13 Mar 2012 - African Nations boycott 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games

Today I was on the train on my way home, and this guy came up and started talking to me, asking me definitions of words and telling me about the television shows 'The Simpsons' and 'Neighbours'. I found this a little odd, but he was wearing clothing with the Scope logo on it, which is an organisation that supports people with disabilities, so I thought that this guy might have a learning disability. I will admit that I was a little annoyed initially because, to be honest, I don't particularly like being interrupted on my journey home at the end of the day, but he seemed to want to talk to someone, so I decided to oblige and have a chat with him. He was very inquisitive, asking me questions on a range of topics, and for each topic he had a fact that he had memorised. He had an amazing memory for dates and definitions of words and events that occurred, however he didn't seem to be able to apply these things in everyday life, and asked questions about why things would have happened in that way because he seemed to want to understand. After my initial annoyance I started to enjoy talking to him because he was curious about a broad range of topics.

After about five minutes of conversation, something he said prompted me to mention that I had previously lived in Edinburgh. When he heard this he told me that the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh were boycotted by many African nations. I had never heard this before and so checked this fact when I came home. It turns out that it was true and that the reason they boycotted was because they didn't like the fact that Margaret Thatcher's government supported Britain's sporting links with the apartheid-era South Africa. This boycott lead to the Edinburgh games being one of the lowest attended Games since the 1950 Games and additionally the low attendance lead to the Games running at a large loss. The city of Edinburgh did not get this debt paid off until three years later. So today, aside from learning about the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, I learnt that sometimes listening to people who start talking to you on a train can lead you learning some interesting facts.

If you would like to read more about the Edinburgh Games, check out Wikipedia.