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Dear Red-Bull athletes,

While I congratulate you on your team's recent, impressive victory in the Bahrain Formula-1 Grand Prix, "stuff that really matters" is at stake here.

There is a time and a place, in the words of Red Bull champion Sebastian Vettel, for "stuff that really matters ... tyre temperatures, cars." Removing the molar strap from your freebag. The winds around an exit point. The integrity of a flight control rod in the empennage. Getting your skis released high enough above the ground. We know what he means, these things can kill you. But this stuff doesn't really matter until we choose to make it matter. We can walk away.

While Bahraini riot police were beating, torturing, and murdering peaceful protesters outside the Formula-1 Grand Prix this past week, Mr. Vettel was trying to figure out what "really matters," and I fear he missed the mark. Bahraini protesters can't walk away from a government that oppresses them and fires tear gas containers through their home windows. What really matters to them is the freedom to peacefully protest the human rights abuses of their un-elected Monarch, and that is something that should really matter to us, too, more than driving fast.

When we ignore the atrocities of the Al Khalifa regime, it sends a message to others (like Bashar al-Assad) that the west holds a double-standard when it comes to human rights. Sometimes bigger news items, in places like Syria, can eclipse what is going on outside our own tourist bubble. And maybe Mr. Vetter didn't intend the hideous sentiment that he was reported to say. But unless we are impeccable, we risk ignoring our own contribution to a smaller atrocity.

I would have preferred Red Bull to boycott the Bahrain Grand Prix entirely. The world is not black-and-white, and sometimes we need to engage evil in constructive ways, to see constructive results. But when your hosts are murdering their own people, it behooves you to re-think about the "stuff that really matters."

I urge your teammate, Sebastian Vettel, to reflect on his words. I have tremendous respect for what most Red Bull athletes have accomplished, and what they represent. But it is not about a race, or the glory, it's about our character.

Ref: http://news.yahoo.com/...-080944395--spt.html

Edit to add: This is not so much about Bahrain as it is about the quote from Sebastian Vettel. Read the Yahoo article first.

Should one not reconsider the problems in one's homeland before criticizing that of another? USA is Number 1 in incarceration rates per 100,000 (730). Bahrain is at #109 (136) for example. The U.S. also has one of the higher per capita homeless rates.
What about China? Word up is that the government there is more repressive than in the USA. Maybe you could boycott all products made there.
Just sayin.
Take care,
space

Then no one would say anything, and what's the benefit of that. Pericope Adulterae does not apply: it is akin to saying, Germany shouldn't criticize anti-Semitism until it solves its own Neo-Nazi problem. One's homeland is logically irrelevant to the point.


This is not about gray areas and boycotting, that was incidental. This is about one person's reported comments and the values it appears to reflect. Mr. Vettel could have supported the cause of human rights in the Middle East. Far be it from me to reproach him for missing that opportunity. However, for him to warp that opportunity into an utterly undignifying statement is worthy of criticism. If he has been misrepresented by the media (perish the thought), a clarifying statement would be appropriate.

And if you wish to speak up for justice reform in the U.S., you'd have my full support.


If you are going to "just say it," then use your voice to preach it, I challenge you, because lord knows more people need to hear it. Otherwise it is sophomoric to dilute an ethical "bright line" by making references to other imperfections in the world, or attempting false ("debatably," granted) equivalencies between state-sponsored violence and other forms of social injustice.

I respect the excellent points you usually make, but disagree with you on this.

psst...We need Bahrain to maintain pressure on Iran...A revolution would not be very good to us (US) strategerically...

As for sports impacting politics...good luck...last time I checked, F1 uses a lot of oil...

At first glance I thought it a bit of a dumb question since jumping has little to do with politics and jumpers are generally more focused on jumping than making the world a better place. After some further though, it does not seem like a dumb question at all.

Consider the highly political Olympic games. I don't give a crap about them but for many they are a sort of war by proxy, where bragging rights and national pride replace battle victory and public failure replaces bloodshed.

Would a country who brutalizes its own citizens and thumbs its nose at the rest of the world be allowed to compete in the Olympics? Maybe, but it would probably happen only after a lot of negotiation because allowing a brutal government's national teams to compete could be taken as a tacit seal of approval or could result in public backlash.

Do Red Bull and/or the Red Bull athletes care what anyone thinks as long as the company makes money and the athletes get to keep their sponsorships? Probably not, but they do not have the kind of exposure or huge monetary interests as the Olympics. it's an interesting question, though.

Walt

 

Right on Tree! I shouldnt be amazed that you were the first to tag that, but I am.

What is being asked is if Redbull athletes should stand down. Mostly centered on Vettel for some comments he made that were taken out of context in true journalistic misleading style.
Here is another part of that comment he made when
"Asked about Musa's death after taking pole position in Saturday's qualifier, F1 world champion Sebastian Vettel said, "I think it's always dreadful if someone dies.""

Now lets move on to the bigger picture rather than get tunnel vision about antigov protesters dying in Bahrain and a multitude of other countries.

Standing down, moment of silence etc. Screw that. Stand up! Sing to the top of your lungs to celebrate the lives lost in pursuit of a better way! That shows much more respect than standing down observing a moment of silence.

F1, Redbull and many other groups have donated a lot of time, money and effort to make motor sports
and travel safer for all. Possibly saving many lives.
Why should they stand down because an antigov protester died?
Those guys are some of the best marketing gurus around. They are great at bringing peeps attention to things by being seen. To ask them to stand down would be asking the world's best at bringing attention
to things to not bring attention to an issue to bring attention. Say what????

I recommend the movie "Senna" to give some idea of F1.

Anyway,
Take care,
space

Some freely chose not to compete but the International Olympic Committee ( IOC ) does not ban any world country from participation no matter how there track record of brutality is to there people .
In 1980 to protest the Soviet Union invasion Afghanistan . President Jimmy Carter ordered a U.S. boycott of that summer’s Moscow’s Olympics and urged every other free nation to follow .
In Reality it accomplished nothing . But punish and totally Screw all athletes who sacrificed and trained to be chosen to compete in there sport . With the majority of those banned competitors by the Carter political stunt being at there Peak performance time-window of life and may not be chosen again .

Athletes need to be Left Alone and do what Athletes do . To compete in any manor they see fit . There window in life is short enough as it is for top peak performance & competition .
.

All great points. I personally would not travel to Bahrain to participate in a sport with that kind of protesting going right now, unless I thought I could make some kind of humanitarian point out of it. Unfortunately companies tend to make nice with sponsors for practical reasons. But like I said there is room for constructive interaction. For example China is a lot more liberal today than might have been otherwise, thanks open market reforms and interactions with other major countries. And if other athletes want to do things differently than I would, hey that's their choice. Vettel's remarks may very well have been, some say definitely, taken out of context. That's fine. The letter I sent them was not meant to be scathing, and I suppose now it came across stronger than I intended-- I just think that it shouldn't go un-noticed, and at the very least, the media portrayed Red Bull (again, a company that I really like what they do) as being douchey.

If the media mis-quoted me saying something really terrible sounding, I'd want the record fixed. For all I know Vettel has tried or is too cynical to bother. But a lot of people genuinely do not give a shit when they facilitate bad people doing bad things.

You're fixating on a small tangent. This is about Vettel's quote.


I'm not terribly impressed, but it's a start.