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 Click here to continue reading »”Beijing Olympics – A Sad Sign Of The Times”