An argument worth having — not just in sport
A couple of weeks ago I was in Dublin for the Sports History Ireland symposium in Boston College (that is not a misprint, by the way, the campus is on St Stephen’s Green: restrain yourself, pedants).
There was a focus on government sports policy on the night, and one of the men responsible for current policy in the area was present: Minister of State with responsibility for Sport, Patrick O’Donovan.
You may have seen some of his views in print around here last week, as in his thinking behind the increased grant to the Gaelic Players Association.
In that part of the interview he also referred to the famous photograph of himself and a dozen other men in sports at the opening of the Sport Ireland National Indoor Arena, acknowledging that such perceptions matter.
On the matter of women in sport — participation, visibility, all aspects of that question — he added: “Part of engendering support, particularly among young people, is the idea of role models. From Sport Ireland reports we see there’s still a drop-off among adolescent girls when it comes to sport. We need to provide role models for girls.
“RTÉ are doing that visibly when it comes to sports correspondents, the print sector are doing it. But girls and young women need to see that there are careers in sport outside of participation — that there are management careers, broadcasting, medical careers, all of those within sport.
“To do that you need women at the highest level and you need positive examples. The recent election (of Sarah Keane) as President of the Olympic Council of Ireland is a very positive development in the promotion of women in sport. That was anything other than tokenistic — it was purely on the basis of merit, which is as it should be.”
O’Donovan has form, given the storm that blew up when he suggested funding cuts for sports organisations which didn’t have 30% female representation on their governing bodies.
There was a good deal of comment about the philosophy of quota systems in general rather than analysis of the situation which had made such quota systems a possibility, which is hardly surprising.
The Limerick man picked up on that imbroglio. “I believe in a meritocracy,” he told me. “I don’t adhere at all to the notion of quotas for the sake of quotas — but if you believe in a meritocracy and there are still blank spaces all over, then you have to ask yourself if that meritocracy is actually working — does it need something to help it along the road?
“I feel it does. Whether that’s penalising the ones that don’t sign up (to gender balance) or rewarding financially the ones that do, those are moot points. But it was a row worth having, and the timing couldn’t have been better, as it shone a light on areas where women were blatantly under-represented.
“There were some tokenistic replies through the media which surprised me, and reading some of the commentators referring to my proposal as ‘stupid’.
“I don’t think it’s stupid to suggest that 50% of the population should aspire to a situation where the sports they play are properly broadcast and reported on, and that the leadership of sporting organisations would at some stage try to reflect the fact that 50 percent of the people of the country are of a particular gender. I don’t think that’s stupid.”
Who does?
The power of (the) association
You probably have plenty of opinions on the Super 8 proposals in the GAA, and on club fixtures, and the commercial agenda, and on hurling’s position, and on the power of intercounty managers, and on the effectiveness of Congress as a vehicle for change.
There’s a passage in The Last Tycoon by F Scott Fitzgerald which is apposite.
“You can take Hollywood for granted like I did, or you can dismiss it with the contempt we reserve for what we don’t understand. It can be understood, too, but only dimly and in flashes. Not half a dozen men have ever been able to keep the whole equation of pictures in their heads.”
Substitute ‘the GAA’ for ‘Hollywood’ and ‘pictures’. What is the whole equation and who now can keep it in their heads?
A word of warning to the birds of Cork
Looking forward to going to the new Páirc Uí Chaoimh? Watch out for the dead birds falling from the sky.
The Minnesota Vikings’ new venue, the US Bank Stadiu, is killing up to 500 birds a year because of its glass covering, which is believed to be very confusing to birds, as well as being, you know, fatal.
The stadium is right on the Mississippi Flyway, a bird migration route, which means a lot of them come through the area.
Some locals want that glass coated, or changed, but the stadium says that could cost $60m. I am not familiar with the migratory patterns of our native birds but am available if the new Cork stadium wants some vague yet well-remunerated opinions on how to avoid this kind of PR mess.
How the small details matter
Give me some good details and I'm anybody's.
For example: while I’ve made many attempts to understand the reasons behind the financial crisis, I usually give up when I hear about the ‘cheap money out of Germany that Sachs sold to the sub-prime guys in Los Angeles’.
I feel if I can’t understand how people sold money then I should just sit at the kids’ table.
Every now and again, though, a detail jumps off the page and grabs your attention.
Take “Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, And The Quest To Bring Down The Most Wanted Man On Wall Street” by Sheelah Kolhatkar.
Here’s a book which details the inside knowledge which helped a hedge fund make millions illegally.
But it’s not all about inside information.
These hedge funds “are willing to spend money to gain any type of advantage or to take advantage of any resource possibly available”, Kolhatkar told NPR recently, adding: “They are spending money on, you know, hiring people to watch truck traffic in and out of manufacturing facilities in China. They’re studying satellite imagery of parking lots in Wal-Marts across America because they are trying to piece together the health of various companies that they’re investing in.”
It’s always the details.
