DR. AMMONS, THE ITALIANS AND 6 MILLION DOLLARS:
        THE PINKHASOV PINCHAS REBUTTAL

In front of me is the illustriously-published magazine called WORLD AROUND YOU.
Since 1978 or 1979 I have been  familiar  with this magazine  because I was one of the first who started to voluntarily contribute my stories related to the international deaf sports subject for that publication. If my memory does not deceive me, the widely-popular magazine was conceived at  the walls of the famed Model Secondary School for the Deaf in Washington, D.C., USA, in the fall of 1978..

WORLD AROUND YOU is a magazine which is primarily read by the deaf children and students ( most of its stories are  basically devoted to school and college students ).

Recently,  the latest issue of the magazine (Winter 2001-2002, Volume XXIII, issue 2) featured one interesting  material titled  DEAF AMERICAN TAKES A STAND ON AN INTERNATIONAL PLAYING FIELD.

The most facsinating  stuff about the three-paged, eight-color-photo-inserted story was that  Dr. Donalda Ammons, the CISS Secretary General  from the USA and one of the three defendants in my still ongoing lawsuit case, was portrayed as " a hero", while the Italian organizers of the last year's Deaflympic Summer Games  - the deaf and non-deaf - were "painted"  in a negative manner.

In spite of the above, my ongoing rebuttal comments of the story will  hopefully help you to better understand now as to why and how we, the deaf,  had experienced so many problems, including their origins, during the XIXth Deaflympic Summer Games held in Rome, Italy, between July 22 and August 1, 2001.

According to the story, Ammons blamed the Italians for the many  Games organization's woes, including these damned Public Address ( PA ) and electronic scoreboard systems' fiascos, while the Italians regarded her as "a persona-non-grata" because "Ammons had been rude and should not permitted to stay in Italy." Ammons was not very happy when she learned that the Italian hearing people ( not the deaf people ) took over in the Games Organizing Committee  ( the COL ). The Italian government , as the story mentioned , provided $6,000,000.00 earmarked for organizational expenses of the Games.

The above revelations, published in a deaf scholastic magazine, were a news!

No one in the CISS community, except John Lovett, Renzo Corti ( the CISS President and Vice President, respectively ) and perhaps few persons in the CISS Executive Committee, knew as to what actually went on inside between the Italians and the CISS, including Ammons, in Rome last year and that no one knew  exactly as to how much money the Italians invested in staging of the Games in 2001 ( the sum of  six million dollars  was the largest amount of money invested in organizing of  a  CISS-supervised Games in  the whole CISS history! ).

For the record, Ammons as the CISS Secretary General and frequent traveller to Rome had not shared the relevant  information  related to the CISS and the Games organization and its many problems she faced with the Italians  with the CISS Member Nations before, during and after the Games, especially via the now-defunct CISS Bulletin. Ammons, upon learning that the Italian non-deaf people's whole control  of the Games Organizing Committee, did not bother to disclose this hot item publicly. Instead, Ammons chose  to belatedly  reveal the important  items now via the deaf children-read publication!

By selling  herself  as "a hero" and good deaf image maker in the story, Ammons, however, was reluctant to tell   the "other side of the coin".

The Italians were very financially kind and  generous to Ammons ( also to Lovett ) by enabling Ammons to shuttle between her secluded  North Potomac, Maryland, USA residence and Italy's "Eternal City" - Rome a great deal of times in 2000 and 2001.

If Ammons was discontent and distrustful of the Italians, that is, she was tremendously annoyed at the way the all-hearing COL people were trying to organize the Games, then who did force Ammons to make extra trips as the CISS Secretary General to Rome?

For your information, the Deaflympic Games Rules 17 D. and  J. state the following,

"The Organizing Committee must pay one visit of the ( CISS ) Secretary General to the site of the Deaflympic Games approximately one year before the Games."

Thus, who obligated Ammons ( also Lovett ) to travel to Rome excessively and at the expense of  the already-disgraced  "scapegoats" - the Italians? What did Ammons accomplish  every time she visited Rome, especially before the Games' start? And most importantly, why did not Ammons ( also Lovett ) issue her detailed and immediate communication report of her every trip to Rome as well as  her truthful and open  sharing  of her trips' results - positive or negative - with all CISS Member Nations in the pages of the then  CISS Bulletin  or through her urgent communication  letter before the Games' start? What had made Ammons ( also Lovett ) to keep the vital information about the Games progress preparations  in secret, to herself and few other people only?

If you look at the pre-Games issues of the CISS Bulletin, the "ears and eyes" publication of the CISS ( Number 199, November 2000,  and Number 200, April 2001 ), there you would find a very scant  information - only an encouraging and positive news - related to the Rome Games' progress preparations. In addition, there was  no information related to the 2001 Games progress preparations, including as to what both Ammons and Lovett did  - failed or achieved in Rome -  during their numerous trips to that city before the start of the Games  on the widely and instantly-read CISS Website.

Thus, Ammons ( also Lovett ) failed to fulfil  her professional duties by keeping the CISS Member Nations in the dark and by not truthfully sharing everything in advance  related to the Games progress preparations, including their problems - minor or major -  with the COL and the FISS  ( the National Deaf Sports Association of Italy ) people,  with the concerned  CISS community.

On the other hand, recently, for instance,  we witnessed a very successfully-organized Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.

What was the key reason of such a huge success?

The answer is that the International Olympic Committee ( the IOC ) has created a special committee called the IOC Coordination Commission, which is led by an able supervisor Dennis Oswald of Switzerland. His Commission's principal task is to oversee and implement the progress preparation for the Games' organization, including site inspections, logistics, agreement  compliance and enforcements. The Oswald-headed Commission regularly keeps the IOC members  ( also  the media ) informed of the Games progress preparations in a timely fashion.  

Thanks to such a Commission, the Games in Salt Lake City went out smoothly. I  believe that under the watchful eyes of the same IOC Coordination Commission the next Olympic Summer Games in Athens, Greece, in 2004, will also be a success.

Why did not Lovett and Ammons do the same as the IOC does by having, let's say, the neutral and independent CISS Coordination Commission?

The problem, as I see,  with the CISS was and still is that both Lovett and Ammons          ( primarily because of their knowledge of  English language ), unlike the other non-English-speaking CISS Executive Committee  members,  were  and are still thinking  that they "own" the CISS. Therefore, the two amass everything in their own power ( that is, the two jointly run  and decide the daily CISS affairs by themselves only ). Their irresponsibly-appalling and medievally-autocratic  behavior prominently mirrors  the case of  Jerald Jordan, who between 1971 and 1995 was,  in fact, "a one-man ruler" of the CISS! The two, morever,  discreetly consider themselves as the Jordan cronies and dependents as Jordan, now a retiree and one of the three defendants in my lawsuit case, continues to serve each of them as their "top-rated and genial advisor".

As a result, when Jordan exited from the CISS  Presidency in 1995, he left the  world's oldest international disabled  sports organization, let me reiterate, for example, in the state of  information secrecy, stagnation and financial impoverishment!

The Ammons story, which has no name of its author, also revealed that  the Italians twice asked for Ammons' dismissal. Predictably, her closest colleague and staunch ally on the CISS Executive Committee, Lovett came out in her defense by threatening to leave the city of  Rome or the CISS, too,  in case Ammons would get removed.
Again, both Ammons and Lovett, the two CISS superiors, failed to publicly share this very sensitive, humiliating and unthinkable news - the possible Ammons dismissal - with the CISS Member Nations officials during the Games in Rome. It was unimageinably that, in practice, the diplomatic, intelligent and very hospitable Italians would go "over the head" of the CISS since the  Italians knew very well that the CISS was  the supreme authority of  the Games.

Was it possible that Lovett's words to leave Rome or the CISS along with Ammons  were just an intimidatedly cheap and oversimplifying  "talk show" threat?

Additionally, there was a very well-known fact that Ammons attended the 2001 Games as an official Secretary General of the internationally-neutral  CISS organization ( not as a private American citizen ). She journeyed  to Rome for the Games, again, at the expense of the Italian Games Organizing Committee ( not at her own expense or not at the expense of the American taxpayers ). Therefore, would it be journalistically appropriate  and fitting to headline Ammons'  recent WORLD AROUND YOU magazine story such as THE CISS SECRETARY GENERAL TAKES A STAND ON AN INTERNATIONAL PLAYING FIELD ( not  DEAF AMERICAN TAKES A STAND ON AN INTERNATIONAL PLAYING FIELD )?

Finally, throughout the story, Ammons  clearly and eloquently showcased herself as  a champion fighter for the equal and just rights of the deaf people.

"Empowerment is here to stay", that was how the Ammons story was concluded.

However, by using such lofty words like Empowerment or Deaf Empowerment, how can Ammons justify her these eye-catching remarks if :
1. she herself was the one who clandestinely encouraged and picked a hearing person ( and her former roommate ) to be the CISS Technical Director in Athletics during the recent Rome Games, and  
2. she herself was engaged in an undemocratically discriminatory scheme to remove one very strong deaf cause advocate and Uzbekistani-born versatile deaf sports expert from the CISS Executive Committee election position running in Rome?

Was there a two-faced  or double-standard approach by "a hero" of the recent WORLD AROUND YOU story?

Sportingly Yours,

Rafael Pinkhasov Pinchas

www.deafsportlawsuit.com