The Olympics (summer AND winter, fools!) have always symbolized global unity for me. Sure, everyone’s out to kick each other’s ass and it’s essentially a pissing contest – but, hey, it’s still a GLOBAL pissing contest. Everyone’s in it together – minus a couple of countries too busy killing themselves or with populations starving to death. Whatever. Their loss at opportunity to win cool shiny round things.
Everyone’s also been pissin’ themselves over China’s hosting of the 2008 summer Olympics. Definitely a lot of urine being excreted this year.
So why the controversy? Is it because of China’s role in aiding the conflict in Sudan? It’s gross violation of human rights? Is it because of the “omgfreeTibetbecausethebeastieboyssaidso” issue? If these are the reasons for why everyone’s 
getting all Mia Farrow, then we’ve got a problem. Finding a country with the resources to host the Olympics that doesn’t have blood on its hands is pretty damn hard, to be quite honest. And where is the line drawn? Sydney 2000 was awesome – remember? But hey, no one was getting all up in the Aussies’ faces about their gross and racist treatment of their Aborigine population. Sure, the 1956 games in Melbourne were boycotted by a handful of countries – but that had to do with factors external to Australia. Atlanta 1996 was also amazing (my favourite – go Team USA Women’s Gymnastics!), but no one was talking about the US’ past involvement in overthrowing democratic regimes, genocide, it’s role in preventing any useful UN working papers into becoming resolutions etc etc. Will the United States face similar controversy when it hosts the games again sometime in the future for it’s gross negligence of the Iraq War, it’s human rights violations in Guantanamo Bay, it’s blatant lying to the international and its own community? People will respond: you can’t compare the United States and Australia with China, idiot. Well, why not? You can’t compare them on a holistic level, of course, but you can look at the points of controversy and ask yourself some questions about the bias which exists in the portrayal of each country’s demons. I’m not trying to diminish what China has done in the past and what it continues to do. I definitely recognize it’s violations – however, while keeping all other countries on watch as well. As I previously stated, no one has hands clean of blood. Maybe Micronesia. Maaaybe.
I wasn’t shocked when China received the Olympics – it didn’t immediately strike me as an issue. However, as soon as controversy arose I found myself falling into that anti-Beijing abyss. I work for a Darfur advocacy organization, which definitely worked as a catalyst in my already increasing “omgchinahostingtheolympics?!?!11?” attitude. However, during the past few days I’ve been giving the entire situation some serious thought. The Olympics are my favourite paradox – it’s global event, marketed as a unifying event (there are more countries participating than there are members of the UN! take that Ban-ki!) meant to showcase the talents and cultures of ..blah la dee da. However, it’s a competition. While competing is something which can definitely be a unifying occurrence, when you bring an element as strong as patriotism or nationalism into it…
uh oh.
People don’t look at the Olympics as a unifying event. It’s just like FIFA or the World Cricket Cup – time to break out the national colours. Only this time, there are more sports to bet on and more countries to hate on. It’s only kids, such as myself back in the day, who look at the Olympics in awe. Like I said earlier, it’s a pissing contest – so why are we all getting our loins in a knot? The Tibet issue is not as simple as many people think; China is not the only country playing a role in helping perpetuate the conflict in Sudan. If you’re gonna boycott, boycott holistically and not just certain aspects. As this crazy white dude said to me at a recent outdoors events where I was spreading information about the crisis in Darfur “Wanna save Darfur? Stop buying Made in China.”
Truly a wise man. Wisdom beyond my years.
Not to mention, China’s gone so far in trying to hide it’s less-than-perfect marks (i.e. building walls around Beijing to hide areas which don’t fall into the “perfect olympics” facade such as construction sites!), we should at least recognize their efforts. A lot of money and child sweat has gone into making sure that this Olympics is an unforgettable one.
So, just turn on the TV, watch Phelps win more gold, and shut up with being so politically righteous.
- Sana
