Commonwealth Games 2010: A Chance for Peace
The 2010 Commonwealth Games will be held in a few months in Delhi, India and it will be a spectacular athletics event. The fact that the event is taking place in India will play a major role in the politics of the subcontinent. Although being a sporting event and not in any way a political forum, the Games have already begun to be used as one. The countries in the subcontinent, especially India and Pakistan, have been at loggerheads since their independence from England in 1947. They have fought three wars during that time and Kashmir along with water supplies have always been sore subjects between the two. Hopefully the 2010 Games can bring these two foes together through the universal message of sports.
The Commonwealth Games is an athletic event held every four years and is open to those countries that were part of the former British Empire. The idea was floated in 1891 by the Reverend Astley Cooper as a means to bring about understanding and goodwill amongst the countries under the British Empire. In 1911, a Festival of Empire was held in London and a sporting event took place which featured many athletes from countries under the Empire at the time. After that nothing much took place until about 1930 when the first proper Commonwealth Games were held. They featured 400 athletes from 11 different countries and were a resounding success. So much so that it was decided that the Games would take place every four years after that.
This year the Games will be held in India, with almost 70 countries taking part. This is the first time India will host the Games and it is only the second country in Asia to host the Games, the first country was Malaysia in 1998. The Games will be held between the 3-14th of October and an entire Games Village is being constructed that will have the capacity to house almost 8500 athletes and provide training facilities for them. This year's Games will be very exciting because India will give the entire event its own special touch and the Games will have a distinctive Asian feel to them.
Some of the best athletes from the Commonwealth nations will arrive in India and these Games will be very exciting to watch. The biggest aspect of the games though is the fact that because they are taking place in India, there is a chance for the two countries of India and Pakistan to come together through sports. The Chief Minister of Punjab in Pakistan stated that the Games will be a great way for the spotlight of the world to be focused on the subcontinent and for people of many different countries to interact with the people of India and experience the culture of the region. It is very encouraging to see statements like this about the forthcoming event.
The Games themselves could also be used as a catalyst for peace and understanding in the region, because in the first instance, athletes from India and Pakistan will meet and interact with each other and misunderstandings will disappear. Secondly the lengthy visa requirements that are part of both countries could be relaxed for the duration of the Games to give fans and spectators a chance to visit India and experience the Games and Indian culture first hand. Sports are a great way for countries to come together and understand one another and they lead to breaking down of barriers and misunderstandings. Sports can be a precursor to peace because the first step to peace is understanding each other and seeing each other in a new light. The more people that interact between the two countries the less feelings of animosity will remain.
The original purpose of the Games when they started so many years ago was to help support peace and understanding between countries in the Commonwealth. They can be used again as a means of promoting peace in South Asia. There is a higher purpose to the Games still, because so many different countries will be participating, it will not only promote peace and understanding between countries in the Subcontinent, but 70 countries from around the world will interact and understand one another. Now that is a very noble cause for a sporting event to have.
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