Round-up

1. In a major blow to an upcoming United Nations "anti-racism conference", the United States has decided not to participate, out of concern it would stir up the anti-Israel sentiments that marked the first such conference. And, if you'll remember, Canada has already pulled out of the same conference for the same reasons.

2. I see that politicians have been getting themselves involved in the recent scandal surrounding "racism" against Lewis Hamilton in Spain.

I think there are some important points to make surrounding this story. The first is that it is undeniable that racism is a problem in certain parts of Spain. I remember watching a football match where England played there, and Shaun Wright-Phillips and Ashley Cole were subjected to appalling monkey taunts.

But on the flip-side of things, there is actually far less racism here than the media are seeing. Sure, dressing up in "black" make-up and wigs and wearing T-shirts saying "Hamilton's Familly (sic)" is kind of bizarre. But in what way is it insulting? Would it have been insulting if they had dressed up in McClaren engineers' outfits which said, "Hamilton's team"? Of course it wouldn't, and this is no different. So why is it that as soon as race is brought into the equation, it suddenly becomes unacceptable? Obviously, the answer is that race is still a taboo over here - but the deeper question remains as to why we must be so overly "sensitive" about race. And at the end of the day, there is no reason why Lewis Hamilton should be offended by a few wallies pretending to be his family (and to be honest it would just be weird if they stood there with white skin pretending to be his family).

The media has also been making out that this so-called racism was apparently practised by the whole of Spain, when as far as I have seen, there were only about three people wearing the make-up and wigs. And other deplorable actions committed by the Spanish crowds, such as throwing rubbish at the McClaren team and sticking their middle fingers up at Hamilton, are easily explained without resorting to charges of racism: The obvious reason is that they are still resentful towards Lewis for the numerous altercations he had last year with their countryman and hero, Fernando Alonso. Hamilton's skin has nothing to do with it in these cases, and there is no evidence that it did.

The behaviour of these Spanish crowds has, obviously, been atrocious. But as soon as a black man is involved (and come on, he's not actually THAT black, is he?), our witless media suddenly lose all perspective. This has ceased to be surprising to me.