I also found this aspect of Olympic coverage yesterday a bit perplexing and a B-BBC reader picks up on it..
“The BBC are ridiculously excited about the fifteen year old ethnic Lithuanian immigrant who won a gold. Not only did they go on about her for about three hours yesterday, but Derbyshire has been banging on about her today as well, and claimed people consider her ‘one of ours’. Really? Or do you mean just beeboids? Even though she has lived here for several years using British facilities to train, has a British coach and her dad has been given a job here, she competes for Lithuania because she is “extremely” proud to be Lithuanian! Shame beeboids aren’t equally proud to be British.”
Funny but I don’t recall the bbc claiming Zola Budd to be ‘one of ours’. And she was brought to compete for our team.
David, I think you are being a bit curmudgeonly. This is a wonderful achievement and Plymouth College should rightly feel proud of the part it has played in her success. I, like the BBC, think it is a good news story.
Good on her.
Good on her for not being as proud to be British as – according to the BBC – the British are of her?
D.P. – I am with you on this one. Both she and Tom Daley started life in ordinary local comprehensives and got scholarships to Plymouth College. I suspect neither she nor her dad (a widower) will ever go back to Lithuania so I cannot see why the BBC should be triumphant over her choice of country to represent.
The BBC would, wouldn’t they? They’re always delighted to celebrate playing a role in the success of foreigners.
Jeremy
The reader sent in the opinion. I merely wondered at the hype afforded. I suppose in the absence of notable British success, Lithuanian will suffice?
Yes, I saw that after I hit ‘Post Comment’. Apologies, big man.
Vilnius is a nice city and Lithuanians are a jolly decent crowd so I’m happy to cash in on their success.
Too Ruskiphile for me: give me the anti Russian Latvians any day.
I think the BBC is enjoying the lack of British success – perhaps we need even more immigrants to increase our popualtion and thus our base for picking medal winners?
There – you have it in one sentence. The BBC will wheel this story out repeatedly to illustrate how good immigration is! (Though technically she is not an immigrant, she is a Lithuanian living in Bristol!)
With, what-is-it, 750 BBC personnel on this Olympics junket someone had to write something.
This is a gold mine for Beeboids and all the other relativist cretins whose philosophy is encapsulated in John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’.
There are no countries, you see? And no religion too.
Unless the country isn’t Britain and the religion is Islam, when different rules apply, of course.
The irony is, that while the Olympics is a fest of Globalism, corporate Globalism, PCness (how many people have been banned for ‘racism’ now), drug cheating and farcical inauthenticity of competitors ‘picking’ what national team to perform for, so as they wish to destroy nationalism, they destroy the national loyalties on which the competiton is based.
I suspect they would like the Olympics to become the farce that professional football is, where a team has no local organic human connection and is simply a brand, a corporate entity which happens to be located in a particular town.
Apologies for a bit of downtime just then.
Unexpected urgent work needed. All fixed now.
It’s all part of the BBC non stop mission to promote other races and cultures and to make us accept the change that we did not vote for. Every time I switch on R4 it seems the book at bedtime or the afternoon play it is a story about foreigners/ethnic minorities, Even a piece on radio 4 around midday was a story about an ethnic minority member of the army and his gallant deeds (his ethnicity should not be important only his commendable behaviour) .
On a not too irrelevant note, did anyone catch the recent BBC release of the Bards Henry V ? When the Duke of York appeared, i splattered half a glass of decent plonk over the screen and keyboard [ Me no watch TV, I-Player thank you]. It was a BLACK guy, the IT expert in ‘Green Wing’, good actor, nice guy, but the Duke of York?!! Come on BBC, it’s ok to mix and match with the Bards other plays, but the historical ones, those with characters whose ‘ethnicity’ are known is not on. Twas not a very good adaptation anyway. Leftist claptrap casting.
Oh don’t worry – the bbc will have a white Othello in production, I’m sure…
With respect, why not? Are we saying that non Anglo Saxons are banned from Shakepeare’s historical plays? Shakespeare is universal and has been produced in virtually every country and virtually every major language.
Actually a white Othello (black face?) and a black Desmodena (white face?) or Iago makes us question all our assumptions about Shakespeare. How about a male Desmodena? That’s how ‘she’ was written?
No, no, no. You do not get it. The Duke of York was white, he existed, he is not a fictional person! How would you react if someone cast you in a play as someone of a different colour? Bet you’d be miffed, if not, then you would lack self respect. Shakespeare knew his history, and would not have cast the DoY as a black man!
“Are we saying that non Anglo Saxons are banned from Shakepeare’s historical plays? Shakespeare is universal and has been produced in virtually every country and virtually every major language.
It depends entirley on context. ye sof course it can be adapted and produced in any setting, and one could set Shakespeare in C17th China if you wished and in that case the actors should all be ethnic Chinese!
However if one is going for a traditional British production set in medieval England then of course for authenticity black/brown/yellow actors should be barred, just as when when Danny Boyle produced Slum Dog millionaire he used Indian actors.
Of course they do not have to be ‘Anglo Saxons’ to play in a traditonal Shakespearean role, but they need to look as if they could be ethnic British i.e. ‘white’.
Beeboids however, because they discriminate against ethnic British, like to substitute in foreign ethnics for what should be British roles but are never willing to substitute ethnic British for foeign ethnic roles – witness Danny Boyles reversion to authenticity when the ‘Windrush’ appeared at the Olympics, despite pre industrial England apparently having swarmed with black peasants.
As has been suggested how about a white Othello? Not even ‘blacked up’.
I have no problem with a white Othello in principle except that it makes the play meaningless without enormous rewriting and it is the rewriting I object to. Shakespeare is literature not documentary.
The BBC breath a huge sigh of relief:
Olympics judo: Saudi Arabia hijab dispute resolved
<I Saudi Arabia judoka Wojdan Shaherkani will compete at the Olympics after a dispute over a hijab was resolved.
The International Judo Federation said the 16-year-old must fight without the headscarf for safety reasons, but the Saudis threatened to withdraw Shaherkani.
An International Olympic Committee spokesman said: "The judo federation will allow her to wear something which will not compromise her safety, which I think they use for competitions in Asia.”
A Saudi official said earlier this month that the country’s two female athletes at London 2012 – Shaherkani and 800m runner Sarah Attar – must obey Islamic dress codes.
Another victory for shariah, another act of appeasement…
Proud enough to use our facilities and our hospitals and schools? Sums this country up, shite
The BBC are instictively drawn to approve anything nationalised. Small wonder that they are going overboard on the Olympics. Do I dectect a note of desperation creeping in? No Brit has (to use an awful phrase) gold ‘medaled’ as yet. Perhaps Bradley Wiggins will rescue Auntie?
In its OTT Olympics, Beeboids seem to have missed an event here:
“Breastfeeding as an Olympic Sport”
by Lisa Watts.
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/08/01/breastfeeding-as-an-olympic-sport/
There is a Chinese team, an American team & a French team etc. But from this nation we have “Team GB”. Are the words Great Britain not to be uttered? Are the authorities (BBC included) seeking to avoid offending some constituency? Is it just to assuage the sensibilities of Ryan Giggs? Or is it nothing of consequence?
To be fair, it’s a bit like the Americans chanting USA, so no problem. However, I think it should be Team UK as there are Northern Irish competitors in the team.
But I expect by 2020 it will be Team England (at least I hope).