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Bernie Ecclestone has given his backing to an Arab driver's quest to reach the formula one grid by 2009.
In a letter to Lebanese 'A1 GP' driver Basil Shaaban, the F1 supremo wrote: "I am happy to see that you are going to join GP2. This will be a positive way for you to show your talents to formula one teams."
Before F1 or even GP2, however, Shaaban is busy trying to find the more than $1m he needs to contest the British F3 championship next year.
'Arabian Business' reports that his management is in 'advanced talks' with a number of multinationals in Dubai and Beirut.
"I'm hoping to find in the Middle East those who share my vision to show the excellence of the Arab world on an international scale," Shaaban told a news conference.
No agreements have been signed yet.
Bernie's blessing so early? maybe he can smell more money from the middle-east
I think Rahal is going to Champ Car...I think he left the lebanese A1 team
Simon: Nils? You can close in now. Nils?
John McClane: [on the guard's phone] Attention! Attention! Nils is dead! I repeat, Nils is dead, ----head. So's his pal, and those four guys from the East German All-Stars, your boys at the bank? They're gonna be a little late.
Simon: [on the phone] John... in the back of the truck you're driving, there's $13 billon dollars worth in gold bullion. I wonder would a deal be out of the question?
John McClane: [on the phone] Yeah, I got a deal for you. Come out from that rock you're hiding under, and I'll drive this truck up your ass.
From a single interview with Rahal it was obviouse that he saw not too bright and had difficulty saying Lebanon.
I reakon an Arab driver would be good, it would help F1 establish itself as an international sport and help the new motorracing trend that seems to be hitting the area by force, I'm sure he could get some kind of sponsorship from the royal family of Dubai.
Murphy's 9th Law of Technology:
Tell a man there are 300 million stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch to be sure.
I think F1 should be open for all drivers regardless on their race, ethnicity and religion but never lower its well known open minded and cosmopolitan criteria in order to suck up to any host, sponsor or driver. In another words, F1 has its tradition and customs which should be respected by all participants. F1 is technical sport of gentleman racers with no place for disputes over political issues, that's at least how I think it should be.
it has enough politics inside to search them outside. But the world is still racist, and measures like that may sound a bit forced but the goal is making F1 a global thing above any sport, game or show
there are two important criteria to be successful in formula1, that satisfy two parties:
you have to be good looking (sponsors)
you have to be fast (team)
ethnicity shouldn't matter, but if the sponsors are arab, then they will
look to an arab driver...just look at super aguri. are they racist because
they only select japanese drivers? you could argue that, but it doesn't really matter in the end because if you're not fast, then you're not going to be successful (yamamoto). some kind of natural selection is at work here.
now what if you're a really great driver, but just damned unattractive? (by european standards)...which is stupid, but that's the way the sponsors work, they want somebody they can market. they are not going to spend millions of dollars promoting a person that is not photogenic. it's the sad world we live in...there could be an incredible driver out there right now, and he's not attractive...and we are missing out
Well ginsu, I really dont think looks will be all that important for an Arab coz he will get all the money he needs from oil companies back home who knows even sheikh maktoum may also give him a couple of million bucks
manchild wrote:I think F1 should be open for all drivers regardless on their race, ethnicity and religion but never lower its well known open minded and cosmopolitan criteria in order to suck up to any host, sponsor or driver. In another words, F1 has its tradition and customs which should be respected by all participants. F1 is technical sport of gentleman racers with no place for disputes over political issues, that's at least how I think it should be.
I couldn't agree more but lets face it mate, what they say about racial equality is all in the books etc and I swear no one follows it. I dont want to get into details of it but I have seen it happening and the problem is they dont have the balls to admit it or they will be screwed. I hope you heard the story that happened here in England a few days ago where that Tories counciler forwarded a racist poem to several of her collegues and was saked after it was discovered. I think they need the votes and thats why they saked her, deep inside they are all the same and just dont admit it.
The reason for me saying that I dont like arabs is that I have been to those countries before (the rich ones) like Bahrain, UAE etc, truth is they are so rude and consider you lower than them, so you do the math. Its the money basically and this never happened in Iraq cause they were all poor and didnt had time for all this bull crap, rather busy to find something to eat and feed their children at the same time.
We are talking about one driver not about whole societies. Person can belong to one nation, ethnicity and religion by default because he or she were born there. That is something a person can't have influence on. But if a person is really individualized and open minded than growing up in bad society has nothing to do with its personality. There is no reason to dislike that person since it doesn't have anything negative about itself that is typical for society it comes from.
Generalizing is a very bad thing. No one can say that all Germans were fascists during the WWII or something similar. Many Germans were hiding and helping Jews, many of them become victims of real fascists so generalizing in that and similar cases is the worst thing you can do towards the individuals among some group you dislike.
Many or majority yes, all no. All means each and every one, it is absolute generalizing.
Those individuals should not be taken as some sort of exception that makes the rule in order to clear off responsibility of the majority that surrounds them but they should be promoted and helped instead of being considered like the rest of society.
I'm sure that a driver from Arab world that has build a career and has chance to get in F1 certainly isn't religious fanatic planning to blow himself up.
Examples...
Omar Sharif - great Arab actor vs. Bin Laden = no similarity at all. Same race, same roots in Arab world, same religion but completely different persons.
James Brown, musician that supported Richard Nixon vs. Mohammed Ali (Cassius Clay) who promoted peace and refused to go to Vietnam. Same race, same US nationality and yet completely different persons.
Hope you get what I mean. We must consider each person according to its own personality without judging them in advanced based on things they had no influence on. Terrorists do that - "lets kill all Americans because they are Americans" they don't care if they'll blow up American that is a Muslim or not Muslim but against the war in Iraq or so. There could have been some convention of US Muslims in twins on 9/11 and they'd still smash planes because they are idiots with idiotic logic.
People can't choose their parents, place of birth, color of skin, nationality, ethnicity...
If we agree that we dislike terrorists than we can't use same methods they use for judging other people and terrorist judge people only by things given by birth.
Last edited by manchild on 08 Nov 2006, 22:33, edited 2 times in total.
Long experience has taught me this about the status of mankind with regards to matters requiring thought. The less people know and understand about them, the more positively they attempt to argue concerning them; while on the other hand, to know and understand a multitude of things renders men cautious in passing judgement upon anything new. - Galileo..
The noblest of dogs is the hot dog. It feeds the hand that bites it.
