MASTER BLASTER
The right to swim
BY NEIL BRAVO
A friend of mine forwarded me an email about some trouble within a national sports association. I will discuss this initially in substance while I am trying to get into the tip of the iceberg.
The email involves the prohibition of some young Filipino swimmers from participating in a Sabah swimming competitions held recently for swimmers aged 8-17 years old. The group of Philippine swimmers were barred from competing not by the organizers themselves directly, but by the act and omission of the leader of the country’s national swimming association.
The group was representing an association of swimmers whose concern is to develop young swimmers in the manner of a laudable grassroots set up. On their own, they went with some of their parents to Sabah on account of an invitation between the two diplomatic states and in the spirit of sports solidarity.
Then came the bad news.
The national association (NSA) for swimming, through its president, intervened and relayed information that the Filipino children cannot be allowed to participate because they are not members of the national association. According to the officials, the international swimming community bars anyone from participating in an international competition without being a member of the national association. The poor kids were crying after being told they cannot participate.
The parents appealed their case to the organizers but we’re told only the word of the national association president can lift the prohibition. The president of the NSA put up a hard stand. Poor kids were reportedly left out from taking part.
The trouble is not even that. That’s only for a start.
The worst thing is, the president reportedly accused the Pinoy kids of being age cheats and that the fake passports in the Philippines can be procured anytime. The accusation was addressed to an international counterpart and open to the global internet reading public.
Where in the world can you find an official like that?
As the old cliché goes, “only in the Philippines.”
First, I was taught that sports is for all. It is everyone’s right. It is a gift of democracy in the same breath as the right to education or right to practice a profession not otherwise contrary to law. What law did the kids violate? The law of the association’s president? The laws of the association or that of the international swimming body?
Again, I was taught that human rights are Constitutional grants of democracy superior to any municipal law and limitable only by the police powers of the State. Read, the police powers of the State. Not the powers of this NSA president.
Not even the international swimming body.
I was also taught that international laws conform to that of the laws of the State within the ambit of comity among nations. Otherwise, it will have no effect. The international swimming laws are not even laws of any State. It is the law of an international sports association. How can that rule be superior over human rights guaranteed by all civilized nation?
You want me to believe that if a child wanted to swim, he cannot do so because he needs to be a member of this association? That a child whose parents can send him elsewhere to compete cannot do so because the association of his sport simply says so?
I was taught that men should follow the law. Not the law to follow the caprices of men.
What is the take here? Membership fees to be paid first before one can compete? What is this, a license to practice one’s hobby? Since when did a hobby or sport require a license to practice (other than professional sports which is another story)?
Finally, the comment on the faking of passports is an affront to the authorities, specifically the Department of Foreign Affairs. How can a man be so straightforward in accusing a government agency before an international community that our authorities can produce fake passports?
How can you lead a country’s sporting association when you can do such a snide comment to an authority much higher in the scheme of existence without proof to back up your claim? Or does he know something? He better come up with the evidence to support his negative remark. I think the DFA should take this matter seriously as an affront to its existence.
I need not name names here, but those in the sporting community knows what’s ailing the sport. The high-handed, arrogant stand of some sporting associations like this one deserve a reality check.
This is nothing personal but really, I was taught that even irrationality, like one’s greed for power can be, reigned.
Notes: Happy brewing to Museo Café which celebrated its birthday last February 8. To Ethel, Gina, and the regulars like Tisay, Liezl, Jane (who all had personal mugs, unlike this writer)and Ronel—see you more often.
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