Internationally, however, a critical eye turned to Australia and its policies towards Aboriginal Australians and its treatment of asylum-seeking boat people. Without the Olympic focus there would have been much less international awareness of these issues. Australian Olympic, business and governmental figures clearly anticipated this possibility and attempted to forestall or silence internal opposition. In the run-up to the Sydney Games, Australian Prime Minister John Howard labelled protests an ‘un-Australian’ hindrance to promoting a successful Games as evidence of Australian unity of will, spirit and expertise, and of its love-affair with sport. In promoting national characteristics for domestic and international consumption, Howard and other public figures placed sport at the centre, thus helping to legitimate the vast sums of public money diverted into the elite athlete production system and the building of facilities and infrastructure to support the Games.21Howard’s reaction demonstrates that nationalism is often harnessed to reduce difference and promote commonality of purpose in imagining the nation for global consumption. Joseph Maguire’s study of globalisation and sport concludes by speculating on the tensions between the global, national and local. As Maguire argues, ‘a question that arises is whether…as a result of Europeanization and globalization, I/we [in the sense of individual and collective] national identities are being strengthened, weakened, or pluralized’. Drawing upon Hall and Cohen, Maguire speculates on the potential for globalisation to provoke an ‘ethnically assertive and defensive nationalism’.22 More research is needed to test Maguire’s assertion, although it is clear that attempts to promote national identities through events such as Sydney 2000 or international soccer tournaments are often narrow and nationalistic. Importantly, Maguire argues that globalised sport can lead to a strengthening of local cultures by re-marketing the same global product within a new niche. While the brand may be global, the sell is local.
Internationally, however, a critical eye turned to Australia and its policies towards Aboriginal Australians and its treatment of asylum-seeking boat people. Without the Olympic focus there would have been much less international awareness of these issues. Australian Olympic, business and governmental figures clearly anticipated this possibility and attempted to forestall or silence internal opposition. In the run-up to the Sydney Games, Australian Prime Minister John Howard labelled protests an ‘un-Australian’ hindrance to promoting a successful Games as evidence of Australian unity of will, spirit and expertise, and of its love-affair with sport. In promoting national characteristics for domestic and international consumption, Howard and other public figures placed sport at the centre, thus helping to legitimate the vast sums of public money diverted into the elite athlete production system and the building of facilities and infrastructure to support the Games.21Howard’s reaction demonstrates that nationalism is often harnessed to reduce difference and promote commonality of purpose in imagining the nation for global consumption. Joseph Maguire’s study of globalisation and sport concludes by speculating on the tensions between the global, national and local. As Maguire argues, ‘a question that arises is whether…as a result of Europeanization and globalization, I/we [in the sense of individual and collective] national identities are being strengthened, weakened, or pluralized’. Drawing upon Hall and Cohen, Maguire speculates on the potential for globalisation to provoke an ‘ethnically assertive and defensive nationalism’.22 More research is needed to test Maguire’s assertion, although it is clear that attempts to promote national identities through events such as Sydney 2000 or international soccer tournaments are often narrow and nationalistic. Importantly, Maguire argues that globalised sport can lead to a strengthening of local cultures by re-marketing the same global product within a new niche. While the brand may be global, the sell is local.
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