China loses control of the games:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/...546156,00.html
Quote:
|
Western PR professionals have already developed a name for China's so-called journey of harmony, which is turning out to be such a dramatic embarrassment for Beijing. They have dubbed the Olympic Torch the "Flame of Shame." Still, all calls for boycotts have so far been half-hearted and have been met with fears of offending the growing world power, eagerness to protect business investments and a disinclination to disappoint Olympic athletes. But the athletic event has already lost its allure -- the hope that the cosmopolitan celebration would finally establish China as a full-fledged member of the modern world has evaporated.
|
It is cynism at it's maximum that IOC rules forbid any political statement inside the athletes' Olympic camps, while the whole show is being run as a political PR and propaganda show by the hosting nation for which these rules obviously are not valid. These will be the most political games since the Olympics 1936, even the double-boycott 1980 and 1984 was not so upheated, I would say. And it is naive to say in general the Olympics are not political. Sports very often is the continuation of politics by other means. and if sports is used to explicitly show that it is unpolitical - that intention itself again turns it into a political event nevertheless. International sports not being political is as impossible as is the attemnpt not to communicate - every social scientist and social sciences disciplines agrees on and knows that it is impossible not to communicate. Politicians are heavily involved with sports events, trying to boost their profile by seeking closeness to successful athletes and teams, and what else if not politics is it if heads of state coinsider to travel to the opening ceremony - or now are boycotting it? germany'S president and chancellor both have said they will not go to Bejing. the president explicitly referred to the human rights situation when explaing his decision. and that athletes also say the games are not political - well, it is selfish, of course, but also: naive.
I would wish German TV would not do any coverage of the games, especially no live coverage. I myself will not jump to the TV and switch off the daily news when they come to sports, but I will not switch on any dedicated Olympics program. I could only hope that so many people will do like i do so that the TV audience quotas are so low that they are a financially very costly desaster for the broadcasters. But that hope is illusory only, I know.