SUSO

One Team, One Nation

"Sport's most iconic image and the story behind it..."

To quote John Carlin, author of the book Playing With The Enemy, the basis for the film Invictus that breaks in UK cinemas this month;

"By far the most fabulous and memorable political event I've ever witnesses was the Rugby World Cup Final of 1995."

That Carlin would refer to a World Cup final thus, as a'political event', points to the the power sport genuinely exerts over politics.  And Nelson Mandela, as intelligent a politician as ever there has ever been, was the man to recognise this.  The man to recognise that sport can move people emotionally to such an extent that it could and did unite a once fundamentally fractured nation. The man to move against this opportunity and challenge.  For those familiar with the turmoil of post-apartheid South Africa, the scale of this achievement was and remains breathtaking.

Morgan Freeman has gone on record as saying he had wanted to play Nelson Mandela in a film for many years but it was always about waiting for the right story and formula.  Carlin's tale offered him the formula and angle he was looking for.  And early critique suggest Freeman delivers a masterful performance in the role he was perhaps born to play (so says Mandela's own daughter..).  And while Matt Damon's involvement in the production is an inevitable point of controversy the same critics suggest he delivers a solid performance (with a worthy accent) allowing the focus to reside where it should, on Mandela as portrayed by Freeman.

Ahead of the realease of the film, and in Morgan Freeman's words, here is the opportunity to familiarise yourself with the story behind the image.

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Categories Film Tags Sport Politics Endeavour suso Film General

By Juan on 23/1/10

The Salute

"What does it mean to truly stand out from the crowd? To stop the world with a single gesture?"

As the anticipation builds here in the UK ahead of London 2012, and on the back of last week's announcement that the games are heading to Rio in 2016 our thoughts again turn to the inspiring stories born out of the Olympic games.  One of the better known, this tale is always worthy of reflection.

It is the Mexico Olympics, 1968. The height of the Vietnam War. The year the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia. 14 days after hundreds of Mexican students were slaughtered in Tlatelolco for peacefully protesting against government brutality and repression.

With their famous ‘Black Power Salute’ as they stood on the 200m winners’ podium, Tommy Smith and Jon Carlos struck a blow for human rights that shook the globe. For a moment they were the most talked about people alive. They inspired millions. But in doing so they put their lives at risk; together they were to receive more hate mail than Henry Aaron and Muhammed Ali put together. But these days no-one ever asks: who’s the white dude?

OK, it’s obvious he’s the guy that finished second. What is less known is that Peter Norman, a white Australian, donned a badge on the podium in support of the two Americans’ cause, the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR). On the way out to the medal ceremony, Norman saw the badge being worn by Paul Hoffman, a white member of the US Rowing Team, and asked him if he could wear it. It was also Norman who suggested that Smith and Carlos share the black gloves used in their salute, after Carlos left his gloves in the Olympic Village. This is the reason Tommie Smith raised his right fist, while John Carlos raised his left. Asked about his support of Smith and Carlos by the world's press, Norman said he opposed his country's government's White Australia policy. Blacked out of record books and civil rights stories, here was an example of a white man who gave more than moral support and a cheque in the mail.

They were the three fastest men alive; but then Smith and Carlos were thrown out of the US Olympic team; Norman was reprimanded and ostracised by the Australian media. But in a time when mankind’s savage nature threatened to destroy it’s very future, they did something worth far more than winning an Olympic medal. They won a medal for the human race.

Winner of Best Australian Documentary, with a 10 minute standing ovation at last year’s Sydney Film Festival, and Best Documentary this year at the Santa Cruz Film Festival, Matt Norman’s film “salute” was 6 years in the making and pays tribute to the story he promised his uncle he would one day tell the world. See the story told in full here.

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Categories Sport Tags Drama Endeavour Politics General

By Juan on 6/10/09

In The Arena

For those that do rather than talk. Because great success can't exist without the chance of crushing failure.

Teddy Roosevelt, April 23rd 1910:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

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Categories Politics Words Tags Obama Politics

By on 22/1/09

Even Better To Share

The people have spoken, but will it stick?

The Gum Election is a guerilla art project that started in New York last month. The result? A lot less gum on city streets, a campaign that can be emailed around the world in seconds and some prescient people that spoke with there slobber and got there wish. Genius.

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Categories Culture Design Politics SUSO Tags Politics Election

By on 5/11/08

Obama On The Streets

Safe to say Barack owes writer Juse One a drink or two.

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Categories Art Politics Tags Art Politics

By on 31/3/08

African Soul

Were he alive, you could bet your life that Ryszard Kapuściński would be in the thick of the current unrest in Kenya after Mwai Kibaki was officially re-elected last week amidst claims of fraud from opposition leader Raila Odinga.

News surfaced yesterday of 30 people burned to death in a church they hoped might provide them with shelter. Some 300 or so are confirmed dead in total, and that number continues to rise. This is the bad side of Africa, the volatility, the clan mentality, the violence; and all this in one of the continent’s most stable countries. As Desmond Tutu said today, “”This is a country that has been held up as a model of stability.” No longer.

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Categories Politics Tags Icons Politics Travel

By on 3/1/08