Bahrain GP
Apr. 21st, 2012 12:36 pmI'm a trifle frustrated with all this sudden shouting about cancelling the Bahrain GP this weekend. That argument should have been had--and resolved one way or t'other--after the cancellation of last year's race, or during the planning of this season's schedule, or when the schedule was first announced. Now, or Friday in the House of Commons, or Thursday when folk noticed that first practice was starting, is too late.
Note, I'm not talking about those people in Bahrain who are taking to the streets knowing that, for that brief time whilst the fast cars and their drivers and all the press and even some foreign sports fans are in their country, the eyes of the world will be on them. People desperate enough to risk their lives to protest, I'm in no position--safe, warm, politically enfranchised as I am--to criticise. I'd say I'm behind them, except armchair support, like too late protests, is worth squat.
The race, as far as I can tell, is like as not going ahead. (I hope it does, as a cancellation now would mean something catastrophic had happened in Bahrain, with inevitably injury and further loss of life.) The advertising has been paid for. Boycotting the race as a TV viewer will not really hurt the international advertisers: they'll be there at the next race, and the next, and the next. Not watching won't make the race go away, won't make the political situation in Bahrain go away.
I do have a suggestion (I'd call it a modest proposal, but someone far cleverer than me got there first). Watch the race, if you watch such things at all. Watch with all the usual mixed feelings: of enjoyment of the competition, the spectacle, the risk; of distaste at the waste of engineering, resources, lives in such a pointless exercise.
Watch the race and then... do something for human rights, for democracy. Go to the Amnesty International web pages and send an email, write a letter to post on Monday morning, make a donation. Or do something closer to home: take some clothes or books to Oxfam, deliver leaflets for a political candidate in our local elections. Tweet, blog, update your timeline. Spend an equivalent amount of time trying to make things better.