Para-Olympics Day 7: Murderball!

Given the more polite para-Olympic name of "Wheelchair Rugby" Murderball is a sport loosely based on rugby/American football which sees two teams of wheelchair bound athletes trying to score points by grounding the ball in the endzone. It is considered one of the para-Olympics blue ribband events because unlike other events that have been adapted to allow disabled people to participate at a much lower level (for example tomorrows T44 men's 100m final will probably be won with a time of around 10.2 seconds versus Usain Bolt's 9.63 seconds) Murderball is specifically designed for disabled people and in places like the USA and Canada it's so widely played it stands alone as a sport meaning that it is very competitive. Plus it features people in wheelchairs bashing the cr*p out of each other.

Murderball also raises an interesting debate about the role of disabled people in sport and in society in general. Invented in Canada in the 1970's it's part of the independent living school of thought. As an ideology fully explaining the independent living approach is about as easy as fully explaining Christianity or Islam. However basically up until it's birth at the University of Berkley in California disabled people were seen as people who should be pitied and hidden away from view either in the home or in residential care homes. Independent living argued that rather then seeing the disability first and the person second we should see the person first and find ways to help them overcome the problems caused their disability so if someone can't walk help build them a motorised wheelchair and make sure public buildings are wheelchair accessible. Unfortunately this is a school of thought that seems very much under attack by Britain's current government with the welfare reforms included in the 2011 Welfare Reform Act including things like the scrapping of the independent living fund which is a pot of money given to disabled people to help them buy things like wheelchairs.

The 2012 wheelchair rugby competition got off to a strange start though because the opening match was TeamGB v TeamUSA. As the Democrat National Convention which will see President Obama really launch his 2012 re-election bid is currently taking place the para-Olympic games have been somewhat overshadowed by people taking pot-shots at the USA. This began with the attempted assassination of the newly elected Premier of Quebec which I mentioned earlier. Things quickly progressed with the Belgian (same Royal Family as Britain) authorities informing staff at the US Embassy in Brussels that there was a car bomb parked outside and they'd better evacuate their staff from the building. After many hours of disruption the Belgian bomb squad finally examined the suspect vehicle and discovered no bomb. Shortly after that British police carrying out an anti-terrorism raid in Bolton, UK had to evacuate the area around an apartment complex due to the discovery of a suspicious chemical substance. Obviously during the Olympics every nation competing is seriously worried about any suggestion of terrorist groups operating in the host nation. However this story was particularly alarming for the US because suspected use of chemical weapons plays into that debate about Syria and it's chemical weapon stockpiles. Nations like Britain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are using the threat of Syria's chemical weapons as a way to put pressure on the US to use military force to overthrow the Syrian government while most other nations are using the threat of Syria's chemical weapons to put pressure on the US to drop their sanctions against the Syrian government in order to prevent the weapons falling into the hands of the Saudi Qatari Irregular Army (SQIA). Plus as always with these things there are the questions about whether we're talking about the actual Syria and actual chemical weapons. Although the police have not released any further details they have confirmed that there were no chemical weapons in the Bolton incident and an unidentified man has been arrested on unspecified offences under the Terrorism Act 2000 and offences relating to the possession of indecent images (child pornography). These child pornography offences suggest that the arrested man was a member of a right-wing group like the English Defence League (EDL) rather then a Jihadist group because funnily enough those brave boys who like going round singing; "Allah was a paedo!" are actually quite fond of the kiddie porn themselves. Of course this also feeds into that great Olympic debate about paedophilia, rape and what is acceptable sexual behaviour. I was going to use the British law against the possession of child pornography (S.160 1988 Criminal Justice Act) as an example of a bad law because it doesn't allow for a defence of unknowing possession or unsolicited possession (having it planted on you) but having read the act again it does allow for those defences. British police have also decided not to charge the couple who shot suspected burglars with a legally held shotgun in Melton Mowbrey earlier in the week citing the incident as a clear example of lawful self-defence. Although the decision not to charge ends this story here this has always been a reference to the Trayvon Martin case in the US. Therefore I should say that while I've still not read the exact Florida law the available information suggests that Zimmerman shot and killed Martin while both men were engaged a fist fight. If this is true and Zimmerman reasonably believed himself to be in fear for his life then he is not guilty under the universal right to self-defence. However what the court will have to consider is whether by following Martin Zimmerman provoked the fight he was the aggressor and therefore possibly guilty. This is a complicated legal point that the court will have to rule on after carefully considering all the facts. That is something that is best done away from the political charged atmosphere of a US Presidential election campaign.

At 23:30 on 5/9/12 there's plenty more to come.

Edited at 23:45 on 5/9/12.

The big set piece of the day for the para-Olympics was the release by Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) research group made up a over 400 scientists in over 30 laboratories in the US, UK, Spain, Japan and Singapore. Although I can't even pretend to understand it I gather the point of the research paper was that the 98% of human DNA (the building blocks for all organic life) that we thought was useless in fact do have a uses such as switching on and off the 2% of DNA that becomes human genes. This of course is huge news at the para-Olympics because a large proportion of the athlete's disabilities may well have a genetic cause or a genetic solution such as through stem cells. I think the main purpose though was a discussion over DNA research's usefulness in science, especially medicine. Although everything will eventually be solved and explained through particle physics much of the practical developments of recent years have come through DNA research and there's huge amounts of funding being thrown at the field. Obviously where there's a lot of money about you also get a lot of charlatans and some of the things people are promising sound a lot like the practice of eugenics that was applied so horrifically during the Nazi holocaust so there is also the ethics argument. Also the fact that the research was open-source published feeds into a debate about the role of scientific journals. With an annual subscription to a respected scientific journal costing around USD1million they and the scientific papers they contain are beyond the reach of all but the most well funded companies, universities and hospitals. To counter this many researchers have decided to bypass the journal system completely publishing their papers themselves. The journals obviously don't like this complaining that it makes more junk science available because open-source papers don't go through the rigorous peer-review and editing process that the journals provide.

The most spectacular story of the day though has to be the news that in the French Alps 2 men and 1 women have been found shot to death in a red BMW 4x4 while another man believed to be a cyclist was shot to death close-by and a 13 year old girl is in a critical condition in hospital following what appears to be a professional gangland hit. What is amazing about this story is that it works on so many levels. Obviously the fact that the vehicle was a BMW is a reference to the little incident I had with a BMW driver on my way back from the pub yesterday and by extension the public inquiry into the death of Azelle Rodney. On this point I should probably expand on my comments yesterday. The police who killed Mr Rodney were part of London's Metropolitan police's anti-armed robbery or 'flying squad.' Unlike most British police officers this elite squad is routinely armed and is considered rather glamorous because there was a 1970's British TV show about them called "The Sweeney" - another one of their nicknames. A new film version of the TV series is about to be released and held it's London premier on Monday (3/9/12). The courts decided to start the Rodney inquiry on the same day to promote discussion about the way celebrities sometimes use the courts for publicity. A prime example of this would be a UK pop star called Tulisa who was once in a band called "N-Dubz" and is a judge on the X-Factor. Days before embarking on a massive publicity drive to promote her debut solo single "Young (forgive us for what we've done)" a sex tape of her appeared and she ended up giving loads of extra interviews about her shock and outrage at the incident and presenting herself as a sort of role model warning young teenagers about the dangers of sending out naked pictures on mobile phones (Sexting). In a further blaze of publicity Tulisa then turned to the courts seeking to get the sex tape banned and to win damages from the ex-boyfriend she claimed had leaked the tape. At the very last minute the case was settled out of court. Personally I would have given her six months for wasting the courts time because is so blatantly obvious she leaked the tape herself as a publicity stunt.

The very violent and professional way the killings in France were carried out (lots of shots fired witnesses killed etc) is a reference to the events in Quebec, the killing of Real IRA boss Alan Ryan in Dublin yesterday and the situation in Libya where the rival militias often settle disputes by ambushing opponents in 4x4 vehicles. It could also a reference to a truly awful British film from the year 2000 called "Essex Boys." Set in the world of organised crime in Essex the film is actually very loosely based on a rather famous incident in 1995 in which three men were found dead in a Range Rover as part of a drugs war. Discussion about organised crime in Essex also raises the point that while the people of Essex got so high and mighty about the importance of the rule of law when it came to the Dale Farm gypsy/traveller site they don't seem to worry about the law at any other time in their lives. While we're on the subject of films the shooting reminds me of a very short (80 mins) French film I once saw and have talked about but really annoyingly can't remember the name of. It was about a girl of around 15/16 who went off on a country holiday with her family only to fall in love with a boy who she decides to lose her virginity to. Therefore the film explored all those issues about when children become old enough to start having sex. In the film though as soon as the mother finds out about the daughter has had sex she is furious and drives the family back to the city. On the way back they stop at a motorway service station where they're all brutally murdered for no apparent reason and the film just ends suddenly. Also I think the fact that the vehicle was a BMW was a little French dig at Germany because like France's EDF Germany's BMW are an Olympic sponsor. As evidenced by today's incident at the Fessenhiem power plant there is a bit of tension between France and Germany over the issue of nuclear power. In the wake of the Fukushima disaster Germany announced it will be abandoning nuclear power. As the worlds largest builder and operator of nuclear power stations EDF are not exactly pleased about this. As for the people killed I wouldn't be too worried because I suspect they weren't chosen at random which could serve as something of a warning of what Britain should expect if it's continues down it's current path.

Finally my sister who works for the para-Olympic sponsor Sainsbury's has been given the week of the games off. As a result my father will be travelling down to Guilford to visit her tomorrow. I doubt there will be nothing to get excited about but I think I should mention it to avoid confusion.

23:59 on 5/9/12.