 |
Re: [RC] [RC] Questions for Steph - Maryanne GabbaniOn Fri, Mar 14, 2008 at 12:28 AM, Steph Teeter <stephteeter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: I'll try to answer as best I can... Most of those prizes are still funded by the UAE who fund the national FEI support for endurance racing in the Middle Eastern countries directly. In other words, the cash prizes are still coming from outside. Here in Egypt, the national federation was mostly about how much money could be skimmed from the Egyptian government in importing European jumpers until the UAE walked in with large jingly bags of cash for the endurance racing program. Not a single clinic or teaching program by the way, for the record. Just lots of cash. The national federation thought they'd died and gone to heaven. But now there is discord in heaven because the national federation has gotten very greedy and went and built its own endurance village without pyramids because it's at the president of the federation's farm and the UAE doesn't like to race there. By the way, in order for a vet or anyone else to attend an FEI certification program, they have to have the ok from the national federation. In the US where the USEF is pretty wide open, probably any properly qualified individual could attend the certification course (which is part of the development program of Hydra, right?) So for an Egyptian vet to become an FEI vet, the national federation has to okay it, and guess what our national federation REALLY doesn't like to do...that's right, allow certification of vets or stewards who aren't part of the little gang. So we have ONE certified vet here...and he's so crooked that the UAE won't even let him work a ride without very close supervision. So the problem you might have in a developing country is that all of a sudden the national federation becomes a significant source of outside cash and they are not willing to share the wealth...it becomes a strictly closed shop. AND THE FEI INTERNATIONAL DOES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO CHANGE THIS. They could file sanctions against the national, they could refuse to recognise rides or competitions. But they do nothing at all.
But Egypt and Jordan at least do have things other than deep sand and the races are all steered away from anything other than flat sand, preferably not as deep as the naturally occurring stuff. The Gulf teams were all unhappy about our desert at the Pan Arab games. The sand was too deep, there were hills...(that's a laugh. You've seen our "hills" Steph. They are barely noticeable slopes. They didn't even go anywhere near a real baby hill and baby hills are all we have here)...we should have just bulldozed a nice course around the pyramids. I'd LOVE to see the reaction of Zahi Hawass to this idea since they were racing in antiquities land. As far as I can see in this area, technical means not bulldozed.
-- Maryanne Stroud Gabbani msgabbani@xxxxxxxxx Egypt Face to Face www.alsorat.com Weblogs: Living In Egypt miloflamingo.blogspot.com Cairo/Giza Daily Photo cairogizadailyphoto.blogspot.com Turn Right At The Sarcophagus haramlik.blogspot.com Da Moose Is Loose (a blog for kids) mstroud.blogspot.com Photos of Egypt: http://www.flickr.com/photos/livinginegypt/
|