Should global politics affect the Olympics?

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docmirror

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Every day I see a report about new abuses coming out of China regarding the Olympics. This is NOT a US politics thread, plenty of those already.

I've heard multiple sides of the equation, and both have valid points. Right now, I guess the fact that the IOC awarded the games to China says volumes. They knew what they were in for, and now just wash their hands of all the mess. Since it's a committee, of course no decisive action can be taken. If it were me, I'd sure have a look at the games and start making demands in Bejing, which we used to call Peking. No satisfaction, no games.

What do you think?
 
Only partly because of the intended spirit of the Games, I don't have a problem with China hosting it.
But mostly I welcome it because it puts China in the spotlight... warts and all.
Think of the current focus on China now in the international press- from what I see (and not just from US media sources) Beijing's plan to use the Games to put a positive spin on their regime has kinda backfired.

FWIW, many people who never thought much about China's domestic and foreign policies are learning a thing or two, thanks to the attention surrounding the Games... and they don't like what they're learning.

And who knows how the Games will pan out... maybe China will also find itself with a paucity of medals. :D
 
Subject to the discretion of other MC members, I'm going to leave this thread here for right now. If it becomes less civil or delves deep into political spin, it will be moved to the spin zone. As I see it, this is more about the Olympics than it is politics.

Keep it civil, keep it on topic....
 
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Not sure if a 'sporting event' should be a player in global politics, but it's hard for it NOT to be when it's on a scale such as the Olympics.

I caught a blurb on ESPN yesterday somewhat discussing this issue. The talking heads were chattering over how Kobe and Lebron shouldn't have even gone to China to make a 'point' about how bad things are there. The opposing view (and one that I mostly follow) was "Who CARES what Kobe and Lebron think about China!?" They're filthy rich BASKETBALL players and not much else. As a former college basketball player myself, I can tell you from experience that intelligent insight into global economies and humanitarian issues is NOT a requirement to be a successful basketball player - or any other athlete for that matter.

As already mentioned, at least the media has looked beneath the carpet to see what has been swept under in attempt to hide their problems - closing factories and shipping laborers back to the country-side, severe pollution problems, etc. etc. If nothing else, maybe the world will see that the U.S. isn't the only 'big bad industrialized' country on the planet.
 
docmirror said:
Every day I see a report about new abuses coming out of China regarding the Olympics. This is NOT a US politics thread, plenty of those already.

I've heard multiple sides of the equation, and both have valid points. Right now, I guess the fact that the IOC awarded the games to China says volumes. They knew what they were in for, and now just wash their hands of all the mess. Since it's a committee, of course no decisive action can be taken. If it were me, I'd sure have a look at the games and start making demands in Bejing, which we used to call Peking. No satisfaction, no games.

What do you think?
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Well the hope was that once the focus of the world was on China they would clean up their act.

Sadly all that they have cleaned up is their ability to spin their actions. We are still seeing sever censorship and human right violations. I have been traveling to China for almost 20 years now. China is saying this is an affirmation that they are a world power and that the world has accepted China for what it is.

The IOC is, IMHO, a very corrupt organization. Just look at how the games are awarded. Lots of graft and bribery problems.

There should be no surprise then that China, getting what it wanted, was under no real obligation to clean up it's act. They are going to do everything that can be done to ensure there is not controversy. They do not want a repeat of what happened in Tianemen Square 20-some years ago including not allowing people they consider trouble makers into the country. Get ready to start hearing about how they are pulling VISAs for visitors.

BTW the name of the capital has not changed. It has always been 北京. That means, literally, north (北) capital (京). When Mao updated the pinying for Mandarin speaking the pronouciation was improved to be close to the actual name of the city. Mandarin uses four tones for word pronouciation. The newer pronouciation of Bay-ging is much close to how native speakers would say the name than the older version Pee-king
 
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I wish it didn't, but it does. Nevertheless, I think governments should stay out of the Olympics, including calls for Boycotting the games. I was against Carter boycotting the games in the USSR, and would be against the US doing so today.

I agree with Scott the IOC is a corrupt organization (querry: is that how Chicago is in the running for the Olympic games?) They take a good lesson from the corrupt United Nations.
 
nddons said:
I wish it didn't, but it does. Nevertheless, I think governments should stay out of the Olympics, including calls for Boycotting the games. I was against Carter boycotting the games in the USSR, and would be against the US doing so today.
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The Olympics should not be about politics but it ALWAYS has been. Since the earliest days of the original Olympics which was about who had the best soldiers to today as to who has the best country it has been about politics. To pretend otherwise is naive.

President Bush is going to the Olympics. Some have said he should boycott based on China's Human Rights violations, etc. But the simple fact is he cannot boycott them. The political sistuation is such that the USA is now beholding to the Chinese Communists for our economic well being and we cannot risk offending them. This puts us in a terrible place that we have ceeded our ability to affect change globally to them. China may be the last world power pretty soon. This Olympics is the Chinese saying that time has already arrived.

nddons said:
I agree with Scott the IOC is a corrupt organization (querry: is that how Chicago is in the running for the Olympic games?) They take a good lesson from the corrupt United Nations.
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Probably. But that would mean the old adage opposites attract is not always true ;)
 
The last Olympics I got excited about were the Winter Olympics of 1988. The skiing was great. Since then, the Olympics have gotten overly feminized and too PC. A lot of touchy, feely human interest stories and a focus on sports in which I am just not interested. I haven't watched for years. Its irrelevant.
 
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Anthony said:
I haven't watched for years. Its irrelevant.
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The last time I was interested in the Olympics was in 1972. There were two things I found compelling, first was Mark Sptiz the other was the Israeli/PLO drama.

Since then the Olympics are about people I don't know, participating in sports I don't care about, with far too many stories about how they overcame adversity to be competing. It is like watching a Lifetime Channel movie. :vomit:
 
I didn't know where to put it. If it needs to go to SZ, that's okay. Just please leave the prez politics out of the debate.

And for Anthony, you sound just like me! When the coverage start going off on how 'Sven grew up on a small dairy farm, not far from the.....' I tune it out, and go watch Baseball. All I want to see is the sports. And I want to see every country competition, not some ABC(or whoever) talking head. Just show the atheletes.


We are way to beholden to China now for our economic well being. It's going to ruin us sooner than later.
 
docmirror said:
I didn't know where to put it. If it needs to go to SZ, that's okay. Just please leave the prez politics out of the debate.
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So what did you mean by your subject line; "Should global politics affect the Olympics?" if you did not want anyone to discuss politics about the Olympics?

In case you were not paying attention a few months there was a lot of talk about whether or not the US President should boycott these games. Seems to me that if you have a discussion of global politics and the Olympics that since the US is part of the 'global community' that a discussion of what the US President is doing is germane to the topic.

Since this topic had nothing to do with aviation and the thread title itself would lead to non-avaition politics I thought it was pretty clear the subject should have landed in SZ where those things are deemed apropriate. That is why I suggested it early on.
 
smigaldi said:
The last time I was interested in the Olympics was in 1972. There were two things I found compelling, first was Mark Sptiz the other was the Israeli/PLO drama.

Since then the Olympics are about people I don't know, participating in sports I don't care about, with far too many stories about how they overcame adversity to be competing. It is like watching a Lifetime Channel movie. :vomit:
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I agree - give me the f'ing sports, and shut the hell up. Oh, and shut the hell up about the medal count too.

There are SO many sports to watch, and so many channels with which to watch them, you would think they can put up something for everybody. Yet somehow I always get stuck watching track - not even field, or if they show field events (like shotput, discus, javelin) they show exactly one throw - that's it. Likewise with shooting events, etc.
 
nddons said:
I agree - give me the f'ing sports, and shut the hell up. Oh, and shut the hell up about the medal count too.

There are SO many sports to watch, and so many channels with which to watch them, you would think they can put up something for everybody. Yet somehow I always get stuck watching track - not even field, or if they show field events (like shotput, discus, javelin) they show exactly one throw - that's it. Likewise with shooting events, etc.
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I lived in England for the 1984 Olympics. We had 4 TV channels and three of them were showing Olympic events. But only those events in which a brit was competing. I got see many events where all that was featured was who came in 5th!

I was also in Korea for when they had the Olympics in Sydney. So during the day if you dared turn on TV you got the events live. Then in the evening on Armed Forces TV (English station) you got yesterdays events. Yikes! it was all the same ole same ole for a week.

Thank goodness there was beer and DVDs at the hotel!
 
smigaldi said:
I lived in England for the 1984 Olympics. We had 4 TV channels and three of them were showing Olympic events. But only those events in which a brit was competing. I got see many events where all that was featured was who came in 5th!
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And I bet three of those channels were showing soccer - sorry, futbol - yuck.

Thank God the Cubs are doing well, and are worth watching in August - a rare occurence as a Cubs lifer. I'm going to wear out my "last" button on the remote.
 
nddons said:
And I bet three of those channels were showing soccer - sorry, futbol - yuck.
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Only when the Olympics were not on. The rest of the time it was the Decathlon, some running thing with Zola Budd, and horsemanship.

Actually I sorta like football. I watch the World Cup every 4 years. If I am in Europe I'll watch the euro championships.
 
My wife and I went to Calgary for the 1988 Winter Olympics. Stayed with a distant cousin of mine. In Calgary you can watch Canadian and US TV stations. The Canadian stations were "rah, rah Canada" and ABC was "rah, rah USA". No surprises there.

Now, we get a Canadian TV station on our cable. They're carrying the opening ceremonies LIVE Friday morning our time. NBC isn't.
 
smigaldi said:
So what did you mean by your subject line; "Should global politics affect the Olympics?" if you did not want anyone to discuss politics about the Olympics?

In case you were not paying attention a few months there was a lot of talk about whether or not the US President should boycott these games. Seems to me that if you have a discussion of global politics and the Olympics that since the US is part of the 'global community' that a discussion of what the US President is doing is germane to the topic.

Since this topic had nothing to do with aviation and the thread title itself would lead to non-avaition politics I thought it was pretty clear the subject should have landed in SZ where those things are deemed apropriate. That is why I suggested it early on.
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I don't care, I just wanted to avoid election politics. And if you hadn't notices, I rarely pay attention.
 
Yea, China's looking pretty good right about now:

Four American cyclists who arrived at Beijing Airport with their faces covered by black respiratory masks have been forced to apologise to the Beijing Olympic organising committee...

It is absolutely unbelievable that the Olympic games were given to China. Let's hold them in Darfur next time. Speaking of which:
Meanwhile, the US government said they would be making a formal protest to the Chinese authorities over their decision to deny an entry visa to Joey Cheek, 29, the American speed skater who won gold at the 2006 Winter Olympics, and who also campaigns against the crisis in Darfur.
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So the Chinese government is deciding who we send over to represent us? Perfect.

It would be a good time to turn off the TV and go outside for some exercise.
 
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They apologized to China for wearing those mask too!

I have been to Beijing every year for the past 18 years. I have only seen the sky blue there once!! I recall it being so unusual when I did see it that I wondered what the heck was going on.

Not to gross people out, well not too much, but when I am there I need to use q-tips up my nostrils to clear out the junk so that I may be able to breathe.

It has gotten better there since they outlawed the charcoal heaters that were everywhere, but it is still a mess. The amount of cars are now incredible and they do not use catalytic converters! The smell of gas fumes can be over powering at times.
 
The Olympics has always been political. The unfortunate part is that many young, naive, athletes are exploited by their countries in the way they are. I really have no interest watching the Olympics since watching sports is not my thing. It would be different if I was a participant or if I knew someone personally who was a participant. Otherwise it's like watching strangers run down a track or swim back and forth in a pool. That may be why the press goes for the "human interest" stories. If you feel like you "know" someone you may be more inclined to watch them.
 
"They're all gone" - Jim McKay.
Tommy Smith and John Carlos - 1968 Mexico City
Berlin 1936
 
gibbons said:
Yea, China's looking pretty good right about now:

Four American cyclists who arrived at Beijing Airport with their faces covered by black respiratory masks have been forced to apologise to the Beijing Olympic organising committee...

It is absolutely unbelievable that the Olympic games were given to China. Let's hold them in Darfur next time. Speaking of which:

So the Chinese government is deciding who we send over to represent us? Perfect.

It would be a good time to turn off the TV and go outside for some exercise.
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Hey, I just read that article. Here's what gets me, the masks were issued by the USOC, and the athletes were advised to wear them if they thought they would be affected by the smog! So, a couple athletes did wear them, then the USOC forced them to apologize. What a complete crock of spit.

I guess my Olympics support days are over. Oh well, I need the exercise.
 
Everskyward said:
It would be different if I was a participant or if I knew someone personally who was a participant.
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In 1984 I did know a member of the US team. A gal I shot against in college took a bronze. And the best I did against her in college was to come within 10 points in a 3 position match. She had a bad day and I had a good one. :p
 
gibbons said:
It is absolutely unbelievable that the Olympic games were given to China. Let's hold them in Darfur next time. Speaking of which:
Meanwhile, the US government said they would be making a formal protest to the Chinese authorities over their decision to deny an entry visa to Joey Cheek, 29, the American speed skater who won gold at the 2006 Winter Olympics, and who also campaigns against the crisis in Darfur.
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So the Chinese government is deciding who we send over to represent us? Perfect.
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I learned tonight that Joey Cheek is not representing the US in this year's Olympics. He was issued a visa by China to visit during the games. I stand corrected. Since he's not an athlete representing the US the government of China has every right to revoke his visa for whatever reason they choose.
 
Thanks Ron. Heck I didn't even see there was a sports section. DOH!

I've known several members of Olympic teams before. They all say it was very stressful, but a lot of fun. There's a lot of down time for the athletes, and many find interesting ways to stay - entertained. Pretty sure a lot of that won't be going over well in these games. It sounds like a big downer from the interviews I've heard from a few kids.
 
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