RSF attack Olympic Torch Ceremony in Greece

by Fu Manchu Tue Mar 25, 2008 15:23

The geopolitical chicanery which raises its ugly head every four years & takes full advantage of legitimate concerns on human rights, doping in sport, corporate commercialisation of sport, emigration of athletes, urban speculation of host cities, blaa blaa.., really boils down to one thing every time.

D-i-s-t-r-a-c-t-i-o-n.

Thus as Mr Menard pays his fine & goes back to Paris he might think people like ye, the world over, still consider his organisation to be completely impartial. Similarly France wakes up to be told by Mr Sarkozy that he'll boycott the games for them. I purposefully linked to "Liberation" in the article not only because I like the newspaper a lot even though its website is a bit of muck, but also because unique amongst the large circulation daily it has taken a consistent "anti-boycott stance" & "examine the Tibet thing properly please stance". This is in sharp contrast to the newspapers of the right in France who have polled their readership and found that a majority don't want any more gold medals than the few they won in the special Olympics in Shanghai last year. At the end of the rabid scale we find the Italian "corriere" where almost 80% of readers want to teach the Chinese a lesson, a poll result which perhaps brought the interesting statement from the Pope calling for dialogue and the games to go ahead without politicisation. (c/f my other article on this thread - "Why Lhasa is not Tiananmen" http://www.indymedia.ie/article/86723 ) The Irish Times has moved its poll off the front page of its website & interestingly the majority of its readers don't support boycott. (c/f http://scripts.ireland.com/polls/head2head/index.cfm?fu...d=352 )

Very few of those people know what it is to train in a third world country for four years in the hope of representing your nation or country. Nor do they know what it is to train and take part in a multi-cultural hospitality environment which will gather the most cultures and languages ever seen in Beijing and the long term after effects of such.

Anyway quid pro qou.
Tit for Tat.
You scratch my back I squeeze your Tit.

The Peoples' Republic of China has today lifted its restrictions on one of the world's most important news organisation websites - the BBC. As I mentioned long time ago, indymedia will follow. Coz kids we're not going to have a 21st century of Sarko's and rightless workers - we're going to.... Oh blast it. There's enough bullshit around already. Touch your toes for four years & be healthy, god like indeed.., Only one politicisation of the Olympics was ever possibly worthwhile - the Black Power salute......... tell you about it again, when Obama wins.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7312240.stm

by Iosaf mac diarmada - (or Fu Manchu as I call myself on these threads) Sun Mar 30, 2008 23:23

The unsportsman like, paunched & quite frankly nasty European state leadership embodied by Poland & France & the Czech republic (let's remember how Sarkozy's fat was airbrushed out of his holiday pics before he married Jackie O) wanted us all to boycott the Olympic Games in Beijing.

They wanted this to distract your public opinion from the the anniversary of the war in Iraq & to further their agenda of exploitative trade relations with the PRC whilst taking full advantage of exploitative worker conditions in the special economic zones of China.

It was nothing to do with Tibet.

Ireland, the UK, Slovenia & others quite honourably chose not to allow them this boycott. As it happens the Chinese in the event which will see them mingle with and cross-polinate with representatives of more nations and states than at any stage in their history, will not see Mr Sarkozy or his Missus or the Chancellor of Germany in the Stadium. The French people will have to suffer some other sordid publicity stunt to distract them from their repulsive ruling class instead.

The Olympiad after Beijing will be celebrated in London in 2012. It was thus gratifying to see the British fall in line with the analysis of this article & its predecessor ( http://www.indymedia.ie/article/86723 ) as did the Irish diplomatic corp & for once its commercial media class, concurring that engagement with PRC is in our better longterm interest.

One European leader who has decided to attend is the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, whose country will host the 2012 Olympic games.
His Foreign Secretary Mr Miliband insisted this was not the time to announce a boycott: "'It's very important for all of us that the Olympic games go ahead successfully, because if you care about human rights in China, the last thing you want is to have the Olympic games spoilt or broken.
"What we should be doing is engaging with the Chinese authorities in a free and frank and open and consistent way, which says that human rights are an issue every year, not just in an Olympic year.''
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7319147.stm


I am now going to move to starting a campaign to remove corporate exploitation and sponsorship from sport, and ensure that unequivocal support for the universal declaration of human rights be a condition of accepting sponsorship or support from any commercial entity which wishes to use excellence in sport & athleticism without regard to ethnicity, social class, race, gender or physical or mental decapacity which are the Olympiads & the Special Olympics. We must not boycott the London Olympics. We must ensure they boycott the corporations.
http://www.london2012.com/

& our first step is to encourage the selection of a permanent host city for the International Olympics Comittee. This has long been a yearning desire of many who support the internationalist institution which ought be the Olympiad & resent the consequences of billions of euros, dollars, huan or pounds fueling urban speculation every four years in those states whose budgets or facilities alone can host the endevour.

I'd suggest that site ought be considered international territory. But I'm idealistic. Like the people in the photo. Instead we must campaign that {"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"} be brought to African & South American host cities as part of First World human & economic development policy. = we should pay the bill.

The Irish special Olympics Team 2007 - they will not be the only Gold medalists from China. Their excellence ought inspire us.