David Conn on Abu Dhabi and Human Rights

[Prestwich_Blue]

I'm struggling to work out why we are involved in this. If Conn wants to write about human rights abuses then so be it. But making it about us just stinks of sensationalism to me.

At last this is about city not human rights, conn did not even have to mention the clubs name,

This report was done by Human Rights Watch and Conn, rightly or wrongly, reported it. They specifically mentioned City, he didn't add it. I wonder if they've mentioned Chelsea or Arsenal in relation to human rights abuses in Russia & Uzbekistan. Yet they've done it to us twice now.

I wonder how much publicity they'd get if they hadn't mentioned us? Six lines in The Guardian at best. Yet they're talking about it as a news item on Talksport, not a station that has a distinguished record on highlighting human rights abuses. So they've been shamelessly hypocritical in using our name to promote themselves by issuing a press release accusing our owners of using us to promote themselves.

Someone mentioned Colin Shindler. Well I actually respect Shindler as his view is that he hates City being used as a marketing vehicle for Thailand or Abu Dhabi. He's drawn his line and he's stuck to it. You may well not agree with that but he's entirely consistent. I just wish David Conn would make his mind up. The modern Manchester City is a world which brings his liberal, libertarian views into conflict with the genuine support of the club that goes back to his boyhood. So either come out and say "I'm a hypocrite" and accept it or do what Shindler has done and draw a line in the sand and stand on what he sees as the right side.

 

[Anonymous]

Just thinking (always a dangerous thing), when Thaksin took over, the Human Rights allegations were levelled almost immediately. I wonder why it has taken the re-establishment of the club, an FA Cup win and a Premier League title to pass before the same has been levelled at our owners? Has the UAE only indulged in Human Rights abuses since taking City over?

Where were the protests from HRW and David Conn when Sheikh Mansour came to the club? Where are the picket lines each match day? Why are the activists not active? Are they sleeping with the sleepers? Am I just looking for the great leap forward?

 

[SWP's back]

David Conn is a City fan..........not that you would know it from this article

He claims to be one but couldn't be further from it.

 

[waspish]

The Abu Dhabi royal family have been over here for decades with horse racing and some racing experts say if they pulled out now horse racing in this country will go right down the pan! So why now with this article and not 10 years ago!?

 

[Moriati]

Let's keep Politics out of Sport/Football eh ? If not, it gets messy ...

China, together with Iran, North Korea, Yemen and the US (the only G7 country to still execute people) carried out the most executions last year.
Allianz buying the naming rights to the new New York Giants and Jets football stadium.

That's controversial because Allianz has very famous Nazi ties -- they insured Auschwitz, their CEO was one of Hitler's advisers, and, during the Holocaust, instead of paying life insurance benefits to Jews, they sent that money straight to the Nazis.

Here are 11 companies that you may not realize collaborated with the Nazis.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.11points.com/News-Politics/11_Companies_That_Surprisingly_Collaborated_With_the_Nazis" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.11points.com/News-Politics/1 ... _the_Nazis</a>

<a class="postlink" href="http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111208103351AASaj4x" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 351AASaj4x</a>

 

[samharris]

The Abu Dhabi royal family have been over here for decades with horse racing and some racing experts say if they pulled out now horse racing in this country will go right down the pan! So why now with this article and not 10 years ago!?

This 100% a dig at City and City only..I wonder did the British government step in to stop Sheikh Masours loan to help out Barclays due to links with human rights offences??
naah..course not..

 

[GaudinoMotors]

Just sort your Human Rights out then Abu Dhabi - transparent legal systyem, better prisons, rights to appeal, fair and adequate sentences and then there's no problem to be confronted with. Opening discussions with with Amnesty would be a good first step. Do it now to nip such allegations in the bud.

 

[Zabbasbeard]

David Conn has been on his high horse again with a piece in the Guardian, talking about human rights in the United Arab Emirates and linking it to City, saying City are a vehicle for laundering the Abu Dhabi/UAE government, when he could look out of his own window and see human rights abuses going on here eg extraordinary rendition/aiding passage of prisoners to Guantanamo, Hillsborough, Orgreave, Stephen Lawrence and others. Shameful cover ups, smears of the victims, denials of human rights by UK Police forces etc etc. the list is endless. All disgusting and all happened/happening in Blighty. What about China, Israel, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the US etc? Why isn’t David Conn talking about human rights in the Uk and those countries?

Our brave men and women went to Iraq based on lies about Weapons of Mass Destruction. Many lost their lives and many innocent Iraqi’s died too. What about their human rights? Did they have a choice about being invaded by foreign forces?

Don’t get me wrong. Let’s hope that human rights abuses stop everywhere but let’s not pretend that the UK is perfect. After all, who are we to lecture Abu Dhabi on human rights?

If David Conn is going to talk about human rights, he needs to put it into context, rather than dragging City into it, and singling out the UAE. Are they really worse than anyone else? Looking at other examples above, it is reasonable to have serious doubts.

 

[pavelsrnicek]

Just sort your Human Rights out then Abu Dhabi - transparent legal systyem, better prisons, rights to appeal, fair and adequate sentences and then there's no problem to be confronted with. Opening discussions with with amnestey would be a good first step. Do it now to nip such allegations in the bud.

Usually once the Guardian sports section covers an issue then everything changes, so no doubt as soon those in power in UAE read Conn's article then democratic reform will be sorted in the morning. A previous Guardian article on doping in East Germany brought down the Berlin Wall.

 

[LesBleuMiserable]

Well, its convenient this article for Amnesty and Mr Conn. I wonder what they and other media outlest were doing during early summer as everyon conveniently did not come out and condemn Israel or oppose their holding of the under 21 tournament and failing to condem Israel for ethnically cleansing Palestinians in Palestine, failing to condemn the occupation of Palestine, uprooting over 10 million out of their own country and occupying a whole country for over 60 years!