I don't know if what you see in terms of country representation isn't so much political as it is a reflection of interests, logistics, and economics.
First, this WAS - after all - an ALL OKINAWA tournament. Not likely to see Korea represented. Same for Japan. The fact that there weren't very many Okinawans there is likely due more to economics than anything else. Having been there, I can tell you they would have cleaned up in a number of the categories. We had some good people there, but not all brackets were highly competitive. One kata division only had two participants!!
Second, each country has its own level of interest in this kind of activity. I have a personal hypothesis on this... I think countries like Canada that have oppressive gun control laws and/or fewer competing sports will likely have a very strong interest in TRADITIONAL martial arts. There are so many distractions in the United States that pull good people away from practicing traditional arts. And the practice has waxed and waned with all the fads that come and go, and all the movies/TV that give it exposure (or not).
Third, each country has its own way of going about an activity like this. When Bruce Hirabayashi went to set up a Uechi school in Germany, he found them to be almost comically organized about everything. He did a kind of "Parks and Recreation" model there, which takes advantage of some government funds and the German way of organizing everything. We noted that countries like Brazil - very well represented at the tournament - actually had corporate sponsorship. All the team members had warm-up suits with Bell South on the back. Frankly I thought the Brazilians were the best organized of any country. The US did well because it was their home court.
Finally, I found it interesting to note that the obsession with NHB fighting and "reality" fighting didn't stop the Brazilians from showing up with a top-notch, traditional Shorin Ryu team that kicked butt. Consider that Brazilian jiu-jitsu is the latest NHB fad. It sure didn't stop the traditionalists from doing very well - far from home.
As for Europe and Asia, well it was represented, but in small numbers and pretty much by individual financing. There were two competitors representing Greece, but they were visitors to the US and have been working out in Gary Khoury's dojo. We even had a few competitors from some Arab nations. But none of the big European countries were there. Oh well...
I have an attitude about events like this. If you didn't show up, you don't count. "Could have" and "would have" doesn't mean squat. The winners were the ones who had the courage, the discipline, and the organization to show up and make it or break it on the mat. Everyone else ***** until they can prove otherwise under identical conditions.
- Bill
