LESSONS FROM THE PAST

Under this post, you will find an intact circular sent to ASPA(Vic) members in 2011. Now, hindsight wisdom tells me that I should have never tried to communicate collectively, by email or otherwise, with this mostly uninformed mob.

The Associations Incorporation Act 1981 has since been replaced by the Associations Incorporation Reform Act 2012. If you have a good look at the two acts, you would feel as if the reforms made were fashioned on my scrabble court case against the committee of ASPA (Vic). There must have been a multitude of offensive misconduct committed by committees of other incorporated associations, that made reform necessary. But whatever the case may be, the committee of ASPA (Vic) stand out as the most likely candidates for ‘taking the cake’.

After the dust settled, the informed minority remain informed and the ignorant majority remain ignorant. The last resort for the remaining remnants of the 2008 committee (5 members out of the current 9) is to desperately hang on to their contrived cheating story, relying on the fact that the unknowing are happy to believe the unbelievable and ignore the testimony of GW. To refute the cheating allegations, I don't rely on my own recollection of the silly story. I rely on GW, being an accidental eye witness, who happened to be the TD at the time.

Incidentally, relations with GW have since soured because of me divulging what he thought should have been a confidential conversation. Nevertheless, GW belongs to the dignified honest type who would never deny what he told me, if you corner him and ask him directly about it. His only confusing problem is his desire to remain on good terms with all culprits. This is certainly not my problem. As the Americans would say, 'i dont give a rats ass' about them. They erred, lied, denied and never apologised. Any smart alec member of ASPA on a national level, like GL from WA, can try to stretch their limited imagination and think of being in my place. But that is too hard, verging on the impossible for most.

I am happy with the small number of ASPA members who became very close friends. I will simply ignore the rest. If you happen to be in the grey area by mistake and would wish to be out of it, the onus is on you to take the first step, I am not going to take it.

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Here is the  2011  intact circular, including text colours:

I really feel a bit embarrassed that I have to continue forwarding similar messages to such a large number of ASPA members. However, I also feel that keeping you informed is quite beneficial for our association in the long term. It might teach members of some committees that their presumed power over members is also subjected to common law. It teaches tournament directors how to act or react in certain situations. It teaches us members how to guard our rights and to be fully aware of our obligations towards our fellow members. I strongly believe that when the dust of this case settles, a few of us, not excluding myself, will become wiser.

Since my last circular, I received email responses from two members, to which I responded as follows:

Dear Mohammed,

It sounds very clear to me by your own rendition of the events, that you are a trouble-maker of the highest calibre. I resent the fact that you have deigned to forward to me this diatribe concerning your obvious efforts to destabilise a wonderful Association. Whether you cheated or not, is the very least of the concerns as far as I can determine. Your ungallant and chivalrousness behaviour toward respected, elderly members of the Scrabble Players Association is enough to attract a life-time ban in my opinion. I also resent the fact that you have somehow attained my personal email address in an attempt to influence me with your blatant propaganda.
 

The fact that you wish to pursue a course of action that will lead to court action, further illuminates your troublesome nature to which I can only add my complete condemnation. Had you not have forwarded this material I may have given you the benefit of the doubt, but it is glaringly obvious that you are portrayed in exactly the correct light by the crystal clear testimonies from reputable members. The odds were stacked against you, and instead of taking it on board with good grace, you have foolishly mounted a losing campaign against an Association I love and admire, once more showing your true colours. I wish you the very worst in your endeavours and thank you to refrain from any further communication to my personal email address.
 

Josef Peeters.

My Reply:

Dear Josef,

I am terribly sorry that your email inadvertently found its way to my emailing list. It must have been copied from an old scrabble emailing list. You possibly were an active member of the scrabble community, before my time as a scrabble player. I don’t think that I have ever known or met you, regardless of the fact that your message is trying to tell me that you think you do know much about me.

Anyway, I am glad we never met. Your email address has been removed from my emailing list. The word “unsubscribe”, instead of your uninformed diatribe, could have achieved the same result.

Mohammed Hegazi

On 11 October 2011 16:14, Mary McMahon wrote:

G'day Mohammed,

We have never had an unpleasant encounter during a game or at any other time.

However, I have several times driven home with my elderly passengers complaining bitterly about the way you had treated them during their games.  Unfortunately the people who are most vulnerable to standover tactics (and I'm sorry but that is what it amounted to as far as they were concerned) are the very people who will not be able to stand up to be counted just by the fact of the very timidity that left them open to distress.  No I am not going to give you their names and in fact some of them are no longer able to play competitively (and just to be clear I am in no way blaming you for that).


Mohammed, I find it very difficult to speak about racial or social differences so please believe that I am trying very hard not to be offensive.  Harry made a point in his email to all the members that rang a bell with me.  He spoke about "difference" which I could only interpret as relating to your background.  Having been bullied at work for years when I was vulnerable to depression after a work injury I agree that being ostracised is devasting personally.  Having said that, I do wonder if your background has led you to treat women differently to what is the accepted norm in Australia now and I don't seem to have heard of many incidents with men.  This is the reason why it had to be a secret ballot to allow everyone to have a say, if they wanted to, without fear of reprisal.  And after all, with all government elections from local to federal being by secret ballot I don't see that us having one could be construed as offensive.

But Katie's behaviour I can also understand.  I have some times regretted not speaking out at the time about things I have seen at work or socially (not at Scrabble) and I can appreciate that it can weigh on her enough to finally have to speak up about it.

I hope we can continue to exchange a pleasant few words when we meet at tournaments.

Mary

* I believe that under distress, Mary meant to write the word “devastating”, rather than “devasting”, the latter word would surely bounce off Zyzzyva.

My reply:

Hi Mary,

I am really astonished and rather saddened by your stated or inferred negative remarks. If you personally did not have any unpleasant encounters with me, why do you flatly assume and believe that I have a different attitude towards women? Every story has two sides to it. Why are you so willing to believe only one side?

Any incidence of unpleasant attitude towards a scrabble player, man or woman, would be in the case of persistent cheating. Every case had its own circumstances. The majority of players I competed against happen to be women. Therefore, the majority of people who tried to cheat against me were women. Since you are referring to anonymous hearsay, I cannot be any more specific.

I checked my tournament records and could not single out women who have since given up playing. Check again with your misleading sources.

You make it sound like I would threaten women! My side of the stories you heard is detailed here:

http://scrabbledetective.blogspot.com/

I am not aware of what Harry circulated about me. As far as I know, Harry is offended by the stand of the Committee who falsely accused me of cheating. He is using my case as an example in order to revise the constitution for the purpose of incorporating legally valid methods of handling alleged cheating. My court case against Scrabble Victoria is a separate issue that has nothing to do with Harry's work.

Finally:

“But Katie's behaviour I can also understand.  I have some times regretted not speaking out at the time about things I have seen at work or socially (not at Scrabble) and I can appreciate that it can weigh on her enough to finally have to speak up about it.”

Are you inferring that Katie Rowe saw me cheat and was distressed?

Mohammed