The WaPo lately has been running some robust op-ed critiques of the upcoming Beijing Games (here is one), and I see another now. This one rips into the idea being spread by various Olympic cheerleaders that the Games are an inappropriate venue for expressing dissent, opposition, protest, etc.
You can get to it by clicking on this blurb from it:
"The Olympic Games are not the place for demonstrations." Aren't they? Actually, the Olympics seem an ideal place for demonstrations.
Well, the 2008 Games are already shaping up to be very interesting indeed -- and you do recall that old curse, don't you? MAY YOU LIVE IN INTERESTING TIMES. (Of course, I don't mean to direct the curse at *you,* gentle reader!)
1 comment:
I think it's the IOC which is getting the bloody nose. There has been a certain - hostility expressed at the idea of another Olympics being staged in North America. Due to the debacles in Atlanta and Solt Lake City, no doubt.
The Canadians raised the ire of certain very powerful members of the IOC by having the temerity to officially challenge the results of a certain figure-skating medal award some years ago - and winning their appeal! Mon Dieu! Sacre Bleu! Obviously the jumped-up little canucks were getting above their status in life and supported by the chief fascists themselves....
This leaves us with a problem, Olympic Diversity. As much as we may wish we could do so, a wold championship cannot be held every year in a single continent. People might peek at the makeup of the Executive boad of the IOC and commit such lese majeste as suggesting an name change - to the EOC.
So one needs an Olympic site outside Europe every 8 years and it cannot be in North America. Which pretty much limits the choices to Australia, Japan, South Korea, and China. Australia and SK are already taken and China is a potential ally against the warmongers and the cheeky little arrivistes so the Board jumped into the new alliance.
In future I think the EOC (er IOC) should reconsider it;s policy of diversity and just award the Summer Olympics on a rotating rostra of favored European cities. Paris, Bruxelles, Rome, Berlin (oh fond memories), and Madrid should all get their chance before reconsidering the Facists.
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