Lynnsey is handling my addiction with remarkable fortitude. Most of you may not know I've been addicted to the Olypmics since I was a wee lad. I've been glued to NBC since last Friday's opening ceremonies the way I was glued to the Tour de France through most of July (sorry babe :-). Phelps & Co. are amazing and the US mens gymnastics guys rose to the occasion admirably a couple of nights back. I can't get enough!!
When I think of the Olympics the picture in my mind's eye is the ideal of the olympic movement - the expression of humanity that radiates from fair and sportsmanlike competition between the best athletes in the world. The Olympic charter says it best: "The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity."
The embrace of the beach volleyball players from Georgia and Russia before they did battle on the sand court in Beijing yesterday is the latest example of how the Olympics embodies that ideal.
There is, unfortunately, a commercial parasite - also called the Olympics - that feeds on this positive energy. Big Business and Big Government see Big Bucks when they think of the Olympics. That vibe is decidely phony and the synicism it promotes poisons the true Olympic spirit. Yuck!!
Maybe I'm biased (by my naive idealistic tendencies :-)) but it seems like this time around the negative vibe has been even worse than in the past due to the selection of China as the host country. Don't get me wrong, I've got no beef with the Chinese masses but I do with their apparatchik overloards.
The Chinese government has turned Beijing into an enormous Potemkin Village, a sad display of life behind the curtain. I can understand playing good hosts to the world but I think it stinks when you go so far as to pull a Milli Vanilli with an 8-year-old little girl because she is "too ugly" to represent the country. Does that demonstrate China is a "society concerned with the preservation of human dignity"? Do they play the rest of the world for fools? Too bad they couldn't find the courage to respect the diginity of this girl by celebrating her genuine beauty and her wonderful voice...
The funny thing and one of the unitended consequences - both at home in China and around the world - may be that people see the true face of China. This article in the Washington Post this morning was pretty interesting: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/12/AR2008081203262.html?hpid=topnews... I hope that people celebrate the good vibe of the Olympics - it would be a shame for them not to enjoy the spirit of the games - but I also hope they see the Olympic parasite and its Chinese host for what they really are - a sham. I shudder to imagine these guys as a superpower at the help of world politics.
-R
3 comments:
I have been watching everything too. I saw every single one of Michael Phelps swims, the gymnastics, the volleyball and the waterpolo. I even stay up at night till 1 in the morning because that is when it is all live.
Did you know that most of the fireworks were fake too?!
~Emma~(your also olympic obsessed cousin)
It's nice to have some evidence that I haven't "done away with Ryan" on here!
The whole sports-watching thing is ok, although if I wasn't pregnant with your child I might be concerned by your urge to watch so many men in skimpy spandex.
For those of us who don't use words as big as Ryan does(i.e., my mom, etc.)...
Apparatchik-"is a Russian colloquial term for a full-time, professional functionary of the Communist Party or government; i.e., an agent of the governmental or party "apparat" (apparatus) that held any position of bureaucratic or political responsibility, with the exception of the higher ranks of management."
Hi Ry - I couldn't agree more with your sentiments. The 2008 Beijing Olympics are such a dichotomy in many ways.
I actually blogged about the little girl's milli vanilli tactics myself. Experiencing China is quite something to absorb. Makes me realize how lucky we are!
K
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