Pretty on the Outside

I know the global economic crisis has hit the world of sports hard (poor NASCAR boys have been reduced to driving around in a fluorescent-green Garnier Fructis-mobile!). But I still can't help but pause when I see the ATP -- and WTA(!!!) -- so desperate to follow the money that they continue to rim the ass of places like Qatar. When I was a kid, tennis players -- and musicians and other people with a conscience -- would readily boycott playing in South Africa and other oppressive nations. But 30 years later most -- including Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal -- seem to have no problem getting rich in the land of Sharia law. And that this continues even after Shahar Pe'er was prevented from playing in a tournament in nearby Dubai (another great place for women) because she's a Jew makes it all the more disenchanting.