Share this page!

Musa Okwonga Profile picture
Twitter logo
13 Jan, 5 tweets, 2 min read
I am sharing this again since I think it’s important and it’s being a little bit lost in this discussion.
I find it very frustrating that Djokovic - please see above - is getting more scrutiny for his "water purifying" views than his nationalism, especially with the political situation in Bosnia as it is now. I get it, the outlandish stuff is funny, but we can't ignore the above.
As I was saying to friends yesterday - it's very easy, because we watch sport for escapism, to let some of its most grim aspects go under the radar. Look at this story involving nationalism and Luka Modrić:
balkaninsight.com/2018/07/17/con…
Nigel Farage is a clownish figure but we can't forget that clowns are also dangerous. There's a good chance he was attracted by the nationalism of Djokovic's father because Farage and Serbian nationalism have the same enemies. newlinesmag.com/argument/in-bo…
Re: the first tweet I posted in this thread, the #Djokovic-Australian Open standoff is a rare example of where an apparently pointless "culture war" is actually sitting on top of an extremely dangerous culture war.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Musa Okwonga

Musa Okwonga Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @Okwonga

Musa Okwonga Profile picture
12 Jan
Everything in this opinion piece is forensic, factually accurate and if anything it is understated.
Please read the above opinion piece for yourselves. It was surprisingly unsurprising. It is not alarmist, it is calmly factual, and it makes no comparison implicit or otherwise with Putin or Erdogan. It merely assesses Boris Johnson's behaviour against the rule of law.
Re: the above tweet - many of us in England are unable to recognise the early stages of authoritarian rule. We treat it as something that happens to other states - to Others - and are genuinely shocked when we are seen to promote or enable it. Exceptionalism has cost us so much.
Read 4 tweets
Musa Okwonga Profile picture
11 Jan
You have people in Bosnia who need firm support from the UK as genocide deniers there grow in influence, and at precisely the same time you have a UK Prime Minister being smirking and evasive about a party he went to in lockdown. It's so grubby and degrading.
We had people in Afghanistan desperate for help and at the very same time we had a Foreign Secretary playing truant from his day job. It is such a grim joke that the UK government call themselves Global Britain. They govern for no-one but the people in their own WhatsApp group.
I will never, ever understand why people of limitless wealth go into politics. Maybe it's because their senses are so dulled by lives that are agonisingly free of struggle that they need this thrill. There seems no other reason these mediocrities would inflict themselves upon us.
Read 4 tweets
Musa Okwonga Profile picture
17 Nov 21
1/ A key reason that my book doesn’t name names is that English political discourse is obsessed with gossip and sensationalism, with he-did-this and she-did-that, which deflects from the vital conversation about structures.
2/ Just look at the current political discourse. I’m not saying we shouldn’t name names, just that certain people who are used to being in the spotlight are experts at making the conversation all about them: instead of about the society that produces and enables them.
3/ Can I also say this: it’s easy to get caught up in the minutiae of the lives of people harming society rather than looking at the lives of people suffering that harm, which can end up in a form of sympathy for those who are doing the hurtful stuff.
Read 5 tweets
Musa Okwonga Profile picture
17 Nov 21
1/ This is so dangerous and I have been saying this for ages: many people do not realise what government they have elected.

New bill quietly gives powers to remove British citizenship without notice theguardian.com/politics/2021/…
2/ This proposed law isn't about Priti Patel or Boris Johnson, it goes beyond them. Just imagine this law in the hands of a yet more extreme government, doing its best to appease hard-right sections of the media and the electorate in a time of public unrest and climate collapse.
3/ What a painfully complacent country we are. We think, as a nation, that the engines we have often turned against others won't be turned inwards against us.
Read 4 tweets
Musa Okwonga Profile picture
6 Nov 21
Manchester City are not possessing the ball, they are confiscating it.
Certain pundits looking for anyone to criticise but the coach.
Watching Manchester United’s defence is like seeing one of those highway roads collapse under the weight of a monsoon.
Read 4 tweets
Musa Okwonga Profile picture
4 Nov 21
Remembering when many of us compared Boris Johnson’s contempt for democracy and the rule of law to that of Donald Trump, and several Very Serious People scoffed at the comparison.
Still thinking about how Boris Johnson’s speech about climate change - in which he claimed the Roman Empire fell due to uncontrolled immigration - was a beat-for-beat remake of Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech: “wars, terrible wars, and the Tiber foaming with much blood.”
Boris Johnson, on the eve of a crucial climate summit, made the UK’s endgame clear. Here’s the Rivers of Blood speech, for those who don’t know it; it was condemned at the time by Powell‘s own party leader.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rivers_of…
Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @Okwonga has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @Okwonga!

Read all threads by @Okwonga

:(