Unification
by WAF President Fred Roy
When you look at the word unification,
it is not a big word and it is quite self-explanatory. The unification
problem that we currently have in the world of armwrestling is also not a big
problem and relatively quite simple to fix. How is it so simple to fix you might
add? What do I know that you do not know? Without knowing any of the history of
the WAF (or WAFS), starting today, you as an individual, an armwrestler, a
referee, a promoter or just someone who is looking to get involved, what would
your choice be? The old WAF or the new WAF?
The answers are simple if you know where to look and what
questions to ask. When you compare the surface of the 2 organizations, they are
quite similar and you may ask,” What is all the fuss about?” but, when you
compare the workings of the two, that is where the difference is. That is where
the key to unification is. The old WAF
is still filled with people who are after power, who are after money, who are
out for themselves and their egos. There are many very good people in that
organization who are holding on to their dreams and hoping that these
individuals will snap out of their spiral and see the truth for what it is. When
you have an organization that is run by people that claim democracy, yet run
their private corporations to benefit personally from WAF or use the benefits of
WAF to fund their own private agendas, that organization will have many
conflicts of interest and will not represent armwrestling as it should. You can
understand that when any of the above is threatened by democracy, that anyone in
the road will surely be run over or cast aside. The new WAF is run by an elected
board of directors. The board was elected by the membership and is accountable to
the membership, not to a corporation or private agendas. The mandate is, first,
to promote armwrestling world wide in a uniform and consistent manner and to
provide resources to the membership to accomplish this. We are not afraid to
face the membership and if we are not doing our job, the membership can replace
us, as per the new constitution. Now here lies the key to unification.
If those in the old WAF are so confident that they are right, why
are they so scared to have an honest election and to face the membership and let
them make the decision? Why do they always have so many back room meetings,
privy only to the ones who want to keep the power? Power for what? A
dysfunctional organization as they have it today? An organization that is so
totalitarian that they cannot see the forest for the trees? For unification
purposes we invite everyone from the old WAF to come to the Worlds in
Poland, present their case, make their stand and let the membership decide. It
would be a two way street, the new WAF would also present their case make their
stand and let the membership decide who they want to keep from both sides and
then decide who is to lead WAF as one unified
world body. This request may be quite difficult to fulfill for the simple reason
that in his many propaganda e-mails, Mr. Barij Baran Das from India claims that
we don’t exist! Tell that to the hundreds of armwrestlers that participate
with us. Frank and Karen Bean have bought the AAA from Mr. O’Leary and would
face financial disruption. Mr. Capla wants unification
and what is best for armwrestling, but his ego may get in the road of the
solution. Mr. Panzetti is at odds with the rest of the old WAF because of the on
going dictatorship and lack of good leadership within that organization. The
answer my friends, is very simple, let the membership decide! We ask the old WAF
board of directors to pull their heads out of the sand, put your egos aside and
come to the WAF worlds in Poland. We welcome you with open arms! Let the
membership decide! We of the new WAF are very prepared to live with the results
of such a meeting. We are prepared to compromise. It is the only way that we
will have a resolution to the problem of unification.
I invite Mr. Milan Capla to enter into a dialogue with me. He is a reasonable
man. I know unification is possible
and we want it. The haunting question is, do they?
Next month we will talk about the equipment of armwrestling, some
history about it and suggestions on how to make it better for the whole world.
Thank you!
Remember the spirit and train hard!
