The Kick Project

Pic:Lockerdome.com A good friend of The Kick Project, Jared Genser, founder of the human rights activist group Freedom Now, alerted us to this piece he co-wrote with well-known Chinese dissident Yang Jianli, in the Wall Street Journal, on the sometimes fraught relationship between big sporting events and human rights. It's an issue that's dear to our hearts here, especially given the plight of migrant workers employed to help construct the facilities for the Qatar World Cup in 2022 (the same year as the Beijing Winter Olympics) It's Important reading. Let's hope it focusses more attention on the negative impacts of big sport in relation to human rights and social justice so as to better harness the many positive outcomes sport can generate. BEIJING OLYMPIC SCANDAL REDUX August 7, 2015 Beijing has been selected to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, making it the first city tapped to host both the Summer and Winter Games. In deciding this, the Internationa...

When I first heard that Qatar has won the 2022 World Cup, I admit I thought it was all over. The World Cup as a magical, beautiful and uniting event was, in 2022, to be run through the mud of vested interests, corrupt decision-making and the special insanity of money over morals. I still feel that to some extent. But this article gives me hope.  It is true that the first Arab World Cup may indeed be a means not only to promote Arab culture in general but can unite the Arab world and allow it to rise to the potential it offered during Europe's Dark Ages, when it effectively ruled the world in cultural sophistication. We can only hope the organisers and FIFA move the event in such a direction.