Gentlemen, start your remote controls…
Cats: Uncategorized|From now until Aug 24, it will be All Olympics All the Time. I’ve been waiting for this day a long time.
And now it’s here.
I support protests around human rights, bloated budgets, smog, and rampant commercialization replacing the Olympic spirit. And I do happen to think that the Olympics and politics are inseparable.
How could they not be linked? The athletes wear the national flag and receive funding from governments. To say politics and the Olympics are not connected is naive.
It’s too bad that Canada’s government rolled over on this opportunity to issue a verbal protest at least. Even George W did that - before he flew to China to attend the games.
Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper protested by not attending. As much as he would like to think this will make a statement on the international stage during one of the biggest international events there is, Canada’s silent protest will be a mere bleep on the international radar, if it’s noticed at all.
Sorry Stephen, but the rest of the world just isn’t that into you!
But now it is time to watch the games. And the artistry. And the culture and history. You do learn a lot about the host country, even if it’s through a filter of authority approval.
It won’t change my opinion of China or its ways. And watching is not tacit support.
It’s just time to appreciate the event itself and its participants who aren’t guilty of human rights abuses.
Is is possible to have one’s cake and eat it too with the 2008 Beijing Olympics?
August 8th, 2008 at 10:45 am
The navel gazing PMO are so stunned that they don’t see that by not attending Harper is actually insulting the Chinese, which will make the Chinese inclined to dismiss him (and rightly so). If he showed up and stated his mind, at least they would respect him, if not agree with him. For the PMO to exhibit such a fundamental lack of understanding about Chinese culture, particularly the importance of saving face, further reinforces the impression that these guys are ut of their depth on the international stage … and in this case they surprisingly aren’t following the lead of George W, even though in this case they should have!!! What an effing bunch of morons!!
August 8th, 2008 at 11:20 am
I’m a sucker for the Olympics. I love the whole she-bang.
August 8th, 2008 at 11:34 am
I like the winter olympics. I don’t enjoy running and tumbling and all that nonsense. Although the pole vault is pretty damn cool.
August 8th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
I’m not exactly sure when the athletes started representing countries instead of just themselves in the Olympics. I do remember when the newspapers here in the US during the cold war actually used to track the Eastern Bloc medal count vs. the “West”. That got messed up when the East started using all those performance enhancing drugs, something that WEstern athletes would never consider…..Hmmmm….that does seem like a long long time ago :}
August 8th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
Hey your Herald column is not showing up!
Much as I am concerned about all the missed opportunities to make a political statement during these Olympics, all my worries are overridden by the butt-ugliness of the Canadian uniforms. We’ll be laughing stocks!
August 8th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Very interesting Francseso. I think we in the west have much to learn. We are such navel-gazers, especially here in the Americas, the N. Americas.
Dr. Monkey, I thought you would tut tut me for being such an olympic keener.
Becks, but Michael Johns is from Australia, one of the summer Olympic power houses, I’m shocked you misse that link.
Chance, so true, are we become more individualist in our nationalism now that the wall has fallen.
Barbara, thanks, wrong link, oops, and yes yes yes, the canadian uniforms are so bad - its embarrassing. I will blog on that