Hae-Yu
02-15-2007, 04:35 PM
Nope, not a hate thread. I was reading Wikipedia's front page to kill time and came across this article about camel jockeys (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camel_racing).
Young boys were popularly used as camel jockeys, much as young girls are ice skaters and gymnasts in the West. To make the boys lighter, they would starve them before a race, similar to the trials endured by young female ice skaters and gymnasts. The worst of it was that parents sold their kids to sporting organizations who exploited the boys over the narrow part of their life when they are best suited for this sport - just like we do in the West with figure skaters and gymnasts.
Apparently Western do-gooders caused enough of a controversy in the Middle East to warrant a radical overhaul. The Emir of Qatar, stung by criticism, decided he would bring this sport into the 21st Century. Now they use Robot Jockeys.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_jockey
To me, it seems they are throwing out the baby with the bathwater AND treating the symptoms instead of the disease. Perhaps instead of banning children from racing - something most boys would enjoy - cracking down on endemic slavery and pedophilia would be a better path to enter modern civilization.
Young boys were popularly used as camel jockeys, much as young girls are ice skaters and gymnasts in the West. To make the boys lighter, they would starve them before a race, similar to the trials endured by young female ice skaters and gymnasts. The worst of it was that parents sold their kids to sporting organizations who exploited the boys over the narrow part of their life when they are best suited for this sport - just like we do in the West with figure skaters and gymnasts.
Apparently Western do-gooders caused enough of a controversy in the Middle East to warrant a radical overhaul. The Emir of Qatar, stung by criticism, decided he would bring this sport into the 21st Century. Now they use Robot Jockeys.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot_jockey
To me, it seems they are throwing out the baby with the bathwater AND treating the symptoms instead of the disease. Perhaps instead of banning children from racing - something most boys would enjoy - cracking down on endemic slavery and pedophilia would be a better path to enter modern civilization.