Olympic Issues

"We should not politicize the Olympics." Something to that effect gets said by some ICO higher-up anytime anyone questions the decision to award (reward?) China with the Olympics. But I don't think anyone is buying it. It's so obvious that the IOC is just trying to cover its hide after making a piss-poor decision to hand the Games, which are supposed to symbolize the best of the human spirit, to a country determined to do everything it can to trample said human spirit.

Even those of us with the shortest historical memory can take a look back and see that the Olympics have always been highly political. Was Hitler's use of the Games in 1936 not political? Were the Russian and American boycotts not political? Was the banning of South Africa from the Games for its refusal to condemn apartheid not political? Was the banning of Germany and Japan from the 1948 Games as "punishment" for being the aggressors of World War II not political?

Short answer: They were all political. The fact that athletes compete for their country is political. The process of awarding the Olympic Games to a city is political. Nearly every freaking thing about the Olympics is political. So I for one thinks the IOC needs to step up and start explaining.

Should, however, they stick with the party line, I think there's a bigger question to be asked and that is whether human rights are "political. " In my opinion, human rights are above politics. Defending human rights is not about what political system I believe in, it's a statement of belief in the value and dignity of human life.

And China is right up there with the big boys of human rights violations. The Chinese people are terribly oppressed. They are denied the right to free speech, living in fear of saying anything negative about the government. They are denied a free press and unfettered access to the Internet. They are even denied freedom over their own reproduction. Others, including those in Tibet, are denied the right to autonomy.

Now China isn't the lone bad boy of the world. Human rights violations are taking place all over the globe, including here in our own backyards. But we're not plying most major human rights violators with billions of dollars, rewarding them with a global stage as they give the world---and more importantly, their own citizens---a big middle finger.

But, at this point, what is to be done? The Opening Ceremonies are four months and one week away. All the talk about boycotting this or boycotting that is just talk---a way for other countries to pat themselves on the back and say they really pondered the issue while doing nothing in the end. And why, I wonder? I imagine we'd be up in arms if the Games were awarded to say Cuba. But China, and we all whisper among ourselves, but then smile politely when the host comes around. Why is that? Something about money maybe, and trade relations, and our pitiful dependence on China to supply way too many of our goods (especially considering the ridiculously poor health and safety standards they maintain and the way their workers are treated). Right, I almost forgot.

Hmm, looks like it ends up right back at politics after all.

(Also, on a semi-related note, does China not have any idea what Tiananmen Square conjures up for the rest of the world? I find it so odd that it's the setting for their big torch lighting ceremony, because all I can think of is the extreme violence perpetrated by a government against its citizens as they peacefully protested.)