was on the news throughout America and even in some other countries, makes other kids with the same illness feel bad, because they can’t have the same experience. Some people also say that Make-A-Wish only makes people feel better, because they feel good helping an ill kid, but there are so many more ill kids out there who are ignored. And also some criticize that it would be more important to grant the best medical help for ill children and not wishes so that they have fun for one day. And even though I can understand all these statements, I still think the foundation is very important and ultimately does the right thing. All the children whose wishes are fulfilled had tough lives until that point and deserve to have fun and smile again for a day. 

If you want to check out the organization here are the links for the International, Austrian and American websites.

YOUPOST 4

About two weeks ago I blogged about traveling and talked about a place I want to visit in the future. In contrast to that, today I want to tell you something about a place I have already been to in the past. The place I want to talk about is Egypt. When I was thirteen, my parents, my sisters and I went to Hurghada, a city at the Red Sea Coast, during the summer holidays. It was the first time for me to travel by plane (which I was very excited about, but then I realized that flying was actually quite boring) and Egypt was the first country I visited that was completely different to my home country Austria – even though Hurghada is a tourist destination packed with hotels and therefore we didn’t experience too much of the everyday Egyptian lifestyle, I still noticed a big cultural difference. 

 One of the first things my family and I noticed was the fact that we didn’t see many females in the hotel staff. Nearly everyone working there – even the cleaning staff – was male, which was definitely something we hadn’t seen at any other place we stayed before. But all of them were exceptionally friendly and open. One night when we walked over the square in front of the hotel, people were singing and dancing. We stood by to watch and it didn’t take long until someone asked us to join in! But – and here a warning – there is a small line between friendliness and obtrusiveness. While the people in the hotel were all very nice, the people who worked on the beach were annoying for the most part. There were so many salesmen and all of them talked to us – no matter if we pretended to sleep or not. There were, however, also nice people amongst them, for example a guy who taught me how to write my name in Arabic. 

The Red Sea is such a beautiful place. Yes, the beaches were kind of crowded – though it wasn’t nearly as bad as in Italy – but the water itself was great. Only a few meters in, where we still could stand on the ground, there were already coral reefs and we didn’t have to dive very far to see colorful fish. My sisters and I had so much fun with diving and swimming, it was great. 

The Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut

But my highlight of the vacation wasn’t the beach or the friendly people, it was my trip to the Valley of the Kings. I’ve always been really interested in history, even back then, so I really looked forward to that. Although I hate early mornings, I voluntary got up at four in the morning for the trip. A tip we got from the hotel staff was to wear reasonable clothing. It was extremely hot in the desert and of course the first instinct of many people would be to wear as little clothing as possible – which is the worst thing one could do! It’s actually recommended to cover much skin, but stick to light colors, white at best. Also wear some kind of headgear to avoid sunstroke and drink much water. 

Entrance of the Luxor Temple

The Valley of the Kings was impressive for me. It’s an area where over sixty tombs of Egyptian pharaohs are located. It fascinated me that you can still see the original colors and drawings made thousands of years ago on the walls. We also saw the Valley of the Queens (were wives and other relatives of pharaohs – not only queens – were buried), the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut (which was really impressive because of its architecture and height), the Colossi of Memnon (again very impressive because of their size) and Luxor (which is a modern city, but ruins of the temples of Karnak and Luxor are still to see). In Luxor we also took a boat trip on the Nile, which was much fun.

I enjoyed my holiday to Egypt very much, as I thought it was great to learn something about the country, but also to relax at the same time. However, it’s important to mention that my vacation took place in summer 2007 and a lot has changed since then. As most of you probably know, there has been much rioting, political change and instability throughout the country in the last years. The security risk is very high right now, even in the tourist regions in the south of the country and I don’t know how similar a vacation there now would be to my fantastic trip nearly seven years ago.

Anyways, my experience of the country back then was very positive. As long as you can handle the annoying salesmen on the beach, put on enough sunscreen and a hat and are a little bit interested in old monuments, it’s a great destination to visit.