21 September 2009

Asleep in Ethics 101?

The Great Intersex Train Wreck of 2009 - aka a nasty mix of nationalism, gawking, disinformation, anxiety, money, prurience and ego in relation to questions about athlete Caster Semenya - gets messier by the moment.

Leonard Chuene, president of Athletics South Africa (ASA), is reported to have admitted that he and other senior ASA officials consistently lied that they had no knowledge of tests carried out in Pretoria and Berlin on Ms Semenya. Chuene is reported to have explained
Tell me someone who has not lied to protect a child. My only crime committed was to take a decision that she must run, and she won.
Oh, so winning makes it ok? Perhaps, like many sports administrators (in professional or shamateur sports), he was asleep during Ethics 101.

Semenya was supposedly 'tested' in Pretoria on 7 August, prior to travelling to Berlin (where she won a gold medal at the World Championships on 19 August). That testing reportedly required that "her genitals were photographed and her internal organs examined", with the athlete being told - perhaps misled - that she was "only having a routine drugs test". One might wonder what sort of routine drug test involves gynaecological happy snaps.

The ASA was reportedly aware of further gender tests carried out by the IAAF in Berlin following Semenya's victory. The ASA officials at that time characterised media speculation as racist, asking
Who are white people to question the make-up of an African girl? I say this is racism, pure and simple ... The people who question these things have no idea how much shame such a slur can bring on a family.
Intersex advocates noted earlier in this blog (eg here and here) would - from a human rights perspective quite correctly - argue that there is no shame in being intersex and that we might indeed be cautious before assigning particular values to fluid notions such as gender. What is shameful is the lip-smacking treatment of Semenya by the Australian and overseas media and her exploitation by the ASA.

It is difficult not to agree with the assessment by the SA Sunday Times that
It is slowly emerging that she has been abused, deceived and shamefully exploited. She was sent to race by men and women who knew that serious questions were being asked and probably could not be satisfactorily answered, but whose lust for gold trumped any concern for her wellbeing. The evidence is mounting that Semenya's ordeal is a direct and probably inevitable result of the greed and ambition of professionals around her.
The usual game - so much more fun than soccer - of flick responsibility and denounce an offender in front of the cameras is now underway, with the African National Congress proclaiming that it is "appalled" by the behaviour of ASA officials and the international federation. Indeed, it is horrified that the athlete "has been victimized and subjected to unnecessary public scrutiny, thus denying her dignity". Uh huh. The ANC says that the officials should be reprimanded for their "disgusting" handling of the case.

The national Sports Ministry, perhaps echoing Captain Renault in Casablanca, is likewise "shocked" to have discovered that Chuene lied "to the whole country" about the tests and had "fuelled the continuous violation of Ms Semenya's rights and dignity". Urging the ASA to fire Chuene, it commented that "If they fail to do so, they will be running the risk of being led by a liar". Presumably lying is worse than national leadership by a man who thinks that AIDS can be magicked away with a bit of garlic and DIY holy water.