Good on ya Ranier :) I see you double dosed on 'bitter' pills this morning old son.

Has anyone seen the comedy skit by Dave Chapelle? hilarious.. he joined a white power group and always turned up to meetings in his 'clan' gear.. his character was blind..and due to his outspoken manner they promoted him... then one day he had to take off his hood..and they saw he was black :)

I might try one like that myself wunna these days.

For the most refined racism around.. look at many non white mobs...particularly Hindu/Muslim interaction.... amazing stuff.

The Indian captain said the Australians can expect a fairly vigorous reception when they play on the sub-continent later in the year .Sounds like more of the same to me .

The fanatical Indian supporters demand their team wins -it doesn't -they are unhappy .

Ricky Ponting demands and gets the extra effort from his team.I say good on you Ricky.

Creative sledging should not include racist or religious comments that tend to detract from the enjoyment of the game.

Arjay

When push comes to shove I'd back men and women who are prepared to lay down their lives for the freedoms they want to retain. History is full of examples of that lesson. Totalitarian regimes don't survive nor overcome other nations whose people love freedom.

When Push comes to shove free nations openly debate and tend to accept change that will ensure their survival and affluence. As you say the only way China and India are likely to accept change is when it is forced upon them... not militarily but when they cannot feed nor supply clean water to their populations, farms and industries. Their own people will revolt. There won't be any of your dreamed of expansionism.

Keith

On the issue of whether Indians like cricket, I once met a young Indian man while travelling overseas and asked him if he liked cricket. He replied, “No.” I questioned him further and found out that he once spent a lot of money for a reserve seat to see a Test match in England, and gave me a full description of the day’s events.

This said to me that when Indians say they don’t like cricket, they are probably only comparing themselves to their fanatical compatriots back home.

Irfan says that it was Aussie creationists who were most offended by Harbajan Singh’s monkey jibe. (Doesn’t New Zealand have any creationists, Irf?)

Irfan is pointing out that insulting a person of colour by calling them a monkey only carries any sting when our common descent from African apes is assumed as some kind of objective reality. It was Darwin, or more so his popularises, who encouraged the idea that darker skinned people were more closely related to the apes.

Ex Australian cricket captain, Bob Simpson, was always known affectionately as “Chimp”. But it seems the monkey jibe is only racist when pertaining to ‘darker’ people.

If we are going to combat racism, it would help if we let go of some of these outdated 19th Century myths that have attached themselves to science and acknowledge our common humanity.

‘All over the world and the stranger the place
The heart is the same; it’s just a different face.’

‘Red and yellow, black and white
All are precious in his sight.’

Here’s what Aussie creationists said about the whole affair,
http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/5564/

From Dan's Creationist link:

"the only effective solution to ending racism in cricket, and elsewhere in society, is to return to a biblical worldview"

This is supposed to be a joke, isn't it?

Thank you for posting the link to creationontheweb.com, Dan, that was a real chuckle. An earnest and self-important analysis of "why is 'monkey' a racist taunt?" that ends with the immortal phrase "the only effective solution to ending racism in cricket, and elsewhere in society, is to return to a biblical worldview..."

Yeah, right! I can see that working.

Except that... just possibly, the taunt is all about imagery. You know, the monkey swinging in the trees going "Oo Oo Oo” and scratching its armpit? Demonstrates human characteristics, but can't hold his own in a debate on Kierkegaard? Tends to be less concerned with personal hygiene than humans – except perhaps that 60s throwback in the Leura coffee shop?

Or is that a little too simple?

The fact that it works better with black people than white – and hence becomes a racist taunt – is to do with the natural colouring of the monkey, which is in general darker than the skin of the average white person. Sod all, I would suggest, with the theory of evolution.

But thanks for the laugh. And the confirmation that Creationists have been reduced to clutching at straws to support their tired and confused argument.

Personally, I cannot accept that the Indian crowd calling Symonds "monkey" is any more racist than the traditional "Hadlee is a [profanity removed to save OLO's blushes]". It is what passes for affectionate banter in Test cricket, from the crowd and from the players. I don't think that it in any way enhances the game, but that seems to be the way the crowds and players like it.

Forget Creationism, as far as this incident is concerned, it was simply a highly hypocritical act by Ponting, deploying the race card to divert attention from the fact that he is a first-class cheat.