Daily Archives: July 30, 2012

Some Lebanese beach clubs reportedly employ racist-deemed entrance policies.

The crackdown on Lebanon’s beach clubs that employ racist-deemed entrance policies will continue, tourist Minister Fadi Abboud says, reassuring that adhering to the guidelines of the Global Code of Ethics of Tourism is a priority, according to a report by the Daily Star.

It was part of a policy implemented in an effort to combat the negative images about Lebanon.

The crackdown came following a widely circulated video depicting 10 different resorts denying entrance to a migrant domestic worker captured by a local NGO.

Meanwhile, the Anti-Racist Movement also filmed an Ethiopian woman being turned away by the St. George beach club in Beirut. The venue has issued an apology since.

This goes against a statement made by the ministry in April that said, “Equal treatment is to be provided to all customers without discrimination based on race, nationality or disability.” The ministry also confirmed that the violators would face “suitable legal measures.”

In his statement, Abboud said that the country is being depicted as “racist in our dealings with the patrons of swimming pools and tourist establishments and this reflects negatively on Lebanon’s image as a tourist destination internationally and weakens its standing in terms of human rights.”

“The actions of individuals at some tourist establishments should not distort or change Lebanon’s image. The ministry will be “harsh in implementing the objectives of the code,” he said referring to Articles 2 and 8 of the Global Code of Ethics of Tourism which stress on individual rights and equality.

Any venue which fails to comply with the code after being issued a warning will shut down. In addition, the public has been urged to keep the lookout for violations and voice complaints to the ministry hotline.

The subject of racism has become an issue after large flocks of Syrians crossed the borders, fleeing the turbulence, and are now residing in Beirut as well as other cities.

Baalbek-Hermel MP Marwan Fares, and a member of Parliament’s Human Rights Committee, said that any discrimination against Syrian refugees is utterly unacceptable as it became a trend to charge Syrian arrivals with inflated prices for accommodations.

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/07/27/228707.html

A man has been fined after shouting racist abuse at a member of staff in a McDonalds restaurant during a drunken rant.

Michael William Richards, 25, started throwing chips while in McDonalds in Oxford Street, Swansea, after a 15-hour drinking session where he had drunk more than 20 pints of lager and "numerous" double vodkas.

Swansea Magistrates’ Court heard he went into the fast food restaurant in the early hours of July 2 and began throwing his food around and shouting at staff.

The manager asked him to leave but he began hurling abuse at an Asian member of staff who was cleaning up around him. Richards, of Heol Godfrey, Lower Brynaman, told police afterwards he did not remember speaking to the manager or insulting the staff member.

Chris White, appearing for Richards, said: "He doesn’t consider himself a racist and he’s embarrassed by what he said."

Richards pleaded guilty to a racially aggravated public order offence and was fined £200, and ordered to pay £85 in costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/Man-fined-racist-rant-restaurant/story-16609033-detail/story.html

Earl Ofari Hutchinson

The legion of web sites, bloggers, talk show jocks, and the occasional GOP official that has teed off on President Obama and at times Michelle Obama with assorted borderline racist digs, taunts, and depictions have been relentless. The offensive remarks quickly evoke a storm of outrage, and the offender gets rebuked. This happens because they are public figures, and their comments are publicly aired. They fly high on the public’s radar scope.

But that’s not the case with the growing barrage of racist assaults on Obama, and other minorities on social media sites. Baylor University researchers, for instance, recently tracked more than 20 Facebook page groups and users and found them jam packed with racist venom aimed at Obama, blacks and other minorities. The growing number of groups that churn hate on social media sites are secure in the knowledge that they won’t be caught or called out on it.

The signal that Obama would trigger a titanic wave of race baiting and stereotyping danger in cyber space came the moment that he announced he would seek the presidency in February 2007. He had the dubious distinction of being the earliest presidential contender to be assigned Secret Service protection on the campaign trail. As the showdown with Republican presidential rival John McCain heated up in the general election in 2008, the flood of crank, crackpot, and screwball threats that promised murder and mayhem toward Obama continued to pour in. This prompted the Secret Service to tighten security and take even more elaborate measures to ensure his safety. As president, the threats against Obama have been non-stop.

But the first real tip that hate could also find a safe haven on social media sites was the infamous Facebook assassination poll in September, 2009. The target was Obama. Hundreds of respondents dignified the question that asked: “Should Obama be killed?” by answering. If the poll hadn’t been quickly yanked, thousands more might have answered the bizarre and murderous question with an answer.

In the nearly three years since then, dozens of hate groups have popped up on Facebook. They have several things in common. Their prime target is Obama. They let fly with the most grotesque, offensive, and rabid hate depictions of the president, blacks and other minorities. Thousands of respondents chime in with their own racial haranguing broadsides. They have defacto protection from Facebook, not because Facebook condones or even turns a blind eye to racism on its site and by its users. It has a very strict policy to snatch any group from the site that makes racial, gender, religious, sexual orientation attacks against individuals or groups. But Facebook bases its existence and success on being a virtually, free and open social media platform.

Facebook permits, even takes pride, in letting individuals and groups to poke fun, level ridicule, and toss jibes at any and everything under the guise of humor or satire at others. It’s the old free speech canard. Facebook’s extreme reluctance to inhibit the free expression of ideas and opinions no matter how many persons may be offended at the humor or satire provides virtual open license for groups and individuals to spew racial hate. For example, in one posting Obama is depicted in hip hop garb with a bucket of chicken. In another, a grinning Obama has a bandanna on his head and a mouth full of gold teeth with the caption “Going for the African-American vote.” The hate groups outwit the Facebook policy enforcers by avoiding use of the more blatant racial slurs and epithets. They use such neutral language as “Obama is a lousy president.” They know that this will stir an avalanche of comments, many of which will be laced with racial slurs and propagate racial stereotypes.

The social media hate groups also are adept at using innocuous key words and race neutral titles to give the façade that their criticism of the White House has no hidden racial animus. Many innocent social media networkers stumble on the hate group pages and are appalled at what they see and read. But they are still exposed to the hate mongering and that insures a wider audience.

Hate groups have honed in on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms to influence and even recruit others to their ranks. As the closely contested 2012 presidential election further heats up, more groups will skirt the social media censors and ratchet up their hate filled vitriol on their sites. They’ll pawn it off as poking fun and satire at Obama, and minorities. And for the most part they’ll get away with it.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a frequent political commentator on MSNBC and a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is the author of How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK-Radio and the Pacifica Network.

http://www.eurweb.com/2012/07/hate-on-social-media-against-president-obama-soars/

An African American guest at a local hotel says he was greeted by a racial slur across his room TV.

According to Derrick Forward, president of the Dayton chapter of the NAACP, a member of his group discovered the message Friday when turning on his room TV at the Motel 6 in Sharonville.

The slur was part of the internal TV graphics broadcast on the screen said Forward.

Laura Rojo-Eddy, a spokeswoman for the Texas-based, corporate headquarters for Accor, Motel 6’s parent company, released a statement saying it is “appalled.”

“At Motel 6, we are proud of the great diversity of the guests that we serve, and we are completely appalled by the offensive slur that appeared on our guest’s television screen on Friday. We are investigating to determine how this mishap occurred, and after inspecting other rooms, this appears to be an isolated incident,” said Rojo-Eddy.

Rojo-Eddy was unavailable early this morning to discuss the status of the corporation’s investigation.

Sharonville Police Lt. James Nesbit said police have also begun an investigation but so far have nothing to report.

“We are taking this very seriously and we are looking into it,” said Nesbit.

Christopher Smitherman, president of the Cincinnati chapter of the NAACP, was also unavailable this morning but said in an earlier released statement that "this behavior is despicable and un-American."

“The Motel 6 owner owes the entire Cincinnati region an apology and termination of all employees involved in this act,” said Smitherman.

“It is my hope the public officials and leaders will hold the Motel 6 operator accountable. We thank … Derrick Forward … for investigating this issue by taking pictures and personally driving from Dayton to support his member. The Cincinnati NAACP will be supportive to the Dayton branch to bring an amicable resolution," he said.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120729/NEWS/307290040/Motel-police-investigating-after-slur-appears-on-room-TV?odyssey=tab%7Cmostpopular%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE

Peoria Police Chief Roy Minter announced today that a patrol sergeant was demoted and suspended for directing a "racially derogatory term" at a podium in April.

Sergeant Patrick Kief is now Officer Patrick Kief for "us[ing] a racially derogatory term to describe his frustration with a podium he was using during a shift briefing for patrol officers."

Police spokeswoman Amanda Jacinto didn’t offer New Times the exact quote, but says "the term is racist against African Americans."

Kief was also hit with an unpaid, 80-hour suspension, which he already served.

Minter called Kief’s word choice "highly inappropriate," and quoted the department’s code of conduct, as he did after one of the department’s officers posted a picture on Facebook of a bunch of kids who’d apparently just shot up a T-shirt depicting President Obama.

Kief’s punishment was the same as the Obama t-shirt cop, Sergeant-turned-Officer Pat Shearer.

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2012/07/peoria_cop_demoted_for_shoutin.php

Chelsea soccer captain John Terry, who was cleared of attacking a player with racial slurs just two weeks ago, was was charged by the English Football Association on Friday with the same offense. And with the world in London for the 30th Olympic Games, no less.

The FA, the London governing body, said it considered the evidence from the trial before charging Terry with directing abuse at Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand during a Premier League match last October.

”I deny the charge, and I will be requesting the opportunity to attend the commission for a personal hearing,” Terry said.

The FA alleged Terry ”used abusive and-or insulting words and/or behavior … (and) included a reference to the ethnic origin and-or color and/or race of Anton Ferdinand.”

In court, prosecutors claimed that Terry snapped in response to insults about an alleged extramarital affair and bellowed ”(expletive) black (expletive)” at Ferdinand.

But Terry said he only used the offensive term sarcastically to counter the profanity he claims Ferdinand was accusing him of using.

The magistrate who ruled on the case at Westminster Magistrates’ Court said in his judgment that Terry’s explanation was ”certainly under the cold light of forensic examination, unlikely.”

But he found Terry not guilty of a racially aggravated public order offense after deciding it was ”impossible” to be sure what the defender said.

The FA, which has already interviewed Ferdinand and Terry, had to suspend its investigation into October’s west London derby when the police probe began.

Liverpool forward Luis Suarez was banned for eight matches last season for racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra during another Premier League match in October. What punishment Terry would face remains to be seen. But his history of such ugly allegations very well could prompt more severe suspension. Worse, is that he’s painted a cloud over himself with these two incidents.

http://atlantablackstar.com/2012/07/27/english-soccer-player-again-charged-with-racial-slur/

Voula Papachristou said she had not intended to offend anyone

Greek triple jumper Voula Papachristou has been expelled from her country’s Olympic team over comments she posted on Twitter which were deemed racist.

Papachristou was due to compete in the London 2012 Games, which officially start this Friday.

But the Hellenic Olympic Committee said her posts mocking African immigrants and expressing support for a far-right party went against the Olympic spirit.

Papachristou has apologised for the "unfortunate and tasteless joke".

As well as the comment on Sunday referring to the West Nile virus and Africans living in Greece, Papachristou had also reposted a tweet by Ilias Kasidiaris, a politician with the far-right Golden Dawn party, criticising Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s stance on immigration.

The mood among Greece’s Olympic team was already delicate: athletes have battled through tough conditions due to the spending cuts and the country is sending its smallest team to these games for the past 20 years. Now Greece has lost one of its medal hopefuls on the eve of the Olympics.

But the Greek Olympic Committee was under pressure to act. Human rights groups have lambasted the government for not doing enough to clamp down on racism: anti-immigrant attacks have increased as Greeks have hit out during the recession and the extreme right – many say neo-Nazi – Golden Dawn party has soared in popularity, entering parliament for the first time in its history.

So calls are growing louder here for Greece to show its other face: open, welcoming and tolerant; a country that rejects racism in any sphere. Voula Papachristou’s expulsion will be seen as an example of that.

She had previously retweeted several links to videos promoting the views of Golden Dawn, which won 7% of the vote in Greece’s recent elections, and had directly communicated online with Mr Kasidiaris.

Mr Kasidiaris gained notoriety for slapping one left-wing woman politician and throwing water over another, during a heated debate on a television show.

Papachristou tweeted him on his name day last week: "Many happy years, be always strong and true!!!"

‘A mistake’

The athlete’s remarks had prompted calls from the public and within the Greek government for her to be thrown out of the team.

The head of the Greek committee, Isidoros Kouvelos, said the 23-year-old had "showed no respect for the basic Olympian value".

"She made a mistake and in life we pay for our mistakes," he told Skai TV.

Earlier in the week, Papachristou had responded online, saying "that’s how I am" and that she was not like a stuck CD: "If I make mistakes, I don’t press the replay! I press Play and move on!"

But in a statement on her Facebook page and Twitter on Wednesday, Papachristou said she was "very sorry and ashamed for the negative responses I triggered, since I never wanted to offend anyone, or to encroach human rights".

She apologised to her friends, family, fellow athletes and the national team, but said it would not have been possible for her to compete if she did not support the values of the Games.

"Therefore, I could never believe in discrimination between human beings and races."

The Olympic Charter

The Olympic Charter, established by Baron Pierre de Coubertin the founder of the modern competition, states that "The practice of sport is a human right". Everyone should be able to play sport "without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play."

The spirit of the games is about the power of sport over politics, where perseverance and hard work are paid off with medals; where ordinary people can become national heroes.

This ideology has been expanded over the years. In the words of the London2012 official education programme, Get Set: "The Olympic and Paralympic Games are about much more than sporting excellence."

The Greek committee said she had been "placed outside the Olympic team for statements contrary to the values and ideas of the Olympic movement".

However, her coach George Pomaski said the punishment had been too harsh and she had already apologised.

"This is a big disappointment not only for her but for her family and for myself, and anyone involved in the Greek team," he said.

Mr Pomaski said he had been unable to contact Papachristou for several hours.

The BBC’s Mark Lowen in Athens says Greece is experiencing a sharp rise in racism, with the popularity of right-wing parties such as Golden Dawn soaring.

The government has come under pressure to crack down on racism in all domains, including sport, says our correspondent.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18987678

Ukraine’s Nataliya Tobias, who won bronze for the 1500 metres in Beijing is one of nine track and field athletes to be suspended by the IAAF ahead of the London Games

OLYMPIC competition has finally kicked off, two days before the London Games’ official opening ceremony, although the joy of the first day of sport was tempered by athletics’ ruling body saying it had suspended nine track and field competitors for what it called "sophisticated doping."

The Olympics had its first security scare – a false alarm – with Britain’s Ministry of Defence scrambling a Typhoon fighter jet to intercept a commercial airliner too close to the London Olympics site.

The Games also got their first diplomatic incident when North Korea’s women’s football team refused to take the field for nearly an hour for its match against Colombia after organisers mistakenly displayed the South Korean flag on a giant screen at Hampden Park stadium during player introductions.

Organisers quickly acknowledged their mistake and said "steps will be taken to ensure this does not happen again."

Stephanie Houghton gave Team GB its first win of the games by firing home a second-half free kick to seal a 1-0 football win over New Zealand at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

The match was one of six women’s football ties that opened Olympic sport for the London Games.

The International Amateur Athletics Federation announced it had suspended eight athletes for two years and one for four years for "sophisticated doping," including one case of human growth hormone and two of synthetic testosterone.

Three were caught in retests of samples from last year’s world championships in Daegu, South Korea, and six were caught in biological passport tests, which measure changes in an athlete’s blood profile.

"This is the second finding of growth hormone in athletics and one of only a very few to date in sport as a whole," the IAAF said.

It will probably not be the last. A new doping test for human growth hormone will be used at the London Olympics after it was cleared just weeks ago following a 13-year process.

David Howman, director general of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said the new procedure will be used alongside the existing test for HGH.

Among those suspended was Ukraine’s Nataliya Tobias, who won a bronze medal in the 1500 meters at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. She tested positive for testosterone in further analysis of urine samples from Daegu, where she finished ninth in the 1,500.

The IAAF said Bulgarian sprinter Inna Eftimova, who was eliminated in the 100-metre heats in Daegu, tested positive for synthetic growth hormone.

Also out of the games was Greek triple jumper Voula Papachristou, kicked off her country’s team for a tweet mocking African immigrants.

Commenting on the widely reported appearance of Nile-virus-carrying mosquitoes in Athens, Papachristou wrote: "With so many Africans in Greece, the West Nile mosquitoes will be getting home food!!!"

The Hellenic Olympic Committee ejected Papachristou "for statements contrary to the values and ideas of the Olympic movement."

The 23-year-old later apologised – also via social media – saying "I could never believe in discrimination between human beings and races."

London’s Olympic transport plan got a major test, as lanes reserved for Olympic VIPs came into force and the city’s creaky subway system struggled with glitches.

Traffic jams blocked some of the main routes into the city as the wildly unpopular Games Lanes came into force. The 48 kilometres of lanes are to operate from 6am to midnight throughout the games, and cars or taxi cabs that stray into them face a 130-pound ($200) fine.

Thousands of London drivers have switched to public transport, only to encounter severe delays on several underground lines caused by power supply problems and signal failures. Long holdups were reported on the city’s Central and Hammersmith lines with ripple delays affecting other lines.

Even London’s new river-crossing cable car – opened just last month – hit a problem, with a technical fault stranding passengers above the River Thames for roughly half an hour.

Officials who have been telling Londoners for weeks to allow extra time for travel or just stay home advised that most British of reactions: a stiff upper lip.

"There will be a lot of disruption and London is a congested city anyway," Transport Secretary Justine Greening told BBC television.

It wasn’t all bad traffic news. Fans flying into London’s Heathrow Airport could breathe a sigh of relief after immigration staff called off a pre-Olympics strike. The 24-hour-long walkout had been planned for Thursday, potentially snarling incoming traffic on one of the busiest days at Europe’s busiest airport.

One airliner caused the Games’ first security scare when it flew a bit too close to the Olympics for comfort.

A Typhoon fighter was scrambled shortly before noon because the plane was not in contact with air-traffic control.

Communications were quickly restored and no further action was required, the ministry said.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/london-games/dope-racism-flag-scandals-kick-off-games/story-e6frgdg6-1226435491701