Loosely Connected Thoughts On The Olympics

[poliphilo]

1. Once every four years we take the temperature of planet Earth.

Every nation turns up. Every nation is watching. 

It's too big an event for governments to control, though- God knows- they try.

Interesting things- horrible and inspiring- will happen in spite of the wishes of government.


2. All governments are horrid. Some are more horrid than others. 

The Chinese government is almost certainly less horrid than it was in the days of Chairman Mao.

There's no way the governments of the USA and the UK can lecture China about Tibet while they still have troops in Iraq, etc, etc...

The Beijing Olympics has opened China up to the rest of world. This is almost certainly a good thing.


3. My Radio Times contains a guide to the Olympics. In every event it gives me the name of a "Brit to Watch". What a ugly phrase! What an ugly idea!

How lovely if it were all about youth, beauty, speed, strength, grace- but it's not. It's mainly about nationalism.

Those American athletes turning up in Beijing wearing face masks- what rank bad manners!

Flags and national anthems should be banned and athletes should compete as individuals. Fat chance!


4. The Bird's Nest stadium is really pretty. 

This icon of the new China was designed by Swiss architects. 

Lots of homes were demolished to free up the site. The displaced people say they have received no compensation. 

Ach- the moral complexity...

Comments

[wolfshift.livejournal.com]

In Canada, at every Olympics, we are subjected beforehand to predictions of how many medals Canadian athletes will "bring home", and afterward analysis of why they didn't do better. No matter how many times the athletes and coaches and a few commentators argue that the number of medals isn't the point and it's not a constructive attitude toward the Olympics and sport in general, the journalism media do it every time. And, inevitably, the analysis of why "our" athletes didn't bring home more gold medals comes down to insufficient funding, and then the country vows to fund amateur athletics better, and then promptly forgets about it until the next Olympic Games with the same analysis comes along.

[jackiejj.livejournal.com]

And rice farmers nearby were told not to grow rice for awhile, due to the need for water in Bejing, which uses much water and will need more for the olympics tourists.

I think the US team wearing masks is being provocative and tacky.

As for nationalism, our reptilian brains are still in control. "It's us against them," said Carl Sagan, "right down to the amoeba." I guess we'll have to be patient until we evolve. It was pointed out on a science program I saw that, if the period of time that life has been on earth could be condensed to a single year, then invertebrate life appeared in January and not until November did vertebrate life, in the form of fish with backbones, appear. Humans, of course, came even after that. We are still very young, but unfortunately we are primitive and violent and too smart--we know how to smelt and blow things up.

If Jesus wants to come back, now might be a good time.

[elegysostenuto.livejournal.com]

3.) What did you make of the apology? (the mask wearing athletes)

Think they were were backtracking or they honestly didn't expect an international incident?

This (http://www.reuters.com/article/GCA-Olympics/idUSPEK33436220080806?sp=true) article says that one became ill after visiting in December.

2.) Do you really think Iraq and Tibet are the same thing? I hadn't thought of it that way. Perhaps its mental temporizing but I see a difference in intent and scope. While I personally condemn the invasion and subsequent bumbling around in the sandbox, I'm not certain that it prevents the US from speaking out on Tibet.

Thanks for the points to consider. ^^

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Lots of homes were demolished to free up the site. The displaced people say they have received no compensation.

I doubt the poor bulldozed out of Paris by Baron Hauptmann were compensated much, either.

People often come second place to 'making things look nice'.

[wyrmwwd.livejournal.com]

I always used to love the Olympics as a child. Then, when I was in High School, one of my best friends won 3 gold medals. In fact, she was (and still is) a swimmer, and she was the person who taught me to swim!

In my 20s, the Olympics came to L.A. and I was very excited. However, sadly, the I didn't get to go to a single event. I had a partner then that didn't work who had a small child. Basically, I was "married with children". I wanted so badly to go, and I wanted so badly to take her son, but, even though I had a good job and worked like 60 hours a week, there was no way I could even come close to swinging it.

At that point, a lot of the shine of it got tarnished. Suddenly, all I could see was all the money that everyone was making on the deal, and how the experience is totally untouchable by most of the world. That kind of ruined it for me.

I still get excited about it, though, but I always feel like I am being seduced by a false lover whenever I do.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

The Olympics ARE political. They have always been, and are more so since the Hitler/Jesse Owens fiasco.

And you know, I am offended by your comment about bad manners. Perhaps it would have been better if the American contingent hadn't GONE to the Olympics, but since they did they have every right to draw attention to the air pollution. Pollution in China doesn't just STAY in China, you know.

I do agree with you about the Tibet/Iraq thing, though. And don't you believe for ONE SINGLE MOMENT that China is opened up to the rest of the world. We - the world, the press, whomever - will see exactly what 'they' want us to see. No more.

[nostoi.livejournal.com]

I skipped through the pages relating to the Olympics in the Radio Times, was much more interested in Boris Johnson's Turkish antecedents!

For the 2012 (or the 20 R as I read the awful logo!) allotments were cleared for some reason or other and the allotment holders were "compensated" very badly with a substandard area which is just about impossible to till.

Dead right about the UK and US lecturing others as if we were pure and innocent ourselves. Ack. Government's are pretty sickening things in the main, all about power masquerading as concern for the people. Bah.

If I were remotely interested in the Games I would be more into seeing other countries efforts than my own. There's so much to learn about other nations, why not take the opportunity to look outwards for a change.

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Why the brouhaha about American athletes wishing to breathe?
If a person smokes a cigarette anywhere in the vicinity of a non-smoker, it is almost a subject for litigation. Therefore, with the filthy air of Beijing, why not masks? It was not so long ago that Japanese were wearing masks in the streets of Tokyo because of air pollution.
In my opinion, the Olympic Games ought not to be held in Beijing at all!
I am well aware of the sins of my country, but I do not for one moment consider this to be one of them.

[manfalling.livejournal.com]

Baiting China serves no purpose at all. It's bad enough to so blatantly draw attention to something China is clearly sensitive about by wearing face-masks, but to actually suggest the US team should have stayed home?

China is desperate for respect- massively so. For the US to snub them so blatantly would severely damage Chinese-American relations, and either force China back into its protective shroud of dictatorial communism, or push America way out of the international limelight- allowing other countries to get on with networking while the US sits this round out.

Stamping on China now will do no good at all. They're getting better- isn't that obvious? They're trying. But you can't expect everything to change overnight. That's like going on a first date then getting into a fight about who'll do the washing up. First you have to build the relationship, build shared experience, and most of all build trust.

Stunts like face-masks, and even making a lot of noise about Tibet- will only serve to keep that trust from happening, keep the relationship from building, and ultimately destroy any chance the US and others will have to influence China away from the policies of theirs we disapprove of.