Liz has signed me up, pretty much, for a fifty five mile charity walk so I've decided that I need to get fit for it and train a lot. This involves daily walks of at least twelve miles, and while I haven't been brilliant at that so far I've tried my best and I feel great because of it. Along with working last Saturday morning for a removals company and then playing football for several hours I'm actually feeling physically better than ever. Tomorrow's walk will take me to Hyde Park, around the park, and then to Kensington.
I intend to keep up this level of activity, and need to somehow fit things in even on days when usually I'd be too busy to fit other things in. On Wednesday I'm going up to Hull with Mohamed in the car early in the morning so I'm not entirely sure how I can fit in an exercise session unless I wake up really early and go for a run around Acton Park. This can be done though, and I must overcome laziness.
Over the last few days I've read a book about apartheid and how sport played a major part in overcoming it, particularly focusing on the inmates of Robben Island, the Alcatraz-esque prison upon which Nelson Mandela, amongst other famous political prisoners was incarcerated. In the early 60s, when the first prisoners were sent to the island, there was no recreation at all, and even board games were outright banned. For almost four years the prisoners protested in the form of simple requests for football once a week, and were often beaten or punished merely for asking. Eventually the International Red Cross intervened and the men were granted the right to play football (this is a very watered down version). They organised an entire league system, with three divisions, in which nine clubs fielded an A, B and C team. The prisoners began as disunited as they were from the warders, each belonging to totally different political factions, but sport, particularly football brought them together and gave them the power to eventually acquire a multitude of rights, and by the early 70s they had an Olympic Games as well as rugby, tennis, degree studies, music, films and much more. Even the warders came to see the men as humans, and picked football teams to support. Nelson Mandela obviously never played as he spent his entire stay in solitary confinement, but enough news was smuggled to him for him to support a team and become interested, as well as developing an understanding of sport as crucial to the bonding of a nation.
Of course, it was not only the sport on Robben Island that highlighted the failings of apartheid; the all-white international cricket, football, rugby and Olympic teams were all banned from international competition, and opponents of the white South African players in individual sports pulled out of tennis and other individual sports events in protest at the regime.
Many men who are now members of the South African government found a great source of not only enjoyment, but political organisation and activation as a result of the games held on Robben Island. Jacob Zuma is the president of the African National Congress and was influential in SA's bid for this year's world cup. "Terror" Loreto was appointed Minister for Defence in 1999. When entering the prison, neither of these men had the negotiation or political skills that they picked up during their stay. That all the men imprisoned over the years speak incredibly highly of the organised sports effort yet negatively of every aspect of their stay speaks volumns. Players cried when they had to leave the island, as it meant abandoning the clubs they'd come to support as much as an avid fan of Manchester United might if they were to be liquidated.
Read More Than Just a Game: Football vs Apartheid. It's incredible. Absolutely inspiring stuff, and a strict lesson for any idiots who claim that football is a stupid game for the uneducated. I firmly believe that sports brings people around the world together like nothing else, even if hooliganism and disagreements are encountered along the way.
I've also found a great love for Derrida recently. His ideas on changing ethical and political action after the events of 9/11 are really interesting. His interview with Borradori particularly so.
What else? I don't really have a great deal else to say, other than that life is probably better at the moment than it has been for a very long time. I feel happier about myself than usual, confident and well. I feel as if I'm capable of becoming active both physically and mentally. I never feel these things.
A song of the week is very hard to choose this time, but I'm going to go with Alestorm – Keelhauled. It's just hilarious. Worth searching on youtube as well.
Goodbye, friends.
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