新西兰英语 233 Protest at tennis tournament
Last week there were protests outside the Auckland women’s tennis tournament. A small group of people were protesting against a 22-year old tennis player, Shahar Peer. She is from Israel and the protesters were supporters of Palestine. They wanted her to withdraw from the tournament. She refused to do this. She said she does not represent her country, she is an individual and she pays her own way to tennis tournaments.
The protesters were very noisy. Some of them were arrested because their noise disturbed the players and spectators.
New Zealand has a history of protest involving sport. The most famous protest action was in 1981 when the South African rugby team – the Springboks – were invited to tour New Zealand to play rugby. At this time, the South African government had a system of apartheid which separated white and black people in political and social life. A large number of New Zealanders felt that inviting the Springboks here was supporting a racist government. Thousands of people protested against the Springbok tour in every town where the games were played. There were so many protesters that they managed to stop the game in Hamilton.
Ten years later Nelson Mandela was freed from prison and in 1994 he was elected President of South Africa. The New Zealand protests against apartheid perhaps helped to bring this change.
Questions to think about
We have a democratic right to protest peacefully. What is a peaceful protest?
Who are the people affected by protest outside a tennis tournament?
Which countries should we protest against and why?
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