• Home
  • About
  • Reading Lists
    • Egypt
    • Great Books
    • Iran
    • Islam
    • Israel
    • Liberalism
    • Napoleon
    • Nationalism
    • The Nuclear Age
    • Science
    • Russia
    • Turkey
  • Digital Footprint
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pocket
    • SoundCloud
    • Twitter
    • Tumblr
    • YouTube
  • Contact
    • Email

Chaturanga

~ statecraft, strategy, society, and Σοφíα

Chaturanga

Tag Archives: Spain

In Memoriam: Johan Cruyff

25 Fri Mar 2016

Posted by Jaideep A. Prabhu in Society, Sports

≈ Comments Off on In Memoriam: Johan Cruyff

Tags

1974: Wij waren de besten, Adidas, Ajax, Andres Iniesta, Argentina, Arrigo Sacchi, Arsene Wenger, Atlético Madrid, Auke Kok, Ballon d'Or, Barcelona, Bee Gees, Blaugrana, Camp Nou, Carles Puyol, catenaccio, clockwork oranje, Copa del Rey, Cruijffie, Cruyff penalty, Cruyff turn, Danny Coster, Das Bild, Dolf Grunwald, Dutch Cup, El Clásico, Eredivisie, European Cup, European Super Cup, Fédération Internationale de Football Association, Feyenoord, FIFA, Frank Rijkaard, Gelsenkirchen, Gouden Schoen, Guido Frick, Guus Hiddink, Helenio Herrera, Helmond Sport, Hendrik Johannes Cruijff, Henri Coppens, Hotel Krautkrämer, Intercontinental Cup, Jack Reynolds, Jan Jongbloed, Jan Olsson, Jan van Beveren, Jürgen Klopp, Joan Gaspart, Johan Neeskens, Julen Lopetegui, Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau, KNVB, Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond, La Liga, La Masia, Laurent Blanc, Lionel Messi, Louis van Gaal, Luis Enrique, lung cancer, Marco van Basten, Münster, Michel Basilevitch, money, Netherlands, Nils Liedholm, Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau, One Way Wind, Oranje, Pep Guardiola, Phillip Cocu, pressing, Puma, Pythagoras in boots, Real Madrid, Rinus Michels, Roberto Martinez, Roelf Zeven, Ronald Koeman, Rudolph Glöckner, Ruud Gullit, Sant Jordi, smoking, Spain, Stuttgarter Nachrichten, Supercopa de España, sweeper keeper, The Cats, tiki taka, totaalvoetball, total football, UEFA Cup Winner's Cup, Uli Hoeneß, West Germany, World Cup 1974, World Cup All-Star Team, World Cup Golden Ball, Xavi Hernandez

When Johan Cruyff passed away on March 24, it felt as if the lights had finally been turned out on a magnificent era of the beautiful game. Considered to be one of the finest players of his generation alongside Pelé and Diego Maradona, Cruyff’s career as a manager was, incredibly, at least as illustrious. Yet even more importantly, the Dutchman’s footprint has been felt most in the philosophy of how the game is played: almost every major successful team in the world today is indebted in one way or another to the legacy of Cruyff.

Numbers paint only a partial picture. Were we to remember Cruyff only by his 392 goals, eight Eredivisie titles, and three Ballon d’Or awards, he would be lost among a small cohort of elite footballers of the past half century. What made Cruyff an outstanding and complete athlete was the way he almost single-handedly turned the Netherlands from a footballing backwater to a European powerhouse. This required skill, confidence, strategy, ambition, and when the times called for it, even argumentativeness, arrogance and anger.

Soccer - HollandCruyff possessed all these qualities and in abundance. On the pitch, his play was sublime, but off it, Cruyff was no shrinking violet; he could be quite salty if needed. When Cruyff was fired from Barcelona in 1996, the club vice-president, Joan Gaspart, went to inform him in the dressing room. The Dutch star spat at the Catalonian and the pair came to blows. Eventually, Gaspart had to threaten to call the police to have Cruyff removed from Camp Nou. Very early in his professional career, when he was 19, Cruyff earned the distinction of being the first player in Dutch history to be sent off the field: the new Dutch talent received a red card in a Netherlands-Czechoslovakia game in 1966, his second international. To signal his displeasure, the lanky Cruyff punched the East German referee, Rudolph Glöckner, knocking him out with a single blow; Cruyff got a one-year ban (reduced to eight months under media pressure) to show for it.

In 1973, when Cruyff decided to leave Ajax, it was in anger over his team mates having voted Piet Keizer as captain. When he found out that his team had negotiated to sell him to Real Madrid behind his back, he furiously rejected the deal and went to Barcelona instead. The Catalans had agreed to pay him a whopping £1 million, breaking the world record for transfers (Interestingly, the amount was so huge that the Spanish state intervened and refused to allow the deal. Barcelona then managed to get their man by officially registering him as a piece of agricultural machinery!). Towards the end of his career as a player, Cruyff got into coaching despite having no qualifications for it. He confessed later, “I only decided to become a manager only when they told me I couldn’t.”

What made Cruyff great as a player was not just his abilities with the ball but his awareness of the pitch. After all, this was the era of Pelé and Mané and it would take a superhuman to outshine such company. In typical European fashion, the Dutchman was more a team player than a prima donna that South American teams seem to often throw up. Cruyff would see spaces and angles on the pitch, so much so that former Times sportswriter David Miller once called him a Pythagoras in boots. Cruijffie, as he was also known, would never play in a fixed position but wander around the field, popping up where he was needed and often to devastating effect. As spectators would recall, Cruyff spent much of his time calling out to his teammates, positioning them appropriately before plays, advising them on how to handle a particular opponent. He was not beyond making tactical adjustments in the midst of play without even a second glance to the bench. “Don’t run,” Cruyff would often say, “you play football with your head.”

Of course, Cruyff’s talents with the ball were also spectacular. He could stop, turn, and accelerate again at the drop of a hat. The way he shook off Sweden’s Jan Olsson in the first round match of the 1974 World Cup, the famous Cruyff turn, is still admired and young boys learning football try to imitate it. In the final of the same tournament, with barely a minute on the clock gone, Cruyff made a solo dash for the German goal that was stopped only by an Uli Hoeneß foul in the penalty area: when Johan Neeskens scored from the spot, the Germans were yet to touch the ball!

Cruyff is four-footed, wrote Nico Scheepmaker, his biographer, so impressed was he with how well the footballer could use the insides and outsides of both his feet when handling the ball. Equally famous is his penalty against Eredivisie team, Helmond Sport, in 1982, in perfect imitation of Belgian footballer Henri Coppens in a World Cup qualifying match against Iceland 25 years earlier. For Barcelona fans, Cruyff’s most famous goal will be the one against Atlético Madrid in 1973, when he made a rare display of his aerial abilities.

Cruyff 2What made the Dutchman a treasure for the tens of thousands of spectators, however, was that he insisted on playing beautiful football. In a time when catenaccio – a defensive strategy that emphasised defence and the reduction of goal-scoring opportunities – was de rigeur, Cruyff re-wrote the script for fluid, attacking play. He forswore ugly pragmatism for beauty and was not above lambasting his own national team in 2010 for the ugly football they played in the finals of the 2010 European Cup. “Playing football is very simple,” Cruyff used to say, “but playing simple football is the hardest thing there is.” In that most heart-breaking of matches, the 1974 World Cup final, Cruyff always maintained that the Germans may have won the tournament but the Dutch won the hearts of everyone. He was right: to this day, the Dutch team of 1974 is remembered as the best team that never won the World Cup.

This would not be a story about a football legend without a conspiracy. For the second round of the World Cup, the Dutch were scheduled to play Argentina and East Germany at Gelsenkirchen. The Dutch team were camped out at Hotel Krautkrämer in Münster, a little north of the venue, when Guido Frick, a German sportswriter, checked into the same hotel posing as a Spätzle salesman from Stuttgart on his way to Hamburg. This would be unthinkable today with all the security but 1974 was a different time.

Around two in the morning, Frick, who was having a drink with the hotel owner’s son, saw Cruyff stumbling around the garden. The music was loud with the Bee Gees and One Way Wind, a song by the Dutch band, The Cats, dominating: Cruyff had taken a liking to the latter. The journalist noticed the flowing champagne and the scantily clad women four of the Oranje players were dancing with; the Dutch meister had apparently found himself a nice redhead to canoodle with.

When Frick called his editor at the Stuttgarter Nachrichten the next morning, his boss had only two words for him: write NOW! The bewspaper ran the story on July 02, and the West German tabloid Das Bild ran it the next day. When Cruyff found out after the match against Brazil, he lunged at Frick, ready to do murder, but was restrained by some of his team mates. Frick was kicked out of the hotel.

The news trickled up to Danny Coster, Cruyff’s wife. She was understandably livid and threatened her husband with divorce. In a desperate effort to save their marriage, Cruyff spent the rest of his days and nights until the final with her on the telephone. The night before, Cruyff had been nervous and kept his room mate, Neeskens, up until dawn. When game day came, the great Oranje hope was distracted and the rest is history. The pair met on Dutch television on Cruyff’s 50th birthday but the manager refused to speak to the journalist. Frick is now living in the United States somewhere; he has given up the pen and taken up the paintbrush.

In his 2004 book, 1974: Wij waren de besten, Dutch journalist Auke Kok has an unpatriotic tale to tell: the Oranje failed to conquer the world in 1974 not because of a sleazy story some German pamphlet printed but because of their own hubris, non-stop partying, and a confused mission to avenge the War. The evenings Frick observed were not unique – the boys from the Netherlands rolled through their fixtures drinking, smoking, and partying in their time off. Rinus Michels, Cruyff’s manager from Ajax who was now the coach of the Dutch national team, even flew to Spain a few times between World Cup fixtures to manage the affairs of his club, Barcelona. Furthermore, Michels could not stop talking about the war, Kok reveals; the Dutch were focussed not on winning the World Cup but getting revenge on the Germans for the Second World War. Despite these shortcomings, Kok admits, the Dutch were the best team that took the field that tournament.

Nonetheless, Cruyff’s commitment to football was absolute. In February 1974, in his first year at Barcelona, the Catalan side was playing its arch rival, Real Madrid, in El Clásico. Danny was pregnant with their youngest of three. The couple agreed to bring forward the birth of their child by a week so that Cruyff could go and play against Real Madrid. Barcelona won 5:0 that night, Cruyff scoring the second goal; his son was named Jordi, after the patron saint of Catalonia.

Today’s fans may be surprised to hear of footballers refusing to play over money but in the 1960s when the sport treated as barely more than an amateur pastime, players were not paid so well. When being selected for the national team was considered an honour, Cruyff demanded to be paid; he demanded that players receive insurance as Dutch Football Association officials did when they travelled abroad. In 1983, when Ajax refused to pay him enough after he had won two league titles for them, he got up and left for Feyenoord, their greatest rival, and promptly won the league title for them. Cruyff even refused to coach the national team in 1994 as the Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond (KNVB) would not offer a satisfactory compensation package. As he would later explain, “When my career ends, I cannot go to the baker and say: ‘I’m Johan Cruyff, give me some bread.’”

The Netherlands’ greatest footballing son sat out the 1978 World Cup in Argentina; the official reason given then was that it was because he opposed the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. However, rumours floated that it was actually over a dispute with the KNVB about sponsorship but the Dutchman revealed in 2008 that his family had been the victim of an attempted kidnapping in December 1977 and he had not been in a proper frame of mind to compete at the world’s highest level (the sponsorship kerfuffle had actually been resolved when the KNVB, who had signed a deal with Adidas for the World Cup, gave in to Cruyff, who had his own deal with Puma, and custom-made a t-shirt for the forward with two stripes instead of Adidas’ famed three). The Netherlands lost 3:1 to the hosts in the finals and it is still a matter of speculation among Oranje supporters that the FIFA World Cup trophy would have visited Amsterdam that summer had Cruyff been there.

Cruyff 4Cruyff’s love of money comes from not having much of it growing up. His father Manus, a grocer who supplied fruits to Ajax, died when Cruyff was 12. His mother, who worked as a cleaner at Ajax stadium, remarried a man who also worked for Ajax. Manus had started his son early in the Ajax youth system. At 10, the skinny lad was already sporting an Ajax t-shirt, his father boasting that he would be worth £10,000 some day. His loss affected Johan more than is recognised. Young Cruyff would sometimes be found sitting at the kitchen table, talking to the spirit of his dead father, something he would continue to do even decades later. Michels employed not one but two psychologists to understand Cruyff. The first, Dolf Grunwald, pointed to the athlete’s father fixation as the fuel for his ambition as well as his self-destructive tendencies. As he told one of his interviewers, “the fact that you lose your father early means that you have to do something extra.”

In 1977, when Cruyff hung up his boots for the first time, he got into business with a French-Russian character named Michel Basilevitch. Cruyff invested heavily in his new venture and lost almost everything he had in circumstances that have never fully been explained. Within a year of his retirement, the Dutch football star was forced to return to the game. After an unremarkable stint in the United States and a second division team in Spain, Cruyff returned to Ajax again in 1981. Cruyff finally retired for good three years later from Feyenoord.

Cruyff 5More than his personal achievements and foibles, it is Cruyff’s legacy that makes him truly the world’s best footballer. Maradona had his drugs and Pelé was never a manager, let alone a football intellectual. Arrigo Sacchi, an admirer of Cruyff’s methods, featured the Dutch holy trinity of Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard, all Cruyff’s proteges, in his all-conquering Milan of the 1980s which took apart the catenaccio legacies of Helenio Herrera and Nils Liedholm. Barcelona’s deadly trinity today, Xavi Hernandez, Andres Iniesta, and Lionel Messi, all came through the La Masia youth system Cruyff established in the early 1990s at the club. In 2016, we are used to associating the Spaniards with beautiful football but that was not always so. Cruyff taught them how to play, win, and have fun at the same time. As Pep Guardiola said upon taking over as manager of Barcelona in 2008, “Cruyff built the cathedral, our job is to maintain it.”

Managers of most major teams in European football today can trace their lineage back to Cruyff. Bayern Munich’s Pep Guardiola and Porto’s Julen Lopetegui were under the Dutchman at Camp Nou, and Manchester United’s Louis van Gaal was his team mate at Ajax. Laurent Blanc and Luis Enrique were part of the legacy Cruyff left behind at Barcelona. Other bigwigs such as Arsene Wenger, Guus Hiddink, Ronald Koeman, Roberto Martinez, Phillip Cocu, and Jürgen Klopp have have been converts to Cruyffianism.

What was this legacy that re-shaped modern football? Ironically, the Dutch had no name for it then but it was christened totaalvoetball, or total football, somewhere along the way. The idea was actually not new: Jack Reynolds, an Englishman who coached Ajax during the two world wars, had toyed with it and the Hungarian national team, Real Madrid, and Santos had experimented with it in the 1950s. Some say it was the Austrians in the 1930s who had first experimented with the strategy. In any case, total football took roots under the training of Rinus Michels and implementation of Cruyff at Ajax.

Essentially, the strategy did not envisage players as specialists in their positions but as all-rounders who could float around the field and take up any position. Michels and Cruyff innovated the use of space: creating it, moving into it, and moving with it on the field. The ball would move by a series of short, quick passes – what is now being marketed as the novel tiki, taka – rather than the famously boring English long ball. It was here that the term clockwork oranje was coined, referring to the precise passes of the Dutch players as they moved around the field.

Cruyff 6Pressing became a notable side effect of total football. Under Cruyff, even the goalkeeper was not spared: he persuaded the manager to select Jan Jongbloed, who had a habit of roaming out at times and initiating attacks, over the stolid Jan van Beveren for the 1974 World Cup team. This allowed the Dutch team to press even higher up the field: the role of the sweeper-keeper was born. As manager, Cruyff threw out the old manuals advocating 3-5-2 and 4-4-2 field positions, introducing the bolder 3-4-3 which put enough men at the front to press the opponents. Sacchi described the impact on the spectators, “Holland in the 1970s…really took my breath away. It was a mystery to me. The television was too small; I felt like I need to see the whole pitch fully to understand what they were doing and fully to appreciate it.” Subsequent coaches all around Europe only made small changes to this overarching philosophy.

Cruyff had two great passions – football and smoking. No one would guess that the Dutchman was a chain smoker the way he moved on the field. In 1991, Coach Cruyff had to give up the habit after heart surgery. Unfortunately, the effects caught up to him and in 2015, Cruyff was diagnosed with lung cancer. Two months ago, it was announced that his treatment was going well, or as Cruyff himself put it, he felt that he was 2:0 up in the first half of a match that was not yet over. Sadly for millions of his fans and disciples, the final whistle blew early. Cruyff was an atheist – soon after he moved to Barcelona, he once told an interviewer that he did not believe in God because he saw all 22 players cross themselves before each game: if there was a God, the result would have to be a very boring draw! Requiescat in pace, Jopie.

By the numbers:

Name: Hendrik Johannes Cruijff
Date of birth: 25 April, 1947
Place of birth: Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Date of death: 24 March, 2016
Place of death: Barcelona, Spain
Major teams played for: Ajax (1957-1973, 1981-1983), Barcelona (1973-1978), Feyenoord (1983-1984), Netherlands (1966-1977)
Major teams managed: Ajax (1985-1988), Barcelona (1988-1996)
Total appearances: 520
Goals scored: 392
Matches won/drawn/lost (as coach): 242/75/70
Championships/Awards/Honours won (as player): European Cup 1971-1973 (Ajax), European Super Cup 1972-1972 (Ajax), Eredivisie 1960, 1966-1968, 1970, 1972-1973 (Ajax), 1984 (Feyenoord), Dutch Cup 1967, 1970-1972, 1983 (Ajax), 1984 (Feyenoord), La Liga 1974 (Barcelona), Intercontinental Cup 1972 (Ajax) Copa del Rey 1978 (Barcelona), Ballon d’Or 1971, 1973-1974, World Cup Golden Ball 1974, World Cup All-Star Team 1974, Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau 1974, Gouden Schoen 1984, Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau 2002
Championships won (as manager): Dutch Cup 1986-1987 (Ajax), La Liga 1991-1994 (Barcelona), European Cup 1992 (Barcelona), European Super Cup 1992 (Barcelona), Supercopa de España 1991-1992, 1994 (Barcelona), Copa del Rey 1990 (Barcelona), UEFA Cup Winner’s Cup 1987 (Ajax), 1990 (Barcelona)

Johan Cruijff is art:


This post appeared on FirstPost on April 03, 2016.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

Death in the Mediterranean

26 Sun Apr 2015

Posted by Jaideep A. Prabhu in Europe

≈ Comments Off on Death in the Mediterranean

Tags

Canary Islands, Ceuta, Convention on Refugees, Dublin Regulation, EU, European Union, Greece, illegal immigration, Italy, Lampedusa, Libya, Malta, Mediteranean, Melilla, Operation Mare Nostrum, Operation Triton, Schengen, Sicily, Spain, Syria, UNHCR, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, visa

The Mediterranean Sea is no stranger to maritime deaths, particularly of irregular migrants from North Africa and the Middle East who seek to enter the European Union for purposes of employment illegally. However, the number of casualties has spiked astronomically in the last four years as have the number of people trying to cross the sea. Interestingly, European newspapers have so far portrayed the stories of the tragedies at sea as the usual tale of irregular migrants seeking a better life in Europe. The overwhelming conformity to this terminology, especially in light of the events of the past four years, is suspect.

Migration to EuropeMigration to Europe from Africa across the Mare Nostrum is a complex story yet no different from many other similar situations such as across the Mexican border with the United States. In both cases, the prosperous states do not take into account the factors responsible for illegal immigration while formulating their immigration policies. Consequently, these policies are found to be ineffective to stem the human tide of the neighbouring poor. Historically, irregular migrants have tried to enter Europe through four points – the Spanish Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, the Spanish territories of Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa, Malta and the Italian islands of Sicily and Lampedusa, and Greece and the Balkans.

Soon after World War II, Europe was desperately short of labour to rebuild a shattered continent. The Marshall Plan fuelled the economic miracles, usually known as the golden decade, in several countries and there was a free flow of labour from Africa and the Middle East into Europe. During this first wave of migration, the European destinations of choice had been France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. However, this situation began to change after the Energy Crisis of 1973 and European countries began to have increasingly strict restrictions on visa issuances. The 1985 Schengen Treaty, for example, made it difficult for workers from the eastern and southern Mediterranean rim countries to seek employment in its member states – France, Germany, and the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg). In response to the demand for low-skilled labour in southern Europe and the closed markets of the traditional destinations, Spain and Italy saw an increase in immigration until the early 1990s when they too introduced visa requirements for immigrants from the Maghreb.

Despite the tightening of visa controls, there has always been a demand for unskilled labour in the informal sector in Europe; this has kept the flow of migrants going. Contrary to the common perception of irregular migrants, most are fairly well-educated and from middle class families. However, their qualifications are often not recognised in Europe and migrants therefore fulfill the demand in domestic service, agriculture, fisheries, and janitorial work. This is an advantage for their employers, who find semi-skilled workers for lower salaries. Again, contrary to common perception, the majority of irregular migrants do not enter Europe via the Mediterranean. Many overstay their legal visas, others travel with false documentation, and some hide away in vehicles and containers.

The crises that erupted in the Middle East and North Africa around 2011 augmented the usual flow of people into Europe. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the number of people fleeing to Italy in 2009 was 9,573; this had rocketed to 61,000 by 2011. Similarly, Greece, which had seen about 10,000 people attempt to reach its shores in 2005 saw the number climb up to 60,000 in 2011. For whatever reason, Italy seems to be bearing the brunt of this immigration surge – in 2010, some 4,500 migrants left Libya for Italy but by 2014, that number had soared to 170,000. By contrast, the land route into Greece and the Balkans from Turkey saw about 51,000 people smuggle across in 2008, approximately the same number as in 2014. According to UNHCR estimates, some 219,000 people crossed the Mediterranean into Europe last year and 3,419 died at sea. By March this year, some 36,000 are expected to have entered Europe and the casualties already number 1,750.

Many blame Europe for the deaths. One immediate reason is that the EU scaled down maritime patrol operations in the Mediterranean which saved thousands of lives. In response to the drowning of over 300 people off the coast of Lampedusa in October 2013, Rome had launched Operation Mare Nostrum, a series of extended patrols and devotion of military assets to rescue operations. Funded at slightly over $12 million per month, it is estimated to have saved some 150,000 people in its short duration of a year. In the midst of a financial crisis itself, Italy could not afford to fund the efforts alone and asked for support from its EU partners. Additionally, the EU’s Dublin Regulation puts the cost of processing of illegal migrants entirely upon the country of first arrival, making border states of the federation more vulnerable. However, the EU refused to support Rome by arguing that Mare Nostrum had made the central Mediterranean route safer and hence encouraged even greater migration. Instead, Operation Triton was was launched, a programme that receives barely a third of the funding of Mare Nostrum and patrols only close to European waters rather than the entire Mediterranean. This, however, has not dissuaded people from attempting to cross the Mediterranean and given that most of the shipwrecks occur near Libyan waters, only increased casualties. Another reason Europe is blamed for the exacerbated irregular migration crisis is that European capitals encouraged or conducted operations in North Africa and the Levant that toppled local governments and sent the region into paroxysms of violence that has caused the dislocation.

To be fair, there are reasons beyond Europe’s control for the tragedies. Human traffickers crowd boats beyond the safety limit and deploy unseaworthy vessels to ferry irregular migrants across the Mediterranean. If the boats capsize or are wrecked, under maritime law, it is the legal obligation of anyone who sees the castaways to rescue them. Thus, traffickers shirk their responsibilities for safe passage onto European navies. Furthermore, the sheer number of boats put to sea at a time means that Italian naval vessels operating in the region have received over a dozen distress calls at a time. Underfunded and undermanned as the patrol operations are, it is simply impossible to rescue everyone. While the entire focus and blame as been on Europe, it is also a fact that African governments and media have remained silent and indifferent to the regular tragedies in the Mediterranean except to blame their northern neighbours across the sea. Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte asked that Africa must also collectively pick up its share of the responsibility; “Last time I checked Libya was in Africa, not Europe,” he said.

If Europe is to blame, however, it is not for the quotidian failures of its naval officers but for its refusal to acknowledge the realities of the problem it faces. Like the proverbial ostrich that buries its head in the sand, European governments have not cared to distinguish between the the regular inflow of illegal labour across their southern sea and the significant increase of migration in the last four years. European media and government still refer to the rescued and the victims as migrants rather than refugees, as if the primary motive of the Syrians and Libyans flooding into Europe now is gainful employment and remittance back home rather than physical safety. Yet the word ‘refugee’ is rarely seen in the discussion of the deaths in the Mediterranean.

The probable reason for this is that there are legal implications in the choice between these two words. Rooted in the horrors of the Holocaust and the denial of immigration to ships carrying Jewish refugees, the 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees and its 1967 Protocol governs how the dislocated may be treated. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights also guarantees a right to seek asylum from political crimes. Activists have tried to expand this to include economic deprivation but that would be so broad as to render the convention meaningless. It has become a basic principle of international law that countries are obligated to take in refugees of political violence and conflict and the treaty prohibits refoulement – forcing a refugee to return to a country where his life is threatened. The onus of proof of persecution is upon the refugee and asylum may be denied under specific circumstances. However, it is difficult to argue that Syrians and Libyans in particular do not have legitimate grounds for asylum presently.

Attaining the ‘refugee’ tag hardly guarantees a life of comfort – usually, it is followed by life in massive government camps awaiting resettlement. Some refugees are indeed given the opportunity to stay and work in their host country but this is a minuscule number. For example, of the 2.5 million refugees of the Syrian civil war in 2013, the United States accepted 36 for resettlement. Nevertheless, even such a life of rations and make-shift homes is preferable to the hundreds of thousands fleeing the Levant and North Africa. Of course, many try to escape the camp and disappear into the country, finding employment and lodging below the state’s net. This leaves them vulnerable to exploitation but few of the dislocated have anything left to lose and the even the leaking boats on the Mediterranean offer more hope than life back at home.

European law does give special consideration to certain categories of refugees – minors, the elderly, the disabled, pregnant women, single parents accompanied by minors, and victims of torture and sexual violence. Beyond non-refoulement, these include the right to information in a language they understand, a renewable residence permit valid for at least three years, travel within and outside the country that granted refugee status, employment, education and vocational training, access to medical care, access to appropriate accommodation, and access to programmes facilitating integration into the host society. An irregular migrant, on the other hand, receives no such benefits; he may be deported and employment is forbidden.

It is ironic that the continent that led the charge on the Right to Protect (R2P) now even refuses to acknowledge refugees. The humanitarian rhetoric of R2P is reserved for justifying the bombardment of other states but does not seem to apply to one’s own immigration policies. One can take this blame game even further back in history to the era of imperialism and blame the white man’s rapacity in the colonies but that does hardly any good at present. The humanitarian crisis in genuine and Europe needs all the international support it can get to alleviate the depressing and gut-wrenching plight of the refugees from the conflict zones in the Levant and Africa.

It must also be recognised that Europe does have legitimate grievances about its inability to handle the entire influx of refugees from the Greater Middle East. One possible approach to the Mediterranean crisis is an international commitment to resettle the refugees. Preference might be given to stable neighbours first, the countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development next, and finally the rest of the world. Those unwilling to take people may contribute by way of financial assistance. Even if some of the refugees are dispatched through this programme, it will reduce the burden on the camps in Turkey, Jordan, and elsewhere. It is unlikely that the conflict in Libya or Syria/Iraq will be resolved soon by diplomacy or by force and though efforts should be made towards that end, the future of the dislocated cannot be pinned on such hopes in the short term.

International affairs is filled with rhetoric about our mutual obligations to one another. One such duty might perhaps be not to let the refugee protection system collapse for those are the neediest among us. Let too many institutions and ideals wither away on economic and “practical” grounds and eventually there will be nothing left to preserve in an anomic world. The first step, however, is for Europe to accept that the thousands of people risking life to cross the Mediterranean Sea are refugees and not irregular migrants.


This post appeared on Daily News & Analysis on April 28, 2015.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

World Cup Diaries: Spain vs Netherlands

13 Fri Jun 2014

Posted by Jaideep A. Prabhu in Society, Sports

≈ Comments Off on World Cup Diaries: Spain vs Netherlands

Tags

Brazil, football, La Furia Rojas, Louis van Gaal, Netherlands, Oranje, Spain, Vincente del Bosque, World Cup 2014, World Cup Diaries

Netherlands vs. Spain (Group B) | Kickoff: June 14, 00 30 IST | Stadium: Fonte Nova, Salvador

The finalists of the last World Cup play each other on the second day of Brazil 2014 in the first Group B match at Fonte Nova, Salvador. Last time, only a goal from Andrés Iniesta separated the two sides after 90 minutes but scorelines can tell such lies. The match four years ago set a record for yellow cards (14) in a World Cup final and was thoroughly dominated by the Spaniards except for occasional flashes of brilliance from the Oranje. Arjen Robben, the most hyped player of the side who played for the famed club Bayern Munich in Europe, failed to fire on all cylinders and World Cup glory evaded the Dutch yet again.

Vincente del Bosque will probably have la Furia Roja stick to the 4-3-3 formation that has worked so well for them in the past. The team reached the World Cup with no losses in the qualifying stages and, it must be remembered, two back-to-back European Cups and the interceding World Cup. However, Spain is an older team; experience is paid for with age and loss of physical form. Commentators have wondered if Iker Casillas’ eleven can dazzle as they did four years ago and fans are eager to see their team open against another great footballing nation.

The Netherlands is fully aware that they are playing one of the three tournament favourites. Louis van Gaal has his three heroes, Robin van Persie, Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder up front but his midfield and defence has been plagued by injuries. To stem the Spanish tide, the Dutch will probably play a 3-4-1-2 or 5-3-2 formation, one that worked for Italy against the Rojas in Euro 2012. The Oranje have maintained their very physical style.

The two other teams in Group B are Chile and Australia and therefore both these sides can be fairly comfortable in the expectation to qualify for the second round.

Undoubtedly, the Rojas have been the high priests of the beautiful game for the past six years, but I must throw my support behind the Netherlands. Spain may have the best cuisine in the world, sangria, the women, and the sacred Mare Nostrum, but the Dutch have a liberal marijuana policy, tulips, the real Enlightenment, and are of a civilised height! Quite importantly, the Oranje do not have to atone for chasing Baruch Spinoza out of the country, the Inquisition, taking the wrong side in the Fifth and Sixth Coalitions against Napoleon Bonaparte, or the defeat of Germany in the World Cup 2010 semi-finals and the Euro Cup 2008 and 2012 finals. This is why they say that football is not about life and death, it is much more important than that.

Wij houden van Oranje! Or if you prefer, Hup Holland Hup!

Update:

Final score: Spain 1 – 5 Netherlands


This post appeared on Daily News & Analysis on June 13, 2014.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...
← Older posts

Chirps

  • Russia loads new nuclear fuel in VVER reactor: bit.ly/3ySyYTt | Wonder if India gets this for Kudankulam a… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 6 minutes ago
  • Story of Mossad’s ties with high-ranking Nazi to become TV show: bit.ly/39FJX86 | The Egypt part is most i… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 hour ago
  • RT @aiu404l: https://t.co/IOzkvBxGzJ 1 hour ago
  • Don't do a Versailles on Russia - back in 1919, it only led to another war: bit.ly/3MFqmUf | Hmm, y'allz m… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 1 hour ago
  • What would happen if Israel went to the polls? bit.ly/3PB22Vh | Meretz out, but essentially a still fractu… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 6 hours ago
Follow @orsoraggiante

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 224 other followers

Follow through RSS

  • RSS - Posts

Categories

Archives

Recent Posts

  • The Mysterious Case of India’s Jews
  • Polarised Electorates
  • The Election Season
  • Does Narendra Modi Have A Foreign Policy?
  • India and the Bomb
  • Nationalism Restored
  • Jews and Israel, Nation and State
  • The Asian in Europe
  • Modern Political Shibboleths
  • The Death of Civilisation
  • Hope on the Korean Peninsula
  • Diminishing the Heathens
  • The Writing on the Minority Wall
  • Mischief in Gaza
  • Politics of Spite
  • Thoughts on Nationalism
  • Never Again (As Long As It Is Convenient)
  • Earning the Dragon’s Respect
  • Creating an Indian Lake
  • Does India Have An Israel Policy?
  • Reclaiming David’s Kingdom
  • Not a Mahatma, Just Mohandas
  • How To Read
  • India’s Jerusalem Misstep
  • A Rebirth of American Power

Management

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com
Considerate la vostra semenza: fatti non foste a viver come bruti, ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza.

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • Chaturanga
    • Join 224 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Chaturanga
    • Customise
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
    %d bloggers like this: