Formula 1’s “should not get involved in politics” bullshit!
On this day, the day, where F1 races in Saudi Arabia, a country that has committed so many human rights atrocities that we have lost count, the talk is whether we should be racing in Jeddah today after Houthi Rebels bombed a fuel facility just 10 miles from the Jeddah Corniche Circuit, and F1 decided, despite many teams and drivers reservations to continue racing despite a significant threat to the event.
I’ll start by saying, I do not back or condone the actions of the terrorists, known as the Houthi Rebels, but I cannot in good conscience allow the narrative of only telling half the story, hiding what the Saudis have done to Yemen because they didn’t like that Houthi Rebels took over the Yemeni government, admittedly by force, and have been bombing and blockading Yemen, causing a massive humanitarian crisis, where over 400,000 Yemeni’s have been killed, including many women and children, with many more millions likely to die imminently due to the blockade, creating a shortage of food, clean water, and healthcare.
No matter how you try to cut it, targeting innocent civilians is unacceptable, but F1, the FIA, the United States, and the United Kingdom is turning a blind eye to this horrific situation while giving wall-to-wall coverage to the war in Ukraine. F1 and the FIA are using the “sport should not get involved in politics” as their logic for racing in countries like Saudi Arabia, when F1 is all about politics, as I will explain.
How can Formula 1 say they are not involved in politics when the FIA and F1 have made a number of political decisions in recent years? This includes removing the Russian Grand Prix from the 2022 calendar, for invading Ukraine, and their stance on racism, known as the “We Race as One” campaign, which I am not saying is wrong, I support those stances, but I call out the hypocrisy of the sport and governing body when it turns a blind eye to the US/UK backed war in Yemen, it’s a massive double standard.
In my opinion, international sports, and sportspeople should be actively involved in politics, using their platform to shine a light on horrific events happening around the world, while western ‘corporate’ media ignore what’s happening in countries like Saudi Arabia/Yemen, and Isreal/Palestine, and a number of African countries, while western governments financially support these human rights atrocities.
Countries like the United Kingdom and the USA should be held responsible for actively supporting, both logistically and financially human rights violations in so many countries around the world. How many civilians have died at the hands of US-made weapons over the decades? So-called news agencies like CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News are complicit in these atrocities by not reporting on what’s happening in these countries, allowing the UK/US to continue to support these wars without any public outcry.