TheBlackStarPoloodissey:whenpoliticsandbureaucracybeatsport

The Black Star Polo kids have been training for months, dreaming of being the first team from Subsaharan Africa to take part in HaBaWaBa International Festival, the world's biggest waterpolo event for children, kicking off on Sunday 18^th June in Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy. For months they have imagined to make their first trip abroad, playing their first international tournament, even eating their first pizza in Italy, perhaps along with other young waterpolo players from all over the world. Because this is what they are, young athletes who seek in sport what all kids of their age seek. 

But they are from Ghana, and law says that unlike other kids their age they cannot buy a flight ticket and fly to HaBaWaBa. They need a visa, a permission from the authority. Now, we are not here discussing freedom of movement and human rights, immigration and its regulation. However when the respect for the law (which is sacred) turns into subservience to bureaucracy, it’s the weakest to lose out. In this case, the weakest are the little waterpolo players of Black Star Polo, who were denied visas to enter Italy by the Italian Embassy, despite a procedure started over two months ago by the head of the Ghana Water Polo project, Asante Sefa-Boakye. Their “life changing opportunity”, as Asante defined Black Star Polo participation in HaBaWaBa some weeks ago, was cancelled by bureaucracy.  Without telling you the details of the Asante and his boys’ odissey, let’s tell you that Black Star Polo produced and presented all kinds of required documents, more than once; that each kid - we’re talking children under the age of 12 - had to undergo an interview at the Embassy to prove that he was a waterpolo player. And that the final deny, after months of waiting and delays, arrived yesterday, on the day when Black Star Polo was supposed to board a plane and fly to Italy. That was a cruel ending, which Black Star Polo kids did not deserve for the commitment and love of waterpolo they have proven since coach Asante showed them what can be done with a ball floating in the water. Waterpolo Development, as organizer of HaBaWaBa, cannot but underline how the Embassy of Italy has not only taken away a dream from Black Star Polo kids, but has also cause damaged to sport development into the world and everything is linked to it, educationally and culturally speaking. At the 15^th edition of HaBaWaBa International Festival we'll not see the Ghanaian kids mixing with others, enriching an event that has always made multiculturalism its strong point, that pushes kids to get to know others through sport, in order to break down walls and barriers between people. Having them in Lignano Sabbiadoro would have made our event even more significant for those that are the basic values of HaBaWaBa.  Among these values, however, there is also the ability not to give up in the face of difficulties, to get back up after a defeat. And so we are certain that Black Star Polo kids will return into the water to train more determined than before, in order to improve and be stronger, aiming to the next year's edition. These kids will not give up on their dream, because the spirit that drives HaBaWaBa is inside them, in spite of any bureaucracy. 

Bruno Cufino - President of Waterpolo Development

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