With Martin Sneddon declaring that the tour must go on for financial reasons, it's time to escalate. Former Springbok tour protest leader John Minto has called for a boycott of The National Bank, the Black Caps' major sponsor - and I agree. Despite their claims that they have no control over whether the tour goes ahead or not, the threat to withdraw from their seven-year sponsorship deal would be a powerful lever. So far, they have refused to use that lever. We must change their mind.
The government is also escalating, working jointly with Australia to lobby the G8 to have Zimbabwe expelled from the IMF. They will also be lobbying the UN Security Council to refer Robert Mugabe's human rights abuses to the International Criminal Court. Both these actions are long overdue, but better late than never. So far, though, they've shown no sign of introducing economic sanctions against Zimbabwe. Shouldn't they front up and explain why?
6 comments:
Why should New Zealand call off the tour when no other nation has intimated calling any tours of Zimbabwe off?
Wouldn't Mr Minto be better off calling up some of his friends from the ANC and at least getting South Africa's help -oh hang on - South Africa is probably involved in a number of sporting exchanges right now with Zimbabwe.
Great though it is bagging New Zealand cricket - unless some politician is willing to say 'don't go take a stand and we will cover all costs and personally take the blame should NZ end up being boycotted for a year by the ICC' what choice does Snedden (not Sneddon) have?
Brash's stance was pathetic - 'don't go and we might sort out some of the financial disaster (but only some of it)'.
It may be a very noble gesture on behalf of NZ cricket to cancel the tour but lets get some facts out -The $US two million fine is the least NZ Cricket can hope to get away with. I have yet to see Donald explain whether his party will cover all the losses likely to accrue should NZ cricket follow can the tour.
Posted by Anonymous : 7/03/2005 06:35:00 PM
NRT,
Now we are starting to talk about some serious action. We will probably loose but it is good to force the defenders of human rights abuses out into hte open.
anonymous/davros,
You seem to combine two arguments
"if no one else does the right thing why should we?"
and somthing along the lines of
"you haven't achieved your big objectives (eg sanctions), so therefore your should not be alowed to take any small actions (like cancelling a tour) regardless of whether that is the right thing to do."
correct?
Posted by Genius : 7/03/2005 08:28:00 PM
Just to be clear, are you advocating withdrawal of sporting contacts with any country that has an oppressive socialist government, or is it only Zimbabwe?
What about the Olympics?
Posted by Nigel Kearney : 7/03/2005 08:54:00 PM
My point is similar to the line Willie Jackson was making on the radio earlier today - if people want to send a message to Mr Mugabe through putting pressure on the crickters to call the tour off then who is going to pay New Zealand Cricket for bankrupting them.
Secondly if sport is going to be used to bring pressure to bear on Zimbabwe - which is fair enough what other countries could/sport be used to apply pressure.
How is it going to work will there be a sliding scale of Human rights abuses with Pakistan at present on 60% and Zimbabwe pushing past 90% -Do tours get called off when this imaginary sliding scale tips 80%.
As far as I'm personally concerned it would be fine to call the tour off - however I believe many politicians pronouncemnts to have been ill thought out (Especially Brash).
It is also likely to cost NZ Cricket much more than the figures quoted by Mr/Mrs No Right Turn. My suggestion is that opponents do a little more research on the cost of calling the cricket tour off including one year bans.
Also considering Mr Minto should have some good pals in the South African govt due to his efforts in 81 it would be interesting to he could furnish the public with what the South African Govt and cricket administrations will be pushing to assist NZ.
I'd say reading cricinfo South Africa will be more likely to call for a boycott of NZ if NZ cans the tour. I could be wrong.
Posted by Anonymous : 7/03/2005 10:09:00 PM
The Greens are proposing a solution to the Zimbabwe tour problem. Rod Donald has drafted a Bill which would make it illegal for national sporting organisations to send teams on sporting tours of Zimbabwe, while leaving individuals' freedoms to travel to Zimbabwe untouched. I explain it here: http://blog.greens.org.nz/index.php/2005/07/03/a-solution-to-zimbabwe-cricket-crisis/
The Bill is here: http://greens.org.nz/searchdocs/other8920.html
Posted by Anonymous : 7/03/2005 10:24:00 PM
> Just to be clear, are you advocating withdrawal of sporting contacts with any country that has an oppressive socialist government, or is it only Zimbabwe?
You can only have a certain amount of enemies at one time - but can you name anyone worse than mugabe? if so Ill add him to the short list.
If you gave a bullet to the head prize for the worst despot in the world each year - things might get better.
> What about the Olympics?
Push to have them excluded - not that that will work but you can only try. It is not really within our pwoer to stop accidentaly meeting zimbabwae at international events but we can not go there and not let them come here.
> Where were the protests regarding the white farmers having their farms taken off them?
Yes, a sad commentry on how the system works, we all know it is far from perfect. But doing the wrong thing before doesnt mean you should do the wrong thing again.
Posted by Genius : 7/04/2005 07:38:00 AM
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