Re: RC: UAE/AERC (my final stupid remarks)

[Tivers@aol.com]

In a message dated 3/27/01 10:42:23 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
Howard4567@aol.com writes:

<< With the UAE, it's not clear.  At least not to me.  What I was trying to 
say 
 was if it's not clear why they're sponsoring the FEI sanctioning of our 
 National Championship, then there is the perception, by some, that 
 something's not right.  And some might wonder why the UAE would do such a 
 thing.  What's the motive?    
 
 If one entity pours tons of money into something, don't you think there 
might 
 be strings attached?  The rich (like I would know) don't throw money around 
 just to make others happy.  They, usually, have their own agenda. >>


In my first post to this group in about a year, I carefully explained what I 
perceive to be the UAE's goal for the endurance sport--they want to bring it 
to a level where it could be accepted as an Olympic event. The FEI appears to 
be the appropriate vehicle for reaching that objective. 

Don't confuse these people with "the rich". 35 years ago the Maktoums and the 
Zayeds were bedouins. As tribal chiefs, Sheikhs Zayed and Maktoum, and thier 
fathers before them, were responsible for the well-being and happiness of the 
people of their tribes, their Emirates. They DID pass wealth around to make 
people happy, and they still do. For the past 30 years they have focused the 
bulk of their spending on building the infrastructure of their now-united 
country, bringing it into the modern world. They've been quite successful, as 
a visit to Abu Dhabi or Dubai will adequately demonstrate. 

But there is much more to do, and time is against them--one day the oil money 
will diminish and then be gone. If the Emirates are to survive thereafter, 
they have to be established internationally as a center of trade--an economic 
bridge between East and West. As I perceive it, that is the agenda, and it is 
a worthy one. They are well on their way.

It is not a side-issue that the Emiratis love sport. Muslims cannot gamble, 
drink, or otherwise participate in activities their religion considers 
immoral. Sport is clean and wholesome entertainment and it affords them an 
opportunity for another international presence--good advertising for a 
country of less than 3 million residents and fewer than 300,000 citizens 
(Emiratis). 

As luck would have it, they are fond of endurance racing. It fits their 
culture--35 years ago, a 100 miole trek through the desert was an arduous and 
dangerous enterprise. If you sit around the dinner table with an Emirati 
family you hear stories about desert travel in the old times, before oil. 
There were no GPS's, the desert was essentially featureless and they 
navigated by the position of the stars and the moon. And when there was cloud 
cover, you were lost. One survival story that was passed on to me at one 
dinner table was of a grandfather who decided to turn loose the camels and 
let them lead the group to sweet water and life. And if you travel the desert 
today, you occasionally run across the bones of a camel that didn't find 
sweet water and date palms in time. 

So, endurance is a reflection of what people of the desert are all about, 
culturally. That is, REAL endurance. The genuine article. Life or death.  And 
the Emiratis would like to see this sport elevated to Olympic caliber. So 
they encourage, and pay for, worldwide competition under international rules 
in an attempt to lift a somewhat ragtag and disorganized sport to a higher 
plane. 

In doing this, there are limitations the Emiratis must face. In summer, 
temperatures of 140 degrees are not uncommon, even in the cities by the sea. 
You can't really condition a horse in that kind of heat, and you can't 
compete in it either. So the Emiratis have to depend on other "professionals" 
in other locales, to build good horses during the summer and to hold 
year-round competitions. This, if you decide to accept the assignment, is 
where you come in. Where the Aussies and Germans and French and Italians and 
Swedes--where the rest of the world comes in. All that is necessary is that 
everyone plays strictly by the same rules, so that the sport can present a 
united and well-organized front to an Olympic committee. 

When we assign motives to others we often do so by reflecting on our own 
motivations. Particularly if we know nothing about those whom we are quick to 
judge. One of the more sickening aspects of an open forum like this is that 
you are exposed to the obvious and transparent frailties of human nature. A 
certain ugly baseness arises on occasion that leaves an unpleasant smell 
behind. For the sake of everyone's comfort, it would be useful if the very 
vocal here would take just a little more time to think rather than to type. 

ti    



Tom Ivers, President
Equine Racing Systems, Inc.
 <A HREF="http://www.equineracing.com/">ERS Home Page</A> 

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