Chelsea’s Drogba and Kalou fly the Ivoirian flag. But Kalou was very nearly a Dutchman…
The second installment in my three part series on the World Cup for the South African Sunday Times (this one on football and national identity)
The fleet-footed Chelsea forward Solomon Kalou might permit himself a wry smile as he stands at attention for L’Abidjanaise, the national anthem of the Ivory Coast, when Les Elephantes face Portugal in their World Cup opener on June 15.
Were it not for the stubbornness of former Netherlands immigration minister Rita Verdonk, Kalou would have turned up at the World Cup in the other orange shirt – as a Dutchman. By turning down attempts by the Netherlands football authorities to fast-track citizenship for Kalou in time to pick him for the 2006 World Cup, the conservative Verdonk actually spared his parents a major headache: the Dutch that year played a group game against an Ivory Coast squad that included Solomon’s older brother, Bonaventure.
But the episode is simply a reminder that international football often demonstrates just how fluid and fungible the notion of nationality can be. In the same 2006 World Cup, when Croatia played Australia, three players in the Croatian squad were actually Australian, while seven of the Socceroos were eligible to represent Croatia.
And then there are the Brazilians: not those representing their own country, but the likes of Portugal’s Deco and Pepe, Spain’s Marcos Senna, Croatia’s Eduardo da Silva, Poland’s Roger Gurreiro, Turkey’s Mehmet Aurelio, Tunisia’s Francileudo Dos Santos and dozens more who have represented a total of 26 other national teams.
Switzerland’s electorate may be increasingly hostile towards immigrants, but the country’s fortunes in South Africa in June will depend heavily on the Turkish forwards Gokan Inler and Hakan Yekin, Cabo Verdean holding midfielder Gelson Fernandes, Ivorian defender Johan Djorou, Kosovar Albanian wide man Valon Behrami and a half-dozen other players from former Yugoslavia. Let’s just say that in international football, these days, the Zulu Scotsman named Makhathini in the Cadbury’s Lunchbar TV ad would no more raise an eyebrow than does Scottish striker Chris Iwelumo, whose dad is Nigerian.
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Nafis Sadik, Special Advisor to UN Secretary-General, the issue of violence against women is a problem and the solution of the problem is very important for the politicians, lawyers, civil society organizations, media, and especially the women said that they fell very important tasks.
Nafis Sadik for an official visit in Turkey, incest, rape and child abuse cases, such as expressed by the community should be excluded is a very powerful way.
Loyal, and similar issues of violence against women in Turkey should assume a leading role in saving, said:
“A very important task falls to the media on this issue. The first step in the shape of the media handling of these issues, and officials should be called down. In addition, like all political and religious leaders have to ask people what to do to protect women. The information we provide to all of this message. This problem is solved very easily. If the law is missing, the law must be done. At the same time, laws were fully implemented. Cases may be reported, perhaps, but once the case is not turned on. In this situation of violence, and women are breaking the courage of women, even istemeyebiliyor incident report.
“Also, sometimes abused women ‘have done something wrong’ hissettiriliyor like. Sometimes you feel like family honor broke. This perception needs to change. All of this violence as a matter of hiding it, sometimes even to protect the rights of victims of violence themselves çabalam?yor. This is a terrible thing. Those who endeavor to prevent violence against women, much more harshly on this issue have raised voices. Civil society organizations should work much more effectively. There are some women’s organizations, but even some of these organizations to more effectively track the subject but does not talk about the subject of violence. ”
Loyal to the Islamic religion, women rights that men and women, the threshold should deal with until you reach the stated objectives.
At the same time, UN Secretary General for HIV / AIDS, Nafis Sadik, the Special Representative that, reminded me of AIDS in Turkey is not very common. Turkey says that the number of cases at low levels, such as 5 thousand faithful, however, indicating that an increase in the number of AIDS patients every year, the number is very low seviyelerdeyken would be easier to combat the disease and said that the spread can be prevented
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