Dear Aussies and Pohms

I'm a white South African male, and yes, I do realise i'm the scum of the universe,
but I have to ask, why do you still play cricket with Sri Lankans? During Appartheid,
we were ostrasiced from all international sport , and considered outsiders to every
event because of our colonial history and political beliefs. International readers
won't understand the signifance of this. Other countries go to war, we play rugby
and cricket and sing bawdy songs about eachother and tell some really innapropriate jokes
about eachothers cultures. (I was at a England vs Australia cricket match and I heard
the Barmy Army start singing "We all banged Mathilda, We all banged Mathilda and so did
our mates" I laughed so hard I spilt my beer.)

So why do Sri Lankans get a total pass, quoting wikipedia-
"people were killed in organized armed conflict while the United Nations estimated that between 80,000–100,000 people were killed from 1982 to 2009"

During appartheid 7300 native Africans were killed by government forces (I wasn't a part of
that and neither were any of my family, I was born in the middle of the revolution, i've
gone to integrated schools and lived in a multiculural society my entire life, and just saying,
in the last twenty years 5600 of my white countrymen have died since being promised peace,
but that's a different conversation)

I just want to know why you don't hold Sri Lankans to the same standard that you set for us,
Is it fear of your own immigrant population, or fear of causing controversy among the politically correct
international community, or just lack of interest in an uninformed populace?

I honestly don't get it.

-Edit- I have to clarify that above 90% of the casualties in the Sri Lankan civil war were civillian
and the Sri Lankan President is now being charged with war crimes.

reply to post by DelegateZero88


Look mate, it does not matter who gets killed. Otherwise we would be ostracizing the US Govt. but we don't. In fact, we would have to stop talking to everyone. I wish my stupid Govt would stop being the US's second tier biiitch but there you go.

It was all about cricket, the sport. You were not being sportsmen. You stopped people from playing the game based on the color of their skins. That is not cricket!

P

Dont fall into the trap of believing that we endorse what our government does.

As a Brit, but not a big sports fan, I see sport for what it is, and do not like the way MSM politicizes sport to support their agenda of the day.

Do you travel to the UK, and US?

Those countries have your so called free pass, but are both guilty attacking innocent countries, like Iraq where many more than 100,000 people were slaughtered, without so much as an apology.

I do appreciate that SA would have suffered through the boycotts, but there is always a hidden agenda that will one day come to light.

Peace.

I agree fully, I'm totally against anyone being denied an opportunity because of the
colour of their skin, my only point is, look at how we were treated like the villains of the world,
but people of a different race get a pass from their much more recent history,
We're not being hold to the same standard, I'm all for equality, but this in no
way is equality.
-Edit- Please don't mistake where i'm coming from, I love that our sports have become
multi-racial, have you seen Bryan Habana sprint from a standing start? He's an absolute hero,
tiny guy but still goes toe to toe with the biggest locks i've ever seen. If we're being judged on
equality, is it so wrong to want to see the rest of the world judged by the same rule of thumb?

I understand where you are coming from, I believe it is like this, as cricket is an international game and we have a real world cup it is used as leverage in some socio political areas especially in the sub continent where cricket is the national game.
In South Africa the banning of international cricket was another way of manipulation and control, serving more than one agenda. which took years of work to get back on track, and punished everyone in the process.
The same will happen in Sri Lanka if we ban them because of what's happened, then the average person and the next generation all get disconnected from the game and the same restructure will all have to be repeated.
Politics and sport are never a good mix.

When you put it that way, I'm actually reconsidering my feelings on the subject,
I've met a few Sri lankans and they were all pretty cool people, I wouldn't want the average
man in the street to be effected by any ban, I just want to see some consistency. Especially with
the creation of the ICC.

reply to post by DelegateZero88


I'm Aussie and have no idea what you are talking about.

reply to post by DelegateZero88


Sorry. What's a Pohm?

reply to post by ABNARTY


Somebody born in the United Kingdom, though it's more aimed at the English,
It comes from People Of Her Majesty, it's considered an unsavoury term but I was a little
hammered when I posted this, sorry pohms.

reply to post by DelegateZero88


Delegate88
Good question unfortunately I don't know the answer.

If I could attempt an answer I would say that the political landscape of western nations has changed so dramatically since the days of S.A boycott.

Somehow it seems ok to kill 100,000 people in the name of USA eliminating WMD's, Egyptians winning elections, or trying to find a handful of Al-Queda in Afghanistan.

The trick to modern government mass murder is to put political spin on it. After all if your going to frame somebody for murder you need their prints on the weapon.

WMD's. LOL.

DelegateZero88
reply to post by ABNARTY

 

Somebody born in the United Kingdom, though it's more aimed at the English,
It comes from People Of Her Majesty, it's considered an unsavoury term but I was a little
hammered when I posted this, sorry pohms.

edit on 16-11-2013 by DelegateZero88 because: (no reason given)

That's a false etymology.

The term "pom" is short for "pomegranate", which is Australian slang for "immigrant".

It was never "pohm", by the way.

reply to post by CJCrawley


I stand corrected, but my point still stands. And PohM is used a lot. I've
seen it written a number of times, might be a saffer thing.

reply to post by DelegateZero88

Somebody born in the United Kingdom, though it's more aimed at the English,
It comes from People Of Her Majesty, it's considered an unsavoury term but I was a little
hammered when I posted this, sorry pohms.

Why is it specifically aimed at English and not the rest of the UK?

And we don't take offence at the the term Poms - or Pohms - we have a sense of humour and we'd no more be offended by that than you would be being called a Saffer - and I assure you you'd know if you really pissed us off.

Why do we still play cricket against Sri Lanka? - possibly because we can actually beat them at present.

Or maybe it's because the political climate has changed and the nations in the Indian sub-continent hold significant power and influence due to the money they push into the sport.
Any attemots to ostracize would be resisted by India and Pakistan, as unlikely an alliance as you could find, only in cricket - and could possibly result in a major split in the cricketing world.
Hypocrisy? - Possibly, but then again Zimbabwe still play international cricket and look at Mugabe's record.

Oh, and a post-script - if Pohms was an acronym for People of Her Majesty that would also include Australia and New Zealand as she is Queen of those nations too.
Explanations I have heard are Prisoner Of His / Her Majesty, Pomegranite - the colour English people go in the Australian sun - and rhyming slang, 'pommygrant' rhymes with 'immigrant'.

reply to post by Freeborn


I would never think of calling the Welsh, Irish, or Scots a pohm, that's why it's aimed more
at the English. It's much more an attack against the 'Empire on which the sun never sets',
We have a weird mixture of history between being the people that fought the English (we're
the reason they don't wear redcoats anymore, we're pretty good riflemen) and being an English
settler country. I'm part of this halfbreed legacy.

reply to post by pheonix358


I'm sorry, how many aborigines are there in the Australian cricket team?
You can say because of economic and cultural differences that your
native population doesn't play cricket, but the underlying fact is
you wiped your indigenous people out, South Africa's african population
has never dropped below 86% , the other 14% was filled with French , Dutch,
and English settlers, as well as loads of Jewish Immigrants fleeing pograms
that neither the Yanks or English were willing to take. We never committed the
mass genocide your people did, why are we considered the bane of all humanity?

reply to post by DelegateZero88

I'm sorry, how many aborigines are there in the Australian cricket team? You can say because of economic and cultural differences that your native population doesn't play cricket, but the underlying fact is you wiped your indigenous people out, South Africa's african population has never dropped below 86% , the other 14% was filled with French , Dutch, and English settlers, as well as loads of Jewish Immigrants fleeing pograms that neither the Yanks or English were willing to take. We never committed the mass genocide your people did, why are we considered the bane of all humanity?

Boy do you need to do research to get your facts right!

Jason Gillespie is part aboriginal and a very good Cricketer. There are many aboriginal players in Aussie Rules Football, many at the top tier.

If they want to play, they can!

We did not commit Genocide! The British did in Tasmania, we did not! The population of Aboriginals in this country is about the same as it has always been.

Go do some research! Australia never had an apartheid policy!

P

reply to post by pheonix358


Dude, we never anyone forced anyone into concentration camps and made it an illegal, hanging offence
for anyone to speak their own language, go learn your own history. It honestly makes
me laugh when your people talk about living in multicultural society, you have no concept of
what's it's like to work for black people, live in a city with a black mayor, under a black president and ultimately live in non-homogenous society, all you've experienced is a white society based on your
country's historical genocide of it's native population, #ing spare me the preaching.
Australia never had an appartheid policy? Are you effing kidding me? Name one city
where aborigenes prosper and aren't forced into dismal alcoholic second hand citizenship?

reply to post by pheonix358


And Aussie rules doesn't count, it's hard to understand and not an international sport,
but it is an awesome sport, those boys are some tough SOB's.

We did not commit Genocide!

P


are you really that dellusional ? So where did all those aboriginese go? On an extended vacation?
You will never have to worry about someone being voted that has (a radically) different viewpoint from
your own, because they're all your own people!