World News

At that time, golf saved the world from war Nuclear weapons

[ad_1]

The International Code of Conduct for the Reproduction of Ballistic Missiles does not address advanced technology for shooting golf balls.

“Gas is worrisome,” believes Robert Trent Jones Jr.

The Unknown Code, bureaucratized in 2002 with the acronym HCoC, is a voluntary treaty between 143 nations that could kill 7.9 billion people worldwide faster than a coronavirus. through a screen door.

Golf is a game played by 60 million people. Jones is a renowned 82-year-old golf course architect, a proponent of nuclear demobilization and environmental awareness, and served as a confidential diplomatic issue for four U.S. presidents.

“There’s not much difference between shooting a golf ball with a banned Geek Golf Fail Safe 3 driver and shooting any weapon with an unstoppable hypersonic missile,” says Jones, who has built 280 golf courses around the world. “The link is obvious.”

There is also ample evidence as to why Jones’s remarks would be dismissed as a distant metaphor, especially as HCoC signatories murmured about canceling subscriptions to the agreement at a July meeting of the China, Russia and Iran disarmament group.

In fact, when nations in the past were looking for a conflict, belligerents on both sides often asked Jones to help ease the tension.

“Bob is an influential voice, a good and reliable back channel,” former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz said in 1986 that Jones helped the People Power movement in 1986 to defend the Philippine dictator from dictator Ferdinand Marcos. “Bob is a very good golfer and very competitive at all.”

Along the way, Jones also sent messages to Soviet and Chinese officials at a time when he was successfully building golf courses in his home countries, a time when foreign powers described golfers as capitalist dogs. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described 2004 as “one of our most important players”.

“Bobby helped me become president of the Philippines,” Corazon Aquino added shortly after his lunch at his Manila home in 1992. “He risked his life more than once for the Philippines.”

Aquino’s brother Jose “Peping” Cojuangco fondly remembered one of those times.

Manila was subject to martial law. There were tanks roaring in the streets, tracer bullets flying in the air, and Jones on a plane from San Francisco with sensitive information from U.S. President Ronald Reagan, who could not be handed over to official channels.

“Bobby got in the car and I give him an AK-47 assault rifle,” Cojuangco said. “I told you that Marcos will torture us for the information you have. They don’t have to keep us alive. ‘

Reaching a golf club placed on top of the golf ball and ammunition clips piled on the back seat floor, Jones picked up 3 irons and hit Cojuangco on the shoulder. “Peping, do you have an iron 7 here?” Cojuangco recalls that Jones asked. “I would be much better off with a 7 iron than an AK-47.”

Jones ’favorite weapon is poetry. In fact, he never leaves home without a canvas bag full of poetry anthologies and self-published poetry books. Many of Jones ’friends joke that their only frustration is hearing them read the verses.

The eviction ended in January 2005, when Senator Joe Biden and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee thanked Jones for spreading a poem to neutralize the catastrophe with Iran at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos (WEF).

That year’s WEF theme was “Taking Responsibility for Tough Opportunities,” which few wanted to acknowledge at the event, and perhaps nowhere, rather than at a dinner with Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi, “Is Iran in favor of civilians and civilians? rights, or an alleged terrorist friend and a nuclear tiger? ‘

Jones and I were friends at Kharazi’s dinner at one of eight tables filled with Iranian politicians and Western foreign policy officials. It was on the HCoC menu, but was never served because the pandemonium arrived before the first dish entered the room.

A waiter asked Kharazi if he preferred red or white wine. Jones told the young woman why the Secretary of State did not drink alcohol. The master of ceremonies stated that the protocol had been violated and that all wine had to be removed from the room before the other guests were angry, moaning and urging them to take the bottles before being confiscated by the servers.

Kharazik said that wine can be left behind, and explained that only Muslims are forbidden to consume alcohol. MC refused to cancel his ukase. The guests refused to give him wine.

Another waiter arrived with the first dish. Jones, who has built 10 golf courses in Islamic countries, pointed to the prawns in front of the foreign minister.

“Makruh (to be avoided as a sharp detestable)?” I remember Jones saying that he whispered the correct sentence and said the word Kharaziri correctly. Jones, in gratitude for his kindness, removed the Foreign Minister’s shellfish. But the rest of the guests would not leave the prawns.

All eyes were on Kharazi when the main course arrived. WEF officials hoped the HCoC and Iran for a coherent discussion on nuclear and human rights policy were about to be sacrificed on a pork schnitzel dish.

Then Joe Biden appeared late. He went straight to Kharazi, who was eating a salad decorated with a loud chorus of world leaders for ruining his dinner against Iran.

“Enough,” Jones said, roaring. “I’ll read a poem,” he said as the crowd roared in his grief, knowing that everyone, this is Biden, like Jones, knew that the Persians loved poetry.

Overcoming the confusion and avoiding two playfully thrown loaves of bread, Jones inserted one of his poems into Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Ozymandias. Biden nodded. The Iranians applauded Jones and offered to meet with the Iranian leader in Tehran.

Sixteen years later the clash over acronyms, between the fragility of the JCPOA agreement and the maelstrom surrounding the HCoC, may now be the time for POTUS to ask RSVP for an invitation from Jones to Iran.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.



[ad_2]

Source link

Related Articles

Back to top button