The Wondering Mind

That’s the headline I expect to read in any and every respectable newspaper in the U.S., if the press were actually doing their job any more.

I just sat through watching some old guy, who I can only imagine has gone senile, presenting what he thought was some touching hommage to the “Olympic spirit”, while Bob Costas sat there with that perennial smug grin on his face. What a load of bollocks.

This guy (not going to call him a “reporter”) presented a piece about how the Olympics represented peace and harmony throughout history, which ironically spent most of the opening part of the film on scenes of the German Olympic team during the Berlin games opening ceremony, goose-stepping into the stadium and presenting the Nazi salute to Hitler.

Unless that was the work of some subversive editor, it illustrated the complete selling out long ago of any Olympic ideals the event may have had at one point and exposed the naked hypocrisy and condescension of NBC in presenting something so obsequious to the games and to China.

For those who actually watched this travesty of reporting, the Russian and Georgian pistol shooters, whose actions are indeed admirable, have been friends for years, as they started competing together while Georgia and Russia were still part of the U.S.S.R. Granted, in this day and age when neighbours turn on neighbour and friends denounce each other at times of conflict, that these women refused to abandon their friendship is heart warming. But there’s no reason to think that the Olympics had any positive role to play here.

In the same BBC report of this scene, we get two examples of other members of the Olympics squads, from both countries, engaging in bellicose rhetoric. And today we hear reports of the spat between the Russian and Georgian teams in women’s beach volleyball.

The one thing that Bob Costas and friend did point out, in a clearly snide remark (I have no idea why these men were so miffed about it), is that the Georgian team do appear to have obtained Georgian passports primarily to compete in the games. And in what must count as the most crass comment to be uttered by anyone at an Olympic game, one of the Russian players taunted the winning Georgian team by saying,

“If they are Georgian they would certainly have been influenced (by world events), but certainly they are not.”

Forget good sportsmanship. How about not being possibly the worst sore loser in history?

No doubt NBC is anxious to get their pound of flesh from having bought the rights to the games and do not want the coverage spoiled with negative stories. GE, the parent company of NBC, probably doesn’t want to broadcast overly negative coverage of the games so that they don’t complicate or jeopardise any existing and future business in China. It helps to have in their employ Costas and friend, who are clearly prostitutes in all but name. Either that or they are both high on drugs to believe the manure they’re shoveling.

But the way to keep the coverage relevant and worth watching isn’t to ignore inconvenient truths. No one will be convinced by such transparent and ham-fisted propaganda for commercial interests. People will have noticed the ridiculous attempt to play down the pollution before the major outdoor endurance events, even as we see the smog on television almost everyday. There are reports of human rights (in particular, rights which China specifically promised to the IOC would be respected, in order to win the games) being oppressed during the games if people look for them.

So people won’t fall for this kind of nonsense from NBC or China, right? Well, unless the people are all too busy doping too.

P.S. – The Olympic truce that Costas and friend talk about, and other “reporters” keep trotting out faithfully from the IOC propaganda packets, refers to the ancient Greek games, when the participating Greek nations would observe a truce. That was actually due to the fact that the Olympic games were a sacred religious event as well as a sporting one, primarily honouring Zeus.

For many, if not most, Greeks of various nations, to engage in war during that time would have been sacrilege. It had nothing to do with any desire for peace. Greeks, especially Spartans, were famous for actually refusing to engage in battle during religious periods, only to resume fighting when the festivals were over.

With all the depressing things I’ve been writing about the Olympics, I thought it would be nice to point out an article listing some of the great moments of the Olympic games.

The first item on the list is trite, I think. The second item is a rather sad reminder of the bad old days of the Cold War and the Soviet Union, made all the sadder by the apparent Russian determination to recreate some form of the feudal empire they used to have by waging war, now that they have some money. (You almost wish they would have just kept on giving it to the oligarchs if they weren’t going to spend it on the people.)

But the other items are truly touching and demonstrate the sort of Olympic spirit that the IOC keeps harping on about and keeps turning its back on.

For all those of us who did not go to Harvard, and not just those of us who are U of C graduates, the last item is especially priceless.

All the reports of the numerous controversies surrounding these Olympic games are out there, if you look for them. But as a friend of mine pointed out last night, just don’t look for any of those reports on NBC during the Olympic coverage. God forbid that “journalists” offend the powers that be.

To the list of real reporting though, I wanted to add this commentary in the Guardian, which I thought to be very enlightening for many of us not familiar with the details of the particular incidents listed in the article.

It didn’t take long for protests to invade the Olympic events themselves.

Ms Chan sat in the front row of the dressage arena in the Sha Tin district of Hong Kong, when the first full day of the Games got under way.

Christina Chan refused to leave and was later removed

She was holding a Tibetan flag concealed under a Canadian flag, and when she and another protester tried to display it, several security officials covered her with a blue cloth.

She was asked to leave, but refused to do so, and was later carried out of the venue.

“She was sort of disturbing other spectators around her, which is against the house rules,” equestrian event spokesman Mark Pinkstone said.

Sound and looks like the security was doing all the disturbing to me.

What’s really just pathetic is this bit of information.

China bans the Tibetan flag from events under rules which prevent the display of flags of countries not competing in the Games.

Seriously, if the Nazis came back today, I think the IOC would hold the Olympic games in Berlin all over again.