Freedom of speech is important. I agreed with the American Supreme Court when it allowed satire to be published in the Hustler magazine. Indirectly that decision led to the expansion of America’s porn industry. California film producers argued that a bit of porn was simply their expression of free speech. Tolerating some pornographic abuse of that principle is a small price to pay for the liberty to say it.

But even freedom of speech does have restrictions. These include, but are not limited to libel, slander, incitement, copyright violation, trade secrets, and perjury. A person may not incite action that would harm others, such as shouting “fire” in a crowded theatre. Justifications for these restrictions include the harm principle. Thanks to three years studying Political Science at Victoria University I learned the harm principle was  proposed by John Stuart Mill in On Liberty, which says “the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.”

It is worth repeating that again. “The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.”

That seems pretty clear. Authorities can use their power to “prevent harm to others”.

Now read this rubbish that was published on Facebook’s Kiwi Swimming this week.

“The vaccine pass and covid restrictions look set to be lifted or amended in mid April the media reports today, by April 12. Good reason to delay NZ Swimming champs which finish just prior, rewrite the meet info and extend World champs and Commonwealth Games qualifying period so the NZers in Aussie don’t have to trial in NZ, but at Aussie trials if they wish. As it stands Swimming NZ says the meet will be held under current Red Light settings even if all restrictions are lifted. This means if mandates are lifted and unvaccinated cant enter, that will raise human rights issues.”

Two features appear obvious from this garbage. One, the author needs to take a course in written English. The writing is so bad, English must be his second or third language. Misrelated participles and capital letters missed all over the place. It’s a mess. Second, the genius behind the post clearly knows nothing about swimming. Some New Zealand coaches have recently been concerned about the welfare of their 13-year-old swimmers. Their time would be better spent in Wellington looking after the author of this stuff. He really does need help.

Incidentally this guy is a fine one to preach to Swimming New Zealand (SNZ) about “human rights issues”. The last time he had anything to do with human rights, he was fined $18,000 for mistreating a work colleague. His idea of human rights included emailing her 100s of times a week, sending her private information to the university newspaper and pouring coffee over her.

But let’s take a closer look at the practicality of his ridiculous post. This Wellington clown is asking SNZ to delay the National Commonwealth Games Trials by a couple of months so we can find out more about Jacinda’s Covid plans. He clearly has no idea how the preparation of an elite swimmer works. Let me explain.

Two dates were important in planning this Trials’ season. One was when did the pools open after the Covid lockdown (6 December 2021) and the other what date did the Trials begin (4 April 2022). We had 17 weeks to fit in the 4 training periods required to swim well on the 4 April 2022.

In Eyad’s case we decided on the plan shown in the table below.

Training period	Number of Weeks
Aerobic Base Conditioning	7
Anaerobic	3
Long Speed Preparation	4
Short Speed and Taper	3
TOTAL	17

And for the past 15 weeks Eyad has followed that plan. This week he is in week 1 of the Short Speed and Taper period. One of Lydiard’s famous quotes is, “Any coach can have his athlete swim fast some time. Good coaches can be given a date and deliver a fast swim on that date”.

For 17 weeks Eyad has followed a plan aimed at the 4 April 2022. With two weeks to go the plan is nearing completion, the fuse for competition has been lit. On the 4 April 2022 the bomb will detonate.

Except our Wellington clown says, “No, no, no change all that. Wait another 8 weeks”. What an idiot. He is prepared to sacrifice 15 weeks of preparation aimed at the 4 April 2022. The result of the clown’s raving would be a New Zealand trials with dozens of slow swims. Why? Because for 17 weeks we aimed for the 4 April 2022 and ended up racing sometime in June. No one can hold a peak that long.

Do you think that qualifies as “harm to others”? Of course, it does. Perhaps the clown is right, it is a Human Rights issue. 17 weeks work ruined because the Wellington clown lobbies to get the meet moved. Perhaps we should consider asking the Human Rights Review Tribunal to use its power “over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.”

Even if all we got was for his page to be put to sleep, swimming in New Zealand would be a far, far better place. Or perhaps the best option is just to ban his page from our computers. Yes, I think that sounds like a good idea.