D.Tinashe Hofisi: Reflections

In this blogpost, I make the claim that the Olympic Games show  the benefits of ethno-diversity and citizen empowerment  The United States of America (USA) extended its dominance in the medals count at the Rio 2016 Olympics. It remains the country with the most gold medals and overall medals tally in the Summer Games. There are many possible reasons to explain American supremacy in the summer games, from superiority of resources and training regimes to identification of children with specific physical attributes to excel in particular fields. In this blog, I make the claim that the all these factors are enhanced by the USA’s ethnic diversity and citizen empowerment. Whilst the USA is not even close to being the most ethnically diverse country in the world, their ability to make use of their ethnic diversity in the context having the third biggest population in the world accounts for their superiority. Further, they are able to empower their citizens, from an early age...

This blog post links the treatment of the Zimbabwean female football team, the Mighty Warriors, to the power of sport as an indicator of moral, cultural and State failures in the treatment of its citizens. This last week the country was understandably apoplectic over the treatment of the Mighty Warriors on their return from the Rio Olympics. Their spirited performances and dogged determination (leading them to score in each of their games) was a source of deserved pride and credit. It is fair to say that without winning a single match, they won over millions of hearts (even Manchester City Captain Vincent Kompany twee ted in their favour). Thus the nation was horrified by images of the Mighty Warriors being ferried from the airport in a school bus and claims that they were offered US$5 (or US$1 depending on what you read) and told to be on their way home. Whilst this is disgraceful, it is not, in my view, surprising. Sport is a unique way of assessing the status of the c...