{"id":8772,"date":"2012-04-16T18:25:47","date_gmt":"2012-04-17T01:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=8772"},"modified":"2012-04-16T18:25:47","modified_gmt":"2012-04-17T01:25:47","slug":"grand-prix-scandal-bahrains-formula-for-profits-over-human-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/?p=8772","title":{"rendered":"GRAND PRIX SCANDAL: Bahrain\u2019s Formula For Profits Over Human Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

GRAND PRIX SCANDAL: Bahrain\u2019s Formula For Profits Over Human Rights<\/strong>
\nby Finian Cunningham – Global Research – 15 April, 2012<\/p>\n

\u201cA bunch of rich people having fun while others are being killed,\u201d is how one motor-racing fan voiced his disgust over the decision for the Formula One Grand Prix to go ahead in Bahrain next weekend. For the past several weeks, there has been much speculation in the media about whether the sporting event watched by millions around the world would take place in Bahrain given the kingdom\u2019s lethal crackdown on a pro-democracy movement since February 2011.<\/p>\n

The decision by the Paris-based Federation Internationale Automobile (FIA) to give the Bahrain Grand Prix the green light has incensed the mainly Shia population of the Persian Gulf kingdom and many racing fans around the world who see it as putting commercial profits above the value of human life. This weekend saw more street demonstrations against the ruling US-backed Al Khalifa monarchy and predictably more state violence. Over the past year, more than 70 people have been killed by Saudi-backed forces propping up the Bahraini monarchy, which is closely aligned with the Saudi rulers.<\/p>\n

Thousands have been injured and hundreds languish in jails, most of them sentenced by military courts simply because they attended pro-democracy protests calling for the Sunni royal family to give way to an elected government that would represent the 70 per cent Shia majority population of the Persian Gulf island. The latest victims of state violence include a 15-year-old boy who was critically wounded this weekend after regime forces opened fire on mourners at a funeral for another victim. So how could the FIA possibly permit the staging of the Bahrain Grand Prix given the evident background of violations? The short answer is: money \u2013 lots of it. Plus a noxious cocktail of politics and cronyism. The Formula One Grand Prix is an annual event held in 18 countries, including new venues such as Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, and the older classics in Britain, Monaco and Italy.<\/p>\n

The latest stage was the Chinese Grand Prix held in Shanghai. Next weekend it moves to Bahrain, which is the fourth date in the annual schedule. The event is driven by three interlinked players: the FIA, Formula One Management, whose chief executive is billionaire British magnate Bernie Ecclestone, and the racing teams. The latter include big names, such as McLaren, Williams, Ferrari and Red Bull. All three parties are tied commercially together by the Concorde Agreement. The commercial fate of every party is dependent on the other and that would explain why there is conspiratorial silence in the face of Bahrain\u2019s appalling violence against civilians and the decision to go ahead with the event. Last year, the event in Bahrain was cancelled after individual drivers, such as Damon Hill and Mark Webber, voiced reluctance to participate because of the crackdown against peaceful demonstrators. This year, there has been no repeat of the \u201cdriver rebellion\u201d. Any rumblings of dissent have been on an anonymous basis in some media reports \u2013 suggesting that the consortium bosses are running their own internal campaign of repression. The Formula One consortium stands to rake in about $450 million in television rights from its two broadcasters, the BBC and Rupert Murdoch\u2019s BskyB. Even more lucrative is the revenue from more than 100 brand names, which sponsor the event with a total bill of around $900 million.<\/p>\n

These brand names, such as Marlboro, Benetton, Credit Suisse, Siemens and Sony, claw back some of that cost through monetized \u201cexposure value\u201d from the millions of TV viewers around the world. According to industry monitor Formula Money, the Bahrain Grand Prix is one of the best money spinners for sponsors. In the last event in 2010, Bahrain generated $90 million \u2013 twice the race average \u2013 for the 103 brand names posted on the circuit boards \u2013 higher exposure value than was gained from the five oldest sport venues of Belgium, Britain, Germany, Italy and Monaco. For the Bahraini rulers, staging the Grand Prix brings its own sort of \u201cexposure value\u201d.<\/p>\n

The cancellation of last year\u2019s event is reckoned to have cost the kingdom some $400 million in tourism losses after thousands of mainly wealthy foreign spectators bypassed the island. Over the past year, Bahrain\u2019s national economy has been on the slide with investors and financial companies taking fright over the ongoing violence and seeking safer havens in the Gulf, such as Qatar and Dubai. Perhaps even more important for the Bahraini rulers is to try to revamp its tarnished image as a vicious repressive regime. The staging of the Grand Prix is a desperate attempt by the regime to send out an image that \u201call is well\u201d on the island. Nabeel Rajab of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights says: \u201cThe race will give the impression that everything is back to normal when everything is not back to normal. People are dying on a daily basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Al Khalifa regime has hired several British and American PR companies to project a positive spotlight on the kingdom while playing down violations and violence. One of the rulers\u2019 best unofficial PR assets is the former Scotland Yard police chief John Yates who was brought in to oversee the Bahraini police force last December. Yates has been busy recommending to the international media that the Bahrain Grand Prix goes ahead this year. He has belittled the protesters as \u201cyouths throwing Molotov cocktails\u201d and said that he personally \u201cfelt safer in Bahrain than in London\u201d. What the British police chief did not disclose is that half of all people who have died from excessive tear gas deployed by state security forces have done so under his watch.<\/p>\n

Then there is the web of personal relationships between the Formula One fraternity and the Al Khalifa royal family. The current president of the FIA, Jean Todt, was elected in 2009 with the help of Bahraini royal Shaikh Abdullah Bin Isa Al Khalifa (brother of the king) who is the head of the Automobile Federation of Bahrain. Bahrain\u2019s Crown Prince Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa, who is the chief executive of the Bahrain International Circuit, is a shareholder in the ART Grand Prix team owned by Nicolas Todt, the son of Jean Todt. Crown Prince Salman is also a close friend of Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One supremo.<\/p>\n

Indeed, when Ecclestone was quoted recently in the media about the race going to Bahrain he said somewhat absurdly: \u201cAll the teams are happy to be there. There\u2019s nothing happening. I know people who live there and it\u2019s all very quiet and peaceful.\u201d And he went to mention that one of his sources for information on what is happening in Bahrain is Crown Prince Salman. A crucial linchpin in the Grand Prix money chain is the Bahraini royal family\u2019s sovereign wealth fund, known as Mumtalakat. The fund has investments worth $9 billion in some 35 commercial international companies. One of those companies is McLaren Group, which owns the McLaren Formula One racing team. …more<\/a><\/p>\n

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GRAND PRIX SCANDAL: Bahrain\u2019s Formula For Profits Over Human Rights by Finian Cunningham – Global Research – 15 April, 2012 \u201cA bunch of rich people having fun while others are being killed,\u201d is how one motor-racing fan voiced his disgust over the decision for the Formula One Grand Prix to go ahead in Bahrain next more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[247],"tags":[2856],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8772"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8772"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8772\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8773,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8772\/revisions\/8773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crookedbough.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}