Letter of the Day | The louder they complain, the more they are in the news

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The Women’s Football World Cup ended in victory for Spain over England in Sydney, Australia on August 20. I watched at least a part of each of the 64 games played in the month-long exhilarating tournament, where all attendance records were smashed. Spain deserved to win, and everyone fully expected their team to be welcomed home with open-top bus parades through major cities. Instead, there has been huge controversy after the Spanish Football Association President Luis Rubiales hugged and kissed player Jenni Hermoso on the lips, en route to collect her winner’s medal.

Every player received hugs from dignitaries and officials in the presentation line, but only one was kissed. At the time there were no complaints, and a recently released video shows all the players laughing along with Hermoso, and chanting “kiss, kiss” when Rubiales boarded the team bus. What happened next is unclear, but by the time the team arrived home there were all kinds of accusations that the kiss was inappropriately forced on to Hermoso. Condemnation of a sexual assault came from many quarters at home and abroad with FIFA and other organisations involved, and most of the Spanish coaching staff quit. There were demonstrations of women backing Hermoso and showing Rubiales the “red card”, but he refused to resign, saying the kiss that lasted a fraction of a nano-second was like a father would give his daughter. His mother went on hunger strike locked in his hometown church for a couple a days, before being hospitalised. The whole bizarre scenario resembled the MeToo Movement, with feminists voicing their anger over what they see as advantageous machismo.

What is happening in Spain solidifies my belief that groups who complain the loudest that they are victims of discrimination, become the most dominant in news coverage. That’s been the case in several instances around the world, with a stark example here in Canada with a population of 40 million, of whom one million (2.5 per cent) identify as members of the LGBTQ community, out of which 100,000 (0.25 per cent) identify as transgender. Canada also has about two million (five per cent) indigenous people. Yet for the past several years on any given night, about half or more of the television newscast is usually spent reporting on indigenous, LGBTQ and transgender issues, even though they collectively represent less than eight per cent of the total population. Maybe the more certain groups want news coverage, is directly proportionate to how loud they complain, eh??

BERNIE SMITH

Parksville, BC

Canada