Spiteful impact of Rally Paris-Dakar by Tatiana Hadarova

In 2009 it will be exactly 30 years since the Rally Paris-Dakar has started its history. During these three decades the original rout from Paris to Dakar in Senegal have changed several times. This prestigious race has had its winners, losers, tragedies or unpleasant moments, as for example 2008 when the rally had to be canceled because of terrorist threats. Rally also has to face a lot of criticism. The main issues are race's impact on environment and inhabitants of the countries through which it passes. The rally also got critics for passing through non-decolonized territory of Western Sahara , where the Sahrawi people live. But since 2000 this has not been an issue since rally's official got permission for passing through the country. Another scandalous moment came after the race in 1988, when Dakar's news agency described the death of three Africans, who were killed in collision with vehicles involved in the race, as "insignificant for the race's organizers." Hard words were written by The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, in which the race was called a "vulgar display of power and wealth in places where men continue to die from hunger and thirst." In 2002, at the race's start in Arras, France, demonstrating members of a Green Party of France called the rally a "colonialism that needs to be eradicated." † According to residents who live along the race's rout the rally brings them very few benefits. The rally participants spend only little money on the goods and services and produce great amounts of dust, hit and kill livestock and occasionally also injure people.

by Tatiana Hadarova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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Edited by Katarina Rastocna