Beijing Olympics – A Sad Sign Of The Times
At the end of this past school year, I helped organize a school-wide “Olympics Day” where numerous sporting and recreational activities were set up with the various grades assigned to participate in the activities at different times during the day. As the school wanted to do something different this year, I suggested this activity as a way to celebrate this being an Olympic year. Of course, given how it was my suggestion, they knew this would mean they’d have some fresh blood helping to organize this year’s event. And so, as you can imagine, it was an easy sell.
And yet, while we were planning out this day of activities, I couldn’t help but feel some trepidation that we’d encounter resistance from some parents about the school carrying out an activity celebrating this Olympic year. After all, we’ve all seen and read about the protests that occurred in numerous countries during the Olympic Torch Relay, some being so hostile and dangerous to the torch relay runners like the one in Paris, where they actually had to extinguish the flame. Most of these protests focused on China, the host country for this year’s Summer Olympics, and their appalling human rights record as well as the on-going conflict over Tibet. However, the protests didn’t remain limited to these issues for very long as other protest groups soon joined in chanting against various issues ranging from China’s support for Sudan to the status of Taiwan. This dramatic rise across the globe of protesters using this Olympic event as a platform for political/social protest has even become a serious concern for the organizers of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, who have already had to deal with anti-poverty protesters at one of their first pre-Olympic celebration events.
Regardless of what the social/political issue is that has these protesters out on the streets, the simple fact is that the Olympics is not the venue for such conduct or behaviour. This is an event designed to celebrate the world of sport, a time when all participants are expected to put aside their differences and compete against others in the name of good sportsmanship and competition. And just as how many of us would disapprove of an athlete taking advantage of the medal podium as an opportunity to voice their own personal opinions on various issues, so too should we frown upon those who attempt to steal the spotlight of this event from those who rightfully deserve it – the athletes who’ve spent the last four years of their lives planning and working for this one moment – so that they can air whatever ill feelings they might have toward a particular country or group of people.
I also can’t help but feel that a little bit of hypocrisy is going on here in regards to all these protests over China hosting this year’s Olympics. After all, where was the world’s outrage when China was in contention to land the Games seven years ago and especially when Beijing easily beat such cities as Toronto, Paris, and Moscow for this event? Aside from the various protest groups that have been fighting for Tibet or human rights in China, the awarding of the Olympics to Beijing was met with polite congratulations followed by silence from the world populace. So, if seven years ago this wasn’t a hot-button issue for the world, why then is it now? Perhaps it’s more a resentment for their economic success and vitality at a time when our own economies are teetering on the edge? Who knows and in the end, it simply doesn’t matter. We had the chance to let the IOC know how we’d feel about a country like China hosting the Olympics and we kept our collective mouths shut. To demand our athletes or countries now boycott these Games mere months before it starts is not only selfish, it’s absurd. Sure for us, the passive viewer of these Games, it’s easy to suggest such a measure so that we can all feel good about ourselves, that we took a stand against China’s human rights violations. But what about the athletes who’ve spent the last 4-5 years of their lives practicing and working toward this one moment, because in the end, it’s them, not the Chinese government, who’ll be penalized. It should also be interesting to see what the international viewership for these Games will be given that there are apparently so many vehemently against it. My suspicion is that the Beijing Games will match the viewership levels of previous games, if not exceed them slightly. After all, controversy does breed curiosity.
There’s also the potential downside that if protests against host countries becomes a recurring aspect of carrying the Olympics, many countries might reconsider submitting bids for future Olympic Games since whatever monetary gain they’d accrue from hosting the Games might pale against the public relations nightmare of having your country’s dirty laundry aired on the international stage.
In the end, I hope our world collectively remembers what the spirit of the Olympics is all about – “to build a peaceful and better world in the Olympic Spirit which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play”. That and the well known adage that there’s a time and place for everything.
As for our school’s “Olympics Day” – well, the rain held off long enough for the kids to have a wonderful day at the park participating in their own Olympics and by the end of the day, many of them were asking if they were going to be able to participate in this kind of event again next year. In other words, it was a resounding success. Let’s hope that the athletes who attend this year’s Summer Olympics will also be afforded the chance to enjoy their moment that they’ve worked so long for. I don’t think anyone could argue that they deserve anything less than that.
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I finally decided to write a comment on your blog. I just wanted to say good job. I really enjoy reading your posts.
“There’s also the potential downside that if protests against host countries becomes a recurring aspect of carrying the Olympics, many countries might reconsider submitting bids…”
Hi there, I think it is true that this can happen. But honestly, I think the mistake was made when the games went to Beijing. It was the Chinese leadership that decided to take the “sacred flame” to the top of the Himalaya, it was one of their officials who made a speech in Tibet during an Olympic ceremony about “smashing the separatist plot of the Dalai Lama Clique completely”, and it is their idea to turn these not-so-innocent games into a medal-superpower show. Maybe one of the reasons for the politicisation is that news travel so fast now, and that people get excited a lot easier than in the past. But everything in China is politicised. What followed overseas is just a rather logical consequence.
the chinese have had no scruples about using the olympics as a platform. what is more absurd than a country with such an abyssmal human rights record hosting an event whose charter includes “respect for universal ethical principles?”
I think that taking sporting events to countries with a poor human rights record is nothing new, and after all, the Olympic Games are pretty much about commerce and career now.
But I think that no other country in recent times has gone as far as China in nationalising and politicising the Games. And to complain about demonstrations against the torch relay, as many Chinese do, is hypocritical.
But emulating the behaviour and conduct of those you’re criticizing is not hypocritical? And again, where were all these protesters seven years ago when Beijing was on its way to winning these Games?
While I agree that a country with a human rights record like China should never have been awarded the Games in the first place, the fact is that the deed has been done and the focus should now be on the athletes. To use the Olympics to further your own agenda against China is no different than China using it to push their propaganda.
Personally, I’ll be taking the high road and focusing instead on cheering the athletes and their accomplishments at this next edition of the Games.
Tanveer, there we differ, too. I think the problem wasn’t giving the Games to a country with a poor human rights record. The problem was that the Games were given to a government that abuse them for shows like this one – “Torch Will Burn on Mount Everest”.
As far as I know, the unlucky torch relay and all the stuff that Beijing likes to refer to as “politicising the Olympic games” came after that. I can understand your complaints, but I find the Chinese governments demands to keep the Olympic Games unpolitical very funny.