the news waves have been filled with stories about the olympic torch being stopped on its way to beijing. it does of course, beg the question, where were all of these journalists when china was amassing her monetary strength over the rest of the world? where was this coverage when china was going into africa and highjacking economies there to, no pun intended, fuel its massive growth? and tell me this, if politics has no role in the olympics, then why was china even awarded the games? certainly not because it's a healthy place for them to be held or that the infrastructure existed to support the games. it was to award the biggest loan shark a prize for not calling in all its markers, the threats were made...yes, we live in interesting times. any ideas which countries will boycott the opening ceremonies?
yeah, it's raining again here...can't you tell?
afternoon still raining update:
the bbc online did a nice bit of historical background on the "tradition of protest" at the olympics.
Honestly, the games should be controlled by the athletes competing in them. Fuck the Chinese government, and the American government, and every other government on Earth. They're all incredibly counter-productive as they don't exist for the welfare of anyone or anything other than themselves. They operate in a vacuum in relation to their own citizens. Ah, whatever. The end result is the same: the poor get fucked, the middle class slowly turns into the poor, and the rich pretend none of it's happening. And then all of us end up dead.
ReplyDeleteyep, and then we die! so when are you coming home? and are you really gonna work on the 24th? ;-) xoxox
ReplyDeletePolitical issues behind the Olympic Games are as mad and pointless as the Eurovision Song Contest.
ReplyDeleteI hope it brightens up for you over there. We had snow yesterday x
Boycott? None will boycott. It's too expensive to breed these so called athletes.
ReplyDeleteFrom day one, Beijing had to scramble just to build toilets. We really do live in interesting times.
ReplyDeleteOh Nobody will boycott.although The Brits will try & subtly sabotage the event by refusing to gain any Gold Medals.........
ReplyDeleteThey seem to have cooled off on the Taiwanese so that's one less protest possibility. 'Course now there's the Tibet crisis to step right in with a mass of protests of its own. I don't know how they're going to keep such a propagandist chokehold on their domestic media when the world's press has their lenses pointed at them.
ReplyDeleteAh, politics …
ReplyDelete(Nice one, Tony, by the way … hee hee).
I'll be boycotting the London Olympics in 2012; mostly because they're building the stupid thing right on the busiest station on my commute which is already fucking things up big time. It is going to be utter chaos and an embarrassment to all concerned. When the Olympic Committee came over to inspect the works, they shut all the bloody trains and tubes down so I couldn't get home. Bastards.
Oh, yeah, and they're also building it right in the heart of Muslim East London. That should be fun …
hassan,
ReplyDeleteI feel I wrote that- right on the nail: "government: They're all incredibly counter-productive as they don't exist for the welfare of anyone or anything other than themselves."
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Savannah, politics have no role in the sports/olympics. I'm laughing with you. Nothing in this world/under the sun is not political.
They'll lick anyones ... if there's a buck in it.
I would genuinely love to see people(athletes I doubt it)taking part, avoid watching the games.
Man, stop buying made in china.
I remember my folks telling me when they were married how they slept on a matress, used orange/fruit boxes for chairs, and tables, and gradually over the years with hard earned cash bought what was needed.
Why does everyone expect to have everything all at once at the swipe of a card with nothing to back it up.
Grow up I say; if you can't buy it you can have it.
China, and what's happening in the world today has been born out of our greed- more, and more, cheaper and cheaper. China here it comes get out of the way.
Hope you're staying safe and out of flood waters down there, lady! I was told on Saturday something like four inches in just over an hour?!?! Craziness!
ReplyDeleteI've been wondering for a long time too why China ever got the Olympics...
None of the big countries will boycott for fear of Chinese reprisals.
ReplyDeleteThe US has a vested economic interest in China, that it did nothave in the USSR.
Hey Ma, I'll be back on the 20th and home in LA on the 22nd. And yes, if there's work I'll be working on the 24th. I am a whore. AND, there's an actor's strike in the works so I've got to stuff as many nuts into the tree as possible and then fly to Mexico or El Salvador and surf for a week or two. "The Brits will try & subtly sabotage the event by refusing to gain any Gold Medals"-Nice one, Tony!
ReplyDeleteGood questions all!
ReplyDeleteMaybe if one goes back to the ancient Greeks - to Delphi - one had the real spirit of Olympia but with the thirties and the seventies it's been all down hill form there.
ReplyDeleteBTW Tony - you are only allowed to say that if you are British! I'll just pop round and check:)
ReplyDeleteA Yorkshireman! I might have known.
ReplyDeleteister...great analogy, sugar! no snow here, but still damngrey ugly. xox
ReplyDeletemago...and i thought i was cynical! i don't think there will be major boycotts either. xox
scout...things that make you go h'mmmm
tony....you witty thang! ;-) xox
ReplyDeletesam...oh the games we play, eh? xox
dive...total imposition, sugar! xox...i think the games should go back to greece and just happen there, quit this road show!
reginald...instant gratification, i agree! re the games, back to greece, i say! xox
ReplyDeletechica...the historic district, at least where i am, is the ighest part of the city, the flooding hsas been elsewhere, but it did rain some heah, sugar! xox
indy...absolutely, thre will be talk, but no one will actually do anything. xox
hassan...well, ok, Hye! ;-)
ReplyDeletecheri...and we'll all get to see the answers soon enough! thanks for stopping by, sugar! xox
pi...so you're with me on the take the games back to greece movement, sugar? ;-) xox (tony is a cool guy!)