Mo Farah isn’t who he says he is

[SnottyLottie]

news.sky.com/story/sir-mo-farah-reveals-the-truth-about-how-he-came-to-the-uk-12650126

My mind is actual blown after reading that. Poor man to have to go through such an ordeal. I wonder what ever happened to the real Mohammad Farah? ☹️

Hope this doesn’t effect his citizenship or anything.

Yes, but some people are talking about this lie as if he did something bad. As if he was dishonest is a deliberately nasty way and as if it defines him as a liar.

This lie is very different from say, the American raised Hilary Baldein pretending to be Hilaria, a Spanish person who couldn't remember the English word for cucumber.

There is dishonesty because you're a dishonest person trying to live a fake life for the wrong reasons and then there is dishonesty about being a child who was trafficked.

Bullets didn't work but you get the idea!

Yes because it would mean i sensed something was wrong. Once they told me their actual story it would make sense.

If an abused woman was telling you she was fine would you think it was great that you didn't realise there was more to it?

Christ, @ancientgran have you no empathy?

It would be nice if someone in authority said that it was a privilege to have Sir Mo as a citizen?

Having a black husband/ wife/ friend, whatever, does not mean that you cannot be racist. Your words will reveal your subconscious/ conscious racism for you.

But I didn't say there was anything bad about it. I said before this came out I always felt there was something not right, or off, about how he talked about things, how he presented. He did what he did to survive, to stay where he was safe as many refugees have done throughout history. The situation is bad not them but sensing there was something behind his story isn't saying he was bad but pretending he didn't tell a lie, make up a story, feed us some bullshit isn't realistic is it. He says he was living a lie and I guess he should know.

Hope Mo is doing ok today

Yes sensing there was something more behind his story means I'm being racist, or maybe it means I'm more tuned in to what is going on with someone than you are.

You are making out like you are so much better than me but you weren't sensitive enough to what he was saying to realise there was something more going on. Maybe your the one with a problem.

Why would you think that sensing something is wrong means I have no empathy? It is the opposite isn't it, I sensed something you didn't.

Do you think it shows great empathy when an abused/trafficked woman smiles and says it's all good or when you sense she isn't oK. Obviously I couldn't ask him if he was really OK, but with the woman I would. I helped a young colleague escape from an abusive relationship which she kept denying because I sensed something more was going on. Chatted to her, she was eventually able to tell me what was going on and I found her accommodation and moved her out. I think that was alot more useful than just saying "she says she's fine"

But I'll go now as this is a fairly typical MN pile on so you can all glory in the fact that you never sensed something was wrong because you have such empathy.

This is a very, very sad story. He was one of the lucky ones, he was 'only' a slave in a family, not abused in other ways. I can't imagine how many other children are out there now in much, much worse conditions.

@ancientgran

But 'bullshit' is a loaded term. Saying he told a load of bullshit shows your disdain for the story he used.

You're not calling it a lie, which is just a fact and has all sorts of reasons behind it. You called, and have continued to call, it bullshit. Which just comes with a feeling of nastiness towards him for it.

I've been horrified by some of the responses on here.

Some people need to take a good, hard look at themselves in see if they can find the compassion that they appear to have mislaid.

You should give up with ancientgran and her racist ass. She's back-pedalling hard now but everyone sees it.

I remember teaching some of the first refugees from Somalia in my first year of teaching in London. Two brothers who were known by the school to be older than they said who were put into a yr 9 class and had to study Romeo and Juliet. Gentle lads they must have been so bewildered and as an NQT I was out of my depth really.

The story I heard was that they escaped with their parents but the father went back for the sister and both were killed. Once they were over 18 they could be called back for military service.

i think Somalia had completely collapsed at that point. I don’t know how they coped.

22 years later I taught a Syrian refugee. In terms of awareness, things have improved - there was more support from other parents, etc but in terms of practical help I think there were still difficulties - for example with language. I used to use Google translate to explain things to the parents who I then found out were illiterate.

I would say that, given the chance all of those boys are just desperate to get going - earn money, work, utilise their energy to help their family. We do support that with free university for refugees but that works with the ones where there is transparency. With someone like young Mo, the options were blocked from his grasp by the family that took him in and frightened him into servitude.

I remember reading that he knew by playing up at school he would be referred to a system that had better facilities and a more focused path to get school boys through the teenage years. He saw a chance and took it and I hope that the government asks his advice on community issues for refugees and he can help identify issues for them that could help other children.

Christ, @ancientgran have you no empathy?

Why would you think that sensing something is wrong means I have no empathy? It is the opposite isn't it, I sensed something you didn't

You didn't sense anything, you have never met him in RL to pick on anything he may have said or not or those little nuances, you saw some TV interviews after races, heavily edited etc.

What you picked up on was his skin colour/an immigrant name and you took a instant dislike to him.

Fair enough free country an all that but be honest with yourself.

So when you helped this young abuse victim @ancientgran (did ye, aye? )
did you describe her as “feeding” everyone “bullshit”? I doubt it.

According to you, you pulled your colleagues up for saying MF was great (you knew better), MF “makes your defences go up”, there’s something “not right about him” and he “feeds everyone bullshit”. And this appalling nastiness is all because you’re so sensitive and a great empath, unlike everyone else here who is actually being understanding and sympathetic towards MF.

When describing yourself swap empathetic and sensitive for discriminatory, judgemental, and deluded, and you’ll be a bit closer to the mark.

Absolutely! How awful it must have been to carry the weight of that secret around all his life too.

'I'm really struggling to understand the viewpoint of anyone saying that His story makes them feel uncomfortable about him now.

He didn't do anything wrong.

He was a young child, taken from his country, forced into slavery, having to work for his food, neglected and uncared for.'

I wonder if what actually makes them uncomfortable is the fact that slavery still exists in modern Britain. Easier to turn a blind eye to that isn't it.

I've seen some awful comments on FB about how he should have 'come clean earlier'. I just don't get what people think has happened here?! He was trafficked and exploited as a young child and the authorities were made aware. It's as though he has committed some sort of poor sportsmanship like claiming to have another identity to gain an advantage rather than having spoken up in his own time about his childhood trauma, which he was not obliged to do at all but it could hopefully be helpful in raising awareness that he has. I hope he isn't reading those sorts of comments.

@ParanoidGynodroid

I was referring to your quote, I wrote

"With all due respect, if they don't want the public to discuss, then why come out with their history.?" Not weather it was today yesterday or at all.

you seemed to be debating with another poster about why they should or should not be debating a persons private life, but then if it's in public's domain, then people.will discuss the matter.

in conclusion
why explain at all about his personal history, if people are not ment to discuss it.
that was the point I was trying to make.

@Alexandra2001

But but her husband is black so she can't have any conscious or unconscious racism...

Btw that's is the new my best friend is black so.... 🙄

He wasn’t actually trafficked, that makes it out that strangers took him. It’s common in Somali culture (and many other cultures) to pass a relative child as your own so they can eventually help out their family back home. His own relatives brought him over as a favour to his mum, perhaps they didn’t treat him that well and he was fostered. But I wouldn’t call it trafficking, I’ve seen many with a different name at home or much younger age than their real age or having the surname of a relative that passed them as his kids when he is their uncle etc.

I've just seen him again on the news and I hope, now he has told his story, he will look less anxious. I would like to know exactly how he came to start school and the reaction of the people he first lived with/worked for when that happened. Did they allow him to go to school? The programme tomorrow might tell me but I wouldn't be sure that it will.

It was trafficking, he was made to work.