The Commonwealth Games: more at stake than gold medals

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“Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence. In other words, it is war minus the shooting.”  George Orwell.

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Next week's Commonwealth Games in India threatens to be a fiasco.  The sports facilities in Delhi are unsafe, two structures have collapsed over the last few days, and parts of the athletes' accommodation are barely fit for human habitation.  Several competitors have pulled out, worried about health and security issues.

Despite India's rich tradition in offering hospitality, they are struggling to welcome the world's athletes as they had hoped.  On closer inspection there are a multiplicity of relational issues behind the physical failures that are glaringly apparent in Delhi.

Local journalists state the problems stem from India wanting to compete with China, trying to outdo their hosting of the last Olympics.  Effective coordination of the numerous organising committees for the Games has been hampered by a failure of the various chairpersons to meet - another relationship problem.  Protests over the displacement of over 100,000 people from the land needed to build the venues and the appaling safety record of construction (47 building workers have been killed), and lobbying by environmental groups have added to delays in the project.  These suggest that the elites are pursuing national prestige at the expense of the most vulnerable, uprooting some of Delhi's poorest citizens and destroying their communities.

This begs the question, who are the Commonwealth Games for?  Which relationships are enrichened by having the Games in India?  Most Indians are not even interested in track and field events - their national sports are hockey and cricket.  If the government's main motivation is to prove to other nations that India is a modern, sophisticated country, ready to host major international sports events and take its place on the world stage, then sadly, the evidence this week suggests the opposite. 

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What makes a nation great?  We would argue that it comes from the quality of its relationships, not just at the household level, but across the wide spectrum of public and private life.  Our colleagues at Relationships Foundation argue that a new set of national policy goals is needed, based on national wellbeing, which in turn depends on the quality of our relationships.  Read their persuasive arguments in "A Relationships State of the Nation" www.relationshipsglobal.net/Web/OnlineStore/Product.aspx?ID=50.

Walk the talk

Although it may be subconsciously done, how often do you seek to build your reputation on the outward signs of success, rather than on the strength of your character and the quality of your relationships?  It may be countercultural to choose the latter, but it is authentic and the rewards are enduring.

The last word

From the Bible, Proverbs 14:34: "Righteousness [which can be defined as right relationships] exalts a nation..."