The Politically Incorrect Show - 13/11/2000

[Music - Die Fledermaus]

Good afternoon, Kaya Oraaa & welcome to the Politically Incorrect Show on the free speech network, Radio Pacific, for Monday November 13, proudly sponsored by Neanderton Nicotine Ltd., the show that says bugger the politicians & bureaucrats & all the other bossyboot busybodies who try to run our lives with our money; that stands tall for free enterprise, achievement, profit, & excellence, against the state-worshippers in our midst; that stands above all for the most sacred thing in the universe, the liberty of the human individual.

[Music up, music down!]

It was inevitable, wasn't it? Just hours before David Tua & Lennox Lewis were due to trade their first blows, the call went out for boxing to be banned. No, it didn't come from the former Associate-Minister of Accident Compensation, Ruth Dyson, though it might well have - it came from the editorial columns of that militant champion of Political Correctness, the Sunday Star-Times. "Here's hoping the Tuaman wins the day," opined the anonymous editorialist, somewhat hypocritically. "And here's hoping that one day the sport of boxing disappears from earth... The objection to boxing is that it is barbarous & dangerous in a way that no other sport is. The whole aim is to inflict physical injury on the other party. The most triumphant form of victory, in this sport, is where one of the antagonists knocks the other unconscious."

Absolutely right. So what? The participants know this, & go into the sport with their eyes open, even if they sometimes come out with their eyes shut! This, like all sport, is an activity of consenting adults in public. No one is forced into it, or forced to watch it. Moreover, as it happens, the boxers' blows are muted by gloves, their contests circumscribed by rules that minimise the danger of permanent or fatal damage. There seems to be an understanding among contestants that they will take time out to cling lovingly to each other's bare torsos when the going gets too tough, & await the referee's intervention to spoil their fun. Mostly, as was the case yesterday, matches go the full number of rounds & are won on points, not by a knock-out; even a "knock-out" is usually not literally that - it's just the incapacitating of one's opponent for the referee's count to ten. To be a winner in boxing, especially at world championship level, requires supreme physical fitness, agility, strength & power, courage, self-control & quick thinking. Boxing is at once sport, art & science. Even the Sunday Star-Times acknowledged the "physical finesse & heroism" required. These are qualities that have taken David Tua from humble dish-washer to fabulously wealthy world-class prize-fighter. I take my hat off - while keeping my head out of range - to the Tuas & Lewises of this world.

Fortunately, the Sunday Star-Times' killjoy call is unlikely to survive the first round, or even to make it into the ring. Yesterday's match, anti-climactic though it was, surely showed what an art form boxing is. Supremely nonchalant throughout, Lennox Lewis deftly deflected what little David Tua threw his way. With superb artistry, Lennox vindicated his own pre-fight comment that, "Like a fine wine, I get better with age." Tua simply could not penetrate Lewis' defence & land any of his legendary left hooks - & had nothing else in his arsenal. At the same time, however, contrary to the nay-sayers like Bob Jones - adolescent prats that they are - who think that their mission on earth is to kick down any sandcastles on the beach that they haven't personally constructed, David established his right to be where he was. He held his own, stayed on his feet - & smiled! He's young, tenacious & talented. Yesterday, he was taught an object lesson by a veteran. If he can take it on board, he'll be back - the world heavyweight championship is simply "unfinished business."

As an antidote to the effete poison of the Sunday Star-Times, & as a salute to both Tua & Lewis, I'm now going to play the song, Climb Every Mountain, from The Sound of Music. It's appropriate in all three cases. The Star-Times, like Ruth Dyson, would ban mountain-climbing from the outset, so this is a two-fingered gesture at them; Lewis remains, deservedly, atop the mountain; Tua must continue to follow every rainbow, till he finds his dream.

(CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN)

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