nomoremondays wrote:The IJF has been doing a lot of targeted development work in bringing the joy of sport, teamwork, participation, endeavor and dreams to kids and young adults in far flung areas most of us would never visit or spare a thought for. Villages in Azerbaijan, desolate places in mongolia, favellas in brazil, and maybe even a nervous saudi woman or two.
Maybe the 'words' and rules are at cross purposes, but are the 'words' and the IJF's progressive social efforts at complete cross purposes from the core? Maybe not by that much and maybe that is more important than simple contest regulations
But is that really true ? Are you sure this is not more than the jûdôka who goes to the Kôdôkan and who concludes that he has learnt a lot of jûdô there and as proof posts the ubiquitous pictures with himself and a 10th dan as part of the photo sessions which when you see them leave you zero doubt about why most foreigners really are there. Similarly, the IJF on a regular basis pats itself on the shoulder with another picture of Judo for peace, or yet another pseudo-humanitarian initiative. My God, wouldn't you just promptly nominate Vizer for the Peace Nobel Prize ? Why not, we even have a president who without doing anything received one. The only thing still missing are pictures with Vizer and a couple of puppies or holding a baby. Get real, the IJF's major function is laundering illegal monies through a network of Rumenian and Hungarian casino's, tax evasion and other white collar activities behind the facade of being a sports federation, much like it has been since the days of Charlie Palmer. Have you yourself actually ever physically been at the IJF ? Have you or anyone else you know ever benefitted from the IJF ? Is there anything, anything you can honestly say which the IJF realized for you, something that you would never have been able to do without their help, where they made the difference. All the activities you are referring to are political and marketing initiatives with the purpose to advance themselves, 'advance' needing to be understood in terms of even more money. They don't exactly keep little kids from dying in third world countries, they don't build shelters for abused women, they don't drill water wells in little villages in the middle of nowhere. What they do is, allow a small elite of people to travel business class to exotic locations, stay in 5-star hotels, gain many free airmiles, and do what you are supposed to do, that is put your nose on the starfish of another IJF bozo who pulls the strings, and if you do that long enough, then maybe, just maybe you might be invited too to the private parties attended by willing hostesses with Eastern-European accents and fake smiles who leave at 7 am after a quick shower. The IJF is not not unique, of course. The IAAF, the IOC, the continental judo organizations, they're in good company, you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours ...
The irony is, of course, that most of people in the IJF who are in control of judo rarely do any judo and are rarely, if ever, seen in gi. It's like a religious sect, a cult organization.
The people who do the real work in judo are the teachers in grassroots clubs, the people trying to figure out every month how to make ends meet, the people who pay to the federation but never get anything back and see all of their membership fees go to a couple of federation bozo's to attend activities such as those organized by the IJF and to a few top elite athletes who represent false hope for medals for a couple of years. The people who do the real work in judo, are the teachers who add sense to lives of disabled people on their tatami, who help them convince they are complete people, who devote time to autistic and mentally disabled students, without sparing any effort patiently teaching them how to do ukemi and a couple of simple movements, in this way increasing their motor ability, independence, body control, self-worth, all people who have never received the interest or attention from the IJF and even far less, who ever have received even a dime from the IJF.